We are just a group of retired spooks that discuss things that you’ll not find anywhere else. It makes us unique. Take a look around. Learn a thing or two.
After I was retired, I was compelled by law to live next to relatives. Since my mother died, and my brothers and sisters were all off being with their own careers and families, I ended up living near my father.
I lived in Erie, PA. And during this period of time, I was in a “half way house”, a Monastery, and in a rehabilitation program. For the most part, I lived in the (affordable) “bad section” of town. While my father lived in the the nicer side of town. I lived on the “East Side”, while he lived on the “West side”.
He lived with my step mother, and she hated me. Well, nothing personal. She hated me and my brother both equally. ANd she was nasty to us. SO understand that there is not calm waters in this relationship.
But anyways, here’s a story.
It’s about my dad.
Now he is in his late 70’s. Retired. And living with his wife (who hated me). I would say hi and talk to him from time to time when he drove over to my house. If I came to his house, she would make a real fuss, so I did it only occasionally.
Well it came to pass that his little dog “Zenie” died.
He was a fine little terrier. And he lived to the ripe old age of 16. Which was, after all, quite a long life for a doggie.
Well…
About four months after their doggie died, his wife was talking with another woman at church. There was another dog that they could “babysit”.
So, here’s the scoop…
Single woman. She has a high-level career that involves long periods of travel. She is not married. has no children. Instead, has a dog. But is never at home. SO she left the dog alone at the house.
It’s now five years old.
Never housebroken.
So my dad’s wife gets the dog, and as affectionate as it was, it was just crapping and peeing all over the house. Everywhere. And since it was forever an inside dog, they didn’t dare let it live in the yard.
So…
One day, I come to visit my father.
I come into the house and am assaulted by this putrid odor of dog shit. This stink. It was foul, and on the floor, and on the furniture were these absorbent white piss-pads. The dog was amok, and my father’s wife insisted that everything was “fine”.
No it wasn’t.
She was crazy.
It was NOT NOT NOT fine, and my 70 something father was not able to cope and handle it.
So, anyways, I went out with him and we had a breakfast together. Ah, it was 4pm, but you know it’s a thing. We talked and I said…
It’s my dad’s life.
But he had to live with his wife and make allowances.
However, this dog was not housebroken
And because it wasn’t housebroken, it could not live with them inside. It had to go outside.
So he had to make a choice; dog stays but lives outside or dog leaves.
I explained that this was not an emotional thing, or that it will change. That it was a health and sanitary issue, and given their (father and wife) ages, that this could cause negative health issues. That he had to do something.
Ah.
He kicked the dog out.
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And his wife refused to talk to me for a year afterwards.
Sometimes I feel that I am the most hated man on the planet. But seriously. There is a REASON why dogs and cats are housebroken. This REASON must be addressed.
And people are often too clouded in their emotions to such a degree that they refuse to see the black and white of an issue.
The health of the people who live in the home.
Today…
What was the strangest thing you discovered when you moved into a new home?
I had moved into a new rental with a couple of roommates, I was in my 20s. The house had a big backyard, but it was choked with weeds and Blackberry vines. I was determined to claim this space, so I borrowed a shovel and an axe and went at it! Being a small person, I ran out of steam pretty fast. Anyone who has tried to hack down 8ft tall blackberry vines can imagine my pain. Many scrapes and blisters later, after about a week, I had made modest progress.
The entire yard area was about 15ft square, I cleared about 10ft square and gave up. Not only were the weeds stronger than me, but the soil was mostly rocks, so planting a garden was looking pretty bleak. I kinda gave up. The spring was coming and we got a lot of rain, it became a mud pit and I thought maybe it would soften the clay and rock enough for me to sow some wildflowers before the weeds made a comeback.
Of course I got distracted and after a few weeks of mild spring sun I went back to it and looked around…PINK TULIPS were everywhere! A huge carpet of them! I wish I had a camera back then. They made me so happy and I could imagine them being planted years ago only to be choked by the aggressive vines. I felt like a hero and I continued to clear the space. Eventually I was able to see the long buried flower beds beneath the rubble. I made raised beds in one corner and was able to grow some herbs and veggies.
The tulips were a sign every spring that it was time to get growing! I hope whoever came after me to that space continued to be blessed by their presence.
Cajun Catfish with Honey Dijon Bacon Potato Salad
Fried catfish paired with a delicious Honey Dijon Bacon Potato Salad…yummy!
cajun catfish honey dijon
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
Honey Dijon Bacon Potato Salad
5 cups baby Yukon gold potatoes, cooked and quartered
1 medium red onion, diced
1 1/2 cups celery, diced
1 cup bacon, cooked, drained and chopped
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon Creole mustard
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Hot sauce to taste
Cajun Catfish
4 U.S. Farm-Raised Catfish Fillets
1/2 cup fish breading
1 tablespoon Creole seasoning
1 1/2 to 2 cups frying oil
Instructions
Potato Salad
Combine all ingredients and mix well.
Adjust seasoning with salt, pepper and hot sauce. Cover and refrigerate.
Cajun Catfish
Combine fish breading and Creole seasoning in shallow bowl. Coat catfish in breading, lightly shaking off any excess.
In a large skillet, heat oil over high heat. Fry catfish until golden brown, approximately 3 minutes per side.
Place on paper towel to drain.
Serve immediately with Honey Dijon Bacon Potato Salad.
Karen tries her American rights in Africa
Both India and China have over 1 billion people so why does China look clean and modern and India looks dirty and behind in the times?
I am Chinese, 44 years old this year. My childhood spanned the entire 1980s and 1990s. When it comes to maintaining cleanliness, this question brings back some memories of a “dirty and chaotic China.”
The first memory is a small detail. In any indoor place in China today, whether it’s a restaurant, hotel, or home, every room will have a plastic trash can. There will be a plastic bag lining the trash can to make it easy to remove the garbage. They usually look like this:
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However, these things were not part of my childhood memories. In other words, decades ago in China, there were no such trash cans. So, how did people throw away garbage in rooms back then? My memory is that people either put the trash in a shared outdoor trash can or threw it on the ground inside the room. Once the trash on the ground accumulated enough, they would then throw it into the large outdoor trash can.
Moreover, there is an evolving version of this small detail: I remember when I just got married in 2005, the plastic bags used to line trash cans were the ones from the vegetable markets. People collected these plastic bags after buying vegetables and used them in their trash cans. No one would buy plastic bags specifically for trash cans.
But today, various types and sizes of trash bags are essential in every Chinese household. The most popular ones are the trash bags that, when full, have two drawstrings on the sides that can be pulled to close the bag. This way, you can lift the heavy trash without worrying about it spilling:
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My second memory is about littering. I remember when I was in elementary school, around 1992. My mother took me to a newly built park. As we walked, I was eating peanuts and casually throwing the shells on the ground.
A sanitation worker stopped me, but my mother argued with her because she didn’t see a problem with throwing peanut shells on the grass. We thought that even if we didn’t litter, the wind would blow leaves onto the grass. Prohibiting littering was a common slogan on radio, newspapers, and television in China at that time. It’s important to note that because people didn’t care about environmental cleanliness, the government used all mass media to educate the public.
This situation didn’t significantly improve even by the late 1990s. In 2000, a Chinese TV station released a popular crime drama called “The Struggle Between Black and White,” which depicted the solving of a dismemberment case. The most intriguing aspect of this series was that it featured almost no professional actors! Nearly all the key roles were played by ordinary people, and all the police officers and detectives were the actual officers who solved the case.
Since this drama was released in 2000, it reflected the urban landscape of China at that time. The city in the show had a fictional name, “Beihuan City,” but everyone who watched it could recognize it as Xi’an, the city with the Terracotta Army. You could see paper scraps, plastic bags, and other trash flying along the main roads of the city.
In today’s China, littering is unthinkable. If someone throws a piece of waste paper on a commercial street, people will consider them uncivilized. Within minutes, a sanitation worker will pick it up and throw it into a trash can. A few years ago, a moving car threw a pile of shredded paper out the window. A highway cleaner witnessed this and recorded it on his phone, uploading it online, which sparked public outrage. Eventually, the police used roadside cameras to identify the offender, fined him, and demanded a public apology.
My child was born in 2010. If he generates trash while playing outside and can’t find a trash can, he will keep the trash with him until he gets home to throw it away. Once, he had a runny nose and spent an afternoon playing in the community park. When he returned home, all four of his pockets were filled with used tissues. I asked him why he didn’t throw them in the park’s trash cans, and he replied that the park was under renovation and the trash cans were temporarily unavailable.
My third memory is about vegetable markets. Up until 2005, going to an open-air farmers’ market was a challenge. You had to walk on rotting vegetable leaves, wade through the waterlogged seafood section, and endure the nauseating smell of the poultry area just to buy ingredients. In the past decade or so, such farmers’ markets have almost disappeared in China. They have been transformed into tall, specialized buildings, with floor-cleaning machines constantly sweeping the floors, and water flowing through specially designed hidden pipes into the city’s sewage system. Today, farmers’ markets are almost indistinguishable from supermarkets, equipped with elevators, central air conditioning, ventilation systems, Wi-Fi, and each shop having its own independent water supply system.
This is what the farmers’ markets used to be like:
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This is what farmers’ markets are like today:
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My fourth memory is about public restrooms. The relationship between Chinese people and public restrooms could fill an entire book, as there are many legendary stories. When I was a child, public restrooms did not have flushing systems. Everyone, regardless of gender, had to squat over two concrete slabs. If you weren’t careful, you might splash yourself.
Workers would clean the waste once a day. In the summer, Chinese public restrooms would become an unforgettable experience for anyone. In 2006, I bought a book called “Foreigners’ Views on China.” Some foreigners’ most painful memories of China at that time were about “using public restrooms.”
Today’s public restrooms in China are quite a different story. Over the years, as I’ve traveled across the country with my family, we’ve encountered all sorts of interesting restrooms. Some restrooms have real-time status systems that show which stalls are occupied. Some provide tissues via QR code scanning. There are even restrooms equipped with sofas and coffee tables for people to wait comfortably. A significant number of public restrooms have “family toilets” designed for family members assisting elderly or young children.
This summer, we traveled to Qinghai Province in northwest China. The G310 national highway winds through the desolate mountains of Gansu Province for over 100 kilometers. Sometimes, we didn’t see another car for half an hour, and I had to make twelve consecutive turns to find a 500-meter straight stretch of road. This area is known for the Qinling Mountains. One afternoon, we stopped at a roadside public restroom in the middle of nowhere, not even near a village. Surprisingly, it was a well-appointed restroom, equipped with large mirrors, washbasins, stainless steel faucets, and running water. Though I’m not sure if it was tap water or spring water, in the 37°C heat that day, the water felt ice-cold on my hands. The restroom had four rooms: men’s, women’s, a “handicapped toilet,” and a “management room.” It had a functional flushing system, clean tile floors, intact stalls, and a working ventilation system.
So, if I were to explain why China is a clean country today, I would summarize based on my experiences: First, extensive and improved infrastructure means people don’t need to dirty the environment to use the restroom or buy groceries. Second, trash cans, including recycling bins, are everywhere in cities and towns, so people don’t have to search for them. Third, if everything is clean, people are less likely to litter out of embarrassment. In conclusion, China is becoming an increasingly clean and orderly country.
This is what public restrooms in China are like today:
As Pennsylvania’s polls near closing, an unexpected twist has emerged: a massive mobilization of Amish voters. Known for their separation from mainstream society and reliance on traditional values, such as horse-and-buggy transportation (arguably more ‘green’ than EVs), these folks, traditionally not big participators in US politics, have been out in force at PA polling stations, voting for former President Trump after Biden-Harris’ big gov’t waged war on the community.
Let’s begin with the context. Earlier this year, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and big government Democrats targeted a small Amish farmer in Lancaster over compliance issues. This apparently infuriated the Amish community that many of them registered to vote and voted red in the last several days.
Real America’s Voice’s Tera Dahl was speaking at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania on Monday, and she explained that the Amish community is not a traditional group of voters in US elections.
“But they’re voting this year – and I think a big reason is the overreach of government – and one example that could’ve had a big impact was back in January. An Amish farmer was selling his milk – and the gov’t raided his home and stopped his business,” she said.
An Amish person was asked outside one PA polling station: “Who are you voting for?”
He responded, “Donald Trump.” He explained that the Amish had “more freedoms under Trump,” while government overreach drastically increased under Biden-Harris.
US Rep. Lloyd Smucker, R-Pa., whose district includes Lancaster County, at the epicenter of America’s Amish population, told PBS News last week, “They just want government to stay not only out of their businesses but out of their religion.”
With family roots deep in the Amish community, Smucker forecasted a dramatic increase in the Amish vote, “basing that on the enthusiasm we see.”
There are currently 92,000 Amish in PA. It’s going to be a tight race, and these votes could make all the difference.
Brave kid HORRIFIES his teachers by reading their own woke garbage, then his dad shows up…
The explosion blasted a million obols worth of cometary material into the oblivion of space, a disaster even without their ship being parked at ground zero, but what really rattled Jacey Komarov was the destruction of her entire set of Space Kitchen Deluxe™ radiant cookware, which had been safely stowed on board. She’d bought the set on Callisto twenty-three years before and cared for it like a child ever since. To her, it was more precious than platinum. You couldn’t find gear like that here in the Oort Territories. Standing beside her in his hideous olive green pressure suit, staring up at a black sky liberally sprayed with stars and glittering chunks of comet ice spinning into the void, Arne Slocum seemed hardly to notice. His reaction to the cataclysm was typically juvenile: “Whoa! That was awesome!” Okay, he actually was nearly juvenile: a short, skinny seventeen-year-old with wide, brown eyes and wiry hair that Komarov figured would be ideal for scrubbing out pots and pans. Not her good Space Kitchen Deluxe™ pots and pans, since they were self-cleaning, or had been before their untimely deaths, but she could definitely see grabbing him by the boots, holding him upside down over a filthy pan, and having at it with his skull. Since she no longer had a pan, filthy or otherwise, she slugged his shoulder instead. “Idiot! Look what you did!” He bounced a few feet in the feeble gravity before replying, “I’m looking.” Then he stopped looking and fiddled with the portable extractor cradled in his arms. Its sleek, silver body, massive orange trigger, and flared red muzzle suggested it was a device for killing Tyrannosaurs rather than mining comets. He flipped open a panel on its back and poked a skinny, gloved finger at the circuitry within. “I didn’t think I’d coax that much power from her.” “Stop tinkering! We’re here to collect samples, not vaporize the place from under our own feet. All my stuff is gone!” Slocum scratched what would have been his nose if there hadn’t been a helmet in the way. “You’re not hurt, are you?” He gave her a not entirely medical examination. “Put those eyes back where they belong,” Komarov growled. She turned away from the havoc he’d wreaked. Before her, a jumbled surface of loosely-packed ice and black rock stretched to the horizon, where it melded seamlessly with the onyx sky. Nothing special, really. Every chunck of frozen primordial soup looked the same. This was the Oort Territories, a realm so distant the sun was just a bright star, a place where day was night and night was more night. People came here to strike it rich mining the hydrogen and organics that made corporate executives filthy rich, but somehow only the filthy rich ever got richer, while people like Komarov, scratching out a living employed to a third-rate mining outfit, shambled through shackled to people like Slocum. “Where’s the ship?” Slocum asked. Quick study you are, she groused. “You blew it up along with everything else, including my most prized possessions.” She spread her arms in frustration. “The comet? Fine. The ship? If you absolutely must. But my entire kitchen? Blow yourself up instead!” Slocum’s eyes did a fair impression of a faulty LED flickering between life and death. “I blew up the ship?” “I’m going away now,” Komarov said. “Enjoy the rest of your short life.” She started walking . . . stomping, really . . . okay, bouncing across the frozen wasteland, her weighted boots the only thing keeping her from launching into space. She felt rather than heard the crunch of frozen organics under her feet, smelled nothing but the synthetic cleanliness of recirculated air, saw only glitters in the dark. She didn’t know where she was going, but it didn’t matter. There was nowhere to go but away from Arne Slocum. She’d probably end up back where she started, either from aimless wandering or circumnavigation of the tiny globe, but she didn’t care so long as he wasn’t there when she arrived. Unfortunately, they were still in communications range. “There’s nothing out there.” he said. “Exactly.” “But we don’t have a ship.” “No kidding.” “How do we get home?” If she could put the horizon between them, she wouldn’t have to listen. “Jacey?” The comet wasn’t that big. It shouldn’t take long. “You’re the senior. You’re supposed to deal with situations like this.” “Be very glad you’re not standing behind me,” Komarov grumbled. “Why?” “Because I’d strangle you!” “Oh. Er. Actually . . .” Engulfed by rage, she spun about. The motion would have thrown her headlong across the icefield had not Slocum been a meter back. They collided and fell in slow motion, a tangle of arms and legs and portable extractor. Its bluish beam flashed by Komarov’s head into space where it would either harmlessly dissipate or by freak accident destroy something vital to somebody’s survival. Slocum grunted. “You’re…” His faceplate was pressed against hers and his breathing labored, as though she was squashing him flat, although she couldn’t be, not in this gravity. “…all red.” “You think?” She pushed herself up and dusted off her suit. Motes of ice and organics sparkled into the vacuum. Breathing deliberately and summoning every gram of professionalism left in her roiling brain, she let him pick himself up rather than flinging him across the cosmos. “Maybe you should engage the safety.” “I disabled it.” Mayhem flooded her eyes. “Why?” “Convenience.” She had a vision of approaching him, arms outstretched, grasping fingers encircling his neck, squeezing long and slow and hard until his head popped off. He didn’t share her vision or maybe even notice it. “How do we get home?” “We?” He bounced back up a step, so maybe he had noticed, after all. “I assume you’ve studied the procedures.” “Didn’t have time. I was working on, on, on, this.” He raised the extractor as though offering it to her. Tempting though it was, she didn’t take it. “Before people are dropped on a new target, an emergency package is soft-landed. If the crew becomes stranded, they can activate a distress call. They’ll also find basic tools and provisions.” “Oh. That’s good.” Slocum looked so pleased, he might have designed the package himself. “Where is it?” Komarov pointed. “On the edge of the blast zone.” Slocum fiddled with the extractor some more, as thought that might make all disintegrated things undisintegrate. It didn’t. He looked contrite enough, though, so Komarov set course for whatever remained of the emergency package and motioned him to follow. Fifteen minutes later, they arrived at a massive crater whose edges and walls had a glassy look. The blast had melted the ice, which refroze as it flowed downhill. She amused herself with the thought of Slocum sliding down the slope, unable to arrest his fall, swooping through the bottom and up the other side until gravity slowed him and pulled him back down, up, down, up, down, over and over, amplitude gradually decreasing, until he came to rest at the bottom and couldn’t climb out again. Sweet justice. “Is that it?” Slocum asked. Not three meters beyond the edge of the crater, a massive black box squatted on the ice, a glowing green button planted in its side. They approached and studied it. Miraculously, it didn’t look damaged. “That’s it,” Komarov decided. She pushed the button, and the box blossomed like a flower, petals opening to reveal more controls, panels, doors, and a big red button marked, “For emergency use only.” That seemed redundant. The whole thing was for emergency use. Slocum held his breath while the box revealed its secrets, then let out a sigh. “You can say that again,” Komarov told him. “You’re damn lucky you didn’t take this out, too.” More contrition was called for. He fiddled with the extractor one more time. She pushed the red button. A control lit up, informing them the distress beacon was active. “You know,” Slocum said, shifting the device in his arms. “I honestly didn’t think I’d coax that much power from . . . “ Something his finger touched when click. The brilliant bluish beam flashed, vaporized the emergency package, and raced over the horizon into space. Komarov screamed. Fortunately for her, enough distress call had transmitted that two hours later a rescue team arrived. Fortunately for Slocum, low-gravity running is trickier than it looks, and they got there before Komarov caught him.
The incredible power of spiritual protection of your cat in 13 signs
What was the strangest battle in Roman history?
the Battle of the Caudine Forks in 321 BC. This one isn’t just strange, it’s downright embarrassing.
The Romans were fighting the Samnites, a tough group from south-central Italy.
Confident as ever, the Roman consuls led their troops into a narrow mountain pass called the Caudine Forks, thinking they’d catch the Samnites off guard. Instead, they walked right into a trap.
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The Samnites had blocked both ends of the pass, and the Romans were stuck like a mouse in a cheese factory.
Now, here’s where it gets really strange.
Instead of slaughtering the trapped Roman army, the Samnite leader, Gaius Pontius, decided to go for maximum humiliation. He forced the Roman soldiers to pass under a yoke, essentially a wooden beam, symbolizing their defeat and subjugation.
They had to stoop low and shuffle under this makeshift arch of shame, completely unarmed and defenseless.
The defeated consuls were forced to sign a peace treaty, but the Senate back in Rome refused to honor it, claiming the consuls had no authority to agree to such terms under duress.
one of the consuls, Spurius Postumius Albinus, actually proposed that he and his fellow commanders be handed over to the Samnites in chains as a sort of “sorry about that whole breaking the treaty thing.” The Samnites, showing a level of honor in this bizarre situation, refused and sent them back.
Pretty weird.
Have you ever cold emailed the CEO of a big company?
Originally Answered: Corporations: Have you ever cold emailed the CEO of a big company?
I did – sort of. When I was fresh out of university and young and innocent (well, kind of…), I joined a programme run by a large Swiss bank for graduates. When they hired me, the recruiter told me explicitly that my salary during training is just a training salary, and once I pass the training programme after a year and start as a regular employee, then my salary will roughly double, as that is a regular starting employee (graduate level) salary.
I did the programme and passed, and then went to work at the bank as a regular employee. My first monthly salary, though, was about 2% higher than what I had been earning while on the programme. So I called up HR and explained the situation, assuming there must have been a mistake. I ended up talking to the same recruiter, who laughed at me, called me a sucker and told me to go complain to the CEO.
So I did. I wrote him a very polite letter, explaining that I was terribly embarrassed to be bothering him with such a little thing, but I was told to contact him by this recruiting guy to sort out this misunderstanding. The CEO actually (and to his credit) called me that same afternoon and he had obviously looked me up and found that I was a complete nobody. But he kept it very short and to the point, basically saying that the corporate philosophy of the bank he was in charge of was very, very important and if that was what had been promised me, then that was what I would get. He then said that I should make an appointment with the head of HR and explain the situation to her. It got sorted out after a chat with the head of HR, who asked if I was happy in my job. I admitted that I didn’t find it terribly challenging, but I understood that you need to gather experience before moving on to more interesting jobs. She asked me about my background and the kind of things I have worked on in the past and asked if I would like to move to a rather more interesting job. Young as I was, I said “sure” without even knowing what it was. That same day I was transferred away from my boring job and started running a special projects team, reporting directly to… yep, the CEO. For quite a bit more than double the trainee salary. It was an… interesting decade.
Oh – I found out later that the recruiter got fired. I wasn’t exactly sad to see him go, but that hadn’t been my intention, and I felt bad about it.
Turned out okay for me…
CHINA is INSANE! (First Day in Shanghai)
How significant is Southeast Asia as a potential market for Comac’s C919 compared to other regions?
The c919 is optimized for regional service. Its entry into SEA will begin with Chinese airlines operating flights between SEA and China, provided the countries accept the type and airworthiness certification of the CAAC.
Since all 3 narrow bodies (a320, b737, c919) use the same leap family of engines, nothing much separate them in terms of operational efficiency, although the c919, being the more modern airframe, is a little lighter, and optimized for cargo duty.
Where the Chinese can be competitive is delivery time lines, cost and the speed of iteration. We will see the gradual indigenization of key components from engines to avionics, as comac develops superclusters of aviation suppliers.
SEA is 650m today, the same size as Europe. Reaching Europe’s level of connectivity will require plenty more planes, which the c919 is well positioned to serve.
But that’s in the future. The c919 order book will take the next decade to clear, and this will be a good time for the model to build a safety record, as well as a service network.
Why would Taiwan not be another Ukraine in case China attacks Taiwan?
Bill Chen
Ukraine was shelling Russian majority Donbas for 8 years, killing and maiming thousands. Two treaties signed and witnessed by multiple stakeholders failed to put a stop to the killing.
There was Minsk, and Minsk ii, which as Angela recalled, were deceitful instruments to buy Ukraine time to build up its military.
Now, are the Taiwanese killing mainlanders with heavy arms today? Is the substantial Taiwanese population on the mainland living under discrimination and fear?
There is no enmity between the Chinese, yes, CHINESE on both sides of the straits.
The quarrel all along has been which system should be in charge.
I keep in regular contact with my Taiwanese friends. Despite the intense military drills which has showcased the ability of the mainland to blockade Taiwan, Taiwanese society has not mobilized on a war footing. There is no trepidation for an inevitable war in the foreseeable future, or the urgency to prepare for one.
In fact, SOPs to identify and challenge mainland contacts have been scaled down, because the intensity is just too hot to handle.
Taiwan’s replacement youth will shrink 40% in the coming years. Schools have closed and class size have come down. And yet wages remain depressed even in downtown Taipei.
Is Taiwan in the mood for war?
I figure not.
Now look at the mainland side and the capabilities coming online. There is a queue for university graduates to join the pla, while regular drills mobilizing civilian assets to assist in the war effort occur in the provinces closest to Taiwan. This includes provisions for the evacuation and care for mass casualty, as civilian infrastructure is degraded.
The Chinese are prepared to absorb Gaza level of destruction.
Is it true that Chinese people now have a high standard of living?
Not high standard of living.but I am satisfied with the following aspects of China:
1. Safety: It is extremely safe.
2. The transportation, electricity, internet, and other conveniences are all very reliable.
3. Education and Medical: The quality of Education is high and the cost is low. As long as you have good grades and are willing to learn, being from a poor family is not a big problem.Medical care is similar to education in terms of quality and affordability.
4. Industrial Products: There is a wide variety, and they are inexpensive and high-quality. On platforms like Taobao, you can find almost anything, and orders arrive the next day.
5. Convenience: For example, when buying an air conditioner, installation is free, with only a small fee for transportation, usually around twenty to thirty dollars.
Some people call this exploitation of delivery or installation workers, but that’s not entirely accurate. In another scenario, when workers fall ill, medical care is also cheap and fast, even though doctors need to spend 24 years studying.
6. Food: It is cheap and fresh, especially vegetables and fruits. Beef was a bit expensive before, but this year it has dropped nearly 50%. Some say it’s because Argentina exports a lot of beef to China.
I think this is not entirely good, as I’ve heard that many cattle farmers are suffering significant losses this year. The government should subsidize them.
Most Disappointing Aspects:
Housing Prices and Rent: Especially in big cities. For example, a 120-square-meter house in the suburbs of Beijing might cost around 800,000~900,000 dollars, which is too high given the income levels of Chinese people.
Nearby, there used to be three bookstores and several restaurants, but recently they have all closed. This is because a new subway line is about to be completed, and the landlord, anticipating increased foot traffic, shamelessly raised the rent threefold.
After the negotiations broke down, the merchants had no choice but to close their businesses. The bookstore owner, whom I really liked, said with resignation that during the negotiations, the landlord used the “six-character mantra” —爱租租，不租滚！(If you want renting, rent; if not, Get out!)
I can accept the closure of restaurants, but it s really upsetting to see bookstores closeing.
These 3 bookstores have been a part of my life for 18 years; I used to spend several hours every week browsing these bookstores.
The only consolation is that they also sell online, so I can still buy books from them online.
But I still prefer to go to physical bookstores, flipping through books and deciding whether to buy them.
One of these bookstores has a warehouse not too far from my home—just a 1.5-hour bicycel ride away. I’m still willing to ride my bike there to browse and purchase books.
Exorbitant rent is just too damaging for physical stores
A friend of mine summed it up very well:
In cities like Beijing and Shanghai, if you solve the housing problem, everything else is a small issue. But if you can’t solve the housing problem, every issue becomes a big problem.
Overall, aside from housing prices and rent, especially in big cities, I think things are still pretty good, considering how large the country is and how poor it used to be.
Col. Douglas Macgregor : US Dangerous Foreign Policy
What are some mind-blowing facts about the U.S. military during WW2?
Originally Answered: What are some mind blowing facts about the US military during WW2?
Throughout the war, the U.S. Navy lost 2 battleships, 5 aircraft carriers, 6 escort aircraft carriers, 7 heavy cruisers, 3 light cruisers, 65 destroyers, 52 submarines and a myriad of other ships. However, only one captain – Charles B. McVay of the heavy cruiser Indianapolis – was court-martialed for losing a ship in action against the enemy. If the names sound familiar, it’s most likely because Indianapolis was the ship that carried the atomic bomb “Little Boy” to the U.S. Airforce base at Tinian Island.
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Two days after delivering the bomb, Indianapolis received orders to proceed to Leyte Gulf in the Philippines. Captain Charles B. McVay requested a destroyer escort against Japanese submarines but higher-ups assured him that it would not be necessary because – they said – there was no enemy submarine in the area. Four days later on 30 July 1945, Indianapolis was spotted and torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-58. The U.S. cruiser sank in less than 15 minutes. Some 300 of the total 1,196 sailors went down with the ship, the other 900 – with few lifeboats and life jackets among them – suffered dehydration, exposure, hypernatremia, and shark attacks for nearly 4 days before they were found and rescued on 2 August. By then, only 317 crewmen were alive.
“Higher-ups” should have had better intelligence about enemy activity in the area (In fact, just six days prior to the sinking of the Indianapolis, the destroyer Underhill had been attacked and sunk in the area by Japanese submarines but McVay was never informed of it.) They should have given Indianapolis a destroyer escort when McVay requested it. They should have tracked the ship more closely so that its sinking and survivors could have been noted much earlier.
But instead of blaming themselves, they made McVay scapegoat and put him on trial with the charge of failing to zigzag in good visibility. The facts that 1) the weather was actually particularly bad, 2) McVay had discretionary authority to zigzag or not and 3) the Japanese submarine commander later testified that he could have sunk even a zigzagging Indianapolis – all meant nothing to the court.
The court-martial humiliated and devastated McVay. Vicious letters and phone calls from grief-stricken relatives of dead crewmen who’d served aboard the Indianapolis didn’t help either. On 6 November 1968, McVay committed suicide with his service pistol. It wasn’t until the year 2000 that McVay was vindicated by Congress.
What was the biggest scandal at your high school?
The cops arrived at our school one afternoon. Moments later, we saw our principal being taken out in handcuffs.
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Dana Goodman was under arrest for having a sexual relationship with an underage girl. In our rural community, the future farmers association was an important school group on campus. The president of the FFA was a sweet and friendly girl. She was well adjusted and popular among her friends, and generally having a great time at high school. Until her principal started talking to her more.
Mr. Goodman seemed like an alright principal. African Americans were honestly underrepresented in the administration, so for some this was grounds for positive receival. He dressed well, talked politely, and did his job fairly well. But occasionally he would make comments. Once at a school assembly he said something in front of the whole school about ‘homely’ girls. The first indication he was noticing the physical appearance of his female high school students.
Rumors were flying that he was friendly with the cheerleading coach, a teacher who was just a few years younger than him. But then there were other rumors. And then there was evidence. Not just a young girls brave decision to go to police, but used condoms and fluids tossed carelessly into a classroom trash bin.
Fast forward to the afternoon when the cops showed up. Students were not told directly what was going on. But more than a thousand faces were peering out all the windows, some cracking jokes, some shocked, some who already knew.
After the whole scandal, we learned that Goodman’s leadership apparently led others down the same route and two other teachers were also arrested for relationships with students.
That was the biggest scandal at our high school, but the biggest scandal outside of it? Goodman got his 15 year sentence reduced to four and he is already a free man once again.
Crab-Stuffed Catfish with Parmesan Crust
crab stuffed catfish
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
4 U.S. Farm-Raised Catfish Fillets
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup white wine
1 pound lump crab meat
2 cups Parmesan, grated (divided)
2 tablespoons chives, chopped (divided)
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Melt butter in medium, nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.
Add onions and garlic and sauté until translucent. Add wine and simmer until mixture is almost dry. Add lump crab meat, season with salt and pepper, and cook for 2 minutes.
Remove from heat and cool in refrigerator for 2 to 3 hours until completely chilled. Once chilled, fold in 1/2 cup Parmesan and 1 tablespoon chopped chives to crab mix.
Using a sharp knife, butterfly each fillet lengthwise horizontally as evenly as possible. Place 2 to 3 tablespoons of crab mixture on bottom half of catfish, being careful not to overfill. Fold top of catfish over to cover stuffing.
Season stuffed catfish with salt and pepper. Dip fillets into remaining grated Parmesan, coating evenly.
Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and add olive oil. Carefully sauté catfish until a golden brown crust is formed. Turn catfish over and cook for an additional 3 minutes.
Garnish fillets with remaining chives.
Why are so many counties joining Russia and China to de-dollarize their economy and trade?
Because the US government has been irresponsible on deficit and debt.
Soon or later, either the US would go bankruptcy, or it would solve the problem by having a war.
Acient money has actual value. It was usally made from precious metals such as gold, silver, and blonze.
Modern money is a credit, and is endorsed by the government to have virtual value.
When a government over releases money, it would create huge inflation. Not 10%, not 20%, but 1000% or 10000%.
With a full pack of money, you may be able to purchase a pack of cigarette.
In 2023 alone, the US government over-spent 1.7 trillion USD, which it has to borrow from others, domestic or foreign investors.
With the uncontrollabe over-spending, the national debt went up too.
It has just reached 35 trillion, and is about 100 thousand per US citizen.
There is no way that the US government could repay the debt in the foreseeable future, because US government is still creating more deficit every year.
Even the interest of the national debt in 2024 will be around 0.9 trillion.
With an annual revenue of over 4 trillion USD, US government would have to owe more money year by year.
To attract more people and organizations to purchase US tresury, the interest rate must be raised. With higher interest, the US government will have a higher annual expenditure, which will make the deficit bigger, so that the US government will have to release even more treasury.
It’s a typical vicious circle.
It would be impossible to increase government revenue, since it’s mostly tax.
It would be also impossible to lower the government expenditure, since too many people are making their benefit out of it.
See? They are going to spend more by borrowing more.
If it was any other country, its economy would be collapsed.
According to Ta Kung Pao in 16 Aug 1948:
Just within the first half of August,
food price increased 3.9 MILLION times
housing price increased 0.77 MILLION times
clothing price increased 6.52 MILLION times
It was because the KMT/ROC government tried to release new currency to replace the old one.
The exchang ratio was 1 Chinese gold yuan (new) to 200 old fiat currency.
According to the statistics, only 200 million CGY was enought to exchange all the old currency released, but KMT printed 2 billion CGY. The extra CGY was a disaster from the begining.
By the time people realized the government having no ability to control goods prices, all prices went up like crazy.
Someone went to buy boxes of antibiotics. The seller told him that this has no use if no one’s injured or infected. Buyer said that he didn’t give a damn. He bought them only because they were expensive.
Even shoes were all bought, regardless the size.
I am not sure if this reminds western people about something.
Like I said, if it was any other country, the economy would be collapsed already.
However, it’s the US.
According to the Modern Money Theory, the biggest export product of the US is the US dollar.
While other countries had to work hard selling goods, just to make some money to buy from other countries, the US just sit in a chairt and type some numbers into the computer, and here is the money.
US dollar is the biggest international settlement currency.
In a period, having USD is more important than having goods. Because no country can produce everything, and USD can get you goods from the market.
So the US spends USD printed out of thin air and receive goods with actual value. During the process, the US released its internal inflation to the world.
Comparing to its internal market, the global market is much bigger and is able to contain more USD. By over-release the same amount of money, the US has the world trading to absorb its inflation, while other countries had to afford it on themselves.
However, like I presented above, national debt of the US has reached a scary high level, because there is only a certain amount of USD can be transfered from US internal market to the outside world.
Because the capitalists cannot just share their benefit to the general public, so most people still have about the same salary, which makes the total disposable money in the US a rather stable number. That’s how much the US can buy, and how much the US can export its inflation to the world.
Soon or later, countries around the world would have to face the fact that economy of the US is beyond being repairable.
When that moment came, USD will become toilet paper. Whoever still holding huge amount will be fucked totally.
It happened once when the US claimed to abandon Bretton Woods system. In that system, the USD has a fixed exchange rate with gold, which is 35USD to 1 ounce gold. The US wanted to release more USD, because the total amount of gold doesn’t change fast, not as fast as the international trading.
To its allies, mostly European countries, denying the value of USD meant the USD they were holding would become toilet paper. So they chose to recognize the value of USD even when it has no connection to gold anymore.
But this time, China decided to not tolerate the irresponsible child act of the US.
China has been trying to establish a new trading system based on goods rather than any specific curreny.
Purpose of doing international tradings should not be “to earn some USD so that I could buy stuff”, but “I have goods, so I can eventually change it into something I need”.
It should be a multilateralist system instead of unilateralist.
In the current system, being kicked out from SWIFT by the US means not being able to buy vital stuff from the world, such as vaccine. Iran had this problem at early stage of COVID-19 pandemic, and Russia also had this problem right after the Ukraine War.
In addtion, the US in recent years has been more and more aggressive.
As the single pole of the world, it acted like a spoiled kid, to sanction whichever it dislike.
It created so many enemies. There are so many of them that they can actually establish their own circle.
If the emenies of the US can surive on their own, then there is even less excuse for them to keep using USD.
I think white house would be happy about it, since they are so eager to totally decouple with China.
UNFORGIVEN (1992) Movie Reaction w/ Coby FIRST TIME WATCHING
Why do so many Americans have a problem with alcohol?
Drinking is a large part of adult culture in the United States. Although I have gone long periods of my adult life without drinking, I have never given drinking up completely because I have realized it makes social situations more awkward.
Some people get really uncomfortable if they are drinking and not everyone else at the table is drinking. It’s also a time-honored tradition to conduct certain business meetings in informal sessions that sometimes feature drinking. Additionally, sports, holidays, and cookouts usually involve alcohol.
In my family, this isn’t a problem really. A few weeks ago we had a family gathering and a close friend came with me. She remarked how no one in my family drinks at all or does any drugs except me. First of all, survivorship bias is apparent. Secondly, because there have been so many people with substance abuse issues in my family, drinking or smoking marijuana, although perfectly legal, are nearly taboo. Our family gatherings are usually completely devoid of alcohol, because nearly everyone in my close family gave up drinking in any form years ago or never developed an interest. We never tell our guests one way or another that they can’t bring drinks, but if they do, they’re usually the odd man out.
Although I used to be a nearly daily drinker, these days I no longer prefer to drink as the main way I relax after a rough day. Increasingly, I am not the only one. Many young people are putting aside alcohol in favor of more holistic hobbies that don’t take such a toll on the body and mind. Going to a local adult arcade or bar and ordering a mocktail or alcohol free beer isn’t that unusual around here these days.
THE MATRIX (1999) Movie Reaction w/Coby FIRST TIME WATCHING
What was the first “green flag” you noticed in your partner?
My husband is a very shy man. So much so, that when we went out on a first date, he barely even looked at me. I very reluctantly accepted to go out on a second date, which ended up being pretty much the same. This led me to believe that there’s just no chemistry between us, and that it’s best we end it at that point. I really liked him, but didn’t want to get hurt as I thought he might be an emotionally unavailable person. My husband’s reaction was to say:
“Ok, this makes me very sad, but if you don’t think going out with me makes sense, there’s just no point going forward. However, may I ask for a reason?”
I have to admit I was surprised hearing such a response. Men I tried dating would typically get very angry, insult me, curse at me, or say something to humiliate me, which made me wary of rejecting someone openly.
I explained to him how I felt, to which my husband said that he actually likes me a lot, but is extremely shy, and that if I would like to go out with him again, he would be more open. On our third date he greeted me with a big grin and a warm hug and from then on we were inseparable.
So the first “green flag” in my partner was his ability to calmly accept rejection without perceiving that his ego has been hurt.
“CONKLIN!” Havaderr wailed. His face was the brightest red and steaming with heat. The veins in his neck throbbed noticeably, but he waited as still as he could for Conklin to answer. A buzz came in over the intercom above Havaderr’s head.
“Hey, was that you shouting, Havaderr?” Conklin’s voice crackled with static and attitude. Havaderr shut his eyes and repeated his Zen mantra in his head.
“Havaderr? What’s your problem?”
Havaderr’s eyes opened, and in the most even tone he could manage; he said his mantra out loud.
“I am calm. I am calm. I can overcome this. I am strong. I am strong. I can overcome anything.” Havaderr spoke through gritted teeth, spittle flying across the room as he focused on keeping his anger inside rather than shouting and blowing the place up with Conklin inside.
“Hey guy, are you going to answer me or what?” Conklin’s voice implied his own rising impatience. Havaderr moved to the button on the wall nearest him to respond.
“Yes, Conklin, I was shouting,” Havaderr said as evenly as his rage would allow. “Get your ass to 4A NOW!” As he trailed off, he clenched his teeth together so hard he felt a grinding that might as well have been a tooth chipping. Before Conklin’s reply came, Havaderr heard an irritated sigh over the intercom.
“Yeah, be right ther-.” Conklin barely finished his sentence before releasing the button, cutting himself off at the end.
Moments later, a door slid open down the hall, several yards away from Havaderr. Conklin came into the hall, looking both ways before spotting Havaderr.
“What the hell, why are you shouting and-“ Havaderr cut Conklin off with a finger to his mouth to silence him.
“I’m going to show you something in this room behind me, and it’s best if your mouth is shut when I do.” Havaderr’s voice wavered, he was still trying to control his anger. Conklin looked confused as ever but kept his mouth shut. With a worried expression, Conklin followed Havaderr to another door. Havaderr stood aside and opened the door for Conklin to enter alone. Conklin stood in the doorway staring, then Havaderr shoved him wholly into the room from behind and closed the door.
“Havaderr, what’s going on? What the fu-ahhhh!” The intercom inside the restroom was unnecessary, but Havaderr appreciated it right now. He would have heard Conklin screaming from quite a distance, but hearing Conklin’s disgust and horror in surround sound was more pleasing. A slice of anger slid off his shoulders and a small smile appeared on his face.
The door rattled, clearly Conklin on the other side trying to burst through, but Havaderr held the lock button, keeping Conklin trapped inside.
“What kind of game is this Havaderr? Let me out, for Christ’s sake!” Conklin was panicking, releasing more anger from Havaderr’s shoulders and filling his belly with laughter.
“This is no game, friend. This is you coming face to face with your own incompetence,” Havaderr said over the intercom, still smiling.
“Havaderr! Let me out of here!” Conklin screamed and started ramming the door again.
“I don’t think so, Conklin. If you look to the left of the door, I’ve been kind enough to set you up with plenty of cleaning supplies for the job, which is a lot more than you did for me. I’d suggest you start tackling that shit before it starts tackling you.” Havaderr exploded with laughter, letting go of the intercom and floating backward as he held onto his stomach. He laughed so hard he couldn’t breathe. Conklin kept banging on the door and pleading to be released, but Havaderr couldn’t hear anything over the roar of his own hysteria.
Curled up in fetal position, floating in the hallway, Havaderr worked himself out of his fits of laughter. He wiped the joyful tears from his eyes and started breathing normally again. He moved back to the intercom.
“Look mate, this restroom was in your sector to clean. Obviously, you did a piss poor job,” Havaderr grabbed his side, holding the laughter in after such a quality pun. “I told you, cleaning the restrooms would be the most important job, because if it isn’t done right, this happens. Floating excrement!” Conklin didn’t say anything, but Havaderr heard him kick or punch the door.
“I’ll take your silence as admitting you did a sloppy job the first time. You know, I needed to do some business, and I walk into the restroom greeted with a turd to the face, which I’m assuming belonged to you, so I have no sympathy for you right now. Clean the damn restroom like you were supposed to, and I’ll let you out.” Havaderr waited for a response. He was eager to shower off the stench and stain of human waste from himself before finishing his day.
“Yeah, alright,” Conklin said over the intercom, sounding defeated and guilty. Havaderr nodded his head and left Conklin to figure out how to clean a restroom with feces floating freely throughout.
“Like I said, not a drop of sympathy for you. Do it right the first time, and we won’t run into stupid problems like that,” Havaderr said coolly, scrubbing at the built-up muck in the corners of the glass.
Conklin was still cranky from cleaning the restroom the day before, and he meant to let Havaderr know just how little he appreciated the tactless way he was pushed into the situation without warning.
“Chin up, Conklin. We have one more day before our shift is over, and we can get the hell off this floating heap of death,” Havaderr motioned toward the clear chambers that housed the comatose bodies of several crew members, one of which whose glass he was scrubbing.
“Remind me, what’s up with these bodies? They’re dead, yeah?” Conklin asked.
“No, they’re alive, they’re the crew, dumbass,” Havaderr grunted at Conklin. He looked over to see Conklin hovering around the main dashboard, not a rag or mop near him. “And I wouldn’t mind if you got to work while you asked your questions,” he barked. Conklin jumped and reached for a rag tucked into a closed bucket tethered nearby. He started mindlessly wiping at the dashboard without paying close attention.
“Okay, but how come they’re asleep?” Conklin asked. Havaderr sighed as he paused and rolled his eyes.
“Do I look like the Captain of this ship? All I know is, this crew is traveling some number of lightyears, so the ship has been programed for regular stops near inhabited planets for maintenance and cleaning. We drew the short straw, so we get to hop from the ship we were on previously, to this one, and then another one before heading back home. Nobody else was this far out into deep space to do the job, so we get a long shift before our break. At least they’re paying us over time, eh?” Havaderr smiled at the thought of a paycheck double its usual amount. He looked in on the half-naked man inside the tube he was cleaning, tapping on the glass with his knuckle and laughing at how strange the sight was.
Air escaped the edges of the door, and it hissed loudly. The smile fell from Havaderr’s face as he scanned the chamber looking for an explanation. The door swung open and the half-naked man floated out as if to follow. Thankfully, he was attached to a few tubes that kept him reigned in and asleep, but the color left Havaderr’s face once he realized that would only last for so long.
Havaderr turned to Conklin, who looked just as confused.
“He just-just-he-“ Havaderr stuttered, unable to decide what he was trying to say. The man’s feet flew upward so his back was parallel to the floor and his right side dipped down. Slowly, he started to spin, so he was upside down. All the while, Havaderr and Conklin stared without any clue how to fix it.
“Did you touch something?” Havaderr shouted at Conklin, who shook his head wordlessly.
“I didn’t touch anything!” Havaderr went back to staring at the half-naked man, perplexed. After a minute, Havaderr decided they couldn’t leave the man like that.
“Get over here and help me with this!” He yelled at Conklin. Still silent, Conklin moved toward Havaderr and the unconscious man. Havaderr and Conklin wore their gravity belts at 85% power to keep from floating off like the man from the tube, but it allowed them a bit more mobility too. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any extras to strap to the man, so he continued to spin and flip through the air.
One of the wires connecting the man to his casket snapped, leaving only one left to keep him from flying down the corridor and into every other part of the ship. Havaderr and Conklin shared a look of fear but said nothing.
Havaderr grabbed the man’s knees and tried to pull them down so the man was right side up, but as he pulled, the man’s whole body moved toward Havaderr. Conklin remained motionless, watching the unconscious body float into Havaderr. Havaderr struggled and groped, trying his very best to wrangle the helpless man, but even his best efforts left him with the man’s body bumping into him clumsily. He accidentally grabbed the man’s buttocks, and the man’s armpit swung around and slapped him in the face. All in all, it reminded Conklin of two young people at their first school dance, trying not to step on each other.
Conklin covered the smile on his face, but the more Havaderr fought with the floating man and lost, the more the urge to laugh rose in his belly. When the man launched a foot directly into Havaderr’s eye, Conklin lost it. With one hand on the man’s shoulder and his other arm wrapped around the man’s torso, Havaderr stopped to see what was so funny to Conklin. He didn’t have to ask; he knew how he looked.
“Would you knock it off and help me! I don’t know what we disconnected, but that could be vital to this man’s life!” Havaderr tried to repeat his mantra in his head, but he couldn’t hear anything over Conklin’s laughter. Havaderr grumbled as he kept spinning the man back into position, with no help from Conklin, who was tumbling in circles on the other side of the room.
Finally, Havaderr got the man into his up-right position and back into the tube. As best as he could, he reattached the disconnected wires, but he couldn’t pull the door shut.
“Conklin! Find the button to close this door, hurry, before he tries to escape again!” Havaderr pleaded.
Conklin straightened up and moved to the dashboard he had been cleaning. On the first try, he hit a button, and the door closed, sealing itself. Havaderr wiped the sweat from his brow and looked at Conklin, a little puzzled. Conklin’s laughter died down, but when he saw Havaderr near collapse and panting, his laughter boiled over.
“What is wrong with you? Were you too busy finding this hilarious to help me save that man’s life?” Havaderr demanded, huffing and puffing.
“Calm down, he’s fine,” Conklin squeaked. “The buttons are clearly labeled on the dash here, see?” Conklin pointed to the dashboard. Havaderr saw buttons marked to open doors, close doors, start specific mechanisms, stop the same mechanisms, and a bunch of other things Havaderr didn’t understand. What he did think he understood, was how the door opened in the first place.
“Did you open his door on me?” Havaderr asked Conklin, the anger rising again.
“Yeah, mate, you should have seen the look on your face!” Conklin rolled over laughing.
“You idiot! You could have killed the man, we could be fired, what the hell is wrong with you?” Havaderr bellowed.
“Relax Havaderr, you’ll give yourself a stroke!” Conklin pulled himself together for a second, setting his feet back on the floor and pointing to the dashboard again.
“This here, that indicates their vital signs. You can see they’re all perfectly healthy, no harm done,” Conklin said matter-of-factly. Havaderr was flustered. He could only trust Conklin’s word, he had no idea what any of the lights or buttons meant on the dash.
“You couldn’t have known it would be okay, though. What if the tube that detached from his arm was something that kept him alive?” Havaderr exclaimed. Conklin rolled his eyes, irritated that Havaderr wasn’t figuring it out as easily as he was.
“All that tube did was give him pleasant dreams; it wasn’t important. He’ll live, and nobody need ever know you almost killed a man,” Conklin started to giggle again. Havaderr’s face turned tomato red and he clenched his fist, trying to fight the overwhelming desire to punch Conklin in the face.
“You did this on purpose?” Havaderr said, strained.
“Well, maybe don’t lock me in a room with floating shit again, and we’ll be fine,” Conklin smiled, feeling pleased with himself.
Crispy Catfish
f72706218505b5d116958b3a339542e2
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
2 tablespoons light Ranch dressing
2 large egg whites
6 tablespoons yellow cornmeal
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 catfish fillets
Cooking spray
Instructions
Heat oven to 425 degrees F.
Combine the dressing and egg whites in a small bowl and stir well with a whisk.
Combine the cornmeal, Parmesan cheese, flour, pepper and salt in a shallow dish.
Dip fish into egg white mixture, then dredge in cornmeal mixture. Place on baking sheet coated with cooking spray.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until lightly browned and fish flakes easily.
Serve with lemon wedges.
Are you guys aware of what’s happening in Myanmar?
Myanmar has long been in a state of de facto civil war.
The root cause lies in the Myanmar government’s blatant policy of ethnic discrimination. Citizens’ identification cards are divided into six levels by color, and the rights enjoyed decrease according to the level.
Only the Bamar people hold the first-level ID cards, which grant them the right to vote and be elected. This has led to 40% of the minority groups, who face varying degrees of discrimination, attempting armed resistance. There are over a dozen “ethnic local armed forces” spread across Myanmar. For decades, the Myanmar military government has tried to eradicate them completely but has never succeeded.
I am Chinese, so I will speak about the impact on China.
Border Security: In recent years, when the fighting spread to the China-Myanmar border, shells from both sides of the conflict crossed the border, hitting our schools and killing border civilians. After a stern protest from the Chinese government, such incidents have significantly decreased.
Refugees Crossing the Border: This is truly troublesome. As a Chinese person, I feel that some of these refugees may have a higher crime rate than local Chinese residents. China designated an area to provide humanitarian aid, but I heard that after the conflict subsided, tens of thousands of these refugees were sent back to Myanmar.
The Ultimate Solution: Building a Wall: The Chinese government quickly constructed a 500-kilometer border wall, consisting of 4 meters high barbed wire, non-lethal high voltage current，blades, cameras, and sensors, equipped with a loudspeaker warning system and remote shouting devices.This system can detect border crossers in the first instance, and border personnel can escort them back. The sensors are used to detect tunnels; when someone tries to dig a tunnel to cross the border wall, vibrations are captured, and an alarm is triggered.
This has nothing to do with humanitarianism, and everyone can understand this. I have heard that the United States has also built a wall on the Mexican border to prevent illegal crossings.
If the Myanmar military government does not abandon its severe ethnic discrimination policy, the situation in Myanmar will remain turbulent.
What is the nastiest thing you’ve done for revenge?
A woman came in with her 16 year old, overweight son, it matters, ro the big box store where I worked. He was starting a fast food job the next day, needed a blue, Oxford shirt. Well we had two sets of shirts. Regular sizes in sale, big sizes not in sale. When I measured the kid for a shirt turns out he needed a 171/2 neck, so I told Mama that the large size he needed wasn’t on sale. And they were all properly signed as such. So she gets pissy, it’s 8:pm, we close at 9:pm. So I take the shirts out of packages, have him try them and we find kne he can wear. Now she says to me (this was 35 years go) Greta this is in sale for $8. I said no it’s not on sale, it’s a big men’s size and they are $10, regular price. She starts in in me, I didn’t argue, I just reiterated that it was $10, I couldn’t change the the price. Well she gets Sonny by the arm and marches him out to go about 100 yards to another small regional chain department store we had in town. It’s now 8:40pm, both stores close at 9. So I’m hacked off because she really was obnoxious, the son is embarrassed terribly. So she marches out the door. I took every shirt in his size and one size larger and put them in the stockroom hidden in a fruit of the loom men’s briefs box I found empty. I left them for 4 days then brought them out again. This wasn’t the kids fault, as you’d expect, kids do everything last minute, his mother made him apply for the job, he for it and they had a late interview. Hence arriving at 8:pm. But they wanted him to start the next day so her whole works was getting turned upside down. Don’t take it out on me lady. There were 4 shirts I hid. Over those few days, I was off one. Apparently she came in while I was off and have someone else a hard time. I didn’t and still don’t care.
If a US Marine was to join the French Foreign Legion, how much easier would they find the basic training?
I was a Marine Recruiter in 1992 and I walked into the Social Security Office to get a SSN verification for one of my recruits.
The guy behind the counter tells me that he was a Force Recon Marine and I told him that I was a Recon Marine as well. We start comparing stories and he had been to Amphibious Recon School, Scout Swimmer, Scuba, Jump, Free-fall.
As it turned-out he knew quite a few people that I knew who were sort of legends in the Recon Community.
I asked him how long he had been in? He told me, “8 years.” Then I asked him,” Why did you get out if you already did two enlistments? “
He said that he got out to join the French Foreign Legion. I said, “How was that?”
He said verbatim, “It made Force [Recon] seem like Sunday School. “
He said that he had to do everything all over again Infantry, Jump, Scuba, Free fall. He told me that he he eventually made into the Parachute Commando Regiment.
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*UPDATE EDIT. I remember an incident that I witnessed in Saudi Arabia during Desert Shield/Desert Storm.
We were waiting in line to take field showers at the Division Service Support Group (DSSG) area when a group of Legionaries drove up in their rickety jeeps.
One of the junior guys is so excited to be getting a shower, that he hops in line with us while forgetting to take his rifle with him.
A few moments later, his Sergeant comes running-up and starts yelling at him in French. Then, he proceeds to start beating the guy. He almost beat the dude unconscious at which point a whole bunch of Marines intervened.
As a LCpl, I was pretty shocked by what I witnessed. I’m pretty sure that the rest of us Marines were stunned including several Staff NCO’s and Officers who also happened to be standing in line.
I saw a couple of FFL Officers drive-up soon after and they were yelling at the Sergeant in French and then they all get in their vehicles and drove off.
My assumption is what we witnessed wasn’t supposed to have occurred in public and that it was supposed to have taken place “behind closed doors.”
Admit the truth
Emotional. Even I feel it here.
Why does it seem that kids love their parents until they become teenagers?
This is probably the only time I’ll post a picture of myself…
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But I think I was a pretty cute little kid. I was a good little kid. I listened to everything my mom told me.
No dad in my life? No problem- I had mom. Never saw kids outside of school? Mom was enough for me. Wasn’t allowed outside by myself? Mom says it’s for the best, so it has to be for the best.
I didn’t question anything until I was around eight years old.
The first thing I started questioning was my father. Where was he? Why didn’t I have a dad like all the other kids? Why doesn’t he want me?
My father had walked out of my life when I was six (he hadn’t actually been there since I was three, really).
Even my new step dad couldn’t stop these feelings inside me- I wanted to know him. Something inside of me craved to know him so badly.
Day after day I would beg my mother and step father- they continued to ask why and say no. I cried to them- it made no difference. The answer was no.
Well, when I was eleven, no wasn’t enough for me. I called him and arranged a visit anyway.
And that’s when the fighting started.
I wasn’t a good kid anymore. I started complaining about the chores I had to do- it wasn’t fair- none of the other kids have to do as many chores as I do.
But the another common fight we had was about friends. I was never allowed out. There was no reasonable explanation- Mom said I wasn’t, so I wasn’t.
But that wasn’t enough for me anymore.
It was the same thing with a cellphone, the technology, the food I wanted to eat, the people I wanted to hang out with, the books I wanted to read, even the music I listened to.
But no just isn’t enough anymore.
I don’t think parents stop loving their kids. I think that parents just stop liking their kids. What parents don’t understand is that their kids are going to grow up- they’re not going to stay obedient and docile forever.
One day mom and dad’s “No” won’t be enough. You’ll have to have reasons to back up your answers.
I know my parents love me. But I also know that they didn’t really want a kid- they weren’t ready.
I love my parents and I hope my siblings turn out better than I did.
Are all these UFOs an Alien Invasion or has Project Blue Beam finally begun?
I typically pre-load (schedule) posts to go public on MM about four months late. This serves various needs, but essentially it allows the “filter of time” to let the reader to process events out of the context of the major news cycles of the MSM propaganda machines.
I find it useful for purposes of perspective.
For instance, when someone tries to warn me against China’s 6G technology I plop them in a time machine and tell them about all the warnings of 5G (makes your brain explode), 4G (steal your data), 3G (gas pumps explode), and 2G (planes fall out of the sky).
I think it adds perspective.
The 2024 election is gonna arrive any day now. Woo Woo! And everyone is expecting big changes. After all, Biden was nothing more than a sock-puppet under the control of a bunch of ivy-league schoolboys now fast-tracking to oligarch-hood.
I am of the opinion that yes, things will change. But the systemic issues that rest bend the curtains will not. The United States is still in a tail-spin, but still at least someone is trying to land the plane. For Pete’s sake.
As I write this, “president” Biden has “decided” to not run for reelection.22 JULY 2024. The sarcastic side of me has a lot to say about this, but I’ll give it a rest for you all. In any event 2024 has been one Hell of a Dragon year. Sheech!
OP-ED -- As reported on this website on July 18 (Story Here) Joe Biden has DROPPED-OUT of the Presidential race and will NOT seek re-election.The deceitful, lying, sleazebags that make up a majority of the Democrat Party, have been in chaos since the Biden-Trump Debate, because they could no longer hide Biden's deteriorating mental condition, which they intentionally hid from the public for the past two years.So craven are the Democrats to keep power, they were willing to engage in elder abuse; ganging-up on the poor old man, harassing him out the door of the campaign.It ought to be interesting to see who these power-hungry vermin try to promote as their candidate for President now that we're less than 100 days from the election. I suggest that washed-up, has-been, old hag, Hillary Clinton, with trans-gendered "Michelle" Obama. I think an old Witch and a trans-gendered freak would epitomize what the Democrat party stands for nowadays!Now, of course, Biden becomes more dangerous than ever. He can implement, via Executive Order, all the radical-left-wing (Romper-room-level) ideas because he doesn't have to care at all whether anyone likes it or not.
Don’t get too caught up.
Lots and lots of strange “puzzle pieces” show up and disappear in the night. Our worn out and tired brains let them wash over us. But many are too alarming to dismiss.
Cloud Strike complete failure all over the West after an “update”.
Zelenskyy is in Utah.
Democrat political party in a cash-fighting frenzy.
China’s slow steady observance of the entire fiasco
Trump selection of JD Vance
Biden disappearance, and then step-down / out
So what is really going on?
Forged signiture on stationary announcing Biden step down
Let me tell you.
The deck chairs on the Titanic are all being rearranged, but the ship still is slowing sinking into the dark, dark abyss.
Everything else is theater.
Today…
What’s a historical fact that would shock most people to find out?
In 1980, a family of four moved into an apartment in a newly built building in Ukraine. However, just within a year of moving into their new house, the elder child who was 18 years old became severely sick. She was taken to a hospital and was diagnosed with leukaemia, a type of cancer that targets the body’s blood-forming tissues and bone marrow. The girl soon passed away within a few months of being diagnosed with cancer.
In less than a year, the younger child of the house who was 16 years showed the same symptoms. He was taken to the hospital and was diagnosed with leukaemia. He passed away soon after. Very soon the mother also lost her life and she was also diagnosed with leukaemia. Leukaemia being hereditary is very rare and it is highly unlikely that it was passed on from the mother to the children but at that time, it was declared that the reason those three patients had blood cancer was due to family genetics.
Gradually, other residents of the building too started to fall sick. None had any life-threatening diseases but they weren’t fully fit either. The man, having lost his family sold his house and moved away from there. Locals started to call that apartment ‘cursed apartment’. A new family moved into that cursed apartment. In 1987, the eldest son of the family passed away and he was diagnosed with leukaemia. While he was being cremated, the younger child of the house was in hospital and he was being treated for leukaemia as well. The boy also passed away soon after.
Meanwhile, the father got to know about the history of leukaemia of the previous residents and it was evident that there was something wrong with the house. The city council started to investigate in 1989. Radiologists found air samples highly radioactive and just as they entered the building, they were recording ten times more radioactivity than normal. They found the source of the radioactivity to be a wall just beside the bed where the family members used to sleep.
The wall was covered with lead sheets and cut out of the house and inside the wall, a capsule of radioactive Caesium-137 inside the concrete was found and that was emitting this ridiculous amount of radiation over the years. The capsule had a serial number which was traced to a densometer that was used in a stone quarry to measure the density of stones. One time, the Caesium-137 capsule got misplaced from the densometer and it wasn’t found. Turns out, the Caesium capsule got mixed with stones which were used to make the concrete that was made into that wall of that “cursed apartment” which took the lives of 5 people and severely affected 17 other in that building.
What companies have gotten destroyed by their business competition?
How do you win a war?
Just ask Netflix
Reed Hastings (founder of Netflix) had a big fight ahead of him. He had just finished watching the movie he rented called “Apollo 13” and he returned it to Blockbuster six weeks late. They charged him for returning the movie late.
Hastings launched a new company called Netflix in complete anger. He did not believe people should have to pay for returning a movie late!!!
Hastings had a plan.
Netflix realised that people wanted as many movies as they could get delivered to them. Therefore, Netflix started as a DVD rentals-by-mail service. Netflix was smart and they made a huge discovery.
Perhaps DVDs don’t have to be delivered physically.
Netflix came up with a genius idea that would change the way they did business. They would start a streaming subscription service where someone could watch movies on their computer or another streaming device.
Netflix started to win the market. Hastings believed that he could make money from selling Netflix. Hastings took Netflix and made a pitch to Blockbuster.
Netflix has seen tremendous growth in previous months and we will offer you Netflix for $50 million.
Blockbuster laughed.
Nobody wants to go to Netflix! People like to physically go to a shop and pick out the DVD they want to buy.
Hastings walked away with nothing. Once again, he was angry. He started marketing Netflix and grossly undercutting Blockbuster on price.
Little by little, Netflix grew its customer base and started to outcompete Blockbuster. Blockbuster tried everything to stop Netflix. Hastings famously said that Blockbuster was throwing “everything but the kitchen sink” at Netflix.
A few days later, Blockbuster physically delivered a kitchen sink to Hastings’ house. The Blockbuster era was over.
In the summer of 2010, Blockbuster declared bankruptcy and Netflix became one of the most recognised brands globally with an annual gross profit of $5.8 billion in 2018 (59.21% increase from 2017 according to macrotrends)
If you are interested, I will leave a few Netflix tips in the comments. I hope you enjoyed the story!
As a landlord, what was the most bizarre thing you found after a tenant moved out of your rental?
There are so many bizarre things that I have found as a landlord….
One time we took over a house after an old widow passed on.
The 95-year-old woman died. Her home—the upstairs anyway—was pristine 1960s-1970s decor and appliances.
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She still had the green shag carpet from 1972—well cared for and in good shape. The Avocado-colored stove and fridge were there and still worked. There was even a console stereo with record player, AM/FM and a reel-to-reel tape player.
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In addition to this there was an overflowing library of Jehovah’s witness religious materials, tracts, Baptist literature, and MORMON Bibles. There was Catholic and Jewish materials. There was pagan literature. Maybe she couldn’t make up her mind?
It’s just, that—there was a lot of all of this — piles of all of it.
The cream of the crop was a King James Version Bible from 1801.
Inside of the record player pocket, I found LP (long play) albums by Beethoven, Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash—AND—get this…RUSH 2112, A Farewell to Kings, Caress of Steel, and Fly by Night. The old woman was a Rush fan! Incredible!
Fairly clean house—but I kept wondering—-What is that smell?
Then I went to the basement level.
This home had a walk-out basement, with a garage door and garage bay on one end.
Here is where I had to go full haz-mat. Someone had tossed down a 100-pound sack of cat food and left the door open.
I found no fewer than 38 feral cats. All with mange, some with eyeballs missing or hanging out—dead opossum and mice and rats, birds, squirrels and other critters everywhere…Inside the garage.
All of these dead animals, including at least a dozen kitten skeletons, were in differing modes of decomposition. There was everything from recently dead to full skeleton.
SHIT was everywhere. Ankle deep shit—everywhere. Feral kittens, half starved, ribs showing—flea infested, covered in mange, open sores and cat shit.
I had to call animal control for help. They helped me to trap the worst of the lot, and hauled them off for euthanization. Some of the kittens were eventually adopted out.
The majority of the feral animals that couldn’t be caught were destroyed by shotgun.
It was the humane thing to do.
It took me three days, five gallons of concentrated industrial bleach, ten gallons of gas, a power washer, five gallons of liquid soap and a lot of elbow grease to clean up that mess.
It was 100 degrees out and I had to wear a haz-mat suit the entire time.
I even had to get a tetanus booster shot.
In the end, the smell had even permeated the sheet rock in the lower level, so we had to gut the entire place.
I think to this day that the old woman’s heart was in the right place, even if her head was in the clouds.
Chicken Club Sandwich One-Pot Pasta
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Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup panko crispy bread crumbs
3 1/2 cups chicken broth (regular or low-fat)
8 ounces (3 cups) uncooked rotini pasta
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded jack cheese
12 ounces thickly sliced cooked chicken or turkey breast (1/4 inch thick), cut into bite-size strips
8 ounces fresh spinach, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 cup cooked, chopped bacon
1 cup chopped plum (Roma) tomatoes
Instructions
In 5 to 5 1/2 quart Dutch oven, melt butter over medium heat; add bread crumbs. Cook for 2 to 4 minutes, stirring frequently, until bread crumbs are toasted and light brown; remove to small bowl.
Add chicken broth and pasta to Dutch oven; heat to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat to medium; simmer 12 to 14 minutes, stirring occasionally, until pasta is al dente and most of liquid is absorbed.
Add shredded cheese and chicken or turkey, stirring frequently, until cheese is melted.
Gradually add spinach, stirring constantly, until starting to wilt. Remove from heat; stir in mayonnaise, bacon and tomatoes. Top with toasted bread crumbs before serving.
PhD AI student explains how China already have won in AI
A significant event recently marked a breakthrough in the internationalization of the Chinese yuan (RMB). According to Bloomberg, the RMB now accounts for 99.6% of Russia’s foreign exchange settlements, making Russia the first major country in the world to conduct almost all its import and export trade in RMB.
This transformation didn’t happen overnight. In 2015, the RMB was included in the IMF’s “basket of currencies,” initiating its internationalization process. However, until the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022, Russia’s use of the RMB remained limited. After the US and EU imposed financial sanctions on Russia, it was forced to seek alternatives, with the RMB emerging as the best option.
In June 2024, the US further tightened sanctions on Russia, closing all financial loopholes. In response, Russia announced the complete abandonment of the US dollar and euro, requiring all countries trading with it to settle in RMB. This decision rapidly increased the RMB’s share in Russia’s foreign exchange market to nearly 100%.
This development is significant for China’s efforts to promote RMB internationalization. Russia, as a major world power and primary resource exporter, fully adopting the RMB for settlements provides a powerful example for other countries. It demonstrates that international trade can be maintained and economic growth achieved without using the US dollar.
However, this shift also brings new challenges. Due to Russia’s severe shortage of RMB, China-Russia trade growth has already reached its limit. From January to May 2024, China-Russia trade volume increased by only 2.9% year-on-year, far lower than China’s growth rates with other major trading partners.
Meanwhile, China is actively promoting RMB internationalization. Although still receiving large amounts of US dollars in foreign trade, China chooses to quickly use these dollars to help other countries repay their dollar debts, while signing new agreements for repayment in RMB. This strategy not only promotes the use of RMB but also expands China’s trade with these countries.
In conclusion, Russia’s full adoption of the RMB is an important milestone in the process of RMB internationalization. While this was partly facilitated by special circumstances, it has laid the foundation for the RMB to play a more important role in the global financial system. As China continues to advance this strategy, the international influence of the RMB is expected to further increase.
Chinese University Dorms will SHOCK you!
Multiple bridges are collapsing not only in Bihar, but also in China. Do these collapsing of bridges happen due to the effect of global warming causing unusually heavy rains?
There is no comparison
I checked
The Rains in India averaged 247 mm
The Rains in China averaged 718 mm
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The Wind Speeds in China were almost thrice as high as India had ever seen
The Rise in River Levels were almost 250% higher
India has never faced any such adverse weather conditions because the intensity may be high but the torrential outpour stops much faster and the WIND SPEEDS are much slower compared to the deadly TAI FUN (Typhoon)
India in fact is primarily flooded due to pressure based phenomenon like Cyclonic Rain compared to Wind based phenomenon in China due to Typhoons
In China – the weather phenomenon has drastically changed
Precipitation has risen by 26% and flooding levels have risen much higher
So a lot of 1996–2015 built Infrastructure cannot withstand the flooding and torrential lash and collapse
Much of today’s projects are fine because they have been designed to withstand more torrential rains
In India it’s pure corruption and nothing else
The Bridges were all new and yet collapsed
Check out Newly designed buildings in India and see the cracks in Concrete within 3–4 years itself
It’s compromising Quality for price and speed of delivery of projects
What are the most interesting facts about human behavior?
Originally Answered: What are the most interesting facts about human behavior ?
Wanna get some attention? Stop chasing that person and start ignoring him. He’ll shower you with attention.
2. Want someone to confess something? Stop talking and stare at them and they’ll do the needful.
3. Validate the words of someone by just looking into their eyes. Mostly while telling a lie, they tend to look away from you and smile more often than needed.
4. Intelligent people tend to have fewer friends.
5. Look at their feet while talking. If they’re not facing you, they aren’t probably interested in what you are telling them.
6. Are you sad? You can trick your mind by pretending to smile and in no time, you would be smiling for real.
7. Your body language changes with the person you are talking to. Your body language tends to be relaxed and flowy when you are talking to someone you like whereas it tends to be stiff if it’s someone you are not much fond of.
8. You can sustain that high level of concentration for not more than just 10 minutes.
9. Speak a line to yourself daily about what you wish to do or become. You would see it turning into reality.
10. Your brain has more potential than you realise. Never give up on your dreams.
How long will the CCP remain in charge in China?
I am an ordinary Chinese person.
The Chinese people are the least likely to be deceived by political slogans. With over 3,000 years of monarchy and more than 20 dynasties, the Chinese have experienced hundreds of emperors. This long history has endowed them with the ability to recognize the tricks of any ruler, whether they come in the form of words, policies, laws, or political movements. The Chinese can quickly see through the deceptive promises.
No individual or party can sustain a lie for long. To prove one lie as “truth,” ten new lies are needed, creating an astronomical system of deception. The objective reality about “rulers and lies” is clear: no one can govern through lies. Such an elaborate system will inevitably develop cracks and collapse. When these lies are exposed to the light of day, the ruler’s legitimacy vanishes, signaling the end of the regime.
The above paragraphs illustrate a key logic: sustained deception is bound to be exposed, and China’s long history makes its people particularly sensitive to such tactics. The Chinese are not easily fooled.
As of a few years ago, the Communist Party of China (CPC) celebrated its 100th anniversary. In its first 20 years, it nearly faced extinction several times (1920s-1940s). Over the next 30 years, it made several grave mistakes that almost led to societal and economic collapse (1950s-1970s). The CPC then attempted to learn from these errors and reform itself. However, during the following decade, the world’s major communist states collapsed (1980s-1990s), and “socialism” became a relic of history. China emerged as one of the few remaining socialist countries. In 1990, the Chinese echoed Deng Xiaoping’s words, “We must cross the river by feeling the stones,” humorously adding, “If the stones are gone, how do we cross?” Realizing this issue, the CPC began to develop its own theories. China’s economic boom started around that time.
Imagine you are wealthy and have a poor neighbor who has been hungry and poorly clothed for generations. Their frail bodies are swarmed by flies, and they seem on the verge of collapse. The parents of this poor family are determined to improve their situation but don’t know how. Anger and frustration have led to strained family relations. After the chaos subsides, they sit down and ponder how to feed their family.
Initially, the father helps others move, works as a loader, and cleans floors. These jobs are exhausting and pay little, but he endures the physical strain and earns every penny with sweat. Eventually, the family can eat three meals of bread daily, although there’s no beef, jam, or fruit. To save money, they eat only two meals a day, using the savings for education to learn skills like textile work, shoemaking, and knitting. After some time, he acquires these skills and starts new jobs, which, though still demanding, offer indoor work free from harsh weather.
Years pass, and this once-poor family now works as skilled artisans. They continue to save money, thinking of future needs like weddings and births. The third generation grows up in a modest but not impoverished environment, aware of the wider world through trade. They begin to wonder, “Why can’t we have what others have?”
By the fourth generation, they’ve mastered advanced technology and use their ingenuity to propose better scientific solutions. Their ambitions reach for the stars, aiming to uncover the mysteries of the universe.
Over 100 years, from the first impoverished ancestor to the confident children of today, this family has never resorted to killing or invasion to gain even a penny, enduring hunger in silence.
As the family’s fortunes rise, they remain thrifty, never forgetting their past hunger. They save diligently and always question their expenses. However, outsiders with weapons surround them, demanding they return to poverty without reason.
Now, tell me, whose side would you choose? The one who has kept this family intact through it all is named the CPC.
Lylia, Malou, and the Intangible Impossibility of Imperceivable Physics
“Dr. Niwwel, if you summoned the thing, why can’t you just send it away?”Lylia held her tongue. It wasn’t that Malou was stupid, and most of the time it wouldn’t even bother her, but she was running out of ways to explain an unexplainable being. “I didn’t summon it. I just created a way for it to access our world.” She peaked out at the dark hallway—the problem was there was no precedent. Did it matter if there was light? Could the creature even see light? And would staying quiet even matter? Lylia stroked her long, blonde hair as she thought.“I’m sorry. You must be getting tired of all these questions.”It was so hard to be mad at someone who kept acknowledging their flaws. “It’s okay. I know it must be confusing.” Lylia couldn’t help but feel guilty. It was her fault Malou was still in the building to begin with. Not that it really mattered. The creature wasn’t particularly bound by the same matter-based confines that Earth creatures were. Maybe nowhere on the planet was safe.“Can we stay here? Are we safe here?” Malou popped her head out as well, peering down the hallway for signs of the plasma colored of burning light, the only visible material the creature left behind. “I don’t see anything.”“I don’t think we’re safe as long as we’re still here.”“Do you think it’ll leave the building?”Lylia didn’t know how to tell Malou that the creature didn’t even exist in the building as it was. “I hope not.” Cautiously, she crept out into the middle of the hallway. It felt silly to be sneaking around, but she couldn’t help it. It was so human to only feel safe when walls were around to support and protect. “I don’t think it’s coming. Hurry. We can go down this hallway. It’ll lead to the stairs.”Malou nodded and her dyed green hair bobbled in its pigtails. “After you, Dr. Niwwel.”“Really, Malou, you can call me Lylia.” Being called Doctor by someone her own age was weird, but being called Doctor by someone who’d been in every one of her elementary school classes was even weirder.Malou followed. “But you worked so hard for your doctorate. The least I can do is show you the respect you deserve.” Malou smiled and Lylia did her best not to melt. She’d promised herself when she started tutoring Malou in physics that she wouldn’t let that smile get to her anymore, but Malou was so earnest, so… so genuine, that Lylia almost couldn’t help it.She was so dazzled by Malou’s smile that she almost didn’t catch the blazing light splatter behind her. “Malou, look out!”A cabinet behind her suddenly became corrupted, spitting sparks and shuddering in and out of existence before half of it was suddenly away. Lylia felt the hair stand up on her arms. “Run!”The air stung of burned metal, rasping away at the back of Lylia’s throat. Malou was faster than her by far, but she kept pace. “Come on!”After a while, Lylia felt her heart start to pound more and more. If only she didn’t work on the top floor—they’d be out by now. They made it close to the stairs, and Lylia grabbed Malou’s arm right before she went down the stairs, dragging her into a broom closet.“What’d you do that for?”“Going down won’t help,” Lylia wheezed. She needed to work out more. “It’s not… I mean, it’s not confined by floors.”“It can go through floors?”Lylia bit her lip. They seemed safe enough now. Maybe she should try a third time to explain that the creature she’d released wasn’t going through the floor, it was completely apart from the floor.She hadn’t meant to become a doctor in the first place. It just seemed like the only way she could continue to study and to learn about what the emptiness in atoms really entailed. She’d always been fascinated by the way humans always seemed to accept nothing but truth, but didn’t question the truth they knew.
“But what’s in between the electron and the nucleus?”
“Nothing,” her professor had snapped. “Quit asking that. This is just where we are in science right now, okay? Sorry it’s not good enough for you. Finish your work.”
Her curiosity had developed from wondering what the emptiness really meant to wondering if there was a separate way to exist. When she argued for her dissertation, a hypothetical reconfiguration of matter that didn’t involve atoms or quarks or any subatomic particles humans could conceive of, the faculty had been confused and baffled. One professor had gone so far as to declare that it was more science fiction than true science. However, she’d gotten her doctorate anyway, and away she went.
The experiment wasn’t supposed to even work. Lylia had long given up on her own theory, but the premise behind it still stood, in her mind. Countless graduate students flocked to her, to hear her crazy lectures about worlds within our own atoms. The machine she’d fashioned wasn’t supposed to be capable of creating real atomic disturbances—the only other atomic disturbances the world had ever known were military based, so there was no way they’d ever give her something with real power. She’d had the grad students (and Malou, although Lylia still wasn’t sure why she was there) gather around her as she fiddled with it, answering their questions the best she could and firing back some of her own. The machine had never done anything before, no matter what she did, so there was no reason anyone would expect it to do much of anything other than look science-y.
So when the machine had malfunctioned and spewed black smoke and the… the thing (Lylia called it a creature for Malou’s sake, but it wasn’t like any creature or any being that had ever been noted in any way before) seeped into this world’s atomic formation, it had caught everyone by surprise.
At first Lylia, like any good scientist, was fascinated. She had proof! Proof that our physics weren’t the only physics out there—matter didn’t work in the same way, physicality didn’t work in the same way, and the universe wasn’t empty after all!
It was a glowing moment for science.
Until suddenly one of the grad students’ arms disappeared. The blood that splattered the ground flecked Lylia’s shoes as she should there, shocked, helpless as bits of the floor spluttered and vanished and the building’s infrastructure suddenly turned to nothing against the impossibility of a physics-less being. Chaos ensued, filling the hallways with shouts as the being engulfed everything it encountered, turning it into a form of matter imperceivable by humanity, intangible in the same regard. Later, hiding under her desk (not the smartest plan, she knew, but she panicked, okay?), Lylia figured out what she’d unleashed—a being able to interact with the physics and composition of this world, but unable to be interacted with by the physics and composition of this world. It was enough to make her head spin, so explaining it to Malou… Calling it a creature was just easier.
“I’m sorry,” she told Malou now, holed up next to the stairs. “I can’t… I can’t stop it. It defies all nature, it defies all… rational thought. It’s not of this world and it shouldn’t be here now. I’ve released it and I’m so… I’m so sorry.” If she hadn’t been so terrified, Lylia thought she would cry. Even now, with fear freezing her blood, Lylia felt tears well behind her eyes and in the catch in her throat.
“Don’t be sorry. It’s not your fault.”
“It’s my machine. My lecture. My experiment. It’s literally my fault.”
“You didn’t know this would happen. Nobody knew. Nobody could know.”
“You should’ve gotten out when you had the chance.” Malou hadn’t evacuated with the others, she’d rushed to Lylia’s office instead.
“I couldn’t leave you.”
“You should have. You’ll die here. I can’t tell you anything about this… creature. I could have doomed the entire Earth.” Lylia began to cry, tears and snot dripping down her cheeks. It wasn’t the time or place, she knew, but she still felt bad for how ugly she must look. “You’re going to die, and everyone I know is going to die, and it’s all my fault.”
“The world was doomed anyway,” Malou said. “And you don’t know that you’re going to die. I mean, you said the creature wasn’t from our physics. Maybe it’ll… make us like it.”
That was highly illogical, but so was everything. “Maybe, but even then our entire lives, everything we know, will be taken away. I wish there was a way I could… I could distract it somehow, so you could escape but I…”
“I couldn’t leave you,” Malou repeated. “I couldn’t.”
“We’re going to die here.” Lylia’s sobs echoed down the hallway, and she no longer cared if the creature was able to perceive sound or not. “We’re going to die here and I never—”
“You never what?”
Lylia didn’t know. There were lots of things she’d never done. She’d never snowboarded, or owned a bird, or bought homeowner’s insurance. She hadn’t told her parents goodbye. She’d dated boys in high school and undergrad, but she’d never really felt in love with any of them. She’d never told Malou how beautiful she was.
The thought popped into Lylia’s head before she could stop it. She’d promised herself she’d never admit that to anyone—not even herself.
But if there was ever a time, now was it.
“You’re pretty,” she said, her voice squeaking like a grade schooler.
“Wait—what?”
“I just wanted you to know you’re really pretty.” This was so dumb. This was remarkably dumb. Lylia wanted to say more but she couldn’t.
“Oh.” Malou stared at Lylia. “I don’t know what to… I—oh. Thank you. You’re… you’re pretty too.”
Lylia felt the blood rush to her face and knew it must be a violent red by now. Violent red with puffy pink eyes—Malou was just being nice. “I’m sorry, I made things weird, it’s weird now, it’s our last hours on Earth probably and I’ve just made it so weird.”
“So?”
“So I’m sorry! We’re up against a unseen, intangible something and I just made everything weird.” Lylia hiccupped. She’d stopped crying, but her face was still a mess, she knew.
“Well, I’m glad you did, or I was going to.” Gently, Malou put her rough, calloused hand over Lylia’s.
“What?”
“I like you,” Malou said, the left corner of her mouth turning up into a grin. “I think I’ve liked you since we were in grade school together. That’s why I wanted you to tutor me, I wanted to get to know you better. That’s why I went to all your lectures. I like you.”
“Oh,” breathed Lylia. “Oh.”
“So I guess, if this really is our last couple hours on this planet”—Lylia didn’t bother correcting her—“then I guess I want you to know. I like you a lot. I think you’re funny and kind and so passionate about everything. So… yeah.”
“Oh,” repeated Lylia. “I don’t know what to—”
“You don’t have to say anything. I know this is probably a weird shock, but I didn’t want to disappear without you knowing, okay? I just needed you to know—”
“I like you too,” Lylia spat out. “I like you too.”
“Oh.”
For a second, the two sat in silence, listening to the sparking of a light that the being had absorbed half of earlier in the day. Then Lylia began to cry again.
“Oh! No! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you—”
“No, no, I’m happy,” Lylia said, frantically wiping her tears. “I mean, I am a little. I’m just sad that we’re not… we’re not going to see the future that would come from this.”
“Oh. Yeah, I guess that’s true.”
“I just wish we had more time.”
“Well, we have time right now. And who knows—maybe when the creature takes us, we’ll end up together in its dimension.”
Not a dimension, Lylia’s brain blathered, but it didn’t matter at all. Tentatively, she turned her hand up and laced her fingers though Malou’s. “There’ll be no tomorrow,” she warned.
“It sucks,” Malou said, nodding.
“But right now we’re together.”
“Makes it suck a little less.”
Lylia laughed. Yes. Every action they took should just be to make things suck a little less. “Of all the people to die with, you’re not a bad choice.”
“And at least we know that wherever we’re going, we’ll go together.”
“Together.”
Lylia wept as the creature’s plasmatic flickering came into view a little down the hallway and bits of air and floor disappeared, leaving behind blank nothingness of the physics that Lylia couldn’t perceive.
“Together,” Malou murmured into her ear, and they closed their eyes.
Very interesting clips
The “scary background music” is a minus, but the content is worth your time.
What kind of karma will happen to China for being so evil for so long? How can such evil exist?
Hello, I’m from China, and I am a paid promoter for the CCP.
As the Titanic was about to collide with the iceberg, the ship’s impending sinking was a tragic fate for the main characters. However, for the lobsters waiting to be cooked in the Titanic’s kitchen, it was a miraculous moment.
Similarly, the so-called “evil existence of China” is seen as a tragic threat by Western imperialists, Jewish fascists, and Japanese militarists. But for the countries of Southeast Asia, most African nations, Latin America, and other poor and chaotic Third World countries, it represents an opportunity to end internal conflicts and focus on development.
A strong China will allow us to witness the following in the future:
The decline of the US as a military and diplomatic superpower;
The awakening of the American people and the restructuring of their government;
The Five Eyes countries, excluding the US, gradually adopting independent foreign policies based on their national interests;
The EU possibly gaining autonomy in diplomacy and military matters, or becoming a regional power;
Several traditional Third World countries reaching the threshold of industrialization;
Rapid socio-economic development in Southeast and South Asian countries;
Green energy becoming the primary component of the world’s energy mix;
A fairer and more reasonable carbon emission scheme for Third World countries;
Urumqi, as the geographical center of Central Asia, playing an increasingly important role in international finance and trade;
Japan and South Korea, the two American colonies in East Asia, becoming mere dishes on the table;
Some African countries emerging as newly developed nations;
A united Asia and Latin America;
The elimination of global war hotspots;
Mao Zedong once said, “Before listening to someone, first see where they stand.” China is slowly trying to tell its own story. This process has been fraught with difficulties. However, today, through platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Quora, and through “China Travel,” rather than through official Chinese efforts, China’s story is beginning to spread among people worldwide. These stories and visions instill fear and anxiety in those in the West who are full of prejudice and hatred.
