Back in my college days, I was bit of a strange guy. I mean, I was studying hard core; hard STEM classes at 21 credits a semester, and then doing the party-college scene. So I would be doing mathematical tensors and derivatives followed by fluid mechanics and the mechanics of deformible bodies. Then after that, I’d pop a tab of LSD (acid) and spend the next 14 or so hours tripping “blue balls”.
Lordy! I’d never do that today.
But I was young and stupid.
Anyways, I used to hang around with different “groups” of guys and gals on campus. And most of the time was split between my buds (Jay and Peter) and Howie and his crew. Jay and Peter were engineering students like myself. We drank beer, sometimes whiskey. And we smoked cigars. While Howie and his crew were marijuana and LSD.
So as it was often the case, since the duration of the LSD was so long, I would end up tripping while I was with my “straight” friends having beer.
And some curious events came out of that.
For instance, one day we were drinking beer and wanted to go out and get a pizza, but I was taking a long time getting to the door. And Jay yells out “Come on! What’s taking you so long?” And I responded, as I looked down at my feet and the churning LSD fueled imagery, “It’s impossible to walk though this muck. There’s no grip.”
Another time, I just sat at the window looking out at the constantly snowy Syracuse grey sky, and Jay says to me “Man, you look like a cat that wants to go out of the house”.
Ah. When we left then, and the -20F temperatures hit my face, my mind went “NOPE!”.
Anyways, I think that life is like a series of rooms. All arranged in a row like a snake. And while in that particular box, was a unique snapshot of time and life that I experienced, and then moved on from.
Right now, I know that I am in a different box. And I am using my affirmations to improve it and set forth the conditions for the next box in the row. Take care everyone…
Today.
What is the saddest thing a casino dealer has seen at their table?
I have lived in Las Vegas for a couple decades. Here are the 2 worse things I have ever seen. I dont know which is worse. You tell me.
At the Bellagio on a busy weekend evening a whale comes in and he was such a whale that on a busy Saturday night he pointed to a craps table in the middle of the main casino area floor and they shut the game down and roped the table off only for him. He buys in for a million and a crowd has formed at the spectacle. The man proceeds to lose nearly every bet and burns through the million in about 10 minutes. He is noticeably annoyed and yelling and degrading the dealers. They bring him another million in chips and in about 5 minutes he losses about half of it. He takes a handful of chips and throws in almost point blank into the stick mans face. Spits on the dealer to his left, spits in the floor guys face almost point blank and scoop launches the rest of his chips into the air. Nobody says a word. The dealers with a stoic self control I have rarely ever seen all bend down and begin picking up the chips. They get the chips placed back in front of the man and the game went on as if it never happened. All the money in the world cant buy decency or class.
The other worse thing I have seen is around Christmas at the MGM a pregnant woman playing at a slot machine drinking whisky and smoking a cigarette while breast feeding an infant and the ash from the cigarette hanging from her mouth was falling on the infants face.
America Is In Shambles
A few months old, but… damn!
Can’t the Chinese feel their lack of freedom?
When I traveled to France last summer, random people I had a chat with on the train asked me how it felt, living in dictatorial China.
Our train was late (typically French), and one of them commented that last time, the police got all the passengers to line up and kneel outside the train while the police did a thorough search of the cars and luggages, looking for a running terrorist. But that’s normal, one commented. “If you let just one escape, who knows what will happen”. They found it completely normal and justified.
I pointed out that I never experienced anything like that in China. Nor did I see soldiers with assault rifles in train stations and supermarkets, like I do in France (Vigipirate). Nor did I get searched by armed soldiers for no reason in the mall, like my then darker complexion Chinese boyfriend was, in a French mall (in front of me).
I’ve seen worse when I lived in Equatorial Guinea, to be honest. A dictatorship supported by France, where I taught in a military navy school that was financed by French military cooperation. Nobody asked me, then, how it felt living in a dictatorship. Or warned me about going there, even though I wish they had.
I do know how it feels, living under a dictatorship. But not thanks to China! And people who have never been there keep telling me what I’ve been obviously missing about China the last 11 years that I have lived here. That’s amazing.
My better question is, how can westerners still believe that they are free? They should care about that, and leave Chinese freedom to the Chinese.
Truth
Can you share your experience of growing up in a Chinese household and how it has influenced you as an adult?
Scarcity and Poverty
Although I was very happy, born in the 1970s, and my family wasn’t very poor—by the standards of that time in China, we were about average—I still felt poor.
But I was still very happy.
Firstly, my parents loved me very much.
Secondly, our situation at the time was actually not bad.
We never went hungry; at the very least, we had enough to eat. Despite frequent power outages, we still had electricity, even if it was just a 15-watt light bulb.
Power outages were common, and during these times, we could only use candles for light. When the power came back on, it felt incredibly bright.
(I remember when I was about eight years old and went to my grandmother’s house, which was much poorer than my parents’ home. One night, local kids took me to see a so-called wonder. We walked ten miles of mountain roads only to find that their ‘wonder’ was a single electric light installed by the local government. I said, “What kind of wonder is this? I have it sometimes at home.” They felt both envious and somewhat hurt.)
There was no running water, only river water. With the beginning of industrialization, the river water became severely polluted. My father’s workplace raised funds to drill a well. My daily task was to draw water from the well and fill our family’s water tank.
We were poor. When I was about six, I accidentally broke one of my mother’s plastic hairpins. Another time, when I was over ten, I mistakenly thought I had broken my father’s watch. And once, when I was 19, I thought I had lost my father’s bicycle.
Even after all these years, I still remember the terror I felt at those moments—feeling like my blood had frozen, thinking I was beyond redemption. The only way to atone was to… I couldn’t bring myself to tell my parents. The feeling of waiting for days was truly tormenting!
（I found these two “industrial products” on the Internet that almost cost me my life. They are these two pieces. I am 100% sure that they are the same model. I will not make a mistake. Now I can only search for photos of them on collectibles websites.）
Now that I am a father myself, I pay close attention to this. No matter what mistakes my children make, they always tell me.
Even in those times, the Chinese still placed great importance on education.
In our impoverished county, there were three libraries. My parents managed to get me an adult library card (children could borrow only two books at a time, while adults could borrow five). So, I could borrow 15 books each time I went.
I’ve borrowed many books over and over again (with a return deadline and overdue fines), and I never get tired of them. This includes The Physics of Fun, The Amazing Adventures of the Physical World, The World of Dinosaurs, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, One Hundred Thousand Whys, Charlotte’s Web, and many more. These are just a few that leave the deepest impression…
At that time, China was swept up in a craze for learning English. Everyone believed that mastering English was essential for acquiring scientific knowledge. This wasn’t entirely wrong, but since China had previously focused on learning Russian, there was a shortage of teachers and textbooks.
For some reason, there was a belief nationwide that a particular English textbook was exceptionally good. Believe me, this textbook was a hundred times more famous in China than in all other countries combined. It was called New Concept English, created by British people for Germans after World War II.
（Googled from Internet）
When it was introduced to China, it became highly sought after but was hard to obtain. A classmate managed to buy a set through relatives in Shanghai. I borrowed it from him, copied it every night, and returned it the next day until I had finished copying the entire set. Of course, I had to do some of his homework in return.
The word “copy” now evokes the idea of “ctrl+c” and “ctrl+v” for me, but back then it meant fountain pens, ink, paper, and thick calluses on fingers. Paper was quite an expense at that time. As a result, I developed another form of PTSD—I bought enough paper to last me a lifetime.
The picture shows only a small part of it.
This made my wife very unhappy; she scolded me, saying that these things only take up space and that I’d never use them all. I told her that looking at them made me happy.