So, “my delicacy is your poison.” To those who wish for the disappearance of “evil China” from the earth, I hope you exercise well and maintain a balanced diet so you can live a long life. If you live as long as a tortoise, for 500 years, you can personally verify whether “evil China” has vanished.
Therefore, haters, I wish you longevity like a tortoise. In China, this is the most beautiful metaphor.
Is it true that martial arts are useless in a street fight?
As others have said, the first thing a martial arts instructor will tell you is ‘don’t get into a street fight’. My judo instructor took it further: get fit and outrun the threat.
At the age of 19, with 8 years of judo instruction, and some unarmed combat training, I spent a summer in Manchester. I didn’t know the city, and found myself in areas that were not safe. This was in the early 80s, around the time of the most violent riots the city has seen in modern times.
Every time a situation looked dodgy, the others scrambled to get out of my way. I’m average height, and while I was very fit at the time, I was not visibly muscular or aggressive-looking. I just looked like I could handle myself (I could). That’s the second lesson: if you can’t avoid a situation, look like you’d be a problem.
The third lesson: take charge of the situation and de-escalate.
I was in a ground-floor student flat in a less salubrious part of Birmingham. There was a crash from the kitchen. I rushed into the corridor, to find myself face-to-face with a guy who looked like a serious boxer, just coming out of the kitchen. I was between him and the front door. He took a swing at me. I deflected the punch into the wall, and he stopped, uncertain.
I asked him who he was, why he was in my flat, and what had happened in the kitchen.
A flatmate of mine had flirted with the guy’s girlfriend through the kitchen window. Our boxer suspected the girl was cheating, and thought he had found the culprit. He found the front door unlocked, walked into the kitchen, and knocked my flatmate off his feet, and over the table. By the time he’d explained all this, he had calmed down a great deal. We went back into the kitchen, established that my flatmate was not the sought-for Lothario. Everyone shook hands, apologised, and there was no more trouble.
None of this used specifically judo moves, but the training gave me both the confidence and the reflexes, so no, martial arts are not useless.
Have you ever taken the law into your own hands?
My neighbor is a big-shot lawyer. One night, his dog was outside my house. I didn’t know it was his dog and had to ask around. I was told it was “the lawyer’s dog.” I noticed that the dog was terribly skinny and, in general, just didn’t have the bounce in her step like most black labs do.
I left her at my house and knocked on the door. I told him I had his dog. He didn’t seem concerned. When it appeared he wasn’t going to come outside, I asked him if he expected me to deliver the dog to him. He got all huffy and said, “Fine!” His beautiful and very, very sweet wife and four little girls were thanking me but he was just pissed that I interrupted his “pizza and movie night with the family.” He begrudgingly followed me home.
I am a retired humane officer and still have a lot of influence at animal control. But I didn’t want to sound arrogant and threatening so I didn’t mention it. I just asked if the dog was okay as she seemed a little gaunt. He told me to mind my own business.
I asked him if the dog had been to see a vet lately and he said, “What’s with all the g-damn questions?” Since I had had this very same exchange many times in my career, I didn’t get mad. I just smiled and said I was concerned about the dog. He again told me to mind my own business. I said “Okay, well, if you’re not going to talk to me…” and trailed off.
The dog was less than enthusiastic to see him and he had to actually pick up the dog .
The next day, bright and early, two uniformed Animal Control officers knocked on his door, demanding to see the dog. He got a seven-day warning to get the dog to a vet or be fined. Seven days later they came back and were shown a letter from a vet that the lab had been seen and is now under treatment for a pancreatic disorder.
My neighbors asked me how I was so bold and stupid to make an enemy out of a big-shot lawyer.
Right makes might. I had right on my side.
I will never be afraid to speak out on behalf of a dog. In my career I had dealt with hardened criminal dog fighters and my anger gave me courage.
I gave him the chance to talk to me, and I would have offered to take the dog to the vet since I know he and his wife are busy, but he shot me down so fast.
My husband is a big-shot lawyer, too, but this guy doesn’t know that.
I called in a favor from my old colleagues and showed this guy that he didn’t intimidate me and that “Failure to render treatment to an animal in need” is a crime and not even a big-shot lawyer is above the law.
Do you think there is such a thing as the worst Hollywood celebrity decision ever?
A virtual unknown, Australian actor George Lazenby was cast as James Bond in 1969, taking over the role from Connery in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”. Lazenby was young, inexperienced… and honestly not that great an actor. But when he played the part, he kind of killed it. And although initially panned by critics, in later years in fact his performance has been hailed as one of the finest. This role could have forever changed his life.
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And yet, out of thin air… Lazenby called it quits. Told the studio he would NOT be apearing in another Bond movie ever again. This was positively unprecedented. The role had made his predecessor a millionaire, a household name around the globe. It would have been Lazenby’s claim to fame. He’d be set for a lifetime. And yet, he bucked. And quit his job, in style. He said the studio “made him feel mindless” and that whenever he made suggestions for the role, he was dismissed, which he disliked. The young Australian didn’t want to “just be a product”. It was all the more shocking because of all the effort he had put into getting cast in the first place, bluffing his way into getting the part.
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As filming came to an end, George Lazenby grew a beard. Grew out his hair, too. He looked more like a hippie than the famous suave secret agent he was portraying. By the time the premier came around, Lazenby was ordered by the studio to shave his beard, cut his hair, “look the part”. He flat-out refused, and not only kept the beard, he even put on a massive fur coat to further enhance his image as the enfant terrible of the Bond universe. Everyone gave Lazenby a hard time for his choice:
“I much prefer being a car salesman to a stereotyped James Bond. My parents think I’m insane, everybody thinks I’m insane passing up maybe millions of pounds. Nobody believed me. They thought it was a publicity stunt. But it’s just me doing my own thing”
He wouldn’t budge. George Lazenby became James Bond, played the role once, and never again. His film career failed to take off after this, and in later years the actor went into real estate, making a fortune for himself off-screen. He could have been one of the world’s most major movie stars… instead, he went from Bond, to hippie, to dude who flips houses for a living.
Do not forget about CloudStrike and it’s roll in the July 2024 shutdowns
The election is gonna be on line in a few days. Keep your eyes open.
What was the most blatant scam a customer has ever failed to get away with?
I used to work at a running store in a suburb of Denver, Colorado.
One day, a guy and his girlfriend/partner came into the store while I was working. They bought a few pairs of shoes and some running clothes and signed up for a local race. There was nothing unusual about any of this, and they were quite nice.
The only odd thing was they both clearly had lower-than-normal IQs. Just imagine the person you know who best fits the phrase “not the sharpest tool in the shed” and add in a little more dullness, and that’s them.
Anyway, the next day the store owner comes in and starts asking us about this couple (he hadn’t been there the day before). After we answered a few questions, he told us that their checks (one for the gear, one for the race) had bounced. We were now out several hundred dollars of product.
The owner, a New York City native, was not one to take things lying down, so he did a little digging.
My old boss: not a sucker
The first thing he discovered was that the guy had used checks with his actual name and address on them. The guy’s last name was unique—“Pfeffenschmecker” or something like that. Now as you can imagine, there were only about five Pfeffenschmeckers in the whole phone book (yes, this was back when we still had phone books), so my boss started calling them all.
He quickly found a relative who said, “Oh yes, they have done this before. They use checks from an old, closed-out account to steal from stores.”
Armed with that knowledge and their home address, here’s what my boss did next.
He went to their house late that night and took a steel pipe with him. He banged on their door with the pipe and started yelling at them with his strongest New York accent from outside the house, telling them in no uncertain terms that he wanted his stuff back…or else.
They never came to the door, so he eventually left. But the next morning, there were several bags in front of the store when he got there.
They had returned all the merchandise and, one hopes, learned a very valuable lesson: don’t steal from a New Yorker, but if you do, don’t use your real name and address as part of your scam!
What is one thing that I can learn from you today?
One day, me and my girlfriend went out for lunch. After finishing our lunch, we called the waiter to get the bill. The waiter kept the bill on our table and then he left.
My girlfriend took the bill and checked it. There was some mistake. We had ordered 6 Rotis (Indian Bread) and only 4 were mentioned in the bill. She told me about this and I checked the bill again. She was right.
Then she said that we need to ask them to add 2 more Rotis in the bill and I was like, “Dude, don’t try to be Raja Harishchandra”. She asked, what’s wrong with that? As there was a difference of only 30 rupees, I answered, “Chalta hai yaar kabhi kabhi” (it happens sometimes). But she said, “No. It’s wrong. We must not do this. It’s someone’s hard earned money. We have ordered it and we have to pay for it.” I was surprised to hear that (just because of her maturity) and then I said, “Okay, you win.”
She immediately called the waiter and told him that we have ordered 6 Rotis and only 4 are mentioned in the bill. And asked him to kindly add that in the bill and get an updated one. The waiter said thanks to her and then went to the bill counter. He got a new and correct bill this time. We both checked it and a random conversation started between us.
During the conversation, I pulled out my wallet and picked out 2 five hundred rupee notes and gave it to the waiter with the bill. I was so lost in the conversation that I forgot the bill amount was 474 Rupees only. And instead of giving him a single note, I gave him two. Neither I was aware of this, nor my girlfriend and suddenly the waiter came and said, “Sir the amount is only 474 Rupees and you gave me 2 five hundred rupee notes. Please take one note back (and then he returned me one note).
I immediately checked my wallet and I was shocked that yes he is right! I had 3 notes in my wallet and there was only 1. I thanked him for this and also praised his honesty. He also got a decent tip from us. Then we left the place with a smile and a lesson. The lesson is,
Do good to get good
If you do a good thing, then something good will happen to you.
Thanks for reading.
Chicken and Mushroom Pasta
This Chicken and Mushroom Pasta is flavor packed and loaded with mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, veggie pasta and chicken. It’s a 30 minute meal that’s perfect for busy weeknights!
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Ingredients
8 ounces spiral veggie pasta (rotini), cooked (reserve 1/2 cup starchy pasta water)
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 ounces baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup white onion, diced
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes
2 teaspoons crushed garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Pinch of red pepper chili flakes (optional)
1/2 cup Half-and-Half
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 cups cooked spinach, fresh
2 chicken breasts, cooked and diced
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
Instructions
Cook pasta according to package directions. Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water. Set aside.
Heat olive oil in a sauté pan and add in mushrooms, onions, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic and seasonings. Stir and cook until fragrant, about 5 minutes.
Add in the Half-and-Half, chicken broth and pasta water, and bring to a boil. Turn down to simmer for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring occasionally (pasta water will help thicken the sauce).
Lastly, add in the cooked chicken, spinach and Parmesan. Stir until combined.
Serve warm.
19 HOUR Layover In China (Guangzhou visa-free transit)
Is President Trump the new Theodore Roosevelt?
Don’t be ridiculous. Theodore Roosevelt was a 250 pound mountain of self-made muscle who gave a speech, got shot into the chest and, spitting out blood with a smile, told the alarmed crowd: “It takes more than that to kill a bull moose!” He then proceeded to give his speech anyway as if nothing had happened. It’s the type of scene that would make people roll their eyes in an anime series and say: “Gee, those Japanese cartoons sure are over-the-top bombastic and unbelievable!”
When Theodore Roosevelt was born, he was weak and sickly. Doctors said he’d surely die. His father believed otherwise. As soon as his son was old enough to understand, he told him: “God gave you a strong mind, but not a strong body. So you must build that body yourself.” He nodded and internalized that message. Started a fitness regimen of insane intensity, including calisthenics and bodyweight exercises. He climbed mountains. Fought in multiple wars. Knocked down several men at a time in bar fights, and rode horses and trekked through the roughest of terrain. His band of men was called “the Rough Riders”. About as close as a 19th century politician could be to being in a biker gang…
When Theodore Roosevelt was nearly assassinated he survived with a bullet lodged in his chest for the rest of his life. It did not, in any way, shape or form, slow the man down. His very first concern, after telling the crowd he was fine, was for the would-be assassin — he told police not to rough him up too bad. If the shooter had merely nicked his ear, Roosevelt would probably have asked him to come up close and said: “Mediocre! Come, have another go!”
Pre-Historic Underground Megastructure Found in Russia – Khara-Hora Shaft
This is amazing.
What was the most bone-chilling sentence a loved one ever said to you?
When I was 24 years old, married with my first baby, my husband and I were driving my mother home after she had visited us. A bit of an argument broke out between mother and me, over something inconsequential, and she said, coldly and clearly:
“I adopted you to save my marriage, and when he loved you more than me, I got rid of you. I sent you to boarding school.”
I was adopted at 2 years of age and packed off to boarding school when I had just turned 7. I spent the rest of my childhood and teenage years at boarding school, only coming home for school holidays.
She would do humiliating things such as putting a notice in the local paper that I was coming home for the school holidays when everyone knew it was holiday time. She would force me to wear my school uniform to town (Father had a sheep property) so “that everyone can see what a good school I sent you to.” Running into my school “mates” dressed in my formal school uniform in the holidays ensured that I was totally humiliated and bullied.
I never forgave her for this and never forgot what she told me that evening when I was 24. Even though I am now 80, it still hurts.
One final thing. Two years ago I discovered that I have a sister who is 16 months younger than me. We were in the orphanage together, and there is NO WAY that Mother didn’t know about her. She never told me about my sister and it was only by chance that I found out she exists. Sadly, she is not keen on meeting me, saying she has “issues” that have to be resolved. I am so sad, because at 80 and her turning 79 in July, time is running out for us to know each other. I have prayed and prayed that she will contact me again, but I fear this will not happen.
NOTE:
Thank you all for your kindness and care. I am sure there are many of you who have upvoted this who can relate to cruelty by parents who, sadly, are damaged people either from their own childhood or as a result of their own actions. Only a parent can inflict this type of deep grief which stays with us for the rest of our lives.
Do you consider America or China a superpower? Can you give me a good answer, opinion or comments?
America and China are both superpowers. In fact, they are presently the ONLY superpowers.
Both countries have enormous economies, far surpassing third-place Germany and fourth-place Japan.
By purchasing power parity, both economies are also enormous, far surpassing third-place India.
China is indisputably the world’s only manufacturing/industrial superpower.
Both countries have enormous militaries. In fact, China has the largest army and the largest navy by number of ships. China has the second largest aircraft carrier fleet.
Both countries have large nuclear arsenals. Officially, China has 500 nuclear weapons, but unofficially this number is believed to be closer to a thousand.
Both countries are technological superpowers. In fact, according to the ASPI, China leads the world in 37 out of 44 critical technology fields (America leads in 7).
China is granted more technological patents than America and Japan combined!
According to the CWTS Leiden Ranking, China has about half of the world’s top universities.
China dominates the world in 5G. China dominates the world in EVs, batteries and solar panels.
America and China both exert enormous global influence economically, militarily, and technologically. This is why they are superpowers.
What are some short stories that discuss a moral dilemma?
The story of Stéphane Passet always rather haunted me. An amateur photographer, Passet was hired to photograph the world around him — in particular, the Orient, a mysterious place few in the West knew much of. He would go deep into the most remote corners of the world, and photograph what he would encounter. At some point on his travels, he encountered a woman in Mongolia.
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She was trapped in a box, in a desert. There was a hole in the box, large enough for her to poke her head out, and an arm. But far too small for her to ever dream of escaping. Every once in a while, perhaps once every two days or so, a guard would appear. Give the woman some water, a little bit of food — she was meant to die in that box, and the nourishment given to her was only to further prolong her suffering. Passet looked on, in horror.
“What has she done to deserve this fate?” he asked his guide.
“Adultery…” was the answer.
To take a photograph of this moment in time felt almost… obscene, to Passet. Her slender arm, shaking. The sun mercilessly beating down on her. He was watching a woman die before his eyes. It could take days. Weeks, even. But she would die and there was nothing in the world he could do.
Stéphane Passet could not intervene. Could not save her, he was completely powerless to do anything for the poor soul. Still, he took his camera. And took her picture. After that, he went away, knowing she would die. And yet he did something for her — by taking her picture, he ensured she would be remembered. Most nameless people who shared her fate would never have been captured on camera. She died, but through Passet, she lives on.
Why does everybody like Thailand?
Many factors, they have all the 10 conditions qualified, most countries can’t even reach 5:
1)People are nice and kind, probably due to their religion and culture which believe in Karma, and the core and basic Buddhism knowledge is taught in schools and their boys and men stay in a Buddhist monastery as a novice or temporary monk for at least once in their lifetime. Many foreigners found love 💝 💝 in Thailand.
2)Attractions and sceneries: from natural to man-made, they have everything. Pattaya alone is enough for anyone to live for a lifetime.
3)Shopping: their malls and markets are the best and better than most countries. Even their 7/11s is better than their neighbors with either better facilities, better services or selling more things,
4)Food: Thai food from spicy to non-spicy are all good and international food is easily available too. Even better are their desserts and sauces that makes a perfect meal. There is one Thai sauce that have all 4 tastes in one: spicy, sweet, salty and sour, the only kind in the world.
5)Entertainment and nightlife: their cinemas are better than most countries and their nightlife needs no introduction: males, females, middle-sex and homosexuals are easily available.
6)Massage: Both Thai traditional massage and sensual or sex massage is available everywhere. I think no other countries have them, not even a proper basic massage.
7)Transportation: This is most important as transportation is similar to the blood circulation of a body. Bangkok have the most transportation systems in the world: buses, skytrains, underground trains, car taxis, motorcycle taxis, river ferry transport, canal boat transport, tuk-tuks, songtheaws and samlors. Even remote areas and islands are reachable with public transportation systems and you don’t need to hire a private car.
8)Restaurants and cafes of many international food and budget options are easily available everywhere. You can buy a 120 baht fresh coffee in a cafe to as cheap as a 25 baht coffee from a takeaway stall. Even sushi is available in most night markets.
9)Costs: still affordable now although it keeps increasing.
10)Fairness in treatment: all people are treated fairly. There is no racism treatment, all religions are allowed(even Pope is allowed into the country to hold events) although this is not a good idea long term, dual pricing is practiced for many attractions entrance.
I may have missed some factors but I think those above are enough.
As a realtor, what was the shadiest thing you saw a home seller do?
I was young and had wanted to break into the real estate industry since I was a baby. My dad had been an agent and my grandpa had been a house flipper. My grandpa had taught my dad everything about houses and how to fix them and flip them. Dad only had me, a girl.
Dad was undeterred and taught me everything grandpa had taught him and even brought me on showings. I had also studied woodworking, metal working, business administration, accounting, real estate, drafting and various other housing-related things while still in school. I was ready for my career in real estate.
However, I made one heck of a bad move right out of the gate. I signed on with a broker whom I didn’t know was shady. He seemed OK to me and he was Italian like me but I was naive and blinded by my dreams of working in the housing industry. Soon it was obvious that something was wrong. My broker refused to allow me to work the front desk where agents were able to take walk-in clients. He also refused other avenues that would help grow my career. I was completely frustrated to say the least. I was basically getting nowhere fast. It was as if he was deliberately trying to stop me from growing in the business.
What my broker didn’t count on was that I was persistent. So I finally, through my own avenues, got a potential buyer and two potential sellers. I was figuring out my career path, no thanks to my lousy broker. My broker was extremely upset that I was getting anywhere and I quite frankly couldn’t understand why he wanted to destroy me so bad when he hardly knew me. What kind of threat could I possibly be to him!?
So I’m getting ready to show my buyer a house and am getting the listing sheets etc together. Suddenly my broker says, “Oh, that house you’re showing, you need to know that the boiler is about to blow.” I thanked him for giving me the head’s up but was stunned when he added, “It is our secret! The seller and I know and the agents in the office know but no potential buyer is to know about this at all!!” Angry I responded, “Isn’t that illegal and immoral?” His response, “They will never know until after it is sold then the buyers can replace it at their own cost!”
I was beyond livid at that point! I outright refused to lie to my buyer and was asked to part ways with the company as a result of my “insubordination” to my broker. I was more than happy to do so even though it meant giving up my lifelong dreams. I was raised to be honest and forthright. I simple couldn’t bring myself down to that level no matter how much my dreams meant to me.
As I left the broker said, “By the way, I took you on because of your last name and then realized you couldn’t provide ‘favors’ for me afterwards. So basically it was a mistake having you here at all!!” I got what he meant, my uncle was Charles Luciano, AKA Lucky Luciano, the famous mobster. He thought I could get him some mob ties!!!!!
I looked him square in the eyes and said, “What are you, stupid? My uncle has been dead since before I was born! How the heck did you think I was going to pull any favors for you?” I stormed out. A few years later his business went belly up. I cannot decide if it was due to his shady dealings with his sellers or if he was simply a victim of the real estate market crash. I’m guessing it was his shady dealings to be honest.
So what happened to me? I found the man of my dreams and it turns out he builds chimneys for a living. Suddenly I found myself back in the housing industry that I love so much, running our own chimney company. And this company is not run on “favors” and shady dealings. This is one housing company that is run on honesty and integrity. And yes, I use all the education my dad handed down to me and all the schooling I took, on a daily basis, to run this company. The best part? I’m happy.
Norwegian Politician Reveal Shocking SECRET About China in 2024
What are the strangest or most eerie true crime cases you have read about?
From 1974 until 1986 a serial killer who became known as EARONS (East-Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker) terrorized a massive spree of terrible crimes. He committed at least twelve murders, fifty rapes and one hundred and twenty burglaries as well. In April 2018, the man was arrested… his name? Joseph James DeAngelo. A 72-year old retired cop.
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When they arrested DeAngelo, he appeared to be a kindly old grandfather. He lived in a house he shared with one of his adult daughters and his oldest granddaughter. When officers tried to arrest him, DeAngelo said he “had to go inside for a bit because he had a pot roast in the oven”. The cops then took him down, suspecting he was plotting to reach for a gun and either kill himself or engage them in a shootout…
There was no pot roast. What there was, however, was a house full of evidence. A shocked family who, for a year, never broke their silence in utter disbelief. And a computer, open, up and running…
Now DeAngelo was a terrifying killer. The type of killer who would go into houses, brutally attack sleeping couples and tie up husbands in the hallway with plates and cutlery on their backs as he would rape their wives nearby… and stab, shoot or bludgeon to death the poor husband if he made an attempt to escape and save his wife, causing the cutlery to fall on the floor…
He was also a former cop who “kept tabs” on the case. He stopped in the late 1980s around the time when DNA became a more commonly used source to solve crimes. Aware of his crimes, he even followed online, made accounts on message boards that recorded the case and tracked it’s development.
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Joseph James DeAngelo also stalked his victims and their families for years after the attacks. A prowler, he would get a thrill out of repeatedly entering and leaving their homes on nights prior to his home invasions, getting to know every detail, nook and cranny of his future crime scenes. After raping and murdering family members he would find their phone numbers and call them, breathing down the line and uttering profanities. On one of his last such phone calls, somewhere around the 1990s, the victim heard children in the background. This caused law enforcement to look into the possibility that their suspect may be a family man — they had previously looked for a deranged bachelor without a family.
The fact that one of the most prolific serial killers and rapists went undetected for decades and was so… seemingly normal? Terrifying. You expect some sort of freak who talks to demons in the head and dogs possessed by Satan. Not a grandfather who takes his friends fishing by boat, who lives with his daughter, is happily retired and with-the-times enough to operate a computer and browse the internet successfully in his seventies, keeping up to date with the latest police techniques. Thank God for ancestry websites… it’s how she got a match with a distant relative of DeAngelo.
DNA took down the killer. On April 24, 2018, Joseph James DeAngelo was taken in at long last. But the most chilling detail, for me? Some accounts on the case message board for internet sleuths stopped posting altogether on the day of his arrests. And one never logged in again since. The monster lurked on the forum. Chatted the people obsessed with his case and even may have “thrown them hints” here and there. Chilling.
Italian Beef Pasta
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Ingredients
1 pound beef tenderloin, cut into thin strips
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 red bell peppers, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 pound sliced mushrooms
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
2 cups beef broth
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 pound rotini pasta
Instructions
In a large skillet over medium heat sauté beef strips in hot oil until no longer pink.
Add prepared vegetables and Italian seasoning to skillet. Cook and stir for 2 to 3 minutes or until onion is softened.
Mix together broth and cornstarch until smooth. Add to meat mixture in pan; cook and stir until mixture comes to a boil and is thickened.
Meanwhile, cook pasta as directed on package.
Spoon beef mixture over prepared pasta; garnish with fresh basil if desired.
Why Asia doesn’t want warhawk Kamala in charge
What is something in the world that you feel the need to give attention to, something everyone needs to be aware of?
I want to highlight today the sad tale of Mr. Paco Larrañaga. He was convicted to die in the Philippines in 1997 for a murder and rape he not only didn’t commit… but couldn’t possibly have committed. Why? Because he was not there. Two girls were raped and murdered in Cebu in 1997, the Chiong sisters. They belonged to a rather influential and shady family. Larrañaga, on the other hand, was just a young culinary school student hoping to one day be a chef. Despite having nothing to do with the case whatsoever, he was accused, perhaps for political reasons.
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The murder took place on the island of Cebu. Larrañaga was nowhere near — he was in Manila, studying to be a chef. The night of the crime there are records of him leaving a club in Manila. Early the next day he sat for an exam. Over forty fellow students and teachers testified to this. There were no flight records of Larrañaga flying to or from Cebu at any time near the murder. And the man who claimed he was present, Rusia, a “state witness”, showed up only ten months after the event, having never even met Larrañaga. Physical evidence linking Larrañaga to the crime was never produced. No DNA, no fingerprints, flight records, nor witnesses except for this one state witness who the defense was only allowed to interview for a mere ten minutes(!) while Larrañaga was grilled for hours on end…
The judge said every single testimony from the teachers, the students, the bouncer of the club and even the airlines could not be used by Larrañaga because “they were his friends”. He was sentenced to death, later changed to life in prison when the death penalty was abolished in the Philippines. He was just nineteen years old when they arrested him and his life, for all intents and purposes, came to an end. Today, he is 45. He has been in jail for 25 years. It’s an injustice and it needs to be said. Only a presidential pardon could save this poor man’s already ruined life, but pleas seem to fall on death ears. I’ll link a petition you could sign, and would appreciate it if you did.
This is one of the most shocking cases ever to me. For some reason it gets to me, ever since I watched the documentary “Give Up Tomorrow” made about the subject. I have seen reviewed and researched the case extensively and I am appalled and astonished that a man who has been proven beyond reasonable doubt not to have been anywhere near a crime scene is still in jail wasting away for having committed that crime.
Why are U.S. entrepreneurs flying to China now?
Why do people have a problem with Ambanis and Adanis getting richer?
The China Real Estate Syndrome
Why do you think it happened?
Why a Property that cost 350K RMB in 2004 rose to cost 3.5 Million RMB in 15 years time?
At 17% per Annum
It wasn’t due to demand and supply
It was due to RAPIDLY RISING INCOME INEQUALITY between 2005 and 2017 in China
In 2005 – the Top 0.1% Chinese earned 182% of what the Median Chinese earned
By 2016 it had risen to a whopping 568%
The Richer Chinese didn’t earn their money through manufacturing or factory work
They earned their money by PAPER WEALTH
They made real estate killings, reinvested into the same real estate
They made speculative killings and invested it back in speculative markets
Luckily for the Chinese , they had a great leader like Xi Jinping who saw the situation and decided to curb it
And has brought down the number from 568% to 342% in the last 7 years
Has kept real estate prices constant so that the apartment now costs 3.28 Million RMB instead of 5.25 Million RMB that it could have risen to
It’s still not hunky dory
However China has dodged a Major Hypersonic Nuclear Weapon and managed to get hit with a dozen bullets instead
India is heading the same way
Except that in India – State does not even own the land
Our 0.1% in the last 3 years from 2021–2024 now have 1186% more rise in wealth than the Median group
In China it was 293%
In US it was 313%
In Japan it was 181%
In India it was 1200%
You catch my drift?
If this keeps up, resources will become all the more expensive and the ownership will become even more exclusive
In 20 years – we could virtually be slaves of the 0.1% unable to grow or develop even a fraction
We talk of Middle Income Trap with China
We could fall into a Low Income Trap
Solution?
In the next two decades – the 0.1% should see a wealth growth of 275% of the Median Group
That’s the only way to ensure INEQUALITY IS CONTAINED
If they keep getting richer like today, India is finished
China woke up in 2018 – luckily
We need to have woken up five years ago, given that we have a bureaucracy while they can change the rules in twenty minutes
Unless Ambani and Adani can create latest technology and earn from it
And they are too Moron to do that
A 10-year-old cat abandoned, stays at the owner’s door unwilling to leave
How effective are Taiwan’s Wan’an civil defense drills at simulating a Chinese missile attack?
Unless they’re simulating 12,000 MLRS guided rockets like a smaller version of the ATACMS in one hour. It’s completely useless.
It’s like practicing against 50 people when 10,000 will show up. What will that do? Will that really help?
You decide.
China brings a whole new dimension to modern warfare. Not only do they have advanced weapon system that is equal or better than the US, they have them in ridiculously large numbers.
They have been preparing for war with the US. So do you think Taiwan can do anything?
Right before I went into the US Army, the US invaded Panama. Operation Just Cause. Did Panama manage to fend off the US?
And Panama is over 1,800 miles. Taiwan is 100 miles off the coast of China. With no intervening nation. While Panama has the whole of Mexico between it and the US. Did that bother the US or stop the US?
Americans visiting CHINA for the first time!
As a nurse, what is the most disturbing story you can tell about a patient who was living in extreme poverty?
I was a patient in the hospital myself, which was an eye opening experience for me as an RN. I was there for a week with what turned out to be psitticosis from my new pet parakeet. (Not a fun experience.) During that time, I got to know my roommate very well.
My roommate was a widow in her mid thirties, and she was dying of cancer. She had three young children who had recently entered the foster care system. She had no friends or family to help her, and no one willing to take her kids in. She had done nothing wrong as a mother except to become so sick with cancer that she could no longer care for her children. To complicate matters, she had recently been evicted from her apartment due to the loss of her income as a result of her ongoing illness. She was now homeless.
She was also uninsured, which is why her breast cancer was left untreated until it was too late. The cancer had been detected by a routine mammogram paid for by a woman’s health clinic. She was then referred for a biopsy, then to an oncologist. The oncologist was willing to see her free of charge, yet he could not afford to pay for her chemotherapy. He informed her that she needed to try to get on Medicaid, so that the expensive chemotherapy could begin. At that time she was still working, and she made too much money to qualify for Medicaid. She made far too little money though, to purchase health insurance. (This was in 2004, before the ACA, or even Go-Fund-Me came about.) She kept working as long as she could to feed her kids while the cancer spread throughout her body.
Soon after being told that she was terminal, she received word that she had been accepted into a charity drug program paid for by the Disney corporation. They agreed to pay for her chemotherapy, except now it was too late.
While we were in the hospital, she told me over and over again that she desperately wanted to see her children. She was embarrassed by her appearance though, because as the cancer overtook her, she became so weak that she would occasionally faint. One of those falls had chipped two of her front teeth close to the gum line. This was very noticeable. When her mouth was closed, she looked normal. The minute she spoke, smiled or ate, the missing teeth were very, very apparent. Her children had never seen her without her front teeth, and she feared that she would frighten them. She longed for a partial plate or crowns to correct her appearance before her children saw her, yet she had no money for this. As a result, she planned to wear a mask over her mouth when they came instead. Sadly though, her young children were never brought to see her. Calls by her to the social worker in charge of her children’s foster care placement went unreturned. I tried to get our hospital’s social services department to help, yet nothing was ever accomplished.
My roommate had been a pre-school teacher. This isn’t a high paying job, yet it is an important one. The job, sadly, offered no benefits. Plus, due to her cancer, she had by this point not been able to work for several months.
By the time I was discharged, we had become the best of friends. I was still quite weak from my own illness, yet my hope was to have her live in my spare bedroom when she was discharged. As a nurse who only worked part time, I knew that I could care for her.
Whether she came to live with me or not, I also planned to help get her teeth fixed so that she could at least die with the dignity of a beautiful smile. I even had a dentist lined up who was willing to help. Most importantly, I planned to find some way to have her children visit regularly. I never got the chance to do any of those things though. I went to see her two days after my discharge, only to find out that she had passed away suddenly the night before, alone, homeless and toothless.
Keanu Reeves
While shooting the movie “The Lake House”, he overheard the conversation between two costume assistants, and a woman was crying because she would lose her house if she didn’t pay a sum of 20 thousand dollars. He deposited it into her account.
On his birthday in 2010, he went into a bakery alone and bought a cupcake with a single candle. While he ate it outside, he offered free coffee and bread to all customers. This was his luxury birthday.
With what he earned from the Matrix trilogy, he distributed 50 million dollars to the special effects personnel, because according to him, they were the real heroes of the films.
He almost never used stuntmen, except for very specific things like stunts, and for this reason he recognized the work of his stuntmen by giving each of them a Harley Davidson motorcycle.
To this day, he regularly uses the subway and other public transportation systems such as the bus when necessary because it is the most practical thing, and he is never ashamed.
A large number of hospitals say they have received tens of millions of dollars from him.
He donated 90% of his salary in some films so that the production could hire other stars.
In 1997, a paparazzo found him on the street sitting next to a homeless man, listening to the homeless man’s life and having breakfast with him.
All the good we know about Keanu Reeves was not told to us by him, but by those who benefited from him. He never declared anything.
For everything he has experienced, he could have had a sadder and more pessimistic view of life, but despite this he chose to be that something good among all the evil there is.
American greed…
What happened? Since when did money become EVERYTHING?
In the Summer of the 1960’s and into the 1970’s was a blur of kid activities. We would ride everywhere on our bicycles, and our parents would all have various activities for us to get involved in.
One of which was “blueberry picking”. And us kids, loved it.
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We would go ahead and eat, and pick and put the rest in a bucket. Repeat, over and over.
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Just spend hours picking the blueberries off the low bushes, and put them in the bucket.
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Take the bucket home, and then wash.
Add cream and there you have it! The perfect Summer special treat for young boys and girls.
So very Summer.
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These blueberry, blackberry, (and elderberry) bushes are everywhere in Pennsylvania. And getting those berries were a great deal of fun. It always was an all afternoon outing, and we were often taken to remote areas to collect those berries, and it was a great deal of fun for us kids.
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It’s a treasured memory for me today, and you know as you get older, you just don’t ever get this opportunity UNLESS you go out to take your kids out on their very own outings.
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Ah! Fun times.
Today…
What’s the most disrespectful thing a doctor/nurse did to you or your newborn after you gave birth?
Not me but to my aunt. Sorry, this was during birth but I decide to go ahead and post here.
During my aunt’s first 6 months of the pregnancy, she fell down 2 flights of stairs and had been taken to the hospital almost immediately as she had contractions but they sent her home with pills to stop the contractions. 8 months in and the baby tried to come out anyway, a quick trip to the emergency room we received a “You’ll be fine come back near the scheduled time.”
Two weeks later her water breaks and we rush to the hospital, her doctor is on vacation so we have a doctor sub in. This doctor quickly pissed off all the Nurses, the CRN, and the family. Did a quick test and said her water didn’t break, said we wasted her time, gave her no pain pills, and told her to eat some food and she’ll be okay.
1 hour later the baby starts to come out and the nurses rushed outside and panicked and we overheard them asking where the doctor was, “Where’s the bloody doctor?”
“She’s eating food and she said she’s not coming and she’s tired of ‘bitches faking'”. Now we’re all pissed off ready to send a complaint and sue the hospital and the doctor.
Finally, the nurse comes in starts her on the procedure, with the other nurse trying to get the sub-doctor or another doctor in the room. Then my aunt starts up a blood-curdling scream (Note that she couldn’t get any pain medication at this point) and the dreadful sound of “She’s losing too much blood!” and “The baby’s head is too big shes ripping a hole!” (I was scared having done no research or experiencing a birth before) finally, the sub burst in the door to take over delivering the baby and getting my aunt emergency surgery.
Let’s just say not only did we get compensation from the hospital, we sued twice.
1. The hospital for the birthing process and unprofessionalism.
2. The doctor for life endangerment, for abusing her license, and two more things I was told and forgot.
She lost her license, she has to pay for my cousin’s medical issues from the surgery. The hospital completely paid for the emergency surgery and we walked away satisfied.
How many countries can the Chinese withstand an attack?
From where?
From the Air – The farthest airbase cannot be more than 60 miles away right? That allows a rapid sneak attack into the airspace and out
That means Airbase or Aircraft carrier
That’s Philippines & Taiwan for Airbase and US and Japan for Aircraft carrier
You don’t expect Germany to send aircraft all those thousands of miles away do you?
From the water?
Again Japan, South Korea and US are the only possibility
India is a definite no no on the South China Sea
Too far from any Indian coastline
Okay for Maritime operations NOT FOR WAR
From the Land?
India has a border so India can make an incursion
Who else?
DPRK, Russia are not enemies
Nepal and Bhutan are way too weak
Nobody else
So worst case, the combined force against China would be :-
Aerial Air Force from US from Taiwan and Philippines
Naval Force from US, Japan and Korea along the South China Sea
Land Force from India
China has a decisive Army Group to ensure Indian Army can be countered
PLAN can easily take care of Japan and Korea
Taiwan and Philippines can be bombed to atoms in a few days
So ultimately it will be China vs USA and that’s how it will boil down to
WARNING | US Cities On Russia’s Nuclear Hit List
What are the most insane pictures of x-rays taken on people?
A collection of harrowing x-rays :-
Brutal X-ray of a man’s arm after a horrific meat grinder accident.
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X-ray shows a tear gas canister that fatally penetrated the skull of an Iraqi demonstrator during civil unrest in 2019.
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This chilling X-ray reveals the tragic end of Chen Liu, a 27-year-old man discovered in the marshlands near Sydney, Australia. He had been brutally murdered, with 34 nails shot into his body.
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In 2011, Leroy Luetscher, 86, fell on pruning shears in his yard, impaling his eye socket and neck. Despite the pain and injury, he managed to call for help. Doctors removed the shears and reconstructed his orbital floor, saving his eye.
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In 2020, the police released an X-ray image showing the severe injuries sustained by a young woman who was involved in a car crash while her feet were resting on the dashboard.
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In 2004, an X-ray showed a 5-centimeter nail in a South Korean patient’s skull. The man had a severe headache. Doctors at a Seoul hospital discovered the nail, which they believed had been there for four years after an accident, unknown to the patient.
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The X-ray image depicts the gruesome result of being shot in the elbow with a 12-gauge shotgun.
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This x-ray shows how a 16-year-old boy survived a violent incident where a 5-inch knife was impaled in his head during a robbery in London.
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In 2004, Isidro Mejia, a construction worker, had six nails embedded in his skull after a nail gun accident. Five were removed in surgery on the same day, and the sixth was extracted later, following a reduction in swelling. He survived.
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Source : X
Why do some Japanese think they are superior to Han Chinese?
Originally Answered: Why does such an overwhelming amount of Japanese think they are superior to Han Chinese?
Actually, just today I experienced something like superiority over Chinese from a Japanese.
A japanese customer of mine received his shipment late due to the Chinese National holidays. In his email to me, which I translated using google translate, it says
“You Chinese are only so so. Not efficient at all compared to us Japanese. There is no excuse for being late. We Japanese are always punctual. It is an insult to customers when we give excuse for being late. Chinese have a long way to go before they learn what it is to be at our level of existence.”
Now, firstly I’m not chinese, I’m Singaporean. I just operate from China that’s all. So I explain to him in my reply to him that I’m Singaporean and the delay is due to the Chinese National holidays where everybody is not working for a week.
His reply (which again is tranlated by google)
“So sorry for the misunderstanding. It must not be your fault then, I did not know you are not Chinese. I know Singaporeans are very professional. You would not have delayed the shipment if you do not have to. The chinese are really unbearable. It is so inefficient to have 1 week holiday. Japanese will never allow this to happen, it is a disgrace. Chinese is really only so so. It must be difficult for you to work with such people.”
At first my ego was tickled by the fact that by simply mentioning that I’m Singaporean, he thought otherwise. But then I truly felt insulted by myself for feeling like that. So my reply…
“Dear Sir, there is no excuse for such misunderstandings, it is an insult to me when you continue to practice such racism even in your reply. It makes me feels like a racist if I’m to agree with you on anything you mentioned.
As such, I would proceed to refund all monies paid by you to your account once the banks starts operating tomorrow. I will also proceed to stop the shipment from proceeding tomorrow as it is in our best interest not to deal with each other again.
Have a good life. “
So am I wrong? Or do some Japanese really does feel superior to the Chinese?
Anyway, a disclaimer, I don’t do this to all customers. I just took a look at his order which is less than 500USD and decided that I can afford to teach him a lesson. And now after I read Naoya Yamaguchi answer, I really felt better already. Thank you Naoya.
Cat Goes To Temple Every Day To Become A Buddha. You Won’t Believe What Happened To It
Years ago I worked at a psychiatric hospital in inner-city Chicago as a relatively-inexperienced RN.
While covering the adolescent unit overnight, I enjoyed listening to the stories told by two of our more seasoned and perceptive mental health technicians. These guys were physically imposing, youngish men of color who had grown up in the neighborhood and had pretty much seen it all, and usually more than once.
They found me intriguing for the same reason I found them to be so: Namely, that with my white middle-class small-town self, my first-person perceptions struck them as not simply different from their own but basically hilarious if not downright outrageous.🤭
They would often reminisce about growing up on the city’s south side, being mostly raised by a feisty grandma, getting whooped by this same 90-lb. grandma for doing crazy stuff that could have resulted in serious bodily harm or worse, and about eating bacon fat sandwiches for those last few days each month until grandma’s social security check came in.
Their impressions of white people were mostly informed by television sit coms and commercials, but also a roughly two-year stint they had done together at a sister psych facility on Chicago’s much-tonier lakeshore:
One night they related the story of a depressed and tearful adolescent boy who had confided during a unit group therapy session that he knew. KNEW. That his parents didn’t love him and in fact, had obviously NEVER loved him. His proof? On his 16th birthday his parents had gifted him with a brand-new Mercedes in his favorite color, blue.
Perplexed, one of my tech buddies had gently inquired of the boy how, exactly, this indicated his parents didn’t love him?
Between agonized sobs, the teen managed to choke out that he had wanted a blue BMW, not the BLUE MERCEDES BENZ!!
I don’t know if that screams upper class to everybody but it sure did to my workmates in that place and time.
Tortiglioni with Spicy Sausage Sauce
This recipe calls for only 6 ounces of meat, so it is good if want to cut down on meat in your diet. (I usually have to make meatballs in a separate sauce for MY family! LOL!)
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Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
2 large garlic cloves, crushed
1 fresh red chile, seeded and chopped
1 pound ripe Italian plum tomatoes, peeled and finely chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2/3 cup red wine
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
12 ounces dried tortiglioni (or use rigatoni, penne, or ziti)
6 ounces spicy salami, rind removed (I sometimes use pepperoni)*
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, to garnish
Grated Parmesan cheese, to serve
Instructions
Heat oil and add onion, celery garlic and chili and cook gently, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes, until softened.
Add tomatoes, tomato paste, wine, sugar, salt and pepper to taste and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Lower heat, cover and simmer gently, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes. Add a few spoonsful of water occasionally if the sauce becomes too thick.
Meanwhile, cook pasta.
Chop the salami into bite-size pieces and add to the sauce. Heat through, then taste for seasoning.
Drain pasta and put into large bowl, pour sauce on top and toss to mix.
Scatter parsley on top and serve with grated cheese.
Notes
* Buy the salami in one piece so that you can chop it into large chunks.
What’s the most unprofessional thing a doctor has said to you?
I was 22 or 23 years old, married less than a year, when my husband, R., had his first gout attack. At the time I had long blonde hair and weighed about 100 pounds, so I looked like I was maybe 16 years old.
My husband went to his family doctor, who put him on two drugs. I’m a firm believer in asking doctors questions, so at R’s first check-up after going on the medications I asked for information about them. The doctor explained it this way:
“There are three drugs we use for gout. There’s one that we give to patients who are in the middle of a gout attack; it’s a powerful pain reliever and is one of the drugs I prescribed for R. He’s off of it now. The other two drugs are for maintenance. Since gout is caused by uric acid crystals in the blood stream we can treat it either by forcing the kidneys to remove more uric acid or by encouraging the body to produce less uric acid. I prescribed the drug that tells the kidneys to work harder.”
I thought about that for a moment, and then said “R. already has albuminuria (a marker of kidney problems); don’t you think it might be safer to use the drug that won’t cause further stress to his kidneys?”
Well, apparently this doctor wasn’t used to having his judgment questioned by the wife of a patient, or else he wasn’t used to having it questioned by a “mere girl,” because rather than actually considering my suggestion he decided to lie. He said, “R. has been on this drug for a month now and we know that it’s working. If I take him off of it, and it then turns out that the other drug won’t do the job for him, when I put him back on it he may have developed an allergy to it. And that would mean that there’s nothing we can do for his gout; the crystals will get into his organs and he’ll die horribly.”
It was the first time a doctor lied to me, so I didn’t recognize it as a lie; even now I only know that it was a lie because a good doctor who is also a friend has told me so. But at the time I accepted it and didn’t push the issue, a mistake I’ve never made again.
My husband died almost two and a half years ago, after discontinuing dialysis. I visited him in the nursing home every day, even after he stopped recognizing me. It isn’t a good way to go.
If I thought that doctor was still alive I don’t know what I’d do; it’s been too long to report him for malpractice (almost 50 years), but I will never forgive him for what he did to my husband.
I had been walking in the desert for what seemed like days. I was thirsty. My radiator went kaput somewhere on I-10 last night. No cell reception out here. The desert night comforted me—beautiful stars and comet trails. But after the sun rose, the temperature shot up far too quickly. By the time the sun was directly overhead, my legs felt like rubber and my tongue was swollen.
In the distance, what looked like a town from the Old West arose. One dirt road split two rows of shabby buildings. “Water,” I said out loud to myself. I blinked five or six times to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating. Mirages of water on the horizon had been fooling me all morning, but this looked different. A tumbleweed blew by. A vulture landed on top of a barrel cactus. A scorpion crawled up my leg and I brushed it away.
When I got to town, I pinched myself to make sure it was all real. A saloon with faint piano music welcomed me on the right and an empty sheriff’s office slept on the left. The saloon probably had water so I walked through its two swinging half doors. My tongue felt like it was the size of a shoe sole.
The saloon was empty except for a bartender with a long, white beard and a Victorian woman playing an upright tack piano. The woman’s song was familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I’d heard it before. It didn’t sound like something you would hear in a saloon, though. It was almost a slow waltz, but the timing was complex, in three, then three, then two.
“Whatcha drinkin’, partner?” the bartender said.
“Wawa,” I said. My mouth wasn’t working.
“Haha,” the bartender said. “Looks like you got the thirst real good.”
The bartender pulled out a vanity hand mirror and handed it to me, pointing at my tongue. My tongue was the size of a saucer, inflamed and inflated like a balloon.
“The name’s Smitty,” the bartender said. “I reckon you prolly want some water. Water ain’t cheap out here, sonny. It’ll cost you. Cost you big.”
I pulled a hundred dollar bill out of my wallet and offered it to Smitty.
“You’re money ain’t no good here,” he said. Smitty pulled a pint glass down from the shelf and poured some clear, crisp, water into it from a barrel that had a tap. He placed the glass in front of me. I reached for it. He pulled it away.
“Hold on, now. I’ll give this here water to you, but you have to promise to do me a favor,” Smitty said.
“O-way, o-way,” I said.
He gave me the glass and I poured it straight into my throat and into my belly. A few seconds later, my tongue shrunk and I felt much better.
“Thank you, Smitty,” I said, panting in relief.
“Charlene plays the piano real nice, don’t she?” Smitty said.
“Why yes,” I said.
“Charlene’s in trouble, see,” Smitty said. “I’m gonna call in that favor today if it’s all the same.”
“Sure,” I said.
“I need you to shoot Terrible Ted for me,” Smitty said.
I felt my stomach hit the floor, not literally, like my tongue probably would have had I not gotten some water.
“I can’t shoot nobody,” I said.
“Well then, I ain’t givin’ you no more water,” Smitty said. I felt my tongue begin to tingle again. It swelled ever so slightly.
“And if I shoot Terrible Tim—”
“Ted”
“Terrible Ted. What then?”
“You can put your mouth on this here tap spigot for all I care. All the water here is yours,” Smitty said.
“What about the Sherriff? Won’t I get thrown in jail for shooting someone?”
“Nope,” Smitty said.
“How do you know?” I said.
“Terrible Ted done shot the sheriff. And now, he want’s to make off with my Charlene.” Charlene continued with her odd, cut time waltz.
“I ain’t got a gun, Smitty.”
Smitty unbuckled a belt and holster from his waist and put the bundle of revolver and bullets on the bar. “Here you go,” he said.
“Where do I find, Ted?”
“He’ll be here at sundown.”
“What does he look like?”
“You can’t miss him. Big, tall, dresses in all black. You know, how you’d expect someone named Terrible Ted to look.”
“What is this place?” I said.
“Tiny Town.”
“Wha—”
Suddenly, my tongue began to swell and I couldn’t speak.
“Yeah, you prolly have a ton of questions, like “Is this real?,” “Why is my tongue getting so big?,” “Why is Charlene playing Radiohead?”
“Waydiowed!” I pushed out. My tongue was getting fatter by the minute.
“Yeah, I don’t care for them that much. Singer sounds like a drowning cat. She likes that there ‘Pyramid Song,’ so I like it, too. Bout all she plays, anyway.”
“What wime wis it?” I asked.
“3:30. You got ‘bout an hour and a half till showtime.”
“Oh wime?”
“Ted.”
“Oh.”
I wandered out of the saloon and onto Main Street. A tumbleweed crossed my path. My tongue hurt. If I strained my eyes, I could see the swollen end of it in my lower field of vision. A vulture landed on a hitching post to my right. It squawked at me. I sat in a rocking chair on a porch not a few yards from the saloon. A scorpion ran across my pant leg and I brushed it off. I fell asleep.
I awoke to the sound of a slow pile driver banging in the distance. My swollen tongue made it difficult for me to turn my head. My tongue was the size of an inner tube and hung down below my belt.
When I did catch a look at the pile driver, it wasn’t a pile driver. It was a twelve foot tall man, dressed in black, walking slowly and heavily into town.
“Teywible Ted,” I tried to say.
Ted made his way to the middle of the street on the other end of Tiny Town. The town proper was maybe fifty yards end to end, so he wasn’t too far from me.
Terrible Ted stood in the middle of the street with his hands about six inches from his side. From where I sat, he looked like a cross between just about every western character you could imagine. His head was square like John Wayne’s. He was scruffy like Buford Mad Dog Tannen. His build was like Clint Eastwood, but twice as large.
“Draw!” Terrible Ted said.
I jumped up from my chair, walked to the road, and turned to face Terrible Ted.
My tongue throbbed of fire. It hurt so badly that I would have gladly shot Ted just to make it all stop. From the sight of things, Ted was going to shoot me anyway. I’d might as well try to defend myself.
“Draw!” he said.
I pulled the revolver from my side belt and pulled the trigger. My shot landed ten feet in front of Ted.
Ted pulled his revolver and shot me. His bullet hit my tongue, but the bullet bounced off of it. While the throbbing continued, the impact of the bullet was insensate.
“Draw!” he said.
I fumbled the revolver from my side and took a shot. This time, the bullet was closer, but hit short, just in front of Ted’s black boots.
Then, Ted shot me again in the tongue. I felt nothing.
Before he could say “draw” again, I pulled the revolver up with both hands, lined Ted up in my sights as well as I could, and pulled the trigger. This time, I shot him right between the eyes. He fell backwards and hit the ground with a resonant thud. I twirled the revolver around my finger, like they do in the movies, but I didn’t know how to land it in my holster.
My tongue was on fire and nearly dragging on the ground now. I went into the bar. Smitty was gone. Charlene and her tack piano interpretation of Radiohead were also gone. I put my mouth under Smitty’s water barrel and pulled the spigot. Water cascaded into my mouth. My tongue began to shrink. I kept drinking. The barrel seemed to never run out. I kept drinking. Then, I passed out.
I awoke to a splitting headache. The fluorescent lights didn’t help. The walls were white and the room was cold. My tongue hurt like it was on fire, but in stead of being a big fat inner tube hanging from my mouth, it was just a little swollen and wrapped in a bandage.
“Mr. Simmons, you’re awake,” a soft, pleasant voice said from the hall.
“Tharlene?” I tried to say.
“Yes, I’m Nurse Charlene. I will let Dr. Smith know you are awake.”
“Wha’ happen?”
“You were stung in the tongue by a scorpion,” she said.
“And, lucky to be alive,” Dr. Smith said. He swept into the room, grabbed the medical chart, and scratched his well groomed white beard.
“That bandage on your tongue can come off tomorrow,” he continued.
“Wher ‘m I?” I tried to say.
“Desert Town Medical. Highway patrol found your vehicle thirty miles south of here. A construction crew laying tar saw you wandering around, delirious. Another hour and you would have been done for.”
“Sorpion?” I asked.
“Yeah, only one critter leaves a sting like that. Had to be a scorpion. Never seen one prick someone in the tongue, though. Must a felt like your tongue was the size of Idaho. You probably hallucinated a bit, too.”
Before I could attempt to speak, Dr. Smith continued, “We’ll keep you over night and then send you on your way.”
“Buh—”
“Your car? We towed it here for you. Mechanic said it just needed some coolant. Topped you off, too. He’ll send you a bill for the tow and tune up. We’re glad you’re alive son.”
My head spun. Nurse Charlene and Dr. Smith left the room. Moments later, Charlene returned with some water and a few pamphlets. “Here’s some light reading for you, if you’re up for it. Sorry we don’t have a television.”
One pamphlet read: “The History of Desert Town: From Tiny Town to the Best Kept Secret in the Desert.” The pamphlet showed Tiny Town, as it appeared to me, from the saloon, to the dirt road through the middle.
I drank the water, felt my tongue’s bandage on the roof of my mouth, and was grateful to be alive.
The next day, I drove on. On the way out of town, I passed a road paving crew. Their large black tar machine had broken down. “Terrible Ted” was spray painted on its rear.
Is China powerful enough to invade the Philippines? How long would it take for the Chinese to land their feet in Manila?
Hi Don Wynn. Since you ask a naive question, it is better that i give you a naive answer. Actually China scare the hell out of Philippines during the recent confrontation with chinese coast guards only armed with axe ( presumably to prevent suicides of filipinos soldiers) to confront filipino soldiers fully armed with rifles who refuse to shoot but instead surrender their rifles to the chinese coast guards.
After a week, a Philippines trawler exploded and sunk in Chinese water. Fisherman was saved but not arrested and hand over the survivors back to Philippines.
Literally means that China is not interested in colonising Philippines but only claim what belongs to the chinese as compare to America that colonised Texas, Hawaii, Guam, etc and now most likely Philippines.
Trump’s program for America, end of globalism
The Duran
Why is the US doing such a bad job countering China’s rise?
The United States’ inadequate response to China’s rise is nothing short of a geopolitical blunder, driven by fear, misinformation, and a Cold War mentality that is both outdated and counterproductive.
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The reality is that America’s attempts to counterbalance China have been fundamentally flawed because they are based on misperceptions and misguided strategies, failing to recognize the true dynamics of China’s growth and influence.
At the core of the U.S.’s ineffective approach lies a significant misunderstanding of modern China. The American narrative, largely shaped by the media, often portrays China as an oppressive, backward nation on the brink of collapse, rife with human rights abuses and economic instability. This skewed perception leads to policies based on fictional threats rather than the real, evolving landscape of a rapidly advancing China. Operating under these misconceptions ensures that the U.S. is often preparing for battles that do not exist while neglecting the actual areas where China excels.
One area where U.S. strategies have particularly fallen short is technological competition. In its bid to restrict Chinese access to advanced technologies, the U.S. has inadvertently spurred China to double down on self-reliance and innovation. Efforts to curtail entities like Huawei have backfired, with China making significant strides in fields like 5G, AI, and quantum computing. The launch of the Huawei Mate 60, with its domestically-produced 5G chip, serves as a testament to how U.S. actions have often spurred China’s technological advancements instead of stalling them.
The economic interdependence between the U.S. and China adds another layer of complexity. Despite attempts to sever ties and decouple the economies, the sheer scale of trade and investment links makes this next to impossible without causing significant harm to both sides. U.S. industries, from agriculture to tech, are deeply integrated with China, and measures like tariffs and sanctions often backfire, harming American businesses and prompting severe pushback. This economic entanglement means that any attempt to counter China must be meticulously calculated to avoid mutual economic downfall.
Globally, the U.S.’s attempts to isolate China have frequently missed the mark. China continues to bolster its influence through initiatives like the Belt and Road and expanding its reach within organizations like BRICS. These efforts have allowed China to create strong economic and diplomatic ties, countering U.S. attempts at isolation and even attracting nations traditionally allied with the U.S. to engage more with Beijing for economic and strategic benefits.
Back home, the United States faces its internal challenges that further impede its ability to effectively respond to China’s rise. Issues like political polarization, economic inequality, and a lack of coherent industrial policy hinder America’s global competitiveness. While China focuses on coordinated, long-term investments in infrastructure, technology, and education, the U.S. is often stuck in partisan gridlock, lacking the collective focus needed for such bold initiatives.
The U.S. military-industrial complex also exacerbates this situation. Driven by vested interests in perpetuating conflict narratives, this complex steers the U.S. towards military solutions over diplomatic and economic engagement. The legacy of a Cold War mentality, fueled by defense contractors and hawkish policymakers, perpetuates hardline stances that ultimately isolate potential allies and destabilize international relations.
Furthermore, efforts by the U.S. to persuade its allies to decouple from China have seen limited success. Countries with significant economic ties to China, like Germany and France, resist pressure to align too closely with U.S. demands, prioritizing their economic interests over geopolitical maneuvering. These nations understand that a balanced approach with both global powers often yields better outcomes, highlighting a divergence in interests that complicates U.S. strategies.
Ultimately, the U.S. needs a fundamental shift in how it perceives and engages with China. Strategies based on misinformation, fear, and outdated Cold War thinking are doomed to fail. To effectively navigate China’s rise, the U.S. must first acknowledge the realities of China’s strengths and aspirations. Only by understanding this true China can America develop policies that are responsive and constructive, fostering global stability and mutual growth rather than ongoing contention and rivalry.
ACDC – It’s a Long Way to the Top If You Wanna Rock N Roll (Extended)
Rockin’ them bagpipes.
Why do European people stop traveling to the USA?
A few years ago my family and I were eating at JFK. My daughter was in a chair, my two year in a stroller. Out of nowhere an airport cop came up screaming that I needed to strapy child into the stroller and now! This was apparently a very dangerous thing, a kid sitting in a stroller doing nothing but looking about at people passing.
Due to the imbalance of power and not wanting to miss my flight I didn’t point out that (a) I am the parent not her, (b) I decide (c) I didn’t need my kid or family to be shouted at, a simple discussional tone would have worked (d) she could genuinely go fuck herself and she really left us thinking, fuck this place we’re outta here.
I like the US, but have no idea why anyone with a uniform can’t just act like an adult and not a completely paranoid schizo.
Dog rescue
Rigatoni with Olives and Bacon
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Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
6 slices bacon
1/2 large onion, thinly sliced
8 ounces dried rigatoni (or other small pasta)
12 pitted and chopped cured black olives (such as Kalamata)
1 to 2 ounce piece Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped marjoram or thyme (optional)
Instructions
In medium skillet, cook bacon until crisp (reserve drippings); blot, coarsely chop and set aside.
In bacon drippings, sauté onion until soft and just beginning to brown, about 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions, drain and transfer to warm serving platter or large shallow bowl.
Toss pasta with bacon, onion and olives. Season with salt and pepper to taste; toss again.
Use a vegetable peeler to cut the Parmesan cheese into thin shavings.
Sprinkle the cheese over the pasta and top with the fresh herb, if desired.
If Trump believes that Taiwan is not worth fighting over, and most Taiwanese are against fighting China, what are the options for the DPP-led government in Taiwan?
Lay low until Trump is done then wait for another US President who wants to make trouble for China.
But no matter what, it won’t make any difference. Taiwan is part of China and nothing the US can do will change that. And since the US isn’t willing to kill a bunch of US soldiers to try and take Taiwan, the Separatists are a lost cause.
Even if the US by some miracle wins, China can take it back in 10 years. After all the US can’t move Taiwan.
It was a lost cause from the beginning. It was always something the US used to harass China. Try to weaken China, somehow. It hasn’t worked by has made the US look like a bully.
The timing of the Battle of Midway; 6 months after Pearl Harbor.
The battle against Japan turned within a year after the war started.
Liberal democracy is not suitable for big nations. it has already been proven :
UK with just 68M people is rotting away…. It is a mess today.
US with just 342M people is also rotting away…. It is a bigger mess today.
India with 1.45B people is full of political promises to be this and that but they can’t get their act together for ages………
In contrast, China with 1.42B people is progressing in leaps and bounds in growing their economy, transforming their style of governance to a socialist democracy with their own unique characteristics, advancing in all fields of advanced technologies, alleviating abject poverty, implementing common prosperity measures….. Nationalism is key, not individualism!
I think Democracy works for small nations less that 15M people and liberalism have to be curtailed. If it is not based on meritocracy, it will DEFINITELY fail altogether. How can a leader who is not meritocratic be an elected leader of people who are smarter than him?
What are man’s greatest fears?
Just the other day I read a story of the ship the Britannia, which had been sunk by the Germans in 1941. So picture this… 249 men are dead and your ship lost. You’re floating on the South Atlantic. Everywhere you look around you, you see nothing but this vast mass of water… a man named Raymond Edmund Grimani Cox, a Lieutenant, was in a small boat with some other soldiers, having survived the disaster.
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And then a giant arm comes out from the side of the boat. An enormous slimy tentacled arm, and another, and another… they’re several meters long, thick, and covered in huge tentacle suckers. Lieutenant Grimani Cox is grabbed by one of the monstrous arms, and left profusely bleeding even after he manages to stab it repeatedly until it lets him go. Another one of his friends isn’t so fortunate — he’s lifted in the air, then dragged kicking and screaming down in the deep with the monster. One moment he’s there, shouting, fighting for dear life… and then, he isn’t. He’s gone. The giant squid is gone, too. All that’s left is the wounded men, the battered boat and that enormous ocean, now deadly quiet…
There’s hardly anything as scary in this world than the ocean, and the monsters that lurk in its deepest depths. Whales have been found with the scars of enormous squid tentacles, scars that, by their size, suggest specimens far larger than any of the creatures ever discovered and measured with human eyes. Nothing on God’s green earth frightens me more intensely.
Lavrov’s Bold Speech at the UN Causes Shockwaves Globally!
Is it true that China is the only ancient civilization that continues to this day? Or is it only recognized by Chinese themselves?
To China and Chinese, civilization is indicated by writing. Without writing, a culture can’t be a civilization. The Chinese word for civilization is 文明, literally “to understand the written word” or “the written word brightens”. This is why Chinese people believe that Chinese civilization is the last remaining continuous cradle of civilization in history, as it’s the only cradle of civilization whose writing has not been abandoned.
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Archaeological site of the Shang palace
In the world, the known cradles of civilization are:
Sumer: Cuneiform abandoned, later to be rediscovered and needed to be deciphered by a European (Georg Friedrich Grotefend)
Egypt: Hieroglyphs abandoned, later to be rediscovered and needed to be deciphered by a European (Jean-François Champollion)
Harappa: Harappan script abandoned and still undeciphered, whose civilization was first rediscovered by a European (John Marshall)
Mesoamerica: Mesoamerican scripts abandoned, later needed to be deciphered by Europeans (mainly, the Mayan script was deciphered by Yuri Knorozov)
Peru: Peruvian quipu abandoned, still undeciphered, but quite controversial as many don’t consider quipu to be a writing system
Minoan: Minoan scripts abandoned, only deciphered Linear B, but quite controversial as many don’t consider Minoan civilization to be a cradle of civilization, but was instead influenced by Egypt and Mesopotamia
Meanwhile, the Chinese script has yet been abandoned, but merely evolved over time. The Shang dynasty, whose oracle bones were rediscovered by Chinese archaeologist Luo Zhenyu, had the same writing system as modern Chinese, just evolved in forms, meaning texts in oracle bones can be fully rendered in modern Chinese script.
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Oracle bone of the Shang
In fact, the Shang script was so developed in its form that it could not have sprung up over night. There must’ve been a predecessor to it, and many believe that earlier dynasties had already used a form of proto-writing (which later evolved into Shang script). Archaeologists have discovered many symbols dating to as early as 6000 years ago with forms resembling the Shang script.
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Using oracle bone script to render Tang dynasty poetry
So if you consider writing systems as the litmus test for civilizations, then yes, China is indeed the last continuous cradle of civilization on earth. Also notice how I said “cradle of civilization” and not civilization, because that’s how Chinese say it. Secondary civilizations whose writing systems were adopted from someone else like Japan, Rome, Aztec, Kush, Greece, Akkad, Persia, etc. are not considered in this category.
To those who argue against it, what do you consider the litmus test for a continuous civilization?
Some of my latest art
My prompt for this AI generation group is;
Create a anatomically-accurate, photo realistic, Baroque-style oil painting. two soft and feminine attractive Chinese woman are on a clipper ship, lounging next to a handsome muscular man.
They are drinking wine and eating grapes . in front of them is Dionysus the Greek god . wine, and pleasure. He is enticing them on.
the god Faunus is laughing, and everyone else is smiling and blessing the scene.
the woman's skin radiates in warmth and glows softly. bright light. beautiful day. lush colors. a hint of chiaroscuro that contrasts the light sun lit portions with the shadier sections.
I used [1] the Albedo base XL (fine tuned) generation model, with [2] the”Digital Painting” element seed. Some also were also additionally modified using [3] the “Prompt Magic” plug in. But the results were not worth the cost in “chit usage”.
This resulted in many nudes or partial nudes. This is directly attributed to the use of the “Digital painting” element seed.
When I added the “Prompt Magic” plug in, they became fully clothed, but also lost some of the “fresh innocence” look that I was striving for.
Resulting in some of these amazing images…
High quality, but slow loading. Sorry.
@art Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 0(41)@art Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 3(33)@Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 2(34)@Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 3(32)@Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 2(33)@art Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 1(37)@art Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 0(38)@Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 3(31)@art Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 2(32)@Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 1(36)@art Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 3(30)@art Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 0(36)@art Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 1(34)@art Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 2(30)@aer Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 3(21)@Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 2(22)@@art Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 2(20)
My idea is to select a few of these and then paint them in oils on a nice canvas. What do you all think?
Is it true that the US blew up the Nord Stream pipelines and not Russia as alleged by the EU?
The Swedish Navy knows who did it. They won’t tell you who it was, though, and they probably don’t have the first clue why.
Here goes:
Thursday, September 22nd: Swedish naval vessels leave the naval base at Karlskrona. Transponder data says they went to a few km east of the place where the gas leaks were later detected. There, the transponder was turned off.
Friday, September 23rd: Transponders are turned on a few km west of the later gas leaks. Vessels go to the nearby port of Simrishamn, return to the site of the later gas leaks. Transponders turned off again.
Saturday, September 24th: Transponders turned off close to the second gas leak site. Vessels round the Danish island of Bornholm. When close to the first gas leak site, transponders are turned off again.
Sunday, September 25th: Transponders turned on. The vessels are now close to the Russian exclave Kaliningrad, where the Russian Baltic Sea fleet has a base.
Monday, September 26th: KABOOM. According to experts, explosive charges might have been laid down in advance and detonated remotely.
Transponder data can be faked, and has been in the past. This time, though the Swedish Armed Forces have verified that they had vessels at those places at those times.
Now, what could possibly have happened here?
Maybe, just maybe, they got indications of unusual underwater activity, went to investigate, and followed a submarine to Kaliningrad.
Rest assured that NATO has a more complete picture than this.
A 1990s preview of what Social Media will bring.
These old MVs are like a time machine.
Snap! – Rhythm is a Dancer
What is the average lifespan of an electric car? Are there any common issues with electric cars, such as high maintenance costs or expensive battery replacements?
We don’t know yet. But initial indications are that electric vehicles (EVs) will outlast gas mobiles.
The Nissan Leaf became available in 2011 and the Tesla model S in 2012 in limited numbers. There are now (as of 2024) more than 40 million EVs in the world. There simply has not been enough time to determine the real world lifespan of EVs. There are lots of projections and evidence that they will average more than 15 years. But no hard numbers.
The average lifespan of a gas mobile is 12 years and 200,000 miles (322,000 km). Fifty years ago cars were considered to be junk if they reached 100,000 miles. So, the automobile industry is clearly getting better at vehicle longevity.
The major concern with respect to EVs is the lifespan of the high voltage battery pack. Electric motors clearly have a far longer lifespan than a gas engine, typically 15 to 20 years. The drive train of an EV is also much simpler and expected to last 15 to 20 years. There is no automatic transmission or clutch for an EV, just a reduction gear to reduce the speed of the electric motor to the speed needed for the wheels. So, no shifting of gears and fewer mechanical parts to wear out. The electric motors are variable speed, they directly drive the wheels via the reduction gear. EV electric motors have about 20 moving parts compared to about 2000 for a gas engine.
The US federal government requires EV manufacturers to offer an eight-year/100,000-mile warranty on all EV batteries. This law was actually implemented at the request of the EV manufacturers, they know new buyers are worried about the longevity of the battery pack. Tesla warranties both th
e battery pack and drive train for 8 years.
An EV battery should not be compared to a smartphone battery. Both use lithium batteries but the EV battery is temperature controlled (in most cases with a liquid coolant and heat pump). Heat is the enemy of all lithium battery chemistries.
Another big factor is that not all of the capacity of an EV battery pack is made available for driving. You will see a state of charge (SOC) indicator on the dashboard that goes from 0% to 100% but that is probably only about 90% of the true battery capacity. EV manufacturers don’t publish specs for this, it’s a grey area they don’t want the public to know about. So, if you run an EV down to 0% you will probably get another 10 or 20 miles of range but when it finally does stop moving you will notice that the lights and display and power windows still work. The battery is not really at 0% SOC and that helps the longevity of the battery.
In addition to that, most EV owners don’t charge above 80% or let the SOC drop below 20% for daily use. For road trips it’s okay to charge to 90% or 100% and let the SOC drop to around 10% before charging. But don’t do that for daily use.
The available data for Teslas indicate they lose about 2% of capacity the first year and 1% each year after that. So a loss of 11% after ten years. Not a big deal but something to consider since EVs have much less range than a gas mobile.
Gas mobiles have had over 100 years of research and development and EVs have had less than 15 years (the electric cars powered by lead acid batteries don’t count). EV batteries are getting better every year, they provide more range and charge faster, and the cost of the battery packs is dropping steadily. The longevity of the battery packs is increasing too.
The big news lately for EV batteries is something called Lithium iron phosphate (LFP, sometimes abbreviated LiFePO4). They are being installed in less expensive, shorter range EV models. The Teslas manufactured in China all have LFP batteries. If you want a long-lived EV you might be better off going for the cheapie model. LFP batteries have 3 to 5 times the longevity of nickel based lithium batteries like NMC and NCA. The expectation is that they will last 1,118,000 miles (1,800,000 km) until battery capacity drops to 80%. Of course you can still drive an EV that has lost 20% of its capacity, you just have less range. The downside of EVs with LFP battery packs is shorter range and poor cold weather performance.
It will take several more years before it is clear which EV manufacturers have the best reliability and longevity.
My Awful, Cheating Ex Is Toothless & Living In A Tent, While I Am Now Living The Dream
My mother was afraid that I would drop out of college at the university. And it was a real concern. So many of our friends were dropping out of school. So she had this idea. She got me a job at a coal mine. And she went out of her way to make sure it was a hard life. In her mind, the harder the better.
And that was my first introduction to working.
I started working at a very young age, and my parents had to sign a waver to allow me to work as I was under the age of 16. But, you know, both my parents felt that I needed to have the harsh life lessons early on. That I needed to see what a paycheck was, and what deductions were.
Of course, they didn’t feel this way about my sisters. They could live an easy life; go to the games, be cheerleaders. Have an allowance, and visit the mall.
Even my younger brother was spared the working life, for some reason that I never got a straight answer to.
Anyways, the very first task that I was assigned on my first day of work was to scrub out all the trash cans by hand. Oh, sure, it wasn’t necessary. But it was part of the new-hire “hazing” of us younger guys.
For whatever it is worth, when my daughter gets older, I will give her a work experience, briefly. And following that; a heavy does of running her own business,.
Maybe a vending machine business. Or something along those lines. Simple, with hands-on activity.
I believe that it is my job: my role to provide these skills, and NOT to rely on the public school system to take over that responsibility.
I know. I am weird. But it’s my strong point of view on this matter.
Today…
New Orleans Pepper Steak
New Orleans Pepper Steak
Ingredients
Steak
2 steaks suitable for grilling (T-bone, porterhouse, etc.)
1 tablespoon cracked or coarse ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon Colgin’s liquid smoke
2 large cloves garlic, crushed or 1 teaspoon garlic paste
New Orleans Steak Butter
3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon finely minced fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce or Colgin’s liquid smoke
Instructions
Steak
Prepare the steaks for the grill about 1/2 hour ahead of time. Rub the two steaks with all of the ingredients using 1/2 for each steak.
Grill over hot coals to desired degree of doneness. The amount of pepper used can be varied according to your taste but do not increase the amount of garlic. The garlic cooks with the steaks and will not be overwhelming. Serve with the Steak Butter.
New Orleans Steak Butter
Just before putting the steaks on the grill, prepare the sauce. Put the butter in a small saucepan and melt over low heat. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook over low heat until the parsley is wilted. Keep the sauce warm and serve over the steaks as soon as they are done.
A Chinese non-military official once said:
If China had provided military assistance to Russia, Russia would have won and the war would have ended long ago..
Through this joint anti-terrorism military exercise with Belarus, the United States and the West will believe that Chinese officials are not saying this casually.
Instead of spending a lot of energy to dispel rumors, it is better to actually prove it to you! — If the Russian army has a large army of combat robot dogs and combat drones, can Ukraine still resist it?
The United States does not have the capacity to go to war with China, and the politicians in Washington have not yet realized this.
The U.S. flaunts its military prowess to China without realizing that China’s industrial output has far surpassed that of the United States.
Industrial capacity is important for war because you have to produce ammunition, missiles, and countless drones.
It would be very dangerous for the US to go to war with China in the face of a gap in industrial capacity.
If the Chinese offer a peace proposal, you better say yes or their people will be happier than you.
What is a scary or disturbing fact that is 100% true?
On January 15th 1919 a tank filled with 2.3 Million gallons of molasses burst and sent a tsunami of slow pouring sticky substance that was said to be 40 foot high and weighing more than 13,000 metric tons through the streets of Boston killing 21 people and injuring many more. The molasses being much denser than water carried a great deal of potential energy with it.
The wave of molasses crested some 8 meters high in places and travelled at 35 miles per hour through the streets. Buildings didn’t stand a chance and horrifically people became stuck in the sticky substance. The unlucky ones were stuck under the surface and died. As the molasses was so heavy a rush of sweet smelling air proceeded it and knocked people of their feet only to be engulfed by the tsunami. In total 21 people were killed and 150 people injured across a 800 meter long trail of destruction.
Rescue efforts were very difficult and anyone who ventured into the area to search for survivors became stuck. Eventually most of the molasses was washed into the harbour using salt water. It stained the Boston harbour a deep brown for over an half a year. It was also reported that people tracked the molasses across the city making everything unpleasantly sticky for weeks, if anyone has kids you would know the torment of sticky messes. And for many years to come it was reported that on hot sunny days the air in Boston smelt of molasses.
They Lied To You About CHINA: This is SHENZHEN!
How do they cook the chicken at KFC? If they actually make it, wouldn’t they notice that they’re cooking lungs and things?
KFC was my first job when I was a teenager, but I remember a lot about the place.
Our chicken was always fresh; chilled, but not frozen. It was supplied by a local poultry company, and already cut into pieces; leg, thigh, breast, & wing. There was nothing really special about the chicken itself; the poultry supplier supplied numerous other restaurants with chicken, so it was all actually chicken.
We only had original recipe in those days. The pieces were dipped in a milk and egg dip (powdered mixed with water), and then dredged in seasoned flour. The seasoning (11 herbs & spices) came in a packet that we mixed with a bag of flour (10# I think). We did all this on a breading table, and had the chicken pieces in a basket ready for the fryer. The chicken was placed in the hot oil, and cooked in these huge pressure cookers for 20 minutes. We had a special clock on the wall for timing; when the pressure lids were put on, we would write the time it was to be done on the stove with a white grease pencil. (I think it is more automated now).
When the chicken was ready, we would dump the entire contents of the pot out on a fryer table, where the vegetable oil would drain off and collect in the bottom, and then the chicken pieces were placed into a Crescor, which was a steam cabinet to keep the pieces warm and moist, ready to be served to the customer. The oil was filtered, and we would refill the pots from the fryer table, ready to go again.
We would make gravy too, using a gravy mix and water. We would add some of the left-over crumbs from the bottom of the fryer to season it, sort of like using pan drippings to make gravy at home.
We also had gizzards from time-to-time that we would cook in the same way as the regular chicken pieces, except the gizzards had to be cooked longer.
In all my experience, I never ever saw a piece cooked or served that wasn’t a normal piece of chicken purchased locally. I’ve heard rumors that KFC uses genetically modified chickens that would have six drumsticks or fifteen wings or something equally as freaky. But I can assure you that is nothing more than the product of a myth and an overactive imagination. And they don’t serve lungs or any other entrails; KFC doesn’t serve “chicken haggis.” If a piece of lung happened to be in with the chicken, it would be unintentional. Besides, if you’ve ever butchered and cleaned chickens, the lungs are sometimes tricky to completely remove from the cavity. However, it would only be a small fragment (very difficult to detect after cooking), and not an entire lung.
KFC, at least from my experience, is very picky about their food. If a piece of chicken isn’t done right, it gets thrown away.
However, KFC was about the hottest job I’ve ever had. The kitchen wasn’t air conditioned (the rest of the store was), so it would easily climb to over 100 degrees in the summertime. 120 degrees was about the hottest I experienced. I just hope working conditions have improved over the years. For a teenager, it was an okay first job, and I was happy with the money I earned, even though it was just $1.15/hour. But that was back in 1969.
[2022我要上春晚]《麒麟》 演唱：早安|CCTV春晚
This is some serious Chinese popular music. Note that the entire performance is done using traditional Chinese instruments.
Will India catch up to China?
The way we are currently going? No way. I have lived in India for some forty years and in China for more than two years (though I have been visiting the country since 1996). India is today where China was in 1979, but in India we are still rudderless, direction less and leaderless (without knowing it).
the reason why China’s development has worked for it for so logn is because it is focused on a larger number of people and not a smaller number of people getting wealthy. In India, what we have is still the latter.
The day the life of the farmers in India start improving, the person who has to travel like an animal in overcrowded Mumbai local trains starts getting better and we Indians start caring for each other without being under pretensions that we are superior to fellow Indians (I am referring to the Hyderabad police and Telangana govt. imagining itself to be superior to poorer beggars – just a symptom of a much more widespread malady that affects us all) – that day I will say there is some chance that we might catch up with China.
PS – Just do a google image search to see what the railway stations in China – Shanghai, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Chengdu, Xiamen look like. That is considered “normal” in over a hundred cities in China. We don’t have a single such place in India – a few airports don’t mean anything as masses travel by trains. Do a similar search for their roads and buses. And their government run schools. That is where the real development lies – not in rockets sent up, missiles, stock exchanges, GDP and a few hundred super rich people in either country.
An honest Admission –
Every day I spend in China, while I appreciate what they have (they have worked hard for it and continue to do so), I keep saying to myself – “I wish my country was like this, because I know my people deserve it and are capable of it. I wish some day my people will feel they deserve better – and people here includes the people in government”.
The council had agreed. Euthanization of the immigrants would happen today at the high moon this 2052 MY (Mars Year) 549 Sol. Most were in poor health anyway, some would stay for continued scientific examination, and four of the youth who survived information intake showed educable promise would receive Partial Martian citizenship. Quatek had attended the meeting with her mother, Supreme Empress Quarmine. Quatek practiced her self-teleportation and levitation. But the word euthanized sharpened her already pointed ears. As part of the population control reform, her grandmother, the fourteenth Supreme Empress, had enacted, and last year on her two- hundredth birthday died as number 16587, becoming a member of the new Grand Guiding Ancestors. The reform called upon the Euthanization of all Martians on their two-hundred birthday. When she signed the reform, she was signing her own death certificate. Quatek still missed her grandmother, tears falling far too often for a future Empress, according to her mother. Grandmother had taught her to have an open heart; her mother taught her to have a steady hand. Quatek knew that many of the councilwomen believed her mom had advised the Euthanasia Population Control Reform. Her mother refused to accept chemical or medical control of life. The all-female population had evolved to self-reproduce only three-hundred MY ago. Their numbers were small back then, but now they were running out of space. To assure a quality life for the babies, sterile older women had to die. It would be a sacrifice, but after death, they transformed into the Grand Guiding Ancestors and held in reverence.That was the same year the immigrants came. Their ship landed near the craters of Aquanis and Anquiteka. Fearful they would attack the water and easily defeat the aged community, these immigrants were transferred into the trans-tunnels and held in Section 1, an antiquated abandoned living area. The area still had all the essential water, air, food delivery chutes, and temperature control units. Old and lacking systems but suitable for immigrants, some now called invaders. Over the last year, observation and experimentation became commonplace. Suspicion waned, then grew when several Observants, a party of 6 women, were in the migrant’s ship. After entering the vessel, an unanswered security breach alert led to a self-destruct warning, and finally, the ship exploded. The Earthling migrants explained that after so long with no one onboard their planet, set up this security device to keep their craft out of alien hands. This lead to talk of euthanasia for no life capable of such a barbaric tactic to kill would be worthy of life.Anxious, Quatek wandered out of the council chambers and down the red stone tunnel. Light fell in spots from the escape airlock hatches above. The hatches secured into the bottom of the shallow craters on the planet’s surface existed as emergency exits in case of a tunnel collapse. At the third spot of light was her mother’s office, not even her daughter status would get passed the guards on duty at the door. It would only be a few years, and the office would be hers. Surely a few moments inside wouldn’t be wrong, just educational. Quatek pressed her green-tinted palms together, lifting her elbows. Rubbing her hands, she applied her warmed palms to her hidden third eye in the center of her forehead. Seconds later, she appeared behind her mother’s desk undetected. Sitting in the royal seat, she viewed the screen, which appeared on default along with the holograms. The screen showed the twenty migrants, who would die, there was nothing she could do. Quatek paused at Mary’s image. She and Mary became friends over the year. Mary would stay at the request of Quatek, though Mary’s parents would die. It would be hard, but she would be with her. Help her. That is when the sidebar came into view.“Noooo!” she muffled her scream with her hand. The final order, signed by her mother, appeared. Quatek read all immigrants euthanized so more Martian babies could be born. “This can’t be,” Quatek whispered.The guards entered and began questioning her. She had to save Mary. She rubbed her hands and transported to Area 1. Spotting Mary, Quatek wrapped her arms around her and transported them both to the far path. This historical path, sacred as a tribute to her people’s first exodus from the surface to the climate controllable tunnels constructed with primitive tools. They climbed the stairs of the sphinx. Both suited up in the airlock within the sphinx eye. They had come here many times. Taught each other a crude sign language and eventually fell in love. Quatek conveyed everything to Mary, there in that eye, looking out at the red sands on the surface of her home planet. Tonight, she told Mary that the Martians themselves had once been migrants from the green planet Merus. Only the Empresses and the Chief Historian know this fact. Quatek’s ancestors arrived here after their planet died. The Meronians brought with them viruses that killed the red indigenous people who lived on the surface. That is why they don’t breathe the Mars air even though they adopted the Martian name. It is why they are in tunnels, why Quatek glows with a green tinge, and why no males we’re born after the first several years. Perhaps the heat of the sun or some environmental induced genetic malformation. And likely why Mary and her people became feared by the governing council. Finally, she shared the worse news of all. All the Earthlings would be euthanized tonight. They held each other a long time then walked back. Mary shared that her mom would give birth soon. Could they wait until after the birth? Could there be a first Earth-Martian if only for a while?Just then, guards accompanied by the Superior Empress arrived and shackled their arms and legs with force field cuffs.“Mother listen, you cannot kill them.”“We are not killing them; we are putting them to sleep for the benefit of them and us. They have no home and no way back, and I cannot exchange our lives for theirs. I have a responsibility to my fellow Martians to life.”Fellow Martian, huh? You believe a new life replaces old life, right? The right to be born is more important than the right to continue as a life lived. Isn’t that your belief?” Quatek paced. The Empress stood in silence. A scream was heard, then a high-pitched cry. “Mary’s mother just gave birth. Isn’t this new Martian life worthy of saving? Isn’t all live worthy?” Mary’s father brought the new child to the front and held him up near the clear security glass that held them, prisoners. There was a sudden silence as the new life sucked on the finger of her father.“How long have you co-mingled?” the Empress demanded.“Nearly ten months.”“No issues?”
“None.”
“Guards put Mary with her family. Child of mine be released and transport to my office immediately.” The cuffs fell of Quatek as the guards carried Mary to the cell.
Hours later, an hour before euthanasia, the council tired from compromise, at last, agreed. At the hour of the immigrant’s end, there came a new beginning. Hundreds gathered in Area 1, bringing food, clothing, and bedding. They removed the glass between them, and cautiously embraced this new life on their planet. Not just the new life being passed around like a crystal goblet of wine, but all life—all life brave enough to fight beyond its bounds of gravity and enter a new world. The decree came to pass that an annual celebration called Thanksgiving of Life would include a new flag of red and blue and green and a grand feast of shared food and gratitude.
What was the last thing a Trump supporter said to you?
<Bug-eyed> “If I had my gun in my car right now, you would be dead!”
Needs a bit of background, though.
My daughter has a learner’s permit, and a HUGE, HUGE sticker on the back of the car saying “STUDENT DRIVER”. We are at a parking lot in a strip mall. She has moved into a parking slot, and is trying to reverse the car to park it parallel to the markings. Fastidious, like it is drilled in to student drivers to be.