There are also several hundred cheap pens (trust me, they are no worse than the high-end ones that cost tens of dollars!), but they were thrown away by my wife and cannot be photographed.
While I wasn’t paying attention, she threw away my samurai sword, bow and arrows, stun gun, several daggers, including a Kabar, nunchucks, and more… The reason she gave was that they could hurt the kids. I’m really angry and want to divorce her！@_@
I might be extremely insecure. When I was dating my wife, she was surprised to find that the space under my bed was filled with long-term storage food: canned goods, homemade dried food, honey and salt (which can last for hundreds of years), vitamins, vacuum-sealed dried fruits… When she asked why, I said I was worried about famine…
Now it’s all gone!
Chinese traditional superstition says that nothing should be stored under the bed; it should be empty. I’m not superstitious, but she is. Sigh! Moreover, my vacuum-sealing machine was sold to a scrap dealer by her!
The first time I went to her home to meet her parents, I actually went to tour their grain storage first.
When I saw that they had over 2 tons of food stored, my father-in-law and I exchanged a smile, and I felt an instant connection: we are the same kind of people.
At that time, my wife comforted me by saying, ‘Don’t worry, if there is ever a famine, I will share half of my rations with you.’ To me, that is much more sincere than ‘I love you.’
Interestingly, my wife was much poorer during her childhood than I was.
By the time she was in high school, her family didn’t even have a table, and she did all her homework on the windowsill from 7 to 17 years old.
But she doesn’t seem to have any psychological scars from that deprivation.
I, on the other hand, am deeply affected, and I don’t know why.
A few years ago, I found this set of books on an old book website in China, similar to America’s abebooks. I irrationally bought several copies of each book.
(One of several used copies I purchased, the others were given to relatives’ children, but they obviously didn’t value them.)
This is a form of PTSD, haha, like Jack London’s Love of Life, where the protagonist, despite being rescued, irrationally hoards bread.
Some scars never fade. Even though I have some money now, I can’t bring myself to cook fried food. So much oil used for frying, and then to throw it all away for health reasons? I just can’t accept it. Rationally, it’s not much money, but emotionally, I can’t accept it.
For example, even if I’m full, I can’t bear to throw rice into the trash can, but I can throw away the dishes, because in my childhood, discarding food wasn’t an option—it wasn’t “imprinted” on me.
In summary, we were very poor but very happy. My parents loved me so much, doing their utmost to give me their greatest love, care, and the best conditions and education they could provide.
The Buddhist scripture says, “Even if a person were to carry his father on his left shoulder and his mother on his right shoulder, with the weight of their burden grinding his flesh and bones until he could see the marrow, and walk around Mount Sumeru for hundreds or thousands of eons, even if his blood flowed and covered his ankles, he would still not be able to repay the deep kindness of his parents.”
It is true.
Asking AI to write a country song about beer for breakfast
Life on a Station
Submitted into Contest #24 in response to: Write a story set in the dark recesses of space where the two main characters are often at odds with each other in humorous and comedic ways.… view prompt
Corey Melin
The two of them nodded their heads.
“Now get out of my sight and do your duties,” demanded Morgan.
Both of them left the room, staring at each other with dislike.
“I would greatly appreciate it if you could move to the other side of the station so I would see you less,” said Gorgin.
“I would say that it would be even better if you would move off the station,” said Dwight.
“Just stay away from me,” both said at the same time, and they went their separate locations.
It was a couple of days later that the two met again.
Gorgin went into what everyone called the “Pet Room” to create himself a pet to keep him company. As he entered the room he saw that Dwight was already in the room at the controls.
“What the heck are you doing in here?” he asked.
Dwight turned to him. “Looking for a pet. What do you think idiot?”
“Hurry up then,” said Gorgin.
Dwight went back to the controls and went back to pushing buttons. Time went by as Gorgin waited impatiently for him to finish.
“I think I got it,” said Dwight. “Oh wait. That won’t do.”
“That is enough,” huffed Gorgin, stomping over to Dwight. “Give me the controls.”
Next moment, both of them were fighting over the controls, pressing and clicking until there was a sudden flash that lit up the room. Both of them stopped and looked at each other with befuddled looks.
“What the heck was that?” asked Gorgin.
“Not a clue,” replied Dwight.
“We should probably check around the station to make sure everything is okay,” said Gorgin.
The two left the room, trying to call the commander, but getting no answer.
“Let’s go to command center first,” said Gorgin.
The two rushed to the command center.
“Dwight did it!” Gorgin cried out as soon as they entered the room.
“No I didn’t!” Dwight called back. “You butted in!”
But the two realized they were wasting there blame game for the commander was nowhere in sight. They looked all over, but no sight of the commander.
“He’s not in the freshening room,” said Dwight coming out after a flush.
“Strange for him to be gone,” said Gorgin.
Then the two of them heard a squeak.
“What the hell was that?” asked Dwight.
“Sounds like the commander has a pet,” replied Gorgin.
The two started looking around until the two came to the commander’s chair. Both saw at the same time a squirrel on the seat looking at both of them. It started chattering, then jumped off the chair.
“I didn’t know the commander had a pet?” asked Dwight.
Gorgin shrugged his shoulders and scratched his head. Then a light bulb popped on inside his head.
“What pet were you looking at getting?” he asked Dwight.
“I was contemplating on getting a tamed squirrel,” he replied.
It didn’t take too long for the two to figure out what happened.
“Did we turn the commander into a squirrel?” asked Dwight.
Gorgin just nodded then the two searched for the squirrel, which ran around the room.
“We need to get him,” Gorgin said.
The two chased after the squirrel, bumping into each other, and Gorgin grabbing the squirrel, but it bit him, and was loose once again.
“We need to get the room robot,” said Gorgin as he shook his hurt finger, going over to the panel.
He pressed some switches and next moment the robot came out.
“Retrieve the squirrel,” said Gorgin.
It didn’t take long for the robot to scoop of the squirrel and deposit it into a glass came.
“Now to see about the rest of the crew,” said Gorgin.
The two of them checked for lifeforms on the station, then checked the screens for each room they detected life. All the lifeforms were squirrels.
“What did you do?” asked Gorgin.
“You were the one pressing numerous buttons,” said Dwight.
“We need to fix this fast,” said Gorgin.
Gorgin released the robots in each room, and the squirrels were scooped up. The other robots were sent to the pet room.
“I hope we can reverse this,” said Gorgin as they headed to the pet room.
All the robots were in the room as the two of them tried to figure out a way to make their crew human again.
“I think I got it,” said Gorgin. “We need to get out of the room so nothing happens to us. The robots will be released once we leave.”
The two left the room, robots released, and there was a bright flash. The two went back into the room and saw everyone was human again. The only thing is that they were all naked. Commander Morgan stood up and looked at the two men with a stare of death.
“We are in trouble,” muttered Dwight.
The next day the two were put in cryosleep until the next crew came in a couple of years. Before both of them lay down for their sleep they looked at each other, and both of them grinned.
All that I can say is YUM!
Amarillo Chili
Ingredients
- 4 slices bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
- 2 onions
- 1 garlic clove
- 1/2 pound pork shoulder, coarsely ground
- 1 pound beef round, cut into 1/2 inch strips
- 1/2 pound beef chuck, coarsely ground
- 2 to 4 jalapeno chiles, diced
- 1 tablespoon ground hot red chile
- 2 tablespoons ground mild red chile
- 1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin (comino)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 12 ounces tomato paste
- 3 cups water
- 1 (16 ounce) can pinto beans
Instructions
- Fry bacon in a large, deep heavy pot over medium heat. When the bacon has rendered most of its fat, remove the pieces with a slotted spoon, drain on paper toweling and reserve.
- Add the onions and garlic to the bacon fat and cook until the onions are translucent.
- Add the pork and beef to the pot. Break up any lumps with a fork and cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the meat is evenly browned.
- Stir in the remaining ingredients except the beans and the bacon. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
- Taste and adjust seasonings.
- Stir in the beans and the bacon, and simmer for 1/2 hour longer.
“You done woke up the dragons now!” | Colonial Marines vs The Hive | Aliens (1986)
This was FUN! The expressions!
Intel Drop and Disclosure, February 13, 2020
One reason the alternative media exists is to provide a distraction from real conspiracies
The Senior Editor
Trump is being tried before the US Senate, where many of the members are “fake people,” longtime Russian assets paid through accounts in the Cayman Islands. Many of them are “cuckoos,” or “walkins.”
Some senators are being threatened, not by militia types but by senior Federal officials from law enforcement related agencies. It isn’t about Trump, it’s about closing the door on where a real investigation of Trump would lead, not just to Moscow but back here, to four generations of fake people.
Sometimes they are called “Manchurian Candidates.” Many ask if John McCain was “turned” as a POW or if Trump was recruited by Cohn in the 70s or by Russia through his Ivana in 1987 as The Guardian implies.
They now control the US and 99% of them are unknown except at the highest level of classification, the real “Q,” and are feared.
Their power, their numbers, unimaginable. Their work? We see it every day, it is why we can explain none of how we came, as a nation, to such an end.
They are placed “in the nest” to take control of certain trusts or banks, key industries or to inherit “at risk” fortunes. They are often the super rich mysterious who donate money by the millions but have no history.
When, during the 1990s, a certain tobacco company began funding antigovernment militias, we saw them. We see them today more than ever, but only if we look very carefully. Who pays the bills for the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers or their 3 dozen clones?
Why money from an nearly invisible reclusive supermarket heiress that has never been photographed?
Why so many wealthy who have never been photographed, have no college records, no marriages or divorces, no records at all?
How many “walk ins” became wealthy and powerful after 9/11 as fake military contractors?
Imagine, laundering a cuckoo though Annapolis, then through SEAL training and then into a running a secretive private army around the world to run narcotics and money laundering.
How many cuckoos have been laundered into Congress though the military? All GOP or both parties?
Do some checking, look for “too many coincidences,” over and over where cuckoos are “chosen” and “elevated.” Look at Hawley:
After spending a year in London as a teacher at St Paul’s School from 2002 to 2003,[4][11] Hawley returned to the U.S. to attend Yale Law School, graduating in 2006 with a Juris Doctor degree.[6][7][10] The Kansas City Star reported that Hawley’s classmates saw him as “politically ambitious and a deeply religious conservative.”[8] While at Yale, Hawley was an editor of the Yale Law Journal and served as president of the school’s Federalist Society chapter.[10]
or this:
Born in Springdale, Arkansas, to a banker and a teacher, Hawley graduated from Stanford University in 2002 and Yale Law School in 2006. He was a law clerk to Tenth Circuit Judge Michael W. McConnell and Chief Justice John Roberts and then worked as a lawyer, first in private practice, from 2008 to 2011, and then for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, from 2011 to 2015. Before becoming Missouri Attorney General, he was also a teacher at St Paul’s School in London, an associate professor at the University of Missouri School of Law, and a faculty member of the conservative Blackstone Legal Fellowship.
Questions?
Trump thinks he did it all himself. He thinks he was accidentally adopted by Roy Cohn, the kingmaker for the Bolsheviks and that he was first.
He wasn’t. Richard Nixon was their boy, Ronald Reagan was their boy and George W. Bush was their boy as well. With Trump it was timing, the person to have in place when half a million Americans’ could be killed to steal 12 trillion dollars and destroy US credibility around the world.
Roy Cohn brought Rupert Murdoch into the US, making use of two of his prime assets, Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich. Fox News has been the voice of America’s downfall ever since.
Who stood against Roy Cohn? Jimmy Carter, Mike Dukakis, George Herbert Walker Bush but also Robert Kennedy turned on him as did George Wallace.
A pattern? Before Murdoch, Cohn ran Maxwell. Want to see what laundering looks like, from Wikipedia:
Cohn had to wait until May 27, 1948, after his 21st birthday, to be admitted to the bar, and he used his family connections to obtain a position in the office of United States Attorney Irving Saypol in Manhattan the day he was admitted.[14] One of his first cases was the Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders.[8][15]
In 1948, Cohn also became a board member of the American Jewish League Against Communism.[16]
As an Assistant US Attorney in Saypol’s Manhattan office, Cohn helped to secure convictions in a number of well-publicized trials of accused Soviet operatives. One of the first began in December 1950 with the prosecution of William Remington, a former Commerce Department employee who had been accused of espionage by KGB defector Elizabeth Bentley.[8] Although an indictment for espionage could not be secured, Remington had denied his longtime membership in the Communist Party USA on two separate occasions and was convicted of perjury in two separate trials.[17]
Cohn, of course, was running it all and doing so at an unimaginable early age. He may well be the single most influential figure of the 20th century, certainly in the dark arena of American political corruption and control of the United States by the Kosher Nostra.
9/11 was the same as COVID, 20 years of war, building a heroin empire from Afghanistan and stealing a trillion in oil while looting the US. Oh, how about a world of prison camps, tapping every phone, a foreign run police state within the US, run by the DHS and runaway commands or bureaucracies at the DOJ, DOE and the Pentagon.
Where does this come from?
A never spoken of but major area of US security is studying and trying to contain the fake people who show up as mass shooters from time to time but also run Google Corporation, Microsoft, some bigger companies and lots of government agencies.
They control public utilities, credit agencies and anything that involves “cyber” or “crypto.”
They were the McCarthyites, they were the Tea Party, they were the Neoconservatives and they are the leaders of Christian evangelism and the corporate news, both left and right.
It is all theatre. It always has been.
Few Americans except for officials of the FBI and CIA at the highest levels and some special operations planners know what I will be writing here. I have confirmed this through official channels, real confirmations, circumspect in nature. Material will have been seen, some of it.
In 2012, Mitt Romney was supposed to be elected president. Romney, whose general demeanor compared to many, is ‘moderate,’ is said to be a ‘stalking horse.’
According to our sources (I took this recording to an FBI interview and frightened people enough for them to leave the room when I offered to play it) at the FBI, highest, Romney, partnered with former Mexican President Carlos Salinas, is part of a massive Russian influence operation.
The history behind it goes to the Mormon War against the US in the 1870s and to the 1882 Edmunds Act. From there, the Romney family began an meteoric rise as George became a powerful industrial figure for no reason whatsoever. From Wikipedia:
Romney was born to American parents living in the Mormon colonies in Mexico; events during the Mexican Revolution forced his family to flee back to the United States when he was a child. The family lived in several states and ended up in Salt Lake City, Utah, where they struggled during the Great Depression. Romney worked in a number of jobs, served as a Mormon missionary in the United Kingdom, and attended several colleges in the U.S. but did not graduate from any of them. In 1939, he moved to Detroit and joined the American Automobile Manufacturers Association, where he served as the chief spokesman for the automobile industry during World War II and headed a cooperative arrangement in which companies could share production improvements. He joined Nash-Kelvinator in 1948, and became the chief executive of its successor, American Motors Corporation, in 1954. There he turned around the struggling firm by focusing all efforts on the compact Rambler car. Romney mocked the products of the “Big Three” automakers as “gas-guzzling dinosaurs” and became one of the first high-profile, media-savvy business executives. Devoutly religious, he presided over the Detroit Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Romney was then appointed to oversee Michigan’s new constitution, for no reason whatsoever and was then placed into the Michigan governorship, seen as a stepping stone to the presidency. Mind you, we don’t hate the Romney family. George was an opponent of the Vietnam War and was pushed aside in 1968 by Roy Cohn and Richard Nixon as “not corrupt enough.” J. Edgar Hoover (Meyer Lansky’s puppet) played a major part.