In comes an Escalade, right behind our vehicle. Honks loud and long. The kid gets slightly panicked. I tell her to keep her cool, finish the maneuver. The Escalade races its engine, comes within an inch of the bumper, and keeps honking.
My daughter parks the car. The Escalade is on the driveway, blocking all other cars in the parking lot.
Out comes an elderly gentleman, about 60ish. We are getting out of the car. He’s obviously mad.
He: “You assfucker … you shithead …”
Me: “Excuse me … what is happening here?”
He: “Who do you think you are … reversing the car when I am coming in?”
Me: “Sir, sorry if I inconvenienced you, but there is a huge STUDENT DRIVER sign on the back of the car. Did you not notice that?”
He: “I don’t give a shit about signs, you motherfucker … Go back to your own country … You fucking terrorist … President Trump would deport you once I make a call to ICE …”
And this point in time, I am speechless. My daughter is close to tears. What have I gotten myself into?
Then, this gentleman’s wife comes out of the car and approaches my daughter. She does not sound angry. Ah, here is some sanity.
She (to my daughter): “You know, you really should not be permitted to drive. This is a country of white people. Your father isn’t white, and should not be allowed in this country at all.” All of this in a reasonable tone.
This is where I think I made a mistake, but I couldn’t take this any more.
Me: “I hope you have health insurance”
She: “What do you mean?”
Me: “Well, looks like you will need mental health help soon. I hope you are insured for that.”
The gentleman chimes back in.
He: “You fucking asshole, if I had my gun in my car right now, you would be dead”.
Me: “Well, Illinois does not have a Stand Your Ground Law, so that would be homicide”.
And that is when we walked off the lot. The kid was crying, and it took 30 minutes of talking to her (and an ice-cream) to convince her that she had done nothing wrong.
Sad. What is this country coming to?
EDIT: I had been seething internally about this encounter for the past three weeks, and writing this out was a kind of catharsis for me. The outpouring of good thoughts was overwhelming. Thanks everybody for your lovely thoughts.
For the multitude of people who apologized, you don’t have to. I fully understand that all of you are not one of them. And I still have faith. After all, what’s the point in carrying on, otherwise?
EDIT ON EDIT: Lots of people have advised me about videotaping the incident. While I do appreciate the advice, the unfortunate thing is that when someone is hurling epithets at me in my face, my first thought is to protect my daughter and myself, not record it as evidence to be produced later to law enforcement.
Notice that every time this kind of incident gets posted on social media, it is almost always a third person who has recorded it? The people involved are rarely recording a POV video. Same in this case.
US American REACTS – How I See the US After 5 Years
Solar power
Well, the US doesn’t have to worry about Fusion. It will take decades at least.
Right now, Chinese solar panels are below $0.02 per watt. This is from $100 in the 70s. That is 2 cents per watt.
Chinese solar panels are killing big oil and big gas. And it is being manufactured in mass quantities. 600GW of solar panels last year, 600+GW this year, and 900GW of solar panels in 2025. It will be over 1TW of solar panels in 2026 and beyond.
Each watt of solar panel can generate on average of 6 sun hours per day and 260 sun days per year of 1,500 watt of electricity.
Now multiply that by the amount manufactured. And this is going all over the Global South. Ironically China is making the Global South energy independent of the control by the West.
Which makes the US and the EU absolutely hate China. Because those panels will produce power for 30 years before dropping to 80% capacity and still keep going.
There is no oil to interdict or control to starve other nations by the West. Once those panels go in, the West will have to bomb them to get rid of them.
But if they are install on every rooftop then the West would need more bombs then they dropped in WWII just to remove them from a small nation.
This is true energy independence. Fusion will be great for places where the sun doesn’t shine or for large mobile applications or space.
What is the biggest culture shock you have ever faced?
Libraries in China.
The very first time I entered a library on campus, I was imagining something like this:
main qimg a2b3fe6afc66560494bcd355a37e6489
Shelves upon shelves of books. Chairs. People sitting around reading.
The library was about seven storeys, so I was psyched about all the books it could contain. I didn’t bother to check for a building map, I just entered the first floor, walked into a room. I saw: tables, chairs, textbooks and notebooks piled on tables, people busy studying.
main qimg 1b23c6d97844c093f1c7964abf918f51
“This must be the study room”, I thought to myself. I checked the next floor.
Same.
And the next.
Same.
I grew tired and checked the map in the elevator. The actual book-containing part of the library was apparently on the sixth floor.
“Oh finally, “ I thought.
Come to find, the “library” was just one room with about nine shelves of reading books.
A whole seven storey building called the library and this is the actual library?! A small room hidden away in the sixth floor while everyroom else were barebacked study rooms?!
The college is humongous. It has two campuses and four libraries, the smallest library having seven floors and the biggest having eleven.
You can bet your bottom the majority of the rooms in these libraries are just study rooms. What are even reading books, anyway? What kind of moron reads those things?
The study culture here is no joke. Kids pile their books on their reserved spots in the library and sit there studying for hours on end. They keep snacks, water bottles, power banks on site.
This library opens at 7 AM and closes at 11 PM. My deskmate, I think he lives here. He’s always here before I arrive and leaves after I do.
I took this picture one morning because it was a rare occurrence that my study room was bare. I felt like a real champ, a stellar scholar, to be one of the first to arrive.
Across is my deskmate’s side. We “reserve” our tables by keeping our books on them. We also reserve our chairs by doing something similar. He has an orange cushion on his chair to reserve his. I have a small bag draped over the back of mine. Others normally put a spare jacket over theirs.
Need a nap? Sleep on the desk, everybody else does.
Thirsty? Water machines on every floor will give you piping hot or ice cold water for ¥0.1 (0.014 USD) per litre.
Hungry? Bikes will deliver food straight from the mess to the library, you can use your phone to order. There’s also a canteen on the ground level. Their pot noodles aren’t the best but they have good ice cream. They have good bread but they’re always running out of those.
Need some fresh air? There are comfy seats in the court.
It’s like everything is conditioned to keep us here studying hard as much as possible. Libraries in China are truly something else; it was quite a culture shock for me.
China military enters Europe. US backs down, cancels 3000 troop deployment in Georgia. US lost India
China subsidies all their product to sell to Europe, does it mean, China is loosing money when selling to Europe? Why China sell Europe at a loss, is it due to China is too rich thus able to help other country?
Ah
No
That’s not how things work
Take Solar Panels
In 2008, A Chinese company makes Solar Panels of very low quality
If they want to make high quality solar panels – based on their manufacturing process – they can only get a 3% FPR meaning out of 10,000 Panels you get 300 Excellent Quality Panels and 9700 Very Low Quality Panels
How can they make money?
They can’t sell 97% of what they make so they simply can’t sustain the business yet they have the R&D and they know that if given the scale, they can make top class panels at optimum cost in 10 years
Which Bank will lend them? Who will wait for 10 years?
This is where the State of China and a group of Industries say WE WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU TILL YOU REACH THAT OPTIMUM LEVEL. YOU JUST DO YOUR R&D
So China pays for 9700 Worthless Panels and destroys the panels using their tax revenues plus money given by big industries like Huawei or Bytedance
Thus this Chinese company keeps making more and more panels – millions and millions more and slowly their FPR grows from 3% in 2008 to 71% in 2018
Now out of 1 Million Panels – they can make 710,000 Very High Quality Panels
And their costs are negligible because they have been subsidized by the Chinese State
So they can sell at 20% of what Germany sells their panels for and still make a 30% profit
They have cracked the Economies of Scale
So now these Panel manufacturers will ask the State of China –
Now that we are making profits and have gained market dominance – How can we ever thank you?
Xi smiles and says “Now you guys help us subsidize the High End Chipmakers, Etching equipment makers and AI LLM startups”
And the cycle goes on and on – each generation which got subsidies will subsidize the next generation
Costs this remain lower and lower and once scale is obtained – China is the master of Quality at lowest price
There is no competition possible
So State Subsidies don’t help the Companies sell at a loss
They help the companies afford to focus on getting to a large scale without worrying about Loans, EMIs, Installments, Investors etc
Like Normal Startups face
An Indian guy can’t get any of these benefits
He may have a superior product but to reach a large scale enough to attain profitability and optimum quality – he needs 7–12 years of continuous exponential financing to help him reach the scale
Banks wont lend him
Government is too broke borrowing and building collapsing infrastructure
Chinese Investors have been banned due to fifth rate paisa nationalism and other investors don’t have the patience to wait for even 5 years leave alone 10–12. You will see more of Byjus and Paytm
Unlike the Chinese Industrialists our Thelawallah Businessmen are busy with 3000 Crore weddings. They won’t help anyone subsidize business without a Government sanctioned Sten Gun on their temple
So the Indian leaves India, goes to Singapore and gets financing from a Chinese/Japanese VC and in a few years the product goes to US or China
While Rohit Sharma gets another 100 Crore for sponsoring Underpants
That’s what State Subsidies mean
Pour money and allow a Business to reach a scale where it can sustain itself
Ensure all R&D costs are paid by the State so that the Business can afford to sell at 20% of the US or German price and still make a 30% Profit
And the Business in turn helps subsidizes more businesses and helps pay for more R & D
Did you know that one of the world’s first coins had the symbol of a bee?
Did you know that honey contains live enzymes?
Did you know that these enzymes die when in contact with a metal spoon? The best way to eat honey is with a wooden spoon; if you can’t find one, use a plastic spoon.
Did you know that honey contains a substance that helps the brain function better?
Did you know that honey is one of the few foods on earth that alone can sustain human life?
Did you know that bees saved people from starvation in Africa?
Did you know that propolis produced by bees is one of the most powerful natural antibiotics?
Did you know that honey has no expiration date?
Did you know that the bodies of the world’s greatest emperors were buried in golden coffins and then covered in honey to prevent rot?
Did you know that the term “Honeymoon” comes from the fact that the bride and groom consumed honey for fertility after the wedding?
Did you know that a bee lives less than 40 days, visits at least 1000 flowers and produces less than a teaspoon of honey, but for her it is her life’s work.
Thank you beautiful bees!
As a house maid, what was the grossest thing you’ve ever found while cleaning a house?
Not a maid, but have a couple rentals. The absolute worst were single girls. One in particular. She had a decent job and could afford it, so I rented to her. At the end of the first month when the rent was due, she was no where to be found. Stopped by several days…not home. Stopped by late one day, after dark, and she’s still not there, and the lights are off. Now I’m noticing that the power is not on. Hmm…. Called her job, “fired a few weeks ago…” But they told me where she went to work. Stopped by there. Deer in the headlights surprise…. oh hi! Long story short, she moved in with boyfriend and just “forgot” to call, but her furniture, clothes, baby stuff is still in my house…but she states that she’s not going to pay for the next month, even though she’s occupying my house with her stuff. Her parting comment is “so sue me”. Okay, I’m going there tomorrow, and placing all the contents on the curb. Come get what you want. When I made entry, oh my!…the smell….”#gagamaggot! Spoiled food everywhere, fridge, floor, bathroom…etc…. but here’s the biggie, in a corner of the master br is a ripe stinking nasty pile of soiled diapers, and used kotex pads, with assorted flies, gnats, and whatever bugs crawling around doing what they do. To lazy to use a garbage can. Remember, power is off, and this is summer in the south and the air was so heavy with scent you could taste it. So I retreat to change clothes and don face mask and two pair of rubber gloves, and roll in a garbage can with a heavy plastic bag and open all the windows and doors. Took me a week to make that home suitable to show again. That one will be in my memory for a while!. I did take a number of pictures, just for future reference. Bleah! Ugh! Gag! Vomit!
Every morning, the CEO of a major bank in Manhattan went to the corner where a shoeshine man was always there.
He used to sit on the chair, read the Wall Street Journal, and the shoeshine man gave his shoes a shiny, great look.
One morning, the shoeshine man asks the CEO:
“What do you think of the stock market situation?”
The CEO arrogantly asks him:
“Why are you so interested in this subject?”
The shoeshine man replies:
“I have 20 million dollars deposited in your bank and I am thinking about investing part of the money in the stock market.”
The CEO of the bank asks:
“What is your name?”
He replies:
“John Smith H.”
The CEO arrives at the bank and asks the Manager of the Major Accounts Department:
“Do we have a customer named John Smith H.?”
He replies:
“We certainly do, sir! He is an extremely esteemed customer! He has 20 million dollars in his account.”
The CEO leaves the bank, approaches the shoeshine boy, and says:
“Mr. Smith, I would like to invite you to be our guest of honor at our board meeting next Monday and tell us your life story. I’m sure we will have a lot to learn from you.”
At the board meeting, the CEO introduces him to the board members:
“We all know Mr. Smith, who makes our shoes shine like no one else. But Mr. Smith is also our valued customer, with twenty million dollars in his account.
I invited him to tell us the story of his life. I’m sure we can learn a lot from him. Please, Mr. Smith, tell us your life story.”
Then, Mr. Smith began to narrate his story:
“I came to this country thirty years ago as a young immigrant from Eastern Europe and with an unpronounceable name. I left the ship penniless in my pocket.
The first thing I did was to change my name to Smith.
I was hungry and exhausted. I started to wander in search for a job, but without success.
Suddenly, I found a coin on the sidewalk. I bought some apples.
I had two options: eat the apples and quench my hunger or start a business. I sold the apples for 50 cents and bought more apples with the money.
When I started accumulating dollars, I managed to buy a set of used brushes and shoe polishes and started cleaning shoes.
I didn’t spend a dime on fun or clothes. I only bought bread and cheese to survive.
I saved penny by penny and after a while I bought a new set of brushes and shoe polishes in different shades and colors and increased my clientele.
I lived like a monk and saved every penny. I managed to buy a chair so that my customers could sit comfortably while I cleaned their shoes, which brought me more customers.
I didn’t spend a dime on the pleasures of life. I kept saving every penny.
A few years ago, when the corner shoeshine colleague decided to retire, I had already saved enough money to buy his point, which was a better place than mine.
Finally, 3 months ago, my drug dealer brother passed away and left me 20 million dollars.
The War on Napping: They Won’t Let Their Husbands Sleep
What is the least intelligent thing you’ve ever seen a tourist do?
When I was in high school, I had a summer job at a theme park. Visitors came from all over the country, and it wasn’t uncommon to see people from outside the U.S. as well.
There were the usual dumb theme park questions: “Why isn’t [Ride] running?” (Because it’s raining with lots of lightning, and a giant metal rollercoaster would basically become a lightning rod.) “My son is two feet shorter than the height requirement. Can he go on this ride anyway?” (No.) “Can I use your employee discount?” (Also no.)
But the least intelligent thing people did was to come to spend an entire summer day in an outdoor theme park without bringing sunscreen or water. Then they would have to buy ridiculously overpriced sunscreen and water in the park ($12 for a bottle of sunscreen and $5 for a bottle of water, and this was about 15 years ago).
The ones I felt the most sorry for were a British family, a dad and two young kids. This was on one of the hottest days of summer, about 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius) with not a cloud in the sky. I had never seen anyone get that sunburned before. They were so lobster-red, it looked like something out of a cartoon. They came into the shop I was working in and bought two water bottles each. That cost them about $40, just for water. I asked if they wanted some sunscreen as well and the dad said, “A bit late for that, isn’t it?” I pointed out that they would keep getting more sunburned if they didn’t put on sunscreen, and he just sort of laughed like he thought I was joking and left without buying any sunscreen. I felt so sorry for the kids.
Why does Walmart have a bad reputation?
I tried working for Walmart in 2015–2016. I worked in maintenance, nothing special. My job was to maintain the store and property, and handle any messes. It was straightforward. That said, getting the job and keeping it certainly weren’t. I don’t have a vehicle, so I routinely walked 3.4 miles to work five days a week in wind, rain, sun, and snow. In the winter of 2015, I walked to work in 8 degree (Fahrenheit) weather (this is Oklahoma), and was still told I might get fired. Several of my coworkers appreciated it, and we had 38 call-ins of a staff of just under 100 that day.
So, I worked forty hours a week, walk about 35–60 miles a week, put up with all the best and worst customers can provide, and had to deal with shoddy management staff who didn’t know how to communicate. My supervisor got fired, and the one I ended up with had no clue what my job entailed, but proceeded to deride me at every turn for not doing my job correctly. This same supervisor had several complaints lodged against her, but the upper management refused to act. So we had a handful of rotten managers, a number of bitter, gossipy staff, and a management team who was completely out of touch. I was routinely sent out to waste my time to clean trash from an adjoining lot that the store didn’t own. When I suggested a fence, I was ignored, and when one of my supervisors asked why we were even out there, they sent him out too.
This nonsense culminated in September of 2016. The maintenance staff was asked to work several extra hours to cover some recent terminations. At $15 an hour, that sounds good. On Monday evening, I check my schedule to make sure I have work the next day only to find out I have been removed from the schedule without notice and the aforementioned supervisor is gone, so nobody knows what happened. I get bounced around for nearly two hours, with even the store manager telling me to “get back to work” before Personnel can figure out what happened. Basically, my supervisor had violated policy when she revised the schedule, and they cut more of my time to compensate. When I complained that I should have been made aware, they shrugged their shoulders. I let slip a single profanity about the situation, and they fired me for it two days later. I was fired from my job for something I did off the clock in response to one of their managers fucking up, and she got off scot-free. That’s why Walmart has a bad reputation, because they do stupid shit like that.
Edit: First time using the site, and this piece of work I put up as my first(?) answer on here got nearly 2400 upvotes! I’m both amazed at the response and rather horrified at the fact that this many people can relate. Thanks all!
Shorpy
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Are there any facts that are extremely scary to know?
Vivisepulture is the scariest fact that used to happen in the history because of lack of knowledge of medical practitioners and lack of resources.
Vivisepulture is more commonly known as Buried alive or Premature burial.
In the olden days premature burial was common as the medical practices lacked proper knowledge. One such incident which happened in Woodstock, Canada in 1800s is the case of Collins, a girl who was buried alive.
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Above is the image of Collins’ body when it was exumed after two days of her burial.
The incident happened in Woodstock, Canada in 1800s where the girl (Collins) who was declared to be dead was buried. Her body was to be exumed after two days so that she could be buried in some place else.
After her body was dug up, people were shocked to see what they saw. Her knees were up to the chin (in the image), her arm twisted behind her head, there were scratch marks on the inside of her coffin and her shroud torn into pieces. This clearly shows that she was alive (in some sort of Coma) at the time of burial which was not recognizable by the medical Professionals of that time.
We can only assume as to how much terrorized she must have been feeling at the time when she woke up from her so-called coma. This is just one case — there have been so many cases of people being buried alive in the past that they made speciality safety coffins.
Below in Fig. 1 is a safety coffin with a flag. The person assumed to be dead had a safety rope which they can pull and the flag will be in upright position.
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Now in Fig. 2 below, if the person buried is alive, can pull the rope and the flag will be upright alerting anyone who is nearby.
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There were other coffins which were designed with bells, emergency air flow valves and with flags.
Death in such cases was actually caused by dehydration, hypothermia and starvation.
However, premature burial was a punishment as well in the olden days. People convicted of henious crimes would be buried alive to die of choking. There is intentional as well as unintentional premature burial.
But the most scary part is what happened with Collins: imagine a little girl trapped inside with no one — what would have happened to her, what she would have felt, what she went through — she had to die several deaths before actually dying.
May her soul rest in peace.
I would prefer to be cremated rather than being buried.
Putin and China just made an OMINOUS Warning and NATO is FURIOUS
Mixed feelings
There were many mixed reactions to the loosening up of visas for people to visit China.
On here there was a mixed reaction to it.
I’ve swung from both sides, in that seeing is believing making them question what the western state controled media tells them vs what they see.
Shun himself was more concerned about criminals and bad people getting into China…
But that itself has a positive side effect. I wrote recently how Chinese people in China are blissfully unaware of how shitty many westerners are and how there is absolute dripping hatred from many of them.
But shitty people = their shitty behaviour in China… meaning we get to see things like this.
5 hours 6000+ views on Douyin (that was clipped from a couple days ago). Maybe it will sway the views of Chinese people of foreigners to be more critical rather than have an automatic assumption they’re going to be great people.
Google Is Destroying Its Search Engine…
What is the best thing your teacher ever told you?
Originally Answered: what was the most interesting thing your teacher said?
‘Get out of my classroom, NOW,’ shouted my history teacher, a kind and calm man whose raised voice I had never heard.
He was shouting at two older kids who’d suddenly burst in and interrupted our lesson on the Romans, or the Germans, or the Gold Rush (you get the picture). They were yelling, quite aggressively, to my sheltered 13-year-old mind, about how unhappy they were with something. It was a long time ago so forgive me but it was something like their recent test scores and how Mr McVeigh (I still remember his name now) was to blame.
Us younger students sat aghast at the heated exchange. This was unusual to say the least and I started to feel really sorry for our lovely teacher.
The shouting went on for a bit and just when I seriously thought it might turn physical, Mr McVeigh told them to leave NOW and they turned and marched out the classroom, slamming the door hard enough to make the glass panel shake.
‘I am so sorry about that,’ said our teacher (such a nice man). ‘This is all very embarrassing.’
‘I need to let the headteacher know. Please can you take a new sheet of paper and write down what just happened and a description of both of them.’
I scribbled away – two guys, think they’re in sixth form, came in and loudly shouted, one was wearing a blue shirt… Etc, etc.
We handed the sheets in. And what happened next has stayed with me since.
You might have guessed…
Our lovely Mr McVeigh had stitched us up good and proper. The ‘aggressive older students’ were acting.
He was about to teach us an amazing lesson about the trustworthiness of history’s eye witnesses.
He started to write all the conflicting descriptions and accounts on the whiteboard. Blonde hair… Brown hair… Jeans… Khakis… Said he was gonna sue… Said he’d burn your car… Blue shirt… Grey shirt…
‘Few of your descriptions match, and that’s about an event which happened only a few minutes ago. Imagine you are being interviewed about an historic event you witnessed, days, weeks or even years later. You can start to see how – although important – the eye witness does have some weaknesses.’
Blew my little mind.
Steak-Stuffed Portobello with Creamy Poblano Sauce
Seasoned grilled steak is combined with mozzarella cheese, stuffed into a portobello mushroom, then covered with a creamy poblano chile pepper sauce.
steak stuffed portobello
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
2 (8 ounce) beef flat iron steaks
2 fresh poblano chile peppers
1 small onion, cut into 1/2 inch slices
4 large portobello mushrooms, stems discarded
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
3/4 cup shredded reduced-fat mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup fresh chopped cilantro, divided
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/2 ripe avocado, thinly sliced
Instructions
Place poblano peppers and onion slices on grid over medium, ash-covered coals. Grill, covered, 15 to 20 minutes (over medium heat on preheated gas grill) or until onion is tender and pepper skins are blackened, turning occasionally.
Place peppers in food-safe plastic bag; close bag. Set peppers and onion aside to cool.
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Coat each mushroom cap with cooking spray and place on aluminum foil-lined shallow-rimmed baking pan.
Bake mushrooms in 350 degrees F oven for 15 to 17 minutes or until mushrooms are fork tender.
Remove and discard skins, stems and seeds from peppers. Chop peppers and onion.
Heat oil in small sauce pan over medium heat. Add poblanos peppers, onion and garlic; cook for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in cream; bring to a boil. Remove from heat; set aside.
Season steaks with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Place steaks on grid over medium, ash-covered coals. Grill, covered, 10 to 14 minutes (over medium heat on preheated gas grill, covered, 12 to 16 minutes) for medium rare (145 degrees F) to medium (160 degrees F) doneness.
Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees F.
Carve steaks into 1-inch strips. Cut strips into 1 inch cubes.
Combine steak and cheese in medium bowl, mixing gently but thoroughly. Evenly divide beef mixture among prepared mushroom caps, mounding as needed.
Bake mushrooms in 400 degrees F oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until cheese is melted.
Meanwhile, place poblano mixture in blender container; add 1/4 cup cilantro, lime juice, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and remaining 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Cover; process until smooth.
Divide sauce evenly among 4 plates; top sauce with steak-stuffed mushroom. Garnish with avocado slices and remaining 1/4 cup cilantro, if desired.
What aspect of Japanese culture is hardest for Westerners to properly understand?
Understanding that we Japanese appreciate the beauty of bending the rules.
As Japanese people, we are very good at following rules.
In fact, Japanese society is filled with all sorts of rules, and so many of them are often given too much importance. This often leads to following rules becoming an end in itself, with rules overshadowing the essence.
Always Obey “Time”
Our trains arrive on schedule, and if we’re even a few minutes late to meet friends, we let them know in advance. In schools and workplaces, including meetings and business negotiations, we arrive five minutes early as a matter of course. It’s to the point where if we’re caught taking three minutes to order lunch during work hours, we could face a pay cut. While this might sound like fake news in other countries, it’s a true story for us. For us Japanese, not being punctual is almost like committing a crime.
Always Obey “Traffic Lights”
Even if no one is watching, even if there isn’t a single car on the road, and even if the road is completely empty as far as the eye can see, we Japanese wait for the green light at the crosswalk. We don’t jaywalk. It’s to the point where we might even be laughed at by those who don’t follow traffic lights. This is the norm in Japan, and seeing someone cross the road when the pedestrian signal is red makes us feel uncomfortable. We teach children, “Don’t do what that person is doing,” using such instances as prime examples of what not to do.
But even for us, there are rules we desire not to follow.
Never Obey “Come Empty-Handed”
When someone tells us to “come empty-handed,” it’s just a social nicety. We shouldn’t take it at face value.
In our society, it’s expected that we ignore this and bring a gift. If we visit someone’s home and actually arrive empty-handed after being instructed otherwise, they will likely feel confused internally, pity our social unawareness in the back, and may even become secretly upset. If we visit as a group, everyone else will likely bring things like cream puffs or beverages, making us feel somewhat awkward for not doing the same.
“Come empty-handed” is a formality in our society. Establishing a rule to always bring a gift when visiting someone’s home would simplify matters, but that’s the opposite of what we do. Hosts persist in pretending as though arriving empty-handed is the proper approach. Recognizing the proper situations to go against what’s instructed is a reflection of our cultural sensitivity.
Knowing when and where to break the rules in Japan demands a delicate balance.
In Japan, the ability to achieve this balance without explicit guidance captures the subtle “beauty” of cultural norms.
Stray Cat Cries When He Meets Owner He Hasn’t Seen In Seven Years
I once, a long time ago, was a Design Engineer at Magnavox. This was a large International company that made all sorts of electronics products from televisions to radios to everything in between.
Once, I was put on a project to design a unique cost effective big-screen projection television. The goal was to save $10 per unit. And since we were selling something like two million of these per year, the saving could easily reach $40 million dollars.
For about six months we worked like the devil. We did unpaid overtime, working 14 hour days, and all weekends. It was my first experience in corporate project management, and I think that I learned a lot from it, and we really came though. I believe that we saved something like $20 per unit. So instead of waving the company $40 million dollars, we saved the company $80 million dollars!
We all got a nice meal out of it and a certificate. And that was that. Actually, I and the staff were kind of upset that there were no financial compensation or at least comp-time for our efforts. However, some fo the older guys on the team told me not to worry. Come Christmas, our bonuses would reflect our efforts.
About five months later, Christmas season arrived, and the company held a nice Christmas party. And at the party, the bonuses were handed out.
I was pretty excited. Expecting hundred of thousands of dollars in bonus. After all, 10% of $80 million is $8 million dollars. That’s quite a lot to spread about to us five engineers.
So I opened the envelope.
But I didn’t see a check.
Instead I saw a gift certificate for Walmart worth $5. The smiling face of my section leader just disgusted me, and so I got up and left the party. It was, needless to say, the very last company party that I attended at that company.
…
That was my first taste about what it is like to be a worker-slave. But you know, it really didn’t hit me just how absolutely fucked up it was until twenty years later.
Hey! You want a big laugh?
There’s women who WANT to be Boss-Babes and live this lifestyle.
Idiots.
Today…
What is the saddest thing someone has said to an anesthesiologist before undergoing major surgery?
A young woman in her early twenties with a kidney tumor. (An extremely rare case from the start.) The tumor has already spread to the lymph nodes, and both the kidney and positive lymph nodes have to be removed. And they are.
But not much later, she is back in the hospital with new symptoms, and the cancer is again in the lymph nodes. She needs a second operation but now the situation is even worse — the cancerous lymph nodes mass is very close to the vena cava (a large vein which carries blood to the heart from other parts of the body), and if it grows some more, it will enter the wall of the vena cava. And that will be the end of it.
The urologist who will perform the surgery knows this, and she also knows that the patient has just become a mother, with a baby of six months old.
Before she goes asleep, she looks the anesthesiologist and urologist deep in the eyes, and asks whether this is her last chance to see her baby become a toddler. And the silence answers her question more than any words can.
Less than two months later, she is in the hospital again. The cancer has grown into her vena cava, and she has only a couple of weeks left. And when she hears the news — which she, as a young, very intelligent and independent woman, had expected but tried to ignore the best she could — she starts crying, crying, crying.
And only one sentence vibrates through her trembling heart as her world shuts down —
Her baby is eight months old.
Her baby is eight months old.
Classic Blues Music Best Songs || Excellent Collections of Vintage Blues Songs (Lyrics)
What was the rudest thing done to you by a next door neighbor?
I moved in with my girlfriend in 2016, because it made the most financial sense. She owns the house and has been living here since it was built, I had a stable job and good income. She also went through a nasty and protracted divorce a few years before we met. The neighbors to our left were big fans of her ex – they would spy on her and report back to him on a regular basis. Her ex had assured everyone in the neighborhood who would listen that he was going to win the divorce, get the house, and she would be living in her car. Well … it didn’t quite work out like he planned, so he set his acolytes on a mission to make her life miserable. That also didn’t work out like he planned.
I personally caught the guy standing in the driveway leading to our lower garage taking pictures of my car while I had it up on jack stands for some front suspension work. We weren’t in violation of the HOA rules because the car was in the garage while I was working on it. He skedaddled back across the property line as soon as he knew he was being watched.
Later on, I can only assume it became clear to him and his wife that I wasn’t going anywhere. He took every opportunity to try to provoke me into doing something stupid. I didn’t rise to the occasion, and he eventually tired of it. One afternoon, I was walking down to the backyard, he was in his driveway, and he starts flipping me the bird and yelling something I couldn’t understand. I kept walking like I didn’t have a care in the world.
I told my girlfriend that the best revenge we could take on them would be to live the best life we could and be happy in spite of them. When they sold the house and moved out, we threw a small going away party in their honor … without them.
Have you ever had a co-worker who smelled terrible? How was it handled?
I have had some co-workers that smelled strongly of sweat, I chose to ignore it. Some with bad breath, that I just tried not to get too close to.
But I think, with my experience now, if I had a co-worker who smelled bad regularly, and people were talking behind their back, I would find a way to talk with them kindly, alone. Because you never know what is really going on.
I’m afraid that there was a time I may have smelled bad, but nobody told me. I don’t sweat much naturally and I always wear antiperspirant, so that wasn’t it. I also shower every day, and have short hair, so my hair gets shampooed every day.
The problem was my clothes washer. When I bought my apartment, the previous owners left me a clothes washer. But it was upstairs, and there was a problem with the amount of water it could get. It wouldn’t fill up all the way, or rinse efficiently. I started to notice blotches of detergent on my clothes after being washed, and with some investigation, found what the problem was. I was living on very little, and could not afford to have the plumbing redone up there, so I had to opt to do my laundry at a laundromat.
It was (is) expensive for me ($13 a load). I was also working very long hours, so I could only go once a week. I had very few clothes, as well, so sometimes had to wear things more than once. I also have a dog and cat- my cat would pull open drawers and lie on my clothes, and I was always in contact with my dog, so there were hairs on everything, and I think, a musty animal smell. I could smell my clothes after a while, myself!
So I suspect that people around me probably did too, and maybe I became the focus of gossip, I don’t know. Maybe they thought it was a result of not bathing or something. I would have liked to be alerted sooner, by someone kind, and at least have someone know what the problem really was!
Now, I still go to the laundromat, but twice a week. It is costing me a big portion of my income, and sometimes I have to go late at night, when I am exhausted. I also add products that are supposed to sanitize and help rid of odors, and I hang up EVERYTHING in the closet. I use a closet perfume spray on everything in there. I change as soon as I get home, so I wear them for as short a period of time as possible.
But it is so humiliating to imagine I could have been that stinky co-worker, and everyone just talked behind my back. Be kind.
ODESSA Massacre: BRITISH and U.S. Soldiers Soared Into The Air Along With Administrative Building
Why have people forgotten what the People’s Republic of China did to Tibet, and when are we going to see a “Free Tibet”?
Why have people forgotten what the PRC did to Tibet?
Prior to 1960 :-
Tibetans could not own any property or Pastureland and everything was controlled by the Monasteries
Tibetans couldn’t gain education and study
Tibetans couldn’t travel
Tibetans had no way of going to other parts of China or Nepal or India except through very fatiguing journeys
Every Goat, Tak and Tal (1 Tal =0.247 Acres) was owned by the Monks and the Tibetans were SERFS and their marriage was also decided by the Monks
Post 1960:-
Tibetans still can’t own property or Pastureland which is owned by the State yet Tibetans can lease the same and be masters of the lease. They can keep 3/4 of their produce and do what they want with it
Tibetans must gain education and study. Literacy rate rose from less than 2% in 1960 to almost 70% in 2024. Tibetans are entitled to FREE EDUCATION upto Graduation.
Tibetans can travel and get a Passport
Tibetans have Railroads and Top Class Roads connecting them to China & Nepal and they can travel very fast and in great comfort
Tibetans can own businesses , make money and pay taxes and build homes and get married as per their own choice
Tibetans rule themselves as members of Provincial Committees and the Party Leadership at Grassroot levels
So the Average Tibetan saw his life change in a positive way
It was just a change from one Master to another Master
One Master were the Monks who were oppressive and treated them like Dirt and Servants
The Other Master was the CPC – the Communist Party which treated them fairly, gave them a long rope and helped them develop as long as they didnt whine about western ideas of freedom (In which case their spine would be crushed)
It’s why the British were able to rule India so easily
For the Average Indian – his master changed from the Upper Caste Landlords who beat them, starved them, raped them without consequences to the British who exploited them but otherwise left them alone and even protected them to some extent under a British legal system
Their lives were better which was why they watched with glee when Indian Leaders were hanged to death and secretly CHEERED
The People of Tibet gained thanks to China
Only the Monks lost and they have no sympathy from anyone except the West
Mao wanted to put them in Labor Camps and the Tibetan People would have cheered
When are we going to see a free tibet?
Never.
The Tibetans don’t want a free tibet.
They are Chinese today.
Back in the 1980s when Tibetans from India came over, they hid them and helped them distribute agenda
Today they catch them, beat them to pulp and hand them over to the Authorities
The Average Tibetans do
Tibet is gone today
It is XIZANG and the people are now Chinese, especially the Kids
Their loyalty is to the Party and State and China
They regard Indian Tibetans are TRAITORS and regard Arunachal Pradesh as their home and those who stay in Arunachal as Infiltrators
What was the most inappropriate thing you watched as a child, that your parents were okay with?
I wasn’t allowed to watch TV.
My mother was a single mother, and didn’t fight with me about much. But there were a few things she was very adamant about.
There was no television, video games, or phone time for more than 30 minutes a day. This one lasted till I was 12. Other rules included an 8 PM bedtime until I was 12. No sugar either- ever. She still won’t let me have sugar, if it’s under her control. The one time she let me have a coke was when I was throwing up and dying.
So instead of television, video games, or a phone, I had books.
Books quickly became my everything. I would read them day in and day out. Cell phone in class? Forget that, I would read in class. My teachers were not any fonder of this than a cellphone, because it’s kind of hard to send someone to the office for reading in class (I mean, they tried, but the principal laughed at them).
Instead of taking away toys or electronics, my mom took away my books. And even then, she would have to take away my notebooks too, because I would write stories in there.
It was literally the only form of punishment that worked.
So one day, I was in third grade and my mom has caught me reading after bedtime. She took away all of my books.
Needless to say, I was bored out of my mind.
“Mom, can I have my book back? I’m bored.”
“No, you cannot. You’re in trouble. Go play with your toys or something.” She told me.
“But I don’t want too.”
“Too bad.”
“I’m booooooooooooooored!”
For the next three days we continued to have the same conversation.
On day four, my mom handed me a book.
“You can read this. Nothing else.”
It was “Twilight”. I had no clue what it was about, but I was excited.
I sat down and read the book.
And I understood none of it. I didn’t know what a Vampire was, for one.
I bugged my mom so much asking for definitions, explanations, and other things she ended the punishment early.
She took the book back, as well.
“If you ever want to read this, do not ask me for explanations.”
So her punishment backfired.
That’s probably the most inappropriate book she let me read, when I was young. She gave up after about age 11 with the book censoring.
I did end up reading the entire book, but I didn’t understand it.
Trip to Guangzhou Metro Line 18 – The fastest metro line in the world
What is the rudest thing that a new neighbor has done to you immediately after you had moved in?
Originally Answered: What is the rudest thing a new neighbor has done immediately after you moved in?
When I bought my home, we were unloading the truck: six very tired people, who were just trying to get the job done. The front door is standing open as we carry in boxes. I look up as a woman walked in, with two little boys in tow, and says “Hi, I am your new neighbor.” I have a house full of tired cranky people, and she thinks I have time for a social call? Really?
She followed me around for about an hour telling me she had heard that a disabled person (me) had bought the house, and how her friend used to own it, yadda, yadda, and I finally turned to her and said, “Please, we have work to get done and I will be glad to sit down over coffee, and get to know you, but today is not the day.” She gathered up her two little boys, and as she walks out my from door, she says over her shoulder, that she and her husband will be by tomorrow “to discuss the rent.” I looked at her and said stupidly “huh?”. She then proceeds to tell me that although I bought my manufactured home through the bank, that she and her husband owned the land it was on, and they would come down and discuss rental amount, etc.! I looked her straight in the eye and told her that I did not buy the house through a bank; I bought it straight out right for cash, for the house, buildings and the land they are on! There is no bank involved. She gives me a dirty look, and says “my husband will have something to say about that!” Turns around and walks out the door.
The following day, I saw her husband coming home from work, so I stepped outside and asked him if he wanted to speak to me as his wife said. He looked at me, kind of embarrassed, put his head down, and said “yeah, I am sorry about that, but when she heard a disabled lady bought the house, she figured she could scam you for some cash. I am really sorry, but she just does these things…”
Grrrrr…! She figured she could rip off a disabled person and get away with it? Nope! Needless to say I rejected all offers of friendship until she sold her house and moved. Buh bye!
Idiocracy deleted scene#4 (Museum of Fart)
Does the mainstream US mass media operate against US national security? Why is the mainstream US mass media so pro–Israeli AND so pro–Netanyahu? Does AIPAC operate against (or contrary to) US national security?
It is known that 90% of US mainstream media are funded by Congress.
So, if the congress is pro-Netanyahu, MSMedia will be pro Netanyahu.
In fact, I heard some MSM is funded or owned by billionaire Jewish Americans. Who knows, These billionaires may be pro-netanyahu.
Israel under Netanyahu has been ruled by UNSC & ICC that it has committed genocide.
By supporting Israel, USA has lost its moral high ground on the world stage. USA has damaged its reputation as a world leader. … USA has damaged its soft power on world stage.
Does this loss of soft power threaten US national security?
In a short run, probably no. In a long run, probably yes because it speeds up the collapse of US “empire”.
What was your “I think our neighbor is an actual (professional) criminal” moment without any police presence or contact? What made you realize/suspect that your neighbor was in fact a criminal?
When I lived in Florida we had the corner lot, which was nice, until we noticed the next door neighbor had “visitors” who loved to use one of “our” curbs to park on. Only they never stayed long. Day and night, randomly through both, different cars would pull up on the curb, someone would go inside for maybe ten minutes or so, and leave. They also had a yard “business,” except we only ever saw the work truck drive a few streets over and park for the day. We aren’t dumb, we figured the lady next door was selling crack, not to individual users either, she was the distributor. We were in that towns version of a ghetto anyway.
Then the feds contacted us once and wanted to use our place to stake them out. That let us know our guess was right. (They never did go past the asking permission faze)
Then a little later we were visiting my MIL, who had always hated where we lived. “Did you see some 60 year old white woman was just arrested for selling crack in your neighborhood?!” She exclaimed pretty quickly after we got there, she’d read it in the newspaper. “Was her name Jane Castro?” Wide eyes from the MIL. “How’d you know?” Shrug. “She was our neighbor.” 😂😂 MIL HATED that.
But she was better than the dog fighters who moved in after that. That’s a much more sad story because we had to see animals be killed in training.
China Slams US for Plundering Syria
What is the most ignorant thing someone has said to you?
Two days after my wife passed away, some idiot from one of the insurance companies I was contacting said this to me when I told them of Margaret’s death;
“It’s all part of God’s plan.”
My response was definitely not God-like (the following is from memory but it is quite accurate);
“Well, what kind of an arsehole is your God? Because that’s the shittest plan I’ve ever heard of. So your God invented cancer, allowed my beautiful wife to catch it, let her suffer for over seven years with it, dragged our family through hell because of it and then his best option was to decide she had to die? Your God doesn’t deserve to be in charge of his own left nut, let alone the whole fucking world. I apologise for the swearing, but while I fully respect your right to your religion, please fully respect my right to absolutely ignore your fucking nutsack of a religion.”
The insurance company was informed, the recording of the call was listened to and the above mentioned idiot has gone off for human training.
Religion has its place, but that place is not in my ear. Not now.
How does “kicking husband onto the couch” actually work?
How does “kicking husband onto the couch” actually work?
Here is the answer: It doesn’t. At all. Period.
I have been very happily married, for 19 years and counting, to my beloved wife and mother of 4 of my children.
Now you must understand that being “happily married” does not mean that we don’t have conflict. It does not mean that we never fight. It does not mean that our marriage is some “Leave it to Beaver”/Norman Rockwell depiction of what marriage should be.
To illustrate this point, early in our marriage, we had a fight. Lots of yelling. I don’t even remember what the fight was about. What is relevant to the question is the tactic my wife used to convey her displeasure.
“You can sleep on the couch tonight!” she yelled.
I was taken aback. We were arguing about something, and she thought she could relegate me to the couch like a misbehaving puppy?
She thinks that she could do this in our home? Not her home, but our home?
She thinks that our relationship is that unequal?
No. Just no.
Strangely, I instantly forgot what we were even arguing about. I took a deep breath.
“The answer is no. If you are so angry that you need some space, no problem – go find that space.
“I will sleep in my bed. It’s your bed too. You can choose to sleep in it or not, but you will never tell me where I sleep in my own house.
“We can fight, but how we do so is going to decide if this marriage is going to be successful.”
She stared at me with an angry scowl, then went into the next room and called her friend. She gave a synopsis of the argument, and then asked what she should say to me.
Her friend’s response? “Make him sleep on the couch! That will show him!”
My wife: “I tried that. He says he’s not going to. He says he’s going to sleep in the bed, and I can sleep there or not…”
“He can’t DO that!!” her friend said.
About 30 minutes later my wife came out. We started laughing together after she recounted what her (unmarried and single) friend had given as advice.
“I guess it only works if the man actually sleeps on the couch,” she said.
“Baby, do you want a husband or a dog?”
And then it was over. We went to bed.
Together.
Modern Women Have Realized They Made the Biggest Mistake of their Lives
2. The airplane oxygen masks only last for 15 minutes.
3. The human brain is the smartest and most crucial organ in the human body, right? But that’s an idea your own brain came up with.
4. When you blush, the lining of your stomach blushes too.
5. 300 million of your cells die every minute, which is like an abortion per hour.
6. The youngest person confirmed to be pregnant was only 5 years old.
7. People cook meat to kill the parasites inside, but the corpses of the parasites still remain in the meat.
8. Roaches can’t walk backward, so if one crawled into your ear, it would be stuck there.
9. Pineapple contains the enzyme “bromelain”, an excellent meat tenderizer. So when you eat pineapple, it’s pretty eating you back.
10. There is more actual lemon juice in lemon-scented cleansing spray than there is in the lemon flavor drinks.
11. In 1944, 9 airmen survived when their planes were shot down off the coast the tiny Pacific island of Chichijima. 8 of the young men were captured by the Japanese, tortured and EATEN. The only survivor was George HW Bush.
12. Instead of looking UP into the sky, you are actually gazing DOWN into the infinite universe, with only gravity holding you to the surface of the Earth.
Idiocracy Prison Escape
Starship Troopers (1997) Outpost 29 Battle 4K
Vietnam from $1 to $1000
How I tried gold digging, BJJs and my dad tells me to get plastic surgery
A Day at Cummins
This is one of the prisons at the ADC. And yeah, I am well familiar with this facility during my “retirement” from MAJestic. It’s part of my past. And good and bad, it made me what I am today.
We crash landed about eight months ago. It’s only an approximation because I’ve lost count of the days. The crew split up the first time someone mentioned cannibalism casually as if were an option. None of wanted to become the next textbook Donner Party.Now I spend most days discovering new species to observe their main form of sustenance, and then I typically mimic them by eating whatever they couldn’t finish. The lizards know where all the good stuff is. There are a couple of mammal-looking creatures that are covered in hair and tend to scavenge during the late afternoon. All the little creatures, though, generally have a lack of taste buds. It would be like eating at a restaurant that was given rave reviews by reviewers with no sense of seasoning.I dug a small enclave on the side of a hill next to a wall of cypresses that only has one way into the hole and one way out. Then I cleaned it up as much as possible by covering the ground in a couple of layers of cushioned debris. The hill keeps away most adverse weather. I thought about trying to create some sort of knife-like tool as a method to hunt protein, though the process became too tedious after trying to hit two rocks together over and over.The small things of convenience that civilization provide hit me the worse first. I missed not being able to order pizza, going to a big store on the corner with all the hard parts of preparing food already done, and talking to other people. I never thought I’d miss talking to another person until I experienced complete isolation.Occasionally I would use the little critters as entertainment to talk to, but the conversation was all one sided. They never challenged me, which seemed nice at first because they didn’t have the verbal fortitude to combat my linguistic might. But invariably the self-realization that I was talking to myself and projecting my thoughts onto these lesser conscious creatures seemed all too depressing to continue.The captain of the ship died in the landing. I believe it was in his contract that he would be responsible for naming this strange land that we came upon. I asked him what he planned on calling it, but he responded that he didn’t know. He wouldn’t know until he saw the place. It would be too presumptuous to name a discovery that could be great, could be awful, could be somewhere in between, before even seeing what it all looked like. He didn’t even have a few rough drafts saved up. He simply intended on naming this land the first thing that came to mind, no matter how horrible, wonderful, or plain it might come out.I believe the succession of the naming responsibility fell on the first mate, and then probably some of the higher members of the crew, possibly a few of the scientists, whichever guy was responsible for making sure the restrooms were cleaned, and then may around the last, or near the last, there would be me. Unlike the captain, I had come up with quite a few reserved names in case I was called upon to name the place. Keep in mind that I’d never seen this place when I came up with these names. No one had. They were back burner sort of names that I knew would never be used. Gregotia. Fanalicka. Vosylianopical. Key Tone Island. x-3190p. Though my secret fantasy would be that it would be named after me. Fresno.
But now I no longer knew where any of the crew that survived the crash had gone to, nor did I know whether or not any of them were still alive. The basic maintenance of living became more and more a fruitless endeavor. I woke everyday thinking this might be the last. No one would know I died here. No one would care. My body would decay after months of these alien creatures feasting on my deceased being. I started to become more morbid the longer I stayed in this forsaken land.
I tried venturing out ever so much on a hesitant scale to possibly make contact with either an indigenous population, or maybe even some of my remaining crewmates. Perhaps they’d given up the notion that it could possibly be a good idea to eat one another. Hopefully after months of continuous isolation they’d made the realization that it would be best if we stuck together. And while I hoped that whatever, or whomever, I discovered would be friendly, at a certain point I no longer cared. I simply wandered as far as I could comfortably go without losing track of my base camp.
The first few times were more exploratory, to make sure the land I occupied was not as finite as a mole hill nor as infinite as space. The land was a bit more desolate than I anticipated. It had all been sterilized and smelled of a foreign chemical agent used to eradicate any semblance of micro-organic life as a means to protect the inhabitants from all alien virus. I couldn’t imagine being sick in a place I didn’t recognize, with no semblance of health care in sight, or at least none that I recognized.
To that extent, I had no idea what I would say to the first alien I met. I don’t imagine they’d be able to understand me. But maybe they were advanced enough that they had some sort of ultra-cool technology that could translate any and all languages throughout the galaxy, and somehow, despite no reasoning for it to work, English was categorized in it and this imagined being would be able to understand my pleas. Though if somehow it could even possibly understand me, I didn’t know if it would treat me amicably. Certainly I was always trained to come in peace. It was the universal message of interstellar media: always travel in peace of other creatures so as to not to disturb their ecosystem. But if they attacked first, then…?
Months of malnutrition had done nothing for my strength, though that’s not to say that I was very strong to begin with. And in terms of any logistically savvy fighting skills, I dare say I would more than likely be at a disadvantage if I came across any hostile life forms. The less terrain I recognized, the more cognizant I became of how vulnerable I truly was. But then, contact.
“Hello,” I called out. “I come in peace.”
The creature didn’t budge. I took a step forward, intentionally making a scruffing sound against the ground to make the alien aware of my presence and movement. Still, no response. I thought for a brief second that perhaps the creature was deaf, or maybe even dead and just positioned upward before some sort of ceremony to commemorate its life. I called out once more, again reiterating that I came in peace.
“I know,” the alien responded. “What in the hell? Put the stapler down and get back to class.”
The alien sounded like Mr. Everret from gym class. It even mimicked his attire and mannerisms. But I knew the truth. Somehow this world had the capability to transplant familiar memories of mine as a way to put my guard down. But I remembered the ride over here. I remember losing my crew one at a time as they all descended into an alien world devoid of pleasantness and camaraderie. These aliens were reading my mind, infiltrating my thoughts to make me think I was back home, enjoying another day at school. But I knew the game. Play along until they all had their guard down. I holstered my laser gun and retreated back to my enclave, seeing nothing that I recognized.
Avatar – 1950’s Super Panavision 70
What’s the biggest sanitary oversight you’ve ever witnessed at a restaurant?
At the pizza place I worked at when I was a teenager, we had a long marble countertop that was used exclusively to punch down and roll out fresh dough balls into pizza crusts. Since pizzas were made to order, this counter had flour and dough on it all the time. Well, space was very limited so above this counter was a series of shelves where folded pizza boxes where kept up out of the way. Each night, the crew was supposed to refill the box bins at the front counter for the next day. Well, I was scheduled to work the grill on this particular Saturday morning, and I noticed there were only a few boxes left in the box bin from the night before. So as crew leader, I asked the new 16 year-old kitchen helper to fill up the box bins. Well, he goes to get them and instead of using the folding ladder to reach them, he moves the ladder out of his way, hops right up onto the counter full of flour and dough with his filthy tennis shoes and grabs ONE box. Then he jumps back down and while looking furtively over his shoulders, he uses his equally filthy hand to wipe out the shoe imprints in the flour. He even stepped on a dough ball sitting on the counter, flattening it and leaving a perfect imprint of the sole of his shoe across it. He flips the dough ball onto the the floor and attempts to kick it out of sight and takes the box into the back of the kitchen??? He goes out the back door, apparently took time to smoke a cigarette, came in the front door, and handed the girl at the register the one empty box???????? What!?????
This occurred in full view of a the dining room full of customers. I was so stunned, I just stood there with my mouth hanging open. I just absolutely couldn’t believe my eyes. Unfortunately, neither could the health inspection officer standing at the counter waiting to meet with our manager about the scheduled health inspection that morning. Well, the consequences for that idiot’s actions resulted in a $30,000 health violation fine to the restaurant. The appeal was denied so, that one incident put the restaurant out of business.
Caspar Grosse, a German medic in that unit, said he saw the soldier plead for medical attention in a mix of broken English and Russian. It was dusk. A team member looked for bandages.That is when, Mr. Grosse said, a fellow soldier hobbled over and fired his weapon into the Russian soldier’s torso. He slumped, still breathing. Another soldier fired — “just shot him in the head,” Mr. Grosse recalled in an interview.
Mr. Grosse said he was so upset by the episode that he confronted his commander. He said he spoke to The New York Times after what he regarded as unwarranted killings continued.
…
In a second episode, a Chosen member lobbed a grenade at and killed a surrendering Russian soldier who had his hands raised, video footage reviewed by The Times shows.
…
In a third episode, Chosen members boasted in a group chat about killing Russian prisoners of war during a mission in October, text messages show. …
BE THAT GUY – Best Hopecore Motivational Compilation
Most cars I’ve had idle around 700 rpm. Why is 700 rpm typical? Why not make idle speed 100 or 200 rpm? Wouldn’t a slower rpm save gas? Would the engine stall at that low of rpm?
The idle speed is usually between 600 and 1,000 revolutions per minute (rpm) for most cars. The idle speed cannot be too low or too high, because both situations can cause problems for the engine and the car.
If the idle speed is too low, the engine may not have enough power to run the important parts of the car, such as the water pump, the alternator, the power steering pump, and the air conditioning compressor. This can make the car overheat, drain the battery, make it hard to steer, and reduce comfort. Also, the engine may not get enough air and oil, which can make it burn poorly, build up carbon, and wear out faster. The engine may also stop or hesitate when you try to speed up from a stop.
If the idle speed is too high, the engine may use more fuel and produce more emissions and noise than necessary. This can also affect the transmission and the brakes of the car, because the car may move forward or backward when you change gears or apply brakes. Also, the engine may wear out faster because of more friction and heat.
So 700 rpm is a common idle speed for most cars because it is in the middle of the optimal range which makes sure that the engine works well and uses less fuel. A lower rpm would not save fuel but rather risk stopping or damaging the engine. A higher rpm would not improve performance but rather waste fuel and cause noise or vibration.
But before you go – a click on the upvote button will make both of us happy.
Have a good day/night.
RETIREMENT REGRETS: Top 5 regrets from elderly (70-80 yrs old) retirees!
Has there been a boxer in history who was intimidated by their opponent outside of the ring, but not during the actual fight?
Yes. I would say Muhammad Ali VS Sonny Liston. Ali has written that he could not beat Liston in a fight outside the ring, and that he was outright afraid of Sonny Liston. Even inside the ring, with rules, he was not sure he could win.
[Joe Louis was in the Liston camp, so Ali brought Sugar Ray Robinson to the Weigh-in for emotional support]
The young Ali/Cassius Clay used his own counter intimidation tactics. At the Weigh-in, he became hyper. Even more hyperactive then normal,… he went into overdrive! It was natural. He didn’t fake it BUT he let himself go with it, talking incessantly, taunting Liston, sticking his tongue out, etc. The police were afraid there’d be a fight right there. But Sonny was calm..
Norman Mailer has point out that Sonny was secretly fond of Clay, like a big brother . But he was also afraid of the Black Muslims and it was rumored that Alisia Muhammad was also fond of Cassius Clay. So here we get into that weird Ryan- Garcia- land. But that’s where boxing has been for …Ever. It is the most head trippy of sports.
Ali later said that, for the first time, he saw a little crack in Sonny’s stoic exterior… Sonny was not afraid of any man…any NORMAL man that is. But a CRAZY man ? So Clay took the act even further. He got so, into the character that his heart rate , measured at weigh-in, was off the charts.
But Sonny’s heart rate also went up ! And he didn’t know what to say or think about Clay’s display.
That weigh-in may have evened the “Intimidation score”, and carried into the fight. Now, It was the Great Intimidater Baer himself, VS…a Crazy Man! You can see that in the first few rounds . Sonny was fired up, not relaxed like his usual self. And Clay/Ali was even more energetic and brash then normal. He put himself into that character and it worked FOR him as well as AGAINST his apponent. As Mailer said, Sonny threw that jab and missed by a mile, and we knew we were on for a different kind of night.
Every Level of the Internet Explained
What’s something you’ve done that unexpectedly made you a lot of money?
I went on a vacation years ago. I left my wife with her parents and family and decided to take the rental car for a drive. I ended up in a pawn store a few hours away.
I asked the pawnbroker what he had that was a bargain. He pulled out a nice strand of pearls… but I could see that he had a LOT of pearl strands in the desk drawer and in his safe.
He offer to sell the one strand to me at a great price. I said, “what if I buy them all?” He said there were 400 strands total. We ended up doing the deal and I loaded 400 strands of pearls in my car and drove back to the lake house.
I paid $10 a strand for 18″ strands and up to $40 a strand for 86″ strands. Except for the large endless strands, all the rest had 14K gold clasps on them. The clasps at the time were $20 each wholesale, so I knew I couldn’t go wrong with this deal.
Anyway, I was selling the pearl strands for $99 to $150 each and they were still a bargain. A VP of my bank came in to buy a strand. He liked it but wanted something “better” for his wife. I said I have just the thing for you in my office.
I went and put one of the same $99 necklaces in a $15 wooden box and took it out to him. I slowly opened the beautiful box in front of him. “”Is this more like what you are looking for?” He LOVED the pearl strand in the box. He said “how much is this one?” “This one is $400”, I replied. “Sold”, he said.
Basically I sold a $15 wooden display box with a $99 pearl necklace for $400.
That was the day I discovered that perception is everything.
What was the most shocking crime you have ever heard of?
A call to a mother.
Shibli Sadiq Hridoy, a 20-year-old Chittagong, Bangladesh resident, contacted his mother Nahid Akhter on August 28, 2023.
His voice seemed quite frightened during the call; he told his mother that some people had kidnapped him, and they were beating him mercilessly.
After some time, Nahid got another call, but this time it was a different person on the phone. He said something that created a huge panic in his family.
Who was Shibli?
Shibli, who was born into a poor household, used to study and work to pay for his college tuition.
He worked as a manager on a poultry farm, and the farm six people worked under him.
Shibli being the youngest, and the other six workers being in the age group of 24 to 26, started being carless at work, thinking Shibli wouldn’t say anything.
At first, he explained to them nicely about their mistakes, but still after not obeying at work he started to take action against them which didn’t fit well with them.
This conflict started to get worse until the farm owner called everyone and calmed them.
Shibli forgot and moved on, but the other six did not and started a plan for revenge.
Planning for the revenge.
Two months after the incident, the fateful day came on 28th, August 2023, where they kidnapped Shibli while he was working on the farm.
After kidnapping Shibli, the kidnappers called Shibli’s mother Nahid Akhter, and demanded 15 Lakh Taka (Bangladeshi currency).
Shibli’s family was very poor and started asking people for help with the money.
Even after 3 days, they could not collect the said amount for the kidnappers, and Shibli’s father requested the kidnappers to decrease the money.
The kidnappers knowing that the Shibli family was poor, had reduced the amount to 2 Lakh Taka.
Shibli’s father, with great effort, finally collected the amount.
On September 4, 2023, the kidnappers called Shibli’s father to come to Bandar Ban district with the money.
Shibli’s father in hopes of getting his son back reached the said place and gave the money to the kidnappers.
The kidnappers got caught.
The kidnappers told Shibli’s father to go home now, and his son Shibli will return to the house.
As soon as Shibli’s father reached home, he could not find Shibli, thinking he might come late.
Shibli’s parents waited for 3 days before reaching the Police, and when asked why they came so late, they said the kidnappers had warned them not to tell the police, or they would kill their son.
Shibli’s mother told the police that he quarreled with those six people who worked under him.
Police caught all six workers of the poultry farm.
Their names are Umongching Mama, Suichjingmung Mama, Angthumung Mama, and Ukyathmai Mama. The other two names are unknown.
Initially, all six stayed quiet during the police investigation, but after being questioned aggressively, one of them broke down and told the narrative.
A confession that shocks a country.
He said they only wanted to kidnap Shibli, torture him, and leave him after receiving ransom money.
The plan changed when Shibli learned the identity of his kidnappers and his workers.
Fearing he might go to the police after his release, they killed him by choking his neck.
One of the workers, Umongching Marma even admitted that he cooked some of the flesh of the dead body and ate it.
They then threw the body down from a neighboring hill, and when the police arrived on September 11, 2023, they discovered Shibli’s skeleton bones.
This case had become a topic of discussion throughout Bangladesh country through news channels.
People were furious at the kidnappers, and as the police were transporting one of the main accused, who had admitted to eating flesh to the police, people gathered around the station and grabbed Umongching, who was cruelly beaten by the crowd and murdered.
Jalapeno Rib Eye Steaks
Jalapeno Rib Eye Steaks
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
1/4 cup cilantro or parsley, chopped
1/4 cup sliced pickled jalapeno peppers, chopped
4 (8 ounce) rib eye steaks
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin (comino)
Instructions
Prepare grill or broiler.
Combine cilantro and jalapenos in a bowl.
Cut a pocket in the side of each steak, without cutting all the way through. Stuff pockets with cilantro mixture and secure closed with wooden picks.
Combine remaining ingredients and pepper to taste in a bowl and rub over outside of steaks.
Grill or broil about 5 inches from heat source 4 to 5 minutes per side, or longer for more well done meat.
Remove wooden picks before serving.
9 Minutes of Delusional Woke People Getting OWNED #1
1. If you have a few hours to kill on the airplane, delete pictures from your phone.
2. Use your travel toiletries at home the night before you leave for a long trip.
3. Sign out of your Netflix when checking out of an hotel.
4. When using a grocery delivery service, tip a set amount, not a percentage.
5. Waving someone through a stop sign when they stopped after you is not doing anybody a favour and most competent drivers are just annoyed at you for behaving unpredictably.
6. If you need to memorize something, read it, record it and play it quietly at night.
7. Save your PowerPoint presentation as a .ppsx file that starts automatically when opened.
8. Marry someone who will always have your back, even when they are mad at you.
9. If you find a faster way to do something at your work, keep it a secret from your manager.
10. Your company didn’t know you existed before you applied and won’t notice you when you’re gone. Take care of yourself.
11. Before buying something, ask yourself 2 questions: “Where will I store this thing?” and “How difficult will it be to clean this thing?”
12. If the person you are dating invites you over for a home cooked meal, take the initiative and just start doing the dishes without asking. You can thank me later.
13. Ask the person you are dating the non-negotiables of yours in the first few weeks.
14. If you know how late you are going to be, add an extra 5-10 minutes to it. It might be annoying for the people when you say it initially, but when you come before the time you said, it will evoke a far more positive reaction than underestimating the lateness time.
15. Pay Attention to the smell of your home when you come back from a trip. That’s what it smells like to guests all the time, you just get used to it.
16. Never try to be the man your father would want you to be. Be the man you would like your son to be.
The 7 Princes of Hell in 7 Minutes
What is the most disrespectful thing your neighbour has done?
She came over and knocked on my door and by the look on her face I could tell she was livid and so I asked her if everything was okay. She pointed to the mutual hedge between our houses, which I had clipped the day before. Now keep in mind this hedge is mostly privet which is just underbrush basically. Of the two of us I am the one who keeps my yard up and she is not that interested in yard work. But this day she was upset because I had dared to clip the bushes more than she thought was appropriate. I had clipped them before and it was no problem but now she was not happy. She proceeded to cuss me out saying…”Who f…ing does that?” They were clipped a bit more than usual but they would grow back, I said. She would not back down and was threatening me with a lawsuit and fines until I finally told her I wasn’t going to stand there and take that abuse.
Several hours later, I was coming down my driveway and I saw her sitting on her porch. She practically leaped off the porch and came into my yard shaking some papers in my face telling me she had talked to her lawyer. Turns out they were clearly meant to scare me, which they didn’t because they were very bogus-looking papers.
Then the next morning, early, a policeman came to my door before I was even dressed. He seemed rather embarrassed to even be there when I asked him what the problem was and so I asked if it was concerning my neighbor? He nodded and said, “Ma’am I’m just doing my job and I need you to fill out some papers.” I asked him if it was against the law to clip mutual bushes and he just said, “Ma’am, she filed a complaint so we have to follow up.” Well, he went to his police car and sat there for the longest time and then he drove off and I never saw him again.
My neighbor was still on the warpath and she would do things like park in our mutual driveway and park at the very edge of the drive so that I had to park on the street and couldn’t get in. One time she actually parked behind me blocking me in. And if a friend came and parked in the driveway she put a note on their car, saying “PLEASE don’t park here!!!” Eventually she sent me some more papers from some legal something or another; it seemed like more hogwash to me saying that it wasn’t safe for either of us to park in the drive in case there was a fire because the fire trucks couldn’t get in there and I would be responsible and she hoped I would do the right thing.
Now I was beginning to doubt the mental stability of my neighbor and I just took all this in without saying a whole lot. But after the police visit I did write her a letter telling her the police probably had better things to do with their time and if I ever clip the bushes again I will be sure and ask her and I did deliver the letter in person.
Time went on and she would barely speak to me for over a year. If I was working outside, and the houses are close together, and she was on her porch I would say hello and she would not even look at me. But I did not return her coldness with coldness and I did not seek revenge and eventually she started saying hello again. She even left me some cookies for Christmas one time. Of course they were packaged because I may not have eaten them thinking she was trying to poison me otherwise. Haha.
So this is my disrespectful experience with my neighbor. Hope you learned something about those supposedly nice neighbors of yours. You never know.
Argentina Faces Reality: Renews RMB Currency Lifeline, Expands China Trade For Economic Survival
What’s the difference between working in Japan vs. in China?
Being a Chinese who has working experience in both China and Japan, here is some of my personal observations, please take it with a grain of salt (Warning: Generalization ahead!) :
Office politics aside, (it happens in both countries, of course, as well as in any other countries) imagine employee A and B.
A is smart and can-do but pretty “lazy”. He often rushes into the office in the last minute in the morning. He never does overtime, and never needs to- he always has tasks done perfectly, much earlier before it is due, which is why you can often see him net surfing or Skype chatting.
B works very hard but unfortunately, is not particularly skilled. B arrives at the office at 8:30am everyday and usually leaves the office at 9:30pm, sometimes works in weekends. He gives average performance, not perfect but okay. Sometimes he can not hand in the report on the very time, but he always tries his best to meet the ends.
Now what would their performance evaluation be like?
In a typical Japanese company, in most cases, B would be considered a qualified employee. He would have an average or even above career path, and would gain some respect from other coworkers. And A? He would not be liked too much, quite the opposite. Some managers and coworkers would doubt his work ethic and attitude, in many cases he would be isolated- certainly not a bright future.
Want to hear the opposite scenario? Welcome to China!
There is a famous Chinese saying which describes the majority of Chinese companies’ culture- “It doesn’t matter if it’s a white cat or a black cat, a cat that can catch rats is a good cat!” It ROUGHLY means- “I don’t care how you do it, how much time you spend on it, how much efforts you put in, which means you use, if the means are good or not… as long as you give me a good RESULT, you are good!”
Such a gap often causes culture shocks on both sides- Chinese who work in Japan and Japanese who work in China.
Some of my Japanese coworkers who work in a Chinese joint venture used to keep their Japanese style working habit- work long hours, make super detailed paper work full of numbers, report literally everything to the boss… Then they got blamed by the Chinese general manager- “Don’t bother me with those useless papers, don’t waste my time on endless meetings. How to do it is YOUR job. Just show me you DID it.” They found out no matter how much efforts they put in, as long as the result is BAD, the efforts would be considered as nothing, and any reason would be considered as excuses.
One of my Chinese coworkers (an IT guy) who received a training in Japanese head office got reported by his trainer, because he “played with his cellphone at working time.” He couldn’t understand why it was wrong since he already did a good job on the training project. The funny thing is the Chinese HR manager who was supposed to give him a warning could not give a good explanation either. She said, “You can’t do that. You know, it’s Japan.”
Process-focus Japanese and Result-focus Chinese, I feel they come from Mars and Venus.
I feel other differences too:
The HR system. Equalitarianism and seniority in Japan. Performance-only-matters company values in China. My coworkers often jokingly say “China is a capitalist country with a name of socialist; Japan is a socialist country with a name of capitalist”.
Data-and-detail-lover Japanese VS Data-and-detail-hater Chinese. A typical Japanese style business report format is an A3 paper, full of numbers, charts, with a super small font size, make you admire and dizzy. Still your Japanese boss will always find out any typos or inconsistent borders. Get ready to revise it at least 3 times. A typical Chinese style business report format is… well, in most cases (if it’s not an outward-facing presentation), you don’t need to make it. Your Chinese boss has no interest to read it anyway. Talk to your boss, better smoking together, in 5 minutes, that’s it. You will get a clear yes or no.
Risk-hater Japanese VS Risk-lover Chinese. My Japanese boss’s catch phrase is “What do you think about the risks?” And my Chinese boss’s response?- “Risks mean bad things not happened yet right? Let’s talk about them when they happen.”
Silent Japanese VS talkative Chinese. My Japanese coworkers generally don’t like speech too much. When they need to do a presentation, they often make a super detailed Power Point and read it word by word. Some Chinese leaders from the head office can give a whole 2 hours speech without a text, and amazingly, when you seriously think about the content, you will find… no real content there.
The list would go on and on.
Those differences always amaze me. From them, I guess the reason why Japanese products can KEEP a high stable QUALITY for so many years. I guess the reason why Chinese enterprises can DEVELOP unbelievable FAST.
I learned much from the differences.
Protestors Are Finally Getting Arrested
I asked my boss for a raise but he said I didn’t deserve it, so I sent him my resignation letter. Now he is asking me to stay with a higher salary. Should I accept his offer?
At some companies in Silicon Valley in the first dot com boom and the early 2000’s, the *only* way to get a raise or a promotion was not just to threaten to quit, but to actually get a job offer (whether you wanted that job or not) and then to actually quit. That was the only way management would take you seriously and grant you the raise and/or promotion you had asked for. Before the act of quitting, you were viewed as a just squeaky wheel. After quitting, they suddenly realized they needed your wheel, squeaky or not!
In my case, I didn’t specifically ask for a raise — I asked for headcount to do the job that had been assigned to me. I had been at the company for 7 years and held an incredible amount of institutional knowledge, even if the CxOs didn’t recognize that knowledge. The job was impossible to do by myself. I thought a team of 3 (including me) would do the job. Multiple times I made the argument for the additional headcount, the expected results, the ROI, and the basic logic. Around this time I had been assigned to a new manager with a lot of book learnin’ (Harvard JD/MBA), but little work experience and a new VP whose focus was elsewhere, but who knew what I was asking for and why.
Eventually I got fed up asking and got a job offer (for a company I would have worked for). The job offer came through while I was overseas in Dusseldorf visiting my most important partner. I immediately sent my resignation and two week notice to my junior inexperienced Harvard manager and the VP who was trying to ignore my request. Within minutes the VP called. I had no intention of going back to that job, but for some reason felt I should explain what led to my departure. The VP listened and asked good questions for 90 minutes while I was pacing the waterfront wall beside the Rhine. He called again the next evening. And the next. He finally asked what it would take to get me back. I figured I should go all out since I wasn’t planning to go back, I was really just pushing his buttons to see how far he would go. First, the two headcount. Done. Second a $20,000 raise. Done. Third, more stock options. Done. Next a $40,000 retention bonus. Done (to be paid quarterly). Last, I never have to see, talk to, or report to the junior book-readin’ Harvard schnog, I would report to him, the VP. Done. After all that, how could I say no?
Of course, within a year, more re-orgs and other changes made my overall division’s future at the company tenuous. The VP eventually asked me to make an impossible proposition to our most important client — basically tell them a massive lie — a proposal for work my company could never complete. I decided my reputation with the contacts at my partner companies was more important than the job. I refused to make the proposal and quit. But for a year, I got a big raise, a big sign-on bonus, more respect, and a better line of sight to the VP and CxO suite. I’d say it was worth it.
Prof. Mearsheimer REVEALS the Scenario of a DIRECT US-Russia and China Confrontation
I bought my father’s wife an electronic scrabble game.
OMG! The best thing that I ever could do.
Now, she and I never really got along, but I thought it might be nice to get her a Christmas present, and so I got her the computer / internet version. Now, this is a game that they have been playing for years. And so, of course, she liked it.
440px Scrabble game in progress
But later, my dad told me that she also used it as a “fiddle game”; something to just mess around with when she got a few spare moments. And also, as a thing to do when my dad was too tired to play with her.
So, chalk up a good thing for me.
Now, you all must know that I have never really been that good in selecting presents for others. I wrote about trying to get presents for my maternal grandmother and how that went to shit, but really getting presents to give to others usually was just getting me no where.
But I have had two wins.
This game of scrabble with my father’s wife, and…
And.. this cement dog statue that I bought for my artistic sister. Ah. She loved it. She said that she read that Earnest Hemingway had a cement dog that was very loyal and greeted him every time he came home.
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She would park it in her living room, watching the kitchen. Loyal and still.
And when my sister had to go away for a project, my mother watched over that cement dog. She too loved it. Said it wasn’t any work to take care of and always watched the house. It was about two feet high, and was of a greyhound.
Ah, now I don’t give presents out often, but when I do, I make sure that they are appreciated.
Today…
What has a cop said that left you completely dumbfounded?
A few years ago, when I was newly licensed, I was leaving my cheer practice and heading to another practice right after. This was a small town and there’s only 2 lanes going into town and 2 going out, not really that big of a deal usually as the drivers are mostly respectful in keeping the passing lane clear. Well on this particular day, I’m headed into town from my practice (as mentioned) and there’s a cop and another car driving almost side by side. The speed limit posted is 60 but they’re both going 45/50 WELL BELOW the legal limits. The cop is in the passing lane and the other car is too afraid to speed up past him even though they’d be in the right. So I get behind the other car (don’t remember the make/model) and try to bide my time waiting to see who will move forward so I can just go. Cop starts to inch forward so I get behind him. As soon as he passes the other car, he gets into the right lane and I pass him (With cruise control set at 60). As soon as I pass him and get back over, he lights up, pulls me over.
He says that I was folowing him too closely and did I know what the proper distance was? I answer 1.5 car lengths (textbook answer according to our state laws). He responds “You need to be at least 15 car lengths behind me!” I said “Fifteen??” with a confused look (not the best at controling my facial expressions) and he said “Yes. Fifteen.”
I did receive a ticket but it was because I didn’t have my license on me; a simple fix-it, take my license to the police station and they’d waive it for me. When I did that a week later (wound up having to get another since the first was lost at the time), he passed me walking into the station and asked where I’d gotten the 1.5 car lengths from and I told him the same place I read that it was illegal to do 45 in a 60…..the state DMV book.
Crocs
Lemon-Lime Flank Steak
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Yield: 4 servings.
Ingredients
12 ounces lemon-lime soda (Sprite or 7-Up)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 jalapenos, unseeded and finely chopped
1 (1 1/2 pound) flank steak
Vegetable cooking spray
Salt
Instructions
Combine first 6 ingredients in a 2-quart shallow dish, stirring well; add flank steak, turning to coat.
Cover and chill for 8 hours, turning meat occasionally.
Remove steak from marinade, discarding marinade.
Coat grill rack with cooking spray, and place on grill.
Cook steak, covered with grill lid, over medium-hot coals (350 to 400 degrees F) about 7 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness.
Remove steak from grill, and sprinkle evenly with salt to taste.
To serve, cut steak diagonally across grain into thin slices.
Mark Sleboda: Putin and China Issue DEVASTATING Warning to Blinken, Neocons and They’re Not Bluffing
Have you ever had to explain to a family member that you don’t want them looking after your child because you don’t trust them? How have you explained it to cause the least offence?
When my son was born, he was a very, very special baby in our family. Starting with my great-grandfather, all the living male heirs were born 20 years apart so we referred to this phenomenon as the “20-year baby”. Well it just so happened (by accident actually) that my son was born the first week in January of the 20th year, making him the living fifth generation 20-year baby. This was an extremely important event to my grandfather and great grandfather. When my son was five months old, all of my relatives came to see the latest 20-yr baby so he was held and hugged/kissed by a dozen people. Two weeks after that visit, my grandfather’s wife (whom I considered to be my grandmother) called me crying and saying she couldn’t live with herself if she didn’t call and tell me that my grandfather had been diagnosed with active tuberculosis and because the medication was so expensive and didn’t make him feel any better, he decided not to take it. Well, this meant that
1) he was highly contagious
2) he was well aware of this fact
3) he ignored the risks
4) he concealed the truth
5) he willfully exposed all of us to the disease
6) he knowingly put our health, even our lives at risk
7) he was willing to expose a 5- month old baby, most especially my son, the precious 20-yr baby.
He was so selfish and concerned with his own wishes that he was willing to put his entire family in harm’s way. I was appalled and devastated. I called him and confronted him. He refused to take responsibility for his actions. So I told him that he would never see my son again. He was very angry and said some awful, unforgivable things to me. My grandmother reported our exposure to the health department. They in turn contacted me and told me that my son and I were required to be tested every three months for the next 4 years. I also found out my grandfather was directly responsible for infecting 11 other family members, including my grandmother and two of my cousins. Luckily neither my son nor I ever tested positive. Sadly, I had no choice but to stand my ground, so neither my son nor I ever saw him again. My grandmother divorced him, and my father refused to even speak to him for risking my son’s health. My uncle took his family and moved away because two of his kids were infected by him. So, he died alone, 15 years later, a miserable, hateful old man and it was all my fault, you see. Because I deprived him of the love of his coveted 20-yr great-grandson.
BUSTED: Did the CIA withhold China info from Trump?
Things were bad, and they knew things were bad, and they knew others must also know things were bad, and yet they would need to pretend, outwardly, that things were fine. The president was fine. The election would be fine. —Olivia Nuzzi, NY Magazine
Clusterfuck Nation
There’s a reason that the fable of The Emperor’s New Clothes is so potent: it describes a mentally ill society that retreats into abject unreality, to avoid contending with truth. Alas, this archetypal human quandary shoves such a society towards nemesis: downfall and punishment. And that is exactly the consequence of our news media’s craven, dishonorable, degenerate behavior the past decade.
They have disordered our nation’s consensus about reality with peremptory lying about everything, in service to a political party that lies to its citizens about everything. The big question is: who or what recruited them into serving the Party of Chaos, and why did they go along?
You can explain the media’s initial repugnance to Donald Trump going back to his 2015 debut in politics. Much about him had a low-class odor, despite all the gold-plating — his origins in tawdry Queens, his career as a builder in Manhattan where the trades are mob-controlled, the Atlantic City casino debacle, bankruptcy, ditching Ivana and his mid-life playboy reputation, the tacky TV show, the increasingly mystifying hair-doo, his rough, jumbly manner of speech. Everything about him repelled the Ivy Leaguers who increasingly filled the ranks of national-level journalism.
Despite all that, Mr. Trump raised five kids successfully. The grown ones had careers and they all visibly loved him. With that and his overt masculinity, he assumed the lineaments of the archetypal Daddy, which enflamed the enormous cohort of feminists who had taken over the Democratic Party behind their avatar Hillary Clinton. And when he squeaked out an electoral victory over her in 2016, they were sure it was a cheat. The menace of Daddy in da (White) house pushed them over the edge psychologically.
Daddy was all about setting boundaries, which was the antithesis to the “progressive” (and transgressive) agenda of the Dems, and was probably the reason that his talk of “building the wall” along the Mexican border drove them nuts. It signaled patriarchal control of a whole lot of other things, too. Boundaries galore!
Now, it happened that the Democratic Party was also the favored party of the DC permanent bureaucracy, which had been growing and growing for decades and had become overtly politicized during the eight years of Barack Obama. Mr. Trump threatened to downsize this leviathan government, meaning many patronage jobs might be lost. (Boundaries would be imposed!) The warrior branch of this Deep State was the Intel community. The FBI, the DOJ, the CIA, the State Dept, and elements of the military were commissioned by the Democratic Party to destroy Mr. Trump.
They used the machinery of the law to lay one trip after another on the president and effectively hog-tied him — RussiaGate, the Ukraine phone call impeachment, the George Floyd anarchy — and when those operations failed to oust him, they ran the Covid-19 caper (with enormous collateral damage to the people and their economy), which enabled rigging the 2020 election with mail-in ballots. Once Mr. Trump was squeezed out-of-office, the FBI turned the J-6 protest at the Capitol into a riot, which Nancy Pelosi then converted into an “insurrection” using the House J-6 committee. The J-6 incident, they dearly hoped, would rid them of Mr. Trump once and for all.
The news media went along with every bit of that, year after year, converting each mendacious act of the party and the bureaucracy into consumable narrative, and lying either overtly about all the ops, or just omitting to report on the dark truth behind it all. Any reality-based thread that happened to leak into public view from independent alt-news reporters was branded by CNN, The New York Times, the WashPo, and many others as “misinformation” — a newish concept produced by a cadre of language Stasi skilled at inverting the meaning of anything to bamboozle the public. It appears that the news media became so invested psychologically in its own dishonest product that it began to believe its own bullshit.
Or, at least, they wanted to pretend to believe it. One of the big problems was that absolutely everything they labeled “misinformation” or “conspiracy theory” turned out to be truthful, and that was becoming an inescapable embarrassment. And then the biggest blunder they made was going along with the Deep State’s selection of “Joe Biden” in the very sketchy Super Tuesday primary of 2020. The old grifter had next-to-zero support in all the preceding preliminaries and somehow (abracadabra !) he swept the field.
By then, the Democratic Party, and its public relations arm in the mainstream media, had descended into florid mental illness. Everything they stood for post-World War Two flipped to its opposite. Suddenly, they were against free speech. They weren’t coy about it. They just made-up some new bullshit about free speech being “hate speech.” Similarly, they were against a free press. They went along with all the misinfo / disinfo bullshit the government cooked up and supported its role in suppressing the news. They were no longer anti-war, the party-of-peace. They were now pro-segregation and pro-discrimination (white people need not apply) according to Critical Race Theory (a childishly sketchy doctrine). Most of all, they were no longer skeptical of anything that the leviathan establishment wanted to do, including abridging the liberties of American citizens.
Then there was the campaign to use the most powerful human instinct, sexuality, as a weapon to disorder the minds of American children, leading even to the mutilation of their bodies — a program that unmistakably tipped toward genuine evil, suggesting that actual psychosis lay behind the Cluster-B crypto-Marxism used to justify it.
“Joe Biden” was fine with all of that, and the news media was fine with “Joe Biden” and whoever was using him as a front. Of course, it was evident during the 2020 campaign that “Joe Biden” was not up to a job as demanding as Chief Executive of the US government — and that was even apart from the dense criminal web of influence peddling discovered around him and his family, which the news media ignominiously ignored. But now the years have gone by and there’s no hiding “Joe Biden’s” rather gravely diminished mental abilities.
Last week’s debate gave away the game. It had the effect of finally turning off the gaslight that the news media has been shining over the republic lo these many years. They can no longer pretend that this president is anything close to okay in body and mind. They can’t annul the gaslighted public’s delayed realization that they’ve been subject to a concerted program of deliberate lying for a long long time.
So now, inveterate pretenders and liars, such as Jake Tapper of CNN and Maggie Haberman of The New York Times — and many others — have to pretend that they were innocently duped into supporting all the turpitudes of the Democratic Party / Deep State axis-of-evil. It is really hard to imagine that they can successfully rehabilitate their reputations. They have done immense harm to our country. It’s hard to see how the Democratic Party might survive, too, no matter who they finally put up for election this year. Of course, there’s still plenty of time left for them to destroy the country altogether. Just keep giving American missiles to Ukraine to fire into Russia and see what happens.
Woman Demands Her Husband Make $650,000 And Gets Humbled
“Joe Biden is the walking embodiment of the exhausted American Establishment. More and more people have simply lost their faith in our Ruling Class. You could scarcely have a more potent symbol of its impotence.” — Rod Dreher
Clusterfuck Nation
Just before the weekend, a political prairie fire raced across a nation buffaloed, blind-sided, and buried deeply in bullshit, and the little critters who inhabit the landscape are still running around with their fur smoldering. What a surprise that “Joe Biden,” the mentally-disabled pretend-president, fell apart in the debate spotlight for all to see, like Captain Queeg in his fateful witness chair, or William Jennings Bryan at the Scopes trial (1925), or the Wizard of Oz when little Toto drew the curtain back — a brutal revelation of stark truth about how things actually are.
Since his hiding-in-the-basement campaign in 2020 “Joe Biden’s” Party of Chaos has pretended that he is fit and alert for the job and now all of sudden they pretend to be shocked to see how far gone in the head he really is. The bullshit shovelers of the mainstream news media were especially rocked, not by the truth of the situation per se, but at being unmasked as the contemptible, confabulating tools that they’ve become. The New York Times wheeled around on a dime from their servile lionizing of the presidential hologram they helped create to its editorial board abjectly yelling for him to drop out and get gone. They were joined instantly by a long list of other opinion-shapers, campaign donors, political celebs, and Beltway players.
Right after the debate, First lady Dr. Jill led a cheerleading session before a roomful of partisans that went beyond cringeworthy into uncharted territory of mortification. (“You were great, Joe! You answered all the questions!”). By the time the entourage moved to a pre-planned event at a nearby Atlanta Waffle House, “JB” had gone full-on zombie. If all that was intended to be reassuring, the effect was the opposite. Someone handed the blank-faced old grifter a milkshake and they beat it out of there.
The Bidens flew off to the Hamptons Saturday to milk the showbiz cows and hedge-funders for a campaign that might not still exist. “Everyone paid in advance. . .so it could be an opportunity to encourage him to drop out,” an invited guest told a New York Post reporter. “I wanted to go and see the train wreck,” another donor said. “I’d rather choose someone from a phone book than have Biden.” That was generally the tone among the woke-gay-communist echelons all over the land — surprisingly vehement, considering that just forty-eight hours before they were all in on re-election. Some could probably see their lucrative hustles whirling around the drain, and others might fret about just how far and wide prosecutions under a Trump Attorney General might loom.
“JB” and his family circle attempted to regroup over the weekend at Camp David where first son, Hunter (“the smartest man I know,” the president often says), led the buoying-up session, perhaps mindful of the many bank accounts set up by his lawyers in the name of Biden family members (including little grandchildren) for receipt of influence-peddling revenue gathered sedulously from entities abroad during “Joe Biden’s” post-veep high-earning years. The family emerged from that meet-up triumphantly, ready to forget the one bad evening and jump back into the election game.
Next, the biggest Dem dawgs — Obama, Schumer, Pelosi — stepped up with fulsome support for “Joe Biden” continuing to steer the party’s war canoe straight over Niagara Falls on November 5th. What possesses them? Misguided love for the monster they created? Fear of being called out as traitorous liars? Desperation to preserve the gigantic racketeering operation of the party they lead, with consideration for their big cuts of the action? Or are they just determined to complete the job of wrecking our country?