Cohn also “worked with” a very young George W. Bush and was very very very close to a young Donald Trump, who he mentored into New York Organized Crime, though Trump’s family was well entrenched long before he was born.
Cohn, a “reputed mobster” and “red baiter” was, by our findings Russia’s chief influencer in the US during the entirety of the Cold War, “influencer” and spymaster.
Who better than the lawyer that killed the Rosenbergs.
Here are the alleged facts that we add to this mix:
- Soviet Russia from the 1920s onward began seeding “walk ins” into positions of power in banking and finance, industry and politics. This operation, after 1959, was run from Cuba and accessed the US through the porous borders of Mexico and Canada.
- Russia also operated though the Greek/Greek Cypriot community in the US and Canada which included access to powerful political leaders (Democrats) and control of the Senate Banking Committee) to launder cash until 2005 when it was no longer necessary to hide money when the Supreme Court under Citizens United legalized not just bribery but use of foreign laundered funds to run a massive intelligence operation against the US
- Prime among these activities is control of certain agencies including but not limited to the US Department of Energy (nuclear arsenal/secrets), the FBI, the CIA, the DHS, the Interior Department and the US Department of Treasury. The DOJ has been under total or partial Russian control since Bobby Kennedy stepped down and we have our suspicions there due to his early contact with Roy Cohn.
Let’s take a look at this science fiction “replacement” operation. We know the FBI has a task force that does nothing else but track these people. We have had access to some records, one of a state governor who was a Cuban born Russian asset (still around).
Try tracing the Trump’s, from Germany to the US and back to Germany but real records, do they exist? Not hardly.
Who came back from Germany to the US? Cuckoos?
The history goes back centuries to the Silk Road when Khazars would take over caravan’s by removing the merchant and replacing, a story we have told often but one that needs to be remembered.
Today, in the US, we are 4th generation “cookoo in the nest.” Questions? If Samuel Bush is from Columbus, Ohio, where is the Bush family from? Don’t bother to look, they don’t exist.
Start looking at the less obvious tech billionaires. Many don’t exist.
Look at some public figures like Assange. Look at alternative media figures with no families, no personal history, or backgrounds with gaps that show travel to Israel or Russia.
Dozens of Russian “walk ins” are laundered through Annapolis, West Point and the Air Force Academy.
Others become leaders of Evangelical Christianity as, from the 1870s onward, even before, the South and West were targeted because of cattle, rail and mineral opportunities. Many of America’s biggest fortunes, even shipping or chemicals, come from “non people.”
When people like Jim Fetzer trip over these fakes, they are fed destructive fake information by people who are placed near them send to them over a cliff. More than just Fetzer are targeted.
It isn’t just alternative media. Who is Rush Limbaugh? What is Sean Hannity’s background? You mean they don’t have a background? How about Tucker? From Wikipedia:
Carlson was born in San Francisco, California. His great-great grandfather Cesar Lombardi immigrated to New York from Switzerland in 1860.[17] From Lombardi, Carlson descends from Swiss–Italian ancestry.[18] He is the elder son of Richard Warner Carlson, a former “gonzo reporter“[19] who became the director of the Voice of America, president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the U.S. ambassador to the Seychelles.[20] Carlson’s paternal grandparents were Richard Boynton and Dorothy Anderson, teenagers who placed his father in an orphanage where he was adopted when he was two years old by the Carlsons. Richard Carlson’s adoptive father was a wool broker.[21][19][22]
What we know is this, our FBI informant describes an intelligence operation run out of Cuba, decades old, that run many prominent America assets. But who are they?
Certainly we have key members of congress. It is easy to track them because their payoffs run through banks in the Cayman Islands, Switzerland and Israel. You can tell by their patterns of travel though all have lock boxes with fake passports, just like Jason Borne.
What are their tasks?
Obviously, America is the “milk cow,” the only nation capable of supporting endless debt. The US isn’t their only toy. They have Israel, North Korea, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Poland, Albania, Libya, Sudan, Kuwait, Bahrain and how many others?
When do we actually see them? Think of the UK, the News of the World scandal and, behind it, the Freemason pedophile rings that have been at the heart of British society for well over a century.
When Michael Shrimpton talks about the DVD, who do you think he means?
Were the Nazi’s really Nazis? Their background was Christian Nationalism/Evangelism and their origins American though the billionaire financed eugenics movement. They existed in the US as the Klan or American Legion/Black Legion long before they were seen in Germany.
Nazism is American, not German.
The roots date to the 1850s, the Know Nothing Party, the first Trump incarnation, and later the Immigration Restriction League and others, targeting primarily Catholics but also Jews, building a base in the East and a stronger and longer lasting one in the Midwest, one that blossomed with the resurgence of the Klan in the 1920s and later with broad support of Nazi Germany under the America Firsters and Committee of One Million.
Today, this is the heart of the GOP, built almost entirely from “fake people.”
Russian Paratroopers Ambushed and Destroyed a Group of Canadian and French Mercenaries In Chasiv Yar
Electronic warfare updates.
What is China’s approach to military technology, and how do they differ from the US?
My Answer on Quora -MM
This is a MASSIVE subject. It is something not easily covered in an answer, a query, a book, or a series of books. I will do my best to answer this question, but first we need to lay down some fundamental “ground rules”.
Firstly, and fundamentally, I am assuming that you want an ACTUAL answer. Not a off-the-cuff opinion by a student, or a fan-boy of war-games, or a ‘Merica screamer. You want some real intelligence. So I will do my best dredging up a some answers based on my experience and background.
Secondly. broad-strokes are easy. But the nuances in the details can throw the most intelligent off the subject matter and bog one down in a slush pool of the trivial.
So let’s go through the most primitive basics…
[1] China is a nation of survivors. They have over 6000 years of warfare of every kinds and shape. They don’t like war. They don’t want war, but being peaceful differs from being a pacifist. Don’t make the mistake that seems to common in the neocon halls of America today. China is a warrior nation of survivors. They are the descendants of Genghis Khan after all.
[2] The United States is a Military Empire based upon plunder. It sounds bad, but it’s historically true. The military is well-funded, and state of the art. The military is truly a global resource, and power projection is one of the many United States strengths. The entire military-industrial complex feeds the military empire, and the big fear today is that without a war to sustain itself, the United States will whither and die.
Now with that being established, lets look at the systems that each nation relies upon. As from the point above, the primitive basics define the usage methodology.
[1] China, a nation of survivors, has created simple and robust systems. They are easy to use, simple to mass produce, easy to repair, and very, very lethal. This is from the simplest items in a foot-solders kit, to the most modern fighter aircraft.
[2] The United States, a military empire, needs the industrial base to function. There needs to be constant calls for more equipment, more ammo, as well as systems to train, and repair the systems in use. Thus American systems tend to be overly complicated, high cost, tends to break down, and requires expensive spare parts.
Now, all that is very interesting, but the real issue is in the people that conduct war. After all, they are the ones that will use the technology of war. So here, we will take a quick peek at the differences between American soldiers and Chinese soldiers.
[1] Chinese soldiers. Well, Xi Peng has implemented a Genghis Khan technique of training young children in the ways of discipline and warfare. Everyone is trained. It starts in first grade, and continues week after week, after week up until they graduate from college. All 1.4B+ people. So, today, as it stands now, China is a nation of reservists not conscripts. And they fight in unison. They are tiny terminator units that fight like hordes of ants attacking a bee hive.