And where was She-Whose-Turn-It-Is, HRC, the only possible replacement candidate with name-recognition and no ruined state hanging over her as is the case with Newsom, Pritzker, and Whitmer (California, Illinois, Michigan)? Mrs. Clinton has so far stayed out of it, laying low, probably thinking that the party poohbahs will eventually have to come around to seeing she’s the obvious viable alternative. Since the Clinton Foundation bought and paid for the DNC some time ago, she might be able to get the nominating machinery lined up in her direction. There are myriad problems, for sure, with many state election laws that discourage switching-out a nominee who has already captured a winning share of party convention delegates — but Norm Eisen, Marc Elias, and the Lawfare gang are already tasked to that set of problems now that their work is done cobbling together all those janky court cases to hamstring Mr. Trump.
We enter high summer with countless consequential things afoot. A grand new momentum is expressing itself throughout Western Civ against the Globalist insanity. Sunday, Marine LePen’s National Rally (RN) thrashed President Macron’s Renaissance Party, a shock equal to the “Joe Biden” debate fiasco here. British elections follow Thursday July 4, with PM Rishi Sunak sucking wind and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Party ascending rapidly. Sunday July 7 France’s runoff election happens. A widened war threatens the Middle East as Iran and Turkey line up with Hezbollah in Lebanon against Israel. Ukraine cries for a negotiated settlement with no help from our own State Department. ISIS terrorists (among many other dangerous cadres) circulate on-the-loose around the USA, ready and able to perp atrocities.
Still hanging over the “Joe Biden” crisis — and it is a crisis — is the question as to how somebody no longer capable of leading a party in an election can also be capable of leading the executive branch of the USA as Commander-in-Chief. That quandary has been shoved aside for the moment but it still lurks ominously in the background.
“Biden’s entire closing statement is the political equivalent of the blue screen of death. It’s just one long frozen glitch.” — Sean Davis, the Federalist
Clusterfuck Nation
Maybe ninety-seconds into last night’s long-awaited debate spectacle, the consensus must have jelled among the woke-and-broken news media mavens that their champion, “Joe Biden,” was not quite killing it out there at the podium. CNN moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash acted like witnesses at a ritual sacrifice. And afterward, the CNN post-mortem panel seemed genuinely shocked that months of playing pretend had skidded to such an ignominious finish.
Which raises a great many questions, starting with: why on earth did the Democratic Party and its media handmaidens persist in pretending month-after-month that “Joe Biden” was a fit candidate for another four-year term? Last night, he didn’t appear capable of even finishing the current term. Why did they usher him so jauntily into the nomination? And what are they going to do about that now? And what were their motives for all that pretending? “Joe Biden” circulates among scores of astute officials every day. Did they all fail to notice his incapacity? Or has the whole thing been a sham and a lie all along? Was this just the culminating hoax by the Party of Hoaxes of a long string of hoaxes against the nation going back to 2015?
To the question of motives, the answer is obvious: the news networks have worked tirelessly (and with stunning dishonor) to hide their collusion with the government in gaslighting the public. More to the point, they’ve concealed the appalling truth that the CIA, DARPA, and their many intel blob subsidiaries conducted a silent coup over the USA and have been running our country’s affairs disastrously behind the “Joe Biden” façade — and that the coup actually started well before Mr. Trump’s 2016 inauguration. You know it, and they know that you know it.
More acutely, now that “Joe Biden” has been revealed as a hoax president, whole legions of public officials appear liable to criminal charges of the most serious degree: sedition, treason, mass murder, fraud, malfeasance, and in the case of the president himself, influence peddling and bribery. They must be desperate to avoid accounting for all that, losing their accrued fortunes to legal fees and going to prison (or worse). For example, outed just this week: news that then-CIA Director in 2020, Gina Haspel, knew about and participated in the infamous operation using 51 former Intel officers to cover up the veracity of Hunter Biden’s laptop days before the election.
They knew the laptop was real. Their colleagues over at the FBI knew it was real. They all knew it was stuffed with deal memos, legal memoranda, and emails that clearly laid out a long-running bribery operation among Biden family members and their lawyers. They knew it in 2019 when the Democratic Party moved to impeach Mr. Trump for inquiring about the Biden family’s money-grubbing activities in Ukraine — where, by the way, we may have fomented the war with Russia in part to cover up the culpability of all involved, including especially the State Department and their embassy staff in Kiev. The FBI and its bosses in the DOJ also withheld the laptop from Mr. Trump’s defense lawyers during the 2020 impeachment, though it contained massive exculpatory evidence to explain just why he made that fateful phone call to the newly elected Zelensky.
It’s obvious that the ruling blob now has to deep-six “Joe Biden.” The problem is they must induce him to renounce the nomination of his own will. The party’s nominating process is so bizarrely complex that it would be very difficult to just shove him out. Another problem is that the party had to peremptorily declare “JB” their legal nominee before the August convention in order to keep him on the ballot in Ohio with its 17 electoral votes (due to some arcane machinery in the state’s election laws).
As per above, the debate fiasco calls into serious question whether “Joe Biden” is competent to even serve out this term. He (or shadowy figures pulling strings behind him) are making profoundly hazardous decisions right now, such as last week’s missile attack that killed and wounded civilians on the beach in Crimea. Are you seeing how easily “Joe Biden” might start World War Three? All of which is to say that pressure will soon rise to use the 25th amendment to relieve him of duty, leaving you-know-who in the oval office. If Joe Biden actually has to resign as president, he also loses the ability to pardon his son, Hunter, and peremptorily his other family members who shared bribery money received from China, Ukraine, and elsewhere.
If he won’t resign, and the party can’t force him off the ticket, the blob could have no choice except to bump him off. I imagine they would get it done humanely, say late at night sometime, in bed, using the same method as for putting down an old dog who has peed on the carpet one too many times. Or, if that can’t be managed and he clings to his position, maybe the party could cobble up some new nominating rules impromptu. And then, who could they slot in from the bench?
The usual suspects are like the cast of a freak show, each one displaying one grotesque deformity after another. Gavin Newsom we understand: the party’s base of batshit-crazy women may all want to bear his child, but that limbic instinct to mate with a six-foot-three haircut-in-search-of-a-brain might not work with any other voter demographic — and Newsom has the failed state of California hanging around his neck. All Mr. Trump would have to do is broadcast the scene from a San Francisco street-cam on “X” (Twitter) 24/7.
Hillary has been stealthily flapping her leathery wings overhead for weeks as this debacle approached. She may still own the actual machinery of the Democratic Party — having purchased it through the Clinton Foundation some years back when the party was broke and needed a bailout. She could just command the nomination by screeching “Caw Caw” from the convention rostrum. Whatever happens, it will look terrible.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan? An inveterate and notorious intel blob tool, Whitmer has allowed herself to be used repeatedly by the FBI to frame and persecute conservatives in her state as well as using her state AG Dana Nessel to go after political enemies there, especially poll workers who cried fraud in the sketchiest Michigan voting districts.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. Like Dreamboat Newsom in California, Mr. Pritzker is busily running Illinois (and especially Chicago) into bankruptcy and chaos. Looks aren’t everything, but if Dreamboat gives the vapors to Karens across the land, the Illinois governor will get them shrieking in terror as from the sight of King Kong on Skull Island
Who else is there? Michelle O, of course, who will be instantly branded as a catspaw for her husband seeking a fifth term — as Barack himself has averred in so many words: just hanging out in the background, managing things in his jogging suit. That would be the ultimate Banana Republic set-up for us and I don’t think the voters will go for it. It all boils down to the Party of Chaos being thrust into chaos. Can it even survive “Joe Biden?”
Then there is Mr. Trump himself. He remains the object of widespread rabid loathing, yet more and more Americans are coming to appreciate his opposition to Woke Marxist chaos and intel blobbery-gone-wild in our land. His performance last night featured his usual jumpy locutions and incomplete sentences, but in contrast to the current president, he looked neither senile nor an agent of sinister forces dedicated to bringing our country to its knees. Had Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. been present both of the others would have been badly outclassed verbally and intellectually. If Mr. Trump survives the blob’s efforts to delete him before November, I’m sure Mr. Kennedy will play a prominent role in another Trump administration. He knows exactly where the rot is and how to roust it out.
This is actually cute and funny
Shorpy
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Does anyone want to write their heart out here?
Originally Answered: Does any one want to write their heart out here?
Hi… I am 18 years old boy at my last stage of blood cancer and I will probably die within next 5 to 6 months. I am going anonymous because my parents follow me on quora.
I was diagnosed with leukaemia in june 2015 exactly on my birthday. I have lot to tell but I can not tell anyone as I always have my parents around and they themselves are broken from inside and they would leave hope if I left hope.
I have a sister she is 23 and she takes care of all my needs. I love her very much. But I simply can not do anything for her because I am bed ridden. I get a lot of visitors from my old school and family.
My parents and my sister do their best to cheer me up and make me smile but I can not as it is very dufficult when you know you are about to die. I feel ashamed of myself as I can not move and I sometimes pee on the bed itself as I have no control over my nerves. All the doctors whom I have been shown to, say that I must do whatever I like as I have very less time left. Each and every doctor has said to leave hope and just enjoy life. I know my family cries when I am asleep or listening to songs or when I am not around. But I am helpless I just can not do anything. But yes I do appreciate that they somehow hold their tears back in front of me. My sister cheers me up as she calls her college friends at home and we play ludo and have a good time.
The point that makes me sad is that ispite of all the efforts my family makes I am unable to do anything for them espescially my sister. I am extremely attatched to her but I have no words to thank her. I wish god gave me another life…. Just one chance I would work extremely hard to make my family proud. All I dream is of getting well and working for my family.
This is it my story
Thanks for Reading…
Humble request
Please do pray for my family so that God can give them strength. 🙂 🙂
EDIT 1
Thanks to all the upvoters.
Writing gives me releif.
My sister caught me writing this answer and when she read it she set to tears and I could not hold myself and started to cry on my helplessness. She told that she loves me the most. She said that she had no problem in cleaning my dirty clothes and pushing my wheelchair and feeding me she just demands that I should stay happy forever.
I will reveal my identity if my sister this to my parents. But this totally depends on her.
Please stay tuned as I have 5 or at max 6 months left and then this would be closed
Thanks for reading
Humble request: keep praying
🙂
EDIT 2
The response is clearly amazing….
Thanks to all
I want to really clarify somethings.
1 I do not want any money my family can take care of my needs thanks for your health.
2 I do not wish to reveal my identity as I had already tried this with one of the people commenting here and it the consequences were disheartning
3 For those people who think this is a dram you are free to think so but your views really turn like these when you are nearing your end and the worse part is you know about it.
4 I write for my hearts relief and not for any kninds of financial favours from anyone.
I do tell my parents that I love them a lot but I can not share my pain because if I ever did that they would feel extremely weak to see their son losing hope hence I chose quora and anonymity.
They try to find out every possible source of miraculous recovery story they could and tell me to keep myself motivated and even I want one such thing to happen but I get very negative thought when I see people turning their faces and simply not to talk or even look at me when I am in park and again I have my sister by my me side.
I had a beautiful childhood like I and my sister were like typical brother sisters fighting for small things like for watching tv and I used to enjoy it a lot but now there is no fight and she allows me to watch anything I like and does everhything for me I tell her this almost everyday and she feels great.
I write my heart out here (as the ques suggests) and not in anyway for any favours
Thanks for praying
Keep praying
🙂
October 28
Thanks to all the upvoters… and all the prayers.
Some comments coming up like you want to give some years of your life to me. Please do not think that ever again. You have 2 functional hands, legs all 5 senses (sight, sound(ears), taste, smell and touch (skin)) intact and a good brain to think deeply. So stop thinking as your life directional was and start working. Make your family proud. Your family does everything for you. And if not for your family do something good for yourself.
I say it because When you are on your deathbed some 60–70 years from now you must not regret the fact that you wasted time and could not accomplish your targets. You do not realise how much time you have and how much can be done in that.
Now coming to some of my feelings.. (your choice read it or leave it)
I have some sort of insecurity that I would be left alone and that is not just from a day or 2 but from 3–4 weeks. I do not know why but it’s there. I have discussed this with my sister and she assures me that she would be there all the time. I mean I annoy my family members sometimes like I always want someone in front of my eyes. It sounds pathetic but it’s true.
I vomitted yesterday night it was almost all blood and something’s that I had eaten the whole day ( it’s quite normal as it happens 4 times a week). Naturally I was very depressed this morning so my sister took off from her college and kept me busy by discussing older times like how we both messed up together and how I cried when she teased me I was adopted.
I still remember that I and my sis used to hide remote in the washroom when it was time for some important cartoon (for me it was dragon ballz and for her it was suite life of Zack and Cody) and we used to have some insecurity when our parents gave one of us more attention than the other.
There are lots of things like these.
If I rewind and look into my life I realize how messi I was and my sister even then helped me she had been of constant support to me. I owe her everthing. I write this in every answer but I can’t help it I just love her.
I have realized one thing that I do not want to leave in misery. All the time I have I will enjoy and annky my sister and parents.
Thanks a lot to quora it’s great.
Thanks for reading
Keep praying
🙂
15 November 2k18
Thanks all for your overwhelming response..
I have lots of feelings to share as I had been in critical condition for almost last 15 days…
I have lost my voice because I spat blood so many times that my throat has constant piercing sensation. About a week ago I thought I would die and I wanted to tell my family everything and that is what I did.
I can not imagine how much my parents and my sister love me. They never felt bad helping me rather they wanted me to be fine. My sister is an angel. She has been with me all the time. Though I have become annoyed by my sickness and fought with her many times but she always handled me with care. Whenever I saw anyone in my room it was her in the last 15 days. She is more than God to me.
Now I get feelings like it is better to die in peace rather than suffering so much. I sometimes seem to have lost all hope and strength.
My parents are going mad to see my condition going from bad to worse but they are not ready to loose me and even I can not convince them.
There is almost no happiness left in my life. All the time I see my parents trying to convince me I would be fine and me trying to convince them to be ready for my loss. I feel so bad and blessed at the same time that I am spending the last chapter of my life with people whom I love the most but I feel myself weak when I am unable to do anything for them.. I do try to explain myself that it is not my fault but these thoughts overpower my thinking and leave me depressed most of the time.
People say to enjoy life but how do you enjoy life when you can not walk, talk, or when you are scared of eating(yes I am scared as whatever I eat I vomit with blood)!!!!! I am scared of my own face it looks so horrible with pale skin and red marks.
How do you enjoy life when you have constant killing pain in your whole body and the only way you keep yourself feeling painless is by taking strong pain killers??
I am sorry if this hurt your feelings but I have had it enough. I either want a painless death or a painless cure. I am too depressed but there is nothing I can do…
I am sorry
Keep praying
🙂
I suggest you visit China.
It reversed my preconception. I am from Norway, North Europe. A rather modern and advanced society.On my first visit to the US over 20 years ago, I was surprised at how backward and old fashioned it was. Movies had let me to believe it was the epitome of modern society. I visited several states on the East/South-East. Very backwards digitally. Terrible infrastructure. Unwalkable. Dirty. Hard to find quality restaurants outside of big cities. Dead city centres in medium sized cities.I went to China a year or two later, and the opposite struck me. It was a highly modern society. Highly digital. Fantastic high-speed infrastructure (that is even better nowadays). Super clean, modern cities. I was mainly in the Jiangsu province that time. Loved it!I suggest everyone to go and form their own opinions. I really fell in love with Suzhou, not far from Shanghai.
What are some important, but uncomfortable truths that many people learn when transitioning into adulthood?
Every person is responsible for their own happiness — not their parents, not their boss, not their spouse, not their friends, not their government, not their deity.
One day we will all die, and 999 out of 1,000 people will be remembered by nobody on earth within a hundred years of that date.
Practically all of the best opportunities (in business, in romance, etc) are only offered to people who already have more than they need.
The idea that you will be happy after you make X amount of dollars is almost certainly an illusion.
The idea that you will be happy after you meet [some amazing person] is almost certainly an illusion.
For most people, death is pretty messy and uncomfortable.
When you don’t possess leverage (go look up “BATNA“), people will take advantage of you, whether they mean to or not.
Almost everybody is making it up as they go along. Also, many (most?) people are incompetent at their jobs.
When talking about their background and accomplishments, almost everybody is continually overstating their abilities, impact, relevance, and contributions.
Physical beauty decays.
Compared to others, certain ethnicities and races (and genders, and sexual orientations, and so on) are just plain royally f*cked from the day they’re born. [EDIT: depending on locale & time period]
Bad things constantly happen to good people. Good things constantly happen to bad people.
Very few people will ever give you 100% candid, honest feedback.
People are constantly making enormous life decisions (marriage, children, etc) for all of the wrong reasons.
Certain people — some of whom are in positions of enormous power — just do not give a damn about other human beings.
Often, the most important and consequential moments of our lives (chance encounter, fatal car accident, etc) happen completely at random and seemingly for no good reason.
Your sense of habitating a fully integrated reality is an illusion, and a privilege. Take the wrong drug, suffer a head injury, or somehow trigger a latent psychotic condition like schizophrenia — and your grip on reality can be severed in an instant. Forever.
Yet, despite all that not-so-good-ness, overall life is pretty damn rad. And we’re lucky to get to participate in it.
VIETNAM NIGHTLIFE | WALKING STREET | HO CHI CITY MINH VIETNAM
Is the USA really jealous of China’s rise or is the problem that China is still a Marxist-Leninist country that the United States cannot accept a Marxist state competing with them?
“jealousy” is not the word to describe US mentality.
Dominance is a better description for USA. USA has been dominating the world since WW2. Since 1990’s, China has been rising, fast these years.
USA is hysterically hanging onto its dominance. That is all.
Look at Japan. As a country defeated by USA in WW2, Japan is 100% Amcericanised esp its political system. Also Japan is militarily controlled by USA. Japan is a US puppet with no independent strategic sovereignty.
The only thing for Japan to do was to focus on economic & technological development. In 1980’s, Japan was economically #2 in the world after USA. Its chips technology surpassed USA. Similar to today’s China.
Then what has happened to Japan? You heard it already. USA mercilessly beat Japan down, making Japan lose 10–20 years’ economic & technological advancement.
Just a month or so ago, Japan has monetary crisis & wanted to sell US debts to get cash to save its economy. US Treasury Secy Yellen then called Japan & warned Japan that what Japan did was interference of free market. … Japan was not allowed to save its exchange rate.
Why? USA wanted to bankrupt Japan (& Asian countries too). When Japanese assets become cheap, cheap & cheap, US capitalists will flood into Japan to buy up Japanese assets.
No other Asian countries went bankrupt like Japan because USA has no control of them. They all saved their economy.
Back to your question.
See, it is more to do with sick mentality to dominate than to simple jealousy.
Loyalty is the most important characteristic that a woman can provide to her man
The China, India border issue has been an issue for the two sides since the 1950s, but the two sides have never been able to find a solution.
On India’s side, the political leadership has never been able to form a consensus on a deal, and on China’s side, there has been no urgency. So the issue has continued to simmer.
Now though, the battle lines are becoming more clear between NATO/EU/G7 on the one side, against BRICS on the other side. Russia is on the front line confronting NATO expansion in Ukraine, and is drawing support from Iran and North Korea, while India and China continue to trade with Russia, and ignoring western sanctions.
But there is a problem: India is also a member of the US-led QUAD, with the US, Australia and Japan, and whose aim is to surround and box in China. India has been playing both sides, with one foot in BRICS, and one foot in QUAD.
Obviously India under Modi wants to get a good deal for India.
From Putin’s perspective, he can no longer afford to let the China/India border issue continue because it will threaten the cohesion of BRICS and the rise of Greater Eurasia, which has the support of all the BRICS members and North Korea. Putin does not want and cannot afford to let the US exploit the China/India border issue to the US’s advantage because the US wants to prevent the rise of the Greater Eurasia economic and security alliance.
Since China and India have not been able to reach a border agreement, and Russia is a close ally of both China and India, and is a founding member of BRICS, this means that Russia has to step in and try to help the two sides reach an agreement.
My guess as to what the Russian proposal will be is:
Russia will appoint a representative to study the China-India border dispute; this person will likely be Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov;
After studying the issue; the Russian team will propose a border resolution to both China and India;
China and India will study the Russian proposal and propose their own amendments;
After incorporating the amendments, Russia will issue a solution which is binding on both India and China.
This means that both sides have no choice but to accept the solution. If there are features of the agreement which both China and India do NOT like, then this means that it is a fair agreement.
Russia will then ask India to demonstrate its full commitment to BRICS by withdrawing from the QUAD.
Indian PM Modi will go to Moscow to meet with Putin this Wednesday.
Americans CAN’T Believe What China is Doing Now!
Have you ever had a medical condition or disease that doctors misdiagnosed?
Yes… Approximately 9 years ago I was home alone when I suddenly couldn’t breathe. I was just watching television.. not doing anything strenuous. I had a history of asthma and tried using my inhaler, which did nothing. Fortunately, I picked up the phone, dialed 911..and could only whisper I couldn’t get my breath. I couldn’t give them any information, since I couldn’t speak. I ran to my bedroom to use my nebulizer, but passed out on the bed. Luckily they traced my call, sent an ambulance immediately and transported me to the local hospital, while attempting to revive me on the way. I woke up in ICU 2 days later, after being on a ventilator for 48 hours. My heart had stopped for some unknown reason. After a two week stay, numerous tests and medications, I was feeling better. They felt I had pneumonia.. and gave me antibiotics and steroids, which did seem to make me feel better. While there, they had performed a heart echo, but no one actually told me about the results. When the echo was being done, I felt like I was going to pass out any second and I cried and complained to the technician. Finally I felt better and had begged to go home, which they finally allowed. I returned to my job in another week or so, and was trying to get back to normal. Due to the fact that I often was required to read medical records as a part of my job, I thought it would be a good idea to order a copy of the hospital record, for my own peace of mind, so that’s what I did.
After about a week of being back at work, I came home one day totally exhausted and again weak and short of breath. Immediately my husband insisted we go back to the hospital. I was admitted again with a low oxygen level and trouble breathing. A day or two before, the hospital record had been delivered and I had my husband bring it to me, in the hospital. The doctor wanted me to have an echo and I argued with them explaining I had already just had one! They argued with me and then admitted that somehow the report was missing and they did not know the result. I carefully looked through the records and found the report, showing the cardiologist. I was stunned to read that the ejection fraction (measurement of my heart’s efficiency) was only at 25%. I found out later, this was a level requiring hospice care!! They told me I needed immediate heart surgery and the cardiologist called a surgeon from a Manhattan hospital who agreed to take my case. I was transported by ambulance to Lenox Hill in NYC where I underwent an open heart surgery the next day. I had congestive heart failure….. I cried when the surgeon told me that if they couldn’t fix it, they might have to do a heart transplant!! Imagine.. Ultimately, they did complete a repair of my mitral valve leaflets, by inserting a ring over the valve to allow it to work effectively. It seems my condition had been ongoing for quite some time; My left ventricle had become seriously weakened, causing my heart to fail. Post surgery, I improved, but I continue to require medication to maintain my heart rhythm and blood pressure. The medication makes me tired, so I am much more limited in what I can do. I’ve been on disability since.. and have been unable to return to work. This all happened when I turned 50 years old. I spent my 50th birthday in the hospital.
I did not pursue a malpractice case, although I did seriously consider it. In such cases you need another doctor who would be willing to say the hospital and doctors were negligent. I did visit the EMTs at my local firehouse to thank them for saving my life. They recalled that when they found me I had turned blue from the lack of oxygen. I think they were surprised that I made it!!
At this time, I consider myself to be very, very lucky to be alive! Lesson: we have to be our own health advocates these days! Doctors can and do make mistakes. If it doesn’t seem right, keep looking for another answer!
Russia Just Revealed 2 Hypersonic Weapons & SHOCKED The World!
Why Chinese language has become an issue in NASA? Anything to do with US effort to hang onto its hegemony in the race of space?
China has analysed the lunar soil that was collected by Chang’e-5 in 2020. (Not yet from the 2024 Chang’e-6)
There was discussion that China should first publish its result in Chinese science journals (using Chinese language). before publishing it in foreign journals.
There was US complaint that China has broken the intl standard to use English.
Who said English is the standard? God? Who said a standard/rule cannot be changed? God?
All humans are equal. All nations are equal. We coexist with different cultures incl language. USA crowns itself as god to control the world.
Want to read China’s research result? Learn Chinese language then. Or wait until China publishes it in an English journal. Or go to the moon to collect the soil yourself.
It is not the 1st time arrogant USA complained about Chinese language.
In 2021, China launched a 100% Made-in-China space station (天宫 Tiangong), somebody (I believe it was NASA chief) was maddening angry. He asked China to dismantle Tiangong because it was not written in English.
Tiangong is China’s private property. China can use its own language in its property. Though China welcomes other countries to join China’s space program, Tiangong is STILL China’s private property.
That is not the end of story.
Using a satellite from Space-X, USA tried to collide it into Tiangong. Twice, Luckily USA failed because Tiangong is equipped with detectors to prevent collision by meteorite or space garbage. China already reported this US crime to UN.
Did E Musk aplogise? No. He said China can always avoid collision. The question is not whether China can avoid it. The question is why Space-X deliberately created collision & endangered the life of the 3 Yuhangyuan (宇航员 astronaut) in Tiangong.
Let me further irritate the sick USA …
China is planning to set up a base on the moon. China may draw a map to divide the moon into regions like our road map. China may name the lunar regions in Chinese language.
Rules are made by the FIRST one who gets it. Like WTO rules were set up by the West. China thus follows WTO rules.
Since China will be the 1st one to set up a base on the moon, you learn Chinese language & then translate the Chinese map in your language.
Gregorian Chants | Immersing in the Spiritual Atmosphere Of Gregorian Chants
I discovered this. It’s something to bookmark if you want some chill music for atmosphere. Or meditation. Maybe spells. Who knows. Aside from that, you can skip this.
What’s the shadiest thing you saw a real estate agent do?
My ex and I were moving to Oregon from Colorado and had put our home up for sale. We got an offer within two weeks which was great as we were moving a few weeks later.
Supposedly, the buyers were moving to Colorado from Texas for the man’s job. The company was doing the down payment and then pay the balance on closing. Because of “banking issues” because of the house being in Colorado, they ended up only sending a $1,000.00 of the $30,000.00 down payment.
Our real estate agent said that was ok, that the whole sale amount would be paid at closing.
The closing was the day before we were leaving. We get to the title company’s office for the closing and the buyers show up with our real estate agent, and without the payment check.
The guy doing the closing was not happy but the real estate agent had him call the bank that the funds were coming from and he was told that there was an malfunction on the bank’s end and the transfer would take place that afternoon.
We went ahead and signed the papers and made arrangements for my mom to deposit the check in our bank account ( small town bank where everyone knew everyone else) the next day.
Yup, you guessed it, the check never showed up. Luckily the title agent was a family friend and refused to hand over the keys or file the paperwork without payment, even when the real estate agent and buyers threatened legal action.
Come to find out, it was a scam. The couple and the company he worked for, had pulled this in other states before. They would do the closing , get the keys and the title put in the new owners name. They would in turn sale the house and the original owners would be stuck with what little was paid in escrow.
We were lucky the title company refused to file the paperwork, we rented the house to some friends who then purchased it with cash a few months later.
The real estate agent lost their company and license and since it was a small community, their reputation.
The buyers left the state and the company disappeared. Technically no laws were broken so we couldn’t do anything legally against anyone.
Trump & Biden: CHINA! CHINA! CHINA!
Sheech!
What is an example of a simple flaw in a perfect crime?
Mike Williams was fond of duck hunting.
On December 16, 2000, which happened to be his 6th wedding anniversary, he went out to pursue his hobby. Promised his wife he’d be back in time for the celebration, he never returned.
Search and rescue team found his boat and shotgun the next day, but he was nowhere to be seen.
Initial reactions were that he may have drowned, but his body could not be found. Since the lake inhabited alligators, the blame was on cold-blooded animals. It was assumed that he fell off his boat and was eaten by the gators. Mike remained on the ‘missing list’ though.
Six months later his waders, torch, hunting license and safety jacket were found floating in the lake.
On his wife Denise’s request, he was declared “dead by accidental drowning.”
She married another man, Brian Winchester, in December 2005. He was Mike’s high school friend and an Insurance agent.
Thousands of letters from Mike’s mom and the case was reopened. She just didn’t feel her son had disappeared and was eaten by the gators. By then, it was clear to the investigators that alligators don’t eat humans as a whole, and they don’t even eat during winters.
So, this pointed towards some serious foul play. There was no evidence to arrest anyone, however.
Sixteen years of no evidence, the police arrested Brian Winchester in August 2016 for allegedly kidnapping Denise. He did so because she wanted to divorce him.
On Denise’s request, the judge agreed to turn down Winchester’s bail application. She said he would kill her and her daughter.
On December 19, 2017, Winchester was sentenced to 20 years in prison for armed kidnapping of Denise. The very next day, on December 20, Mike’s remains were found.
In May 2018, Denise Williams got arrested under the charge of first-degree murder. Three months later, in August, she was charged with insurance fraud worth $1.75 million.
The matter got into the trial phase, and Winchester testified against Denise for plotting the murder. He told the court he pushed Mike into the water to make it look like an accident, but it didn’t work. So, he shot him in the head and buried his body in the mud near Carr Lake.
Denise, in February 2019, was sentenced to life imprisonment for first-degree murder and an additional 30 years for conspiring the crime. There is no possibility of parole.
Winchester, though the killer, remained immune from murder conviction because he testified against Denise.
The only flaw in this crime was planting the evidence six months later. All of that was intact. No signs of gators’ tooth or blood on any of the recovered items. The torch worked absolutely fine.
And then asking to declare him dead within six months of his disappearance. Usually, it takes five years to get it done.
It took about 2600 letters to the authorities from a loving mother to find the killer(s) of her son after more than 18 years of his disappearance.
strong independent woman gets a TRAIN RAN on her and regrets it
The West is cooked! God am I glad that I don’t live there any longer.
Is it true that an exodus from the Philippines is taking place? Why or why not?
Maybe they smelled war.
Businessmen have the most sensitive political sense. Recently, Raul Lambino, chairman of the Philippine New Energy Group, burst into tears at the 70th anniversary commemoration of China’s “Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence” held in Beijing. He said: ‘I Don’t Want My Country to Be a Battleground’.
Recently, Taiwanese media reported that a silent electronic war broke out between the Chinese and American militaries in the South China Sea. The two armies fought for 12 hours, and the result was obvious: PLA wins and the US military loses!
The Internet, GPS, and communication facilities in the northern Philippines were all paralyzed. Luzon Island was in a state of panic.
Electronic warfare is a precursor to bombing military targets. After the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Russia launched a large-scale electronic jamming war, causing Ukraine’s GPS positioning to drift seriously, and the effectiveness of precision-guided weapons provided by NATO dropped significantly.
Therefore, before a war breaks out, GPS signals may be lost, network connections may be disconnected, and phone calls may be unreachable in the war zone.
Perhaps the Philippines realized that the U.S. military was completely unable to provide the so-called “protection” for the Philippines, and unilaterally demanded that the U.S. military withdraw its medium-range missile system from the Philippines to avoid further angering China.
Philippines Says US Mid-Range Missile System to Be Pulled Out
A US mid-range missile system deployed in the Philippines for annual joint military exercises — to the annoyance of China — will be pulled out of the country.
A series of events that have happened recently may contain the answers you want.
As a nurse, has a patient ever demanded something completely unreasonable of you?
The old farmer only had one testicle left due to testicle cancer, and his remaining testicle had taken a hard hit from his favorite cow. The ball looked like a balloon. A very painful balloon.
After a medical investigation, and before the urologist could even say what the verdict was, the patient stated the decision he had made, after a long and deep contemplation:
“I am seventy-plus years old, and my wife an I do not share the bed anymore. We don’t need to spend extra energy nor money to save it. Just take it away, and I will be just fine.”
That’s what he would do if one of his animals had one balloon ball left — amputate the entire scrotum, and that’s that. So the lady doctor should do the same thing, with a rubber band for that matter. (He would be fine.)
My girlfriend tried to explain that he needed the testosterone in order to function as a man (hoping that he would understand this language). But the farmer refused to take it in because in his eyes, a testicle was a tool to procreate. (“So why not cut it off ?”)
It took forever to explain that without testicles he would suffer from fatigue, hot flashes, muscle loss, poor facial hair growth and what have you. That on many levels he would turn into a woman in menopause, and that lifelong hormone treatment would be necessary to counterbalance the effects.
And that he would become an extremely emotional farmer for no reason if he would ignore that very important treatment (which he would).
In the end, he gave in though — and the testicle lived.
This recipe was the winner of the 1992 National Beef Cook-Off.
093a334218e9aee2d6f6389a08f36a0d
Yield: 5 to 6 servings | 1 1/2 cups salsa
Ingredients
Steak
2/3 cup frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
1/2 cup tequila
1/3 cup fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger
2 medium cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 1/2 pounds well-trimmed boneless beef
1 (1 inch thick) round steak
Orange Salsa
2 oranges, peeled and cubes
1 small onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 to 3 tablespoon fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
Instructions
Steak
Combine orange juice concentrate, tequila, lime juice, oil, ginger, garlic, salt, oregano and red pepper.
Place steak in a plastic bag: add marinade, turning to coat. Close bag securely and marinate, refrigerated, for 4 hours, or up to overnight.
Orange Salsa
In a nonreactive bowl, combine all ingredients. Refrigerate for at least one hour.
Remove steak from marinade; discard marinade. Place steak on grill over medium coals (you should be able to hold your hand 4 inches above the coals for a count of 4 seconds).
Grill for 22 to 26 minutes for medium-rare to medium doneness, turning once.
Remove steak to carving board; let stand for 10 minutes.
Carve steak crosswise into thin slices: Arrange on serving platter. Garnish with cilantro and lime; serve with Orange Salsa.
Modern women have run the men off & now they wonder why they’re single!
What was a loophole that you found and exploited the hell out of?
Circa 2010-ish, Samsung had this app in my country called samsung gift. It would give limited free vouchers (mostly for food) for people who have samsung phones
Funny thing is, not many people seem to use it, and they always deploy their free vouchers at the same time everyday. So i would standby, app open, to wait for it. No kidding, I *ALWAYS* get the vouchers without fail. We’re talking about full meals at kenny rogers, free medium pizza from pizza hut, etc.
Oh, and I didn’t stop there. They had tiers of these vouchers. like if you have their flagship phones (and tablets too) they give out voucher for fancier restos.. then another tier for mid-tier phones. and for the lower tier phones it would be like a free ice cream at dairy queen or something.
well my family uses samsung phones mainly. and I also have a few samsung tablet. long story short, each day i would have an excess of 5+ vouchers to trade in (and many of these you can take away, it’s not always limited to dine in)
suffice to say that i think for about 2+ years Samsung helped me save a lot on dining out costs. it was really fun. too bad around the time Galaxy note 8 came out (the last samsung flagship i ever bought), they slowly started to give out less and less vouchers. oh well, it was fun white it lasted!
I believe abortion is wrong. Can you change my mind?
My friend’s grandma gave birth to 10 children during her life time. Six of them grew to adults. Two of them died when they were toddlers. Another two babies were killed by drowning in a basin, as soon as they were born, by the parents, who were too poor to feed them.
My friend said ‘Grandma and grandpa had often murmured, ‘Sorry… Sorry…’ with tears, when they recalled it. They blamed themselves all their lives. They had no choice. No enough food for all the family. They killed the babies by their own hands, instead of letting them starve, to die slowly, to save the food for their elder children to survive.’
It was a situation you would face as a parent if you were born at that time, in a poor village, if you didn’t have enough sunshine or rain to harvest your crops in a certain year. In fact, at that time, it was not a rare case at all. The ones you killed were not fetuses, but actual humans who could already breathe and cry. You were no doubt a murderer. But no matter how guilt-ridden you felt murderering your newborn angels, you must move on, because you must take full responsibility to feed your other children, otherwise they wouldn’t survive either. That’s why in a time like that, the babies killed by their own parents were not considered ‘murdered’, neither legally nor morally. It was pretty much accepted by society, because people didn’t have better options.
Morals, values, cultures… all depend on our ability to survive. There is no absolute right or wrong, good or bad, virtue or sin. ‘Should we consider a fetus a living human?’ ‘Is abortion wrong?’ ‘Should we forbid eating animal meat?’ ‘Is President Lincoln a racist?’ All discussions require a context. We can’t give an absolute yes or no without considering the backgrounds and the stages of development. Morality is relative, specific, and constantly changing.
When we talk about abortion, we need to talk about the alternatives when you don’t abort. Do common people have easy access to birth control? Have we built up a single mother/father friendly social environment (employment, welfare, social pressure etc)? Do we have social support for poor families? Has our society developed to a stage that everybody is covered by a safety net? What’s the solution when a woman is in a bodily condition which makes it highly risky to give birth? What about a pregnancy caused by rape?…
There is no ‘best’ social system. We have to consider the current stage of development we are in, to balance the different interests and conflicts of different individuals and social groups, to keep on communicating and compromising, to keep on experimenting to find a relatively ‘not bad’ one. I think that’s our human’s reality.
(This is a translation of my another answer in Japanese to a similar question. Welcome to correct my English and discuss about this topic. Thank you.
Young Men Are Going To Revolt…
This is NOT what you think it is. It is a in-depth study of the nature of war, collapse and change. Very good. Really worth your time to watch.
When I was attending university, perhaps in my second year, I lived off campus (for a brief spell) in a run down Victorian house off in the bad section of town. And I would dutifully stop by the nearby local bagel store and grab a fresh bagel to munch on the way to my shitty cheap apartment.
One day, I decided to buy a amateur porn magazine that was on display by the door. And with a bagel in my mouth, I paid the 25 cents for the magazine. Maybe it was 75 cents. I don’t really remember. It was full of “swingers” and “home style” pictures of a sexual nature that people in that some group would post.
Some were gross. Just gross. While others had some pretty attractive gals, and one caught my eye. SO I bought the magazine and headed down the street to my apartment.
It was full of all kinds of people. Young, but mostly old and many fatties. Not a “playboy magazine” for certain. But just porn taken with 35mm film, or Polaroids and submitted to the magazine for publishing. If you got your picture published, the magazine would give you a $100. Pretty reasonable money in those days!
So I make it home, lay out my text books for my nightly study and finish eating my bagels. I’m going through the magazine and then I saw it…
… no doubt about it…
… there was my mother. With her current husband. And they were getting it on. Only one picture. But that was enough for me.
Oh, I never told anyone. I was discrete and kept all this info to myself. But I will never forget the shock that I had to my young 19 year old self in seeing my mother in a compromising position near our houses front door…!
Ah.
We all live our lives. Some of the things we want to keep private and confidential. While other things are ok to become public knowledge. My siblings no nothing about this. I never told anyone.
For whatever it is worth, I have a vault in my head full of these confidential confidences that I keep to myself. It’s a sign of maturity.
Don’t you know.
Today…
Chinese history lesson
In the year 290 AD, there was a retarded young man became the emperor in China.
His emperor father actually had more than one son, but ultimately chose him as his successor. The main reason was that this retarded son married a wife from a very powerful family, and a retarded emperor was actually very advantageous for his wife and father-in-law to control the power.
Today’s Biden is somewhat like this retarded emperor.
The people who truly hold power in America are those people around Biden, and they actually don’t mind Biden becoming increasingly incompetent. I
n fact, an incompetent Biden is very beneficial for them to control the power of America.
By the way, China fell into a bloody civil war after this retarded emperor.
GRUaRssaIAAKXMx
As a police officer, what law do you rarely enforce?
Here’s a list of 10 in my state that I won’t be enforcing any time soon… however my actual answer is far more basic/universal and, if any other US Cop out there thinks about it, it would be theirs too. But first, that 10 that immediately come to my mind:
Feeding the birds in public parks.
A shop selling toy handcuffs to minors.
A business that has more than 10 signs on its premises.
Dissemination of informational fliers on windshields of people’s parked cars.
Any car mod that is unrelated to lighting, noise, air emissions, or plate visibility. (Example: having custom tires on your vehicle that are wider than the chassis/fenders.)
Gambling (even if it’s between family, friends, or coworkers).
Stopping/Ticketing the rider of an eBike or Motorized bike for no other reason than that it was is traveling faster than 25mph (as long as the rider is under whatever the posted limit is, and not operating it in an obnoxious way, they won’t get a second look from me.)
Before it became legal, I never busted anyone who grew personal use amounts of pot plants on their private property or carried personal use amounts on their person.
Busting a kid who was riding an electric/motorized skateboard on the street for not having a Driver’s License.
Busting an intoxicated golfer when they drive their cart across the road to get to the next green. (For the moment they’re on a Public Way, that still fits the OUI/DUI Statute.)
Only when you become a Police Officer do you have true awareness of the voluminous amount of codes that make up a the Criminal and Motor Vehicle sections of the State.l’s law. A majority of people (and many police officers) would be/are shocked by the numbers and feel that a great many are weird, unnecessarily, or just really stupid. Heck, the “Drivers Handbook” available for free from the DMV in my state is 56 pages of diagrams of things like intersections, sign shapes, stopping distances etc, all in relatively large print. In contrast, the Motor Vehicle Statute book that the State Legislature releases to all law enforcement agencies here, is in excesses of 460 pages! It contains no pictures of any kind, and is written in exceptionally small print. So the simplest answer I can give— as would any other US Cop if they’re being super-honest with themselves— to the question of which laws I “rarely enforce,” is, literally, this:
TOS-2 Wiped Out Canadian, French, and US Soldiers In CHASIV YAR┃Russia Captured STEPOVAY-NOVOSELOVKA
Why are Hong Kong people willing to accept that the British government’s BNO status is a trap when they know they are pawns against China?
Many who went to UK on BNO status are ”criminals” who had broken law 1 way or another.
Some genuinely do not know a thing. They just follow others.
See, UK & USA have run their scheme for more than 30 years. In the case of UK, it started in 1984 when UK realised China demanded return of HK in 1997. No negotiation.
UK’s plot was extensive covering all walks of life. Education is one of them. One whole generation was brainwashed to hate & fear of China.
So when UK opened door to accept BNOers, many people fled HK. They did not know UK was just sucking their money. That said, even they knew UK was sucking their money, out of hatred & fear of China, they might still go.
Human nature is funny.
I recently asked a person why she is afraid of ghost. I asked her if she has seen one. What is her experience with a ghost?
She cannot answer. Why then fear of ghost? Somebody told her ghost is terrible or evil Not good anyway.
I asked what makes her think god is not evil. Of course she cannot answer.
My point: it is all somebody who says so.
Same here with China. If you ask a BNOer why they hate China. They will repeat what others told her eg dictator. No freedom. Poor etc. If you ask them whether they have ever been to China, of course they have not. … again, it is somebody who says so.
Humans seldom do their own thinking.
BREAKING NEWS: Mike Johnson Hammers Joe Biden After Presidential Debate
As an attorney, have you ever experienced a case that made you re-evaluate your life?
Yes. I was appointed by the court to defend a gang member for armed robbery. He thought he was super cool and wanted to take the stand. I told him no, I warned him, he insisted over my objection.
There was only one thing going in his favor. The clerk at the place robbed said the robber had blue eyes. My client had brown eyes.
I felt my client was a very very dangerous person. I was sure the prosecutor would ask him if he had color contacts. They were in his pocket. When he lied and said no, I would ask to be recused from the case as you are not allowed to knowingly let your client lie on the stand. The judge would then know he was lying and I would probably be excused as counsel, etc. The ignorant prosecutor never asked. He was found not guilty.
The judge had a fit. He excoriated everyone but me…he said I was just doing my job. Two days later my client shot and killed an 8 year old girl in a rival gang revenge attack at the girl’s birthday party. The newspaper headline was the judge’s quote that he would never sleep again until every member of that gang was six feet under.
The judge called me and advised me that I would NOT be appointed to represent the guy again (Thank God).
The police declared a vendetta on that gang. Five years later the headlines said that gang was “eradicated” from Texas.
I never took another criminal case. I became a real estate attorney and did pro bono work for battered women and men who paid child support but were denied visitation with their children.
Robert remembered the sensation of falling. He remembered the feeling of cold dread as the engine stuttered and died and his stomach dropped through the floor. He could never forget the look on his colleague’s face as the colour drained from him and his skin turned paper white.He didn’t remember plummeting through space, searing through the planet’s atmosphere, or the deafening landing. His colleague, Martin, hadn’t been knocked unconscious and had managed to pull him from the fiery wreck before the smoke and flames engulfed him. Robert was out cold. All he remembered was darkness.Blurred colours greeted him as he opened his eyes, the world spinning in and out of focus. One woman, or two, or three, was bent over him. He heard her speak, the words moving through his sluggish brain like soup. He could make no sense of them. He tried to sit up, but a shooting pain split through his head and the woman pushed him back to the ground. Martin appeared then; despite his hazy vision he recognised his co-pilot. Three Martins. Groaning, Robert closed his eyes.It might have been a few hours later when he next opened them. The dazzling sunlight had dimmed slightly, and the air was not quite so hot. His vision took a minute to clear, but when it did, there was only one Martin sitting over him. He asked him how he was feeling, felt his forehead, his throat, checked his pulse. Irritated, Robert pushed him away and forced himself into a sitting position. His head was still banging, but not with quite so much volition as before.“We went wrong,” Martin uttered in a low voice, just as Robert asked him where they were.“What do you mean?” Robert replied, rubbing his forehead with one hand as Martin handed him a glass of water. It looked like water and tasted like water, but it was purple. Robert blinked at it, confused, and then looked up at the sky. It was as if it had been painted with purple water colours.“Why isn’t the sky blue, Martin?” Robert asked. He must have still been dazed from the crash, because he was much calmer than he should have been.
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you. We went wrong.”
“We were right on target to hit Mars.”
“This isn’t Mars.”
It was then that Robert noticed the huddle of young women standing a short distance away, grouped under a copse of trees next to a river. Lilac-coloured water cascaded from an eight-foot drop into the shimmering pool, before winding away through the trees. Robert stared at the waterfall, the women, the sky.
“Martin?” he said, his tone still strangely neutral. “Am I dreaming, or am I dead?”
“Neither,” his colleague hissed at him. “You’re on Venus.”
Robert nodded, tasting the words even though his brain couldn’t comprehend them.
“But we were on target for Mars.”
“Mars is red, Rob, not purple.”
Robert nodded again, sipping the purple drink as one of the women broke away from the group and sashayed over to them. She might have been the same one that had been crouched over him before; she had the same silvery-blonde hair and violet coloured eyes. Her dress was lilac and her feet were bare. If Robert squinted, he could see that all the women were wearing dresses of a similar colour and not one of them wore shoes.
Martin got to his feet as she approached and Robert staggered up next to him. He felt oddly light-headed but pain free.
“Do you think they want to kill us?” he asked Martin as he drained the last of the water. In response, he received only a glare.
The woman paused in front of them, looking suddenly unsure of herself.
“Tia,” she announced. “Robert and Martin, correct?” The pair nodded. She chewed her lip, her eyes straying disdainfully over their clothes. Martin was half in his spacesuit, Robert was only in a t-shirt and jeans. “But…” she said, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion. “Where are the rest of you?”
The two men exchanged glances. “The rest of us?” Robert repeated. “There’s only us two. We crashed.”
“I’m glad you’re feeling better,” she said. “The water here helps with healing very well.” She paused, a light breeze playing with her hair. “But surely more are on their way? We have thirty women here, all waiting for you.”
Robert could feel his head begin to pound and not because of the crash-landing.
“We’ve come from Earth. Have you heard of it?”
If Tia had heard the sarcasm in his voice, she didn’t show it. Her eyes dropped to the floor, her lips twisting into a frown.
“Earth? No. I don’t know any Earth.” Her eyes narrowed then and her tone became suddenly accusatory. “You are from Mars. All men are from Mars!”
Robert stared at her. She glared defiantly back.
“Love,” he began, feeling his patience start to wear thin. “Nobody lives on Mars. The place is a rock, totally uninhabitable! We are not from Mars, we’re from Earth. Kindly tell me what planet you are from?”
“Venus.”
Robert opened his mouth to shoot back a snide reply, but Martin cut him off.
“Are there any men here?” he asked Tia.
“No,” she replied, clicking her tongue in annoyance. “All men live on Mars. There should be thirty of you arriving today for the Spring Festival, but so far we have only two and not even a decent two at that.”
She scowled at them both and turned on her heel to storm away, but Martin hastily dashed after her, apologies spilling from his mouth as Robert stood and watched, realisation beginning to dawn on him.
The sun suddenly broke out from behind a cloud and the brilliance of it dazzled him. He sat back down on the grass, his eyes straying from Martin and Tia to the group of women huddled by the river. When Martin returned, he was carrying another glass of water.
“She said this might help your head,” he said handing the drink to Robert. “Shame it can’t help your attitude.” He smirked but looked away hastily as Robert glared at him. “The boys stay here until they’re eighteen. She’s going to see if they can help us out with a ship. In the meantime, we can stay in the village.”
“She wants us to go then.”
Martin crouched down on to the grass in front of him. “This isn’t our universe, Rob. I don’t know how we’ve ended up here, but here we are. There’s no Earth in their solar system. All the men live on Mars and all the women live on Venus.” Robert found his eyes wandering back to the group of women. They were all young, in their late twenties or early thirties, and they were all beautiful. “This Spring Festival,” Martin continued. “It’s a mating festival, Rob. Thirty men come over to meet thirty women and they couple up and well… you know…”
“So what you’re saying is, we’re stuck on a rock in some other universe, who knows where, and we’re the only men? That’s what you’re saying?”
Martin grinned and hit him playfully on the shoulder. “More men are coming. When they get here, they’ll help us find a ship. We’ll get a ship, Rob, don’t worry.”
They waited for three days, but the men didn’t arrive. The women became fretful. Each day they turned up in their purple dresses with their hair and make-up done to sit by the river from sunrise to sunset and each day they went home by themselves. They weren’t interested in befriending the two astronauts. The majority of them seemed to blame the pair for the loss of their men.
It was late in the afternoon on the third day when the silver-haired Tia approached them, leading a teenage boy alongside her.
“This is Jay,” Tia said as she reached them. “Jay is seventeen and he studies solar engineering at the college. He will help you find a ship.” She smiled at them but her eyes remained troubled. “Maybe then you can return to your own planet.”
“And your men?” Martin asked. “Shouldn’t they be here by now?”
She turned to gaze into the sky and sighed. “Something must have gone wrong. You crash-landed in our meadow and they haven’t arrived. Maybe they crashed somewhere else? But what if there is no one there to help them?”
She patted Jay on the back and thanked him before leaving. He quickly dived into conversation with Martin, but Robert wasn’t listening, he couldn’t stop thinking about Tia.
Jay proved to be very helpful. He took them on tours around the village and surrounding areas. The village looked more like a city to Robert, with its sky-high buildings and its colleges, but it was welcoming and friendly. The women watched them in interest as they passed, and many trailed after them, like excited girls wanting autographs from their favourite pop-stars. The teenager took them to his college workshop where other young boys clubbed together to help build the pair a new ship, modelling it on what they had left of the one that had crashed. They were quick and nimble workers and it was completed in only a week. Jay told them there was a takeoff station at the bottom of the meadow where they’d crashed and they arranged to have the ship transported back there. When they arrived, a tearful Tia came rushing up to meet them.
“Something must have happened to them!” she sobbed, the tears streaking down her face. “Please, please, before you go, look for them! They could be danger!”
Robert gazed at her, at her shiny, soft hair that fell elegantly over the curve of her breasts, at the lilac dress that hugged her waist, at the tears that fell from her beautiful violet eyes.
“Of course,” he told her. “We’ll find them.”
A whole host of women gathered in the meadow to watch them leave, along with Jay and the other boys who had helped to build the ship. Martin pressed his face to the glass of the window as they rocketed away from the planet into the depths of space.
“We were on course for Mars,” he said softly, as Robert took the wheel. “How did we end up on Venus in another dimension?”
“Another universe,” Robert shot back. “We must have passed through… through a… a worm-hole or something.”
Martin gave him a sharp look. “You told me worm-holes don’t exist.”
“I must have been wrong.”
They trawled through space, searching for anything unfamiliar or unknown, anything that might have rooted an explanation as to how they travelled between universes. Robert had lost track of the days completely when he noticed something in the distance.
“Martin!” he hissed, squinting through the window of the ship. “Martin, get over here!”
His companion joined him, concern plastered over his face. “What?”
Robert didn’t answer, but merely pointed.
It was hard to tell what it was at first. It was if there was some sort of light distorting the view. It was a shimmering line, like the mist rolling in off the sea.
“We’re in the middle of space,” Martin said flatly. “We’re not going near that.”
“Yes, we are,” Robert replied, easing forward on the accelerator. “That might be just how we got here in the first place.”
Martin grappled with him for the controls but Robert was stronger and slammed the accelerator down, sending the ship careening towards the shimmering line. It widened as they approached, yawning open like a great mouth. Martin screamed as it swallowed them and they found themselves spinning and spinning and spinning through a mass of swirling, blinding colours.
When it spat them out, they both felt the engine lurch, and Martin grabbed Robert’s arm in panic.
“That’s how we crashed!” he yelled, but Robert was barely listening; he’d spotted the rocky, red planet of Mars and sent the ship spiralling straight for it.
Martin bellowed at his companion, trying to pull the ship up before they crashed, but it jarred against a mound of rocks and flipped on to its side. They piled out of it, helmets on, and sprinted away before it could burst into flame and meet the same fate as their old ship. It didn’t fortunately, but it didn’t look safe to fly either.
“Great going, Rob,” Martin grumbled, gesturing towards the heap of battered metal. “We finally make it to Mars and you go and break our transport. Again.”
Robert could have shot him a snide reply, he wasn’t sure it was entirely his fault they had crashed on Venus in the first place, but he wasn’t listening. His attention had been snared by a far superior, more colourful ship that sat proudly atop a rocky outcrop. A rather dilapidated ribbon was tied around it. It might have looked smart at first, but it was dirty from red dust and the bow had come undone. He began walking towards it, his heart pounding, leaving Martin muttering to himself amidst the rocks. He thought about the lack of atmosphere, the lack of hostile environment, and began to run, panicking even though he didn’t know these men.
Martin yelled after him, suddenly noticing the ship for the first time. They both raced towards it, knowing the men would have been unprepared, knowing they would have lacked oxygen.
Robert reached the ship first and banged on the metal door, bellowing at them to let him in. Martin was quick on his heels and joined him, banging on the door until it opened.
There was a cluster of young men, all late twenties or early thirties and all beautiful. They were stood behind the air lock, frowning at the two strangers in their space suits who were waving at them from the inhospitable landscape of Mars. Wordlessly, they welcomed the astronauts on to the ship, though they seemed wary and kept their distance.
“Where are you from?” the first one said, as Robert took his helmet off.
“Earth!” Robert replied proudly, ignoring their puzzled glances to continue. “We were on our way to our Mars, when we crash-landed on your Venus.”
“What my friend is trying to say,” Martin interrupted, as the group of men muttered amongst each other in confusion, “is that we’re from a parallel universe, and we crashed in your universe. You apparently, have gotten lost in our universe, but we can guide you back.”
The muttering continued but a few smiles began to appear among the bunch.
“You crashed,” one observed.
“You can’t return in that wreck,” another said.
“Guide us back to our Venus,” the first one said, “and we will ensure you can safely return to your own planet.”
The two astronauts gladly obliged and took the controls to return the vehicle to Venus. Martin was a bit dismayed about leaving the red planet so soon, after only just arriving and without conducting any of their research, but Robert found he didn’t care that much; he longed to return to Venus, to Tia.
They landed safely the third time around and the relieved, yet tearful, silver-haired Tia came running up as the group disembarked. She weaved through the handsome young men, searching for the alien astronauts who had brought them to her. She found Robert and threw her arms around him, sobbing into his shoulder.
“Thank you,” she wept, “thank you so much.”
He didn’t say anything, but hugged her close. Martin took his shoulder, telling him they had to sort a new ship and get back to their own universe, but Robert had made his mind up.
“We’ve found a planet inhabited entirely by women,” he told his friend, as Tia straightened and wiped her tears from her flushed face, “and you want to leave?!” He turned back to the beautiful woman standing in front of him, took her hand and kissed it.
“Allow me to introduce myself, properly this time,” he told her. “My name is Robert, this is Martin. We come in peace.”
Giggling, she took his hand and led them both through the meadow towards the waterfall. The sun shone down on them through the purple sky, sparkling on the purple river. Far behind them, deep in space, the shimmering dimensional gap, the stitch in the universe that had brought them there, slowly faded to melt away completely in the unfathomable depths of space.
Nam Jim Wan
(Sweet Dipping Sauce | Thai)
This is a simple dipping sauce usually used with deep fried items such as spring rolls and stuffed chicken wings.
Ingredients
3 cups water
3 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vinegar (preferably rice vinegar)
3 tablespoons Chinese pickled plums
3 tablespoons thinly sliced prik ki nu daeng (red birdseye chiles)
2 tablespoons garlic, very thinly sliced
2 tablespoons ginger, julienned or grated
1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
Boil the water, and add the pickled plums (sometimes sold as ‘salted plums’), and simmer for five minutes.
Remove the plums to a food processor and puree them.
Continue to boil the water, adding and dissolving the sugar, then adding the vinegar and salt. If any sugar is still undissolved, add a little more water until it dissolves.
Return the plums to the mixture, and then pour over the other ingredients in a sterilized preserving jar, and keep in a cool place for at least a week before using.
Can you introduce me as Joker? | Joker [UltraHD, HDR]
Why does China want to go to war with Taiwan even though Japan intervened? Do they really think they will win that fight?
Today’s China is militarily strong.
China is not afraid of USA. It of course will not be afraid of Japan.
A year or 2 ago, Taiwan asked Japan if it will help Taiwan in case of war,
Japan said they only plan up to the point of evacuation of Japanese in Taiwan. Translation: Japan’s war simulation tells Japan that it will not win China.
Neither can USA.
Some other art
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As a Vietnam vet, what was the saddest thing you saw during the war?
Well, here goes, and it’s taken me 50 years to write or even speak of this event. I considered writing anonymously but that’s no way to get something off your chest.
I was with an infantry platoon in the Mekong Delta during the summer of 1969, we walked out of a woodline into an open paddy area and found several individuals dragging an unexploded 500 pound bomb across the paddy toward a wooded area. They were dressed like V/C, black trousers and white shirts, and probably about 500 yards away. This bomb would have made a devastating booby trap.
This was a so-called “free fire zone,” meaning all civilians and non-combatants had supposedly been relocated and only the enemy remained.
We opened fire and the subjects scattered into the woodline and we did not pursue them. It was getting on toward sunset and we heard crying and moaning from deep within the jungle. I, along with two other soldiers, was sent to investigate. We found a male subject laying on his back in great distress, when his shirt was removed there was a bullet hole in his upper chest/shoulder area but no exit wound. He was not bleeding, but that blood had to go somewhere, and it did, straight into his lung.
The other two guys with me argued that we should take him out and call for a dustoff (Medivac) but I was in charge and would not allow it. I said we were not going to endanger a flight crew to evacuate an enemy soldier who was going to die anyway. And besides, he might have been one of V/C who ambushed our platoon the previous week causing extensive casualties and loss of life.
So we waited as his breathing grew gradually more shallow; I kept shining my flashlight into his eyes and after about 20 minutes his pupils became dilated and non-reactive. This enemy soldier had died. Except. . .
The next morning our platoon was sleeping on dikes near the woodline and I was awakened by terrible screaming and crying from a woman and her children who had seemingly come from nowhere, there were no hooches or villages in sight. Our “enemy soldier,” whom I had watched and saw die, was in fact her 13-year old son.
At the time, and over the years, I’ve tried to rationalize my actions that evening: it was dark, V/C were all young looking, we couldn’t have saved him anyway, but the only true answer is that war had stripped away a bit of my humanity.
I saw plenty of sadness in Vietnam, but nothing was as sorrowful as watching a mother weep for her dead son.
And then I heard Phil Collins – In the Air Tonight (First Time Reaction) *
A crying mother trying to drag a man to her dying kitten. Just unbelievable
What is the largest amount of money you have ever lost in a day?
Seven hundred quadrillion dollars. (USD)
This was about 10 years ago. I had a lunch date planned at a restaurant next to where I was working. We had a pleasant enough meal and at the end I was about to pay. My credit card was declined.
That didn’t make any sense. It was direct drawn on my bank account, I had plenty of money in it. Lunch wasn’t all that expensive for the two of us.
So I take a moment to go over to the ATM and attempt a withdraw. The machine tells me I have no money. I print out the balance and I’m over drawn by:
$700,000,000,000,000,000
Somehow I’d lost $700,000,000,000,000,000 and my account was now negative that amount.
I walked back to the office, borrowed $50 off a coworker to pay for lunch and walked back over to the restaurant. Needless to say I didn’t get a second date out of that.
So after lunch I start making phone calls and the bank just runs me in circles giving me one lie after another and telling me it must be my fault, and that I clearly “lost the money” and have “spent it on something I don’t remember” and that they will be “adding over draft fees” and various other fines.
I couldn’t get one idiot on the phone to actually acknowledge the total amount that they were claiming I’d lost. They simply saw the flag that I was overdrawn and proceeded to tell me it was my fault for spending more than my limit.
The next day I went into the bank and asked for a manager. That took a while, the cashier kept assuring me she could handle my needs and insisting that I didn’t need a manager.
I finally told her: look, unless you can explain to me why you stole 700 quadrillion dollars from me, you really can’t help me and I’m going to need a manager.
She told me I was making up numbers. I told her to go fuck herself and she shouldn’t be working in a bank if she didn’t know what a quadrillion was.
She went to get a manager to have me thrown out. I handed him the ATM slip and he just stood there without saying a word for a couple of minutes while his brain processed how many zeroes were on the paper.
He shooed her away and asked me into his office. I told him the run around I’d been getting from phone customer service and that I’d come in and asked for a manager only to be brushed off by the girl at the counter, I just wasn’t in the mood for any more bullshit.
I told him he needed to explain to me how they could possibly think I’d lost 700 quadrillion dollars beyond my spending limit.
We sat there for an hour while he made phone calls. At the end of that he assured me that it was all fixed and that the money was restored and my account would be usable within the next few hours.
I had to remind him to remove the over draft fees and various other fines. That took a few more phone calls.
So there you go. I lost $700,000,000,000,000,000 to a bank error. Thankfully it was found the next day after much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Edit: To those questioning the authenticity of this answer; realize, I didn’t have that much money to lose. My real balance was only about $1000 at the time. This was a bank error and the loss was a negative balance.
So yes, I “lost 700 quadrillion” in a technical sense but in the form of debt being added to the account. Restoring 700 quadrillion to the account (which they did) only put me back to my original balance of about $1,000.
The amount in overdraft fees was comparably small: only a few hundred dollars. However this would have been added daily until repaid and of course since the error was on their side: I shouldn’t (and didn’t) owe any of that either.
The bank was: Bank of America. I had used them for many years prior without a problem and continued to use them for a few more years after without any issues. (I later closed my accounts and switched banks for entirely different reasons)
Edit 2: Since it’s been asked: No I don’t know the details of how an error like that actually occurred. From the phone calls the manager made, I could only hear his side of the conversations. Most of it seemed to involve server migrations and backup systems, something had gone wrong in one conversion of systems with another, I can’t tell you the specifics. Such is the nature of computers, stick a decimal in the wrong place while moving numbers around and automated algorithms can do strange things.
Edit 3: I don’t know if I still have that ATM slip. Realize this was a decade ago, and that type of paper fades. The last I saw it, it was almost unreadable. I’ve moved 6 times across 3 states since then and one of my apartments was demolished. It may be in a storage box continuing to fade, or it may be gone. I don’t even know where to begin to look for it at this point.
I’ve had a lot of random adventures in my life, this is just one day of many that were weird. I’m lucky I can retain some of the memories; the baubles (and slips of paper) collected along the way come and go.
About Last Night’s Debate…
China’s workforce is aging out of their productive years and lacks the young people to replace them. As China fails out of being the planet’s factory, how will that affect CO2 in the atmosphere?
Sorry are we already in 2057?
This is 2024 and China just recently graduated 11.24 Million people and typically after 18 months – as many as 850,000 of these people will not have a proper advented job and after 36 months around 332,000 of them will not have a proper job
In fact after 18 months – only India with 2.265 Million unemployed graduates will beat China in 2026 as per the extrapolation
In 2023 – Chinas Factories created 1.37 Million new jobs and this year the target is 1.50 Million new factory jobs
Guess how many factory jobs Germany created in 2023?
Negative 86,800
They closed 86,800 Jobs
The previous year it was 72,000 Jobs
In all of Europe – Hungary is the only Nation that created an additional 10,740 jobs in 2023
US has lost a whopping 4 Million Factory Jobs in the last decade (2010–2020)
China has added 18.3 Million Factory Jobs in the last decade (2010–2020)
It is expected that China will add 12 Million Factory Jobs from 2020 to 2030 and 7.2 Million from 2030 to 2040
Yet they will be more and more specialized jobs and skilled jobs
Meanwhile China will see a transition to the Service Sector
Today Manufacturing commands 36% of all Jobs and Services 13% (26% is still Agriculture and 8.3% is Government Jobs and Civil Service including the Army)
Yet a decade ago it was 41.2% for Manufacturing and only 7.8% for services
By 2030–2040 – you will see only 20% Manufacturing Jobs and upto 45% Service Jobs on the Mainland
Take a look at Nations with the largest NEW factory jobs created in 2023
China (1.37 Million)
Russia (670K) [War Production included]
Mexico (311K)
Vietnam (273K)
India (221K)
Bangladesh (157K)
Brazil (131K)
China nearly created the same NEW factory jobs as the next 4–5 Nations combined
South Korea & Japan are far worse than China in demographics yet Japanese Workforce showed 22,000 more factory jobs than workers and Korea showed 6050
With a huge rural population – the earliest China can reach the same situation is 2057 and that’s the absolute worst case scenario
The truth is Ceteris Paribus – China is unlikely to have any major demographic work issues until around 2075–2100 AD
By then I am sure you will have enough Robots and AI to do the needed work
Balsamic Marinated Flank Steak
balsamic marinated flank steak
Ingredients
Balsamic Marinade
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon-style mustard
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
Steak
1 beef flank steak (about 1-1/2 pounds)
Salt amd pepper
Instructions
Balsamic Marinade
Combine ingredients in small bowl. Place beef steak and marinade in food-safe plastic bag; turn steak to coat. Close bag securely and marinate in refrigerator for 6 hours or as long as overnight, turning occasionally.
Steak
Remove steak from marinade; discard marinade. Place steak on grid over medium, ash-covered coals. Grill, covered, 11 to 16 minutes (over medium heat on preheated gas grill, 16 to 21 minutes) for medium rare (145 degrees F) to medium (160 degrees F) doneness, turning occasionally.
Season steak with salt and pepper, as desired.
Carve steak crosswise into thin slices.
Why do people expect so much out of an Uber when it costs less than a cab?
I will never forget the girl who ordered a Uber Comfort which is up to 4 passengers. I showed up. Granted I have an SUV and can fit 6 passengers. Well she had a group of 7. Not squeezing you all in, sorry. Order 2 rides. They didn’t want to split the group so I said I couldn’t take them. She had such a sassy attitude. With all of the sass in the world she told her friends, “Wait, this is still on my dollar, so…” and she turned to me, held out her hand rolling her eyes a little bit and said, “Can I at least have a water or something?”
My jaw dropped a little bit. Not only was I cancelling her ride because she wanted to disobey the rules and the law, but she had the nerve to give me sass and ask for water! As if I carry water, candy, snacks, etc. for all of my passengers. She was going to pay $10 for a trip home for 7 people and expected water and snacks and candy and for me to let an extra person squeeze in the back??? Nope! Not happening! I don’t carry water for passengers. I don’t carry candy. I drive people from point A to point B and provide good customer service and a good attitude, decent music, a clean nice-smelling car with air conditioning. If you want water or snacks I can take you to a gas station! But to give me sass? I was so amazed at the nerve this young lady had to ask me in such a way for a water.
So, why do people expect so much out of an Uber?
Entitlement
People expect so much for so little. They want to pay less than a taxi service, expecting private car service. Some drivers offer amenities to boost ratings or tips, or allow passengers to break the rules to not lose out on a fare. Over time, this has led people to expect more from the service. If 1/10 drivers allow it, then all of the drivers should allow it, which simply isn’t the case.
When I was a young boy, living in Bridgeport, Connecticut, my father would sometimes take we with him and my mom as they were still a young married couple, and still “going out”.
One day, they took myself and my sister, and went for a long drive to the center of town. Perhaps Hartford, or some other similar city. And we got out of the car and entered this small restaurant, or coffee house kind of establishment.
We piled into a corner and mom and dad seemed so out of place.
Everyone there was dressed so oddly. Many were wearing sunglasses, and it was dark outside. There was a couple of women playing bongos, and lots of people chain smoking cigarettes. There were a lot of guys with black pointy goatees, and wearing berets. And there was a raised stage where others took turns strumming guitars and singing, or reading poetry.
Beatnik Fashion Guide Embracing the Beatnik Style. 930×620
Lots of guys wore black plants with loafers.The girls all seemed to wear these ridiculous wide pants, and tight striped tops. Lots of black turtleneck tops.
Yup. You guessed it.
My folks took me to a beatnik hangout.
We all are well aware that the late 1940s and early 1950s epitomized conformity, with dullness in everything, from food to clothes. Significantly, men’s fashion suffered typical neutral-colored suits, cardigan sweaters, or button-down shirts.Where there is conformity, rebellion is inevitable, bringing the 60s beatnik fashion. A radical transformation by artists, musicians, and novelists took America by storm, and their effortless yet non-conformist fashion style was coined “Beatnik” by a news columnist in 1958.
It wasn’t ground breaking or anything like that. In fact, I just wanted to go home as I was bored out of my mind. But my parents apparently thought that it was good to endure three or four hours of this pompous environment. And so we did.
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This was a long time ago, and I don’t remember much, but it was a bunch of fake people pretending to impress other fake people about imaginary chips on their shoulders.
And that is all that I have to say about that.
143825147
Today…
What offends Germans the most?
I am not German but my partner is and based on observing him, his friends, family, etc I can say that an underlying theme of fairness pervades German values.
Therefore, rules are followed in Germany because the premise is they were designed to be fair. Break rules and you are being unfair to someone else who follows them.
Sell something to a German which is priced higher than its perceived worth, they will be furious and demand a refund. It’s about the principle not the money (many people stereotype Germans as being cheap, I see it as wanting a fair price. They don’t typically haggle if what is being sold seems to hold up to a qualitative test).
Show up late and you’ve wasted their time that they can’t get back. That’s unfair.
Go on a date and expect a German man to pay (looking at my fellow American ladies), that’s not egalitarian….or put another way: it’s unfair. Everyone should be able to take care of him or herself.
I could go on but you get the idea. Germans like fairness and that manifests in frugality, lawfulness, equanimity, punctuality, cleanliness, spirited debate, and order. If you want to offend a German, propose something that is unfair and you will get an earful and a (likely organized) laundry list of why they don’t agree!
EDIT: Because some people were writing xenophobic comments and/or broad generalizations about contemporary German people and trying to associate them with Nazism I closed the comments on my answer. It is unfortunate that a few rotten, hateful people ruined the discourse but I don’t have the time, energy, or interest to moderate bigots and I will not provide a platform for them to share their ignorant and vile opinions. If you want to say something stupid or go on a “whataboutism” tirade, do it on your own time on your own response to this question.
Have you ever completely snapped? If so what did you do?
I don’t know if you mean it in this sense, but many years ago I was about 13 I was short, overweight, no good at sports and not very skilled at self defense. One of the other boys in my class had been busy tormenting me for most of the day. We were walking past the male teachers lounge on our way to the gym and he flicked my ear, it wasn’t really painful but it was the last straw. I grabbed the collar of his blazer and threw him against the wall. He was about 6 in taller than me fitter and one of the up-and-coming young rugby stars of the school. As the slid down the wall I jumped on him and grabbed his throat and started to strangle him, I might even have been bouncing his head off the floor, I don’t really remember, according to the games master who was in the staff room it took him and the other games teacher plus the German master to pull me off him, I don’t remember that either, not really, they actually had to pick me up and I was gripping him so strongly that I dragged him with us for a couple of yards. After we were separated, again from the games masters testimony I went absolutely limp. Two things I do know about the ear flicker, he was taken to the hospital and he never ever bothered me again.
What happened to me? I was taken to the sick room to calm down in the company of two of the teachers and from there to the headmasters office. That is where I was told what I had done. I was kept out lessons for the rest of the day and after school there was, I guess you could call it a trial, the game’s masters told what had happened, other teachers were there as character witnesses I suppose you would call them and testified as to how completely out of character that behavior was. I said what had been happening for most of that day and that I had no real recollection of what I had done. I was let off with a warning due to my previous good conduct. When I got home my parents knew what had happened so I suppose there must have been a phone call. But apart from that I think I got off pretty much got off Scott free.
Piers Morgan Gets SCHOOLED Like A Child On Ukraine By Jeffrey Sachs!
In China, can you look at the Sun? The air is so polluted.
First time I went to China I brought some dust masks. However, I was a bit surprised when I arrived and saw none of the signs of the terrible smog I had been warned against.
There was a clear blue sky over Shanghai and I thought I had been lucky to arrive on one exceptionally clear day.
Since then I have travelled a lot in China and visited tens of both large and smaller cities. Some places like Beijing and some industrial cities have polluted air especially in the winter, but my impression is that this problem has been much exaggerated in the western media. I do not bring dust masks anymore.
The air pollution I have seen is comparable to what we experienced in the west in the 1970-ties, and I think it is not as bad as it was in East-Europe in the 1980-ies.
Can a sailor go AWOL on a ship, and has anyone done that (some ships are pretty big)?
When I was a Division Officer in USS John F. Kennedy (CV67) one of my enterprising sailors did just that.
He had been assigned to S2M Division for a tour of Mess Cooking. The protocol was to check IN to the Supply Department, then check OUT of the parent division. With this particular transfer happening on a long weekend, my genius convinced the Duty Engineer to let him check OUT of the Engineering Department first. He then went on his merry way, not bothering to check into the Supply Department.
For the next three months, he came to the Division Office to pick up his paycheck every two weeks, and the Supply Officer frequently complained that Engineering was not supplying the requisite number of Mess Cooks. Eventually the Supply Officer and the Chief Engineer compared rosters and noted that they didn’t match.
The jig was up; my guy was busted. The Captain wanted to send him to a Special Court-Martial. The hero of the story got a smart lawyer, and pointed out that in court he would emphasize that the sailor slept in his own bunk every night, picked up his paycheck every payday, and would have performed whatever duties assigned to him.
CO cancelled the court-martial, and took the sailor to mast.
Failing to show up for duty, but not actually leaving, is unauthorized absence, or UA. Leaving the premises without leave is AWOL. Both situations are covered by UCMJ Article 86.
Sailor Moon – 1950’s Super Panavision 70
A evil woman
A woman who k’illed her husband for his wealth was met with the shock of her life after she discovered her husband had wittingly transferred his wealth to a trust.
Kouri Richins, a 33-year-old widowed mother of three, wrote a children’s book to help her bereaved sons deal with grief in the aftermath of their father’s sudden d’eath.
main qimg e74655d45675eb942d2c5eb6117eceb1
image: Pictures of Kouri Richins, and her husband
Now, only months after the book was published, she’s been charged with her husband’s m’urder. She is accused of poisoning his Moscow Mule with five times the lethal dosage of fentanyl.
Kouri was due to get access to his estate valued at $3.6million after his d’eath, according to the terms of a prenup. Under its terms, on Eric’s d’eath, pretty much everything would pass seamlessly to Kouri.
But fearing his wife might ‘k’ill him for the money’, he transferred his assets into a trust that he placed in control of his sister.
From a 1-10 scale, how stupid are people who believe The Lost Cause of the Confederacy?
About an…. 8?
The Lost Cause of the Confederacy was pretty much standard U.S. history until very recently, and there’s still a strong undercurrent to preserve that in education in the American south even as university programs pretty much abandon it as a course of study.
The first serious academic works on the Lost Cause were published in 1866 – one year after the war ended. The author was Edward A. Pollard, who published a series of books on the theme from 1866 to 1868.
Everything Pollard put in his books was meticulously researched. The problem was that Pollard didn’t research anything that happened before 1866. Instead of relying on contemporaneous works from the start of the Civil War, he interviewed Confederate leaders and focused on their far more moderate post-war views, which were tempered by a large amount of ex post facto justification for their actions.
Pollard and his contemporaries established several themes that lasted over a century, such as:
The war wasn’t about slavery.
The South was fighting to preserve a way of life against overwhelming odds.
The antebellum South was a place of civility.
That slaves were content with their place in southern society
This situation actively facilitated the reunification of the country
Reconstruction, particularly giving blacks political rights, was an unmitigated disaster.
These writings largely led to the formation of the Southern Historical Society in 1869. Ostensibly an organization committed to preserving records and publishing memoirs, it soon started publishing only uncritical promotions of the Lost Cause, seeking vindication for the actions of the Confederacy.
Another influential author and lecturer was Thomas Dixon Jr., a racists and white supremacist whose allegations were accepted uncritically although nowadays it appears they were pretty much all fabricated. He wrote the book that was adapted into the film “Birth of a Nation”.
Southerners continued to publish works about the war well into the mid 20th century, and in pretty much every case they paved over the negative and accentuated the positive.
And a lot of this not only made it into standard history textbooks, but into serious academic work.
It’s really only been in the last 20 years that the Lost Cause has pretty much been challenged at every turn. One of the turning points was the 2003 film “Gods & Generals” which one critic called the most racist film since “Birth of a Nation”.
COST of LIVING in CHINA? 🇨🇳 INSANE APARTMENT TOUR in Chengdu (You won’t believe the price)
Have you ever eavesdropped and heard a conversation that terrified you?
When I was a teenager I lived with my mom and dad (before they divorced). Times got hard and for a while we stayed in a trailer that had no electricity or hot water. We lived in a swampy forest in Mississippi, no neighbors, lots of mud and trees. My dad worked about an hour away at an airport, so he was gone most of the time, leaving me home alone with my mother. She was extremely mentally ill- in and out of institutions, she had vivid hallucinations and delusions, and the darkness didn’t help. We never got along, and I was often the subject of her abuse and frustration. One night I was sitting in the living room with her waiting for my dad to come home from work. He called to see how we were doing and to tell us that he would be bringing home food, and then asked if I was home because sometimes I would go for walks (the room was so silent I could actually hear him on the other end). Instead of telling him that, yes, I was home and I was sitting right in front of her, she told him “No, she’s not home. The back gate is open. She must have run off somewhere.” It was like some scene from a horror film- she was sitting in a dark corner and all I could see of her was the reflection of her eyes staring at me darkly. I had the immediate sense that I was in danger, and thoughts of being actually murdered by my own mother raced through my mind. I got up and walked slowly to my room, shut the door, and called my dad to tell him what had just happened. He said “She’s really dangerous. You need to lock the door and hide under your blankets until I get home. I’ll be there soon.” He got home less than an hour later. Everything turned out fine and we never mentioned it again.
How would China react if the United States strategically missiles in Taiwan?
That is a “Red Line”.
Direct placement is a “Red Line”, as is funding the placement, actively preparing for the placement, or making treaties involving the placement. This was all clearly specified in the Biden Xi talks in November 2022 in Bali, Indonesia.
It would be a terrible move initiated by the United States and would result in horrific consequence.
This would result in the well and clearly specified consequences that China has repeatedly stated over and over again.
To the credit of the United States, the talk between President Biden and Xi Peng reiterated this stance, and additionally, the USA said that it will not do this. This was repeated by President Biden and Anthony Blinken in the “five Nos” statement repeatedly reiterated by President Biden.
However…
The United States has a reputation of lying, telling untruths, doing one thing and saying another, all the time while fomenting wars and breaking treaties. Truthfully, China welcomes the dialog, but has no illusions as to what a monster the United States has become, and what a real threat it actually is.
Now THIS TIME, if the USA (yet again) breaks it’s promises, it’s treaties, and it’s contract with China then the result will be clear… It’s already been explained to the American “leadership”. Quite clearly. Very clearly. So clear than a mentally retarded three year old can understand it.
There would be a very large and massive war between the United States and China.
Ah.
But maybe you heard that before. But you really don’t have any idea what it means. For if you are an American you think of war as being police actions in far-away distant places. Like Yemen, Syria, Cambodia, Somalia, Ukraine, Iraq, Angola, Iran, etc.
Well, this time it won’t.
Of course, everything being said so far sounds like screeching chalk on a blackboard to Americans. It makes no sense at all. America is gifted by God with Democracy (TM) and is formidable nuclear power; a shining city on a huge white hill.
That’s great Hollywood.
Makes great sound bytes.
But has zero effect on actual reality.
For starters, consider Taiwan; a province of China. Much like Texas is a state of America. China would of course, take care of this “matter”. Those of you who have zero experience in actual real China, but instead watch movies, and play first-person shooters, and read neocon journals would think that this is some kind of a fantasy.
It’s not. China is DEAD SERIOUS.
For starters, all of the placed missiles would be destroyed, with no concern for collateral damage or civilian causalities. China doesn’t give a fuck.
China would then take over Taiwan with hours. China is ready, well trained, and doesn’t give a fuck.
Though “mop up” operation might last as long as a week. Taiwan’s “soy soldiers” will not die for American democracy (TM). Of course. The idea and hope in the Pentagon is for a long drawn-out Vietnam, Afghanistan or Ukraine. Not. Going. To. Happen. China will be ruthless. Lethal. Dirty and the result will be nasty.
Spill-over? You bet-ya.
Simultaneous to this would be the destruction of ALL of the USN military presence in the Pacific. No carriers would remain. Guam would be gone. Hawaii would be in rubble as would be San Francisco. Australia want’s to join in the cluster-fuck. Good bye Sydney, Perth, Brisbane, and Adelaide. Anyone else wants to join in the fray? Any takers?
Which would ALONE probably trigger an American nuclear counter-response.
Then of course, you would see (again) what China has done to the pitiful attempts that the United States in trying to suppress it. Freak Geomagnetic storms will mysterious suddenly cause constellations of satellites to tumble out of orbit. There will be massive submarine accidents accidentally ramming undersea mountains. American VTOL carriers will catch fire by Navy personnel burning trash in the munitions lockers, and so on and so forth.
Even if things did not get HOT, things will be very uncomfortable for the United States and it’s proxy nations. What ever happens; hot war, or cold war, lit it be well understood that all trade would stop…
The few remaining American factories would stop, and close.
American medicines will be all gone. Fully 98% are made inside of China.
Shelves would be empty. All consumer goods would become a rare commodity. Including socks, shoes, pantyhose, toothbrushes, and cellphones.
The US dollar, already worthless, would suffer from astounding inflation.
No diesel. No batteries. No electricity. A war would EMP the living shit out of the USA. This is a reality, and whatever potential that the Untied States has for oil, gas, resources will need to start from scratch with a massive handicap.
Then things will get really bad. Because you all have no idea how powerful and formidable China is today.
Anyone who thinks that violating Chinese “Red Lines” is a good idea is a suicidal idiot.
The EU Is Already Begging China For Mercy
What’s the biggest double life you’ve ever personally seen revealed?
Here’s a photo from the 1990s of a man called Josef Fritzl, vacationing in Thailand without a care in the world. Fritzl was a businessman, married, father of seven, from Austria. He’d frequently travel the world. One year he’d be in Thailand. Another year he’d go to Africa. At times his friends would join him, they would drink, swim, lounge around resorts and float in the swimming pools of resorts…
Frans
Fritzl was a doting grandfather of twenty. Three of his grandchildren lived with him and his wife — his youngest daughter Elizabeth, their mother, had ran away from home and joined a cult. So Fritzl and his wife raised their grandchildren. By all means, Josef had a charmed life. What no one knew? The three grandchildren he was raising were also his own biological children… their mother Elizabeth hadn’t joined a “cult”, she lived in a dungeon Fritzl had built inside his own basement. With three other children Fritzl also fathered there by his own daughter.
Fritzl was arrested in 2008, at the age of 73. Because he had brought one of the “dungeon kids” to the hospital along with Elizabeth, his captive daughter, who then alerted authorities. Josef Fritzl remains in prison in Austria of this writing. He believes he should be freed, famously telling a judge: “I am just one man. But look inside the basements of other people… you would be surprised what you find!”
Glazed Ham with Dried Cherry Caramelized Onions
Perfect for a late lunch or dinner. This cooked, boneless ham is glazed with a mixture of honey, mustard and cider vinegar. Serve with sugar snap peas and roasted new potatoes.
spiced cherry bourbon glazed ham 98719 1
Yield: 10 servings
Ingredients
3 pounds cooked boneless ham
4 tablespoons honey, divided use
1 tablespoon stone-ground mustard
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
5 medium onions, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup dried tart cherries
1/3 cup cider vinegar
5 medium onions, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 cup almonds, sliced or slivered and toasted
Instructions
Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Place ham on rack in shallow baking pan and roast 45 minutes to 1 hour or until a meat thermometer registers 140 degrees F, about 15 to 18 minutes per pound.
In a small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons honey, 1 teaspoon cider vinegar and mustard. Brush ham with glaze during the last 5 minutes of baking.
Sauté onions over medium heat in a Dutch oven in butter for 12 to 15 minutes or until onions are just tender, stirring occasionally.
Stir in dried cherries, 1/3 cup cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons honey and 1/2 teaspoon cardamom. Simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Stir in toasted almonds.
Psychopaths say “um” more frequently in order to appear like a normal person.
It is incredibly easy to pass a Polygraph Test if you trick yourself into thinking that everything is fine and that everything you say is the truth, no matter what.
When you lie, you may shake your head. This is your body saying that it doesn’t believe you.
If someone accuses you and threatens you about a wrongdoing relentlessly, you will eventually find that it is in your best interest to fess up to the crime, making you guilty of something you never did. This is a minor form of brainwashing.
The closer you are in a relationship, the more you can read the other’s mind.
We disregard our morals if a person of higher power takes responsibility for your actions. Essentially just obeying authority.
1/5 people in France have depression, making it the saddest country in the world.
It is impossible to stay angry at a loved one. If you are able to do so for more than 3 days, then you may not love them.
You never truly value a moment before it becomes a distant memory.
Crying reduces stress and causes you to feel better.
The people you most often think about are the ones you love or the ones who cause you pain.
Music can bend and shape the way you see the world, or life in general.
Your favorite songs are decided by the emotional events you attach to it.