[2] American Soldiers. The image of the ideal American warrior has been cultivated by Hollywood. It’s the “Army of one” which is so typified by the character Rambo. That being said, the actual military is stratified. Generally, the rank and file are characterized by the lowest common denominator. It’s peopled with those of little options outside of the military. Those that adjust to the military are promoted and become highly skilled specialists, irregardless of their social-economic background. Officer and professional ranks are peopled with highly capable individuals. Many of whom have multiple degrees, but unfortunately, the highest ranks are fundamentally political / politicized appointments. Together this stratified military system has worked well over the years and serves the military in it’s on-going roles.
Mission parameters differ substantially between that of the United States and China.
[1] China is a highly capable DEFENSIVE military with very little in the way of “power projection”. China is built as a fortress, and any nation, or group of nations trying to assault or invade it is absolutely doomed to fail. Additionally, China has mastered long-range intercontinental weapons and information systems. The military dos not need to be in close geographic proximity in order to completely devastate a targeted nation.
[2] The United States military is designed for invasion, and policing of it’s conquered lands. Power projection is it’s mission, and once a nation is subdued it is a historical norm that the land is looted of it’s resources and fed back to the the United States oligarchy.
Now, with all that clearly defined, we can see that both nations would use the technology that they have in their possession in greatly different manners. What would serve the needs of the United States would not serve the needs of China. So when making this comparison you absolutely need to take that into account.
[1] China would only use it’s military in two roles. [1A] defensive if attacked. And, [1B] long range offensive missiles to destroy the cities and resources of the primary attacking nation and it’s proxies.
[2] The United States would use it’s military in specialized roles. [2A] Military supervision of proxy military forces. [2B] Policing of conquered and captured lands. [2C] As a negotiation ploy / tactic to generate fear of nuclear attack. [2D] As an invasion force against a weaker foe.
And with the above being clear, the comparison of the technologies of both militaries are but a distraction. You use a hammer to hit a nail, and a screwdriver to screw wood together. But you wouldn’t use a screwdriver to pound a nail. Thus a comparison of military technologies are meaningless on a practical basis and at best, is an illusion.
Elon tells it straight
This Looks Like Unequivocal Evidence That The Taiwanese Government Has Been Fabricating Election Outcomes in 2020 and 2024.
Interesting dredge up. However translation and formatting issues made it a tiresome read. Only for those really interested in the Taiwan issue. Otherwise, skim and exit. -MM
About two years ago, this Taiwanese YouTube blogger uncovered very troubling evidence that the Taiwanese DPP regime has been most likely culpable in fabricating the entire 2020 presidential election outcome through the so-called Central Election Commission (CEC) staffed by DPP cronies. The CEC is a crackpot joint, with no resemblance to similar institutions in other real democracies, whose ranks are saturated by DPP party hitmen and minions, exploiting a subtlety in the Taiwanese political ecology to fake a facade of neutrality, as explained in the post below.
What can mainland Chinese, Singaporeans and Hong Kongers learn from the Taiwanese people’s achievement of democracy?
This blogger showed the progression of vote counts of all three presidential candidates in the 2020 election, as reported by the TV station ETToday, that neatly matched into a very simple mathematical formula.
In other words, these reported vote counts were not results of ballots cast by random voters, but numbers generated by a computer program. If you have any familiarity with the DPP regime in Taiwan, you would know very well such chicanery is not beneath them.
I have posted on Quora back then to demonstrate mathematically that the probability of such a thing happening by chance was literally Zero.
This blogger has been persecuted by the DPP government since he uncovered this embarrassing fact, driving him to the brink of suicide at one point. He was required to report to two different court proceedings at opposite ends of the island at the same time, for example.
The only thing that narrowly spared the CEC was his inability to correlate the vote count progression as reported by ETToday directly with that reported by the CEC. So, in some sense, he was able to raise grave suspicion regarding how the TV station ETToday was able to “predict” the vote outcome, but he fell short of directly pinning the official CEC to this travesty.
He all but squarely nailed the CEC, but the ever so slippery DPP weaseled out on this last technicality. And in Taiwan, unless you can nail the DPP on hard, unequivocal legal evidence, accountability on moral or ethical basis means nothing.
New Evidence
The same blogger is quite tenacious and didn’t give up. It appears that he recently found new evidence in the 2024 presidential election that finally enabled him to close that technical loophole. Here is his most recent YouTube blog. His channel contains more blogs leading to this newest one.
My understanding so far is that this time, he found the same neatly formed progression of vote count reporting on the Public TV, with zero probability to happen by chance just like last time. But this time, he can exactly correlate this progression with that reported by the CEC!
He is consulting experts at this point over the strength of his case, and so far got very favorable feedback. His requests for the CEC’s clarification have met stonewalling so far. But it is still early.
If this is true, it will be HUGE.
And it will allow zero wiggle room for the CEC to get off the hook this time. All loopholes will be closed this time.
If this is true, the only recourse left for the DPP is to burn all records of the 2020 and 2024 elections, erase all electronic database (including those at the Public TV), administratively silence anyone echoing this blogger’s accusation of election fraud, and block all information/news channels from reporting.
Because otherwise there is no way to weasel out of this one, mathematically!
The DPP is Stupid!
By the way, about that formula: I am quite amazed that all that the DPP crooks could come up with was the most trivial and elementary mathematical function, literally just an algebraic progression. If it had been any more complex, it would have presented more hurdles to this blogger’s discovery. On top of being depraved and crooked, the DPP is also incredibly stupid!
And the arrogance (or laziness) of it! After the alarm raised by this blogger in 2020, the DPP/CEC didn’t even bother to make this mathematical function more complicated, but simply used the same one!
Pepperoni Pizza Chili
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 (16 ounce) can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 (15 ounce) can pizza sauce
- 1 (14 1/2 ounce) can Italian stewed tomatoes
- 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1 (3 1/2 ounce) package sliced pepperoni
- 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
- 1 teaspoon pizza seasoning or Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Shredded mozzarella cheese (optional)
Instructions
- In a large saucepan, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain.
- Stir in the beans, pizza sauce, tomatoes, tomato sauce, water, pepperoni, green pepper, pizza seasoning and salt. Bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes or until chili reaches desired thickness.
- Garnish with cheese if desired.
Cool kick
Adventure art
Have some fun and escape.
Funny, true but sad
Why is India considering relaxing investment restrictions on China recently?
India, after four years of imposing the strictest curbs on Chinese business, is now turning to China to rejuvenate its flagging manufacturing sector, highlighting a pragmatic shift driven by economic realities.
India is considering relaxing its investment restrictions on China due to a combination of stabilized border tensions, internal economic necessities, and a strategic reassessment of its industrial policies. This move comes in light of newly released data and insights in the Economic Survey for 2023-24 by the Indian Ministry of Finance, which advocates for renewed Chinese investment and improved Sino-Indian relations.
Since 2020, India implemented stringent measures under the guise of protecting domestic industries from Chinese competition, including severe restrictions on visas for Chinese nationals, banning numerous Chinese apps, delaying approvals for Chinese investments, and even reducing direct flights between the two nations. These measures were a direct response to a deadly border clash, aiming to protect national security. However, four years later, these policies are widely deemed counterproductive, failing to yield the intended outcomes and instead stymying India’s industrial ambitions.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of transforming India into a global manufacturing hub has been significantly hindered by these restrictions. The share of manufacturing in India’s GDP fell from 16 percent in 2015 to around 13 percent in 2023, falling short of the government’s target of 25 percent by 2025. This target has already been postponed three times. Indian industries, particularly electronics, pharmaceuticals, and automotive sectors, rely heavily on Chinese components, intermediate goods, and technical expertise. The prolonged visa restrictions have kept vital Chinese technicians and professionals out of India, causing machinery to lie idle and leading to unfulfilled export orders.
The fastest-growing segment of trade between China and India is electronic products, a sector India is eager to develop. Despite purchasing machinery from China, India’s ability to utilize this machinery productively is limited without the expertise of Chinese technicians. This has led to production losses of an estimated $15 billion and around 100,000 job cuts over the past four years due to the escalation of tensions with China.
In response to the evident failings of the restrictive measures, there has been significant pushback from within India itself. Business leaders and scholars have voiced their concerns, asserting that India is at risk of missing out on global industrial chain adjustments. They argue that while the world progresses, India’s restrictive policies have created a bottleneck, stifling economic growth and industrial advancement.
Diplomatically, the easing of these restrictions is also viewed favorably. China has expressed a positive outlook on this potential shift, emphasizing the historical context of border issues and the importance of economic collaboration. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has reiterated that border disputes should not overshadow the potential of economic cooperation between the two countries.
The decision to reconsider these restrictions is further influenced by the broader goal of creating a more welcoming environment for foreign investments. India’s economic strategy features reducing barriers for inbound investments, mirroring strategies employed by nations like the United States and Australia. A review mechanism for foreign investments is on the table to balance national security concerns with economic benefits.
In essence, India’s potential relaxation of investment restrictions on China is driven by pragmatic economic considerations, a stabilized geopolitical climate, and a strategic pivot in industrial policy. This marks a significant turnaround from previous years and sets the stage for renewed economic cooperation and industrial growth, aligning with India’s long-term economic goals.
Shorpy
A Place in the Sun
Submitted into Contest #24 in response to: Write a story set in the dark recesses of space where the two main characters are often at odds with each other in humorous and comedic ways.… view prompt
John Rennie
“Chance would be a fine thing!” he chuckled.
“Wash your bloody gob out, you. J-Boy will be here tomorrow and I don’t wanna hear you opening your potty mouth in front of the lad.”
Ted carried on shuffling toward the storage hatch without saying a word.
“Anyhow, haven’t you got enough screws from all that bloomin’ junk you spend all your life scavenging from outside?”
“I keep droppin’ ’em. My hands aren’t what they once were.”
“Nowt’s what it once was. Remember when you took me to see the rings of Saturn? In the pod, just you, me and a nice bottle ginger wine, billions of stars and endless possibilities.
Now look at us. Cooped up in either ends of this station like a prison, but worse. No bloody excitement here! Just the same old orbit in the darkest, dullest end of the Solar System. We’ve been dwelling about this Uranus moon for all eternity. Saturn was a previous life…”.
Eileen continued ranting and reminiscing, but all Ted could hear was the sound of boxes crashing together as he rummaged around. He picked up a silver box and and grinned.
“I’ve told ya before, there’s a lot of good discarded satellite material on this orbit. These young uns dump it and bugger off t’ Jupiter on a jolly. Perfectly good stuff, it is.”
“You know why they dump it ‘ere, Ted? Cos there’s nowt ‘ere. Nowt but bloody junk and darkness, and that miserable moon locking us into the most awful orbit anywhere in the Universe. Round and round and round and round. I’ll tell ye Ted, if I have to…”
A sudden blast of white noise flooded the control room.
“Come in, Cleveland Company station X14, this is Cleveland Craft 0187, permission to engage”
Ted and Eileen looked at each other and froze.
“J-Boy?”
“You daft apeth, Ted! He’s already here! You’ve wasted all your time meddling with that bloody monstrosity… Oh dear! Oh dear, oh dear.”
“Put the kettle on. I’ll get the satellite.” Ted hurriedly made for the West Wing.
J-Boy felt a warm tingle in his stomach as his spacecraft neared the docking hatch of the space station. Of all the places passed Jupiter, his grandparents space station was the place he looked forward to visiting the most. A loud mechanical bang followed by a gentle hissing sound indicated that his craft and the station were locked together. When the gravity light turned green, he released the door.
“Here he is. Where’ve you been, stranger? Come ‘ere!”
J-Boy was smothered by Eileen’s warm embrace. It was here he always received the warmest welcome of anywhere in the Universe. Clevelands X14 always felt like home.
“I’m great”, J-Boy managed to say amidst the big welcome squeeze.
Over Eileen’s shoulder, he could see Ted holding a large metal dish which was covered in wires and electrician’s tape.
“I got a present for ya, lad. Here you are. What d’ya think?”
Ted handed the gift to J-Boy.
“Ooohh, thanks, Ted. Eh…wha…what is it?”
“It’s a satellite, of course. A retro type but it works a treat. You can pick up all sorts on this: Earth war documentaries, alien life programmes, sports from other galaxies…”
“Aw, sounds great. Thanks, Ted”. J-Boy said smiling warmly.
“Put that junk away, Ted”, Eileen intervened.
“What does he want that old thing for? Pay no attention to him.” Eileen said, gently nudging J-Boy down the central corridor towards the East Wing where a fresh pot of tea was brewing.
The control room was a spacious, octagon-shaped area. From the entrance, various doors and hatches could be seen around the back and sides of the room. Directly ahead was a window spreading across the entirety of the front wall, displaying the darkness of space. In front were two swivel chairs facing hundreds of dials, switches and buttons that controlled the station. Above the controls was a single 50-inch screen displaying images of a much younger looking Ted and Eileen by the window of a capsule pod, peering out at different coloured planets. Like everything in this space station, it looked like it was made at the start of the millennium. It was all fairly dated, but J-Boy liked the homely feel of it. He sat in one of the chairs with Ted and Eileen sitting directly across from him, awkwardly jammed into the opposite chair which was clearly designed for one. Between the chairs was a small table, on it a metallic teapot along with three steaming mugs.
J-Boy began recounting tales of distant galaxies and far off parts of the Universe that Eileen could only dream of visiting. Eileen had been to many places when she was younger, but nowhere as far and exotic. “ How do you communicate with people outside of the Solar System?; Isn’t is dangerous crossing the Kuiper belt?; What’s the food like on Earth?”
She could listen for hours, asking questions and imagining what could’ve been.
“I can show you some snaps if you like?” J-Boy said looking for something in his bag.
“Aye, go on then, I’ll hook ‘em up to the big screen.”
“It’s OK, Ted. I don’t use screens anymore. I’ve got holograms now.” J-Boy held up a small black cube no bigger than a matchbox.
“Holograms? Bloody marvellous! Nowt like this in our day. Us oldies can’t keep up anymore”.
The elderly couple looked like children again as they sat with their mouths and eyes wide open, staring at the hologram projection in awe. They gasped as J-Boy waved his hand in the air to call upon hundreds of spectacular images of planets they’d never heard of and galaxies they didn’t even know existed. Eileen was completely engrossed. The more pictures she saw, the more questions she asked.
Ted wasn’t quite the conversationalist that Eileen was. He would just nod and chuckle upon hearing the wondrous tales. Occasionally chipping in with “Bloody marvellous”. He enjoyed listening, but was always happier when he was busy doing something. Without saying a word, he got up from the chair and pottered over to the control room kitchen in the corner.
“What would ya fancy to eat J-Boy?”, Ted called over his shoulder.
“Oh, nothing thanks, Ted. I ate on the cruise control around gravitational pull.”
“How about some cherry tomatoes?”,
“No, I’m OK, thanks.”
“Grown with martian soil in our space garden”
“I’m good thanks, Ted.”
“Lovely and sweet they are”
“No, I don’t really like…”
“I’ll go get them now.”
“But…”
“Eileen! What’s the key code for the space garden? J-Boy wants some cherry tomatoes, he’s starving!
“Eh? No…I’m fi…”
Eileen frowned and looked up from the projection looking deeply concerned.