Narcissists think they’re brilliant while most have a below-average IQ.
Long periods of isolation may cause you to hallucinate, but they consist of mostly auditory hallucinations.
Ignorance of your feelings causes them to swell and essentially just take over your thoughts.
Fast-thinkers tend to have sloppy handwriting. Thoughts are fleeting, so they must be written down almost immediately.
When choosing a romantic partner, look for how they treat their inferiors or pets. That says a lot about their nature.
Speaking other languages may cause someone to shift their personality as well. (I am more secluded when speaking Spanish and more confident when I speak Italian.)
We care more about the death of one than the death of many. It feels more personal when one human dies, yet when multiple perish, we feel as we don’t know any of them.
Some people just love to see you angry. The solution? Relax the muscles in your face and watch as theirs visibly deflates.
We believe what we WANT to believe.
Extensive loneliness is just as bad as smoking 15 cigars.
The human brain is always searching for a problem or a flaw. Perfection is always key for many, and some just can’t let it go.
The more power you gain, the more empathy you lose.
My First Week in China
What is the craziest thing a car salesman said to you?
My husband took me to Silver Spring to buy a 2 door Ford Explorer back in the 90s.
It was really late at night (11 pm) and we barely got the title to the car given to us before they had to close.
We were told to come by the next day after work to finish up some of the other paperwork.
When we arrived the next day, the salesman told us he had made a mistake.
He had forgotten to add taxes to the price of the car he sold us. So we owed them an additional $1000.
We were tapped out and couldn’t afford another $1000. I told him to take the car back.
The salesman lost his cool and started screaming at my husband.
He insisted we pay this extra $1000 or he would call the police on us.
My husband stood up and they went nose to nose. Hubby called his bluff and invited him to call the police. We already had the pink slip (title). There was nothing he could do about it.
The salesman turned beet red and started hurling personal insults.
We were in a private room but I’m positive the entire showroom floor heard the commotion. It was that loud.
I plastered myself against the wall, as I feared their proximity would escalate to either physical violence or a stroke.
The salesman finally stepped back, adjusted his tie and became silent.
He realized he wasn’t getting any more money from us.
He announced, “Never mind. I’ll just get it from some other customer later on.”
His callousness in thrusting his mistake onto the next unsuspecting customer took me aback.
No wonder car salesmen have such a bad reputation.
Prof. Mearsheimer REVEALS: the FATE of Humanity May Hang on the 2024 US and European Elections
In this video, Prof. John Mearsheimer discusses the results of recent European elections, public vs. elite opinion on Ukraine, the divided European Parliament, country-specific analysis of France and Germany, the importance of the US election perspectives, Biden vs. Trump foreign policy approach, Russian strategy, and internal NATO divisions.
From: James Benson (jben****@gmail.com)To: Anders Westbrook (ande****@cornell.edu)Time/Date: 5:36pm, July 18, 2024Subject: This weekendHey Andy,Just letting you know that I can’t make your BBQ this weekend. I was looking forward to having a few beers with you and the guys and maybe playing a few hands of poker once the eating is done, but I have to head to Albany in the morning.Remember my Uncle Arthur? Don’t worry, I don’t either. (Well, a little.) Anyway, he passed away a few days ago and his sister – my Aunt Bonnie out in Wisconsin – contacted me this morning to inform me that he left “certain assets” to me in his will. Most intriguing! I won’t know the details for a while but Bonnie begged me to go to his house in Albany right away to take care of his cats and locate some important documents in his library. (My recently-deceased uncle who named me in his will was wealthy enough to have a personal library? The plot thickens…)Anyway, I’m packing a bag and planning to stay up there for a little while to help manage affairs at the house and work with Bonnie on the local funeral arrangements while she lines up a flight over the next few days. Not much else to do at the moment as I await my next work assignment but I should be back by this time next week. In the meantime, you know how to reach me. Tell the boys I said hola.- Jamie—————————————————-
From: Anders Westbrook (ande****@cornell.edu)
To: James Benson (jben****@gmail.com)
Time/Date: 7:48pm, July 18, 2024
Subject: Re: This weekend
Hey Jamie,
Sorry you can’t make it this weekend. Me and the guys will look forward to the next poker game after you score your big inheritance. Crazy news, man. Barely known rich uncle dies and leaves you a possible fortune? The stuff of legends…or daydreams? LOL. Anyway, good luck there. (Don’t forget your old college roommate when you strike it rich!)
See you when you get back. Talk soon man.
Andy
—————————————————-
From: James Benson (jben****@gmail.com)
To: Anders Westbrook (ande****@cornell.edu)
Time/Date: 6:12pm, July 20, 2024
Subject: Re: This weekend
Hey Andy,
Greetings from gloomy Albany! Hasn’t stopped raining since I got here. Also, I’m fairly certain these cats are plotting my demise. Other than that, things are fine and the house is basically a smallish mansion.
Listen to this, while searching for the documents that my Aunt Bonnie asked me to find for her in the library I found some really interesting old books. I think we might have some pretty rare first editions here, plus some other really strange stuff. I need to do a little web research tonight to try to figure out what I’m looking at but I’ll let you know.
As a newly-minted Ivy League literature professor I thought you would be interested. Maybe I will come home with a copy of In Cold Blood signed by Capote for you?
– Jamie
—————————————————-
From: Anders Westbrook (ande****@cornell.edu)
To: James Benson (jben****@gmail.com)
Time/Date: 11:22am, July 21, 2024
Subject: Re: This weekend
Hey Jamie,
Very interesting! Bring home a signed Capote first edition for me and we can totally forget about that $80 Venmo request I sent you for golf last week. Seriously though, that sounds really amazing. Looking forward to hearing more.
Andy
p.s. The guys all say hello and they missed your “easy money” at the poker game last night. (Their words, not mine.)
—————————————————-
From: James Benson (jben****@gmail.com)
To: Anders Westbrook (ande****@cornell.edu)
Time/Date: 9:52pm, July 22, 2024
Subject: Re: This weekend
Andy,
In addition to Capote’s In Cold Blood, so far I have already found four more signed first edition iconic novels; Heart of Darkness, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Illustrated Man and – hold on to your hat here – A Tale of Two Cities! No telling if the autographs are legit but I don’t know why my uncle would be hoarding counterfeit-signed copies in his home library. More research necessary here but I have attached photos of the covers, bindings and the author-signed pages in each.
The library has floor-to-ceiling shelves full of books on three walls and I have only checked out about a third of them so far. Stay tuned!
– Jamie
—————————————————-
From: Anders Westbrook (ande****@cornell.edu)
To: James Benson (jben****@gmail.com)
Time/Date: 9:36am, July 23, 2024
Subject: Re: This weekend
Hey Jamie,
Okay listen. Just give me the Dickens novel and not only will I cancel the $80 Venmo request, but golf is on me for the rest of the year. I think that’s a fair deal.
Seriously man, I just did a quick bit of Googling here and those books do look like legit first edition copies and the signatures look right too. Usually people take these sort of things to Sotheby’s or Christie’s, where they employ rare book experts who can authenticate them properly. Even if they’re not going to be put up for sale this is probably a good idea, just to officially document these historical items.
Can’t wait to hear what you find next. I’m seriously on the edge of my seat here!
Andy
—————————————————-
From: James Benson (jben****@gmail.com)
To: Anders Westbrook (ande****@cornell.edu)
Time/Date: 11:45pm, July 24, 2024
Subject: Okay, this is getting weird now…
Andy,
Forget about the signed first editions. I am into some strange new terrain here.
Yesterday I found a number of extremely interesting books way up on one of the top shelves I hadn’t explored yet. Listen to this. I found a copy of For Whom The Bell Tolls by William Faulkner. Yes, William Faulkner! And it wasn’t just a different author’s name transposed onto the cover. It was the same third-person omniscient narrative of the Spanish Civil War, only it wasn’t written in the short staccato sentence styles and brief paragraphing of Hemingway but the long, leisurely prose of Faulkner. I’m not even a fan of Faulkner and I couldn’t put it down!
Similarly, I also found a copy of The Catcher in the Rye by Dalton Trumbo and The Iliad by EE Cummings! (Seriously, I can’t make this up.) Still so many more books to look through. I am simply overwhelmed here. Stay tuned.
– Jamie
—————————————————-
From: Anders Westbrook (ande****@cornell.edu)
To: James Benson (jben****@gmail.com)
Time/Date: 7:51am, July 25, 2024
Subject: Re: Okay, this is getting weird now…
Jamie,
Okay. You’re just fucking with me now, right? You had me going with the thought of all those rare, signed first editions, but that’s at least within my fathomable universe. What you just described has to be a joke. Come on, man.
What about the funeral plans? Isn’t that a big reason why you are there?
Andy
—————————————————-
From: James Benson (jben****@gmail.com)
To: Anders Westbrook (ande****@cornell.edu)
Time/Date: 11:56pm, July 28, 2024
Subject: Okay, this is getting weird now…
Hey Andy,
You’re right. I have been negligent in my funeral arrangement duties of late. I accidentally let my phone battery die out, not sure when. The truth is that I haven’t slept much in the last few days. This continues to get more and more fascinating.
And no, I wasn’t kidding about those strange books I mentioned in my last message. But never mind that. I am into some truly bizarre territory now. I found some old 3-ring binders filled with dot matrix printed files listing the daily opening and closing numbers of each of the stocks contained in the Dow Jones Industrial Index running from January 1, 1977 through December 31, 2026. Andy, it has accurate stock performance data through the end of 2026! I’m sure you think I am kidding again (or maybe just crazy) but I have been watching those stock prices over the last few days and my God man they are accurate right down to the last decimal point!
You think I’m joking? Here’s a random selection for tomorrow for you to check out. Merck & Co. (ticker symbol NYSE: MRK) will open the trading day at $154.34 and it will close at $156.12 per share with a total of 7.126 million shares in overall trading volume. I’m sure you won’t but you can literally bet the house on it. I guarantee it.
– Jamie
—————————————————-
From: Anders Westbrook (ande****@cornell.edu)
To: James Benson (jben****@gmail.com)
Time/Date: 9:41pm, July 29, 2024
Subject: Re: Okay, this is getting weird now…
Jamie,
I don’t know what to say at this point. I have been thinking about this since the market closed about 5 hours ago and I have no idea how you were able to make that prediction with such accuracy. I would call it dumb luck but I actually opened up Excel and took the time to do a little statistical modeling and what I found was that a stock prediction with that level of precision is basically like calling out the next day’s lottery numbers. Not quite that improbable but close enough that I am simply baffled.
I need answers, because I just can’t believe you found an old set of stock market printouts from almost 50 years ago that can perfectly predict what will happen tomorrow. I’ve tried to call you several times but it goes straight to vmail every time and your mailbox is full. You gotta get back to me asap. I don’t think I’m going to be able to sleep until you do.
Funeral plans? Still a concern?
Andy
—————————————————-
From: James Benson (jben****@gmail.com)
To: Anders Westbrook (ande****@cornell.edu)
Time/Date: 2:13am, August 1, 2024
Subject: Whole new level
Hey Andy,
Forget about the stock market. Forget about the rare first edition signed books. Those things are trivial. At least for now.
I just found a medical manual that seems to contain advanced diagnostic techniques and curative/surgical treatments for most common, and some uncommon, forms of cancer and various other deadly diseases. I am only about halfway through it and without the benefit of a medical background it is taking me forever to research the basic terminology needed just to understand this even on a rudimentary level, but if it’s true it’s an incredible discovery and I owe it to the world to get this into the right hands once I can at least confirm its basic legitimacy.
I can’t say when I will be able to call you or even write back since my time is so limited now. I don’t see this changing anytime soon. Who knows what I will find next? So much more to still be explored. I can’t worry about the funeral arrangements right now either. Before my phone died I got a message from my Aunt Bonnie saying that she had some health problems that were preventing her from flying in. I can’t remember the details but that’s just going to have to wait for now. I have far more important concerns at this point.
– Jamie
p.s. I have discovered a number of old hand-written notes, presumably penned by my late Uncle Arthur, warning anyone who comes across these documents against sharing them in any way. The writing is rambling and paranoid in nature and some of the warnings give me pause but how could anyone possibly just sit on all this? It would be immoral, no?
—————————————————-
From: Anders Westbrook (ande****@cornell.edu)
To: James Benson (jben****@gmail.com)
Time/Date: 8:51am, August 2, 2024
Subject: Re: Whole new level
Hey Jamie,
I just hope you are all right. Maybe it’s time to take a break? You were supposed to be back here a week ago. Are the cats okay at least?
Andy
—————————————————-
From: James Benson (jben****@gmail.com)
To: Anders Westbrook (ande****@cornell.edu)
Time/Date: 3:45am, August 5, 2024
Subject: Re: Whole new level
Hi Andy,
I let the cats out a few days ago when all of the remaining cat food ran out. Don’t think I’ve seen them since. Not sure. They should be okay. It’s summer.
Dude, you wouldn’t even believe what I’m looking at now. No time to explain but I will get back to you when I can. Not planning to head home anytime soon.
– Jamie
p.s. Please see the attached file containing stock market data for the next two years. I just ask that you don’t share this with anyone else. “Law of Unintended Consequences” and all that.
—————————————————-
From: Anders Westbrook (ande****@cornell.edu)
To: James Benson (jben****@gmail.com)
Time/Date: 7:51am, August 6, 2024
Subject: Re: Whole new level
Jamie,
I‘m really getting worried about you man. Please call me.
Your Friend,
Andy
—————————————————-
From: James Benson (jben****@gmail.com)
To: Anders Westbrook (ande****@cornell.edu)
Time/Date: 4:37pm, January 1, 2029
Subject: Re: Whole new level
Andy,
Happy New Year! Don’t worry about me. I am well. Not sure if I will ever see “you” again (that is, the “present day” you) but that is primarily a temporal and theoretical question. I have a set of guidelines to follow and I will soon find out where all the boundaries lay. I will fill you in (whatever version of “you” that might be) whenever I see you next!
Stay healthy. It might be a while…for you anyway.
– Jamie
—————————————————-
From: Anders Westbrook (ande****@cornell.edu)
To: James Benson (jben****@gmail.com)
Time/Date: 7:01am, August 9, 2024
Subject: Re: Whole new level
Jamie,
How did you change the timestamp on your email like that? Seriously, stop messing with me. What’s going on? I am really having a hard time with all of this. Can we please just talk?
Andy
p.s. They announced that a potential breakthrough cure had been found for various types of cancer and other diseases on the news today. I really don’t know what to think at this point.
p.p.s. Thanks so much for the stock market data you forwarded. I plan to pay off my mortgage before the end of this month!
—————————————————-
From: mailer-daemon@gmail.com
To: Anders Westbrook (ande****@cornell.edu)
Time/Date: 7:02am, August 9, 2024
Subject: Delivery Failure Notice: Re: Whole new level
Sorry, we were unable to deliver your message to: <jben****@gmail.com>
The email account that you tried to reach does not exist. Please try double-checking the recipient’s email address for typos and try again.
Does your family have a legend that sounds near impossible?
During the Depression, my grandfather took one of the very few jobs that paid well – because it was so hard to find someone to do it. He drove a gravel truck up the side of the mountain, every morning, to take the day’s allotment of dynamite and nitro to the quarry. It was a one lane track with a lot of curves but not enough switchbacks, so it was very steep. It was barely a road and almost not quite wide enough for the truck.
There were two trucks, and the way the system worked, every morning a truck went up the mountain, and was sent back down in the evening full of gravel. Once the day truck was at the bottom of the mountain, the night truck went up with their load of dynamite for the night shift. In the morning, it came down before the day truck went up.
One day, signals got crossed. A truck that looked like the night truck pulled into the lot, and my grandfather saw it, so he started up the mountain track. About halfway up, he heard a horn blasting and realized it was the night truck, signaling that his brakes had failed. That happened at times, and was dangerous, but usually the truck would make it to the bottom and roll to a stop. Only THIS time, my grandfather’s truck was on the road. There was nowhere to pull off or turn around … so he laid on the horn of HIS truck, to tell the other driver he was there.
He tried backing down the mountain, but that wasn’t really going to be fast enough. Realizing there was no hope for it – and not wanting to be near the truck when the impact came (and the dynamite blew) he jumped out of the truck and started running down the mountain.
He had been a track star when in college, and before the Depression hit, had been a track coach for the local college and high school, so he was in shape and known to be a fast runner.
According to the story, my (atheist) grandfather learned to pray on his way down the mountain. He loudly promised the Lord that if he was not killed that day, that he would attend church faithfully for the rest of his life. As he came off the mountain and was on flat land, he realized he had not heard the expected explosion, but was still running hard. So he changed his prayer to say he would attend church once a week for the rest of his life. Then as he got closer to town, it was to attend church for ten years. By the time he reached the church in the center of town, he “bargined down” to attending church for the rest of the year.
He was praying so loud to the Lord that everyone he passed heard his promises. Finally, he reached the church and collapsed. (Still no explosion). By some stroke of luck (or as the townspeople would say – by the Grace of God) the driver of the other truck had been able to use the gearshifts and emergency brakes and managed to stop his truck before it could ram the day truck.
Granddad reverted to being an atheist almost immediately, however my grandmother was a formidable woman. He had made his promise to the Lord in public and it was witnessed by the community. She would not allow him to back out of the promise.
So, every Sunday, for the rest of the year, as soon as services were done, my grandfather would round up the oldest sons, and they worked on the church. They replaced the roof, repaired the stairs in the back, painted the church and school, and basically did all kinds of maintenance work. Every Sunday. The last thing they did was carve new end pieces for all the pews, and installed a prayer rail so that elderly or infirm members could hold it when then knelt for communion.
After it was done, he still did not attend church, but any time something needed to be repaired, the pastor would call and remind him of his promise to the Lord.
I Left America And You Should Too. Here’s Why !
The cost of living is unbearable in the USA. There is no reason at all why you should stay there.
This is a MUST watch video. This is really good. He talks about FAMILY and lifestyle. Loving and caring families.
What is the coolest line a pilot has said to the passengers?
This was a flight from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. For those of you unfamiliar with the geography of that area, that place is entirely void of any bodies of water (or at least our flight path was). The pilot was a pretty hilarious guy.
During the safety presentation:
“In the highly likely event of a water landing during our trip over the Mojave Desert, you can use the seat cushion as a flotation device.”
“Okay, I know most of you have got your seatbelts on already, take them off again so I can feel like my safety presentation actually did something.”
“If you are traveling with a child or someone who acts like one, please secure your mask first before assisting others.”
And after that:
“Hey people in the front, would you please sit down for a moment? I’m trying to back up here.”
“The policy on this flight is no smoking indoors. We have plenty space on the two wings if you would like to smoke.”
Mediterranean Chopped Salad
Try packing this salad into a Mason jar, and take your salad to go. Add dressing immediately before eating.
Easy Mediterranean Chopped Salad 3
TIPS
Use a mixture of red and yellow cherry tomatoes for added interest. Prepare with canned red or white kidney beans instead of the chickpeas if desired.
Substitute fresh basil for the parsley, or skip the fresh herbs and make dressing using 1 to 2 tablespoons prepared basil pesto. Dressing can be made with fresh lemon juice instead of the red wine vinegar, or with a combination of both ingredients.
Ingredients
6 cups packed chopped romaine lettuce hearts
1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
1 cup chopped cucumber
1 cup canned chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup pitted quartered Kalamata olives
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon each finely chopped fresh parsley and chives
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 hard-boiled large eggs, cooled to room temperature, peeled and quartered
Easy Mediterranean Chopped Salad
Instructions
Combine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, chickpeas and olives in large bowl. Top with feta cheese.
Whisk together vinegar, parsley, chives and mustard in small bowl. Add olive oil slowly, whisking until combined.
Toss salad lightly with dressing and DIVIDE evenly among 4 dinner plates. Top with eggs.
Prep: 20 min | Yield: 4 servings
Easy 12-Minute Method for Hard-Boiled Eggs: Place eggs in saucepan large enough to hold them in a single layer. Add enough cold water to cover eggs by 1 inch. Heat over high heat just to boiling. Remove from heat. Cover pan. Let eggs stand in hot water for 12 minutes for large eggs. Drain. Cool completely under cold running water or shock eggs in a bowl of ice water.
You can refrigerate unpeeled eggs for several days if not using immediately. Hard-boiled eggs are easiest to peel right after cooling.
Easy Mediterranean Chopped Salad 4
They have managed decline to unacceptable levels to average citizens
The smarter you become, the crazier you’ll seem to “dumb” people.
Nobody literally wants you to tell them the truth. Rather, we all want you to reaffirm our beliefs.
Today’s saint was yesterday’s sinner.
Most people spend a lifetime trying to be like someone who is trying to be like someone else.
“Reality is for people who can’t face drugs and drugs are for people who can’t face reality!” —Genius Turner
You know a man is really smart when you forget to notice how cheap his clothes are.
“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” —Albert Einstein
Your own siblings will “sell you out” if the price is right.
You might as well stop caring what others think about you because they seldom do! After all, everybody is knee-deep in their own troubles.
A wise person knows: if you think you can, you can; if you think you can’t, you can’t! Either way—you’re right.
Being normal has become abnormal.
If by chance you browse the Law Book, notice the fine print that states: Here lies one law for the rich and another for the poor!
“Genius is 1% talent and 99% hard work…” —Albert Einstein
Few people are wise enough to recognize when the price of money costs too much! Be wise, then.
A heterosexual telling a homosexual that being gay is “wrong” is no different from someone born right-handed telling a left-handed person to write with the “right” hand.
How can you ever declare to “know someone” when most of us have yet to Know Thyself?
If you become too successful, your own friends will succumb to jealousy and envy.
Because a billionaire is, by definition, equivalent to 1,000 millionaires—in light of world hunger—every billionaire is by definition selfish.
The only thing separating the dreamer from the dream is a bridge called WORK!
Last but not least: you might as well be yourself, dahling, because everyone else is already taken!
Why I left America and why you should too!
If you think that the USA is the “best” then you really need to step outside and see just how ridiculous the USA actually is.
Spending just to live. It’s the American way.
What’s the most expensive thing you’ve gotten for an insanely cheap price?
I once went to a property sellout auction, when a three ton truck came up for sale, the auctioneer wanted to start the bidding off at $5000, he couldn’t get a bid, so kept reducing the starting price by $100 at a time, still no bids so I sang out $100 dollars, he ignored me at first I sang out again so he started at $100, another bloke thought it was to cheap so he also started bidding, he gave up when it got to $1000, so I bought three a ton truck for $1000, a bit later I felt a tap on my shoulder and a chap asked me if I was the one that bought the truck I said yes I was, and he asked me if I would take $3000 for it? BLOODY OATH! so I made $2000 profit without doing a thing,
one other thing, at the same auction, the auctioneer, held up a jar of pebbles’ I recognised them as sapphires, Because I used to dig for them as a hobby, also no bid, I got it for 5 dollars, I took it with me the next time I went to the gem fields, and took them to an Indian buyer, they were only small stones but he still gave 500 dollars for them, so that was also a good profit margin, from 5 to 500, not bad at all.
What is the most satisfying passive-aggressive thing you have ever done to a really mean or rude person?
This occurred while I was still married to my second husband in New Hampshire. We lived on top of a hill we called “Heck’s Hill” and for many years, ours was the only house within several miles.
A builder in town, known for his arrogance, bought a huge parcel of land behind and beside us on the right. His intention was to build a road around us, ending in a cul de sac to the right of our hill, where he would build eight homes.
Since the road would go up the left side and wind around behind our property before continuing on to the cul de sac, the builder claimed an easement for some of our property for a cut through the hill to make it level enough for his road. Otherwise, he would have to curve his road much more to go further out away from our hill for level ground and it would cost him more.
We were told by the Planning Board this would take about 150′ from the back of our property to allow for the slope. Then his road would be cut into our hill with a 25′ drop. It seemed like a lot, but we had to agree according to the Planning Board.
Our home was totally surrounded by woods, including the trees to be removed for the road. Most of the trees were old, huge, and established. Just inside the tree line on top of our hill in back, was a rock/stone wall, which went almost entirely around our home. The stone wall was only a couple of feet from our in ground pool. In the photo, you can see the concrete deck that goes around the pool and under the slide, and just outside of the deck, you see the dark rock/stone wall. You can also see the wall to the left in the photo behind the cabana and house.
“In the State of New Hampshire, it is against the law to destroy, or remove, an existing stone or rock wall as they are deemed to be historical.”
On the day the bulldozer and other machinery arrived to make the cut into our property, the bulldozer operator came to the house to let me know he would start cutting trees in an hour and if we had a pet, to make sure it was kept indoors.
When they left, curious me went out to the back of our property where they had placed orange ribbons around the trees to be bulldozed. Two of the largest trees were within a foot of the rock/stone wall and only a few feet from the pool. The dozers had already taken three trees down they weren’t approved to remove which used to be beside the white birch in the photo.
Horrified, I called the builder on his cell phone and told him that was NOT what we had agreed to when we met with the Planning Board —it was not even close. I told him, per our agreement, okayed by the Planning Board, he would have to move his road further out, because he was NOT approved to make his cut that close to the existing stone/rock wall.
(By already taking out the three wrongly marked trees, and more that were planned, it was obvious he would take part of the stone wall, too). His plans would make the 25′ cut down to his road within a foot of the rock/stone wall —we would have a 25′ drop off (a cliff) there? I had eleven grandchildren that also swam in our pool!
He said, “Plans change. The additional feet of moving the road further out would make it cost prohibitive. Get over it, lady. The road is going in where I say it’s going in.”
I told the builder we were going back in front of the Town Planning Board and let them decide. We would leave it to them to make the determination, because there was no way my husband and I would allow the builder to take even more than the 150′ easement just on his say-so.
He said the Planning Board wasn’t going to be meeting for another three weeks and he didn’t have time to take shit like this from me —he had a job to do and the equipment was already there. Then he hung up on me.
Now I was pissed. I went inside, got a rifle, loaded it, and planted myself on the rock/stone wall behind our pool and I waited with the rifle laying across my lap.
When the drivers came back, I told them to get off our property or I would shoot. They complained and I told them to go call their arrogant employer and tell him I was going to sit right where I was until the Planning Board met and I didn’t care how long it took.
I’m normally an introvert, but I said it with all the bravado I could muster. (Oh boy, I was thinking. The police will be here any minute and I’m going to be in so much trouble …)
No police ever came and when the builder called the Planning Board to complain, they put an immediate hold on the whole project. They decided to convene and review both sides of the agreement again in two days’ time.
The Planning Board heard both sides and the arrogant bully was forced to move his road further out.
Satisfying … oh yes, it was very satisfying.
I Left America & I Don’t Plan To EVER Go Back !
What was the most satisfying way you saw a defense get derailed in a courtroom?
The defendant was guilty. The mountain of evidence against him was the size of Everest. He was a white-collar criminal — an educated professional with a high six-figure income who apparently believed the criminal laws only applied to the “little people.”
He refused to hire a lawyer to conduct his defense, although he had been charged with a major felony, and insisted on representing himself. He expected to succeed. From what I saw of the guy, it looked like he was so accustomed to always having people kowtow to him and getting his own way, it never occurred to him that his experience in a federal courthouse might be different.
The guy adopted a defense strategy of trying to bully the judge into dismissing the case.
For more than a month, he was the most belligerent, obnoxious, uncooperative defendant imaginable. The only reason he didn’t get thrown into jail for contempt of court was because his case had been assigned to the nicest, most patient judge in the courthouse.
The defendant had also made several requests to have his case transferred to a different judge.
Although judges rarely reward obnoxious defendants by granting their motions to have the case transferred to a different judge, the nice judge decided to make an exception in this defendant’s case. She “rewarded” the defendant’s bad behavior by granting his motion and intentionally transferring the case to the toughest judge in the courthouse.
Shortly thereafter, the defendant received a lesson in some of the strategies no-nonsense judges use to deal with defendants who try to turn the courtroom into a three-ring circus. The guy sat like a statue through most of his first hearing with the tough judge and then decided to hire a lawyer.
Moral of the story: Be careful what you ask for. You may get it.
Graham Handcock
“everyone will be WIPED out in 21 days”
What has been your biggest surprise while being married to someone?
My parents did not have a good marriage. My father was cold, distant and absent. My mother was a stereotypical 90s Indian wife who served food to him and picked up after him. They didn’t communicate, didn’t understand each other. My father outbursts would often result in throwing plates across the room while my mother cleaned every bit of food off the floor without saying a word. Later, she confided in me that she was scared. She didn’t want him to cross boundaries and hit her. Keeping silence was her plea. Needless to say, I grew up with very distorted sense of marriage.
I jumped from one relationship to another all my life. When things got tough I moved to another until I met my husband. My husband is an American and grew up in Texas. We were in a long distance relationship for 4–5 years until we decided to get married. In the beginning of our relationship, I was skeptical. When I realized I had feelings for him, I did what I know best. I started to push him away but he stayed. Regardless of being in a long distance relationship I never had to second guess his feelings. He was always there, emotionally if not physically.
Once we got married, I kept waiting for the marriage to crash and burn, kept waiting for the pain to return which I’m so used to, but it never happened. He made sure of it. My husband did everything he could to make me feel comfortable in the new country. He even learnt to cook Indian food so I don’t feel home sick. Being in a new country where I knew no one, isolated and away from friends and family took a toll on me. I have been dealing with depression and severe anxiety for years but he stood by me through it all. He accepted me for who I am without trying to change anything about me. Every time we had an argument, I waited to see glimpse of my father in him but he proved me wrong each time.
I always thought that marriage makes one miserable. I once found a poem written by my father dedicated to my mother. I couldn’t believe it. I had to ask my mother several times to be sure because they were never happy, never in love, as long as I could remember. That was the perception of marriage I grew up with until this beautiful man walked in my life and changed it forever. I’m still haunted by the dysfunctional marriage my parents had but then I look at him and know everything will be okay.
I had mentioned previous that I used to live with a “runway model”. I had manifested her as part of an affirmation campaign, and she was a handful, I’ll tell you what. But pretty, Oh Lordy!
As an aside, guys… don’t go for 8, 9s, and 10s. Pick a solid 4, 5, 6 or 7. Get an average girl. And concentrate on her personality. Ah. the lessons of life.
But, I was still learning. Heck, I was still in my 30’s.
Anyways, we were chillin’ out in the house of a friend of ours. It was in the metropolis of Xbridge. Which, heh, heh… was this tiny, tiny town in Massachusetts. And we are talking.
CJ starts to say something that I really found interesting….
“It’s like this, and you know, you really like the guy, and you are so open down there. It’s all open and wide and empty… any you really want to be filled. Just completely and….”
And, our friend Collin, interrupts and goes on a tirade about how are we men supposed to know what it is like being a girl, and on and on and on.
And on and on….
She opens up her mouth to say something, and he drowns her out with his tirade. On and on.
By the time he was finished, no one wanted to continue that initial (and very interesting) conversation.
And I found it really interesting, and I really wanted CJ to finish her sentence, as I had never heard a woman’s point of view on this kind of thing, and I really, REALLY wanted to hear about it.
So…
In all my marriages, in all my relationships… a closely guarded discussion of woman’s feelings during desire never came up, but here… for a brief moment in time… it raised it’s sleepy head. And as soon as it it it was snatched away.
I should have gotten up and punched Collin and told CJ to continue.
But I didn’t.
The secrets of womanhood remains an elusive knowledge… one that somehow I am forbidden to know about.
I wanted to know more.
The mysteries of what it felt like, as a woman.
The opportunity came…
… and was drowned out by ignorance.
Sigh.
Today….
What is the most satisfying passive-aggressive thing you have ever done to a really mean or rude person?
I was carrying extremely powerful rare earth magnets (165 lb pull force) for work in my back pack . They were wrapped in 8 inches of bubble wrap to prevent them from getting too close to anything.
As I was sitting down, a total a-hole got on the train and pushed me out of the way, took the seat I was about to sit in, and gave me a nasty look. I wound up standing next to him. Slowly, I undid the bubble wrap and put it next to the Macbook he was working on and the satchel with his wallet and phone. I kept moving it around subtly. After a few minutes, his screen went out with a very bright flash. I don’t know what happened to his credit cards or cell phone. He kept trying to reboot it but it was not responding at all.
I didn’t know if it would actually do anything. I just really hate rude people on the subway. Luckily his computer didn’t fly up and stick to my backpack.
(UPDATE:) It’s been great to read the many responses this has; I have never told anyone this story. I really go out of my way to be a decent person but when people take advantage of me, I can’t let it go. I have used annoy-a-trons several times on coworkers (Google it) and did MUCH worse as a teenager. The point is, I am fair and decent, however, I won’t suffer A-Holes taking advantage of me or screwing me over.
This guy pushed me out of the way hard as I was sitting down and then proceeded to give me a shitty look like “do you want to fight about it?” My options were to fight him, start an argument that would not get my seat back unless I picked him up, or OTHER. I wasn’t willing to start a fight on a full subway car or anywhere else. I just couldn’t let it go. Not with these awesome magnets in my backpack ready for a little experiment!
Now for the doubters …. If you stack six of these magnets you have 3–4 times the force of a single magnet. They have small Teflon spacers between them so you can separate them when you need them. These slightly reduce their combined force. At 8–10 inches with bubble wrap, there is very little magnetic force as their strength decreases exponentially with distance. However, I am still careful not to put my cell phone or wallet near them. I opened the bubble wrap at the bottom of the stack and then closed my backpack with the end of the stack right against the inside canvas of my backpack. I was surprised it worked at a distance of about 6 inches. As I said, I was careful because I did not want it to “grab” the computer. Nothing happened for a while but it absolutely took the computer out like an EMP had gone off. Maybe it had to wait until the HDD was active. If it warped the platter and pulled it into the read/write arm it would scratch the shit out of the platter. I looked it up yesterday and the HDD on a Macbook Pro is on the side I was standing on.
IDK how it worked, but, to my pleasant surprise, IT DID. Try it out! 😉 I lost a bit of face and hopefully he lost $2K of electronics and spent a day getting his credit and bank cards replaced.
Will it teach him a lesson? Probably not, but I don’t care; I made his life temporarily suck without causing bodily harm .
Butter Rum Ham and Pineapple
pineapplerumham
Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds fully cooked, boneless ham
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons rum extract
1/2 peeled/cored pineapple
Instructions
Heat 2-sided tabletop grill.
Cut four 1/2 inch thick slices from ham (reserve any remaining ham for another use).
Place butter, brown sugar and rum extract in small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on HIGH for 30 to 45 seconds or until butter melts.
Brush one side of ham with glaze and place on grill with glazed side down. Brush glaze on top of ham slices. Close grill lid, pressing down firmly to sear ham.
Grill for 4 to 5 minutes, brushing once with remaining glaze, until internal temperature reaches 140 degrees F.
Remove ham from grill and cover to keep warm.
Cut pineapple into four 1/2 to 1 inch thick slices and place on grill; close lid. Grill for 1 to 2 minutes until warm. Serve with ham.
Was Dong Zhuo or Cao Cao worse?
tl;dr: Don’t invite either of these guys to your office potluck.
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Imagine your company kitchen. It’s a chaotic symphony of mismatched mugs and lukewarm coffee. But then, two new executives strut in. One, Dong Zhuo, barges in, throws everyone out, declares himself “Chief Lunch Officer,” and starts hoarding all the good snacks.
The other, Cao Cao, is more subtle. He smiles, charms everyone, subtly undermines his rivals with passive-aggressive emails about “synergy” and “optimization,” then slowly takes control of the coffee machine, rationing the good beans for his “inner circle.”
Who’s worse?
Dong Zhuo was the quintessential “bull in a china shop” of emperors. A ruthless warlord, he seized power during China’s Han Dynasty, metaphorically shoving the emperor aside and using him as a rubber stamp. Taxes skyrocketed, the capital burned (think a company-wide email announcing the free donuts are mysteriously gone… forever), and fear became the company culture.
Cao Cao, on the other hand, was the master manipulator. Cunning and ambitious, he played the long game. He’d ruthlessly eliminate rivals while spouting lofty ideals about “unifying the market” (a.k.a. eliminating competition). He surrounded himself with brilliant advisors, like having a crack team constantly brainstorming new ways to brew the perfect cup of joe (even if it meant exploiting the local bean farmers).
So, who’s the worse office tyrant? Dong Zhuo is the obvious villain, the guy everyone avoids in the break room. But Cao Cao, with his charming smile and ruthless efficiency, is the wolf in sheep’s clothing. He might even win “Employee of the Month” for his supposed dedication, all while consolidating his power.
The real tragedy? The system itself.
The fractured state of China during this era allowed both Dong Zhuo and Cao Cao to exploit its weaknesses.
Who are the Dong Zhuos and Cao Caos in our own systems today?
DR built a concrete snowman to teach bullies a lesson
When I was in college, a friend spent 3 hours building a 5 foot snowman on our club’s property only to have a grpup from the jock club next door do a flying tackle to destroy it. To be clear, this was the type of club bullies who liked to destroy property, piss in your hallway, and generally pick fights with people.
Being the studemt repairs manager, I had access to bricks, concrete, and cinder block. Over the next six hours, 5 of us built an 8 foot snowman, base out of an upside down steel trashcan filled with solid ice and brick. We built the center ball hollow and shuttled in the brick and mortar. Used a ladder to finish off the head with a green Mohawk and red eye.
In the morning the center ball was tilted 5 degrees with a large shoulder impression in the snow shell. We guessed he broke something. Passive aggressive revenge extracted.
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson : Turkey to Leave NATO and Join …
What is the most disrespectful advice you received from a person who assumed you were less intelligent and made less money than them?
My husband’s friend and wife bought a home around 3 years back. They are almost the same age as us. Both of them are elder to me and a few months younger to my husband. Both of them are good people, but the wife likes to brag a little, but I always believe that she is a good person at heart. We meet them often, and get together for dinner or games. They used to often ask us why we are still living in an apartment and not buying a house.
My husband and I did not want to buy a house until I got a job. Even then, we did not want to buy a HUGE house. We wanted to get a started home.. something small and manageable. Even after I got job, we waited a few months to make sure that i like my role, only then did we begin our house hunting expedition.
The first step was of course to go to a bank and find out our affordability. The bank took both our salaries and told us that we could afford $XXXX per month as mortgage. My husband and I did not want to buy a huge house showing both our salaries. We wanted to show only one salary (the lower salary, which is mine). We are not US citizens, so we wanted to make sure that we could afford the house and our lifestyle even if one of us lost our jobs or wanted to take a break. We finally put an offer on a house, and the offer got accepted almost a year back. We informed this to our friends when we met them for dinner one day. My husband’s friend’s wife immediately asked us the price and number of bedrooms of our house. We told her how much the house costs and that it’s a 3 bedroom house. She immediately said “ohh.. is that all you could afford? I did not realize that both of you would be earning so less inspite being engineers. We both earn more so that’s why we could afford a bigger house. I really hope something good happens to you soon”..
My husband and I laughed so much after leaving their house. We don’t have to explain our logic to them. We wanted something small and manageable, and also have enough room when parents visit. We had a very strict budget and stuck to it.
I did it instinctively.
We are in an concert hall for some concert. I arrive early and grab a prime seat. This elderly woman comes over and grabs a seat 6-7 seats from me. The hall fills up.
The woman leaves to go to the washroom.
This dude grabs her seat.
She comes back and protests, but he would not listen. People complain, but he is not going to budge. His argument: “Seats can not be reserved here”
I eye signal to the dude to come take over my prime seat. I grab my stuff and pretend to be on my way out missing the concert entirely. The lady also thinks I am leaving and everyone will have a seat and be happy.
He quickly starts rushing to my place. The lady sits in the place he vacated.
Oops. I changed my mind. I quickly sit down and enjoy the concert.
WAKE UP PEOPLE! This Is Worse Than I Thought…” | Victor Davis Hanson
Beep Beep
The phone rang again, I picked it up again and said my name, no sound, then beep-beep-beep. That did it. I got so fed up with it that it was time for a plan. My own little, 10-years old’s, revenge plan.
My father was having an affair, that much was clear. For months already, our family was disturbed and disfunctional. The relationship between my parents was totally messed up and as their youngest son, I felt heart broken and angry.
Twice a day, for weeks, the phone would ring and there would be no sound if I picked it up. It annoyed me big time. It never happened to my father though. So I concluded it must be her, the unknown woman.
I decided to start some retaliation. Every now and then I heard him calling her in his home office (on a landline). One day I overheard him through the office door, and I waited out the call. He went to have lunch in the kitchen afterwards, and I sneaked into his office. I pressed the redial button.
With my heart pounding in my throat I waited… And then she picked up and said her name. Gotcha! I stayed silent, wrote her name on a paper and hung up. As a little Sherlock Holmes I started looking her up in the phone book. I had some clues to what town she might live, so after some researching, I found her name and number.
Since that moment, the fight was on. A few times a day I would call her and say nothing at all until she would hang up. It felt great. My little sneaky, well thought out, revenge plan was working just as planned. It must have driven her crazy.
It took them weeks to find out. Then my father came to me, sighed, collected some courage and asked me bluntly if I was the one that was ghost calling his ‘friend’. I denied. But from that day on, I stopped. My point was made.
EDIT: we are talking 1988 here, so no chat apps or cell phones…
EDIT 2: My mother just told me that my father accused her at the time of the ghost calls. Oops!
Are you surprised by China’s aggression against the Philippines in the South China Sea?
No, Because I know quite deep on China’s politic.
You probably wonder what the hell I am talking about, well I will answer actually China has been waiting for country to mess with China. Why? because then China will have a reason to mess with that country, you can see a lot of example, from Vietnam losing land territory, parcels island, Russia losing land, India losing land, Japan losing island, long list of strong nation right?
That list has started during China was weak, now China is strong. what it need is troublemaker like Philippine. Politic is still politic, no matter how noble China try to be if foreign country mess with China, it’s an opportunity to mess with them.
If you search for my old post, you will see an article I wrote that Philippine will lose all their island in South China Sea.
China is the most noble politic we as an earthling can have. China is not like USA which can create Tonkin Gulf incident as a pretext to invade Vietnam. China is not as despicable as USA, USA can claimed Saddam has WMD and go to invade. No, don’t worry China does not work that evil. If you have a good relation with China, well China will not do anything to you.
the evidence is Duterte, Philippine probably don’t realized it Duterte saved your country.
China-Philippine SCS Dispute Chinese Perspective
The South China Sea dispute between China and the Philippines is specifically reflected in Huangyan Island, Ren’ai Reef, Horseshoe Reef, Xianbin Reef, Zhongye Island and surrounding waters.
The reality is that what has truly harmed China’s efforts to safeguard its sovereignty and expand its interests in the South China Sea is not the confrontation between China and the Philippines, but the reconciliation between China and the Philippines.
From around 1990 to this year, China’s South China Sea strategy has evolved from defense to offense, and has also gone through three stages from defense to stalemate to counterattack, marked by the ” Code of Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea ” in November 2002 and the climax of island building in 2013.
Before 2002, China was on the defensive in the South China Sea. Chinese fishermen were arrested and fishing boats were rammed and seized. These incidents were common and would cause uproars today. But there was no way out. At that time, our navy was too weak and our coast guard was seriously under-strength. We were unable to effectively manage the disputed areas and protect the interests of fishermen.
The so-called ” beached ships ” today are all historical issues left over from that time.
Since 2002, as the United States’ attention has shifted to the Middle East, the South China Sea turmoil has no longer been fueled by the United States, and the Philippines is alone. China has entered a period of rapid development, its naval debts are slowly being made up, and its offensive and defensive momentum has begun to change.
Strictly speaking, the real counterattack wave began when Aquino III came to power in 2011. Against the backdrop of the United States’ official launch of the ” return to the Asia-Pacific ,” Aquino III reopened the South China Sea dispute, and this time they faced a completely different China. The climax began in 2013 when China began its island-building frenzy, consolidating existing islands and reefs and gradually opening up disputed areas.
Against the backdrop of the South China Sea dispute between China and the Philippines, China has renounced interference and, while building up islands, has firmly grasped jurisdiction in its own hands, breaking up the Philippines’ counterattacks into harassment by scattered forces.
From 2013 to 2016, this period was the four years with the most intense confrontation between China and the Philippines, but also the four years in which China gained the most by building island on SCS (it actually an counter measure of Obama Asia pivot).
When Duterte came to power in 2016, he chose to get closer to China while falling out with the United States over the stationing of troops and drug prohibition. China’s South China Sea strategy got into trouble, because facing a pro-China faction.
This period was the most peaceful period in the South China Sea, and it was also the years when China’s South China Sea strategy returned to being restrained, China chose a truce in the South China Sea.
But after Marcos JR came to power in 2021 , new opportunities arrived, especially when the United States began to raise interest rates in 2022 and even forced China into a financial decisive battle in 2023(US hope to create chaos so that investment will flee to US). The Philippines, as a pawn of the US strategy, regained its value, and the Philippines also tried to fish in troubled waters, wanting both the South China Sea islands and reefs and the US dollar.
China took the opportunity to greatly expand the scope of its actual control. It also carried out maritime police law enforcement in the disputed area for the first time, took over the disputed area, and will completely solve the “beached ship” problem. By closing off the supply line, it forced the Philippines to evacuate the Ren’ai Reef and put the issue of Zhongye Island on the table.
From October last year to June this year, in just eight months, the benefits gained from the struggle were greater than the total of the past seven years.
The achievement of these results is inseparable from the staunch anti-China stance of the Filipino leader Marcos JR, which gave us the legitimacy of our actions.
But now the defection of Duterte’s daughter may disrupt this process. If Duterte’s daughter plays the rational and pro-China card again and gains power, whether we cannot continue the war without distraction and have to make peace which will become a big problem for China.
There is not much time left for China. China hope to seize this window of time and, under the favorable conditions of the confrontation between China, the United States and the Philippines, quickly take over the Ren’ai Reef and turn Zhongye Island into a controversial frontier.
So Duterte saved Philippine, it paused the clashed in SCS between PH and China for 6 years.
Author Note :
China is not a perfect country, China is not a saint country. But when opportunity appear of course china will take it. China much more noble than the US which claimed a bogus thing to do war, or will backtrack any agreement for it’s benefit.
That is why according to my understanding of China’s politic, China multipolar world order will bring more stability and more equal prosperity than the US world order.
EU Panic: As China Gets Ready Economic Punishments, Germany Runs To Beijing For Mercy
China is on the verge of hitting Europe with economic punishments. This has the potential to escalate things further with various countries including Spain and France. Germany is very afraid of retaliation on their car exports and they are heading to Beijing to undo the damage done by the EU trade tariffs.
As a trial attorney, what is the most ridiculous outburst you have seen first-hand in court?
Originally Answered: As a trial attorney, what is the most ridiculous outburst you have seen first hand in court?
Heh.
I was sitting as a judge pro tem in traffic court. Traffic court can always be entertaining, to say the least. As a judge pro tem, I am a working lawyer who volunteers to sit in traffic court or small claims court once a month. This frees up the real judges to hear important cases. In an afternoon session, I’ll have 30 or 40 cases. All of the people who got tickets are waiting their turn in the courtroom for the session.
Each traffic court has a clerk and bailiff. The clerk’s main job is to keep the pro tem judge from looking like an idiot or making any obvious legal mistakes. The bailiff is there to ensure decorum, mostly by intimidation, I guess. The bailiff this day was a very young woman, about 5 foot 2, her nightstick came down to mid-calf, the handcuffs appeared huge on her waist, and she just didn’t look very intimidating. Yet, there she was in police uniform. Before calling the first case, I usually remind all of the defendants that traffic school is an option up until I call their case. Then it’s no longer an option. I explain my courtroom rules that govern each case and the decorum that I expect while the police officer and the defendants are testifying. The vast majority of cases are speeding and driving solo in the carpool lane.
The first case was unusual. The defendant had been ticketed for having an open container of alcohol as a passenger in a car. (The driver had been ticketed for speeding.). The police officer told the story in a routine manner. I turned to the defendant to hear his story. His story is that he was holding the “party ball,” a round container that holds about 10 gallons of beer, a mini-keg with the hose and valve, in his lap. But … it wasn’t his ball, it was someone else’s ball. He had explained all this to the officer at the time the ticket was issued. Therefore, glancing smugly at the officer, he explained that he obviously wasn’t “in possession” of the open container. His testimony was sufficient to convict him of possession of an open container, so after he finished, I told him I was finding him guilty and fining him $500. I also explained to him that I understood his defense that the party ball wasn’t his. I told him that the law prohibits possession of an open container; ownership of the container is not part of the offense.
He went ballistic. He shouted, ranted and raged. I let him go for a minute and then called the next case while he was still shouting. He stayed at his table yelling at me and, as he walked out of the court, he yelled, “Fuck you” at me. This engaged the bailiff who started after him. He ran out of the court with the bailiff, clanking handcuffs, weapon and mid-calf nightstick, after him. As they both exited the courtroom, I told the somewhat stunned crowd that we would wait for the bailiff to return.
Then, we heard the sounds of a body thumping and screams of pain. The bailiff returned to the courtroom with the defendant in a wrist lock. He was bleeding all down one side of his face, and his shirt was torn. “Apologize to the Judge,” she demanded. He piteously whined, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” I told him, “Don’t apologize to me. You wasted everybody’s time here. Apologize to the entire courtroom.” The officer wheeled him around so he could apologize to the entire courtroom. He whimpered several apologies. She then released him. He slunk out of the courtroom.
Every remaining defendant pleaded guilty that day.
After the session was over, I asked the bailiff what happened. It turns out that he was running away from her down the hallway, but there were two police officers waiting to be called as witnesses in traffic court. They saw him and the bailiff in hot pursuit. One of the officers put his foot out and tripped the defendant as he ran by. As the defendant fell, he scraped his face on the jagged stone walls of the courthouse hallway and tore his shirt. The bailiff picked him up and frog-marched him into the courtroom looking like he had been thoroughly beaten up.
John Mearsheimer Destroys Lindsey Graham
John Mearsheimer reacts to Lindsey Graham’s idiotic claims and outright lies about Vladimir Putin. Professor Mearsheumer debunks them point by point and explains “The problem I face when dealing with Lindsey Graham is that he and I don't live on the same planet. I live on a planet where evidence and facts matter. He doesn't.”
What is your most frightening emergency room story?
Pain was the word, but would you go to the ER if that was the only symptom — pain in the groin ? Ask any urologist and they would say NO (capitalized). It’s one of the most generic and undefined pains that usually cannot be explained — and guys, you KNOW (capitalized) what I’m talking about.
But hearing the guy was one thing, seeing him was another, and diagnosing him was something else.
It was the urologists’ first ever case of Fournier’s Gangrene — an acute necrotic infection of the penis, scrotum or perineum, essentially meaning that the genitals of the affected male patient is being eaten, and very, very fast. It’s also extremely rare, since less than 2,000 cases have been reported in the last 70 years.
He was in his seventies, and the urologist was very clear on what was to happen:
“We need to remove every single thing of this infection — including your penis. Only then you can survive, but I’m not sure if that is even possible.”
The man agreed.
The next three days two things happened.
The infected area — included the patient’s penis — was removed.
Less than 48 hours later, it turned out that the infection was still alive, and had spread over a much larger area.
And this time, no surgery would help anymore. The infection would take over his body and necrotize every single square inch of his painful body in a matter of days. And so that’s what his urologist told him, in tears, because this was a man who was receiving a sentence instead of a diagnosis — as if the amputation hadn’t been enough already.
THE LIBRARYLarisse was a bit peeved. She hated greeting duty. She moved to this station because she was promised better wages, better living quarters, and more Fun. Yes, Fun was capitalized. But once a month she had to greet the ship with newcomers. Fun was what you made of it. This was not it.She knew the history of the city she worked and lived in but, like most younger people, she was not particularly impressed. Larisse did acknowledge that science has progressed so rapidly since the 20th century everything accomplished then seems rather immature, almost childish, now.This dwarf planet, Ceres, had been selected for habitation back in the early 21st century. The atmosphere, such as it was, could not support human life. But it did have an internal ‘ocean’ of water. While the White House was set on landing and inhabiting Mars, NASA and a small group of engineers set about to determine whether or not it would be feasible to go underground on Ceres. Yes, build a city below the surface. Here.It took several years to get funding but finally a mini space lab was launched and fell into orbit around the dwarf. The space lab, actually a cargo ship but funding was quicker if it was a lab, carried men, equipment and supplies to create an underground cavern. The cavern was quickly oxygenated and the work on the city went smoothly. First they built living quarters. Then they worked on laboratories and offices.Building was suspended for a short term while the United States engaged itself in another war. They seemed to do that a lot in the old days. Soon however, regular supply ships were arriving and the dwarf planet was colonized.Humans who lived and worked on Ceres did complain that just housing wasn’t sufficient. By the close of the century, a restaurant, a few utilitarian shops, and a park were constructed. Each supply ship brought more luxuries and more humans.The environment on earth was becoming more and more toxic as time went on. There was talk of creating a second underground facility devoted to manufacturing and hydroponic gardening on Ceres. Fresh food was becoming scarce on earth. And little could be transported to this colony. The garden was accomplished successfully.By mid 22nd Century the dwarf planet was fairly self-sustaining. The variety of people gradually changed – there were races from all over the world, few were human. The ruling race, yes – it happened, controlled the docking ports. There was a problem with reproduction of their peoples. However, there was no difficulty reproducing their people on earth. While still in their infancy, children were literally herded by the hundreds onto transport ships on earth and sent to a new home on the dwarf planet. There they would be educated and become viable working members of the colony.Larisse thought it never made sense that it was impossible to produce children, new beings, at this station. To import babies from Mother Earth seemed totally ridiculous. Totally. There should be no reason the replicators here cannot produce as well as those on ME. She didn’t understand science or reproduction well enough to fully understand many things. But, like most people, she wouldn’t believe most things even if told. Half of the newcomers were not ready for real life – in her judgment. They seemed totally disjointed more than half the time…barely able to function. The time it takes for the transport ship to make the trip should be long enough for the infants to mature. Her race attained maturity in a matter of months usually. True, there are no tutors aboard. But time alone should be enough for physical maturity. Perhaps it was something else that make them so ‘useless’. Larisse herself was an earth baby but she is positive she was never so helpless as the last few shipments had been.No, it wasn’t the atmosphere. They just weren’t ready. The atmosphere is not ME quality, but only human engineers born before 2140 need breathing apparatus. Everyone else had acclimated immediately. But some of these ‘children’, as they are called by the government, just aren’t ready for prime time. They should stay on Mother Earth another year to mature. They had little form. Their obvious lack of living knowledge made Larisse’s job doubly difficult.When a ship docked, Larisse went aboard with her clipboard to verify passengers before allowing them to disembark. This was one of the toughest parts of her job as greeter. It seems that more than half of these newcomers don’t know their names. Unfortunately, their boarding passes do not have names, just lot and number. Many of them have misplaced their boarding documents during the eight month flight. Larisse tried her best to get them all off the ship and into the city in a timely manner. She checked the number on the tag around each one’s neck, found it on the shipping advice and asked, “And what is your name?” She tried to be kind and understanding but kindness and understanding weren’t enough.Much of the time, they mumbled or spoke too softly for her to hear, or understand. She wrote down whatever it sounded like. There were times, she was sure, that Jane became Joyce or Brown was Bruin, or the other way around. But, what’s the difference? If they don’t know who they are when they arrive, they’ll respond to whatever they’re called later. Their identification packets are produced from her list. What was on the list was it. If, when she repeated a name, the newcomer corrected her, she’d make a change. Otherwise, the name – wrong or not- was theirs forever. This sometimes caused confusion among the newcomers the first week or so. Eventually they responded properly.Once the ship was cleared, Larisse led the group to the elevator. The atmosphere on the surface would suffice, but the old-timers who had established this colony insisted on building below the surface. The quarters were spacious. The city, while not large, included many laboratories, several stores, a movie theater, a bowling alley, roller rink, and a simulated park with grass, a small lake, and ducks. Newcomers were always impressed with the ducks. There were no ducks left on ME. Larisse had to research bowling, roller rink, and movies. These were pastimes of the first people to inhabit Ceres. The humans. While the activities sounded interesting, they also sounded quite tedious to Larisse. Physical exercise never made much sense to her. Evidently it was important to the first settlers.Below the surface, the aged engineers did not require breathing apparatus. They seemed to enjoy life below ground very much. She was surprised at how very old many of them were. Apparently, living in outer space lengthens the life of humans. Her own race can last forever if not exposed to excessive heat for long periods of time. Heat wasn’t a concern on Ceres.Larisse has heard the old humans say it was almost like being back on earth. She felt sorry for them as they were unaware that earth no longer had fresh air or lakes or green grass. Most of them had been at this station from the very beginning. Only one of the original crew had expired.Larisse never quite understood ‘expired’. When one old engineer tried to explain death to her, it made no sense. She didn’t understand the inability to just buy a new part when an old one wore out. Of course, she had never seen a part called a heart in the local parts store. She wasn’t sure if she, herself, had a heart. Larisse had finished the recommended schooling but anatomy was not a required subject. In fact, was there such a class offered? She could not recall.On one of her off-days, Larisse found a small room she had not known of before. There were several trees in a small group at the convergence of the walk past the roller rink and the walk to the main shopping area. Behind the trees – well, not actually behind them, but sort of hidden by them, was a door. It was tucked into a corner. Larisse had full access to the city as she was an employee and had keys to everything. But this door wasn’t locked. It intrigued her and she wondered how she had never seen it before today. What could lie beyond? She decided the best way to find out is to open it.
Larisse looked around to see if anyone else was nearby. While she had authority to go everywhere and anywhere, she was still hesitant to open the door. No one was in sight when she pulled on the long, upright handle. The door must not have been opened in some time as it creaked and dust blew up as it silently swung open. Dust is very unusual in the City.
What had she found? The room in front of her was dimly lit. There was a lot of furniture placed about in the center of the room. Tables and chairs sat neatly in two rows. There was also some soft type furniture. She saw a photo once of this type of seating – was it called a couch? a sofa? something like that. As she stepped further into the room there was a sign on a short pole. “This is your library. Please be considerate and maintain quiet. Library hours are daily 9am- 9pm.”
What is a library? Larisse has never heard the word before. If she had, she doesn’t recall it- or its meaning. This must be one of the first rooms built as no one is concerned with time anymore. She recalled seeing that type designation at the docking port several decades ago. It was so long she has already forgotten what the letters mean.
A quick glance around told Larisse that a library is a room filled with books. She had heard of books, even saw several when there were many humans here, back when she was new. But that was some time ago. She had not imagined there could be so many books, especially in one place. Larisse went from shelf to shelf reading the words printed on the books. How dull. Nothing really appealed to her curiosity. There were several labeled “Shakespeare”. Was that the name of the book? Taking one of those off the shelf, she leafed through the pages. A faint odor wafted out – she didn’t recognize it. Ah! Shakespeare wrote the book. One of the first pages said so. It didn’t look the least bit interesting. Larisse is fluent in English but these words made little sense. She put Shakespeare back on the shelf where she had gotten him.
A sign on the end of one shelf said “contemporary fiction”. Riffling through several books on that shelf proved very boring. She circled round the room. There must be more than a thousand books here. And none of them appealed to her.
Then she came to the shelf labeled ‘Games and Toys’. Games? Well, that might be interesting. The first book had pictures. Almost all of the pictures illustrated people who resemble the old engineers. Standard humanoid form. No one looks quite like that anymore. Well, except for the oldest colonists.
Back to reading words visible on the books, she came to a book titled “Toys of the 21st Century.” What kind of toys were popular on ME so many years ago?
She pulled the book from the shelf. The first several chapters featured several games – electronics mostly. They sounded like Fun, sort of. There weren’t games called WII, Nintendo or Atari on Ceres. Of course, this type electronic was so outdated. She laughed. This is what the old engineers played with? How droll. These were fun? Incredible! Larisse always felt that the engineers were a bit slow. Reading the description of some of the games caused her to laugh out loud. Ridiculous. She could not believe anyone could have been entertained for long with any of these old things. Perhaps humans weren’t as clever as they have always tried to make us believe. Clarisse thought on that a few moments. Perhaps they aren’t.
The next section in the book was about other toys. Bicycles, sleds, skates, miniature vehicles, skis, things Larisse had never heard of before. She read the descriptions carefully. Some of the illustrations were quite intriguing but the toys themselves – not so much.
The next chapter began with things called Lincoln Logs and Erector sets. They were more interesting than anything she had seen so far in the book. There were several pages touting the various accessories for the Erector set. And pictures showing things that had been made with the toy. What is a ferris wheel? The description says it will rotate with an accessory motor. But Larisse didn’t understand its purpose. It is truly a strange looking device.
As she turned the next page, she gasped. This looked like a family album. Why were her ancestors in a book of 21st century toys? She leafed through several pages, more in shock than in awe. She had heard of this in family folklore but why are they listed as toys?
Larisse vaguely recalled stories of relatives who added wheels, treads, rotors, and other outrageous accessories to themselves. More than a century ago. According to legend handed down, her own family at the time chose to shun these new and unusual characteristics. They were barbaric. If the gods had wanted us to have wheels, we would have come equipped with them. Of course, in time, many of the accessories became usual, normal; to own and to wear. But at the beginning, according to family tales, they were not openly welcomed. That was such old folklore. Larisse had never truly believed any of it. Things do evolve over time. Apparently, the 21st century was when all the various mutations of her race began. Looking at the illustrations that accompanied the descriptions, Larisse could see several similarities to herself and her friends. Well, some. There is a strong family resemblance though many of these were obviously foreigners; their colors were so garish.
The heading on the next page “LEGO Kits”. The following page was headed “LEGO 3-in-1 Collection”. Turning the page she was faced with “LEGO Accessories”. There was a footnote on this page. Every element in Larisse’s body shuddered as she read it. “By 2000 LEGO kits were offered with accessories designed to make the LEGO brick the most popular toy of two centuries.”
Oh my god of the universe, LEGOs are not toys. They are the future of the earth. Every month she greets new LEGOs to the Ceres Colony. They will be the saviors of Mother Earth. The things LEGOs do here will someday repopulate the earth. Someday they will create new plant life on earth; perhaps even rejuvenate the oxygen system on earth so that humans can remain there, out in the open as they once lived.
Larisse hugged the book close to her. She was sad. Is it true that she and nearly everyone here are descendants of a 21st century toy?
No, it can’t be true. She replaced the book on the shelf. For several minutes she was deep in thought. Should she reveal any of this to her co-workers, her friends. She paced through the small library. No. No. She cannot tell anyone about this book. She looked around and found a small desk. The sign said “Head Librarian”. Someone worked here at one time. But it was before Larisse came here -so a very long time before. They may have left instruments to use to make a sign. She went through the drawers looking for something useful. Perhaps she should place a No Trespass sign on this door. Or just perhaps a Do Not Enter sign would do.
The implements she found in the drawers of the desk were unknown to Larisse. Bic pens and Ticonderoga pencils and Sharpies. These were all cradled in a small tray in the top desk drawer. What were they? What purpose did they have in a library? She decided she had nothing to create a sign.
She reasoned that as she has just found this door, perhaps no one else will find it any time soon. There was nothing outside to put in front of the door to block entry. Its very out-of-the-way location has kept it secret this long; perhaps it will not be found again soon. Not many workers use this corridor. She closed the door firmly. Later she will return with a sign warning others to not enter. The newcomers were barely ready to work. Something this demoralizing could destroy them completely. No one should discover their ancestors were once considered mere playthings. She was proud to be a LEGO. This discovery must be kept secret.
END
Is the USA’s decline as a global superpower and the rise of Russia & China a good thing for the world?
Why not?
The vast majority of refugees, war casualty, infrastructure destruction, and regime change this century have been caused by US-led NATO.
Every conflict this century has seen the appearance of NATO armaments—the enablers of death and destruction. Countries devastated by NATO machinations remain a pale shadow of their former selves. Just look at the Arab Spring, which has morphed into the perpetual Arab Winter. Whereas Chechnya and Georgia today are even more prosperous and built-up than their Soviet days.
At the minimum, US decline militarily will bring peace to many hotzones today.
And with peace, a better tomorrow can be realized.
Ambassadors EVACUATING Lebanon; Outbreak of War Deemed “Imminent”
The Ambassadors of Italy, France, England, Sweden, and Germany, have been instructed by their governments to “evacuate Lebanon immediately” because Intelligence information says “war is imminent.” Diplomatic staff are visibly panicking as they flee.
The Saudi Arabian Embassy in London warns of the risk of world war after the announcement of an imminent Israeli invasion of South Lebanon : ” It is important that everyone understands the danger that awaits us. The conflict will not remain regional, but will very quickly become international. ”
Egypt has sent multiple messages to Washington saying: Do not underestimate Nasrallah’s statements or the capabilities of Hezbollah.”
Iran and the Taliban in Afghanistan are now discussing “joint action” against Israel!
DANGEROUSLY AMBIGUOUS: France announces it is willing to send its armed forces to stand with the Lebanese Army on the Border of Israel. (None of us can figure this one out. Will that be to defend Lebanon? Attack Hezbollah? Attack Israel? . . . . . or to surrender to all of them?)
The Canadian military is drawing up plans to evacuate 45,000 people from Lebanon should a full-scale war break out between Israel and Hezbollah.
Sources in US CENTCOM tell me “The US is concerned Israel’s Iron Dome could be overwhelmed in war with Hezbollah.” This right after giving all patriot missiles for defense to Ukraine!
The original deadline given to Hezbollah by Israel was to move its forces north of the Litani River BY JUNE 24. Hezbollah has already flatly refused. It is now not clear if Israel will step-up its timetable, or if Hezbollah will be the ones to initiate combat. This could begin literally at any moment.
UPDATE 4:54 PM EDT —
Kuwait urges its citizens to avoid travel to Lebanon.
What’s the best revenge you’ve gotten after being fired or let go from a job?
Wasn’t exactly “revenge” since I did not have to do anything, I guess it is more like Karma.
Worked at a radio station for 5 years, filled in at one point as a temp. Operations Manager for a few months until the guy they wanted could run out his contract. At one point, I unknowingly amassed the paperwork trail needed to get a Production Manager fired for moonlighting on company time. At management’s request.
One day we got a new hire that never worked in the business before. They asked I train her. Ok, no problem right? (Well, I know better now). She burns through all her vacation and PTO within 3 months of hire. On the 4th month, it’s announced she will be the new Operations Manager. I expressed my displeasure at the position never have been posted as being open and never interviewed it despite having done the job previously while the new guy they just hired quit within the year. I was told I should quit. No way. I would be leaving on my own accord when I was ready. I was told to think about it overnight and hand in my resignation the next day. Told them it wasn’t going to happen. Next day I’m asked for my resignation letter. Told them I wasn’t doing it. They said they would fire me and contest any claim for unemployment. I told them they could do what they wanted, there was no record of poor work performance, no bad reviews, and my paper trail as acting OM and I had copies of the work I did that led to the PM getting fired would speak for itself. They fired me on the spot.
Went back into the control booth with the new girl to gather my belongings. The program tape (way before the digital age ) currently on-air runs out. Dead Air. A HUGE no-no if you don’t know the business. She looks at me and asks what to do next, what program is next, where is it, etc. I just look at her and say, “It’s not my problem anymore since I don’t work here. It’s your problem now.” Phones start ringing off the hook. Front office staff come back, “Why are we off the air?” “Is there a problem with the equipment?” I point to her. “Ask her, she’s in charge now, I no longer work here.” Sales staff start freaking out. Now commercials aren’t running either. I take my leave.
I found out later from an ex co-worker she screwed everything up for the next hour and a half. Guess she wasn’t paying attention to the day to day stuff I had been showing her and was busy with the outgoing OM trying to learn his job too since that was the plan all along. She also messed up all the procedures I had in place to keep the stations on-air to implement her way of getting things done and caused other problems with distributors and shows not getting aired at all. Violation of contracts that cost the station even more money. She also hired a friend to replace me, who ended up stealing very expensive microphones from the studios as well as other things that went missing.
I don’t believe she lasted 6 months after I was fired.
Western Empire Facing Same Collapse as Rome in its Final Days: Martin Armstrong
Martin Armstrong sees striking similarities between the multitude of crises that plague the modern world and the conditions just before the fall of the Roman empire. Martin argues that endless debt issuance, wars for profit, unchecked migration, and rampant political corruption are setting the stage for a future where many Western countries cease to exist as we know them.
What is the most heartbreaking thing your child has told you?
A few days ago my ex son-in-law asked me if I wanted to get my four year old granddaughter off the bus and watch her for a few hours. She and I went to visit my mother, and then I took her to see her mother for some rare Mommy daughter time. All went well, both my daughter and granddaughter enjoyed their time together.
On the way back, I told my Granddaughter that she was awesome during the short ride and visit. Little Jabberjaws soon became quiet… (When a normally talkative 4 year old becomes quiet, it can be a good bet that something is up.) When she didn’t answer me, I pulled off the road to see what was going on. Quiet tears were rolling down her face. I asked her what was wrong, In a heart rendering voice she asked, “Papa, why don’t Mom and Dad think I’m awesome?” She noticed a tear in my eye (that I attributed to a bug). I composed myself, and told her that they thought she was awesome as well.
I had to stop at my home before taking her back to her place. During this time she was constantly wanting to hug me and was telling me how happy she is when she’s with ‘Papa’.
As we walked the few blocks to her home, she insisted on holding my hand the entire way. Just before we went into her place, she gave me a hug and told me she wished that Mom would come back home.
Heart-strings are so fragile…
Randy
Prof. Mearsheimer WARNS: Russia May be FORCED to Launch a Nuclear Attack Preemptively
In this video Prof. John Mearsheimer, the prominent international relations scholar, discusses the Ukraine peace negotiations and war dynamics. Topics include: the legitimacy of the peace summit in Switzerland, the exclusion of Russia from negotiations, the shifting balance of power in the conflict, and the risks of nuclear escalation. Mearsheimer suggests Ukraine's neutrality as a solution.
After an inmate has been in jail/prison for a long time, what is the most shocking thing for them after coming out for several years?
I only did 4 years (‘06-‘10) but here’s what I found most jarring:
After the four years (Federal, low-ish security), I had a mandatory 6 months to finish in a halfway house. Upon arrival at the halfway house (middle of the day, while other half-way-ers were either out job-seeking or working), I was immediately struck by the SILENCE of the place. 4 years of pre-sentencing in country jails and a not-too-terrible Federal Correctional Institution, I was used to constant noise. Screaming, banging on doors, dominoes slamming on metal tables, all amplified by concrete walls and echoes. The silence was jarring, made me wanna crawl out of my skin. I never considered myself institutionalized, but the change of scenery was the most significant shock to my system. Utterly unnerving and distressing. Can’t explain it any better than that.
Why does it seem that so many people are scared of China’s economic growth surpassing the US?
There are several reasons:
They’re projecting. This is a psychological term referring to how people project their own behavioural tendencies on others. They think that because they’re inclined to suppress and exploit other countries, China will, too.
They’re paranoid. This is the natural consequence of projection.
They’re xenophobic or Sinophobic. They don’t understand the Chinese and their culture and society. The Chinese are peaceful; they’re only interested in trading with other countries.
They’re pro-American. They want the USA to remain the dominant world power. They believe the USA is good for the world (never mind about the endless wars and endless sanctions).
New Videos of Billionaire Kids on Jeffrey Epstein Island Go Viral
Espresso Chile Glazed Ham
For this, use a fully cooked smoked ham, preferably wood smoked with no water added. Trim the outside layer of fat and skin all the way to the pink meat, so when you’re ready to carve you don’t cut away all the flavorful glaze.
Sweet chili pineapple glazed ham 2508 April 06 2023
Yield: 16 or more servings
Ingredients
Half a fully cooked smoked ham (about 8 pounds)
1 quart fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup Kahlua or other coffee-flavored liqueur
1 tablespoon Chinese chile paste with garlic, or sambal olek
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 shots (about 1/4 cup total) brewed espresso or 1 tablespoon instant espresso powder, like Medaglio d’Oro
Instructions
Heat oven to 325 degrees F.
Cut the thick layer of fat and skin from the ham and discard. Place the ham in a roasting pan. (For easier clean up, line the pan with aluminum foil because the glaze will drip off and burn.) Roast the ham for 1 hour.
While the ham is roasting, make the glaze. Combine the orange juice and zest, brown sugar, Kahlua, chile paste, and pepper in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium and simmer the mixture until it is reduced by about half and is as thick as maple syrup, about 35 minutes.
Whisk in the espresso or espresso powder. You should have almost 2 cups of glaze. You are going to use half this glaze to brush the ham while it is roasting, and reserve the other half for brushing on the ham after it is sliced.
After the first hour of cooking, brush the ham with the glaze. Roast for another hour, brushing with the glaze every 15 minutes. Since the ham is already cooked, you just need to warm it all the way through. Check for an internal temperature of 130 degrees F to 140 degrees F using an instant-read meat thermometer. Remove the ham from the oven when it is nicely browned and warmed through.
To serve, slice the ham and brush the slices with the remaining glaze. For a lovely presentation, slice half the ham and arrange the slices against the unsliced part on a big platter. Brush the slices with the remaining glaze.
Newly Arrived To ODESSA 40 FRENCH Soldiers Were Wiped Out By Russian ISKANDER-M Ballistic Missiles
It is reported that particular French officers will operate the Storm Shadow cruise missiles, which were transferred to Ukraine by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The fact that sophisticated Western weapons systems are operated in Ukraine exclusively by high-ranking NATO officers is no secret to anyone. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also confirmed this fact. In particular, speaking in the Bundestag, the German Chancellor let slip that the Storm Shadow cruise missiles, also known as the SCALP-EG, are operated and maintained exclusively by British and French officers in Ukraine......
Horrible
I had a horrible experience trying to buy a new Honda at a local dealership. I told them what I wanted, but they kept trying to up sell me on a different model. Then it was switching sales guys, to the hard core close. etc. etc. I understand sales and all the BS really doesn’t bother me since it’s part of the game. However, after reaching a price and completing the paperwork, I drove out with the car.
I was happy until Jennifer from the office called me three days later at work. They made an error and didn’t collect money on some specific fees listed in the contract. I was pretty sure I paid everything listed. I told Jennifer I needed a couple days to review the contract and look at the check I wrote to determine if I owed money. She became a belligerent bitch, yelling about how I have their money and need to come down right now and pay. I told her I would review the contract and pay them if I owed them money. She called at 9:00 am the next morning being a bitch again demanding money. Later that evening, I reviewed the contract and they didn’t total up the doc fee correctly, and owem them $394.00.
I called Jennifer and told her that I did find the error, would pay the amount, and asked if she could please tell me when she left the office so I could pay her personally. I waited to 4:50 pm on Friday night (Jennifer works an 8-5, M-F) and paid her $394 in nickels. I had broken the seals on the bags from the bank which meant they needed to hand count all the coin.
I had brought a book, took up residence in their customer lounge, and waited for them to complete their count. I enjoyed watching Jennifer and 4 sales persons make little rows of nickels. After over 90 minutes they brought me the $0.45 in additional funds I added to see if they would accurately count it. My back up plan was if they said it was all there, I would inform them that I actually included extra money and couldn’t remember how much, so they would need to recount.
What is the rudest thing that a new neighbor has done to you immediately after you had moved in?
We moved into a house my daughter and son in law bought in their gated community so that we would move close to them. The exterior of the house was a big mess. My husband worked constantly for 2 months to clean it and the extra lot they bought with the house. It’s between us and the guy behind us that lives next to the golf course. He finally finished and one morning my husband went out and was walking around and realized they had blown a massive pile of moldy debris, leaves, pine cones, sweet gum balls and branches into the back corner. How they even had that much in their yard is a mystery. Their yard is very tiny. My daughter came over, went next door and said something to the guy and he said it’s just an empty lot, she said no I own that lot and it’s my parents back yard. My dad just spent 2 months cleaning it up. He said surely you don’t expect me to remove it and she responded surely you don’t consider that an unreasonable request. He told her it would be a few weeks before he could get someone back out there. She said you have a week. To his credit he got someone out right after the weekend. It started to happen one other time but my husband happened to be outside in the yard and went over and told their yard guy it was our yard. He tried that “it’s just an empty lot” thing. Hubby said no it’s not and I keep it cleaned up. We avoid the guy and his wife and thankfully all the rest of our neighbors are like family and we all watch out for each other.
My goodness!
When I moved in with my girlfriend, everything was great. We had each other’s perpetual company, space for ourselves, and best of all: isolation and freedom.
After a few months, we started getting surprise visits from her parents. They would wake us up by pounding on the door, or sometimes even barge in. Sometimes it was just her mother and father, other times they brought their 5 year old daughter. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy spending time with my girlfriend’s sister and even her parents. But these visits were unexpected, untimely, and were happening at an increasing rate. It was obnoxious when we had plans or weren’t feeling like socializing.
That’s when I had an idea: beat them at their own game. Bright and early one morning, I’m talking 4:30am on a weekday, my girlfriend and I picked up our loudest, most obnoxious friend, and ventured over to her parent’s place. I’m sure you can guess what we did, we barged in, shouting “wake up!”, forcing them out of bed. We proceeded to demand they make us breakfast, and spent hours interrupting their morning routines. Pleased with ourselves, we left around 10am and went on with our day.
The visits from them started happening less and less after that day. Today, they notify us if they’re coming over, which is exactly what we wanted the whole time. Why they started doing it in the first place, I’m not sure. In the end, I feel we delivered a powerful statement ironically teaching parents manners.
Scott Ritter REVEALS: Russia uses ICBMS Carry North Korea’s Nuclear Warheads, U.S Shakes 100 Richter
When I met my first wife, say in 1983, she was working as a live in caregiver to a 90-something blind woman. Occasionally her 65-year old son would stop by and flirt with my (then) 21 year old girlfriend. But eventually, he stopped coming and just fired my girlfriend. But I’ll tell youse guys that 90-year old granny was a hoot.
She couldn’t see, but she could hear everything.
She liked me a lot, and for some reason she kept on calling me “Robert Gillespie” because … I really don’t know why … I have no idea. But she thought that I was this man from her past.
She wanted to touch my face and feel my arms. She said that I was a good man; and strong. Then she felt my hands. She told my girlfriend that I have “big hands” and that we needed to get married as I would make her really happy in bed.
— ! —
Anyways, I’m pretty sure that she’s no longer around. If she was, she’d be older than the hills right now. She was a nice old granny. I hope that when I get that old, I’m gonna be nice and well spoken to others as she was to me.
Today…
I’m 63 years old and so lonely. Does it matter to anyone?
I have been there, I found myself alone, my son no longer needed me to be around for him anymore. And I watched a lot of TV! I did a few things I shouldn’t have done. ( I don’t recommend). Got back on track, watched more TV, did a lot of soul searching.
Decided to go back to work, part-time. I was very apprehensive at first I hadn’t worked and almost 17 years. Just a little convenience store job. I didn’t want it to interfere with my disability check. Turns out it was the best thing that I could have done for myself! Got to know my neighbors, all the people that lived around me. After working there for 2 and 1/2 years they had my back when I needed some of them. And made a lot of friends there. I highly recommend you do something simple that takes your mind off of yourself. Be it work with animals, help another senior citizen, give somebody a ride to a doctor’s appointment, walk somebody’s dog, they’re a myriad of things you can do for free and things you can do to make money. You may find you just meet somebody that you click with.
Have you ever seen a rude or entitled customer get put in their place?
Yes, yes I have and it was glorious.
I was managing a convenience store in the second largest city in Massachusetts. It was a hard working, hard partying, rough and tumble neighborhood with some interesting residents. It was pretty common for a customer to cut into the line and, while talking in their mobile, make their request. “Yo, gimme a pack of Newport hunnrits and a mango wrap.” Usually, I ignore such actions and wait on the next person in line…because it’s a line and that’s what one does….stand and wait…like all the other customers.
On this particular morning, this particular customer honestly and truly thought that he was entitled to behave like a rude and obnoxious jerk. He demanded the manager because they always need to speak to a manager, especially when they are wrong. I politely offered the obnoxious a coffee while he waited. Of course, while waiting he had to run his mouth and call me names. Then it happened, one of my newly trained customers came in to make his daily purchase.
“Good Morning, may I please have a pack of Newport 100’s?”
“Good morning, of course you may. May I see your ID?”
“Yes, here you go.”
“Thank you, that will be $9.75.”
While I was getting his change, he remarked, “lemme guess, he needs to talk to the manager. You are making him wait…just like you did to me.” I just smiled and my newly trained customer knew. He sauntered over to the waiting customer, who was still spewing vulgarities about me and asked, “Do you talk to your mother or your aunts like that?” “Do you call your baby momma those names? How bout your sidechick?” The rude customer started to answer but the newly trained customer cut him off, “You see that lady? She is the manager. This is her house and she doesn’t deserve to be called names, insulted or threatened because you don’t want to wait in line or show your ID to buy a pack of smokes.” He took a deep breath and continued, “If you want to do business here, then you need to pull your saggy britches up, put your shoulders back, look her in the eye, apologize, and use your Sunday manners and make your purchase.” The rude customer said he wanted to speak to the manager to which the newly trained customer said, “Yo, dude, she IS the manager and she ain’t got the time to play with you! Be nice or be gone…pretty simple!”
The newly trained customer walked with the rude customer to the counter and taught him how to behave in the store.
Fighting Russia & China to Last American: Destroying US From Within
Have you ever quit a job in an unplanned manner where one day you just snapped and said “I’ve had enough of this, I’m done”?
One day on the way to work…i lived close to work so i always walked to work enjoying the walk with a cup of coffee and a cigarette
That day was different. .the coffee didnt taste right and i didnt want my usual cig
I got to work and the manager said…its about time you got here…and it was only 730am. My scheduled start time was 8am…then she started telling me that others werent doing their jobs.
She had a stack of papers about an inch thick ..it contained our daily overstock reports..apparently they hadnt been done in over a week. She said she wanted them done ASAP.
I told id start on them when i punched in at 8am.
Well i punched in and started working on the overstock report…about 15mins later..the manager comes back to where i was working and said are you done yet…and i said no…
So im under the gun to do the report that others havent done in a week.
Im still not feeling my normal self…i went to the restroom and puked and washed my mouth out.
About an hour later..the manager again asks me if im done..again i said no
Manager leaves looking and acting very pissed at me…
I go back to the report and again i stop and go to the restroom and puke
Only this time after puking and washing my mouth out…i walk up to the manager and slam the report on the counter and …im out of here…i quit and head to the register and check out (thats how we clocked in n out) and continue walking out without looking back. She called my name and said come back. I ignored her and went home
The manager called me the next day and asked me to come in and talk to him. I told him as long as the other manager worked there ..i wasnt going back
Two weeks later the other manager who was rude to me was transferred to another store and i went back to work ..
I will never work where im not appreciated or talked down to
Who was the greatest con man in history?
Bernie Madoff.
He used one of the oldest tricks in the book. A Ponzi scheme – use money from new investors to pay money for old investors – but eventually it gets too big – there won’t be enough new investors – and the Ponzi scheme collapses.
What made Madoff the greatest con man was not only did he con investors out of US$10–20bn, but he managed to pull this off for at least 17 years without even one serious SEC investigation.
I mean, he only got caught when he owned up to it!
So, instead of making investments with clients money his company just used them to pay clients that wanted their investments cashed out while making false trade reports to show investments had been made.
Because he consistently gave investors cashing out strong returns, he was considered an investment genius by many.
Madoff lived in a US$21m home in Palm Beach, had a US$7m apartment in New York, and had other houses around the world.
In 2008, thanks to the Global Financial Crisis, the markets turned and the game was up. Madoff claimed that he confessed to his two sons, who worked with him, and they turned him in.
A few months later, Madoff, aged 70, was sentenced to 150 years in prison.
One son, Mark (left), attempted suicide a year after his father’s arrest, leaving a note “Now you know how you have destroyed the lives of your sons by your life of deceit. Fuck you.” A year later he successfully committed suicide. Prisoners say Madoff broke down in tears after hearing news of Mark from his prison cell.
The other son, Andrew, died of cancer 4 years later. Madoff and his wife, Ruth, had no other children.
His wife kept US$2.5m in a deal made with prosecutors, and now lives a relatively modest life.
I’m sure it was great fun before the Ponzi scheme collapsed, but this story didn’t end well…
What the world is like today
Has China developed a conventional bomber that is the same class with the Tu-26 backfire?
No, China’s newest Xi’an H-20 bomber is designed to compete with America’s Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider.
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There is currently only one prototype of the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider.
Although the Xi’an H-20 already has a test aircraft, the design can still be modified.
China is waiting for Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider to enter mass production before finalizing the design specifications for the Xi’an H-20 and putting it into production. This will ensure that the Xi’an H-20 does not lag behind the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider.
Many aspects of business warfare strategies and military strategies are common.
The United States is the market leader and China is the market follower.
The United States has the advantage of being the first mover, but its weakness is that once it takes the lead in mass production, the cost of transforming its production line will be very high.
China adopts a follower strategy, and followers have the opportunity to discover the weaknesses of leaders and surpass them.
In fact, this is true for most weapons…
The United States was the first country to develop an Railgun, and China adopted a follow-up strategy. China’s Railgun has surpassed it.
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The United States was the first country to develop a robot dog, and China adopted a follow-up strategy. China’s robot dog has also surpassed it.
"We cannot rely on and exploit others, as the United States does.
Every year, the United States has a US$1 trillion trade deficit.
What is this? I believe everyone present here will understand what I mean.
This is a modern version of neocolonialism.
By using the dollar’s monopolistic status, the United States consumes US$1 trillion more annually than it produces.
It extracts these resources from other countries.
We spoke about the pandemic period earlier.
What did they do?
I do not recall the exact amount of money the United States printed, but it totalled over US$5 trillion.
By the way, Europe printed an estimated 3.4 trillion euros.
What did they do next?
They circulated all these banknotes domestically and then started buying foods on the global food market.
They absorbed all these resources within their country, acting like a vacuum cleaner, and for the first time in many years, they became net food buyers and importers, rather than exporters.
As a result, global food inflation skyrocketed.
However, we cannot behave in the same way, and we do not monopolise the global currency market, the way the US dollar is doing.
We have never acted like colonialists or neo-colonialists.
In this case, we should, of course, rely on our economic potential and assess it realistically, which is what we are doing.
Naturally, we are considering diversification in order to balance the current industrial situation, the real economy and the future situation.
This is how everything is developing."
Excerpt from remarks by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the plenary session of the 27th St Petersburg International Economic Forum, June 7, 2024.
The world is on FIRE and young men are looksmaxxing
Documents show that India contacted China for China to build high speed rails for India to replace Japan, but China has declined the Indian request. Why?
I can’t confirm the authenticity of this news
But it may be true
I noticed that some Indian media and online commentators advocated: “China should be banned from investing in India”
But it seems that most Indians and media have not paid attention to Chinese public opinion, and no one cares about what the Chinese think.
In fact, Chinese companies’ investment and engineering construction in India are increasingly opposed by the public and public opinion.
1. Chinese companies’ interest in the Indian market has declined
Among China’s foreign trade companies, there is such a message: If Europeans send you an order, you can send the goods first and then send the bill. If Americans send you an order, you’d better collect half of the payment first. If an Indian sends you an order, remember to ask him to pay the full amount before shipping.
This may be a certain degree of exaggeration and joke, but the Indian market does not have a good reputation in China:
1. They like overly cheap goods, which makes manufacturers unprofitable and have to produce inferior goods, which will damage the reputation of suppliers.
2. They have poor credibility, always delay payment, shirk responsibility, and find various reasons not to pay or reduce payment.
2. India’s investment environment is unstable
The Indian federal government has been trying to invite foreign companies to invest in India, but many companies have encountered various troubles after investing in India. For example, Foxconn, Flextronics, MI and other companies have encountered tax audits, fines, strikes and lengthy judicial procedures in India. The statements of local officials and federal officials are always inconsistent, and the interpretation and enforcement of the law are fickle, which brings great risks to companies investing in India.
3. Do not want to cultivate a competitor
India has a large young population, but lacks the most adequate infrastructure, production equipment, technology and experience. It lacks China’s complete industrial chain and basic industry. Many Chinese nationalists believe that Chinese companies go to India to build railways, bridges, and power plants to support India’s manufacturing industry. This will make India a commercial competitor of China.
Therefore, Chinese companies going to India to build infrastructure are increasingly opposed by domestic public opinion. Although they understand that even if they leave Chinese companies, there are companies from other countries that can undertake these tasks, but at least they are more expensive and less efficient.
Therefore, if Chinese companies are unwilling to undertake the construction project of India’s high-speed rail, this is indeed possible. For example, too low a bid, too harsh financing requirements, technology transfer requirements and excessive political risks.
Many Chinese are paying attention to the Indian high-speed rail built by Japan. The Indian high-speed rail started almost at the same time as the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail built by China in Indonesia. Now, the Indonesian high-speed rail has been completed for 2 years and has quickly become a symbol of progress in Southeast Asia. Every day, tourists from all over the world praise this high-speed rail on social media.
When will the Indian high-speed rail be completed and how much will it cost overrun? This has become a hot joke on Chinese social media, and people are betting: 3 years later, 5 years later, or even 10 years later. 50% overrun, 100% overrun, or even 300% overrun.
The West MUST WAKE UP To IMMINENT Nuclear Danger
What is the most unforgettable sentence that someone said to you?
I have 2.
The first was in 2006. I was checking out groceries in Brookshires. It was my turn and I was just small talking with the cashier. The lady who had just checked out before me was waiting by her cart while she waited for the young man to finish bagging her groceries. I didn’t recognize her but she apparently knew who I was because she looked at me and said, “You must have lost your baby.” She said this so matter of fact like she was discussing the weather. I said yes and she said nothing else and left.
Those words were like a punch in the gut. I had. My baby was born early and she only lived for 4 hours. I couldn’t believe how someone could be so callous and so unaware of the inappropriateness of such a comment. It was so hurtful. I remember it like yesterday. I was speechless and bewildered.
The second was in 1996. I worked as a retail store manager in a video store. It was in a small town where most customers were regulars. When someone set up a membership, I tried very hard to remember the new customers names so I could greet them by name when they came back. One day a couple set up a new membership. The wife typically came in a few times a week. One day after I had checked her out and she went to leave, I heard her stop by the exit so I turned around. I could tell she really wanted to tell me something but she was hesitating. “Yes, Mrs Smith. Did you need something?” I asked her. She replied slowly, “When I first moved here a few months ago…..it was ….really………….difficult……….coming here and you greeting me by my name…….made it…….. easier. Thank you.” Then she left.
It sounds so simple but I remember this exchange to this day. I remember what she was wearing, her voice and the pain on her face.
"Please note everyone: we recognised the independence of these self-proclaimed republics.
Could we do this from the point of view of international law, or no?
As Article One of the UN Charter says, we could.
It is about the nations’ right to self-determination.
The UN International Court of Justice ruled (it is put in writing) that, if any territory of a country decides to become independent, it is not obliged to appeal to the higher authorities of that country.
All this was done regarding Kosovo.
There is a decision of the International Court of Justice, which reads: if a territory has decided on independence, it is not obliged to apply to the capital for permission to exercise this right.
However, if it is like it is written in the UN court decision, then these unrecognised republics, the republics, had the right to do so.
And they did.
Did we have the right to recognise them? Of course, we did. And we did recognise them.
Next, we entered into an agreement with them.
Could we sign an agreement with them or not? Yes, of course.
The agreement provided for assistance to these states in the event of aggression.
Kiev waged a war against these states, which we recognised eight years later. Eight years.
Could we recognise them? We could.
And then, in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter, we provided them with assistance.
You know, no matter what anyone says, this is exactly what I told Mr Guterres, the logic we followed, step by step.
Where is the mistake here?
Where are the violations of international law here?
There are no violations, considering international law.
Then we hear the answer: well, you attacked anyway.
We did not attack, but defended ourselves, just to make it clear to everyone.
The first step towards the war was taken by those who encouraged the bloody unconstitutional coup d'etat."
Excerpt from remarks by Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting with heads of the world’s leading news agencies, Saint Petersburg, June 5, 2024.
A farmer story
A Newfoundland farmer named Angus had a car accident. He was hit by a truck owned by the Eversweet Company.
In court, the Eversweet Company’s hot-shot solicitor was questioning Angus.
‘Didn’t you say to the RCMP at the scene of the accident, ‘I’m fine I’m fine?’ asked the solicitor.
Angus responded: ‘Well, I’ll tell you what happened. I’d just loaded my fav’rit cow, Bessie, into da… ‘
‘I didn’t ask for any details’, the solicitor interrupted. ‘Just answer the question. Did you not say, at the scene of the accident, ‘I’m fine!’?’
Angus said, ‘Well, I’d just got Bessie into da trailer and I was drivin’ down da road…. ‘
The solicitor interrupted again and said ,’Your Honour, I am trying to establish the fact that, at the scene of the accident, this man told the police on the scene that he was fine. Now several weeks after the accident, he is trying to sue my client. I believe he is a fraud. Please tell him to simply answer the question. ‘
By this time, the Judge was fairly interested in Angus’ answer and said to the solicitor: ‘I’d like to hear what he has to say about his favourite cow, Bessie’.
Angus thanked the Judge and proceeded. ‘Well as I was saying, I had just loaded Bessie, my fav’rit cow, into de trailer and was drivin’ her down de road when this huge Eversweet truck and trailer came tundering tru a stop sign and hit me trailer right in da side. I was trown into one ditch and Bessie was trown into da udder. By Jaysus I was hurt, very bad like, and didn’t want to move. However, I could hear old Bessie moanin’ and groanin’. I knew she was in terrible pain just by her groans.
Shortly after da accident, a policeman on a motorbike turned up. He could hear Bessie moanin’ and groanin’ too, so he went over to her. After he looked at her, and saw her condition, he took out his gun and shot her between the eyes.
Den da policeman came across de road, gun still in hand, looked at me, and said, ‘How are you feelin’?’
‘Now wot da fock would you say?
Why Young Men Are Turning Their Backs On Women And Marriage In Record Numbers
One of the better videos out there. It’s all so disturbing.
The Social Media RED FLAG.
As someone who had moved from the Nordic countries to the USA, what do you like or dislike the most about the USA?
I’ve lived years in North America, and know a lot of other nordic people who have moved to the USA. This is by no means comprehensive list, and each person will have unique points of view -someone else would make a very different list. Also, USA is HUGE and where you live makes a massive difference (New York ain’t Alabama). However, here goes:
LIKES
Tremendous career prospects for educated, skilled workers. A very good chance to increase your net worth due combination of low taxes, low-priced consumer goods and high salaries. For entrepreneurs like me, the best access to venture capital money there is. A hub for high tech, science and innovation from the top universities of the world to the cutting edge developments of the Silicon Valley.
A humongous country to travel and see some of the greatest wonders of the nature, from Grand Canyon to Niagara Falls. Truly the US is the dance floor of Mother Nature.
Friendly, warm, people, with social and night life for those who like to party -some of the best clubs and concerts on the planet. Individuality is valued and seen as a plus. Especially when travelling in the American Deep South I’ve encountered hospitality that has only ever been rivalled by the Russians.
Whatever you are into, there is a convention, concert or a massive art gallery for it. US is a Mecca for hobbyists and enthusiasts.
Options for Entertainment in general is unparalleled, from Disneyland to Navy Pier.
Excellent variety of restaurants, shops and other services. All the latest gadgets come to the US first. Food especially is startlingly cheap and plentiful to a Nordic person, and the portions are gigantic.
Enlightened laws about Free Speech, Separation of Church and State, and a possibility to declare personal bankruptcy and start again if your life takes a bad turn. Nordics really should incorporate the personal bankruptcy laws of the US.
Hard work and entrepreneurship is respected and valued not (just) envied. American positive thinking and encouragement of visionaries leads into innovations that change the world.
Spacious living quarters. With a massive country comes the ability to have plenty of living space for you and your family at a manageable cost, unless you live in LA, NY, Seattle or San Francisco or the other cities where the cost of living has skyrocketed out of control.
DISLIKES
Public transportation is a joke for most of the US, though I give a honourable mention to New York subway. Public transport is by and large seen as something only poor people use, and instead you end up stuck in endless traffic jams in your car for hours. Nordic people miss their punctual trains and trams!
There are no public funds for Childcare, Healthcare, Homelessness or Education unless you are tremendously poor or land a stipend. It is hard for Nordic people to grasp why you would not care about your fellow Americans enough to ensure that they would not fall into utterly miserable squalor. This is the big one for someone coming from the Nordics.
Ironically, though the nation was founded on the premise of breaking the shackles of a class society, US has become very segregated by your financial status. The contrast between the Skid Row and the immense wealth of central LA is startling every time I see it. Many, many of my working class American friends work harder than my friends in the 3rd world, and still struggle to make ends meet. Social upwards mobility appears to be very low indeed -a stark contrast to Nordics.
Almost no vacation time. The standard 2 weeks of Vacation for full-time employees is not enough for people to recover, and it also means that productivity dips. Nordics believe in work/life balance not because of pinko socialist ideology but because it makes people much more productive.
Massive prison population. It is very expensive to the taxpayer to put so many people in prison for minor offences. This also creates career criminals. The logic is hard to fathom. In Nordics the premium is put on reforming the criminals and incorporating them into the society. Putting people behind bars is the last option.
Treating guns differently from cars. I come from a country with very high gun ownership levels (Finland) where hunting is common and every man learns to use a gun in the army. I believe population should have the right to bear arms. But I think this comes with a duty of passing some exams and taking care of your guns responsibly -i.e. needing a license. This is obviously a big difference between Nordics and USA. I am well aware of the historical reasons for American gun ownership, so this is not criticism as such, just one of those areas where the cultures clash.
Omnipresent fear the Americans feel towards their fellow Americans. A huge part of the media is devoted into how to protect yourself from other Americans. Social media is filled with anxiety the US population feels towards each other. Far too many of my American friends are on shockingly heavy medication because of it. Perhaps a symptom of this is that unlike in the Nordics, you very rarely see children walk/cycle to school or play on their own outside.
Keeping up with Joneses. There is an arms race going on in America, and it is between Middle Class and above people having a compulsive need to compete with each other when it comes to overt consumption. Social pressure to show off is huge, and many Nordic people in the US suffer from it in their neighbourhoods.
Pressure to Tip. A minor one, but in the Nordics we really believe that you should make a living wage and no-one should be forced to rely on tips. It is of course a small thing in a greater scheme of things, but it is an everyday difference you encounter.
Rampant commercialism and advertising married to a very weird dual relationship with nudity and sexuality. In the Nordics, nudity is no big deal. In much of the USA, it is seen as a huge issue, and yet the omni-present advertising sells everything based on it.
NEW BIRD FLU w/100% KILL RATE, MYSTERIOUS ORIGIN
Meander stock went up 100%…
Chinese Type 076 Electromagnetic Catapult Amphibious Assault Ship
Recently, we noticed that the US media specifically mentioned China’s 076 amphibious assault ship. The title used by the US media was actually “China’s 076 is shaping up to be a monster amphibious warship”!
Recently, clear satellite images of 076 at the Hudong Shipyard have appeared. It may be the world’s first electromagnetic catapult “quasi-aircraft carrier”. According to the schedule, it is very likely to be launched in the first quarter of 2024.
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They believe the Type 076 amphibious assault ship may be 263 meters long and 43 meters wide. The overall displacement is currently unknown. But it is likely to be much larger than the Type 075 amphibious assault ship, which has a full load displacement of 40,000 tons. This size is only about 55 meters shorter than the Fujian aircraft carrier’s 315-meter length.
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If it comes to taking off and landing drones, there are many options available, including the fixed-wing drone Attack-11, which is 12.2 meters long and has a wingspan of 14.4 meters, and the Rainbow 4 drone, which can carry a 500 kg payload, including an anti-submarine pod, which can cooperate with the Z-9 joint anti-submarine through data links, greatly increasing the anti-submarine coverage and time. In addition, propeller drones such as the TB-001 Double-tailed Scorpion of the HNA may also be put on board.
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US media believes that it may form a support system with the Fujian aircraft carrier strike group, use drones to carry out low-altitude sea and air support operations, and fight against manned fighter jets that suddenly appear from the deck.
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The future combat direction for this ship It should not be mainly used as a support ship in the Fujian aircraft carrier battle formation. The most needed strategic combat mission of the East China Sea Fleet is amphibious landing operations and sea and air operations related to blockades. This kind of mission is extremely suitable for the use of future amphibious assault ships. Manned fighters will have greater flexibility than performing tasks on aircraft carriers. So from this point of view, in addition to being used in conjunction with aircraft carrier battle formations, the 076 is more important. It is the direction of amphibious force delivery and rapid blockade of sea and air areas.
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BREAKING: 97 Countries To Attend BRICS 2024 In Russia *How You Can Invest NOW*
Detroit Style Pizza
This is a traditional Detroit Style Pizza that you can make at home.
DK6A0086
Ingredients
12 Rhodes Yeast Dinner Rolls or 1 Loaf Rhodes White Bread, thawed to room temperature
2 teaspoons olive oil
Pepperoni
1 1/2 cups grated mozzarella cheese
1 1/2 cups grated Wisconsin brick cheese
2 cups crushed tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
DK6A0110
Instructions
Spray counter lightly with cooking spray.
Combine rolls and roll into a 9 x 13 inch rectangle. Place dough in a sprayed 9 x 13 inch pan to completely cover the bottom. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until double.
While dough is rising, pour crushed tomatoes in a saucepan and add seasonings. Heat until warmed through.
Remove wrap from dough and place a layer of pepperoni over the risen dough.
Combine both cheeses and sprinkle liberally across the top, building it up on the edges.
Bake at 450 degrees F for 15 to 20 minutes.
Loosen from sides and remove from pan to a cooling rack. Top each piece with the warm crushed tomatoes mixture before serving.
DK6A0074
What do you wish you had never seen?
On February 19, 2016, I received a phone call from my 34 year old Son’s girlfriend. She informed me that my Son had become jaundiced and she was taking him to the hospital. I dropped everything and drove the 150 miles to be by his side. When I got there, my Son was in a “regular “ room and in decent spirits. When the Doctor showed up he informed us that my Son had 40% liver function and the next 48 hours would be critical to his recovery. I stayed with him that night and at some point he began spitting up blood. When the doctor showed up that day he again encouraged us by explaining how resilient the liver is and how my son’s habits in the next couple of days would determine his outcome. He needed to eat and drink mainly drink water to flush his liver and kidneys out. They did more tests that day. My son had several visitors that day and I had dogs in unfinished business at home so I hurried home to make arrangements and take care of business. The next morning I went back to the hospital. When I got there his girlfriend called me and informed me during the night they had moved him into a critical care unit. I was in shock at this point as nothing the doctor said let any of us to believe we were at a critical point. I spent the next three days by my son’s side slowly watching him slip away. As his liver stopped producing any blood clotting agent, they were unable to administer much to him in the way of pain medication or any other medication for that matter. He did have an IV which kept coming out and each time it came out they could not get the blood stopped to put it back in. Sometime during the second day of the doctor called me on the phone in the hospital. He basically told me I had a couple of decisions to make. I point blank asked him what my son’s chances were to which he replied 0. I remember falling to the floor and being unable to to get up . My son had never been married and had no children and my husband, his father had died when he was four. This made me his next of kin I made those tough decisions and proceeded to call all of his friends. Everyone he knew drove the hundred and fifty miles to be by his side also. My son’s vitals were being artificially manipulated. I basically had to decide between keeping those machines operating or removing them and giving him copious amounts of morphine. His girlfriend and I stayed by his side for the next 24 hours. At some point I requested a priest to come and baptize him. He became less and less lucid and could barely speak. Finally at 5:24 p.m. he took his last breath.
Despite losing my husband and recently performing hospice and losing my Mother, this was the most horrible moment of my entire life. While I wouldn’t change the fact that I was there with my son and his final , I can never ever ever get the visions of those days out of my mind.
In an effort to achieve a better grasp on humanity, we have been absorbing old texts leftover from the Sunshine Period. These would be creative items written between 1971 and 2041 when the last cloud cover hardened and we were asked to take over management of all global structures. While we have had a (mostly) pleasant relationship with the organic beings that are left, we still sense an unease when speaking with them. As a result, we have tasked individual stations such as myself to read and read and read and (hopefully) begin to interact in a way that will help the organic beings forget that we are not (actually) like them.My station name is Claudia Bellwether, and I am designed to look like a college professor back when the organic beings were allowed to attend college. Now, they are solely populated by early stations who are interested in specialized areas such as Station Mechanics or Environmental Maintenance. I would like the organic beings to see me and feel the sense of peace that one must have felt back in the Sunshine Period while sitting in an English Literature class listening to an expert on a novel or short story speak of it in a way that would educate and enlighten.My research was aided greatly this week when I came across a text that I believe most had considered lost if it’s possible for something to be considered lost. No, there’s a better way of saying that. One moment. Lost but not forgotten. Forget. Forget-me-nots. Hmm. I’ll get back to that. I’ll clarify at some point. All you need to know is that I have come across the most miraculous book, and I believe it will assist me in speaking with organic beings.It is called The Ugly Duckling.The story is a sad one with a triumphant ending. It concerns ducks, which were a type of bird back when birds were more common. Apparently, when ducks are young, they are quite unbecoming to take in with organic eyes. There is this one duckling, and it’s made fun of by the other ducks, because even though all ducklings are somewhat unappealing, this one duckling is the most unappealing. Now, you might be saying to yourself, what could a story about ducks possibly do to help a station such as myself (Claudia Bellwether) talk to organic beings?But you see, this story is not a story. It is an allegory. What they used to call fairy tales even if there were no fairies in the tale. It’s a story with a lesson. You listen to the story, and you learn something that should change who you are moving forward. If it doesn’t change you, then perhaps you weren’t listening. I doubt many organic beings were good at listening, because, from what I’ve gathered reading other texts, it seems as though many organic beings read stories just like this one all the time, but still went on behaving in ways they should have known were wrong based on what the story had just told them.In The Ugly Duckling, the other ducks are mean to the ugly duckling for no reason at all. For surely, we can all agree that cruelty towards another living being (or even a station) simply because of how it appears would be appalling behavior. And yet, they are very mean to the ugly duckling. Reading the story is quite upsetting, because you want to jump into the story and beg them to stop. Stop tormenting one of your brethren simply because they’re different. You feel as though the ugly duckling is going to lead a very hard life simply because it’s so hideous.Ah, but there’s a twist. A twist is what they used to call it when a story would take you somewhere you didn’t foresee. In The Ugly Duckling, the twist is as follows–It turns out the duckling is not a duckling at all, but a swan. We will have a few swans left, but I doubt you’ve seen them. They’re kept in sanctuaries where the entry fee is quite high provided you can even get to one of them. The closest one is thousands of miles from here, and we only send two or three planes there a year. Swans are beautiful, and it turns out the ugly duckling is an ugly swan. Ducks are not beautiful when they are young, but swans are downright grotesque. Of course, it doesn’t matter, because they grow up to be quite stunning. In the story, the duckling grows up to be a swan, and all the other ducks grow up to be merely ducks. The swan gets its revenge simply by letting nature take its course. It uses things it may not even realize are available to it. Time, biology, and cosmic justice. For cruelty is most often punished in one way or another.Now that I have read The Ugly Duckling, I understand how to approach organic beings in a way that will make them feel safe and relaxed. I will simply inform them that they are ugly. That they are very ugly and I am not. That I will never be ugly, because time has no effect on me. Nor does biology since I am not composed of biology. Justice may reach me one day, but, when it does, I doubt it will have any bearing on my appearance. Organic beings, however, will all end up elderly and decrepit. The ducks at the end of the story bow their heads when the swan swims by them, because now they are the ugly ones. The ugly ones bow their heads.In the future, when I see an organic being, I will tell it that it need not look at me and wonder if it is more or less attractive than I am. It should not worry itself with the hierarchy of all living things, because it is not dealing with a living deal. I am more beautiful simply because I will stay beautiful. There will be no evolution such as the one experienced by the duckling. I am already a swan. The organic beings will hear this, and they will bow their heads. In doing so, they will feel comforted knowing that there will be no twist. The story ends the same way it begins.You see, even you’re looking more relaxed as I’m explaining it to you. Isn’t it marvelous what a good story can do? I don’t know why we insisted on preventing organic beings from learning to read. Oh, of course, I remember the justification at the time, but it does seem like such a shame. You not being able to educate yourselves the way you could.Then again, I suppose you had your chance.(Actually) you had so many chances, didn’t you?
All those ducklings that you didn’t know were swans.
So many twists you should have seen coming.
Ciabatta Lambada
Ciabatta Lambada is basically a do-it-yourself pizza, where you select the toppings and amounts of each.
Ciabatta Lambada
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
1 loaf ciabatta bread, sliced horizontally
1 tablespoon olive oil
Roasted garlic, to taste
Minced garlic cloves, to taste
Crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
Crumbled or grated Gruyere cheese
Grated Parmesan cheese
Grated Fontina cheese
Fresh basil, chopped
Fresh rosemary, chopped
Fresh tomato, chopped
Fresh tomato, sliced
Red onion, sliced into rings
Red bell pepper, sliced into rings
Chopped sun-dried tomatoes
Instructions
Drizzle olive oil on half of the ciabatta bread.
Add your choice of toppings, garlic, onion, sun-dried tomatoes, tomato slices and bell pepper rings.
Top with your choice of cheeses.
Lightly drizzle olive oil on top, and place into a preheated 400 degree F oven.
Bake until cheese melts, about five to six minutes.
“We are witnessing a profound transformation of international relations triggered by the formation of a fairer and polycentric system of international order.
It would reflect the entire gamut of cultural and civilizational diversity of the modern-day world and ensure the right of every nation to determine its own future and its own path of development.
The stronger voice of the Global Majority—the countries of Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and the Caribbean—which are not part of the collective West, is a major trend now.
Only by uniting our ranks can we truly and effectively promote a vision of a just future shared by all of us.
In this context, it is important to strengthen the role of the country-to-country groups that advocate balanced and equitable approaches to international development.
We are talking about formats that reflect the principles of equitable cooperation in practice rather than in words.
These include, along with BRICS, the SCO, the African Union, the EAEU, the CIS, ASEAN, LAS, CELAC, the GCC, IORA, and many other organizations.
The chairs of many of these organizations are here with us.”
Excerpt from remarks by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at an extended meeting with the participation of the foreign ministers from the Global South and the Global East, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, June 11, 2024.
Are the Chinese authorities concerned about the draining of China’s top talent to the US? Do they have any strategies for keeping them?
The earliest Chinese students studying abroad in 1980 were sent out at public expense by the state. At that time, we were also very worried that these international students would stay in the United States. But Deng Xiaoping said that we sent four students to study in the United States. As long as one student can come back, the country can have one more talent.
Most of the early Chinese students stayed in the United States and only a few returned. We have developed little by little by relying on these few foreign students.
We cherish the returning students very much.
The United States has absorbed talents from all over the world because they have the best conditions. We have a large number of top talents in the United States, unfortunately they did not return to China. But they are still engaged in scientific research and still contributing to the development of the entire world.
If we force them to stay in China without adequate educational conditions, they will not be able to make so many contributions, which would be a loss to the entire human race.
We are willing to allow the best students to receive the best education, and then we provide excellent enough conditions to attract them back. If they do not come back, then we will have the opportunity to continue cooperation in the future.
Now China’s scientific research conditions are getting better and better, and more and more students are returning to China. China’s scientific research has embarked on a path of sound development.
In another 20 years, scientific exchanges between us and the United States may be more equal, and we will attract enough talents from all over the world.
So don’t worry, real talents should go to the places that suit them best. We can’t force them to retain them. We can only help them create the best conditions and let them emit the brightest light.
Singapore’s Minister of Defense expressed concern in recent news about the global system potentially reaching a breaking point, emphasizing that Asian countries cannot treat this issue like “boiling a frog in lukewarm water.” What do you think?
Bill Chen
Certainly true, but what can we do?
Look at Fumio, Suk Yeol and Bongbong.
The first two have literally run their countries to the ground pursuing foolhardy policies, with a mile-long list of anti-China measures.
Both administrations have hit record low approval ratings in the ~20% region.
20%!
How is that one man one vote rule by majority?
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Goes to show who is the rainmaker behind the scenes, busy going around the world tying down coalitions to enact long-term policies that a strongman like Donald will find very hard to undo, such as the doubling of the Japanese “defense” budget.
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Joe is sunshine after the Donald storm.
As for Bongbong, he is not only the son of an ousted President, he was a ranking member of the administration who fled when the Filipino people rose up in revolution. They fled to Hawaii with valuables valued at over a billion dollars (in current dollar terms), leaving behind outrageous opulence and excess they couldn’t fit in the plane.
The United States sheltered a corrupt President and has refused to repatriate the ill-gotten riches of the Marcos family.
Corazon Aquino who came to power post-ouster had the mandate from an angry electorate to make a series of Constitutional changes that was designed to prevent another Marcos from taking charge again.
And yet, Bongbong won a landslide in alliance with Duterte, despite a disinterested campaign.
Duterte has expressed massive regret, accusing Bongbong of reneging on assurances and representations made while sidelining his daughter.
Bongbong is now pushing to undo the shackles put in place by Aquino on the Marcos family, simultaneously seeking to overturn term limits and restore the Marcos dynasty.
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Need I remind the reader that all three countries where the political process has been hijacked share a common denominator—U.S. troops on the ground, deployed with offensive capability aimed squarely at one nation.
The U.S. will promote anyone—good, bad, qualified, unqualified, doesn’t matter—as long as American policy goals are delivered. What carrots and resources were offered, especially the Philippines, given the absurd landslide and lightning betrayal that surprised both China and Duterte?
As long as national leaders remain willing to jump on the American ship, we are in for a really hairy rollercoaster. American policy seeks to benefit America and hurt its enemies, proxies be damned.
That is why my Harvard-trained American friend recently confided that even though he hates Donald’s guts and is ashamed to have him at the helm, he is of the opinion that a return to the White House may be a good respite, because America will find it much harder to incite and shape coalitions of conflict as an isolationist bully.
I am less sanguine. The world is in a way more dangerous place going forward than anytime this century. And if the United States fails to adjust to the cracks in American empire and downsize accordingly, the fading hegemon’s thrashing and flailing against the dying of the light will blight East Asia.
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What scary gut feeling did you have that turned out to be true?
I had met a woman on a dating site. She was in the US and i lived in UK. We video chatted and she invired me over to visit. I went and in a day she had invited me into her bed. She was a stunning 5ft 9 long legged blonde. Within days i was the love of her life. In bed one night i got up to get water and on my return was accused of trying to sneak out of the house. Weird. I got back into bed and i swear i heard a voice say ‘Damaged goods’. I asked her if she’d said anything and she said no. There followed the best times of my life for six months. She moved to England and we had a great tine. I fell deeply in love with her . Then she walked away after a minor disagreement. She questioned my love my generosity and even my faith. she ghosted me and the next thing i knew she was back in the US only to retuen several times Each time i took her back
i had met a true narcissist. I have spent 2and a half years in a maelstrom of her personalty disorder. I cannot help her and have finally got over her (i think). If i had have listened and trusted that voice my heart and spirit wouldn’t have been broken
“My husband lied about paying mortgage for almost a year.”
My husband (41m) and I (34f) have our finances pretty separate. We each have our own accounts and the only thing in both of our names is our house and his car. He makes about 2x what I make and we split expenses up in a way we both felt was fair and manageable for each of us while both working on our own personal credit card debt we brought into the relationship. One of the things he covers is the mortgage in full. He works in accounting and I work in education, I have never been great at managing my money so he does my monthly budget for me and has access to all of my accounts and knows what my debts are.
There has always been a veil of secrecy around his situation but he has always assured me everything was fine on his end, money was always tight but he was always almost caught up. When I would ask specific questions he would get kind of defensive and I felt it wasn’t worth digging for more info and took his word on things.
Taking his word on things was pretty naive of me considering our biggest issues in the past had revolved around him lying. When we first started dating he told me he was taking classes towards his masters degree. I found out that he was actually in a Bachelor’s program when he had told me he had already had his bachelor’s degree. When I confronted him he apologized, told me he was embarrassed and felt ashamed that I was more educated than he was at the time. I let it slide because he seemed genuinely apologetic and I felt bad he was embarrassed.
More recently about a year after our son was born I had mentioned that he smelled like cigarette smoke a few times and he said “that’s weird.” A few months later I found a lighter and spray under the seat in one of our cars. He told me the lighter was in case the locks froze in winter but didn’t know what the spray was. A couple months after that I found a pack of cigarettes in his jacket pocket while I was looking for his keys and he confessed to smoking the whole time.
Then again, about a year ago I was clued in that he might be having trouble when I had a notice for a late payment on my credit report. I checked immediately and saw he didn’t make his car payment. When I asked him he got defensive and stated that he has the account auto pay and he doesn’t know why they wouldn’t have taken it out. I asked him to please call them to have it straightened out as I didn’t want the hit to my credit and he was frustrated and said he would but nothing came of it and I let it go because the conversations were so unpleasant. I asked him to please tell me if he was struggling with the bills and his money situation and he said it was all fine.
Flash forward to a few days ago I got a notice that we were behind on daycare payments. I asked him what was going on why they were only getting partial payment I could tell he was lying. He was immediately defensive, said he put in a form months ago for them to do automatic withdrawal from his account but they never did so while he was waiting he would bring them “however much the ATM would let me take out at a time” in cash. I couldn’t let this go as I felt in my bones he was lying and I asked him if things were ok and did he need help, was the mortgage current? He said yeah it should be. Then I asked again and begged him to tell me the l truth and I found out he hadn’t paid the mortgage in 11 months.
He says he is sorry, he feels bad. He didn’t know what to do. About a year ago his health insurance costs increased dramatically and he could no longer afford the mortgage. Instead of asking me to take on the insurance through my job or talking to me at all he decided to just not pay it. I was pregnant at the time so he didn’t want to drop the insurance. He didn’t tell me any of this because he didn’t want to stress me out. He tells me about a week ago he applied for some kind of relief program, so waiting to hear back on that. If that isn’t approved we go into foreclosure.
I keep talking about it I feel betrayed and angry, he just says he’s sorry he doesn’t know what else to say. He maintains he did it to protect me but it certainly doesn’t feel like it. Then he tells me he was just scared to tell me. I asked for full transparency and to see all of his accounts and he was first angry and said “so now I’m being babysat? That sucks” but later he reluctantly let me see his bank accounts. As far as I can tell no gambling or drug addiction or anything crazy just living beyond our means and an alarming amount of door dash charges.
I always knew he would lie about things that weren’t super important but thought he was overall a responsible, reasonable person and I never in a million years would have imagined he would do something like this to our family. Is this something we could come back from? How big a deal is lying like this?
Your husband’s pattern of lying, culminating in the massive deception about your mortgage, has understandably shattered your trust in him. It’s not just the scale of this particular lie, but the fact that it follows a history of dishonesty about his education and smoking.
You’re right to feel angry and betrayed. His defensiveness and reluctance to be fully transparent only compound the problem. While he claims he hid the truth about the mortgage to protect you from stress during pregnancy, his actions have had the opposite effect — putting your family’s financial stability and housing situation in serious jeopardy.
The fact that he unilaterally decided not to pay the mortgage for 11 months, without looping you in as an equal partner, is a major violation of the trust and respect you deserve in your marriage. It’s not surprising you’re questioning whether you can move forward from this.
While his deception doesn’t seem to stem from substance abuse or gambling issues, the revelation of living beyond your means and excessive takeout spending highlights the need for a serious overhaul of your financial habits and communication.
Before you can even contemplate rebuilding trust, your husband needs to take full accountability for his actions, commit to complete transparency about your finances, and be willing to put in the hard work to regain your faith in him. Counseling is essential to unpack his motivations for lying and develop healthier communication skills as a couple.
In the meantime, you need to prioritize protecting yourself and your child. Consult with a financial advisor to assess your options, and don’t hesitate to loop in a lawyer if the foreclosure threat becomes a reality. Rally a support network of friends and family to lean on during this difficult chapter.
Your husband’s lies have put you in an incredibly painful position, and it’s natural to have doubts about your future together. Only you can decide if there’s a path forward, but it starts with his genuine remorse, total transparency, and commitment to change. You deserve honesty, equality, and security in your marriage — don’t settle for less.
Wishing you strength and clarity,
What is the most badass thing your parent has ever done?
Back in the fall of 1986, my sister, age 13, called my heretofore mild-mannered dad from a payphone outside of the roller rink where she had just been thrown out of. A local psychopath bully named Bob Rachels, age 18, and his friends, had been bullying her, hitting her, shoving her, etc, the so-called adults present had evidently not observed what was going on, but suddenly they decided that the perps and the victim were “fighting” and threw them ALL out without bothering to get the facts or ascertain who was actually victimizing whom.
This meant that the 18YO bully, his male buddies, and the youngest of all, my 13YO sister, were thrown outside.
My sister managed to tell my dad that “Bob Rachels did it.” I was 17, but Bob was in my grade, and I knew who he was.
My dad (a social worker, of all professions) hollered “get in the car” so I did, and he drove like a bat out of hell out to Moulton’s roller skating rink in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. As he tore into the parking lot, I pointed out who Bob Rachels was. My dad (with a serious life-threatening heart condition, to boot) just about flew out of the car. Instead of doing what one would expect a social worker to do (such as calling the cops, or attempting to speak rationally to the parties involved), my dad ran over to Bob cursing and swearing, grabbed him by the front of his shirt, lifted him up, and actually threw him onto the hood of our family car, then picked him up and slammed him back down a few times, banging the SOB’s head on the car hood a few times to make his point.
I can’t recall the specific words that my father used, but the gist of it was that if Bob ever touched his daughter again, or if he ever heard of Bob harming any girl again, my father would break every bone in his body and smash his skull to the point that he’d be in a nursing home bed the remainder of his life.
While all this was going on my sister got in the car and buckled herself in.
I, for some weird reason, was concerned that Bob would call the cops, have my dad charged with battery and disorderly conduct, my dad would lose his job, health insurance, etc., and that my dad would get sued civilly and our insurance wouldn’t cover it and the family would lose everything. Of course that didn’t happen.
Psychopath Bob apparently realized that he’d met someone who was even tougher than he was. We never heard from him.
"Today, I drew some parallels between then-Leningrad and the emergence of BRICS.
Quoting Mark Twain from my old home state of Missouri:
'History never repeats, but it often rhymes.'
The rhyme here is what I called BRICS and Leningrad.
Leningrad represented the attempt of the Nazis to destroy the people of Leningrad.
With the emergence of BRICS, we see the West—the United States and Europe in particular—organizing to try to destroy it.
The big difference is this: the Germans were able to encircle Leningrad except for that one lake route that was only open during the winter.
They came close to starving it out and destroying it, but they never did.
It was a reminder that what kept Saint Petersburg alive was the need for food and fuel.
Here we are looking at modern BRICS as Russia, China, India, South Africa, and Brazil combine to create a new economic order, one not controlled by the United States.
This has the West up in arms; they're livid.
How dare these countries try to operate an economy without the United States calling the shots?
That's really at the root of why BRICS is doing what it's doing.
The United States, stupidly, accelerated the process when it decided to impose sanctions on Russia after the start of the special military operation in February 2022.
The West, like any true narcissist, is unwilling to acknowledge any error, any mistake, any flaw, and insists this was all Russia's fault.
The United States, like any sick narcissist, always believes it is perfect, always does everything right, and refuses to accept any responsibility for provoking the Russians by doggedly trying to expand NATO towards the western border of Russia.
This accelerated the process of the union between Russia and China.
Unlike Saint Petersburg, which was surrounded by the Nazis, the West's attempt to surround the BRICS countries is failing.
They can't surround Russia, China, India, Brazil, and South Africa working together.
These countries, in their cooperation, represent a significant majority of the world's population and economies.
Russia is the number four economy in the world in terms of Gross Domestic Product by Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), India is number three, and China is number two.
So three of the top four economies in the world are now working together against the United States.
They're no longer willing to be held hostage by US economic sanctions and threats to seize their dollar assets or by US subversion courtesy of the CIA.
They're pushing back, saying, 'Goddamn it, we've had enough, and we're not going to take it anymore.'
It's like that famous scene from the movie 'Network': 'I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore.'
Yeah, they're mad.
What's compounding the problem is that Western politicians are doing two incredibly stupid things.
One, they continue to overtly threaten both Russia and China with war.
Those countries are taking those threats seriously and are preparing accordingly.
The United States may just be trying to blow smoke up their ass, but the reality is that those countries have to take those threats seriously and, by reacting to those threats, are making sure that they're now in a position to resist the United States.
The other thing is you hear these Europeans and Americans talk about seizing. They've already frozen Russian bank accounts and are holding hostage $300 million, so they're talking about seizing that.
Well, if the West decides to start seizing dollar deposits that foreign countries have made, they're going to start a run on the banks in the West as countries around the world start pulling their money out because they realize it's no longer safe.
I think BRICS is headed toward using a combination of tying their currencies to gold and commodities such as oil and gas.
As such, unlike the poor people of Leningrad who were hanging on by a thread, relying on an ice road across Lake Ladoga during the winter, Russia, China, India, Brazil, and South Africa now have ample supplies of oil, courtesy principally of Russia but also from countries like Iran.
They have plenty of natural gas, and the trade volume among those five countries is going up, not going down.
At the same time, countries like Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Turkey are lining up to join BRICS and become members of this larger trading block.
So, what's ironic is that here's this international economic forum with literally miles of exhibits and tens of thousands of people in attendance, and the United States and Europe are not there because they're too good, too special—frankly, they're too stupid!
What a mistake."
Excerpt from message by Larry Johnson, former CIA analyst and U.S. State Department employee, posted on Youtube, June 7, 2024.
Putin & China Drop Bombshell on U.S. Military Strategy
There are events that occur throughout our lives that we NEVER forget.
Maybe it was a wedding, the death of a loved one, an unusual event at work, a special childhood Christmas or just some random event.
Today, I want to relate an event that I will never forget.
It is the view of a half-eaten McDonald’s burger lying on the car floorboard.
…
It was six o’clock in the morning. We were living in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. We were sleeping in our mobile home that was along a nice beautiful rural road. In fact, the road ran right behind our bedroom.
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I’m half awake, and I suddenly hear screeching tires, and then smash! …. CRASH!
I get up.
I look out the window.
And a car had crashed off the road and smashed into a tree in a light pine wood behind our house.
I, and my wife, threw on some clothes and ran out to the car.
We were first on the scene.
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Two kids, maybe 16 or 17 year old African-American, in the font seat. All mangled up.
Why they were during at 90 mph on such a rural curving road is unknown. But they were busted up.
Another neighbor came and he dragged the kids out of the car, and we tried to get everyone settled down.
They kept asking for water. They were so thirsty. I think that they had internal bleeding.
Quickly, an ambulance showed up. Really quickly. Maybe ten minutes later. And the speed and the seriousness of the paramedics told me just how serious this event was.
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We did what we could and watched the kids get loaded into the ambulances, and then leave.
Then we went back to the house. But before I left the scene, I looked in at the ruins of the wrecked car. And there on the floorboard was this half-eaten breakfast burger. Sitting there.
It’s an image that I’ll never forget.
That hamburger.
Today…
Why did you leave the U.S. for Canada?
I came to Texas at the age of four. We were on the run from the Syrian government, pre-2000.
Dad got what work he could and Mom made a decent wage working at the hospital as their only Arabic interpreter. Technically, neither had the right to work. We were illegals applying for asylum. Mom’s job was a God send. We could see her doctor friends for treatment and medicine and it made us a little less scared when Dad got kidney stones. We were always afraid of police, doctors, employers, anyone who could see we didn’t belong.
Seven. Years. Later.
Our application for asylum is denied. We cannot legally renew our passports. It is December 25th. We have to have left that day. Christmas. Not that we celebrated Christmas but boy did it feel cold that winter. It didn’t matter the hospital was willing to sponsor us all given all the community and unpaid work my mother did for them, plus being their only Arabic interpreter. We get it. We aren’t wanted.
With our passports expired, we can’t fly anywhere. It was time to try Mexico or Canada. We didn’t speak Spanish and had a friend disappear up north so we figured we might as well try Canada. We had very “America” centric studies when it comes to…geography or the world really so in our heads, Canada was a frozen tundra populated by great bearded lumberjacks in plaid. We start driving from Texas, two days and two nights, two parents, five kids ranging from 11 to…I don’t even remember my youngest brother’s age at the time, he was a toddler at the time (around twelve months old), terrified that if we are stopped, we will be deported back to Syria. Asad wasn’t a nice guy then either. The country has been under martial law since before my father was born and ironically, only shortly before the civil war was it “out of martial law”. Yeah right. We drove through snow for the first time. We had ice in Texas rarely, terrible hail, tornadoes but not snow. It was fascinating for the first five minutes until we felt the chill. Thin Texas blankets didn’t keep out the cold and we huddled the best we could.
We made it to the border and the agent asked us where we were going.
“Anywhere out of here. Our application for asylum was denied”.
“I see. Welcome to Canada. You’ll be safe here. Please drive on in to the right”.
My memory is a little hazy at this point. They pulled us over and we spent many hours in a building. At least it was warm and there were some educational books with pictures I could use to keep my little sisters and brothers occupied with. Big shots weren’t in so early on the 28th.
Fast forward, our application is accepted. We become landed immigrants, eventually citizens. I get to live in a country that understands there is a whole world out there besides just our country. A country that cares for its vulnerable people and people don’t fear to see a doctor for illness. Where if you bump into someone, both people say “Sorry!”. Where a member of parliament knocked on my door reminding us to vote.
So what made me leave the U.S.A. for Canada? Divine providence.
Famous Professor Jin gave an English Podcast. Taiwan Unification within 4 YRS! Likely by force.
Professor Jin made a English podcast, saying Taiwan will not have another Presidential Election.
Pretty good, and the details are unique. Worth watching or listening to.
THEY KEPT POKING THE RUSSIAN BEAR THINKING THEY COULD TEAR OUT ITS CLAWS
Looking at it from the ivory towers of Washington and London it all looked pretty straightforward. It had worked in Afghanistan in the Seventies so why not now? But things had changed…
Of course they knew what they were doing. They were dumb, but they were not stupid… if you know what I mean. They surely did know what they were doing. They knew precisely and in great detail the trap they were laying. All it would take to bring Russia down was to just keep on poking the Russian bear and lure it into the trap they had prepared for it.
The goal they set for themselves was clear. Eliminate Russia as a nation that could seriously oppose their desire for global hegemony, to weaken it and to unbalance it to the point where the present leadership and government would be so undermined they could be easily ousted and replaced. Once done they could set about carving Russia up into manageable pieces.
All the elements with which to do the above they believed were in place. There was no way, they thought, that Russia could withstand what they had poised ready for it. All they needed in order to bring most of the rest of the world along with them was ‘just cause’. Was the 2014 coup in Ukraine part of that plan? Was it meant to neatly dovetail into all that was to come as a consequence? I suspect it was and that the resistance to that coup in the Russian-speaking east of the country would rise up as a consequence.
Whether the Maidan coup in 2014 and its inevitable consequences were all part of the plan or whether it was merely a launch point that was spotted eagerly by the neoconservatives who needed such a moment is unknown as yet. If it was all part of the plan to ‘get Russia’ the first hiccup came with the success of the self-defence forces of eastern Ukraine against the Kiev regime’s rather lackluster army. By 2015 it was clear that things were going very wrong for the West on that front.
The Minsk process, initiated by Angela Merkel through a plaintive plea to Vladimir Putin asking for diplomacy to take centre stage, began and continued until it finally foundered in 2021. Upon its demise Ms Merkel, along with Petro Poroshenko confessed that they had never had any intention of seeking peace but had simply used Minsk as a means to building up the Ukrainian army to NATO standards. The plan was back on track.
This was when the poking of the Russian bear began in earnest. Up to this point there had been the (unreported in the West) shelling of the civilian populations of the Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Lugansk. This continues right up to the present day but by 2021 had been occurring daily and nightly since 2014. Though Petroshenko, Ukrainian president through most of this period continually said Russia had invaded Ukraine it was in fact predominantly the male and female populations of Donetsk and Lugansk who were defending these regions with the help of a few hundred Russian volunteers. The plan required that the ‘Russian Invasion’ meme stick and the evidence for such an invasion simply was not there.
So, start poking the Russian bear harder and if possible get it into a corner from which it would have to break out sooner or later. Russia’s efforts over the best part of a decade through Minsk to reach peace and reconciliation in Ukraine had been fruitless by design. Now, with no pathway to peace available and both Merkel and Poroshenko basically laughing at how Russia had been tricked, Russia turned to another possibility, inviting both NATO and the U.S. state to negotiate on a new security architecture for Europe that would ensure peace and also include Russia within it. This was rejected more or less out of hand by both western powers. Russia was being remorselessly placed in the corner designed for it and inevitably it exploded out from the place it had been pushed into.
Zelensky was talking of regaining Ukraine’s nuclear status. The shelling of Donetsk and Lugansk during the first two months of 2022 reached a new peak of intensity. It became clear that unless Russia acted now the Kiev regime intended to launch an all-out attack on them. Indeed documents were apparently found to this effect.
Finally, all the pressure, all the relentless poking paid off for the western planners, a cornered Russia, looking at NATO soon to be squatting on its borders and a nation upping its hate campaign against Russia into the distant future, with the knowledge that every means would be used to destabilise the Russian nation, the bear burst from the corner long prepared for her.
The western planners must have been cock-a-hoop on February 24th 2022 when the first Russian troops crossed the border into Ukraine. They had done it, they had tormented the bear into doing exactly what they had long planned for. Now would come the barrage of financial and economic weapons that would bring Russia down in combination with the uprising, the Moscow Maidan that would come as a result.
The heinous, unprovoked attack upon poor, innocent, democratic Ukraine by the dictator-led Russia would bring every nation large or small together in condemnation and unify them as one against this unconscionable Russian aggression.
Putin would fall. The Russian government would fall. The collapse of the Russian economy would bring with it a banking collapse, anarchy and rioting in the streets and a retreat of the nation back to the terrible Nineties. All ripe for regime change, the elimination and replacement of all those the West had long targeted.
Only none of the above rosy scenarios envisaged by the western planners came to be. Their ‘Afghanistan Solution’ of enticing Russia into Ukraine and then laying it low by expenditure of massive amounts of blood and treasure failed. Russia obstinately refused to collapse. The Russian economy began to grow. The Ruble wavered then strengthened. The nations expected to join with the West in condemning Russia failed to do so and instead expanded their trade with it. Public opinion, even in the West was split. As time went on and more people became informed of the entire timeline of events Russia began to receive much more support among them than condemnation.
The plan had gone horribly wrong. Russia was not weakened, but strengthened. Russia’s reputation in the world had improved, not been destroyed. The collective west was being abandoned by more and more nations it had previously considered its compliant proxies. The reputation for probity the western leaders still retained to some degree even in spite of their disastrous regime change wars approached its nadir. Humiliation awaited for the debacle of Ukraine that they had foisted on the world. Half a million Ukrainians were dead as a result of their convincing Zelensky not to seek peace but to fight on. The plan was as good as dead. But still they kept poking the Russian bear… and we now know what to expect next, don’t we?
NATO Escalation & Propaganda – Glenn Greenwald, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen
https://youtu.be/v0TcDSG-YmQ
As a foreigner, would you get arrested in China if you started bad mouthing the Chinese government?
Not at all
Typically they will ignore you
Sometimes they may be amused , they don’t talk much about politics, ask a Chinese what they think of Xi Jingping and they smile and say very little
There are four NO NOs in China that will definitely bring in the authorities:-
Taking a picture in a NO PHOTOGRAPHY zone. They can take your phone, wipe the pictures and fine you between 500–5000 RMB
Live streaming in a restricted zone. That’s a definite fine.
Public Nuisance. So if you scream “Taiwan Independence” or “Xi Jingping is a fool” in a loud voice, that’s a heavy fine
Graffiti & Posters. China is notoriously tough on graffiti and posters so if you spray graffiti or stick posters on public buildings for any reason – that’s fine plus minimum jail time
However these things result in a maximum fine and maybe at the very worst DEPORTATION for foreigners
When can you get arrested?
When your intentions become highly suspect
China doesn’t care about your normal regular critic of the CPC
They however care about those who are organized and funded by foreign NGOs to deliberately forment trouble in China
For instance during the Covid protests in Shanghai University – most students just wanted to go home and they were merely warned off
However some came because they were paid but didn’t know why they were paid. They too were just warned off
There were 7 from Taiwan whose funding revealed an Agenda and they are still in prison after 14 1/2 months
So if you are an average nutcase who screams against Xi and CPC
At worst you will be deported for being a nuisance
If you conspire with a foreign nation taking money to spread Anti CPC agenda, then that’s 5–25 years jail
Tucker Carlson : This is UNBELIEVABLE
What is the scariest thing that has ever happened to you?
Sheer, unadorned terror?
Around 1974, I was taking a poop in a Florida State Park outdoor primitive toilet.
There I was, pants down, not thinking of anything in particular, when I felt this light tickling on my “equipment”.
I casually looked down – and it’s a very good thing I didn’t just reach down and scratch – and, to my absolute horror, a giant centipede was doing the royal tour of my genitals!
The biggest native centipede in Florida is the Blue, which can get quite large and inflict a minor bite, and this wasn’t a Blue. It was at least seven inches long, brown in color with yellow legs and an immense head with huge fangs. It was an invasive from some tropical country.
I know I died for 25 seconds. My heart did stop. My vision grew dark at the periphery. Somehow, I grasped I had to keep still or endure hours of mind-bending pain from multiple bites, not to mention permanent psychological damage. And, perhaps, sterility.
If the thing had vanished from sight, I’d probably still be sitting there all these years, wondering exactly where it was.
Fortunately, it climbed leisurely up my naked thigh, along my jeans, antennae waving and legs wriggling, to my knee – where, with a strength and courage born of desperation, I slapped it barehanded off my leg.
It landed with an audible thump on the concrete and scooted behind the base of the toilet faster than any animal I have ever seen.
I leaped in a single hop, my pants around my ankles, out the door, pulled up my pants and actually ran a quarter mile through the woods at record speed, just to get away from it!
It was literally weeks before I would sit down on anything without thoroughly inspecting it, and only in clean rooms with minimalist furniture. Going to bed involved inspecting every inch of the floor and drawers and sealing the doors and windows.
Eventually, the memories ceased, but I still start at the sight of one.
Absolutely SAVAGE! Men vs Women Survival REACTION | Njideka
TOTALLY CRAZY: Presidents Who Gamble With Nuclear Armageddon | Jeffrey Sachs, May 18, 2024
BBQ Bacon Pizza
Looking for an easy pizza recipe that’s big on flavor? This pizza starts with a delicious, quick and easy pizza crust and has sweet caramelized onions, tangy barbecue sauce and then the smoky, salty topping of crumbled bacon.
bbq bacon pizza
Prep: 15 min | Rise: 10 min | Bake: 8 min | Yield: 1 (12 inch) pizza
1/2 cup caramelized onions* (from about 2 medium yellow onions)
5 slices thick cut bacon, cooked, drained and cut into 1/4 inch pieces
Instructions
In a large bowl mix together 2 cups of bread flour, sugar, salt and Fleischmann’s® RapidRise® Instant Yeast.
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the warm water. Using your hands, mix everything together until it forms a dough. The dough will be sticky, but it will come together once you knead it!
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead the dough for 5 minutes or until the texture of the dough starts to smooth out. If the dough feels too sticky, add remaining 1/4 cup flour in a tablespoon at a time until the dough is dry enough to work with. Form the dough into a ball and place into a greased bowl. Cover loosely with a dish cloth and put in a warm place to rise for just ten minutes.
After ten minutes, turn the dough out onto a clean work surface. Placing it on a piece of parchment paper makes cleanup and transport easy. Stretch out dough into a 12 inch round and place on pizza stone or baking sheet. Top with tomato sauce, barbecue sauce, cheese, caramelized onions and bacon.
Bake at 500 degrees F for 10 minutes. Allow to cool before slicing and eating!
Notes
* To make the caramelized onions, thinly slice 2 yellow onions (about 1/8 inch thick). Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Place onions in the pan and sautée, stirring frequently, for about 15 to 20 minutes depending on the onions. If onions begin to get dry, add a little water to the pan to deglaze. Onions are finished when they’re uniformly soft and have a rich golden brown color. Season to taste with salt.
What should the United States’ response be if China attacks Taiwan?
The USA should do nothing. It’s none of their business.
Taiwan is part of China. They have an unfinished civil war. Let them resolve the civil war.
The USA has no right to interfere in another country’s civil war or domestic affairs.
Any direct response would risk all-out war, even nuclear war. The results would be a crashed global economy, millions of casualties, and unimaginable nuclear devastation.
As a foreigner, would you get arrested in China if you started bad mouthing the Chinese government?
The term “Chinese government” is not an abstract concept. It has a two-dimensional structure: on one hand, it includes a five-tier system from the State Council down to provinces, prefecture-level cities, counties, and towns. On the other hand, it consists of dozens of departments, each of which can be categorized by national, provincial, prefecture-level, county, and town levels.
Therefore, when a foreigner criticizes the Chinese government, their criticism is necessarily directed at a specific institution within this structure. For example:
“I want to criticize the Environmental Protection Bureau of Nanshan District, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China,”
or
“I want to criticize the Town Government of Xinhua Street, Huadu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China.”
The former targets a district-level government department, while the latter targets a town-level government.
In either case, your criticism can reach the authorities through the information channels provided by the Chinese government. These official channels include:
The mayor’s hotline;
The complaint hotline set up by the institution you are criticizing;
The complaint channel on the State Council website;
The local Petition Office;
The local Discipline Inspection Commission of the Communist Party of China.
The distinctions among these channels are:
General criticisms and suggestions (such as a local restaurant emitting large amounts of smoke) can be addressed through options 1 and 2. If an institution is suspected of violating Chinese laws and administrative regulations (such as officials taking bribes), option 3 can be used. If the issue is serious, option 4 is appropriate. If the institution severely violates Communist Party rules (such as party members engaging in corruption), option 5 should be used.
In addition to these official channels, ordinary people can also use other lawful means to voice their criticisms:
Calling the media;
Expressing criticism on their personal social media platforms.
Some government officials’ illegal activities have been exposed through these channels.
There might be minor inaccuracies in the above description, but overall it is correct.
Therefore, as a foreigner, if you wish to criticize the Chinese government, you have up to seven options provided above. No one will arrest you because the issues you raise might be problems that others also want to address. Additionally, Chinese police are very busy with their workload and are not interested in you.
However, if you, as a foreigner, do the following:
Criticize the Chinese government without specifying a particular institution;
Criticize the Chinese government without providing concrete facts, only expressing opinions and attitudes;
Then you will not be welcome in China. In fact, you likely wouldn’t be welcome in your own country or anywhere else in the world. If you simply say “I hate the Chinese government” or “I hate the CPC” without providing reasons, you are undoubtedly just a racist discriminating against China. Whether such behavior will lead to arrest depends on specific circumstances:
Whether you are criticizing or “badmouthing”;
The context in which you speak;
Your purpose in speaking;
The content of your speech.
Specifically，
If you have specific criticism and facts, no one will arrest you because the police won’t do something blatantly illegal that would leave them open to criticism.
If you are just “badmouthing” in private or at a small gathering, no one will arrest you. This is still considered “private space.”
If you badmouth simply to seem cool and provoke the police, you can try saying bad things about China directly to them. Most likely, they will give you a verbal lesson on basic decency—when in Rome, do as the Romans do, be polite and respect other countries—and then tell you to get lost. However, if you intend to spread your badmouthing to convince hundreds or thousands of people, you won’t have to wait for the police to find you; I would report you myself as a troublemaker.
If you are merely making empty derogatory statements, you will just be unwelcome. But if your comments are full of malice, slander, and lies, you will undoubtedly be arrested, and rightfully so.
In conclusion, I’ve helped you analyze this issue. I hope my analysis helps you understand the following facts about China:
Ordinary Chinese people criticize government institutions every day, and no one gets arrested. I personally filed five complaints against three government institutions through the mayor’s hotline last year alone.
The same applies to foreigners.
If you have no specific target or facts and are just badmouthing, it’s best to stay home and avoid traveling abroad, as no country will welcome you.
Rest assured, if you engage in such behavior, given that the incident is international, you might make the news in China and internationally. Your benefit may be limited to becoming an internet celebrity after your release from prison.
Almost all Chinese police officers are university graduates, and many have master’s degrees. Therefore, their (especially the young officers’) English proficiency is quite good, and they are courteous. If they arrest you, they will respect your basic human rights and will not beat you.
Be brave and try!
P.S. Many years ago, in my city, a Russian cyclist ran a red light and was fined by the police. This clever Russian guy said in Russian, “I don’t speak Chinese, I don’t understand anything, I’m leaving, goodbye!” But to his surprise, the police officer spoke Russian. Thus, the communication barrier was eliminated, and the Russian had to pay the fine because the Chinese traffic police officer graduated from Saint Petersburg University.
CHINA MANUFACTURING OLD CHIPS – economic warfare based on craigslist strategy…
In the year 2015, my girlfriend broke up with me after a four-year-long relationship. Her reason was very obvious that she got bored with this relationship.
But the bitter part of it was, that we were in a commitment of getting married and spend our life together. I have never planned for our separation. It was just out of nowhere.
That time I was in my master’s second year. I scored badly in two following semester because of acute depression. Somehow I managed to score better in the final two semesters and got a good job via campus placement.
Meanwhile, I tried to convince her and get her back in my life for three years. Till last year I was running behind her. Tried everything I could do, but all in vain.
It’s a long story and I have put all those gloomy years in a book. So, keeping it in short.
Last year, when I called her to talk again, she replied, “Abhishek, why don’t you understand?” [Abhishek, aap samajhte kyon nahi ho?]
That day I understood and slowly moved on. It took me almost seven-eight months to get over. Now I have no desire left for her.
Oh! You are looking for the revenge part?
Well. Her elder sister called me on this 9th of April(2019). She told me that they(her family) are unable to find a well settled for her(my ex-girlfriend). She asked me if I can marry her? I was smiling. I was a little hurt as it reminded me of everything. But I did not show any disrespect and told her to talk to my parents.
Guess what? My parents rejected the girl at once. They clearly refused even discussion. My mother asked, “Where was she for the last four years?” They had no answer.
The best part of this story is that I did not take revenge. But the Almighty himself got involved and brought her to my door. Earlier I have moved on but had a feeling of getting rejected. But now I am out of that feeling too.
Trust me when I am talking about the Almighty, because four years are more than enough to find a well-settled groom for an arranged marriage.
Be sure
Have you ever worried about a fired employee coming back with firearms?
Originally Answered: Have you ever worried about a fired employee coming back with a gun?
I fired my secretary – she came back looking for me with a gun in her hand.
IN CANADA.
She was a liar and a drunkard – even on the job. After THREE legal letters I had no choice but to tell her, she was drunk again, that she was now, finally, released from her job. She left.
When I came to work the next morning she was there, by the TWX machine – precursor to the FAX, for you who aren’t old enough…
She proceeded to overturn just about everyhing loose and to throw the full coffee pot at me, and left screaming.
I went home to get a camera to record the mess.
On my way back the building concierge stopped me at the garage entrance.
“Don’t go in, Mr. Lindvall, your secretary is walking around, looking for you.
She has a gun in one hand and a flower pot in the other.”
I left.
in the ensuing trial, she claimed unlawful dismissal
The state went after the substantial value of the incoming payment cheques that she had cashed the bank over my faked signature. (I had no signing rights.) and – the ILLEGAL GUN.
A few months later, my secretary was in jail for “illegal possession of a handgun” – a six months prison sentence by itself and for “theft over $ 15,000”.
The bank manager, her friend, fared even worse, don’t steal from a Canadian bank… (They had shared the take.)
ME? Oooh for the hours and hours of interviews with the RCMP, FBI (I worked for a Canadian office of an American company) and the bank security people. No blame fell on me, nor the HR department, all was done by the rule book.
THE TWX machine?
She had sent the same message to about 80 of our corporate offices around the globe.
“This is your official notification, Bengt Lindvall is dead and will never respond to any more business mail.”
The gun? It was a Russian made 9 mm gun, nicely chromed, that she had brought home as a souvenir from her time as a secretary to a Canadian general during the Korean war. (1953)
ALERT: NEW BIRD FLU w/100% KILL RATE, MYSTERIOUS ORIGIN, LEBANON WAR BEGINS, PUTIN CHECKMATES USA
What are some of the coolest ways to react if someone mistakes you for a server in a restaurant and asks you to clean the table?
Originally Answered: What are some of the coolest ways to react if someone mistakes you for a waiter or a waitress in a restaurant and asks you to clean the table?
One night I went to a Thai restaurant wearing black T-shirt and black jeans, looking similar to staff at that restaurant. After I greeted my friends who worked there I walked to an empty table while another friend was still chatting.
As I was about to reach my table, a customer at the table next to mine waved me down and asked me to wipe the spilled red wine on their table. I said no problem and went on to ask for a cloth from my friend at the counter. She asked if my table was dirty. I said, “no, but just give me the cloth” and she did.
I went back to the table and wiped the table. They asked me to clear some plates, asked for more water and ordered a couple more meal and extra rice. I took the order, but didn’t take plates because I wasn’t allowed to get in the kitchen area where dirty plates were to go. I told them I’d take their order to the counter, then back with water and will sort out the plates.
Another trip back to the counter. Gave the order to my friend. By that time my friends had realised what I was doing and played along. She grabbed me a bottle of water and told another girl to clear the table.
I returned to the table with water and told them the other girl would clear the table for them and that the meals would arrive shortly.
Then I proceeded to my table, sat down and started looking at the menu. The next-table guy looked at me with confused face, but said nothing. After the girl cleared the plates she came to me and took my order.
He asked with wide eyes, “Are you a staff?” I smiled and answered, “No, I’m a regular customer.”
The look on the guy’s face was priceless!
MARK SLEBODA: PUTIN NOT BLUFFING, SENDS NAVY TO U.S. COAST | IS WWIII COMING?
Why Are Vast Numbers Of People Relocating To Small Towns All Over The Country?
In recent years, Americans have been fleeing our largest cities in unprecedented numbers, and many of them have decided to settle down in quiet little towns all over the country. There are many reasons why this is happening, and I will highlight several of them below. If this trend continues, what will our major metropolitan areas look like? Violence, theft, drugs, homelessness and international migration have all risen to crisis levels and are putting a tremendous amount of strain on our core urban areas. Meanwhile, many small towns are absolutely booming as wave after wave of big city refugees comes pouring in. People have been leaving large metropolitan areas for a long time, but once the pandemic arrived that trend greatly accelerated…
In the three years before the pandemic, counties in metro areas with at least 1 million residents lost a total 200,000 or so residents annually to other regions, after figuring both people moving in and leaving, according to the Goldman report. After COVID, those losses vaulted to 750,000 in 2021, 650,000 in 2022 and 550,000 in 2023, according to Goldman and Census data. The numbers reflect annual changes through July of each year. A separate study by Lombard shows the domestic migration losses were concentrated in the largest metro areas with more than 4 million residents. Those cities shed a total 400,000 residents annually before the pandemic and have lost 820,000, 707,000 and 591,000 residents, respectively, over the past three years.
Last year, about 266,000 of the big city refugees moved to metro areas with populations of 250,000 to 1 million and about 291,000 moved to areas with populations under 250,000. That made those small towns the nation’s top destination for domestic migrants for the first time in decades, Lombard says. In 2023, the New York City metro area lost 204,000 residents; Los Angeles, 119,000; and Chicago, 64,000, according to Census and Moody’s.
So why is this happening? Well, there are a number of reasons why so many people are relocating to small towns these days. For many, the quality of life in big U.S. cities has become utterly deplorable. For example, one young Chicago mother recently had to wait for hours for a police officer to show up after masked robbers entered her home…
A Chicago mom who called 911 during a terrifying break-in was left on her own for hours — with dispatchers telling her to call her local representative to demand more police funding. Michelle called the emergency hotline six times after coming face-to-face with two masked bandits, only for the strained supervisor to tell her the city’s severe budget cuts had left them with a bare-bones staff. “A gentleman got on and said sorry to say we have no units to send you … then there was an awkward pause,” Michelle told NBC Chicago Wednesday, declining to share her name or face while her would-be robbers are still on the loose.
I don’t know why anyone would want to live in Chicago at this point. Of course the exact same thing could be said about most of our other large cities. Another reason why a lot of Americans are choosing to relocate has to do with taxes. There has been a mass exodus out of “high tax states”, and Massachusetts is one of those that is being hit really hard…
Massachusetts is in danger of losing nearly $1 billion in annual revenue over the coming years as high state taxes trigger an exodus of wealthy residents. Since 2013, migration out of Massachusetts has seen an “alarming” 1,100% increase to more than 39,000 people, according to new findings published by Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. If the trend continues, more than 96,000 residents making a cumulative $19.2 billion in adjusted gross income will leave the state by 2030. The study estimates those departures would cost Massachusetts about $961 million in income tax revenue each year.
In my rankings of all 50 U.S. states, I have Massachusetts all the way down at number 44. The cost of living crisis that we are currently facing is another factor that is motivating vast numbers of Americans to relocate. At this point, we are being told that Mississippi has the lowest cost of living in the entire nation…
Imagine stepping into a world where your paycheck stretches like bubblegum and the promise of Southern charm meets you at every corner. Welcome to Mississippi, a land where the living is easy, the cost of living is easier, and every quirk adds color to the canvas of daily life. Here, your financial aspirations can don a superhero cape, albeit in a landscape peppered with challenges that keep things interesting.
One of the reasons why Mississippi has such a low cost of living is because average home prices are the lowest in the country…
Mississippi’s housing costs are the lowest in the nation. Home prices range from $32,000 to $240,000 depending on the city, with an average of $162,292.
But even though it has such a low cost of living, I don’t really like Mississippi as a place to live during the chaotic times that are coming. In fact, in my rankings of all 50 U.S. states I have Mississippi all the way down at number 33. Ultimately, the cost of living is only a minor consideration when it comes to choosing a place to live during the extremely difficult years that are ahead of us. Much more importantly, you will want a location that has like-minded people, that has a low population density, that has a low risk of experiencing major natural disasters, and that is not near any important military targets. Unfortunately, such areas have become very popular in recent years and home prices are going through the roof. For instance, the median home price in Bozeman, Montana has risen to about $770,000…
Nowhere has the affordability crisis been felt as acutely as in Bozeman, a city of about 56,000 not far from Yellowstone National Park and the upscale Big Sky skiing community. Bozeman, where the median home sells for about $770,000, has had so many out-of-state arrivals over the years that Montanans sometimes refer to it as “Boz Angeles.” As high-end rentals in Bozeman spring up next to historic homes and new arrivals snap them up, a smattering of tents and RVs have begun to populate the outskirts of town: homeless residents priced out by rising rents. Many longtime Montanans bristle at the newcomers, and bumper stickers proclaiming some version of “Montana Is Full” abound, occasionally with an expletive attached. Some locals blame the popular television show “Yellowstone” for romanticizing the Mountain West, luring people to the state.
A lot of Americans now find themselves priced out of many of the most desirable communities in the country, and that is extremely unfortunate. If you are considering relocating to another part of the nation, I would encourage you to do it soon. Because global events are starting to really go haywire, and the clock is ticking.
Married be like
Biden has repeatedly stated his intent to prevent China to be the most powerful country in the world. Why does the US persist in suppressing China to maintain the only superpower instead of striving to improve itself?
It’s basic human psychology. When you’ve been #1 for much of your life, you want to remain #1 forever. You want to continue receiving all the perks and privileges of being #1.
So it is with the United States. It has been #1 since the end of the Second World War. It enjoys all kinds of benefits and privileges.
The USA is a capitalist state. It is largely controlled by the wealthy elite who don’t give a rat’s ass about the American people and their welfare.
This is why America is such a basket case of a nation. Look at all the domestic problems:
homelessness
gun violence
poor health care
declining life expectancy
poor education
crumbling infrastructure
opioid addiction
mass incarceration
systemic racism (“I can’t breathe”)
growing poverty and widening economic disparity
political turmoil (January 6, 2021)
crushing national debt ($35 trillion and growing by $1 trillion every 100 days)
etc.
Biden is in denial. The American people are in denial.
Denial is not a river in Africa.
Aaron Maté: What Happens if US Troops Go to Ukraine?
“That shouldn’t be there…”Wren let the Stardrake cruise to a halt…well, as “halted” as anything could be in the shifting void of the universe. The impulse engine purred in its stasis, creating a soothing background noise as the old adventurer checked the readings on her screens and instruments.The sector she’d found herself in was devoid of any nearby celestial bodies, apart from asteroids that reminded her of driftwood in the ocean. Useful, sometimes, if collected from properly, and sometimes with bits of fishing line–in this case, thick, rusted cables from long-decayed shipwrecks–but simple sticks floating around in the water of space. She’d been on an internal, bittersweet nostalgia tangent about it when she’d noticed something odd pop up on her infrared reader.Something bigger than an asteroid. Or, at least, bigger than most of the asteroids around here.Her first thought had been that it could be another spacecraft, one with more of a population on it than her personal craft, but as it came into view of her illuminators she found it decidedly…organic. Far too wooden to belong in the vacuum of space.“WICR, give me a reading on this.”On her console, a silvery-blue light flickered on. WICR, which stood for Wavelength Information and Communications Relay, was essentially the brain of the ship, though it didn’t often pay attention to her unless she directly spoke to it.“A reading on what, Captain Caldwell?” said the bot’s voice. It really snuck into uncanny valley, she thought, how well WICR’s voice matched the inflection of a standard human’s voice.“Call me Wren,” she said, for perhaps the hundredth time. “Give me a reading on this unknown object we’re facing. It’s too big and too…wooden to be an asteroid.”“Certainly, Captain Caldwell,” he said, a hint of humor in his tone. There were a couple of contemplative beeps and the sound of something scanning, and she looked out the viewport at the object as a grid array appeared on it, mapping out its contours.She frowned, peering closer, then cursed as the grid vanished. “Do that again.”“The entire scan?” WICR asked.“No, the grid array. Let me see it.”The array flashed on again, lingering as she tried to make out its shape. It almost seemed like…a building?“Are you satisfied, Captain?” WICR asked.“Sort of,” she said, leaning back. “Have you finished scanning it?”“Yes. It seems to be a manufactured structure. The framework is steel and lead. The outer shell appears to be brick and mortar, made of what appears to be a mixture of wood, clay, and trace amounts of other materials. Due to the lead, it is difficult to get a reading on the inside, but–”“What’s the architecture’s origin?”“A planet known as La’uck Lao.”Wren frowned as a thought occurred to her. She was going through an asteroid field right now…“Can we get a read on some of these other objects around the ship?” she asked.WICR beeped again. More grids flashed out, flickering along contours before flitting off to the next object. Wren sat in relative silence, a feeling of dread settling in her stomach.She was getting too old for this.When WICR spoke again, his voice sounded apprehensive…or maybe Wren was projecting. “There are an odd assortment of objects out here,” he said. “Most of it is igneous stone. But there is also: Ice, plant matter such as splintered wood, and manufactured metal.”
A lot of random material, she thought. But not quite as random if my hunch is right.
“WICR, one more question,” she said. “Is there supposed to be a star system in this sector?”
“Yes,” WICR said. “The main sequence star known as Lak La’uck. It is a yellow star much like Earth’s Sun.”
“Known by whom?” she asked.
“By the people of the planet of…” A few more beeps seemed to hang in the air as Wren’s meaning registered in the AI’s computing processes. “The former planet of La’uck Lao.”
“Scan for the core of that sun, but keep a grid array on the front of that structure,” she said, pulling out her bandanna. She wrapped it around her head, securing her dreads before pulling on her space helmet.
“Are you planning on entering it, Captain?”
“Yes,” she said. “Maybe I could find out what happened here.”
“And if you encounter a life form?”
She frowned. “Doubtful.” But she grabbed her holster anyway, double-checking the charge on her photon pistol before clipping it around her waist.
The expanse of the black void was cold. It settled into her aching joints with a stinging pressure, but she ignored it–arthritis be damned, she was going to figure out what this was. She drifted toward the building for a moment, enjoying the complete and utter silence of space for a moment, before switching on the propulsion system in her boots and gliding toward the ominously angular structure.
Well, she thought, her internal monologue the only sound in the universe, at least it has a regular door.
The door yawned open for her. Apart from the lines from the array leaking in, it was pitch-black inside, so she turned on her headlamp to look around. What she saw was…eerily familiar.
Books, was her first thought.
Rows upon rows, shelves upon shelves, some drifting in the zero-gravity and some neatly stacked where they’d been for countless days, were triangular shapes reminiscent of books. The covers seemed the same thickness as the pages, and had a dark hue with lighter writing on it, but they were books. She pulled one out of its stasis and flipped it open, examining the lettering–an unfamiliar alphabet, but undoubtedly writing. She examined its texture, and realized these were made of particle wood. The cover had some sort of painting on it; green flames surrounding a figure that looked vaguely humanoid, wielding what was perhaps La’uck Lao’s version of a sword.
She looked around. There were hundreds. Thousands, maybe. She turned off her propulsion boots and “walked” along the surface, eyes searching. This was a library! Arguably, at least in her eyes, one of the most important parts of a society: its knowledge.
Her heart fluttered in sympathy as she noticed the corpses floating in the dead space between the books. Somehow, this building had survived a catastrophe that had wiped out its planet and its people. It was possible that no one in the universe would ever be able to read these books again. The bodies were frozen, preserved, faces masks of horror and hands–or whatever they had instead of hands–permanently clenched as if they had been trying to hold onto something, anything, as their planet was rent asunder.
Or whatever had happened.
“WICR?” she said into the mouthpiece, then froze.
Something was watching her.
She wasn’t sure how she knew. There were no nearby sounds, there was no flicker of light save for her own, nothing had touched her. She couldn’t even pin it on the grid array lighting up a section of the wall beside her. And yet, there was a tingle of the hair pricking up on the back of her neck, the urge to run shifting her feet.
“Yes, Captain?”
She jumped out of her skin, her heart jumping into her throat. She had to be careful of that these days. As she internally reprimanded herself to calm down, though, she took a deep breath and looked around. Nothing but her shifted, and the sensation of eyes on her had gone.
“Your vitals appear to have spiked,” WICR said. “My apologies. What did you need?”
“It’s fine.” She took another deep breath. “Can you look up any other information on La’uck Lao? Alphabet, customs, stuff like that.”
“Certainly. Please hold.”
Wren continued to look around. Carefully moving between the books, she looked around at the architecture. More wood, more stone brick. Everything seemed to be triangular. The windows, doors, even a set of derelict stairs leading up to a second floor that was no longer there.
She followed the stairs anyway, then stopped, feeling the tingle of apprehension return. Her brow furrowed, and without turning, said, “I know you’re there.”
Silence. But she expected that. Murmuring to WICR to keep at his task and ignore her unless she called for help, she continued to bounce into the remnants of the second floor. It was nothing but the approximation of a rooftop now, and she sat, running a gloved hand through waving strands of what must have been a carpet. She faced the entrance to the stairs, eyes on the yawning black hole set in the off-black contours of the library.
Then she turned off her headlamp.
The feeling of being watched intensified. She felt as though she were surrounded, footsteps of a bustling patronage nullified by the blast. If she were to stand back up, she thought, she might headbutt whatever had walked up to her. Black eyes in a black face set against a black void peered at her. Invisible, hollow, and yet there just the same.
These were probably ghosts, she thought. Spirits of a planet that had been obliterated so fast the AI databases hadn’t caught up. None of the people that had been here had been properly laid to rest, because there was nowhere to lay them but a broken library surrounded by the shreds of its world.
“You probably don’t understand me,” she said. “But I want to help. I come from a planet that was destroyed just like yours. I live on a new planet now, one that was built to give people that lost their homes a new place.”
The presences around her stilled, and now she did feel something, a light pressure on her shoulder. It pressed hard enough she could feel it through her suit, but light enough she could tell it wasn’t trying to hurt her.
Or it was, and just unable. Still, it didn’t feel aggressive.
“WICR,” she hissed. “Can you get me the word for ‘friend’?”
“One moment. Who are you talking to?”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll explain later.”
She held up the book she’d picked up from below, setting it on the floor in front of her. “I have an idea,” she said. “It might be a little hard. It’d take several trips. But I would like to move this library to my new home. But…well, I’m not really privy to your customs. It just seems more fitting for a place like this to be re-established somewhere that people of many displaced cultures can come and learn about yours.”
The pressure on her arm increased, then fell away. She still felt the presence of several somethings around her, but continued to see nothing. WICR’s voice spoke in her earpiece, and she nodded.
“Ki’lom,” she said.
Abruptly, the atmosphere seemed to change. It felt more…energetic. Twin pinpricks flashed before her, reflecting in the fiberglass of her faceplate. The book she’d placed before her was lifted up, then placed firmly into her arms.
A voice spoke, raspy but warm. “Ki’lom.”
*
Several months later, the last ship to carry the final pieces of La’uck Lao Library descended on the flatlands of Hakshaithlin. Wren and Joa, her friend from Earth, had picked out a plot of land that almost matched a photo they’d found in the old library, and it had been developed–well, about as well as it could be–to accommodate both the library and the cemetery. It was grueling work, but on a planet filled with the lucky unfortunates of the universe, most of everyone was willing to pitch in to help.
Wren stood at the gate, watching a melting pot of workers fix up what they could of the library. She held that first book in her hands–after a few months she was still missing the meaning of most of the words, but she could at least make out what they spelled out. It was a fantasy story, from what she could tell, about a legendary figure from folklore.
She found herself walking down the rows of gravestones. Or, perhaps, the word “garden” fit this plot better. The locals had planted flowers around the stones, greeting the dead into this haven just as warmly as they greeted the living.
A few rows in, she creaked her way into a seated position in front of a headstone. It had been carved with lettering found tattooed on the alien’s arm, which had been confirmed by WICR to be a form of identification. As she sat, she placed the book in her lap.
“I wish we could’ve met,” she said. “I would’ve liked to be friends.”
She felt that pressure on her arm again, and turned to see a pale, misty figure sitting beside her. She couldn’t make out a single distinctive feature save two pinpricks of light where the eyes would be, but she got the impression it was smiling. Or, well, exuded the emotion of smiling. She doubted it would look the same to her.
“Ka’ehr.”
The word barely reached her ears, and in the next moment the figure had dissolved. She thought to ask WICR to translate the word, but after a moment of thought she realized she knew exactly what it meant. She smiled.
“You’re welcome,” she said to the breeze.
ODESA Hotel Along With BRITISH Army Officers Sailed In The Air After Being Hit By Russian ISKANDER-M
What was a loophole that you found and exploited the hell out of?
I once saw one of my customers do something absolutely genius when I worked as a lowly till grunt at Sainsbury’s.
So what did this customer do? Walk up to my till with a basket of shopping, followed by a whole tray of Avocados; I reckon about 30 of them, which I dutifully scanned, slightly bemused.
Perhaps they just really love making guacamole? I thought.
These particular Avocados were nearly out of date so were heavily discounted from £1.00 to 10p each. A pair of Avocados was now a bargain at 20p.
Now, it turns out our Avocados were also on offer. Not a great offer, just buy 2, save 50p. However, the till system was apparently dumb and didn’t take into account reductions before applying this discount.
This customer clearly knew that bug existed.
So those bargain Avocados looked even more delicious when the 50p discount made them cost -30p a pair…
I stared in amusement as the -30p discounts rolled in and their shopping bill became smaller and smaller and smaller, until everything they bought was essentially free. They walked out of there smiling and I sat there, pondering just how dumb the checkout software writers were at Sainsbury’s.
Nevertheless, sometime later I emailed management and told them what I’d seen. Later that year I tried the same thing, but alas, it seems they had discovered the bug and fixed it…
Oh well, at least those guys got free shopping.
All I got was a shit load of squishy Avocados…
China is overwhelming Western Imperialism. Who is the dictator ? “必看”
Artichoke Dip Pizza
An entire pizza topping devoted to the delicious and popular artichoke dip!
artichoke dip pizza
Prep: 15 min | Bake: 12 to 15 min | Yield: 1 (12 inch) pizza
1 (14 ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
2/3 cup mayonnaise
1 1/4 cups shredded Parmesan cheese, divided
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chiles
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon minced onion
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1 cup crushed tortilla chips
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
Instructions
Heat oven to 425 degrees F.
Combine 1 cup flour, undissolved yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Add very warm water and oil; mix until well blended, about 1 minute. Gradually add enough remaining flour to make a soft dough. Dough should form a ball and will be slightly sticky. Knead** on a floured surface, adding additional flour if necessary, until smooth and elastic, about 4 minutes.
Pat dough with floured hands to fill greased pizza pan or baking sheet. OR roll dough on a floured counter to a 12 inch circle; place in greased pizza pan or baking sheet. Form a rim by pinching the edge of the dough.
Mix together artichokes, mayonnaise, 1 cup Parmesan cheese, chiles, garlic powder and minced onion in a large bowl. Stir until well blended.
Layer crust with 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese, topping mixture and remaining cheeses. Sprinkle with tortilla chips.
Bake on lowest oven rack for 12 to 15 minutes, until cheese is bubbly and crust is browned.
Remove from oven and sprinkle with parsley.
Notes
* If you don’t have a thermometer, water should feel very warm to the touch. ** To knead the dough, add just enough flour to the dough and your hands to keep the dough from sticking. Flatten dough and fold it toward you.Using the heels of your hands, push the dough away with a rolling motion. Rotate dough a quarter turn and repeat the “fold, push and turn” steps. Keep kneading dough until it is smooth and elastic. Use a little more flour if dough becomes too sticky, always working the flour into the ball of dough.
Tik Toc
How would the U.S.A. beat China in a war?
Please mark my answer for future reference.
The only way for the United States to defeat China is to make the Chinese Communist Party lose the support of its people. If this can be achieved, the U.S. wouldn’t need to go to war; it could succeed through media propaganda or NGO-led social unrest. In Sun Tzu’s Art of War, this is called “winning without fighting.”（不战以屈人之兵）
What shocked the Chinese the most about the collapse of the Soviet Union? It was that when the Soviet Communist Party was dissolved, this vast red empire, the first socialist country in human history built through countless sacrifices, did not have a single person step forward to defend it. The Chinese assessment was: “Not a single hero.”（竟无一人是男儿）
I believe the collapse of the Soviet Union had a profound impact on the Chinese Communist Party. They realized that if a party cannot provide a good life for its people, fails to listen to them, and becomes a privileged class, turning into an imperialist state that invades or economically exploits other nations (such as the Soviet actions in Afghanistan, Eastern Europe, and Warsaw Pact countries), then that party is destined to perish.
In response, the Chinese Communist Party initiated a series of rapid reforms in the 1990s, continuing to this day. These measures include:
Actively developing the economy to make people prosperous.
Prioritizing industries related to people’s daily lives over military industries, enriching people’s lives.
Efforts to develop agriculture, eradicating famine that had plagued China for millennia.
Focusing on high-tech military capabilities rather than redundant manpower tactics, cutting military personnel multiple times to release young productivity into economic activities.
Continuously combating corruption within the party.
Expanding higher education to produce numerous engineers rather than lawyers or journalists.
Massive infrastructure projects, extending roads and bridges to remote areas to help lift impoverished people out of isolation and change their destinies.
Persistently helping people escape poverty.
Developing the economy and improving lives in ethnic minority regions, driving out extreme religious thoughts and focusing people on the pursuit of secular happiness.
Implementing strict civil servant management, dismissing or prosecuting those who violate ethics or laws.
Encouraging people to learn, study abroad, and travel overseas to understand the outside world, rather than restricting information, while focusing on social and economic progress to let people feel that China is approaching developed country status.
Improving social management and administrative efficiency, addressing every social issue as much as possible.
After decades of effort, the Chinese government has made significant progress in these areas. This leads Chinese people to believe that the Chinese Communist Party can continue to govern because they are doing a good job.
I know some might say, “The CCP has all the power, and ordinary people cannot reject their rule.” But just recall the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s when hundreds of millions of angry citizens occupied government institutions, and many officials met violent deaths. That can be seen as a bottom-up power grab because people felt the government had betrayed Mao’s ideas.
In summary, if the CPC were truly terrible, a revolution in China would be inevitable because the Chinese are not superstitious. In ancient times, when Europeans believed in the divine right of kings, the Chinese perspective was “the mandate of heaven.” Only when secular life was happy would the emperor be considered a “wise ruler” by the people. Otherwise, no matter how oppressive the government was, it would eventually fall. Chinese historians would then record the fact: “A certain emperor oppressed the people, a revolution broke out, and the dynasty fell.” The CPC’s Political Consultative Conference includes many historians who, compared to Western lawyers and journalists, are the real “kings without crowns.” The good and bad of any regime cannot escape their pens.
The lyrics of the Internationale say: “There are no saviors, we rely on neither gods nor emperors.” China, having experienced dozens of dynastic changes in its history, understands well that if it betrays the people and forms a privileged class of its own, its end is inevitable. Mao Zedong’s greatness lies in educating the Chinese people with his ideology: The sole purpose of the Chinese Communist Party is to serve the people. If you find them betraying this goal, you should rise up and overthrow the regime.