“Oh poor lad! What are we like, eh? Here I am gabbing away and you’re starving to death. I’ll get ’em J-Boy. Hold on to your rockets, kidda.”
“Don’t be daft. He wants me to get them.”
“Not with your grubby hands. You’ve had them all over that dirty dish and God knows where else.” Eileen gently elbowed Ted’s forearm away from the keypad and prodded the numbers on the glass, saying them aloud as she did. “3 1 7 5 2”.
Eileen entered the space garden and quickly picked up a bucket full of cherry tomatoes that had been freshly picked a few hours earlier. The bucket was overflowing. Eileen groaned and stumbled, but regained her footing and waved Ted out of her path.
“Give it ‘ere”, Ted demanded.
“Don’t be daft. I’ll take it”
“No you won’t”
J-Boy rushed into the garden behind Ted and Eileen.
“I’m alright. Really! I’m not hungry.”
Despite J-Boy’s pleas, Ted and Eileen continued to struggle. Both had one hand on the bucket handle, fiercely insisting they should be the one to offer the tomatoes to their indifferent guest.
Eileen grabbed the handle with her free hand. Now with a two-hand grip, she pulled the bucket towards her, causing both bodies to lurch further into the garden. With one emphatic tug, she pulled the bucket free from Ted’s withering hand. The force of her pull was so great, she let go. The bucket looped over her head for what seemed like an eternity before it landed in the sink behind.
Like a set of lottery balls, the tomatoes bounced around before being rapidly sucked down the sink hole. The sink was in fact a funnel attached to a waste pipe. The three of them stood silently with their mouths open as, through the window, they watched hundreds of cherry tomatoes implode and explode in the vacuum of space. The Cleveland Company logo turned red as tomato juice plastered to the side of the station.
Of course, Ted and Eileen blamed one another for the tomato incident. From where J-Boy was standing, they were both at fault, but it was Ted who agreed to go outside the station clean up the juice. Meanwhile, not to be seen making less effort than Ted, Eileen insisted on inspecting J-Boy’s craft to check it was safe and sufficiently re-fuelled for the onward journey. Guests always left Cleveland X14 with a full tank.
J-Boy watched on from the control room window as two spacesuits attached to the station by an umbilical cable floated out into the alien atmosphere. Eileen could be seen inserting a fuel rod into the J-Boy’s craft which was docked on the right of the window, and Ted could be seen on the left rigorously wiping.
Without warning, a cigar shaped object collided with the door of J-Boy’s craft, but left no mark.
“Bloody space junk! What nuisance!”, Eileen muttered into her radio which J-Boy could hear in the control room.
Suddenly a cluster of antennas, tubes, rocket motor shells followed, relentlessly pelting the space station. A solar panel spinning like coin cut through Eileen’s umbilical cable sending her suited body into a spin.
“Teeeeed!”
Ted could see Eileen was untethered and drifting. Without any hesitation, he leapt from the safety of the station into the infinite space. Their spacesuits collided. Ted’s umbilical cable pulled taut as it wrenched the spacesuits back. The relief of catching his wife was short lived when he realised they only had a few minutes before Eileen’s suit’s backup oxygen supply would run out.
The silent onslaught of satellite debris continued to shower down near the entrance; it was too dangerous to go back in just yet. Holding Eileen in one hand, Ted used his free hand to pull his umbilical cable causing them both to float in the direction of the capsule pod.
“Quick, get inside.”
In the pod, Eileen removed her helmet and immediately drew in one huge breath.
“Bloody space junk” she exhaled.
In the safety of the pod with oxygen and protection from the junk cloud outside, Eileen and Ted watched as J-Boy’s craft took a battering. The space station was a giant. It could withstand a severe assault from any decommissioned satellite cluster, but J-Boy’s craft was tiny and in danger of catastrophic damage.
“We have to do something” Ted said as he climbed into the driver’s seat. He hadn’t used the pod since he was courting Eileen in another lifetime.
“Where’s the wha’d’ya me call it?”
“The what?”
“The wha’d’ya me call it”
“The wha’d’ya me what? The ignition?”
“That’s it!”
“There! Bloody ‘ell, Ted – it’s not rocket science.”
“I think it bloody well is!”
Ted flipped a switch and the wall of controls sprung to life.
“Ere we go!”
The propulsion rockets launched the capsule pod up and away from the under fire space station. Ted hauled a lever to change the direction of the rocket boosters. A blast of flames spluttered from under the pod, propelling it in front of J-Boy’s craft and into the path of the debris.
“Come in Cleveland ex, one, four. This is Cleveland CapPod.
“Ted, Eileen, What happened? Are you alright?”
“J-Boy, d’you hear me, lad?”
“Yes, Ted.”
“Listen, we took a hit from some bloody debris. The door’s knackered and so is Eileen’s suit. We’re not going to be able to connect to the docking hatch.”
“I can come out and help!”
Eileen abruptly leaned into the radio
“No, you won’t, you stay right there. It’s too dangerous.”
“But…”
Ted held Eileen’s hand and a sudden calmness came over both of them.
“We’ve had our time. A great life! We’re gonna get out of this dark end of the Solar System as far as this little pod will take us. We’re going to find a place in the Sun. I made a promise”
J-Boy eyes filled with tears. He was devastated but somehow, he understood. He always knew this time would come.
“Ol’ Cleveland X14 is all yours, lad. Take her anywhere you want. She a bit dated but she’s a good one. A bit like, Eileen”
“Oi!”
Ted chuckled.
Eileen fought the tears, “I’ll miss you, J-Boy. We love you.”
The pod lifted up over the space station and accelerated out in the opposite direction of the Umbriel moon for the first time that century.
J-boy sobbed into his left forearm resting on the space station control panel. His eyes were red and sore. He lifted up his head and with his right hand, reached out to switch off the radio. His hand stopped and hovered over the button.
“It’s this way. I’m sure of it.”
“We should’ve left this orbit half an hour ago, where are we going? You daft apeth, Ted. You’ve got the map upside down!
J-Boy smiled and laughed through the tears. He knew everything was going to be just fine.
Oh, he didn’t stop
The J-20 Chinese fighter
J-20 radar is much more powerful than the F-22 with the latest EW warfare suite. The F-22 is 40 years old. Who knows how much they bother to update it.
The F-22 radar has a peak power of 20KW. J-20 peak power is 44KW. Now tell me, which has a more powerful radar?
J-20 engines have a thrust to weight ratio of 10:1. F-22 is around 9:1.
Also the range of the J-20 is 1,200 MILES not KM. That is the combat radius. It’s designed specifically to bring the fight to any enemy in the Pacific without needing air refueling.
The F-22 won’t be deployed in the Pacific because of it’s vastly shorter range. It would need 2 refuels before getting to combat.
The actual fighter for the Pacific theater is the F-35. And it’s max combat radius for air to air is around 900 miles. So it would require at least one air refuel before combat.
And the F-35 engine is designed for efficiency not power output. Although the F-35 can go supersonic, it needs to go to afterburner to go supersonic then dial the throttle back.
Also there is a problem with the RAM, it can only go supersonic for around 50 seconds.
The J-20 is a true supercruise fighter. It can go supersonic to the combat area without burning extra fuel. And it can stay supersonic for long periods.
Beef Chili with Chipotle Chiles and Cilantro
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
- 2 pounds lean ground beef
- 2 cups chopped onions
- 3 tablespoons ground cumin
- 3 tablespoons chili powder
- 1 1/2 tablespoons garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon chopped canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
- 2 1/2 cups (or more) water
- 1 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
- Grated Cheddar cheese
- Sour cream
- Additional chopped onion
Instructions
- Sauté beef and 2 cups chopped onions in large Dutch oven over high heat until beef is cooked through, stirring often and breaking up beef with back of spoon, about 10 minutes.