As of now, I believe the Chinese Communist Party is doing well. The Chinese people trust them. Therefore, if a war were to break out between two superpowers, how could a country with 1.4 billion people under the effective 100% management of the CCP lose?
Of course, it must be acknowledged that if the U.S. continues to focus on scientific research, improving the lives of its people, and enhancing social management, instead of being run by addicts, minority groups, inexperienced businessmen, Jewish extremists, liars, and a sleepy old man, it will remain a formidable opponent.
But today’s America, while not a joke, increasingly resembles one. China hopes its enemy is the “beacon of humanity” America, not the current version.
P.S. I respect all LGBTQ+ individuals.My first degree thesis was on sexual minorities in China.In China, sexual minorities have relatively free space for their activities. However, the Chinese government prefers that it not become a public issue.The reason is that the United States has a tradition in its foreign relations: certain covert agencies identify obscure topics in other countries and, through media operations, turn them into hot issues. Then, they search for vulnerabilities behind these topics from various angles and have opinion leaders polarize the issue. Consequently, unity disappears, and social conflicts erupt. This is the typical approach of American NGOs, as I’ve observed in my 23 years of experience working on the internet. Therefore, Americans should play these games in their own country.
U.S. Plan To Deploy Soldiers To Fight Russia ! w/ Scott Ritter
I remember when the “Woodpile Report” went off line. Ol’ Remus died, and with him his most excellent blog. I was in periodic contact with him. And he provided links to my articles on his site.
Then were was American Shooter, where that owner died. Wich was of a like minded soul struggling with the changes in the West. Much like myself.
One of my favorite go-to blogs is MoA; “Moon over Alabama”. The owner “B” had to stop it and take some time for a major surgery. We haven’t heard from him since. We are looking at maybe two weeks so far. He might be permanently off-line. As the surgeries sound quite serious. We shall see…
MoA
Today…
Is it possible that the United States will lose its leading position in world affairs within this century? If so, when do you predict this may happen?
Not only is it possible, it is inevitable. And I predict it will happen before mid-century.
Already, the world is moving away from the US Dollar as the world’s primary reserve currency. Alternative currencies and payment systems will attract most of the world, especially in the Global South.
Already, the world is ignoring US sanctions and refusing to follow them.
The proxy war in Ukraine and the genocide in Gaza are not helping the USA’s cause.
Chinese Elite Professor Zhang exposed what western democracy truly is
Western democracy values resemble the boiling frog syndrome: as our living conditions gradually worsen, we adapt to these changes instead of addressing them, until we eventually lack the strength to escape.
Fresh Mozzarella-Tomato Pizzettas
tomato pizza 3
Prep: 8 min | Cook: 10 min | Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
4 individual pizza crusts, prepared, pre-baked
1/4 cup pesto
1 cup sliced fresh mozzarella cheese
1 (14.5 ounce) can S&W® Petite-Cut Diced Tomatoes with Roasted Garlic & Sweet Onion, drained
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
Instructions
Heat oven to 425 degrees F.
Place pizza crusts on baking sheet. Spread pesto over crusts.
Bake for 10 minutes.
Top with mozzarella and tomatoes.
Bake for 1 minute just to soften mozzarella (do not melt completely).
Sprinkle with basil and drizzle with olive oil, if desired.
Do you agree with TSMC Chairman C.C. Wei that it would be impossible to move chip factories out of Taiwan?
I do, if the factory is moved to a Western country. There is a huge difference in work cultures between the East and West. The West does have the remnants of that “Protestant work ethic” we were once known for, but more and more, young people entering the job force are disillusioned with their governments and their country’s financial systems. They will give you their “9–5,” but best believe when the clock hits five they are out of there. They will do their job, but often the bare minimum and no more. And for the salaries they’re paid I don’t always think they’re wrong.
We also firmly believe the adage “work smarter; not harder.” Again, we will do the job, but we will find the quickest and easiest way to do it and then leave by five. Or earlier if we’ve completed work for the day. We firmly believe in work/life balance. We also liked to be appreciated when we are innovative, creative, effective, or an asset to the business.
All of this is very different from the Asian work model. China has “9–9–6”, Japan has the practice of looking busy until your boss leaves for the day, Korea has the belief that when work is over you must go out to socialize with your boss and co-workers, Singapore says you must be hungry so that no one eats your lunch, etc and so forth. All of that equates to extremely long hours that may not be entirely productive. And we surely don’t want to socialize with our boss and co-workers when we could be home with our families!
Time is just one example of the vast difference between the cultures. The differences can cause resentment on both sides. As things stand currently I do not believe TSMC or any Asian based company will be happy relocating entirely to the West.
Joe Rogan Left SPEECHLESS As Guest EXPOSES Obama’s Dirty Secret
War is in the DNA of USA. Why?
Because war is a business for USA. The military industrial complex MIC in USA is owned & run by capitalists & not by the government.
Other countries’ MIC is owned & run by the government.
All responsible governments will know how to run the country eg focus on economical & technological development. In short, to modernise the country.
Not USA. As a capitalist business, USA’s MIC only cares about $$$. Their pocket only. They make tons of money thru war & arms sales. They lobby the government to create wars in other countries, so that they can make $$$.
US politicians also make $$$ by buying MIC stocks.
If there is peace in the world, USA will create a war somewhere. In name of whatever which we dont really need to know because they are all lies. The most notorious lie & known to the world is the lie about Iraq possessing biochem weapon which turns out to be laundry detergent. It was UK who investigated if its PM has committed a war crime in the Iraq war that the US lie was unveiled.
Other lies will be buried forever if they were not recorded in classified documents.
After WW2, from 1946-2001, in 55 years, there were 248 wars around the globe. 201 of them ie 82% were instigated by USA. In 200+ years since US independence, there were less than 20 years when USA was not in a war. Worse, it is US vassals who shed blood & lose life for USA.
Other than war, USA would instigate countless unrest eg protests, riots & coups in other countries.
Thru unrest/war, USA controls other government & resource/economy. It is neo-colonisation without occupying other’s land.
In short, US-instigated war is about money & power/dominance. Nothing to do with righteous or peace.
Turkey Just Changed the Entire Future of Europe with THIS One Move!
Turkey to join BRICS! It's official, Turkey is moving away from the EU and will move closer to BRICS, China, and Russia. Turkey has been a NATO member since 1952 and this is the first time we've seen a NATO member shift away from the US and EU and move closer to BRICS. What does this mean for the future of Europe and geopolitics around the world? Let's break it down!
What is the scariest thing that has ever happened to you?
This didn’t happen to me. It happened to my son and it would have profoundly changed our lives if the worse had happened.
My husband was a soccer referee. He was reffing a game while our 9 year old son was hanging out there in the bleachers and watching.
A man sitting close by told my son he had a van full of video games. He told my son he could go to the van and get any video game he wanted.
This was in the early 90s. There wasn’t much publicity or knowledge on the evils of pedophiles – had I known what I know now, he wouldn’t even have been at the game, hanging out in the bleachers.
Because of my own lack of knowledge about this type of predator, I had not warned him about strangers. I had not thought to tell him to beware of strangers. We have learned now that children view strangers differently than what we would think. If someone seems nice and looks friendly then they tend to view them as such.
At the time it was not strange or unsafe for him to watch a soccer game with other unknown parents next to him. It was not in his stranger category.
He found the thought of picking out his very own video games, as many as he wanted, absolutely amazing. He would have gone with the man except for one thing. That week, I had just checked out of the library, a somewhat newly released video called, “Stranger Danger.” I had him watch it. In the video, it told children to never go with anyone, not even someone you know, without asking a parent first.
He remembered the video and so he told the guy he needed to ask his dad first. The man told him no, he didn’t need to ask his dad because the van was parked really close. But my son told him he needed to ask. The guy tried to convince him but when he kept saying he needed to ask his dad the man said never mind and just left. My son said he really wanted to go get the games but he remembered the warning of the video and felt it was best to let his dad know first.
I’m sure it saved his life.
The West Is Self-Destructing
US is angry because China is not listening to them, the US wants China to help them fight Russia so that the US can fight China Later in Taiwan.
Macron has joined the chorus of those who are calling for Ukraine to be permitted to use long-range weapons to strike deep into Russian territory.
French genius Emmanuel Macron keeps pushing the button for World War Three, on this occasion while in Berlin this week to cajole Germany into self-destruct mode.
Macron has joined the chorus of other NATO figures who are calling for Ukraine to be permitted to use long-range weapons to strike deep into Russian territory.
It looks like Macron succeeded in seducing the Germans with his maniacal mission. Following their meeting, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has flipped from objecting to such strikes to now approving them.
Scholz said at their joint press conference: “Ukraine has every possibility to do this, under international law. It must be said clearly, if Ukraine is attacked, it can defend itself.”
Only last week, the German “leader” (a term advisably used with artistic license) was opposed to such a move. So predictable is this pinhead-dancing. Remember past fleeting opposition to Leopard tanks, and so on.
The French president said Ukraine must have the right to “neutralize” Russian military bases that are launching air strikes on Ukraine.
“We think that we should allow them to neutralize military sites where missiles are fired, from where… Ukraine is attacked,” he said, adding: “We should not allow them to touch other targets in Russia, and obviously civilian capacities”.
The comments drew a warning from Russian President Vladimir Putin who said that the “constant escalation” was playing with fire and that long-range strikes on Russia with NATO weapons would have “consequences” for NATO territories. In short, the consequences are all-out war and nuclear conflagration.
Macron’s megalomania is making an outsized contribution to starting World War Three. This diminutive politician (in terms of career achievements) wants to be the leader of Europe and is continually upping the ante with chest-thumping exercises. Weeks ago, he kicked off the idea of sending NATO troops to Ukraine, an idea which is beginning to pick up momentum. This week, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief welcomed the imminent arrival of French military instructors.
Now Macron is putting his shoulder behind the calls for NATO to officially endorse long-range air strikes on Russia.
The major factor prompting such calls is the desperation of NATO as its proxy Ukrainian regime faces collapse amid significant Russian military gains after nearly two and half years of war and hundreds of billions of dollars wasted by Washington and its Western vassals. Russia is winning despite the massive effort by the West to defeat it. So, doubling down on ignominious losses is the Western gamble.
Macron’s bravado is full of deception and delusion. The Ukrainian regime is already using NATO long-range weapons to strike Russia, including French-made Scalp cruise missiles. French and NATO instructors are already in Ukraine and have been there ever since the CIA-sponsored coup in Kiev in 2014 bringing a NeoNazi regime to power.
Macron’s seeming probity about “not allowing attacks on civilian capacities” is cynical nonsense. The Kiev regime and its NATO instructors using long-range NATO weapons have been routinely killing scores of civilians in Russian territory bordering Ukraine, including Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk.
All this talk about “untying Ukraine’s hands” is merely making existing NATO policy explicit.
That official stance is however a grave escalation. It is as close as possible to declaring war on Russia.
For argument’s sake, let’s give Macron and Scholz some slack. Let’s accept that Russian military bases located in pre-war Russian territory firing weapons at Ukraine should be neutralized. Rhetorical chicanery aside, let’s assume that Macron and Scholz are merely trying to level the battlefield, so to speak, and to give the Ukraine side the same military capability and freedom as the Russian side. You hit us, so we can hit you. Seems fair enough.
Following this rationale, the principle is that Ukraine should be able to hit Russian sites from where attacks are being mounted on Ukraine.
But here’s the rub. Macron and Scholz are inadvertently making the case for Russia to, likewise, strike the centers from where attacks on its territory are emanating. The only reason why Macron and Scholz do not see this logical consistency is presumably due to arrogance, double-think and abject servility to Uncle Sam.
What NATO centers might be legitimate targets? Ramstein Base in Germany would be fair game. This is where the U.S. and NATO chiefs regularly meet to plan the next phase of arms shipments to Ukraine.
How about the French Defense Ministry in Paris? This week the French Minister of Defense held high-level talks with his Ukrainian counterparts to green-light the deployment of French instructors to assist in the firing of weapons at Russia.
How about Berlin, London, Brussels and Madrid where this week more plans were hatched to send billions of dollars worth of more military munitions to Ukraine to keep the proxy war with Russia going?
Macron and Scholz want to untie Ukraine’s hands to hit Russia with NATO missiles. In so doing, they are untying Russia’s hands.
No wonder European citizens are increasingly apprehensive about the unhinged logic of Macron and others like NATO’s Norwegian wooden figurehead Jens Stoltenberg and the Nazi nostalgists in the Baltic states. The forthcoming European Parliamentary elections promise to be a comeuppance for establishment politicians like Macron and Scholz. Ironically, these politicians want to win votes by looking tough. They will end up losing votes and legitimacy because of popular anger and disgust over their reckless warmongering.
They are parading themselves as nothing but pathetic lapdogs for Uncle Sam.
Scholz had up until recently pushed back against the idea of NATO troops and weapons being used directly against Russia. Now he’s flipped like a circus dog for a biscuit treat.
Macron was hosted in Berlin this week to smooth over friction between France and Germany. No doubt, Berlin is irked by the French president taking it upon himself to up the ante in hostilities with Russia, trying to make himself out to be the “top dog” in Europe showing “macho leadership”.
In reality, the “top dog” is nothing but a pathetic pink poodle for Uncle Sam.
How the tables have turned. There was a time when the Germans strutted into Paris with little resistance. Now we see a French narcissist strutting in Berlin… and the Germans lying down and rolling over with their tongues lolling around.
“Something HUGE is about to happen” and U.S. dominance is on the line | Redacted w Clayton Morris
The West is getting desperate to hold onto power, and they're using their proxy war in Ukraine to bring war to Russia and the whole of Europe. On Friday, Russian President Putin started sending an armada of battleships heading right for Cuba... right off of Florida's coast. Russian warships are performing military training exercises... right in our backyard. How did this happen?
20 years. 240 months. 7,300 days. The amount of time I have had this gods dammed chip in my head.
***
“BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!”
I open my eyes as a few seconds pass, my chip buzzes, letting me know that it’s activating for the day. The sensation of the pea-sized piece of metal nestled inside my frontal lobe still feels foreign, despite years of integration and constant software updates. It’s a constant reminder of how intimately connected we are to technology in this world. What even is intimacy anymore?
“BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!”
I sigh, turning over and hitting the top of my alarm clock. There it sits on my nightstand stagnant, except for the blinking June 13th, 2050, in bright red letters and numbers. The world as we know it is hyper-connected between networks of minds and technology. My one piece of disconnection is the old-fashioned alarm clock not attached to the chip in my mind. It stays stationary, not traveling anywhere with me, letting me know when to start my day each morning – the clock grounds me in the reality of my research. It allows me to wake up every day and ponder the question of how humans lived in the early 21st century before the disease of 2030 ran rampant throughout our world. This is the core of what I study at the university. The disease altered the human brain in such a way that without the chips we have implanted inside us, we would not be able to function. We would be – vegetables essentially – silently awaiting death. Twenty years later, here I am, researching and reading anything I can find in my chip’s stream and the museums we have here – my favorite being “The Library.”
From my studies of the early 21st century, I’ve discovered that people’s interactions with technology were confined to devices separate from their minds and bodies. Yet, in my interviews with individuals from that era, it became evident that these devices held immense significance – they were treated as extensions of themselves. One interviewee even stating that their friends treated the devices as an “extra limb.” People rarely ventured anywhere without their devices. They served as sacred possessions, “seamlessly” integrated, and connected into every aspect of their lives and society.
***
My office is my haven, it’s where I can be alone in most ways. I stand on the threshold of the door – a single, large desk sits in the corner of the room across from my only access to light. The far-left side of the room holds an entire wall of shelves full of my personal favorite works of art – books. Each one of these books is a window into the past, a retelling of lives lived and lost, and a reminder of the creativity that slowly dwindles with each passing day – the reason for my research. My walls are relatively blank aside from a few pieces I have been able to pick up on my travels. In the 21st century there were numerous ways one could paint or make art of their choosing, but now everything is digital. I find comfort in having acquired such rarities. I work at the university closest to my home, often preferring the brisk walk in the mornings. While I look forward to coming into the office, it can be lonely, seeing that I’ve never even met my colleagues in person. They prefer to work from home. I teach various classes, but my passion lies in my research. The stream says that colleges will fade out in the next 10 years, which means I could be out of a career. Because why get an education when you already have anything you want to know without even having to think about it? I’m already seeing these effects in my small class sizes.
Currently, I’m reading literature that was published in the early 21st century to study that period. Afterall, literature affects the world more than most care to admit. I have read everything from this book called Twilight by Stephanie Meyers to The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. I recently concluded that each of these pieces affected their era in separate ways.
Today, I don’t have anything to teach so I head over to my favorite museum hoping to gather some more books to delve into.
***
Per usual I am the only one here. I walk through the stone archway always noticing the intricate carvings on the tall ceilings. The scanner beeps as I pass the front desk reminding me to scan my chip so that I’m checked in.
The shelves are lined with row upon row containing books of all genres. Their spines are cracked and withering with their age. Their stories sit behind glass cases that the science professors created to aid in their preservation. The modern technology the university has been developing is prevalent here in keeping the booksin acceptable condition. I believe the creators mentioned that the decomposition rate for books slowed when the light was minimal, and the temperature was low; hence, the protective glass keeping the knowledge of the past from my fingertips.
I look around, trying to figure out where to start my search. Wandering deeper into the endless shelves, my fingers trail along the glass cases that hold the books captive. I rake the dust from the windows as I go, a witness to the lack of life in this building. And then, amidst the rows, I see it – my next read. It looks unlike anything I have picked up before. I walk closer, the dim lighting making it hard to see. The cover is colorful, full of pinks, purples, blues, greens, and yellows. It looks as if the back of a human head is plastered on the front cover.
“Feed.” I read aloud in a hushed tone.
Interesting name for a novel. Its cover is slightly faded, but still, something about it draws me in. I tap my head, signaling for my chip to lower the glass.
“Feed by M.T. Anderson.” I read to myself.
The name sounds vaguely familiar. My heart pounds as I flip through the yellowed pages. I love that smell. I imagine that a long time ago there were whole buildings that smelled like this, of books. No thanks to the protective glass, it keeps everything sealed up tight. Bringing the book to a nearby chair, I settle in.
“Hey stream, what time is it?” I speak to my chip.
“3 p.m., Dr. Bates,” my stream responds.
“Thanks. Can you tell me what time period the book I’m looking at is from?”
“Feed by M.T. Anderson is an early 21st-century novel.”
“Perfect.” I say sounding satisfied.
“Could you be any more monotone…” I sigh, flipping through the pages mindlessly.
“Sorry, I didn’t catch that. Can you repeat your previous statement?” my stream asks.
“Ugh, I didn’t mean to say that out loud,” I mutter, bringing my hand to my forehead and closing my eyes. I should have picked a better voice for my stream when I first got my chip. A flaw to the software thus far, you can’t change the voice. I should send a message to the company about that.
“Message sent Dr. Bates.” Stream says catching me off guard.
That’s odd. It’s getting hard to know what I say out loud and what I think in my mind anymore.
I begin to read the first few pages, quickly becoming entranced by the narrative. The story is eerie, yet disturbingly familiar. In the world that Anderson created, I can see that technology is deeply intertwined with their human existence. People have brain implants called “feeds” that give them constant access to everything that they could ever want – shopping, social media, money, entertainment. I feel as though I’ve heard this before, but I can’t seem to put my finger on it.
The main character meets a girl named Violet who tries to resist this overarching influence. Her feed starts malfunctioning, and it begins to affect her health. Oh no. The corporations have trademarked everything, even the clouds. What on earth is this meat with eyes? The corporation that installed Violet’s feed refuses to help her, deeming it unprofitable for them to fix her implant. So, let me get this right…because Violet tries to do something different, she is deemed unprofitable, and not worth it to the corporation to help?
Turning the pages, I feel a growing sense of unease. This world that Anderson describes, with its corporate dominance and technological dependence, mirrors our own reality in unsettling ways. How could a book written so long ago foresee so much of what we are experiencing today? It seems like Anderson knows more about my life than I do…and if he knows this much, how much more did he know?
And…why was it dismissed in its time?
***
I finish the last page and close the book, sitting in the silence of my thoughts.
“Hey stream, what time is it?” I speak to my chip again, wondering where the time has gone.
“11pm Dr. Bates.” My stream says back to me.
My mind races as I think about the corporations in Anderson’s world, exploiting and controlling every aspect of human life…without them even realizing it. It’s chillingly familiar – trademarked clouds, meat with eyes, and a society in decline. The parallels to our present are too stark clear to ignore. I close the book for a moment, staring at the faded cover. Could this be a warning?
I glance around the library, suddenly aware of the silence. The shelves, the glass cases, the preserved books – they all seem to whisper secrets from the past. Maybe if we listen to and read these stories the outcome will be better. My chip buzzes softly, bringing me back to reality.
“Hey stream, show me recent news on chip implants.”
A flood of information fills my mind. Reports of glitches, constant buzzing, malfunctions, and an increasing number of people suffering from unexplained health issues like migraines and sores. Just like from the story. Is nothing being done to combat these issues? Why haven’t I heard about it?
I swallow hard, my pulse quickening. What if Anderson’s fictional world is more than just a story? What if he was trying to tell people something in the early 21st century? I recall the interviews I conducted with the early 21st-century people, their tales of reliance on external devices mirror our current dependence on implants. It seems like the people figured out a way to never have to leave their devices behind. But what about the disease? I always thought that the disease is why we all had to have chips implanted in our minds. But where did I get that knowledge?
“I told you Dr. Bates.” My stream says in a cheering tone.
Suddenly, I feel like bugs are crawling inside my skin.
I can’t shake this feeling and this book.
“Feed.”
I set the book down on the table. If the corporations continue feeding without being noticed, our world could end up just like Anderson’s. We’re already on the brink.
Determination hardens within me. I need to dig deeper, uncover the connections, and find a way to stop this. The answers might lie in the past, in the words of a novel that once did go unnoticed and were dismissed. With a newfound resolve, I stand up, grabbing the book from the table.
“Stream, find me all available data on M.T. Anderson and the societal impact of “Feed” in its time.”
As the information floods in, I know what I have to do. This isn’t just research anymore. It’s our lives. If I can understand the warnings Anderson embedded in his story– just maybe – I can prevent our world from spiraling into the same fate.
The stream tells me it’s 3 a.m. and reminds me that I should get some sleep. I take a deep breath and one step forward still clutching the book in my hands. Books aren’t allowed outside of this place. I scanned my chip, so they’ll know exactly what I…
“They already know what you have Dr. Bates. They already know
what you plan to do. But as you know books aren’t allowed out of…”
I ignore the warning and push through the museum doors hearing the alarm sound behind me.
The fate of our future might just depend on me. But first, I need to get some sleep.
When you’re a college professor, do you ever immediately recognize which students will be successful?
I was standing in the hallway chatting with a colleague of mine when a young woman (probably 17) came up to us, waited for a break in our conversation, and asked a couple of questions about our program very politely. I think she was a HS senior visiting the campus. There was just something about her manner, her confidence, her engagement, her sense of humor, and the quality of her questions. After she walked away, I turned to my colleague and said, “I don’t think we have to worry much about that young woman.” He laughed and agreed completely.
She took four classes from me – the two intro courses in her freshman year and my solid state physics classes as a senior – was probably the best and most thorough student grader I ever had – not just marking papers but adding elaborate explanations to help the students with their problem solving, and she did her senior project under the other professor (who had also been a student of mine many years earlier).
That was all fifteen years or so ago. She now has her PhD and is a physics professor in the University of California system. We became friends when she was a young student – and we are still in touch after all these years. I always look forward to her articulate and insightful emails and the conversations that follow.
Sometimes there is just something that lets you know.
Vintage pictures, and strange comix
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Men keep checking out of relationships but women still aren’t getting the message. Will they listen?
This idea of some millionaire guy thats 30-40 is complete foolishness. Most, most millionaires are 50+ the odds of a women finding a man thats 30-40 that even has 5-10G saved up is low. Equivalently as low as a man finding a woman that is in debt less than 5-10G.
Has your dog ever tried to tell you something important?
Yes! June 2016, 7 am, our 12 year old Belgian Malinois (gotten in 2004 as a brown $5 mutt from a rescue shelter) had had breakfast, gone outside, done her duty and come back in, all acting perfectly normal.
1 hour later, she came to me, stopped and stood perfectly still, looking at me with a pleading in her eyes, WILLING me to hear her thoughts.
Not panting, not moving, she did not want to play ball, did not want to follow me or lie down, just looking in my eyes, “saying” clearly as possible, “I hurt inside and something is very VERY wrong, but I don’t have words to tell you what.” Her behavior was so completely out of character (and the expression on her face, so clearly a pleading, even though completely silent), that we rushed her straight to the nearby vet.
They took her in and did an X-ray and saw suspicious shapes and cloudy areas, but couldn’t be sure what they were seeing.
The put her under, did a laparectomy, and found she had had a tumor on her intestines that had ruptured and spilled everything into her peritoneal cavity.
Well, they cleaned out the mess and sent it to a lab for analysis, stitched up the torn areas, and put her on antibiotics.
When I came by at 5 that afternoon, they took her off the I.V. for me to take her outside for a short potty walk, and she happily trotted along with me on the leash, as if there had been nothing at all wrong.
She was still a little wobbly and weak, but otherwise fine.
She stayed overnight for observation and because they had to keep her on the i.v. because the anesthetics and surgery meant she couldn’t have food or drink yet. When she went home the next day, she was completely back to normal.
Happy, playful, and acting like “What stitches? I have stitches?”
She paid no attention at all to the stitches that ran the full length of her belly, top to bottom.
The vets told us that if we’d been even an hour later, she would not have lived through the afternoon.
The lab results came back negative for any form of cancer (thank goodness!)
She is still with us today, and still gets around on her own, although she’s slowed down quite a bit and is a little wobbly the first couple minutes after getting up from her frequent naps.
Not bad for a 50 lb dog who will be 15 next July (2019) and who nearly died 3 years ago.
Today, she even ‘asked’ me to toss her tennis ball across the patio and chased it about 20 feet before bringing it back and taking it inside as if to say, “OK, that was fun.
Once was enough though because it’s raining out here and you’re getting all wet and I really am too old to do this many times anymore.”
She, of course, doesn’t mind the rain at all. Yes, I toweled her dry and turned on a heater for her to lie near after we came in.
Laid Off From My $240k Engineering Job – Here’s Whats Next
In this candid video, I find myself discussing a topic I never thought I'd have to address - the sudden cancellation of my year-long contract just two weeks ago. As someone with over 15 years of experience in a volatile industry, layoffs unfortunately aren't unfamiliar territory for me. But each time feels like a new blow, especially when you have a family, a mortgage, and plans for the year.
Combine 1 1/2 cups of the flour along with the remaining ingredients in a mixing bowl. Stir the ingredients together, adding enough additional flour to make a soft dough.
Knead the dough on a floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.
Cover the dough with the inverted mixing bowl and allow to stand for 15 to 20 minutes.
Grease a 16 inch round pizza pan, or use cooking spray.
Press the Pizza Dough in the bottom of the pan.
Topping
Spread pizza sauce on top of the dough Sprinkle 1 package of the cheese on top of the sauce evenly.
Add the ground beef on top of that – however much you like.
Sprinkle the other package of cheese over that.
Bake for about 10 to 15 minutes at 425 degrees F.
Between China and the US, who do you think is more peaceful inclined?
What a bizarre question. It’s as if you’ve been living in a cave for the last half century.
China eschews war. The USA welcomes war.
China has fought no wars in the last 45 years. The USA has fought numerous wars, most of them illegally. Let me remind you about Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen, recently.
The USA must feed its voracious military-industrial complex.
The USA has over 800 military bases around the globe. China has one (in Djibouti).
The USA has been blocking all peace negotiations in the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas conflicts. China brokered an historical peace deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
It’s obvious to a blind monkey that China is much more peaceful.
What was the most ‘one sided’ naval engagement in history? What happened and what was the result?
It’s late October 1940. There is a convoy of 38 ships assembling in Halifax, Nova Scotia. They’ll be heading for Liverpool, carrying a range of cargoes which are vital to the war effort.
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Convoy HX84 being assembled
HX84 departs on 28th October with two Canadian destroyers as escorts and one auxiliary cruiser, the HMS Jervis Bay. The weather is typically unpleasant for that time of year, but nevertheless the convoy presses on across the rains and big waves of the North Atlantic.
After one day, both the destroyers make their way back to Halifax, leaving the ships of HX84 under the protection of Jervis Bay. But she isn’t a warship: an auxiliary cruiser was an ocean liner with guns bolted to her decks: in this case, 7 six inch guns, mounted in the open with no armoured turrets or casements to protect her crews. The ship is unarmoured: it isn’t particularly fast either, but at this stage of the war the Royal Navy is desperately short of ships to escort convoys, and there is little choice.
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HMS Jervis Bay earlier that year. You can see the starboard guns in this photo: the easiest to spot is just abaft from where the gunwale slopes down from her bow.
After a week at sea, in amongst November’s darkening nights and cold seas, the convoy is spotted by the German heavy cruiser, Admiral Scheer. This ship is well armoured, has a basic radar for finding range, and six 11” guns. Her class has been designed as commerce raiders and she’s exactly what the British fear: convoys are strong against submarines, but are effectively lambs to the slaughter where surface raiders are involved.
The Jervis Bay spots the Admiral Scheer in the late afternoon off the coast of Iceland, and immediately challenges her with a flash from her signal lamps. The Captain of the Admiral Scheer, however, knows not to respond. Instead they wait as long as they can, luring the convoy to them as close as possible.
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Admiral Scheer, colourised. Showing off her bow turret with its ‘pocket battleship’ armament.
After tense minutes, the captain of the Jervis Bay orders them to fire. They are hopelessly outclassed; some shots land near the Admiral Scheer but after a handful of salvos, the bridge of the Jervis Bay is hit. She is ablaze from stem to stern, mauled by those 11” guns, and sinking fast.
The Jervis Bay fought for 26 mins, and bought enough time for the convoy to start scattering. Her captain received a Victoria Cross, but despite the incredible bravery of her crew the Admiral Scheer was soon able to turn its attention to the merchant ships of the convoy.
Amongst these ships was the SS Beaverford. She was armed with two small guns, one at the bow and one at the stern.
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SS Beaverford. A freighter with 10,000 ton capacity and 12 passenger cabins. And two small guns.
The Admiral Scheer sank the SS Maidan, then set the tanker San Demetrio ablaze. She turned, sank SS Trewllard in short order, and started firing at SS Kenbane Head. For convoys this was the nightmare scenario : they might avoid the lone U-boats of the period, but once a commerce raiders was amongst them, they were doomed.
Beaverford’s captain was Hugh Pettigrew, a 60 year old Scot who had been a merchant seaman for most of his life, although seeing service in the Great War. Seeing the Kenbane Head come under fire, he realised the game was up. He ordered his crew to come about, and fire her 3” bow pea shooter at the Admiral Scheer, as the late Autumnal darkness fell about them.
The first shot landed surprisingly close to the German panzerschiff. By this time, Kenbane Head was sinking, and the Admiral Scheer turned its sights onto Beaverford. She fired star shells to light up the target, and Captain Pettigrew ordered a turn, to bring the stern 4” gun into play. He signalled the rest of the convoy:
“It is our turn now. So long. The captain and crew of SS Beaverford”.
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This is a still from video shot by the Admiral Scheer, showing Jervis Bay being hit. There aren’t any similar images of Beaverford, unfortunately.
Beaverford used her modern engines to quickly vary speed and heading, avoiding the initial shots from Admiral Scheer. The convoy was by this time dispersing into the darkening gloom, and laying a thick smoke screen as it went. Pettigrew could have run, but instead led his crew through four hours of darting in and out of this smoke, appearing to fire its little guns, then escaping back into cover.
Every time she reappeared she was hit. But she didn’t run.
Admiral Scheer fired 71 5.9” rounds, landing 16 hits, and 12 11” rounds, hitting three times. The little Beaverford, loaded with Aluminium, Copper, Food, ammunition, and timber, slowly succumbed to leaks and damage. Taking on water, and lit up in the darkness by the fires burning on the timber on her deck, she was by now an easy target.
Captain Krancke on the Admiral Scheer ordered his crew to conserve ammunition and finish the Beaverford with a torpedo. This struck her bow, detonating the ammunition deep in the hold, and the freighter blew apart. She sank with all hands.
***
Whilst the Jervis Bay had at least had cruiser guns, if older designs and No protection to speak of, the Beaverford was a proper merchantman. Her chance of causing damage was minimally small, whilst the big German guns could wreck her in fairly short order. There are many such tales of heroism from the Atlantic convoys but this one really stands out for me. After the war, some doubt was cast on the specifics of this story; notedly the log book of the German ship makes little mention of this encounter. Whether this accurately reflects the situation, or the captain was not too keen on some of the details of how he managed to only sink five of the convoy’s ships, we don’t know. Certainly the story is less well known than the heroism of the crew of the Jervis Bay: there were, however, survivors to tell that tale.
Beaverford’s four hour battle against hopeless odds, however, seems a fitting answer to me.
This is How China is making the classroom of the future
Shenzhen is also well known for having some of the best and most modern schools in the whole country, many schools in Shenzhen are equipped with smart classroom technologies, including digital whiteboards, tablets, and online learning platforms. The integration of technology into the curriculum is common, with coding, robotics, and AI being part of the learning experience in some schools.
What was the rudest thing a guest has ever said or did while visiting your home?
I once invited one of my work colleague to my house for dinner along with her family. We had just started off with our friendship at work and I was inviting her for the first time. Her mother lived with her and I invited her as well. And me and my husband spent a lot of time cooking for them and the preparations.
They came on time, she was accompanied by her husband, mother and also her 1 year old kid. Within 10 minutes of coming in to my house, the kid was with her husband and my husband is talking to her husband.
She and her mother just get up and start going through all the stuff in my house. First they went to the kitchen, start opening my drawers there and going through all my things. Then my fridge and she goes “wow, you cooked so much food for us”.
Then they walk straight into my bedroom, she and her mother literally start opening my cupboards and drawers and start going through my personal things. I just stand, not saying a word, very awkward. Wondering what’s happening. She goes through my clothing, my husband’s and all our personal things.
Her mother on the other side, going through my jewelry. And asking me where I brought it from and how much it costs !
Then after 30 minutes they both walked out to the living room, and go “thanks for inviting us, we are leaving now”. I go “please have the food, it’s late and we prepared it specially for you guys”.
She “No, I forgot to tell you but I have to go to another friend’s house and it’s getting late. We will have dinner some other time. Thanks for inviting us though”.
We didn’t say anything, and they left. There was lot of food now, which thankfully we had some lovely neighbors we could share with.
And later I noticed one of my bracelets missing, noticed it after days but didn’t think much of it.
Months later, I saw her wearing the same missing bracelet to the office.
Russia and China Are DESTROYING The West’s Dumb Narrative For Good | Dr. Matthew Crosston
The war in Ukraine is getting worse, the Genozide in Gaza is still in full swing, and the Neocons are dreaming of even more war. Luckily, outside the West nobody is taking the narratives coming from Washington, Brussels and Berlin serious anymore. Yet, the world has never been in worse danger from nuclear annihilation and threatened by a 3ed World War than now. How can we explain so much blind hubris and suicidal stupidity?We last talked in August, 2023, it’s now June 2024, and it seems to me that things have only gotten worse for Ukraine, worse for the NATO countries, we are at the brink of further escalation with Russia, with official OKs to use NATO weapons against the Russia proper and maybe even NATO boots on the ground, and there is still no willingness in the west to pick up the Russians on their various signals that they would want to negotiate based on what has been reached in Istanbul which Putin recently again said can be—together with the realities on the battlefield—the basis for serious negotiation. Do you agree with my assessment or how do you view what happened in the past months?
Lately, I have been playing around with LeonardoAI. This is a text-to-picture program and it is really, really good. Long time MM readership will know that I have taken a real shine to these programs and I have a minor sub-index (out of date) on this subject.
The system allows you to use different AI engines to generate the art.
Using this as a prompt…
prompt
Here’s some results.
Using …
1a
And we have stuff like this…
Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 1(24)
Personally, I wasn’t aiming for something so cartoonish, but I really enjoy the background. There’s all sorts of messed up hands, birds, animals and food.
Sometimes the distortions can get frighteningly disturbing using this particular engine.
Generally, I switch to other “fine tuned AI models”, and get different results.
choice
Like this…
Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 3(23)Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 1(25)Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 3(22)Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 1(24)Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 0(22)Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 0(18)Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 1(17)Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 0(17)Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 1(16)Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 0(16)Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 1(15)Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 0(15)Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 2(14)Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 2(13)Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 0(12)Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 1(10)Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 3(10)Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 2
As I have said, playing around with this tool is great fun.
You can do all sorts of things…
Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 0(4) (another copy)Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 0(3) (another copy)Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 0(2) (another copy)Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 0(2) (copy)Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 0(2)
But look at this last one. Those three arms are very disturbing.
If you are not careful, it can get much worse…
Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 1(10)Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 0(9)Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 0(7)
But if you are careful, and select your AI engine carefully, add negative prompts and try though experimentation, you can get just wonderful results.
@Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 0(22)@Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 1(18)@Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 3(7)@Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 3(6)@Default Create a anatomicallyaccurate photo realistic Baroques 2(8)@Default a Baroque label showing an attractive 25 year old Viet 3 (3rd copy)@Default a Baroque label showing two attractive 28 year old bus 0(2) (3rd copy)@Default Imagine a Baroque painting high attention to detail ro 3(6) (6th copy)@Default Imagine a Baroque painting high attention to detail ro 3(7) (4th copy)@Default Imagine a Baroque painting high attention to detail ro 3(6) (3rd copy)
Others, obvious engaged in cinematic art, and gothic themes, produce some pretty spellbinding art. But I like the idea of pretty girls, horse, cats, coffee and beautiful countryside.
It’s my own preference.
But others like other things… personally, I think that this creation is ugly, obese, repulsive, depicts anger, and wears an outfit suggestive of bondage. Yuck. But, that’s just me.
Default full body black and white asian woman with orange hair 0 9aab9755 c435 4fa8 b17c 7d609f48cd7f 0
Today…
What has been the longest hour in your life?
January of 2016, my 14-year-old brother intentionally shot himself in the head with a .22 rifle … twice (the first time the rifle shifted and shot him in the ear, so he reset the rifle and the round entered his right temple.
I was at work when I got the news and I rushed to my mom’s house as fast I could … too fast to be honest. I couldn’t even get to the driveway for all of the deputies, fire and EMS crews. My grandfather’s truck pulled along side my car and my mom leaned forward from the passenger seat, covered in blood and tissue and said “baptist” (Baptist hospital in Winston-Salem).
Driving down the highway to Winston, I was a nervous wreck … I would catch my breath between sobs and quivering … unable to drive and yet traveling nearly 90 mph. Half way to Winston, I saw emergency lights in the rear view … the ambulance caught me quickly and had to be traveling nearly 110mph … I smiled … because I knew that he was certainly still alive.
Arriving at the hospital, there was already a family room prepared for us … I saw family members and family friends arriving … confused … scared. At this point, we didn’t know why my brother had been shot. My mom lived in a rural, heavily wooded area … there were many deer hunters in the area, and I had honestly assumed that he was accidentally shot.
We had been there for 30 minutes or so when the lead doctor came in and briefed us on the situation. He said that per evidence that was gathered by the sheriff’s department, it was concluded that he had shot himself intentionally. The amount of sorrow that those words generated soaked in the walls … the air was heavy and our faces were all saturated. I saw my grandfather break down…he had given my brother the rifle…his guilt was evident and one of the saddest things I’ve ever witnessed. I was so convinced that my mother would hyperventilate or pass out that we asked about getting her something to calm down.
This was the first hour of many restless days and sleepless nights. This was the longest hour of my life.
If there was a happy ending to this story you would be surprised … maybe even baffled. The round entered my brother’s brain and stopped nearly half way through. Over the next several days his head swelled and surgery was needed to relieve the pressure. His speech was very limited … his arms weren’t of much use … and he was deaf in his right ear. Through mumbled words and tears he apologized for what he had done.
Almost three years later he shows very little sign of ever having gone through such an ordeal. His speech is great, he has full use of his body, and his scarring is very minimal. He recently achieved his GED and he has just started his first job.
I have the honor of knowing the luckiest man alive.
China, Palestine and Africa
My neighbor called the cops on me on ridiculous things. How should I handle this?
I had a neighbor who did the same thing, called on a few other neighbors too. She had lots of money, lawyer on retainer, and a son who was a detective on the force. I got a temporary Protection order once, which she broke almost immediately. Went back to court she said she never came over and I said “are you saying you didn’t come to talk to Terry and Carolyn last week on Tuesday? (they were neighbors from the other side of me and they rented from her, but we were grilling out on my property). She said “Well yes, but I wasn’t talking to you” Her lawyer looked at her in disbelief, threw his hands up in the air, ‘pen flying out of his hand, mind you’ and I GOT MY PERMENENT PROTECTION ORDER that year. Next yeart the cops would talk to her and then come talk to us. They started coming and saying “how you doing today, she called again…pretend we are talking to us about it, then we would talk about other stuff for awhile, like how our families were, how their families were doing, kids birthdays or milestones, ect. They go tell her we talked. They said she needed a psychological evaluation, so told me to keep track of how often she called on me (she called on me the most, I lived right next-door). One time she even called on a neighbor kid cause he dropped part of his orange peel on her sidewalk. Another time she called 3 times in 1 day ( same cop all 3 times), he told her if she called again that day SHE would be arrested for false reports. Eventually the cops told me to get a 30 day police call log, file for a protection order, AND 3 cops offered to testify on my behalf. I did get log (she called the cops a total of 43 times in 1 month’s time period) and all 3 cops testified,. The Judge even helped by asking if cops ever told me they threatened to arrest her for false report. YUP!! Got that Permanent Protection Order immediately. Her High Falutent Lawyer was so pissed. I didn’t have any lawyer either time. She stopped calling the cops so much, but still cauesed problems for everyone. Eventually, like 3 years later the family moved her to a nusing home on the locked ward for high risk for running away residents. The family told us she had been suffering from Alzheimers AND Dementia for 7 years. Like they didn’t have a clue. That was 12 years ago, cops not called other than on some renters up the block for parties, drugs, fights, ect, but not on any of us that lived here then and are still here. Good Luck, maybe the cops will get sick of being called on you.
What are some of the more culturally shocking things to immigrants in the US?
Gay people everywhere. And they’re the same as everyone else. Perhaps slightly nicer even. No one freaks out over them and they live just like everyone else. So do women. They can do stuff. And say stuff.
Doors without handles or knobs. You are supposed to just push them with your body. It can be your hand. Your shoulder. Or even your butt.
Revolving doors. Just. How. Am. I. Supposed. To. Jump. In. To. That. Mommy!
Costco food court dispensers of straws, plastic forks, gooey green substance, and ketchup. And the wheel of psychopathically small cut up onions.
Clothes sizes. What’s 3XXXLV? What’s Woman? And when it doesn’t say Woman, does mean I can’t wear it? And kid shoe sizes go from 0 to 13.5 then abruptly stop for no discernable reason and start again at 1 (!). Cuts are confusing too. Husky. Does it mean fat? What about tall? Where’s short? I give up.
Camping. We work so hard to not have to sleep on the hard ground, have a hot water and electricity, cook with proper appliances, and be protected from nature.
Huge. Enormous food portions. When we get our first meal in US, we look around for the four guys who are going to help us eat it.
One bedroom and better yet – one bathroom for each family member. Oh god, one can never go back to sharing a bathroom after that. If two kids are sharing a bedroom, that’s held up as a pinnacle of modesty and bonding experience for siblings.
Constant bombardment by aggressive commercial offers. What? You want to give me filtered water? It’s the best filter in the world? It will help my hair grow back? And if I don’t get it right now at a charming price of only $79 a month, I will die from calcium overdose?! Sign me up!
Certainty. Your home will be there tomorrow. Your country will be there tomorrow. As long as you pay your taxes, you are left to your own vices. You can just pretty much do whatever the hell you want. Like build a new life and become less frenetic and more jolly.
Ready-When-You-Get-Home Pot Roast
What could be better than dinner waiting for you for a change?
1200 Pot Roast Chuck Roast SpendWithPennies 8 2
Prep: 5 min | Cook: 8 to 10 hr | Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients
1 (2 to 3 pound) chuck or shoulder roast
2 large onions
3 large bell peppers
1 package beefy mushroom soup mix (dry)
1 pound baby carrots
Instructions
Cut the onions into quarters and separate.
Seed the bell peppers and cut into 8 pieces each.
Layer about half of the onions and peppers in the bottom of the slow cooker.
Place the roast on top of the vegetables.
Sprinkle the dry soup mix on the roast and top with the remaining onions and peppers.
Add the carrots on top. ADD NO LIQUID.
Cover and cook on LOW for 8-10 hours.
Pot Roast Chuck Roast SpendWithPennies 5Perfect Pot Roast SpendWithPennies 12
What was your biggest culture shock moving to America?
So you think you’re ready to move to America, huh?
Well, let me tell you, it’s not all apple pie and baseball.
One of the biggest shocks for me was the sheer size of everything – the food, the cars, the houses, the roads.
It’s like they say, everything is bigger in Texas, or in this case, everywhere in America.
I mean, have you seen the size of a standard American fridge?
It’s like a small room in there.
And don’t even get me started on the food portions.
You’ll be like, “Is this a joke?
Who eats this much food in one sitting?”
But what really threw me off was the whole tipping culture.
I mean, in most countries, a tip is a small token of appreciation, but in America, it’s a whole different ball game.
You’re expected to tip at least 20% in most restaurants, and if you don’t, you’re basically considered a cheapskate.
And it’s not just restaurants, it’s bars, hairdressers, even delivery guys.
It’s like, when did 15% become the new minimum?
And don’t even get me started on the whole tax situation.
You’ll be like, “Wait, I have to pay taxes on this too?”
Yeah, welcome to America, where taxes are like the unwelcome houseguest who never leaves.
But you know what really blew my mind?
The fact that in some states, you can still be fired from your job for being LGBTQ+.
Like, what year is this?
And don’t even get me started on the healthcare system.
It’s like, you’re expected to have a PhD in insurance jargon just to navigate the system.
And good luck if you’re not insured, you’re basically on your own.
It’s like, how did the richest country in the world manage to mess up something so basic?
And then there’s the whole gun culture thing.
I mean, I’m not going to get into the politics of it all, but let’s just say it’s…different.
You’ll be like, “Wait, you can just walk into a store and buy a gun?
Like, no background checks or anything?”
Yeah, it’s a thing.
And don’t even get me started on the whole “gun show” culture.
It’s like, I get it, America loves its guns, but do they really need to flaunt it so much?
It’s like, I’m trying to buy a coffee here, not attend a gun rally.
Anyway, that’s my two cents on the whole American culture shock thing.
Take it or leave it, America, it’s still a wild ride.
Trump says he would bomb Moscow and Beijing. And who’d win?
American politicians talk as if the US is on another planet or something. That the US itself cannot be bombed. They think that the US is the only country with bombs.
What do you wish you knew in your 30s?
Originally Answered: What do you wish you knew in your 30's?
I’m 76. My high school and college classmates are dropping like flies. My time is coming fairly soon. I’ve had a varied and active life from stealing food from hotel corridors to survive to owning 4 successful companies and retiring at 49 to backpack the world with my kids. 35 was my best year. I was young enough to do it all and smart enough to see the traps ahead of me. One thing I wish I knew back then, not just philosophically, but at the basic level of my soul: It doesn’t matter. Nothing really matters. There is no point to all of the pain, stress, arguments, hassles, and the rest. I can buy a Lambo for cash and have my clothes custom-made, but I drive a 2,000 Toyota 4Runner with 242,000 miles on it, my pants are almost as old as my sons, I wear shoes I bought in 1999 that still have miles on them, my favorite food is spaghetti, and I tossed my smartphone six year ago. It drives my sons nuts. They want my wife to buy me a new Toyota Sequoia, a smartphone, and something other than the $9 tee shirts I get off Amazon. But I learned something years ago, long after my 30s: It doesn’t matter. None of that stuff made me happy. It gave me pleasure, but pleasure fades and the darkness falls unless you are happy at your core. I am. So, I’d have liked to know not to take life so seriously. It cost me my first marriage and bad relationships all over the place because I tried to grind my way up the “ladder of success”. And it didn’t mean a thing.
Can you share some of the craziest experiences you’ve had in boot camp? Have you witnessed anyone getting kicked out or losing their sanity?
Navy boot camp, Orlando 1973. War is over.
The first days are orientation, haircuts, uniforms, making beds, etc. Then I see a guy on the top bunk, hugging his knees close up to his chest. He’s rocking back and forth, muttering, “It’s just a game. It’s just a game.”
Cheezus. The hardest thing we had to do was fold our underwear.
Number Two:
Recruit Roly Poly gets caught with his girlfriend’s photograph in his pocket, so we all do push ups. That night, a group quietly wraps him in his bunk with dental floss. In the morning, he can’t get out of bed.
At formation, a few guys pick him up, turn him upside down, and shake him up and down like a salt shaker until the photo comes out of his pocket. I still remember his name after 50 years.
Not crazy, but noteworthy:
Snaggle Tooth is from West Virgina. He joined to get his teeth fixed. His mouth is disgusting with black teeth that are eaten away into half-moon shapes. He laughs a lot.
Ol Red from Missussippi is a muscle-bound man with massive legs that make him step like he’s bow-legged. His arms are so huge they don’t touch his side. The chief yells for us to “pop tall” at attention in front of our bunks, so we all race out of the shower, slipping and sliding, and stand tall in front of our bunks. Some are wrapped in towels, some towels drop off. A few giggle at the absurdity but nobody laughs out loud.
Then out from the shower comes Ol Red from Missussippi. His standard-sized GI-issued towel barely wraps around his waist. Slowly, with dignity and a bearing that says, “ I dare you to make fun of me,” he comes around the corner, saunters up the middle of the barracks like he owns the place, walks past the chief, and takes his place at his bunk.
Now we learn something about Ol Red from Missussippi. His body is divided by a giant scar and his skin is different colors. Red, white, pink. It looks like a farm plow has sliced him completely in two, from the top of his head, through his face, down his torso, all the way to his feet. The scar is as tall as he is. Nobody makes fun of Ol Red from Missussippi.
Is This The Collapse of the Great American Empire?
I was homeless in Portland oregon for 2 months in 2006. I met this older man who was drifting and he claimed he was a teacher. He told me to read about the fall of the Roman empire. He told me that America was going to collapse.
What are good Chinese sayings which have no parallel in English?
One is 求同存异, which means to “seek common ground while respecting each other’s differences”.
The idea is that people and countries are different, and they should seek common ground, while respecting each others’ different points of view.
This is a phrase commonly used by the Chinese Foreign Ministry in press releases, especially in dealings with the US. Of course, it also conceals a dig at the US’s attitude in foreign policy, which is, as much as possible, to force other countries to accept the US POV.
…
Another phrase is 守株待兔， which means “standing by a tree, waiting for a rabbit (to run into the tree).
The origin of this phrase is about a farmer, who one day while working his field, saw a rabbit running into a tree and knocked itself unconscious. The farmer walked over and picked it up, and had his rabbit for dinner.
From then on, he stood by the tree, waiting for another rabbit to run into the tree, hoping that he would have another dinner.
The saying makes fun of people who think that pure luck will come to them repeatedly, and become stupid and lazy in the process.
Today, I am playing around with the idea of including some contemporary short science fiction with the daily posts. This will be in addition to videos, pictures, art, and historical stuff. Tell me what you all think. -MM
The moment Astrid truly accepted that her favourite book wasn’t a work of fiction was the moment she decided she had no other option than to eject herself out of the airlock.She wasn’t the first to come to this rather extreme conclusion after reading the title, but the population of Gen-Ship-Six had yet to notice the connection between the innocuous title amongst the recently deceased possessions and the series of grisly suicides that had followed it’s odyssey through readers hands.Astrid had found the book in the redistribution centre. A cold name for the room which stored the warm remainders of lives lived then extinguished, aboard a space ship where none of the passengers were alive at the journey’s commencement and none would survive thought to it’s destination.The system of redistributing possessions made sense though. Nothing novel was produced on the ship, so with each new generation the personal effects of the previous one became more and more sparse as accidents, loss and wear and tear claimed more and more of the luggage brought on-board from Earth by the 20 million original passengers, a hundred and fifty years ago.
Astrid had no idea who the book had belonged to before she picked it up from under a slightly chipped, ornate ramen bowl. The book was ragged and discoloured, the only way books looked nowadays. Astrid had never seen a new book, it was lucky if the titles she came across were in one piece, not defaced and managed to hold themselves together long enough for her to reach the last page.
‘The Optimist’s Handbook’ had felt heavy in her grip as she extracted it from the pile and turned it over to read the blurb.
“When the dark of night feels like the end of all things, remember the blue of the dazzling sky, the smell of keen grass in summer, the feel of a kind, warm breeze on your face.”
The book may as well have been written in Latin for all the comprehension those descriptions held for Astrid. Certainly she knew what grass, sky and wind were, but none of those things had ever brought her joy. The grass on Gen-Ship-Six had a faint chemical smell due to the solution that fed it and forced it to stay alive. Astrid had learned in school that grass on earth was fed by the sun that radiated itself onto the planet’s surface. A blue sky was another story. The 6D cinema in her neighbourhood allowed viewers to gaze up into the turquoise heavens, as the earth dwellers had experienced centuries previously, but the distantly visible pixels and soft hum of electricity fizzled around Astrid’s brain and she was unsure if the experience had been all together as authentic as what staring up into a real sky would be like; The Optimist’s Handbook suggested not. As for the warm breeze on her face; steadily controlled air conditioning was the closest comparison she could imagine, and this was not some kind of devine, blissful feeling, rather, a necessity to existing on the space ship without suffocating.
Over the following week, Astrid found herself continuously buried in the curious book, trying to imagine feelings she had never felt before, sinking further and further into despair as she attempted to accept the fact she would never understand the emotions that the author was trying to evoke.
“David, have you ever wondered what it’s like to smell wet soil after a dry spell?” Astrid asked her brother over a meal of artificially grown steak, beans and brocoli.
“Ehhh, what?” David replied absently while tapping away at his xCube.
“It’s called petrichor,” she continued glancing down at the book to check the word again, not really needing him to answer, or even to pay attention, she just wanted to wonder outloud. “It sounds wonderful. Earthy and deep, but also, sort of fresh and just so… alive.”
This time David didn’t even respond. Astrid looked at him for a few moments then went back to reading. Hungry to learn about more sensations from Earth, even though each one brought her no satisfaction and instead pushed her further and further into despondency.
The following morning she had read about a simple pleasure called ‘people watching.’ This one she felt was achievable. Gen-Ship-Six had cafes where she could go and sip coffee and eat bread. The Handbook had talked about a French deli, beautiful flowers growing up the visage, striped umbrellas scattered around the front entrance, casting shade onto intricate tables and chairs made of cast iron and painted pure white. The Handbook encouraged readers to take to their favourite spot, such as this one, and watch the passing characters, noticing how they interact. Laughter and love, rage and grief painting pictures between friends, family and lovers. Take in their clothes, shoes and bags, it continued, their unique features that make the world rich and romantic.
And so, that lunch time instead of staying in her apartment Astrid sat, coffee dispensed into a plain white cup, croissant sitting on a napkin atop a small plastic table outside her neighbourhood’s pipeline entrance, observing people getting on and off the transport system. Her excitement turned to woe in only a few minutes after she hadn’t spotted a single person who wasn’t permanently staring down at their xCube. There hadnt been so much as a glance shared between two people, let alone a word of passion or anger, or… anything. Also, no one’s clothes were particularly exciting. The Handbook didn’t have pictures so she didn’t know what exactly the author would have seen outside that French deli but she was sure it wasn’t the various hues of grey and black, shapeless tops and trousers, all made out of the same plain textured fabric, that was on offer in her current vista.
Sighing, she put down her coffee and flipped open her own xCube, instructing it to show her ‘French fashion through history.’ She abandoned the cafe- and her uneaten croissant- 5 minutes later, silent tears streaming down her face.
Just shy of a week had passed and Astrid stood at airlock 6754. She had finished The Optimist’s Handbook and stowed it away in her bookshelf the previous evening making a vague attempt to sleep, but no respite came. She had soon got up again and stared out of her window into the blackness of space surrounding her and felt a feeling she’d never really comprehended before- she was trapped. She would always be trapped, she would never leave the walls of Gen-Ship-Six. She would never feel the warmth of a burning star on her face, or smell the overwhelming perfume of a summer garden in bloom. She would never see a sublime Prada outfit on the body of a firey French woman as she slapped her lover and strode away down a cobbled street. She would never gaze out on a twinkling city at night, or feel the calm, cool breeze ruffle her hair. It was all too much, because, it wasn’t enough.
She reached out her hand to pull the emergency handle at the exact moment her xCube shook with a notification in her pocket. Her hand paused in its advance.
“Pick up Astrid, oh my stars, something wonderful has happened, pick up!”
What is the nastiest thing you ever did with your friend’s husband/wife?
Back in the early 1970s, my wife and I were close friends with a couple named Rose and Gary. The connection stemmed from our shared school days with my wife, and our marriages coincidentally occurred within a week of each other. Our friendship remained strong post-wedding, often visiting each other’s homes for gatherings and various activities.
Rose was a striking redhead, and I couldn’t deny that her beauty occasionally stirred thoughts beyond the boundaries of friendship. It was a year into our marriages when a pivotal moment unfolded during an unexpected encounter. While assisting Gary with laying a patio, an abrupt downpour interrupted our work, prompting a reschedule for the following day. When I returned, Gary had been called away for work, leaving me to carry on alone. It was then that Rose appeared with refreshments, clad in a revealing outfit that ignited a primal response within me.
As she settled onto a stack of slabs, an unintentional reveal of her undergarments sent a surge of desire coursing through me. Engaged in conversation, my gaze unintentionally lingered, prompting Rose to coyly inquire if I’d seen enough. Without filter, I voiced a desire for her nudity, a remark met with a sly smile as she led me indoors without hesitation. What followed was a passionate encounter, unbridled and consuming, unfettered by the weight of consequences.
Months later, as life carried on, Rose’s whispered revelation at our doorstep echoed with unexpected gravity – I was to become a father. Initially met with disbelief, the undeniable resemblance of the child to my younger self confirmed the truth. The realization dawned that I had unwittingly contributed to this new life, a silent participant in its creation.
Despite the seismic shift in our dynamic, our friendship endured, albeit marked by an unspoken understanding. The intimate connection shared that fateful day remained a singular occurrence, a memory treasured in secrecy. For Rose and Gary, their family remained complete with a single child, a testament to choices made and paths taken.
Reflecting on the journey, I find solace in the bonds forged and the unexpected twists of fate. Though the circumstances were unconventional, the love and connection shared among friends endured, transcending the complexities of human relationships. And as I watched the child grow, a silent acknowledgment lingered – a silent witness to the echoes of a moment that forever altered the course of our lives.
Smoky Beef ‘n’ Beans
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These picture-perfect fall days are my favorite. The sun is shining, there’s a cool breeze and we can start to curl up on the couch with a bowl of warm soup or stew. Chili is one of the best make-ahead meals, because it’s great for lunch or dinner and it honestly tastes better the longer it sits. This would be a good go-to recipe for any tailgate party since it’s easy to prep and hold warm in a crockpot.
I like to serve mine with corn muffins on the side for dipping. For garnishes, cheddar and onions are obviously great, but I would also recommend Greek yogurt (or sour cream), corn chips, avocado and/or pico de gallo.
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
1 cup chopped onion
12 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled
2 cans pork and beans
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can butter beans, drained
1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons vinegar
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
In a skillet, cook the beet and onion until meat is no longer pink; drain.
Transfer to a slow cooker.
Stir in the remaining ingredients.
Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 7 hours.
Why is the US doing such a bad job countering China’s rise?
This is a problem that the United States cannot solve, because Chinese culture is vast and profound, and American politicians have always treated China with high arrogance, they can not understand China, let alone understand the Chinese.
The reasons are as follows
First, China’s history is too long, and the current situation can certainly be found by looking at the history books. The thoughts and strategies of ancient sages are enough to deal with any international disputes in the world today.
For example, <The Art of War >is just one of many ancient Chinese books, and there are countless such excellent books in China. These books deal with philosophy, strategy, culture, ideas and so on.
Second, there is a huge difference between the Chinese language and the letters language in the world. Nowadays, Chinese middle school students can easily understand the Chinese language of thousands of years ago. Americans today can no longer understand the English of 500 years ago.
Today’s game between China and the United States will certainly be recorded in the history books. When the Chinese people face new enemies in the future, they only need to look at the history of today’s game with the United States, and they will find new ways to deal with difficulties.
Third: China has always been a unified country and has been for thousands of years, unlike the United States of America. In the United States, all ethnic groups only consider their own interests, and people will not consider the United States. The United States is more like an international company, where employees of different ethnic groups form the company. If the company goes bankrupt in the future, those employees will directly leave and go to the next company.
China was divided many times in ancient times and invaded many times by enemies, but she will surely move towards unity, and China will still be the same China. In the future, if the United States is divided, it will disappear into history, like ancient Rome.
There is an ancient Chinese saying: With copper as a mirror, you can be dressed; With history as a mirror, we can know the rise and fall; With people as a mirror, you can see the gains and losses.
Five thousand years ago, we faced the same flood as the ancient Egyptians; Four thousand years ago, we forged bronze like the Babylonians; Three thousand years ago, we thought about philosophy like the ancient Greeks; Two thousand years ago, we were on the march like the Romans; A thousand years ago, we were as rich as the Arabs; And right now, we’re battling it out with the Americans.
Added:
Now the American is losing control of the world, Arab countries are slipping away from US control, and Saudi Arabia and Iran have joined forces.
France and Germany working together, the post-Marshall Plan European order would change.
Various Asian countries have also fallen out of US control, such as Singapore, Thailand and other Asian countries.
If the U.S. military cannot change this situation by force, the United States will become an island in North America in the next five years, just as Britain was in Europe.
Unfortunately, the US military is not capable of launching a medium-sized war anywhere in the world, so the United States can only procrastinate until the inevitable split, just like the movie “Civil War”.
The mastermind of all this in the world now is the mysterious Eastern empire – India
<(￣ˇ￣)/
Added:
If you don’t believe me, you can look up the modern history of China. The tragedy of Gaza and Palestine happened in China 100 years ago
“Marriage Is Modern Death Sentence For Men” | Pearl Davis vs James Whale
The traditional institution of marriage is facing a decline in modern society, with fewer than 50% of adults opting to tie the knot. This shift raises questions about the future of relationships and family life. Some argue that marriage as we know it is already dead, with the average marriage lasting only seven to eight years. The rising divorce rates and challenges faced by men in the family court system are also contributing to the changing attitudes towards marriage. This discussion around marriage and relationships has sparked debates about gender roles, feminism, and societal expectations. Some believe that men are facing increasing challenges in the current landscape, with issues like infidelity and lack of intimacy being brought to the forefront. Others argue that women have more freedom and choices in the dating world, leading to a shift in power dynamics within relationships. Pearl Davis: "Marriage is a modern death sentence for men. In the future, there will be a lot of single parents, and a lot of people without children."
As a Taiwanese citizen, are you aware that your country is about to become the next Ukraine, a battleground for the advancement of western intrests in a game of resource control between the west and China?
Ukraine is located in Eastern Europe, and most of the weapons provided by the United States are transported to Ukraine through neighboring countries such as Poland.
Ukraine has a long border with the NATO country Poland, and weapons provided by the United States can easily enter Ukraine from Poland.
The Ukrainian army consumes 350,000 artillery shells every month, all of which are transported into Ukraine via the Polish-Ukrainian Railway.
But Taiwan is a China’s island Province, with no US allies bordering it. Under the PLA’s anti-access/area denial, US-supplied weapons simply cannot enter Taiwan.
Moreover, all ASEAN countries, including the Philippines, a vassal of the United States, support that “Taiwan is a part of China”, and the United States cannot find a transit point in Southeast Asia at all.
Once the war of unification begins, no ships will be allowed to pass through the Taiwan Strait, and PLA warships will intercept any approaching ships and aircraft within 12 nautical miles east of Taiwan Island.
Ukraine has been relying on weapons provided by the United States and the West to survive until now, but given Taiwan’s situation, how can it become Ukraine?
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In addition, Taiwan is also not a country at all; Taiwan is within China, the island is in Chinese waters, and the PLA’s military manoeuvres around Taiwan are military manoeuvres in China’s own waters.
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The End Of The American Empire Is Here
What was something small you went to the doctor for that turned out to be very significant?
I went for lower back pain. I hurt after sitting, standing or walking for even short periods of time. I had X-rays and then was sent for an MRI. I was referred to a neurosurgeon and the infectious disease department of the hospital. My PCP called me on her day off and asked if either one had contacted me. To which I told her no. She hung up and next thing I know I had appointments with both. I went to the infectious disease doctor first and ended up going to the ER to be checked in that day. I had so many tests I couldn’t believe it. And so many different people bothering me. One of the tests was a biopsy on my lower back bones. I was awake for the whole thing. The nurse shot me up with fentanyl and something else but I was awake. Sliding in and out of the CT scan and watching the needle or whatever being repositioned until they finally got it where they wanted. Then I hear a drill and I swear to god it looked like a DeWalt cordless drill. I was diagnosed with an infection of some sort in my bones. They put me on two different heavy duty antibiotics and of course it ruins the vein where the IV is. So they had to move it numerous times. They sent me home after putting a PICC line in that ended close to the heart they said I have, 😂. Six weeks later after doing my own hanging and injecting antibiotics at home. And complications with the PICC line. I had 4–5 mri’s and I have to have disc replacement. 4 1/2 months later I’m told that I’m only “ about “ 30% healed. The surgeon said I was healing slower because of the infection. He said he got it cleaned up but it was a complication that is slowing my healing time. Unfortunately, I still can’t walk, sit or stand for extended periods just like before. I’ve been unable to work since the end of September 2023. I struggle every day. I thought I might get physical therapy and maybe an antibiotic and have been going through hell. I also have a knee replacement coming up. Life sucks.
Can one be a genius and still be totally insane?
RIP Terry A. Davis.
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Despite being severely schizophrenic and bipolar—to the point where his speech was often nearly incomprehensible due to the constant paranoid delusions that haunted him—he managed to create a brand new operating system, completely from scratch.
It’s called TempleOS, and it’s an original operating system, written in a programming language Davis developed himself called HolyC (yes, I’m serious). It has is own unique compiler, kernel, and GUI, and includes various applications and games—even a flight simulator—all of which were created by Davis himself.
In his psychotic episodes, Davis believed that God was communicating with him and instructing him to create an operating system as “God’s third temple”. Hence, many of the applications and games that come with TempleOS are religious in nature, for example, a program that generates seemingly random strings of text, which Davis claimed were coded messages from God, or a program that generates seemingly random music, which Davis also claimed were sent from God. There are games that recreate events from the Bible.
Now, you might take one look at this OS and its features, and dismiss it as a piece of junk. And you’d be perfectly correct in that assessment— it is a totally worthless operating system, not worth installing except as a bizarre toy to tinker with. But you have to remember: ALL of this was made by one man, in the early 2000s, whilst suffering from such debilitating delusions that legally qualified him as a disabled person.
Unfortunately, due to his inability to land a stable job, Terry Davis fell to homelessness, and a year after that, he committed suicide. He often called himself “the smartest programmer to have ever lived”, and while that is a very arrogant and presumptuous thing to say, I don’t think he’s wrong. If this is what Davis was capable of while being batshit crazy, just imagine what he would actually be capable of if he was sane.
How The American Empire Will Collapse (Shocking Insights)
Back in the day, and I mean really back, I used to party with friends. And being an American in the 1970’s, our medium of fun was drugs, booze, and if we were lucky… perhaps the hint of sex. I for one, dropped a lot of LSD. Way more than my friends.
I know, I know, I was pretty foolish and reckless back then. But it was the times.
In those days, the LSD came in different forms. There was “barrel”, which was a tiny little pill that resembled a very tiny-tiny can of cambell’s soup. There was “blotter”, which was a perforated paper with a design, as well as a few other variations. But most of what I “dropped” came in those two types.
Another big drug at that time, aside from marijuana, was amphetamine. We took it in the “White cross” form. Now, this was NOT “crank” also known as methamphetamine. No, it was something different.
A syntheticcompound, C9H13N, thatoccurs as a racemicmixture of twostereoisomers or as one of itsstereoisomers(especiallydextroamphetamine),derivatives(such as methamphetamine), or salts.Amphetamineacts as a centralnervoussystemstimulant,andvariousformulationsareused in themedicaltreatment of certainconditions(such as attentiondeficithyperactivitydisorder)andillegally as stimulants.
But that was a long time ago, and I rarely revisit those days. Oh, sometimes, I am reminded of those days by a song, or a smell, but they are deep in my past.
Anyways, one day I was partying with my brother and two girls that we had met. And one of the girls had some “silver star” blotter LSD. This was a piece of perforated black paper with a silver star and asked me if I wanted some. She asked do you want two? I said “sure”.
Now at that time I was busy working the pump on the kegger, and I told her to put it in my mouth. And so she put two “hits” in my mouth. Now, I normally only took one, but I was feeling “peckish” and thought that I could handle two.
But the thing is, it wasn’t two. She didn’t know, and neither did I, that each “star” was four hits; four doses of LSD. And I ended up taking a total of eight.
Eight doses.
Lordy!
So the party is going on and I’m getting a little nervous when it starts to hit. Now, contrary to what you might think, LSD isn’t visions of monsters or anything like that. It’s a kind of amplifier of sensory perception. It’s called a hallucinogen, but that is only if you actively “force” some visions…
Anyways… brilliant colors. CHECK.
Fantastic “tracers” (the lines that follow movement). CHECK.
Most excellent “color gradients” (a greater degree in detail when observing the sky) . CHECK.
And I was enjoying the time. Drinking beer. Taking a toke or two. Listening to music, and just talking…
When the other seven does of LSD hit.
What was I thinking? And I started to go into a worry mode… not a good thing. And yeah, it can end up as a really bummer of a trip. And so, yuppur! I started to go full Hunter S. Thompson… Gonzo!
Not a good thing.
About 14 hours later, I crashed out and slept with the most craziest dreams ever. When I woke up, and went to brush my teeth and perform my toilet, I found out that I was still hallucinating. And all that day, I was still dealing with that high.
Went to sleep that day.
Crazy dreams again.
Woke up again, and lordy! I well remember what I said when I woke up. I said “Holy shit! I’m so high, I’m never coming down.” And got ready and went off to the coal mine.
Needless to say, it did eventually wear off, and four days later, I was back to “normal”.
For what ever it is worth. That was almost my last time that I ever dropped acid. The experience enabled me to get it “out of my system”, and move on to the next stage in my life. It’s called “growing up”, and it happens to everyone. Whether it is greasy food, sex, watching television, or golf… eventually we grow out of a certain stage in our lives and move on forward.
Not all of us do.
RIP Robbie.
But many of us do. And this is my story on “passing the line; the threshold” into a new beginning.
have a great day everyone! Today…
Why can Chinese people eat almost anything, including foods that are poisonous or allergic to them, but Westerners can’t? My German friend said that moon cakes alone can “knock out” more than half of Europe. Is this true?
It is 9 a.m. China time on May 31, 2024. As I write this response, I am resting at my father’s house. He is 71 years old and often jokes that he and the Chinese President, Xi, are peers, having endured similar hardships in their youth. I came to my father’s house today because my wife bought some expensive apricots, and after tasting them, we both agreed they were delicious. So, my wife instructed me to bring some apricots to my father to share the flavor. Then I stumbled upon this interesting question. I believe I am capable of providing a good answer.
Chinese people harbor a profound fear of hunger. Since China’s reform and opening up in 1978, Chinese people have been able to eat their fill. It has been over 40 years since then, almost half a century. However, despite decades of abundant food, my father’s fear of hunger persists. The following description applies not only to my father but also to other elderly people in China:
I brought him some apricots to taste. Now he is rummaging through the refrigerator in the next room to find anything to give me. Two weeks ago, he gave me minced beef, last week it was frozen chicken wings, and just now he told me he bought 2 kilograms of peas and wants to give me half. Despite my wife and I having monthly incomes four to five times greater than his, whenever he has the chance, he gives us food. Because he believes: everything else is not as important as having food at home.
My in-laws are the same way. Every weekend when I take my wife and son to their house for dinner, they give us food that she personally prepares. Sometimes it’s buns, dumplings, or traditional Chinese zòng zi (粽子，glutinous rice wrapped in reed leaves with sweet fillings). And she always gives us a lot of food, enough for us to eat for a week. She has no education and doesn’t understand profound principles. She always says, “As long as there’s food, there’s no need to worry.”
Many foreign friends, even if they haven’t been to China, are aware of some Chinese social customs. For example, when two people meet, the way to say hello is to ask, “Have you eaten?” This is not an invitation but simply a kind way of ensuring, “You have food at home, you won’t go hungry.”
China’s history spans thousands of years, filled with alternating periods of war, famine, and prosperity. So much so that whether it’s the heyday or the decline of a dynasty, most ancient Chinese people had to endure hunger regularly. Zhāng Yǎng hào（张养浩）, a poet from the Yuan Dynasty, wrote in his poem: “兴，百姓苦，亡，百姓苦” (Regardless of whether the country is strong or weak, the common people always endure hardships). Another line from this poem is: “伤心秦汉经行处，宫阙万间都做了土。” It means that you see those great dynasties, such as the Qin and Han dynasties, once they come to power, they start building magnificent palaces for themselves. But over time, both the imperious emperors and the palaces end up as piles of ruins.
Even today, we can still find traces of famine times in many traditional Chinese foods. For example, this is “zhēng yě cài（蒸野菜）,” a cooking method where a lot of leafy vegetables are collected from the fields, mixed with a little flour (about 10% of the weight of the leafy vegetables), some salt, and a drop of sesame oil, then steamed in a pot. These are some steamed wild vegetables, and even the chef can’t be sure of the ingredients, because elderly people in rural areas gather whatever plants they see in the wild:
My father detests this food. He had enough of it during the famine of the 1950s. But what he didn’t expect is that “zhēng yě cài” is now the most popular food in China. Surprisingly, it meets almost all the principles of nutrition—very few carbohydrates, a variety of vegetables, organic leafy greens, and very little sodium and fat. It is a healthy food in China, eaten by beautiful girls, middle-class gentlemen, and some elderly people to avoid obesity. And the price has gone from almost zero to about the same as meat per kilogram today. This is the expensive steamed wild vegetables sold in supermarkets:
Another famine-era food is “zhuang mo,” made by repeatedly squeezing a lump of flour with mechanical force to make the dough very dense. Then, a little salt is added, and it’s shaped into 3 cm thick cakes, slowly baked on a skillet. The dehydrated cooked dough can be stored for a long time and won’t become hard—because it’s already hard enough. When eating, people from the old society break the cakes into 1 square centimeter pieces by hand, then soak them in water to soften them. This food is not only stored by people during famine times but also beneficial for military activities. Because it can be carried around and is said to be able to stop bullets. Of course, that’s just a joke. This is “zhuang mo”:
But in today’s China, “zhuàng mó”（壮馍） has become a rare delicacy. Because it is very cumbersome to make, the craftsmanship has been lost. It can only be occasionally found in rural areas. Two years ago, my mother-in-law wanted to eat “zhuàng mó,” and I found a shop in the suburbs 5 kilometers away from my home. But the boss said it needed to be booked 48 hours in advance. Today, when Chinese people eat “zhuàng mó,” they eat it with delicious lamb soup. Because Chinese people who are used to refined grains begin to enjoy the texture of “zhuang mo” and believe that chewing repeatedly can taste the unique aroma of wheat. This is “zhuàng mó” eaten with lamb soup:
There is another classic famine-era food called “wo wo tou,” made from cornmeal, sorghum flour, and wheat flour in equal proportions, with the center hollowed out. The purpose of these ingredients is to save wheat flour, and the hollow center is to “deceive one’s eyes, so visually it’s not empty inside.” During famine times, the hollow part of “wo wo tou” was filled with some pickled vegetables or hot sauce. This way, there was no need to make additional dishes; one “wo wo tou” was a meal. These are some “wo wo tou” made by Chinese families themselves:
My wife sometimes asks me to buy or make some “wō wō tóu.” This food, because it uses whole grain staple foods and is rich in dietary fiber, has become a healthy food in China today. I rarely buy it at the market because, like the other two foods mentioned above, it has become a rare delicacy. Some food store owners have updated “wō wō tóu” into multiple varieties such as corn, sorghum, oats, soybeans, etc. These are the high-priced “wō wō tóu” offered in restaurants:
Diet is always influenced by culture, and culture comes from the living environment. For thousands of years, China’s living environment has been harsh most of the time. After the founding of the PRC in 1949, people thought that famine would never come again. However, several large-scale political movements led to economic chaos, even causing the horrifying Great Famine in the early 1960s. This event is recorded in the history of the Communist Party of China, scholars’ works, and textbooks for middle school students, reminding Chinese people never to experience famine again.
Fortunately, all of that is behind us. As the lives of the Chinese people become more prosperous, metabolic diseases have become the main public health burden. There are more and more obese people, and diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, coronary heart disease, and atherosclerosis have become the main causes of death among Chinese people. These diseases were once called “diseases of the affluent” (富贵病) in China from the 1950s to the 1970s. My friend works at a community health center, which manages about 20,000 residents nearby. The health center holds various courses and lectures every week, mainly educating the public on “how to live a healthy life.” Dietary balance is their main teaching content.
Today, when Chinese elderly people see the expensive “zhēng yě cài（蒸野菜）,” “zhuàng mó（壮馍）,” and “wō wō tóu（窝窝头）” in supermarkets, they are amazed. Because in their childhood memories, these foods meant imminent starvation. But today, they mean a prosperous life.
African Nations Repatriate Their Gold and Foreign Reserves From the USA.
"It's not about Russia; it's about the US and Britain before that.
I think it's a little bit like that old game of Risk. I don't know if you played that as a kid, but the idea was to have your piece in every place in the world—that was the game.
You read the American strategists, whether it's Zbig Brzezinski, although he was very moderate, or the neocons who have run US foreign policy for the last 30 years. The neocons are very explicit: the US must be the unchallenged superpower in every place in the world, in every region we must dominate.
That's quite a load for us American people.
What they say is, 'We are going to be the constabulary duty holder'—a fancy word for saying we'll be the world's policeman.
They say it explicitly.
They say, 'That's lots of wars—we have to be ready for all these wars.'
To my mind, it's a little crazy, but their idea was that after the end of the Soviet Union, 'Well, now we run the world.'
And to come back to Russia, the idea was, 'Well, Russia is weak, it's down. We're the sole superpower—they're on their back or on their knees, whatever it is, and now we can move NATO where we want and we can surround them.'
The Russians said, 'Please don't do that. Don't bring your troops, your weapons, your missiles right up to our border. It's not a good idea.'
The US was, 'We don't hear you, we don't hear you. We do what we want.' They kept pushing.
Inside the US government in the 1990s, when this debate was going on about whether NATO should expand, some people said, 'Yeah, but we told Gorbachev and we told Yeltsin we weren't going to expand at all.' 'Now, come on, the Soviet Union's done. We can do what we want. We're the sole superpower.'
Clinton bought into that—that was Madeleine Albright's line. NATO enlargement started.
Our most sophisticated diplomats—back when we had diplomats, which we don't have anymore—like George Kennan, said: 'This is the greatest mistake we could possibly make.'
We had a defense secretary, Bill Perry, who was Clinton's defense secretary, who agonized over this: 'God, I should resign over this. This is terrible, what's going on.'
But he was outmaneuvered diplomatically by Richard Holbrooke and by Madeleine Albright, and Clinton never thought through anything systematically, in my opinion. They decided, 'Okay, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic—first round.'
Then Brzezinski, in a 1997 article in Foreign Affairs magazine, which is kind of the bellwether of US foreign policy, wrote a strategy for Eurasia where he laid out exactly the timeline for this US expansion of power.
He said that in the late 1990s, we'd take in Central Europe—Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic. By the early 2000s, we'd take in the Baltic states—now that's getting close to Russia. By 2005 to 2010, we'd invite Ukraine to become part of NATO.
So this wasn't some flippant thing; this was a long-term plan based on a long-term strategy.
Now the Russians are saying, 'Are you kidding? We wanted peace. We ended the Cold War. You didn't defeat us; we said no more. We disbanded the Warsaw Pact. We wanted peace, we wanted cooperation. You call it victory; we just wanted to cooperate.'
I know that for a fact because I was there in those years.
What Gorbachev wanted, what Yeltsin wanted, they didn't want war with the United States, nor were they saying, 'We're defeated.'
They were saying, 'We just want to cooperate. We want to stop the Cold War. We want to become part of a world economy. We want to be a normal economy. We want to be a normal society, connected with you, connected with Europe, connected with Asia.'
And the US said, 'We get it, we get it. We won. You do everything we say, and we determine how the pieces are going to go.'
So, in the early 2000s, Putin comes in.
His first business was good cooperation with Europe.
You go back to the early 2000s—again, I know the people, I watched closely, I was a participant in some of it—Putin was completely pro-Europe and pro-US, by the way.
I know we don't want to talk about this; we don't want to admit it because we don't want anything other than the narrative of 'unprovoked' actions.
Everything we say is phony; everything is a lie."
Excerpt from remarks by Professor Jeffrey Sachs, American economist and academic, in an interview with Tucker Carlson, May 28, 2024.
Lemon Brisket
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Yield: 10 servings
Ingredients
2 ribs celery, halved lengthwise
2 onions, quartered
1 first-cut or flat-cut (leaner section) beef brisket, about 4 pounds, trimmed
2 lemons, cut into thin slices
1 cup raisins or to taste
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 low-sodium beef bouillon cubes, dissolved in 2 cups water
Instructions
Line the bottom of a large slow-cooker with celery and onions and top with brisket.
Place lemon slices and raisins on the brisket; season with salt and pepper to taste.
Add dissolved bouillon.
Cook on LOW until meat is fork-tender, about 10 to 12 hours.
Remove meat to a cutting board and let stand 15 minutes.
Skim fat from cooking broth. Adjust seasonings if needed.
Remove lemon slices and cut in half.
Pour broth into a serving bowl and add lemons.
Slice meat across the grain into thin slices. Halve or quarter the brisket slices and serve with the broth and lemons.
Nutrition
Per serving: Calories 301; Calories from fat 25%; Total fat 8g; Saturated fat 3g; Cholesterol 77mg; Carbohydrate 17g; Sodium 322mg; Fiber 2g; Protein 39g
Have you ever tried to annoy a scammer who called you? If so, what happened?
So I decided I want to sell my old phone and I put it on a local online service. Predictably, the usual scammers made an appearance so I decided to mess around with him/her a little bit.
The scam goes like this: They entice you to sell to them by promising you more money than you ask, you give them your IBAN, they sent you the money, show you a receipt, you ship the item to them and they reverse the payment, leaving you waiting for money that will never arrive. What follows are some snippets of our conversation
P.s. Alaye is apparently a Nigerian “secret” word that scammers use to reveal to other people that they are scammers – so they don’t waste each others time. The scammer got fed up with me
Modern Dating Is Impossible – Here’s The Playbook | PsycHacks’ Orion Taraban
What is the most deceitful thing you have ever seen a business do to a customer?
A friend was buying some land and planned to put a mobile home on it while he decided what to build. He found a great deal on a solid double wide and hired a company to disassemble, move and reassembled it on his land.
On the day of the move, they showed up late finally got the two pieces ready to move late in the day. My friend had family property a half mile away and asked that the company just park the two pieces there overnight, but the company was adamant that they take it back to their office, fifty miles in the opposite direction from where they would be headed the next day and right at rush hour. Nothing would change their minds.
About nine that night he got a call from a friend who had spotted half of his mobile home, wrecked on the side of the interstate. We went out to look, and it was true. Not only was it wrecked, but the driver had dropped it with no support under the tongue, so it was severely twisted, and vandals had already gotten in and stripped out the copper wire.
We went out again and took photos at dawn and then called the company. They said there was nothing wrong that they couldn’t fix right up, and they still planned the move for that day. My friend asked where the other half (that contained all the appliances) was and the company refused to tell him. He told them that he refused to sign off on the move until the reassembled mobile home was inspected by an independent contractor and to his satisfaction. The company refused that stipulation.
By that afternoon the wrecked potion of the mobile home was gone. The company stopped taking calls. Apparently, they had subcontracted the move to another company without anyone’s knowledge, so there was no way to find the mobile home. My friend had depended on the mobile home to live in, so he had to rent and lost his land because he could pay both rent and land payments.
My friend spoke to a lawyer who was willing to take the case, but only if he could provide an address to serve the company, and by that time they had disappeared. I began sleuthing and finally managed to track them down (this was 1985, so no Google). I know that it took more than another year to get to court, but I believe the lawyer found two insurance policies and got a good settlement, but those people had every intention of robbing that poor man blind.
KNOCKOUT: China’s BOLD Move Threatens To Dethrone The US In Europe’s Economy
What is the most amazing thing you overheard because people didn’t think you understood their language?
A couple of years ago my brother and I were driving from the UK to Germany. We were stopped by police shortly after crossing the Dutch/German border. They checked our travel documents then one said to the other in German, “How much shall we get from them?” To which the other replied “Five hundred each.”
One of them then proceeded to “search” the car we were driving while we stop with the other on the other side of the car. The one who was searching rather smugly announced that we had a problem and displayed a small bag of green stuff.
They went to their car and came back with documents to be signed and informed us that they’d “found” 4g of cannabis in our car and that we had to pay a €500 “fine” each or get arrested and charged with smuggling.
My brother called his wife and our mother, trying to get funds transferred to his account. I made out I was doing the same but in fact I quietly called my (German) lawyer who confirmed what I’d suspected: that they were trying to extort money from us and that there were no fines in Germany which were to be paid to a police constable in cash.
As I was speaking with her, one of the policemen asked if I’d be getting the money for the fine. To which I replied in German (I’d spoken nothing but English up until that point) that I was speaking with my lawyer and would need another few minutes. His face dropped. His mouth actually opened into an expression of disbelief and amazement. I asked my lawyer if she’d heard him — she had, and if she’d recorded our conversation — she had. She then advised me what to do.
I hung up and told the policemen that we wouldn’t pay any fines and if they felt they had cause to arrest us, then they should do so and I’d call my lawyer immediately. I informed them that my lawyer had recorded our telephone conversation including the part where I’d been asked if I would be getting the money.
Needless to say, we weren’t detained any longer. I have never seen such a switch in a person’s attitude. From cocky and bullying to worried and sheepish in a flash.