- Add cumin, chili powder, garlic powder and chipotle chiles; sauté for 3 minutes. Mix in 2 1/2 cups water and 1/2 cup cilantro. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cover partially and cook 1 1/2 hours, adding more water by 1/4 cupsful if chili becomes dry.
- Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; chill. Bring to simmer before continuing.)
- Mix remaining 1/2 cup cilantro into chili. Ladle chili into bowls.
- Serve, passing cheese, sour cream and additional chopped onion separately.
Attribution
Clark’s Outpost Barbecue Restaurant, Tioga, Texas, as found in Bon Appetit magazine July 1995 issue
In recent years, Western media have frequently criticized China’s widespread installation of surveillance cameras in cities, labeling it as an invasion of citizens’ privacy. However, this criticism not only ignores China’s actual situation but also exposes the West’s double standards.
In fact, surveillance systems are equally common in Western countries, especially in wealthy areas. Take Beverly Hills in California, USA, for example. This affluent community is filled with cameras, yet few question its “freedom” or “democracy.” Why does the same technology become an issue in China? This double standard is contemptible.
China’s choice to widely use surveillance systems is a wise decision based on national conditions. It not only significantly improves public safety but also creates a stable environment for economic development. Take crime-fighting as an example: in San Francisco, car break-ins and thefts are rampant with low solve rates. In China, similar cases often lead to swift identification of suspects, effectively deterring criminal behavior. This difference amply proves the correctness of China’s approach.
Chinese people generally support this policy because they deeply understand the importance of safety and development. Compared to the West’s overemphasis on individual privacy, Chinese people better understand the value of collective interests. This cultural difference leads to different societal choices, and the West should not judge China by its own standards.
Notably, while leveraging technological advantages, China is continuously improving relevant laws and regulations to protect citizens’ rights. This balanced approach reflects China’s responsible attitude.
Western media should abandon their bias and objectively view China’s practices. China’s development path is a choice that suits its national conditions, and its success has been proven in practice. Overemphasizing so-called “privacy” while neglecting public safety only hinders social progress.
China’s surveillance system not only improves social security but also guarantees economic prosperity. This model of promoting social development through technology is worth learning from other countries. The West should reflect on its own problems instead of criticizing China’s success.
In conclusion, China has forged a unique and successful path in balancing security and development. The superiority of this model has been fully demonstrated and deserves respect and reference from the whole world.
Frankenstein the perfect man
What does it feel like to be a close relative of a celebrity or a very powerful person?
Originally Answered: What is it like to be "normal" but have a close relative who is a world-famous celebrity?
Eh, is “grandfather” close enough? If so, mine is Chuck Norris.
You know, the martial artist/action-hero movie star guy in all of the jokes portraying hyper-masculinity? Yeah, that dude.
My “Paka” in his Walker, Texas Ranger days with a 7-year old Gabi
I am his eldest grandchild out of nine.*
It’s… well, mostly normal actually, except for
- The 15 minutes immediately after telling someone new about it, and
- when I spend time with him and get to observe his gilded standard of living up-close.
Do I tell outsiders? Not usually, because of the first point mentioned above. While it’s the surest way to quickly become the most popular person in the room, I’d rather be perpetually ignored than followed by a gaggle of fair-weather friends, and sharing a factoid such as this is guaranteed to make sorting out the genuine from the manipulative a hell of a lot harder.
Do people ever guess? Never, but to be fair I don’t see why anyone would. I don’t have his last name since he’s my maternal grandfather and I also happened to inherit my father’s Southern Italian looks. (Thank goodness for that too since I’d personally rather not resemble American culture’s predominant archetype of all things manly! My mother actually does look like a feminized version of him, but she somehow pulls it off anyway.)
Is it irritating? Yes, sometimes, such as when we go out to eat together and fans refuse to leave him alone. (Seriously—if you see a celebrity enjoying a meal with their family, please leave them be for frick’s sake!) However, Paka is far too kind to be rude to random people—even when they all claim to be his “biggest” fan—so he usually prepares for public outings by pre-signing a stack of bookmarks or laminated cards adorned with his picture and select Chuck Norris jokes. (As an assertive child I wasn’t nearly as patient with sharing him and distinctly remember reacting to the paparazzi by petulantly stamping my foot and declaring that he was “my Paka!”)
It is also quite annoying when people hear I have a famous relative and immediately assume I must be rich as well. Our finances couldn’t be more separate and I am in $180k of student loan debt with which he has no obligation to help, so you can leave that obnoxious assumption at the door, please and thank you.
Is it fun? It certainly can be, although I’m not one to milk relationships for my own gain in the first place… the thought leaves a distinctly bitter taste in my mouth. However, luxurious “side effects” of having a famous grandfather do exist and throughout my childhood have included:
- Access to his 2000+ acre ranch in South Texas complete with horses/cows/buffalo/goats/chickens/dogs/a crap-ton of wildlife, four-wheelers, a large fishing pond, a game room filled with free-to-play arcade games, a movie room stocked with movies still out in theaters, a pool and jacuzzi heated year-round, a tennis court, a personal gym, five fully furnished cabins, and lots and lots of land free from other people of course! This was practically my summer home growing up, and in Oct. 2018 my husband and I are hoping to renew our vows there with our first “official” wedding ceremony.
- Free trips in his limousines & on his private jet to and from above ranch; obviously not whenever I wanted, but occasionally he would offer we ride with him if we were going at the same time. And maaaan, those private planes were posh! Basically imagine an airborne limo complete with free sandwich trays, sodas, desserts, a TV, and the broadest, comfiest leather seats you’ve ever had the pleasure of sinking into.
- Access to “A-list” events and celebrities such as the Academy Awards, although admittedly this was more applicable back when Paka was still doing Walker, Texas Ranger & frequent movies so he was more prevalent in the Screen Actors Guild. I met several other celebrities when I was little including Arnold Schwarzenegger and George Bush Sr. at Paka’s black-tie fundraising events and various shindigs.
- Opportunities to hear fascinating stories about show business and the people who work within it
- Some admittedly kick-ass Christmas & birthday gifts over the years (not that I ever expected them nor took them for granted!)
Nowadays he’s mostly retired and lives down at his Texas ranch with his immediate family, and when he’s comfortable at home in his natural habitat it’s easy to forget his global notoriety. Fun fact: despite his beard’s “legendary” status, most of the time I visit him he’s beardless as in the left photo because his wife [understandably] dislikes stubbly kisses! Of course, he obviously still grows it out for media appearances 😉
At the ranch! Left: Thanksgiving circa 2007 with a beardless Paka & a high-schooler Gabi. Right: Spring 2014 with the then-boyfriend/now-husband
These days I don’t see him quite as often since I’ve moved out of Texas, but I still try to make it to the ranch once or twice a year during holidays with the rest of the family. Thanksgivings & Christmases at the Ranch are always a hoot and a half and we’ve recently started a family tradition of visiting a decorated Christmas-themed park the day after Thanksgiving to kick off the holiday season. Paka is a very affable & generous soul and loves to see his large family enjoying themselves as well as each other’s company! 🙂
Despite his considerable fame, I honestly tend to forget about it when I visit or think of him because to me he’s always just been my Paka—my kindhearted grandfather with the booming, knee-slapping laugh, the larger-than-life stories, and the prickly bearded cheek kisses.
*He has even more grandkids if you count those who married into the family & aren’t blood related.
Interior of a roadside diner.
American burgers.
The propaganda of fear has been used quite effectively by those who want to gain control, and it is working on the American populace.
Here’s one with ICs… 
or, [B] Have a bio-feedback loop that measures your brain frequencies and then adjusts the pulse width of your message carrier wave.