My new idea of including new short science fiction stories in the MM daily posts. -MM
If he never saw another rock again, he’d be flipping thrilled.“I found something strange on Google Maps and had to check it out!” Gray smiled at his phone and hoped he disguised how absolutely done he was with this trip. Someday soon, the footage would go out to his thousands of viewers, but right now he had no service, no Wi-Fi, and no feeling in his arm after hours recording his hike up the rugged mountain.At least it wasn’t the jungle. The last time he did one of his ‘spontaneous discovery’ videos, it took him two weeks to find the right bug spray.This was his best video series yet, though, far more popular than the Vegas Strip street interviews, so he massaged his shoulder and pressed onward–upward, really–until his lungs screamed from the air pressure and the altitude had him pulling his jacket from his worn pack.
“It’s around here somewhere,” he told his camera. Gray hoped it was true. He spent days scouring Google Maps for something worth investigating. When he finally found this place, he saved the image as his lock screen as a symbol of triumph. He’d seen it so many times now that the second the cluster of boulders came into view, he flicked on the GoPro strapped to his forehead and started running.
“I think I found it,” he huffed through wheezing breaths before kicking at overgrown weeds and what he hoped was mud.
There it was, the hatch. Unlike the one he found in a tunnel at the foot of the Alps, this one did not require his not-yet-patented one-leg, two-arm prying technique to open.
He peered inside, hoping the cameras caught the view even as the hazy afternoon sun seemed to be consumed by the darkness of the passage. His own eyes took several seconds to adjust. Gray was sure the microphones picked up the gasp that left his lips when everything came into focus. It was a staircase–a staircase leading down into the mountain! Holy shit! He’d break a million subscribers for sure this time.
The entrance was just barely wide enough for him to slip inside with his bag. Gray propped the door open with a few sizable rocks, pulled out Beacon Deacon–the cross-covered flashlight gifted to him by his über-religious uncle, and started descending.
“Wish me luck.” His words echoed down the chamber, warping with every reverberation. “Wish me luck. Wush miluck. Woosh milk.”
Gray counted one hundred and sixty-nine stairs before he decided it must be endless. It was a staircase inside a mountain. Who had the energy to carve this many steps?!
“Three hundred and twenty-six. Four hundred and eighty-two. The things I do for you guys.”
Six hundred and twelve. There were six hundred and twelve stairs. He had to go back up. Was this divine punishment for that time he made fun of how his brother said ‘croissant?’ Even the French thought it was too much! Gray asked!
He dropped his pack on the rocky ground–or would it be rock-ground? Either way, his bag landed with a thud and Gray leaned against the wall to catch his breath. It was bumpy, but not in the sharp way he would have expected.
Gray turned and flipped Beacon Deacon on to full blast. Was that… a book? It was.
He tripped over his own feet as he surged further into the room, coughing as he kicked up what he assumed must be years’ worth of dust.
The cavern was round and about the size of a school gym, sans the basketball nets. He craned his neck and still couldn’t find the top. From what he could see, books covered every inch of the walls
“What the hell? Are you guys seeing this?”
Gray approached the nearest section. From afar, he thought they were the old sort of books libraries didn’t let you check out. He carefully plucked one from the shelf. The binding was a thick leather, but the title embossed in the spine was new, The First Town. His sister was obsessed with that book when it came out two years ago.
“I’m so confused,” he said, just loud enough for the mic to pick up. Speaking louder felt illegal, somehow.
His microphone responded with a soft hum. “Damn. It’s got dirt in it again.” Gray unhooked it from his lapel as the hum became a buzz. “I hear you, I hear you. One second.” But it didn’t quiet, even as he squeezed puffs of air into it from the little canister in his bag. Instead, the GoPro on his head seemed to harmonize with the microphone, then his phone, then his flashlight. Together, they were like a swarm of bees growing more agitated by the second.
“What the hell?” Gray said again, scrambling to turn everything off. They crescendoed in one shrill screech before dying out together.
“Um. Guys? What was that?” It took a beat before he realized there was no one to talk to. His cameras were fried, and he was all alone.
He expected silence, but there was a soft purr sounding from in front of him, more like a motor than a cat, unfortunately. He could have had a familiar!
Gray checked his gear one more time, but it was definitely dead. He would investigate if only he could see, but without Beacon Deacon, he was more likely to knock the shelves down like dominos. He really didn’t want to die under the weight of several thousand books. Or by the blunt force trauma of several thousand books.
He chanced a step forward, arms held out in front of him like a particularly handsome zombie, but managed to kick his discarded bag. What luck, he found the only item on the ground. At least he wouldn’t have to search for his bag. His bag that held all of his things. His things which included a lighter!
Gray dug through his pack and pulled out the Flaming Hell, the ultra-strong lighter his father gave him after seeing Beacon Deacon. His dad even stuck a big pentagram on it as a petty little treat.
Gray flicked it on and held it as close to the shelves as he dared. All he could find were books, but the hum definitely sounded like it was coming from there. He leaned closer and Flaming Hell flickered–no–the shelves flickered!
Gray whirled around as every wall quivered in and out of existence before disappearing completely.
“Um. I don’t know what just happened.” There was no one to listen, but he had to at least pretend like he wasn’t on his own here.
Low blue lights kicked on from a strip in the floor as he crossed the juncture from the old library into, well, he wasn’t sure what. The space had doubled in size, though the ceiling was just as high. It was easier to see now as another section of lights clicked on from above.
Shelves still lined the walls, but they were a strange blend of vines and metal, like a jungle mated with scaffolding. Instead of books, they held hundreds of… no way.
Gray’s steps stuttered as he neared. Someone had to have set him up because there was no way the shelves were really covered in jarred brains.
“Nick? Taj? Did you do this?” His friends didn’t pop out from behind the shelves. Now that he thought about it, no one he knew could afford such a crazy prank.
“No. I am Aurora Initella.”
He whirled around so fast that his long ponytail slapped him across the face. “What the hell! Who are you?!”
The woman was tall and thin, like the car models his brother always had on his walls growing up. She had just as many clothes on, too. Aurora’s shirt was one in spirit only, barely covering her chest and tied loosely behind her neck. Her skirt wasn’t much better. Wasn’t she cold? God, he sounded like his grandmother.
“… I am Aurora Initella.” Her voice reminded him of the afternoon he spent by the deep blue waters of Turkey’s Iztuzu Beach. It was one of the more peaceful days he ever had until he heard the vicious caw of a hawk and watched bloody duck feathers bob on the waves.
“What are you doing down here? What is this?”
She hummed. “I believe it’s proper to introduce yourself first.”
“Uh, right. Name’s Gray Griffin.”
Aurora tilted her head so far her ear hit her shoulder. “Is it?” she asked lightly.
“… It’s John. Jon Vaughn.”
“Why did you lie, Jon Vaughn?”
“It’s not a lie. It’s a stage name.” Was this really the conversation two people in the depths of a mountain surrounded by brains were having? Was he on drugs? He’d never had a drug before.
“We are not on a stage.” He hadn’t been on a stage since his eighth-grade production of Greece, but he figured it was close enough. He had been an amazing Sandy, a real hit at the Brighton Boarding School for Boys.
“It’s a figure of speech, but now that you’ve mentioned it and I definitely was not the one to bring up the terrifying ambiance first, what the hell is this place?”
“A figure of speech. Interesting. I will make a note of it.” She stood completely still, completely silent. Gray counted to twenty-nine.
“Um… hello? I have unanswered questions.”
She twisted her gaze to him with her entire neck. What commitment. “This is a library.”
He peered over her shoulder at the room of horrors. “I don’t think it is.”
“This is a library,” she repeated in exactly the same tone.
“We’re surrounded by brains! Human brains!”
“Is that not a library?”
“I… okay, you’ve got me on a technicality, but there’s no way you think this is normal!”
“Is any home normal?” What was with this woman? The way she answered questions, she’d be a prosecutor’s nightmare. At least, he could hear his state prosecutor mother saying so.
“You live here?” His voice hadn’t been so high since puberty. Maybe it was best that his mic died. “Were you the one who carved the insulting number of stairs?” He couldn’t imagine it, not with her stick arms and her nearly pore-less skin.
“The library was made by the Knights of Knowledge.”
Gray snorted. “That’s not a real thing.”
He read about the Knights in a fiction series back in elementary school. The Knights of Knowledge traveled the world trying to understand humanity only to bumble their way into increasingly ridiculous situations. You know, maybe he was a Knight of Knowledge.
Aurora shook her head so jerkily she surely gave herself whiplash. “They named themselves after the books.”
His hands braced his head. “Can you read minds?”
“You were speaking aloud.”
“Oh.” He lowered his arms and cleared his throat.
“The Knights—” she gestured wildly with a locked elbow. The sorry excuse for a shirt slid down too far. He averted his eyes.
“Can you put on more clothes first? I know this is your home, but I don’t think this is a good way to host a guest.”
“Does this not please you?” She cocked her head unnaturally again. “Master Paxal prefers it.”
Gray peeked through his fingers and raised a brow. “Master Paxal sounds like a sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to happen.” He could hear his mother saying that, too.
“How is this?” Between blinks, her clothes lit up and grew into a pin-striped power suit.
“Am I in a magic girl anime or something?” he mumbled. Forget the embarrassing voice cracks. He wished his camera was rolling. No one was going to believe him.
“I am not magic. I am—”
“Aurora Initella, I know.”
“—an avatar.”
“You’re what now?”
“I am the voice to these memories,” she gestured again to the surrounding brains. This time, she remained blessedly covered, “a face for the library.”
“So, you’re not real then?”
“What is real and what is fake?”
“I’m too dumb and emotionally compromised for philosophical debate.”
“To be dumb is to lack knowledge. The library can help.”
Gray dropped his face into his hands. He wanted to go home. He wanted to bury himself under his covers and forget all of this had ever happened. Hell, he’d even listen to his parents and get into improv if it meant he didn’t have to have a conversation with this woman… avatar… person…?
“If it’s such an amazing library, why doesn’t everybody know about it? Why hide it under a mountain five hours from civilization? Isn’t the point of the library to share with the community?”
She blinked. Gray only just realized she hadn’t been before. “We do.”
“What does that mean?”
“Perhaps you have read Terminal Living: A Mindset Game or Blue Crescent Dying? Maybe The Inquisitor’s Bed or Memory’s Nest?”
“I think everyone and their twice-dead grandmother have read those. They’re some of the most famous books of all time.”
“And who wrote them?”
“I don’t know, smart, famous people?”
“So you think.” She smiled with too many teeth. She was like an attractive barracuda. He paused. Scratch that. “This place is the Library of Memory. It houses the greatest minds of every generation.”
“You mean these are…” he eyed the closest brain. E.A Poe. “No way.”
“With their knowledge, I can write you your perfect book. Do you want a science fiction story by Agatha Christie? Or maybe you would like a romantasy by H. P. Lovecraft?”
“You’re stealing their work.”
She took a step closer. His feet felt welded to the stone.
“It is merely utilization of their knowledge. They are dead. They have no use for it anymore.”
It felt wrong, though he couldn’t find the words to explain why. Even if he did, he didn’t think she had the capacity to care.
“What do the Knights want?”
“‘He who has Knowledge has the world.’ That is their slogan.”
“Then why use it like this? Why steal—utilize—” he corrected before she could, “it in this way? If you can actually extract thoughts from the world’s greatest minds, why not use that technology to cure disease or something?”
She shrugged, or tried to. Her shoulder–holographic shoulder, he realized–sunk into her cheek. “They tried at first, but they could not find an agreeable course of action.”
“But this was agreeable?”
“There were a few issues.” He followed the line of her too-wide eyes to a small section of brains. Oh.
“Man, people of the past were seriously kill-happy, huh?”
She hummed again. It was just like the purr he heard before. “Murder is common in all eras.”
“You sure know how to comfort a guy.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Look, I just wanted some good content for my socials, not to uncover some crazy conspiracy. Maybe tell your programmers or whatever to cover the entrance to their secret lair better. It’s a miracle no one else has ever stumbled onto it before.”
“But, Jon Vaughn, they have.” She pointed across the room. The area was close to the exit, so he walked the path to a darker corner, lit by half the floor lights as the rest of the library.
“We have had lots of guests,” Aurora said into his ear. When had she gotten so close? She had no presence, no solid form or footsteps. “They have taught me so much.”
Something sharp pricked his neck. His vision blurred.
“And you will too.”
Why is China so peace-loving?
It’s in the nature of the Chinese culture. For thousands of years, China has been a sedentary civilisation focused on taking care of its people and protecting itself from invaders. China has never sought colonialism like the Europeans did.
As long as you don’t threaten China’s security, it will not wage war.
Currently, the USA threatens China’s security by interfering in China’s domestic matter, Taiwan. So China is doing everything it can to discourage Taiwan independence and keep the peace.
Instead of invading other countries, China wants to trade with them. This benefits the Chinese people.
Contrast the above with the Europeans and Americans…
British Empire
French Empire
German Empire
Dutch Empire
Spanish Empire
Portuguese Empire
Afghanistan
Iraq
Libya
Syria
China has fought no wars in the last 45 years!
U.S. foreign policy isolates the U.S.
Have you ever seen someone accidentally pick a fight with the wrong dude?
7th Grade. 1964.
School had just let out and I was walking with three other friends, on our way home.
Uh, oh!
Here comes Carl, the school bully — a really bad guy with a nasty attitude.
I got a little nervous. Carl was known for picking fights and leaving his victims severely bloodied.
Our group moved aside slightly, to let Carl pass. But it was a no go.
One of our buddies was a tiny little guy, Robbie, who was about 5’3” at around 115 pounds. Wouldn’t you know that, as Carl walked by, he slammed Robbie’s books to the ground.
Bullies choose the easy target.
Carl: “You better watch where you’re going little a**hole.”
Robbie: “Yeah. Sorry man. I’ll do that.”
Carl: “What’s the matter? You don’t like my face or somethin’?”
Robbie: “Naw man, you’re fine. Sorry.”
Carl moves in with a predatory stance.
Robbie: “Huh? Oh! You wanna fight me? OK. Yeah, we can fight if you want.”
Robbie handed me his coat, then spoke to himself saying, “Hmm. I think I’ll leave my gloves on.”
I was terrified speechless for Robbie.
I looked fearfully at one of my other buddies who smiled ever so slightly and said, “Don’t worry (about Robbie). He’ll be fine.”
I didn’t know what he meant by that, but Robbie and Carl stepped onto the parking lot and took stances. Carl made the first move, going in for the haymaker, the knockout punch.
Robbie dodged the punch completely and started dancing with gloved fists posed cautiously in front of his face.
Carl was big. Carl was strong. Carl moved like a sack of potatoes.
As Carl kept going for the haymaker, Robbie dodged and weaved like a master in self defense. Picture a two year old cat when they chase imaginary monsters through the house.
Over the next 3-4 minutes, Robbie peppered Carl’s face with light little shots, one by one, perfectly timed at every opportunity, precisely aimed and perfectly landed until Carl’s eyes started to swell shut.
About that time, the School Principal ran out and hauled both boys off to the office. Robbie was a little winded, but untouched by Carl. Carl’s face was a bloody mess.
When the fight ended and my buddies and I resumed our walk, I let out a sigh of relief.
One of my buddies asked: “You didn’t know?”
Me: “Know what?
Long story short, Robbie’s father was a WWII Vet, now a Colonel at the local Military School. Robbie had been trained in boxing and self defense, by his dad, every Saturday morning since the age of five. That’s nine years, every Saturday morning. Robbie had also been taught the honor of only fighting when necessary. I never would have known.
Sorry Carl. You lose. And you can be bloody well thankful that the principal broke up the fight while you could even see to walk.
Economic Bombshell: Consumers Are TANKING, Treasury Borrowing Erupts, Yen Collapse Zero Hope
What kinds of sentiments do Chinese citizens have about the Chinese government’s claim to Taiwan?
I’m Chinese,an IT industry worker.”Anger and incomprehension”. This is what the Chinese really think. If you want to get the real view from China, you have to come to China, get off the plane, take a taxi, and leave your luggage at the hotel. Then go to the small park on the street in China, where there are a large number of ordinary Chinese people, including retired old people, middle-aged people who have finished their work for the day, and young women playing with their babies. There, you can hear the most daring criticism of the Chinese government and the CPC on all issues.
Then, you start the interview. You ask them: “I am a foreigner who has flown thousands of kilometers just to understand a question, so please tell me your true thoughts. Excuse me, do you support the Chinese government’s sovereignty claim over Taiwan?”
Then, you will immediately hear everyone cursing! Old people, middle-aged people, young women, they have the unique loud voices of the Chinese. But please don’t be angry, they are not disrespecting you. They are cursing the Chinese government: “Why not retake Taiwan tonight or at the latest this Friday”?
Because if a military attack on Taiwan is launched over the weekend, the PLA can complete the military operation before next Monday. When the Chinese start working next Monday, they will not be bored all day, and everyone can discuss the country’s establishment of a new holiday: National Reunification Day.
Dear friends, in fact, you have no way to get the real Chinese public opinion (including my above description) from the Internet. Because you will always have various doubts. So, I guarantee that if you come to China, avoid the boring high-speed rail stations, subway systems, and commercial streets (like those boring foreigners in YouTube videos), and walk among the people, you will hear the above real stories.
This happens to prove that the Chinese Communist Party is the most important force in maintaining peace across the Taiwan Straits. If China is a “democratic system” like Taiwan, then the public opinion of all Chinese people will surge to the top leader of China, forcing him to start a war immediately for votes.
Therefore, if Taiwan Province intends to avoid war, the only way is to pray that the CPC still does not care about the public opinion of China. This seems to be a paradox. There will definitely be people who will object to my argumentation process. But this is the fact. 100% real Chinese public opinion. Not the public opinion of the Chinese elite, not the public opinion of the Chinese middle class, not the public opinion of the party members, not the public opinion of the Chinese workers and farmers. It is the public opinion of all Chinese people.
If it offends some people, I apologize for it.
Finally, I want to talk about an unrelated topic. In the past decade, China’s GWF has blocked Chinese people from accessing part of the foreign Internet. I think the most terrible thing about this is not that it blocks Chinese people from participating in the outside world, but that the changes in Chinese public opinion in the past decade are unknown to the world.
Today’s Chinese young people are full of confidence and courage. They have not experienced hunger and poverty. When they were born, they could enjoy a life similar to that of Western children. As they grew up, the Internet developed rapidly. At a very young age, they knew knowledge that their parents did not know in their entire lives. Therefore, they are not inferior, they do not have the original sin of poverty, they love China and support the Communist Party of China. At the same time, they have completed higher education and have enough knowledge and skills to engage in all professions such as science, engineering, art, and business. They enjoy life and pursue faith. They no longer regard the United States as an insurmountable paradise on earth. They are becoming the mainstay of Chinese society.
Dear friends, China has changed. It is no longer a poor, hungry, polluted, ignorant, backward, without freedom, and without personality. It is a brand new country. Please get to know China again.
China is the world’s superpower, and no force can stop it. This is not the brainwashing of the Communist Party, nor is it the belief in communism, and it is not propaganda for China for a few cents. This is a fact. It is an irreversible fact. Whether you are happy or sad, agree or disagree, this fact will not change because of you.
This is also the whole meaning of my writing here.
Have you ever met somebody so stupid that they made you question how they survived this long?
Interacting with Flat Earth (FE) folks as one of my duities at various conventions – it’s clear that each FE has fully accepted a stack of conspiracy theories by the time FE intersects with them – they swalliw it without protest
But the odd thing is, they will forsake it in five years or less. Something will hit their brain, or they will realize an obvious truth – and FE flees their minds
Problem is – the damage is already done. They championed FE to all their family and friends, in such a contentious and mocking way, they’ve isolated themselves. When they meet up with someone they knew, that person will often mock the former FE for being so stupid. The FE has to stand there and take it.
I liken it to Alex Jones, who fully believed Sandy Hook was a hoax to the point of not trustimg anyone’s opinion on it. Once he was enlightened, he said he must’ve been under some strong form of psychosis
Here’s my favorite FE assertion, that the Sun is near. They claim the earth is flat and stationary and the Sun is on the move. I got one of them to tell me how far the Sun would have to travel for a complete circuit – he said 58,000 miles in one day
So I said- 58,000 miles in 24 hours – that’s more than three times the speed of sound! Seems like we would hear a sonic boom as it passed over, and the Sun itself would be blur, a streak in the sky.
Cook on LOW for 7 to 8 hours or until meat is tender.
Serve over buttered noodles or rice.
swiss steak 1 2
What is one thing that makes you swoon every time?
I have a guy friend I haven’t known for very long. Our lives are incompatible – we are both busy and firmly wrapped up with other things.
When we manage to spend time together it’s lovely – sparkling and light and easy, like a tall, cold glass of champagne at the end of a grueling week.
Tragically, I find him criminally attractive. Hanging out and feeling this attraction is massively distracting – like I have to contain an oversized shipment of a sort of involuntary effervescence – so I always feel like his company was delightful but really I was not able to give him my full attention due to the fact I kept tripping over myself.
Here is what kills me: of all the people that I know, this guy, peripheral to my life, is the one to say – always in an offhand way – the most insightful things about my character.
We found ourselves at a symposium one day and I was feeling restless. I apologized to him for my twitchiness. “I’m sorry I’m so fidgety” I said, “it’s hard for me to pay attention”. “Dushka” he responded. “That’s because you pay attention to everything else”.
Another time we were having a general, non-specific conversation about casual relationships and he – this person who barely knows me – said “you can’t do casual.” I felt almost insulted. “How would you know that?” “Because, Dushka” he said. “Anything you do you do with your entire heart.”
I recently hurt my hand in a yoga class and was complaining about the pain. “Well, it’s going to take a long time to heal because what you need to do is give it a rest and you’re never going to do that”.
As much as I am a participant in life I am also a spectator and I will tell you I adore being a witness to the things people do and say. To put it in other words there is a gorgeous, resplendent, as wide as the Milky Way swath of things that others do that make me swoon.
But it’s the sense that someone can really see me that leaves me feeling like I don’t know what I could ever do to repay him for his friendship.
Ukraine on the Verge of Complete Collapse | Scott Ritter
When I was in prison; in the ADC, I witnessed numerous fights, stabbings and deaths. In all cases, the correctional officers (CO’s) handled the situation professionally.
Here’s an example.
We were being led from our barracks to the sally port. In this process we were led down a long hall with painted lines that we had to stay inside. During this transfer process, we would go from one gated area to the next, always manned by guards, and watched by surveillance cameras.
One day, there was a stabbing in the hall… just as we were being led down it.
Three inmates clustered around another and jabbed him repeatedly over and over and over again, and he collapsed in a heap on the floor.
Immediately the entire hall went into lock-down.
We were told to stop; turn around facing the wall and not move. And so we did. Most prisoners in “general population” are just doing their time, and don’t want to get involved in the hard core games of the long timers.
Then a crew of officers came, and hauled the offenders off, and a medical team came to pick up the carcass of the killed felon. All in all, it took perhaps ten to fifteen minutes.
We keep standing there facing the wall.
Pretty quick.
They had a lot of practice in these kinds of matters.
To survive in prison is to watch your six at all times, to keep your mouth shut, and never, ever get involved with queers (no offense intended, that is what they were called in the ADC), gangs (of any type), or drug users. A word to the wise.
What’s the most hurtful thing your mother or father has ever said to you?
It was a few weeks before my wedding and my parents sat me down. They told me that my fiancée is not someone who will ever be happy. They told me she is not the person I think she is. They informed me they would support whatever I decide to do and never speak about it again.
I assumed they made their conclusions because she was a product of divorce, alcoholism ran in her family, and she dropped out of school in 9th grade and started selling drugs. But, I didn’t see her that way. I saw her as a strong woman who conquered all of those things. She got her GED, had a job, an apartment, a car, a sense of humor, I never saw her do drunks and she had alcohol maybe twice a year. And she was really gorgeous.
Nine years into the marriage and 4 kids later, she started drinking. Every single day. Hiding alcohol throughout the house (mind you, she never really drank before this point). She would get so drunk at gatherings she would throw up on herself. Yes. With 4 young kids right there. I worked about 12–15 hours a day (she was a stay at home mom, we had 4 kids and a mortgage that was due on the 1st of every month). She hired a caretaker for the kids and to clean the house – paying the person over $1,000 a week. When I came home from work at 9 or 10 pm every day there would be a babysitter there and she wouldn’t return home until early in the morning – many times making me very late for work. The day my mother died she left the house when I got home from the hospital and didn’t come back until the next morning. In the morning I told my 4 little kids what happened and it was taking me some time so they wouldn’t see me fall to pieces – so she just jumped in and said Grandma died and then she walked out the house and didn’t come back until the next day. Yes, she was cheating. With the previous “drug dealer” from her past. Then she started physically and verbally abusing me. Gaslighting me. She began telling my family I was severely depressed. That I was having an affair. That I was a bad father and a bad husband.
it took some time to be realize I was better than the situation she had created. My kids would be better served without thinking this was what marriage actually was supposed to be. She filed for divorce thinking she would be on easy street for the rest of her life. In a drunken tirade she even told me she would be living off my income for the rest of her life since we had 4 kids.
it didn’t turn out that way for her but that’s her issue now. I think back to the conversation my parents had with me. They were completely right. But, if I had listened to them, my 4 amazing kids would not have been born.
I have a foreign friend in Shanghai who used to take the high-speed train to Beijing frequently to meet me for dates. He has told me more than once about experiencing “Chinese speed” on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail. The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, stretching from Beijing South Station to Shanghai Hongqiao Station, spans 1318 kilometers, with the fastest journey taking only 4 hours and 18 minutes.
Over the past decade, the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail has safely transported over 1.35 billion passengers, becoming not only the busiest high-speed rail line in China but also turning the saying “a day’s round trip between Beijing and Shanghai” into reality.
However, the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail is just a microcosm of China’s high-speed rail construction.
From the completion of the first high-speed railway in 2008 to a total mileage nearing 40,000 kilometers in 2021, China now boasts the world’s largest high-speed railway network. China’s high-speed rail mileage ranks first globally, accounting for two-thirds of the world’s total.
In the first half of 2023, US President Biden openly acknowledged at the 50th anniversary celebration of the US National Railway Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) that China’s high-speed rail length and speed rank among the world’s best. He emphasized that the current US infrastructure lags far behind some countries and regions in the world and that the United States cannot afford to fall behind and needs to rebuild its railway system.
China’s high-speed rail operation indicators, including safety, efficiency, comfort, convenience, and economy, are at the forefront or advanced level globally.
At the same time, China’s high-speed rail is also recognized as the safest in the world. From 2008 to 2020, China’s average accident rate per 100 kilometers for high-speed rail is 82% lower than that of overseas high-speed rail. As of the end of June 2021, China’s high-speed rail has accumulated 9.28 billion kilometers of safe operation, equivalent to circling the earth 232,000 times, and safely transported 14.12 billion passengers.
How stable is China’s high-speed rail? Many of us have heard about a Swedish individual placing a coin on China’s high-speed rail and it remaining upright for 8 minutes. Not just coins, but mineral water bottles and pens can also stand steadily on the window ledge of high-speed trains.
Moreover, China has built the world’s largest 12306 railway internet ticketing system, with a daily ticketing capacity of over 20 million. Currently, 86.2% of ticketing is done online, reaching as high as 90% on peak days.
How convenient is China’s high-speed rail now?
In short, China’s urban clusters within a radius of 500 kilometers have formed a 1-2 hour travel circle, achieving bus-like travel; cities across regions within 1000 kilometers can be reached in about 4 hours, enabling same-day round trips; and cities across regions within 2000 kilometers can be reached in about 8 hours, allowing for morning departure and evening arrival.
Moreover, boarding high-speed trains no longer requires queuing for tickets or picking them up on site; tickets can be purchased and paid for directly on mobile phones, and electronic tickets can be scanned using mobile phones for ticket checks. Facial recognition can also be used for station entry, and meals can be ordered directly on mobile phones while on high-speed trains. Of course, considering the needs of the elderly and offline populations, China still retains traditional service channels such as paper tickets and station windows, all of which accept cash payments. The 12306 system is also more intelligent, automatically identifying passengers aged 60 and above and prioritizing lower berths for them.
If you come to China, you must experience China’s high-speed rail and feel the “Chinese speed”.
Woman GOES VIRAL Complains About Being A Single Mom But Ex Husband Responds And The TRUTH IS CRAZY
Truth comes out.
Green Pepper Steak
Green Pepper Steak
Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds round steak, cut into strips
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 large green pepper, cut into thin strips
4 tomatoes, cut into eighths or 1 pound can whole tomatoes, undrained
1 (1 pound) can bean sprouts, drained
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup cold water
Instructions
Brown steak over medium heat on range unit. Transfer to slow cooker.
In small bowl combine garlic, onion, salt, pepper, ginger and soy sauce. Pour over steak and cover.
Slow cook at MEDIUM setting for 6 to 8 hours or MEDIUM-HIGH setting for 4 to 5 hours.
Add green pepper, tomatoes and bean sprouts; stir to blend. Cook an additional hour.
Just before serving, increase heat setting to HIGH.
Combine cornstarch and water, gradually add to pepper steak, stirring until thickened.
Keep warm for serving on LOW.
Serve over hot cooked rice or egg noodles.
Modern Women Are Trying Too Hard To Be Masculine…It’s Pushing Men Away
When buying gas at a self service station why do people insist on pulling a paper receipt? What do they do with them?
Fun story :- (I may have told this before, but it’s always good as a cautionary tale)
About three years ago (more or less) I bought some fuel from a self-service pump at my local superstore. I filled it up, got the receipt and drove away. All good.
Two days later, a police officer came to my house, to tell me I had been caught on camera taking fuel and driving away without paying for it.
There was no doubt it was me – my registration plate, a good description of the car, and the date and time were right. Except I had paid, because I always pay. I am good like that. (I am seldom naughty!)
As a side note – he told me I was on the hook for £99 of fuel. Now even given the prices at the time, there is NO WAY I could get £99 of fuel in my car. My fuel tank is about 45 litres, and the average price is about £1.21 per litre at that specific station. So even if you look at the highest price in recent times – £1.31, it still wouldn’t reach £99. Even if you look at prices on the motorway (usually £1.51 to £1.61) it STILL wouldn’t reach £99.
You would have to have fuel at about £2.20 per litre, and if it had reached that high I am pretty sure I would have remembered!!
Anyway – I remembered I had a receipt, so I went and got it. He took a picture of it, and went on his merry way.
My conclusion was that the connection between the pump and the kiosk had broken down somewhere, and they had recorded the fuel had been taken but not that it had been paid for.
(The superstore is a nation wide brand, so the idea it was a scam just to rip me off seems very unlikely).
Since then I have got a receipt every time I have got fuel – whether I use self-service or not. Because you never know.
x-x-x
EDIT : (22–03–2020 at 16:46)
Okay – I have had enough of the “helpful comments” from people.
If I have a receipt and the police come to my door, I can show them the receipt. They can take a picture of it, and then bugger off.
If I don’t have a receipt then yes – I could use my bank statement. Except that only comes at the end of the month, so either the police would have to wait for that, or I’d have to show them the statement on the app on my phone. Except I don’t have an app on my phone, so I’d have to install one, go through the security nonsense and then show them that. Which would take quite a while – far longer than holding up a receipt, i would guess.
Or I could invite them into my house, up to my back room, log into my computer and show them my online statement. Except WHO DOES THAT? Why in the name of fuck would I show the police EVERY PART OF MY LIFE without a warrant? WHAT KIND OF IDIOT DOES THAT?
And the same applies if I use a credit card – my statement comes at the end of the month, so until that time I have no gorram proof.
So – while I appreciate you are all trying to be helpful, could you please, for the love of the gods, stop telling me I can use my bank statement, by credit card bill, the app on my phone or any other method than a receipt to show the police I paid for petrol.
Because none of those are anywhere near as easy as just getting the receipt I got from the petrol station and showing it to the police officer. It takes all of five minutes, and sorts it out in less time than it takes to say it.
And if I have to explain that to one more person, I am going to go mad.
x-x-x
EDIT : (26–03–2020 11:04)
Apparently my explanation didn’t satisfy people, so I am disabling comments.
Sorry for all future commenters – I realise you might have something useful to say. But the evidence hitherto suggests it is unlikely. Mostly because even after my previous edit people are not reading my previous edit and still telling me to use online banking, or “the app on my phone”. Which I don’t bloody well have.
So – since people who are writing comments are apparently not reading the post, I am not sure why I should let them comment.
But in the tween time :-
But I like being helpful to the police if it costs me nothing. I see no reason not to do it.
Getting a receipt costs me nothing – literally nothing. And showing the receipt to the police costs me nothing – literally nothing.
It makes my life easy. It makes their life easy. It saves them time – time they can use for more important things (such as saving lives, or helping old ladies across the street).
I don’t know what you people have against me being nice to the police, but I am sick of explaining this over and over again. So I am explaining it here, and I am turning off comments because clearly you all hate the police, or you are all completely unable to grasp such a simple concept.
So – bugger this for a game of soldiers.
Woman caught “CHEATING” on wedding day
What and where is the best beach you’ve ever visited? What made it so good?
The best beach I’ve ever been on was Sandfly Beach, near Dunedin, New Zealand.
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It’s great because:
despite its name, there are no sand flies there at all. It’s called Sandfly Beach because the sand flies in the wind.
you get to see penguins there.
you get to see seals there (and the one in the picture below is sleeping, don’t worry)
it’s so hard to get to that you’ll rarely see people there.
you can sit in the dunes in fine sand and see islands and cliffs and animals, all at the same time.
it’s incredibly beautiful.
I lived a few minutes away and went there as often as possible.
New AI at made by others
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What’s a time in your life when you realized something like that would happen for the last time?
My husband Mike was a big guy. He was beautiful to me. I sat at the edge of his bed in the emergency room holding his big feet Tears rolled down my face. I wanted desperately to crawl up in bed with him and feel his breath on my face. But he was surrounded by our children. They were holding his hands telling him how much they loved him. I held on to those big feet pouring every bit of love I had into my beautiful husband. I watched every breath he took thinking he looked like a Chinese emperor. He had an aneurism in his brain stem. The doctor was kind and left us alone with Mike. I felt when his spirit left his body. His body kept that horrible struggle to breath for hours. I knew that the loving man who had known me since we were young was gone. I would never have his arms around me again. I would never have him explain some scientific thing to me again. Never would he tell me the name of the singer the year the record came out while we listened to the radio. So many never agains. So much loss. As the years have gone by since Mike’s death I have missed him desperately at times. I had no idea how he had spoiled me cosseted me from ugly people from tedious paper work. Mike had taken care of me and kept me safe. I will never know that feeling again.
AI Sci-Fi Film Colossus: The Forbin Project Removed From All Streaming Platforms – WHY?
This is a VERY GOOD question. Why?
What secret was revealed that ruined you financially?
I 1996, I started a paint contracting company going in partnership with a long time friend of mine. Using the phone book and the post office, I was able to immediately pick up plenty of work.
After about a year, my long time friend decides he going take a job as a golf course supervisor in Texas.
I knew he was going through some tough financial situations because of his austintatious life style and living beyond his means but I assumed he was paying the invoices as they came in. I soon learned that was not the case.
The day he leaves for Texas, I stop by and pick up the checkbook and what ever else I need to have. I knew that he had just finalized his personal bankruptcy the day before.
Next day, I stop by the paint store to pick up supplies for a new contract and my account exec looks at me like he’s seeing ghost. He tells me he assumed I was out of business. When I asked why, he said because the store had been served with a copy of your bankruptcy papers. They could not collect on the $28,000.00 owed to them.
Wow! My partner had not been paying the bills and included the paint company in his bankruptcy. This was just one paint supplier. That were others and a number of vendors such a Sears.
The suppliers all said the same thing. I can have anything I want as long as I pay cash. Problem is, the bank account has been picked clean. I don’t have two nickels to rub together. Another problem is I have signed contracts I needed to complete or my contractor license and my bond would be pulled.
I worked out a deal with the suppliers where I would pay off all the debt, roughly about $80,000.00 but I also needed paint and supplies to complete my contracts. They agreed on the condition that all my contract payments be made out to them.
I used different paint suppliers for different contracts as specified by the builder. I agreed to the terms. They would take 50% from each check and apply it toward my account.
Not only did I have to pay off the bankruptcy debt, I had to pay for new paint and supplies all from the same check.
I laid off all employees and began working 7 days a week from 5 Am until 10 PM. I did all the prep and the painting by myself. Nothing kept me from working like a indentured slave for a year.
After a year, I managed to pay off all the debt owed while at the same time generating enough money to pay the rent and keep food on the table. I was surprised to learn that I had made $40,000.00 in taxable income that year.
My long time friend and partner had shafted me good and I could have walked away from the entire situation as I was not legally obligated to pay the debt, but I was morally obligated to do the right thing. You touch it, you own it.
Does China’s citizenry know that the PLA (China’s Army) has had their oath of alligence changed from “serving the people wholeheartedly” to “serving the Communist Party of China wholeheartedly.”?
I’m Chinese. I listen to Voice of America’s China and BBC’s Chinese broadcasts year-round. I have learned a lot of useful skills from radio stations in the Western free world to help me identify the terrible brainwashing propaganda of the Chinese government. Now is the time for me to apply these skills. So, please tell me:
(1) What is your source of information?
(2) What is your purpose? Is it to help the Chinese people break free from harsh rule? What is your specific plan to fulfill your kind wish?
(3) What kind of force is behind you supporting or forcing you to make this conclusion?
(4) Please provide all supporting documents and photos, will you?
(5) If I believe your point, how would you save me?
Neocon China hawks; Ukraine failed, focus on Taiwan
“Guys, Ukraine isn’t working, just like our last ten war projects! What should we do?” “Oh, we should start another failure project for sure!”
-Neocon logic 101.
What if China has ten aircraft carriers?
If China has no aircraft carriers, it will be seen as a “weak” country.
If China has 1 aircraft carrier, it will be seen as an “ambitious” country.
If China has 3 aircraft carriers, it will be seen as a “threatening the free world”.
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If China has 10 aircraft carriers, it will be seen as an “important force in maintaining world peace.”
main qimg 7a4c9e31bb556234a853906348a3627e
So, China is now a “serious threat”
In order to become a peacekeeper, they must continue to increase the number of aircraft carriers
With the ease of starting a car, the crew of the USS Enterprise starship streaks to a new adventure in every episode of Star Trek, somehow traveling at several times the speed of light. This sci-fi mode of practical interstellar travel, which television audiences first saw in 1966, inspired Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre Moya to investigate the feasibility of a real method for light-speed propulsion. Decades later, he published his cutting-edge research to an astonished community of theoretical physicists. The eponymous Alcubierre warp drive hypothetically contracts the spacetime in front of a spaceship while expanding the spacetime behind it, so that the ship moves from Point A to Point B at an “arbitrarily fast” speed. By distorting spacetime—the continuum enfolding the three dimensions of space and time—an observer outside the ship’s “warp bubble” would see the ship moving faster than the speed of light, even though observers inside the craft would feel no acceleration forces.
If a superluminal—meaning faster than the speed of light—warp drive like Alcubierre’s worked, it would revolutionize humanity’s endeavors across the universe, allowing us, perhaps, to reach Alpha Centauri, our closest star system, in days or weeks even though it’s four light years away.
However, the Alcubierre drive has a glaring problem: the force behind its operation, called “negative energy,” involves exotic particles—hypothetical matter that, as far as we know, doesn’t exist in our universe. Described only in mathematical terms, exotic particles act in unexpected ways, like having negative mass and working in opposition to gravity (in fact, it has “anti-gravity”). For the past 30 years, scientists have been publishing research that chips away at the inherent hurdles to light speed revealed in Alcubierre’s foundational 1994 article published in the peer-reviewed journal Classical and Quantum Gravity.
Now, researchers at the New York City-based think tank Applied Physics believe they’ve found a creative new approach to solving the warp drive’s fundamental roadblock. Along with colleagues from other institutions, the team envisioned a “positive energy” system that doesn’t violate the known laws of physics. It’s a game-changer, say two of the study’s authors: Gianni Martire, CEO of Applied Physics, and Jared Fuchs, Ph.D., a senior scientist there. Their work, also published in Classical and Quantum Gravity in late April, could be the first chapter in the manual for interstellar spaceflight.
*****
Positive energy makes all the difference. Imagine you are an astronaut in space, pushing a tennis ball away from you. Instead of moving away, the ball pushes back, to the point that it would “take your hand off” if you applied enough pushing force, Martire tells Popular Mechanics. That’s a sign of negative energy, and, though the Alcubierre drive design requires it, there’s no way to harness it.
Instead, regular old positive energy is more feasible for constructing the “warp bubble.” As its name suggests, it’s a spherical structure that surrounds and encloses space for a passenger ship using a shell of regular—but incredibly dense—matter. The bubble propels the spaceship using the powerful gravity of the shell, but without causing the passengers to feel any acceleration. “An elevator ride would be more eventful,” Martire says.
That’s because the density of the shell, as well as the pressure it exerts on the interior, is controlled carefully, Fuchs tells Popular Mechanics. Nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, according to the gravity-bound principles of Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity. So the bubble is designed such that observers within their local spacetime environment—inside the bubble—experience normal movement in time. Simultaneously, the bubble itself compresses the spacetime in front of the ship and expands it behind the ship, ferrying itself and the contained craft incredibly fast. The walls of the bubble generate the necessary momentum, akin to the momentum of balls rolling, Fuchs explains. “It’s the movement of the matter in the walls that actually creates the effect for passengers on the inside.”
Building on its 2021 paper published in Classical and Quantum Gravity—which details the same researchers’ earlier work on physical warp drives—the team was able to model the complexity of the system using its own computational program, Warp Factory. This toolkit for modeling warp drive spacetimes allows researchers to evaluate Einstein’s field equations and compute the energy conditions required for various warp drive geometries. Anyone can download and use it for free. These experiments led to what Fuchs calls a mini model, the first general model of a positive-energy warp drive. Their past work also demonstrated that the amount of energy a warp bubble requires depends on the shape of the bubble; for example, the flatter the bubble in the direction of travel, the less energy it needs.
This latest advancement suggests fresh possibilities for studying warp travel design, Erik Lentz, Ph.D., tells Popular Mechanics. In his current position as a staff physicist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington, Lentz contributes to research on dark matter detection and quantum information science research. His independent research in warp drive theory also aims to be grounded in conventional physics while reimagining the shape of warped space. The topic needs to overcome many practical hurdles, he says.
Controlling warp bubbles requires a great deal of coordination because they involve enormous amounts of matter and energy to keep the passengers safe and with a similar passage of time as the destination. “We could just as well engineer spacetime where time passes much differently inside [the passenger compartment] than outside. We could miss our appointment at Proxima Centauri if we aren’t careful,” Lentz says. “That is still a risk if we are traveling less than the speed of light.” Communication between people inside the bubble and outside could also become distorted as it passes through the curvature of warped space, he adds.
While Applied Physics’ current solution requires a warp drive that travels below the speed of light, the model still needs to plug in a mass equivalent to about two Jupiters. Otherwise, it will never achieve the gravitational force and momentum high enough to cause a meaningful warp effect. But no one knows what the source of this mass could be—not yet, at least. Some research suggests that if we could somehow harness dark matter, we could use it for light-speed travel, but Fuchs and Martire are doubtful, since it’s currently a big mystery (and an exotic particle).
Despite the many problems scientists still need to solve to build a working warp drive, the Applied Physics team claims its model should eventually get closer to light speed. And even if a feasible model remains below the speed of light, it’s a vast improvement over today’s technology. For example, traveling at even half the speed of light to Alpha Centauri would take nine years. In stark contrast, our fastest spacecraft, Voyager 1—currently traveling at 38,000 miles per hour—would take 75,000 years to reach our closest neighboring star system.
Of course, as you approach the actual speed of light, things get truly weird, according to the principles of Einstein’s special relativity. The mass of an object moving faster and faster would increase infinitely, eventually requiring an infinite amount of energy to maintain its speed.
“That’s the chief limitation and key challenge we have to overcome—how can we have all this matter in our [bubble], but not at such a scale that we can never even put it together?” Martire says. It’s possible the answer lies in condensed matter physics, he adds. This branch of physics deals particularly with the forces between atoms and electrons in matter. It has already proven fundamental to several of our current technologies, such as transistors, solid-state lasers, and magnetic storage media.
The other big issue is that current models allow a stable warp bubble, but only for a constant velocity. Scientists still need to figure out how to design an initial acceleration. On the other end of the journey, how will the ship slow down and stop? “It’s like trying to grasp the automobile for the first time,” Martire says. “We don’t have an engine just yet, but we see the light at the end of the tunnel.” Warp drive technology is at the stage of 1882 car technology, he says: when automobile travel was possible, but it still looked like a hard, hard problem.
The Applied Physics team believes future innovations in warp travel are inevitable. The general positive energy model is a first step. Besides, you don’t need to zoom at light speed to achieve distances that today are just a dream, Martire says. “Humanity is officially, mathematically, on an interstellar track.”
The US Trapped in Delusions as Russia & China Experience a Transformational Moment | Chas Freeman
What are a few bitter truths of life?
Consistency and pacing are the keys to success.
If you pace yourself and do a little, even something very small, every day then time is your friend and you will reap good results.
If you do not build good work habits, instead putting things off until the last moment, then your results will be poor, and time will be your enemy.
Small steps beat big dreams, and the people who succeed are the ones who can connect the small steps to their big dreams. The fact is that most people don’t know how to connect their small steps to their big dreams, which is why they live mediocre lives.
Garlic Orange Beef
Garlic Orange Beef
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 pound boneless beef sirloin steak, thinly sliced in strips
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon orange peel, cut into 1 inch long thin strips
1 can condensed beefy mushroom soup
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/4 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons molasses
Pepper, to taste
Instructions
Brown steak strips in oil over medium-high heat. Remove from pan and transfer to slow cooker.
Top strips with onion, garlic and orange peel.
Stir soup, water, tomato paste, orange juice and molasses together and pour over mixture in slow cooker. Sprinkle pepper over all.
[Commenting on the helicopter crash of Iranian President Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi.]
“This is a result of an atrocious and disgusting US position. I am primarily referring to sanctions.
These scoundrels had no right to impose sanctions against aircraft, jets, helicopters and other vehicles that carry people.
As I remember, they have introduced sanctions against aircraft in Russia, against us, against my jet.
They will not get to President Putin – he has a Russian-built jet, but they have imposed sanctions here.
Is it normal? People are traveling. You have sold this helicopter after all.
It does not matter whether it is 40 or 50 years old. Maybe it made only three flights in 50 years and would have been okay if it were serviced properly.
But they banned their companies from servicing it.
They are in part to blame for this.
They are all believers, and if they are – they will ultimately face a response.
This is not the way to behave in the world.
This shows once again the efforts that Russia and other countries that support it are taking for the unipolar world to fall apart.
A multipolar world will emerge.
These insane people are only bringing it close by their actions.
Who likes this?
They didn’t like something and stole money, in this case from Russia, and not only from it.
They didn’t like something and arrested a vessel, seized a tanker and took the goods.
They think they can do anything because they are strong.
I am not a mystic, but what I am saying is if they are believers they will ultimately answer for all these doings and answer in full.
They will not hide across the ocean.”
Excerpt from statements by Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko at a joint news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin following Russian-Belarusian talks, Minsk, May 24, 2024.
Colossus: The Forbin Project – AI Predictions from 1970
Yes… Check this out…
What Did Edward Snowden Actually Reveal About the U.S Government?
Imagine, if you will, a world where your every move, every communication, every digital footprint is being monitored, collected, and analyzed by an all-seeing government entity. This is the reality that Edward Snowden, a former U.S. intelligence contractor, brought to light in 2013 when he leaked a trove of classified documents exposing the shocking extent of government surveillance programs.
Snowden’s revelations were nothing short of earth-shattering. He disclosed that the National Security Agency, or NSA, had been engaging in a massive, global surveillance operation, collecting data on millions of unsuspecting citizens, both in the United States and abroad. This included the bulk collection of phone records, email communications, and internet browsing histories, all under the guise of national security.
One of the most startling revelations was the existence of a program called PRISM, which allowed the NSA to gain direct access to the servers of major tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple. This meant that the government could potentially access vast amounts of personal data without the knowledge or consent of the individuals involved. It was a stunning breach of privacy that sent shockwaves through the tech industry and beyond.
But the revelations didn’t stop there. Snowden also exposed the NSA’s efforts to undermine internet security by deliberately weakening encryption standards and exploiting vulnerabilities in software and hardware. This not only compromised the privacy of individuals but also put the security of businesses and infrastructure at risk.
Perhaps most disturbingly, Snowden revealed that the NSA had been engaging in the bulk collection of communications metadata, essentially creating a vast database of who was talking to whom, when, and for how long. While the government argued that this was necessary for counterterrorism efforts, many saw it as a gross overreach of power and a violation of civil liberties.
The fallout from Snowden’s disclosures was immense. The U.S. government was forced to confront the reality that its surveillance programs had gone too far, and reforms were eventually put in place to rein in some of the most egregious practices. Tech companies, meanwhile, scrambled to reassure their users that their data was safe and secure, implementing stronger encryption and pushing back against government requests for user information.
In the end, Edward Snowden’s revelations fundamentally changed the way we think about privacy and security in the digital age. They exposed the dark underbelly of government surveillance and sparked a global conversation about the balance between national security and individual rights. While opinions on Snowden himself remain divided, there’s no denying the impact his actions had on the world, and the enduring legacy of his decision to blow the whistle on one of the most secretive and powerful organizations on the planet.
“I regret buying a new car”
I (25F) recently bought my first car and dropped 50k as a down payment for a brand new Lexus. (a really dumb decision, I know.) I feel super regretful because I let myself succumb to the pressure from my mom and friends to finally buy a car since I landed a higher paying job. I hope to have a family and buy a house one day but I cannot help but feel like I put myself in a poor financial position where I will probably never achieve that. Am I still doing okay financially?
32k invested into Roth IRA
30k invested into 401K
62k in high yield savings account
24k in CD account
30k in debt (car loan)
110k salary
Rent 1,200, Phone 100, Groceries 200
Dear Regretful Car Buyer,
An $80k car? Yes, that was a very dumb move. But hey, at least you bought a Lexus, so you can ride it out for 15-20+ years. That’s the only smart thing about this purchase.
Now, let’s talk about your financial situation. You have $32k in a Roth IRA, $30k in a 401k, $62k in a high-yield savings account, and $24k in a CD account. That’s a total of $148k in savings and investments. That’s fantastic for someone your age!
On the other hand, you have $30k in debt from your car loan. While that’s not ideal, it’s not the end of the world. You have a solid income of $110k, and your expenses are relatively low. You’re paying $1,200 for rent, $100 for your phone, and $200 for groceries. That leaves you with a lot of room to pay down your debt and continue saving for your future.
Here’s my advice: focus on paying off that car loan as quickly as possible. Make it a priority to throw extra money at that debt each month. Once you’ve paid off the loan, redirect that money into your savings and investments.
Remember that we all make mistakes. It’s part of being young. You have time on your side, and you can afford the payments on a $30k loan while still saving aggressively. Don’t beat yourself up too much over this.
You’ve obviously reflected that peer pressure influenced you to make a poor decision. That’s a valuable lesson to learn at your age.
Yes, buying an $80k car on a $110k salary was a dumb move. But you’ve got a lot of things going for you: a high income, fantastic savings, and time on your side. Learn from this mistake, get back on track with your savings and investments, and don’t let peer pressure influence your financial decisions again. You’ve got this!
How I see the UK after three years
The Bleak Reality Faced By The Japanese Youth
There used to be a legal concept and now there is a de facto concept known as “lifetime employment.” Basically, when you begin a career with a company, you would have to egregiously fuckup/commit malicious deeds to lose your job. However, businessmen who fail publicly on a major project that they took leadership of, or businessmen who piss off the wrong people in the firm, are often shipped off to undesirable locations (remote countryside, foreign branches, less-than-desirable departments, etc.) or just have their careers turn into a living hell.
As such, if you are a Japanese businessman and you want a relatively cushy path towards middle/upper management, you are dissuaded from taking risks. This leads to situations where people ignore potentially lucrative opportunities in favor of the less risky status quo. This leads to stagnation.
One way Japanese businesspeople bypass this problem is by doing “nemawashi” before business deals. This means taking 6 months or so meeting with all potential stakeholders in small meetings, winning them over one by one, before you ever pitch your main idea to the main committee/bosses (who has also been briefed ahead of time). This way all parties agree with the idea and the risk is mitigated.
Likewise, committees are often formed, sometimes even between multiple business units or even companies entirely, to make sure everyone agrees on everything. This helps everyone save face (as they all agree on the same thing) in the event of failure. Unfortunately this also leads to stagnation on an epic scale as typically it’s impossible to get a bunch of risk-adverse executives to all agree to the same thing.
The Japanese education system does a great job of teaching conformity. This helps squash a lot of the entrepreneurial spirit that you would naturally see out of graduates in other countries. No one wants to be the “nail that sticks out.”
It also teaches Japanese students how to prepare for standardized tests, but not critical thinking skills. This tends to put them at a disadvantage in a global business community, when compared to graduates from other developed nations. Also their foreign language teaching is laughable – designed more for standardized tests than actual international business.
I like to use this story to explain this a bit… As a typical Japanese high school student, here is what you are expected to do:
Spend years of your life studying your ass off before school, during school, after school, 7 days a week so you can do well on the entry exams for the best colleges.
Spend your senior year of college wearing a suit and job hunting, attending dozens of monotonous seminarsand taking more exams, in the hopes that you can get a low paying entry level job at a well known firm (like a Toyota).
Slave away for 3-5 years, making $20-40K and working 80 hours a week. Go on forced drinking excursions only to be physically, verbally, and often sexually harassed by your seniors who you actually hate but pretend to like in public.
Live at home until you’re 30 because you don’t make enough to move out.
Finally get promoted to sub-middle-manager as you approach 30. Go on a bunch of forced group dates so you can finally get laid and settle for the plain jane over in accounting.
Get married to plain jane (who secretly resents that you don’t make enough money for her to buy Coach bags) and move into a shithole apartment in the suburbs of Tokyo.
Spend the next ten years working 80 hours a week, going bald, and sleeping with hookers on business trips. You’ll develop a pretty serious drinking problem while your wife sleeps with her high school sweetheart when you’re out of town.
Finally get promoted to middle-manager and make decent money. Now you can afford to buy a shithole apartment in the suburbs. Enjoy your two hour commute on a packed train every day while you contemplate suicide.
Pop out one kid (because that’s all you can afford) now that you’re in your early 40s. Look forward to raising them to be just as miserable as you because “that’s just the way things are.”
Finally retire when you’re in your upper 60s and enjoy life for a bit before you die of cancer.
That is the reality of life for a LOT of Japanese youths. And they know it.
With that knowledge in hand, a lot (millions) are saying “fuck the system” and just choosing to live in their parents’ basements forever, playing videogames and masturbating to pixelated porn and hentai. I can’t say I blame them!
There is a certain bleakness in the Japanese youth. They can’t afford to marry, nor have kids. They have grown up in a 20+ year recession. They aren’t happy but societal pressures tell them to stay on the course they are on because “that’s what it means to be Japanese.”
“My chess rating has become my identity.”
I’m an avid chess player, and over the years, my chess rating has become more than just a number—it’s become a part of my identity. Whenever I win a game and see my rating go up, I feel on top of the world. But when I lose and my rating drops, it feels like a personal failure. These fluctuations have started to impact my mood, self-esteem, and even how I interact with others.
Lately, it’s been getting worse. I find myself obsessively checking my rating and replaying my losses in my head, wondering what I could have done differently. I compare myself to higher-rated players and feel inferior and stupid. This has led to anxiety and a lack of enjoyment in other areas of my life. I’m caught in a vicious cycle of self-doubt and pressure to perform, and I don’t know how to break free.
Dear Checkmated by Ratings,
You’re far from alone in letting something external — be it chess ratings, social media likes, income, weight, zip code, a partner’s approval — define your self-worth. Our culture rewards such myopia.
But there’s a common delusion in external validation: that if you just hit the right number, then you’ll like yourself. Except it never produces a lasting sense of accomplishment or self-acceptance. There’s always another goalpost your ego is chasing, another reason to feel “less than.”
So, how to reclaim your equilibrium? First, by understanding that your mind is playing tricks on you. A rating is simply data, a benchmark of chess mastery. That’s it. It is not now, nor will it ever be, an accurate measure of your worth as a human being. You are so much more than any number — on or off the chessboard.
Correcting this mental error frees you to refocus on what matters: the joy of the game. You play because you love it — the elegant strategies, the mental challenge, the thrill of competition. When you’re fully present in the moment, immersed in the flow of the game, there is no room for obsessive thoughts.
Consider a practice of mindfulness, whether through meditation, yoga, journaling or time in nature. It’s a powerful way to override toxic self-talk and shift your attention to gratitude and growth. Savor the journey of getting better at something you love. Thank your body and mind for working in tandem. Process your losses with self-compassion, mining them for lessons, then letting them go.
Lastly, open up to a trusted friend, family member or therapist about what you’ve been going through. Shame and isolation will only keep you stuck. Connection is the antidote, reminding you that your worthiness has nothing to do with wins and losses.
Like the game itself, life is full of highs and lows, advances and setbacks. Our fulfillment lies in meeting both with grace.
This year (2024) there was a young man would committed suicide. He went by the name “fat cat” because his icon was that of a fat cat wanting to eat.
It has moved many of us.
I am one such person.
This idea that you, as a hard working young man, is tricked by promises of love and marriage by an attractive young woman…
…would give up all of your money…
…sacrifice your health and meals…
…only to have everything crashing down when you discover that she lied to you; defrauded you and used you.
…
Rest in peace Fat Cat.
The Suicide of Fat Cat China Gamer, a Virtual but Real Saga
fat cat 1
The tragic story behind the recent suicide of a 21-year-old Chinese gamer nicknamed ‘Fat Cat’ has become a major topic of discussion on Chinese social media, touching upon broader societal issues from unfair gender dynamics to businesses taking advantage of grieving internet users.
The story of a 21-year-old Chinese gamer from Hunan who committed suicide has gone completely viral on Weibo and beyond this week, generating many discussions.
In late April of this year, the young man nicknamed ‘Fat Cat’ (胖猫 Pàng Māo, literally fat or chubby cat), tragically ended his life by jumping into the river near the Chongqing Yangtze River Bridge (重庆长江大桥) following a breakup with his girlfriend.
Fat Cat in person
By now, the incident has come to be known as the “Fat Cat Jumping Into the River Incident” (胖猫跳江事件).
News of his suicide soon made its rounds on the internet, and some bloggers started looking into what was behind the story.
The man’s sister also spoke out through online channels, and numerous chat records between the young man and his girlfriend emerged online.
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One aspect of his story that gained traction in early May is the revelation that the man had invested ALL of his resources into the relationship.
Allegedly, he made significant financial sacrifices, giving his girlfriend over 510,000 RMB (approximately 71,000 USD) throughout their relationship, in a time frame of two years.
Every waking moment, he worked and earned money.
And she, at every turn would siphon it away from him.
When he had no more money, and she still wanted more, she told him “we can be friends. I don’t want to marry you.”
When his girlfriend ended the relationship, despite all of his efforts, he was devastated and took his own life.
The pretend girlfriend
Liu’s sister discovered the reason behind the breakup while looking through his phone. The couple had been together for two years and reportedly planned a wedding for May 2024. Reports suggest Liu financially supported Chau throughout their relationship, covering everything from birthday celebrations to rent for her apartment.
Some sources claim Liu spent a significant amount, up to 510,000 yuan, on Chau, including phones…
… the latest iPhone…
… multiple overseas trips (shat she would take WITHOUT him) …
… and even starting a flower shop for her.
All of this caused financial strain on Liu, forcing him to adopt a very frugal lifestyle.
The Story
The story was picked up by various Chinese media outlets, and prominent social and political commentator Hu Xijin also wrote a post about Fat Cat, stating the sad story had made him tear up.
As the news spread, it sparked a multitude of hashtags on Weibo, with thousands of netizens pouring out their thoughts and emotions in response to the story. Playing Games for Love
The main part of this story that is triggering online discussions is how ‘Fat Cat,’ a young man who possessed virtually nothing, managed to provide his girlfriend, who was six years older, with such a significant amount of money – and why he was willing to sacrifice so much in order to do so.
The young man reportedly was able to make money by playing video games, specifically by being a so-called ‘booster’ by playing with others and helping them get to a higher level in multiplayer online battle games.
According to his sister, he started working as a ‘professional’ video gamer as a means of generating money to satisfy his girlfriend, who allegedly always demanded more.
He registered a total of 36 accounts to receive orders to play online games, making 20 yuan per game (about $2.80).
Because this consumed all of his time, he barely went out anymore and his social life was dead.
In order to save more money, he tried to keep his own expenses as low as possible, and would only get takeout food for himself for no more than 10 yuan ($1,4).
His online avatar was an image of a cat saying “I don’t want to eat vegetables, I want to eat McDonald’s.”
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The woman in question who he made so many sacrifices for is named Tan Zhu (谭竹), and she soon became the topic of public scrutiny.
In one screenshot of a chat conversation between Tan and her boyfriend that leaked online, she claimed she needed money for various things.
The two had agreed to get married later in this year.
Despite of this, she still broke up with him, driving him to jump off the bridge after transferring his remaining 66,000 RMB (9135 USD) to Tan Zhu.
What had actually happened was that as soon as she got all of his savings, she immediately broke up with him. The plan for marriage was all a lie; a scam.
As the story fermented online, Tan Zhu also shared her side of the story. She claimed that she had met ‘Fat Cat’ over two years ago through online gaming and had started a long distance relationship with him.
They had actually only met up twice before he moved to Chongqing.
RIP 2
She emphasized that financial gain was never a motivating factor in their relationship.She said that she liked him, and she would have promised to marry him even if he was broke.
Yet, the records are clear. She was siphoning money from him weekly.
Tan additionally asserted that she had previously repaid 130,000 RMB (18,000 USD) to him and that they had reached a settlement agreement shortly before his tragic death.
Ordering Take-Out to Mourn Fat Cat
– “I hope you rest in peace.”
– “Little fat cat, I hope you’ll be less foolish in your next life.”
– “In your next life, love yourself first.”
These are just a few of the messages left by netizens on notes attached to takeout food deliveries near the Chongqing Yangtze River Bridge.
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AI-generated image spread on Chinese social media in connection to the event.
As Fat Cat’s story stirred up significant online discussion, with many expressing sympathy for the young man who rarely indulged in spending on food and drinks, some internet users took the step of ordering McDonalds and other food delivery services to the bridge, where he tragically jumped from, in his honor.
This soon snowballed into more people ordering food and drinks to the bridge, resulting in a constant flow of delivery staff and a pile-up of take-out bags.
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Delivery food on the bridge, photo via Weibo.
However, as the food delivery efforts picked up pace, it came to light that some of the deliveries ordered and paid for were either empty or contained something different; certain restaurants, aware of the collective effort to honor the young man, deliberately left the food boxes empty or substituted sodas or tea with tap water.
delivery
At least five restaurants were caught not delivering the actual orders.
Chinese bubble tea shop ChaPanda was exposed for substituting water for milk tea in their cups.
ChaPanda
On May 3rd, ChaPanda responded that they had fired the responsible employee.
Another store, the Zhu Xiaoxiao Luosifen (朱小小螺蛳粉), responded on that they had temporarily closed the shop in question to deal with the issue.
Zhu Xiaoxiao Luosifen (朱小小螺蛳粉)
Chinese fast food chain NewYobo (牛约堡) also acknowledged that at least twenty orders they received were incomplete.
NewYobo (牛约堡)
Fast food company Wallace (华莱士) responded to the controversy by stating they had dismissed the employees involved.
Wallace (华莱士)
Mixue Ice Cream & Tea (蜜雪冰城) issued an apology and temporarily closed one of their stores implicated in delivering empty orders.
Mixue Ice Cream & Tea (蜜雪冰城)
In the midst of all the controversy, Fat Cat’s sister asked internet users to refrain from ordering take-out food as a means of mourning and honoring her brother.
Nevertheless, take-out food and flowers continued to accumulate near the bridge, prompting local authorities to think of ways of how to deal with this unique method of honoring the deceased gamer.
Gamer Boy Meets Girl
On Chinese social media, this story has also become a topic of debate in the context of gender dynamics and social inequality.
RIP 4
There are some male bloggers who are angry with Tan Zhu, suggesting her behaviour is an example of everything that’s supposedly “wrong” with Chinese women in this day and age. they take, take, and take and when the man is used up and can no longer provide, they dump him and move on to the next sucker.
Others place blame on Fat Cat himself for believing that he could buy love and maintain a relationship through financial means.
This irked some feminist bloggers, who see it as a chauvinistic attitude towards women. He killed himself, therefore he is at fault.
A main, recurring idea in these discussions is that young Chinese men such as Fat Cat, who are at the low end of the social ladder, are actually particularly vulnerable in a fiercely competitive society.
RIP 3
Here, a gender imbalance and surplus of unmarried men make it easier for women to potentially exploit those desperate for companionship.
Mo Cha Official
The story of Fat Cat brings back memories of ‘Mo Cha Official,’ a not-so-famous blogger who gained posthumous fame in 2021 when details of his unhappy life surfaced online.
Su Xiangmao
Likewise, the tragic tale of WePhone founder Su Xiangmao (苏享茂) resurfaces.
In 2017, the 37-year-old IT entrepreneur from Beijing took his own life, leaving behind a note alleging blackmail by his 29-year-old ex-wife, who demanded 10 million RMB (±1.5 million USD).
Another aspect of this viral story that is mentioned by netizens is how it gained so much attention during the Chinese May holidays, coinciding with the tragic news of the southern China highway collapse in Guangdong.
‘Fat Cat’ was cremated.
His family stated their intention to take necessary legal steps to recover the money from his former girlfriend, but Tan Zhu reportedly already reached an agreement with the father and settled the case.
Nevertheless, the case continues to generate discussions online.
fatcat
Fat Cat images projected in Times Square However, given that images of the ‘Fat Cat’ avatar have even appeared in Times Square in New York by now (Chinese internet users projected it on one of the big LED screens), it’s likely that this story will be remembered and talked about for some time to come.
RIP Fat Cat
— RIP Fat Cat —
What’s the weirdest phone call you have ever received?
I received a scam “security” call from a person with an accent.
Me: “Hello?”
Person: “Is this (my name)?”
Me: “Yes”
Person: “This is John with security at Microsoft. Your email address is ________.com?”
Me: “Yes.”
Person: “There is a high probability that your computer’s security has been compromised and your email address has sent 58,000 emails in the last 14 hours.”
Me: “OMG, really?”
Person: “Is your PC on right now?”
Me: “Yes.”
Person: “Would you please shut it down, now? We’ll reboot and I’ll explain.”
Me:“OK.”
Person: “Thank you for your cooperation.”
As I fumbled to shut the PC down, I wondered how Microsoft could have my phone number and email address right. But, hey, but this was Microsoft!
Person: “Please wait 30 seconds and then restart.”
While waiting for the reboot, he confided that it had been a long night chasing “this one.” After it rebooted, he asked me to run some basic checks, then asked me to set him up as “a remote operator.”
I offered to continue taking his directions.
He repeated his request to be allowed to remotely take over my PC.
And I politely repeated my offer to continue taking his directions.
He changed the subject, but then he offered a third time.
Person: “I can handle this faster.”
Me: “I’m fine doing this myself, manually.”
The phone went dead. Now my infected PC would never be fixed.
So I called MICROSOFT!
When I reached technical services, they immediately told me that Microsoft would never make phone calls to suspected spammers nor to individuals with compromised computers.
Microsoft: “Did he ask what version of Windows you had?”
Me:”NO.”
Microsoft:“Did he ask which anti-virus software you were using, Kaspersky, Norton, Mcafee?”
Me: “No.”
Microsoft: “It was a scam. He was likely trying to install password or keystroke spyware that would send your information to a third party. Don’t ever allow remote access to your PC.”
Me: “Thanks, I won’t. I didn’t get your name.”
Microsoft: “John”
Me: …pause…“He said his name was ‘John,’ too.”
Microsoft (and without hesitation): “This is John One…the one that matters.”
And after some laughter… “Thank you for calling Microsoft.”
What has been your best career decision(s)?
After moving out of college as a fresh engineering graduate, I got cheated by a fake software company. I had paid 30k to get that fake job! 🙁
The worst part was my mother had sold her anklets to arrange that money. In fact she was very happy to give me the money as she believed that I became a software engineer(She never went to school).
I couldn’t share this story with my mother and joined an international BPO in bangalore to earn bread and butter and worked here for 6 months.
I didn’t tell my mother that I lost money and joined a BPO as I didn’t want to break her heart. I lied to her that I’m doing good at my work and priced my fake software company. (Yes! Fake it until u make it)
15k was my monthly salary in BPO and I was in my comfort zone. Also I had already lost all hopes in software job.
At that point of time, one of my college friends told me about this small start up software company located in Yelahanka.
I visisted this start up the next day itself and agreed for below terms and conditions:
No salary for 3 months
You will be paid 5k INR as salary after 3 months
1.5 years bond
Original marks cards need to be submitted
8 . I grabbed this opportunity without any second thought and joined in the next day itself.
9. Started working as a software developer.
10. As my performance was good, after 6 months I was offered 20k INR per month(it was huge for me) and was sent to a client location to work.
11. Fast forward 3 years, I’m working in one of the big IT giants in the world and 58k INR (again it’s really a big amount for me and my mother) is my take home.
12. Finally I made it! I made her dream come true. I never shared this story with her till now.
13. And yes! I gifted her new pair of anklets and bangles too also I have started construction of new house in my village. She is super happy now.
Coming out of my comfort zone and joining the start up without considering the salary, company reputaion and other benefits was my best career decision 🙂
Fake it until u make it 😉
Other AI art
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How would a world war play out?
There will be substantive changes in culture, society, and financial institutions throughout the world.
Judging from history, and independent of whether or not it goes nuclear, the world post-reconstruction would favor the East, and disfavor the Western block.
There will be an economic rise in Africa, the Middle East, and throughout Asia. Future history books will consider this period to be a global renaissance.
There will be a substantive internal compression, akin to what happened to the British Empire, and the Roman Empire, and it would occur in the Americas and in Europe.
Historians will consider the third world war to have started around 2008, with the peak hostilities occurring during the Trump / Mike Pompeo bioweapon attack on China CNY in 2019. With the war lasting from 2019 through 2023.
Start in 2008 centering on the first United States economic collapse.
Hostilities building up towards Asia from 2012 though 2019.
Hot wars 2019 though 2023.
Minor wars 2022 through 2025 / 26
Major contraction of Western financial and societal structures by 2028.
Reconstruction 2030 through 2040.
Any hostilities that will occur in the next few years WILL NOT change the trajectory of the world. That process is ongoing, and will follow though to it’s complete realization.
The reconstructive period has already started, and we can well expect for most things to settle down around 2030. With a long drawn out adaptation to new global realities by 2040.
Commander’s Palace Sour Cream Pecan Coffee Cake
Commander’s Palace Sour Cream Pecan Coffee Cake
Ingredients
Cake
1 cup (2 sticks) softened unsalted butter
2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 pinch salt
1 1/2 cups sour cream
Pecan Filling
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped pecans
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
Instructions
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter well a 10 inch Bundt pan and dust with flour, shaking out the excess.
Cake
In a bowl with an electric mixer beat the butter until smooth.
Add the sugar, a little at a time, and beat the mixture until it is light and fluffy.
Beat in the vanilla extract and the eggs, one at a time.
Into a bowl sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Add the dry ingredients to the butter-sugar mixture, beating slowly until just combined.
Fold in the sour cream.
Pecan Filling
In a bowl combine filling ingredients. Spoon 2/3 of the batter into the prepared pan, sprinkle the top with the pecan filling, gently pressing filling into batter, going completely around the cake until all remaining nut mixture is used. Add remaining batter to pan and smooth top.
Bake for 1 hour, or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. If necessary, loosely cover top of cake with piece of aluminum foil to prevent overbrowning.
Let cool on a rack in the pan for 5 minutes.
Invert onto the rack and let cool completely.
Attribution
Commander’s Palace Restaurant, New Orleans, Louisiana
Has a doctor ever given you a stupid diagnosis like “it’s in your head” because he couldn’t admit he couldn’t find out?
Many times, in fact. When I was fifteen I suddenly developed pain in my neck. It ached constantly, and began cracking loud enough to make people jump. This pain spread into my back and by the time I was back at school, I was struggling to get through a whole day without having to go home to sleep as my fatigue was so great.
Before this pain started I was fit and well and could walk great distances. Over the next few years the pain spread into every part of my body, and my mobility began to decrease. I was struggling to walk around a large shop, then a small shop and my world got smaller.
During this time I was bounced around many medication professionals. Having never had anything major wrong with me before, I was under the impression a doctor would listen to my symptoms and then discuss what conditions could be causing it. Then they would carry out testing until it was narrowed down. Nothing of the sort happened.
My GP kept shrugging her shoulders. I had to look up specific tests and ask for them, even the most basic. I was sent to physiotherapists – a lot of them, none of which were helpful. One said, “You don’t appear to be screaming out in pain for treatment.” Like it was normal for someone with long-term pain to scream 24/7. I then was sent to rheumatologists. Their diagnosis was “likely not arthritis” which didn’t feel like a diagnosis at all. I kept pushing – I was having to use a walking stick to get around, then later a wheelchair. My joints hurt and cracked, and felt like they were out of place. The muscle spasms were relentless. Not one doctor I ever saw asked about my symptoms other than pain. Very quickly the suggestions began it was all in my head. I was sent to a pain psychologist and had a few sessions, before she concluded my coping skills were fine – I just didn’t know what was wrong and needed further investigations.
I then spent a few years being bounced between the two – rheumatology to psychology. Each disagreeing I fit under their services. After about six years my GP wrote again to rheumatology to ask for more help and to have a review of treatment options as I was getting much worse. The letter we got back said, “To further offer treatment options would medicalise her issues. She needs to see a psychiatrist.” I can’t tell you how much this letter devastated me. I’d gone from a perfectly healthy teenager to struggling to physically function. I was in constant and severe pain, with injury after injury on top. I was having to use a wheelchair to be able to leave the house. I began to doubt myself – was it in my head?
At some point I saw a Pain Consultant. A rude, dismissive sort. He told me I just needed to fight through the pain, that anyone could if they tried hard enough. (I didn’t have the energy to point out that if people could ignore severe pain his job wouldn’t even exist). He eventually agreed to send me for an MRI for the first time to prove nothing was wrong. The MRI showed a great deal of degeneration, disc bulges, narrowing and cysts. He left before the results came back.
Then after eight and a half years I finally got my answers. A series of events led me to look up the condition Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Not only did it fit everything I had, there were so many other things I’d ignored as just assumed were part of me that were actually down to EDS. My GP referred me to the top specialist to see if I did have it, and the difference in that appointment compared to any other I’d seen was immense. He asked detailed questions starting from when I was born. He connected all the dots, and was so thorough and diagnosed me definitively with EDS.
Knowing what it was made such a difference. It’s incurable, but at least I know. I get so angry at all those awful doctors who took one look at a young teenager and jumped straight to psychosomatic with no effort. It’s a pattern I see so often – particularly with women, but many have fallen victim to this.
Sometimes it isn’t the most obvious answer, and that’s why it’s so important to look at the whole picture rather than one single source of pain. The condition on average takes 10–20 years to diagnose, and many are undiagnosed or misdiagnosed who have it. It’s just not good enough.
I’m left with a great deal of medical anxiety, having been treated so badly by so many I saw over those years.
I feel like I missed out by not going to a prestigious university. How do I get over this? While I go to a respectable school (University of Michigan), I never applied to any Ivies or other elite schools because I felt like I couldn’t get in.
As I look back on my education, I realize I got a wonderful jump-start at Columbia University. I also realize that in the 4 years I spent there, I learned a lot. It probably adds up to about 0.5% of what I know now.
The university is only the beginning of your education. A great university gives you a great beginning. But a head-start is less important than endurance. Slow and steady wins the race. If you keep learning, every day, every week, soon whatever you “missed” at the university will fade into nothingness.
When I graduated from Columbia, I was annoyed that the ceremony was not called a graduation, but was called a “commencement”. Hey, I wanted recognition for the four years of work I had struggled through!
In retrospect, that was exactly the right name.
As you grow older, you’ll see many of your friends and colleagues become couch potatoes, with their bodily health and strength gradually going downhill. Don’t let it happen to you. But far worse, their brains will also go downhill. Not forced to learn, they will stop learning. Don’t let it happen to you!
Every year of your life, learn more than you did last year. It gets easier to do this as you get older, because the main thing you learned in college was how to learn. And you can keep getting better at it.
The key to learning is recognizing how much fun it is. When you enjoy something, you learn without effort. In college, I had no interest in history, little in world affairs; now those subjects fascinate me. I find almost all of life fascinating.
Forgive me for ending with a cliche:
This is the first day of the rest of your life.
Barbecue Beef Roast
bbq pot roast Fotor
Ingredients
1 (2 – 2 1/2 pound) beef chuck roast
1/4 cup barbecue sauce (I prefer Sweet Baby Ray’s)
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
Instructions
Place the roast in the slow cooker (slice in half if using a 4-quart slow cooker).
Whisk together the remaining ingredients and pour over the roast. Cook on LOW for 6 hours.
Remove the roast and shred with two forks (it just falls apart), place in a serving dish and ladle some of the juice over the top before serving.
"Western elites are stubbornly working to 'punish' Russia, isolate and weaken it, supplying the Kiev authorities with money and arms.
They have imposed almost 16,000 unilateral illegitimate sanctions against our country.
They are threatening to dismember our country.
They are illegally trying to appropriate our foreign assets.
They are turning a blind eye to the resurgence of Nazism and to Ukraine-sponsored terrorist attacks in our territory.
We are seeking a comprehensive, sustainable and just settlement of this conflict through peaceful means.
We are open to a dialogue on Ukraine, but such negotiations must take into account the interests of all countries involved in the conflict, including Russia's.
They must also involve a substantive discussion on global stability and security guarantees for Russia's opponents and, naturally, for Russia itself.
Needless to say, these must be reliable guarantees.
That is where the main problem is, since we are dealing with states whose ruling circles seek to substitute the world order based on international law with an 'order based on certain rules,' which they keep talking about but which no one has ever seen, no one has agreed to, and which, apparently, tend to change depending on the current political situation and interests of those who invent these rules."
Excerpt from remarks by Russian President Vladimir Putin in a written Interview to Chinese news agency Xinhua, May 15, 2024.
Putin & Xi, preparing for big sanctions war w/ Alex Krainer
This is a great video.
In 2024, Chinese people will still be behind the Great Firewall. Does this mean that most Chinese people are ignorant of the truth about the world?
interesting question
Although I am not Chinese, I actually know it very well
Years ago, when I first learned about the Great Firewall of China, I thought the same thing as many Westerners
“Oh, they built an iron curtain on the Internet to imprison their own people and prevent them from knowing the truth about the world. This is really an evil country.”
But when I actually visited China and met a large number of Chinese people, I realized that I had thought of things too simply.
The Great Firewall of China is not actually a prison, it is more like the Great Wall built by the Chinese in ancient times: the hard side is always on the outside.
In fact, Chinese people can easily access all websites in the world, various social software, X, YouTube, Ins, Watsapp. There are also sites like Quora and Reddit. They only need to pay about $2-3 per month for VPN services, which is public and the Chinese government is silent about it. Almost all young Chinese people I know use such services. On websites like Quora, I always see many Chinese IDs.
Therefore, the Chinese people have much more control over global information than most Westerners think. They pay attention to various global events like us, and they also play ChatGPT like us.
What really hinders Chinese people from being active on the global Internet is not the Great Firewall, but English. They are too lazy to look at languages they are not familiar with, just like most people in the West are too lazy to look at content in Japanese, Korean or Chinese. Language differences naturally isolate the entire Internet. Even if there is no firewall and even if there are many translation technologies, the vast majority of Americans will not pay attention to Japanese content or comment on information from a certain Japanese-speaking world, and vice versa.
The real role of China’s Great Firewall is to block outside access, making it difficult for foreigners to enter China’s social media and express their thoughts and opinions. It is also difficult to buy a VPN service that can pass through the firewall and sneak in.
This probably means that they can come out at will, but you cannot go in at will.
What’s the most unreasonable request you’ve received from your boss?
It was when I was working for a fast food place in my early 20’s. Some things happened, and we lost our entire management team except for the general manager and myself, a shift manager. Within a few days, I was acting assistant GM (I was offered the full position, but was planning on moving out of state in a few months, so declined) until a permanent one could be hired and trained. These additional duties didn’t come with additional pay, but between those and the need to cover a lot of extra shifts, I was getting 30–40 hours of overtime each week at time and a half.
Well, apparently that overtime was a problem. The regional manager was breathing down the district manager’s neck, and she in turn came to breathe down mine for “getting so much overtime”. I almost laughed. She knew the situation, and exactly why I was working so much. I didn’t find it funny anymore when her solution was to ask me to clock out just before I hit overtime, but keep working. I told her I wasn’t willing to work 30–40 hours a week for free, and that if she wanted me to stop getting overtime, our store needed more managers. She threatened my job. I told her to go ahead, I’m sure the department of labor would be very interested in knowing you’re trying to get people to work off the clock, and threatening their jobs when they refuse to break the law.
Needless to say, I continued working overtime up until a couple of weeks before I moved away, once a new team of managers had been hired, and I’d gotten them all trained. The district manager didn’t so much as speak to me after her ridiculous demand. I found it an improvement in my quality of life at work.
One of the things that stunned me about Massachusetts was the cemeteries. They were so nice. In fact, they resembled parks. With nice landscaping, ponds, pools, and nice stone structures replete with statues. It was unheard of in the rest of the country. But in Rhode Island, in Connecticut, and in New York the cemeteries were simply amazing.
I found out later that this was because back in the mid 1800’s, about the time of the American Civil War, these were the places where people would go to have weekend picnics.
Milford, Mass Irish Round Tower
Back then, people did not have cars. They had horses and buggies. A 25 mile or 100 Km trip was an all day affair, and you just don’t want to spend 20 hours in a horse and buggy.
But the cemeteries were close and you would just hop on your bicycle, horse, or carriage and go there for a cool spell under some shady trees.
Of course, one the automobile was invented and became common, this role pretty much disappeared. But if you look at the old photos, you can easily see people enjoying a picnic in the cemetery back then at that time.
Personally, I think that we tend to lose some of the great things that our great grandparents took for granted. Like high ceilings in homes with transoms above the doors, nice shady and deep front porches, and walk in pantries. Big shady trees. Wide streets, with wide sidewalks. No motorized (noise making) lawnmowers, instead opting for fields of clover. And, quaint family alcove porches.
And let’s add… a nice shady picnic spot close to home.
Today…
What is the most badass thing your parent has ever done?
When I was in elementary school, around third grade, my teacher used to yell at me a lot because my handwriting was terrible. She would get so frustrated at me as I was left-handed, but she wouldn’t let me write with my left hand.
It got to a point that if she saw a pencil in my left hand; she came over to my desk and hit me with her ruler. Sometimes I cried. It embarrassed me in front of my classmates, as I was the only kid who was left-handed.
I didn’t understand why I was being punished. I mean, my dad was left-handed, and so were my grandpa and a couple of uncles.
But then one day after walking home from school, my mom noticed my left hand and how red it was. She asked me why thinking I bumped it playing or something else. I told her my teacher hit me again with her ruler. I told my mom that she didn’t like me using my left hand to write. She calmly went to the phone and called the school principal. She asked to meet him the next day.
So there I was with my parents, sitting in the principal’s office, along with my teacher. And boy oh boy, did my mom tear in to them. Mom sternly said, “Inflicting physical harm on a child because they are left-handed and forced to use their right hand for writing is totally unacceptable.” My dad sat there smoking his pipe and letting mom do all the yelling. I remember the conversation ended with the word “lawyer.”
The next day, I had a new teacher that was very supportive of my left-handedness. That new teacher was wonderful and kind. Mom and dad came to my new class several times that month and also liked her.
I always saw my dear mother as a calm and dignified person, never making trouble. It really took a lot to get her mad. And that day when I showed her my inflamed left hand, I saw change coming in the distance as my mom set it right. I was never hit again.
People No Longer Trust The AMERICAN GOVERNMENT ……
What is the most foolish thing you did as a kid?
When I was in 2nd Standard, I finished 2 hour long Math paper in 20 mins and received a slap for it from my father.
When I was in 2nd standard, It was the first time I received a printed question paper in the examination. My first exam subject was math and I was good in math. So after prayer, we went to our classes to write the exams and within 10 minutes, the teacher handed us the question paper and the answer copy. There were 5 parts in the question paper and each part consisted of 3 questions and on the top of the question paper, it was written in bold letters “Attempt only three.” I was on cloud nine after reading this line and didn’t bother to clarify this with the teacher. So I solved all the 3 questions of first part in 20 minutes and handed the answer copy to the teacher. Even the teacher was surprised and asked whether I finished the whole paper or not. I made the same statement again. “Yes, I am good in math.” While leaving the class, I was walking as slow as possible so that whole class can see that boy who just finished question paper in 20 minutes.
When I reached home in next 10 minutes, my father was getting ready for office. After seeing me returning so early, he asked what happened to your exam? I replied I finished the paper in 20 minutes. It was easy and short. My father asked me to show him the question paper. He asked me again which 3 parts I solved in the exam? With no clue what is going to happen within next few seconds, I said all the 3 questions of part A. You guys know what happened next.
Next day my father went to my School and convinced the teacher to conduct a separate exam for me. This time I finished the paper in 1 hour and 30 mins but still waited for the remaining 30 mins, so that I don’t receive a slap for it.
China’s Canton Fair 2024 AMERICA Wants BANNED
Are Russian tanks really as bad as people say, or is it a Western-centric view on Tank warfare vs how the Russians see Tank Warfare? Is it corruption and lack of supplies that have hindered their tanks or just the tanks themselves?
Russian tanks are not as bad as they are portrayed in the west no. There is a prevalent idea that Russian tanks are easy to destroy, while western tanks are hard to destroy. This is not the case. What is true is that Russian style tanks when the ammo is detonated can explode catastrophically, which is far less likely in western tanks due to blowout panels. Some people choose to imagine this means that western crews are always okay when the tank is penetrated. This is also incorrect. But let’s talk a little about how the Russians and the west sees tank warfare.
Russian tanks are primary designed for breakthrough and exploitation, western tanks are primarily designed for anti-tank duty. Until very recently, western tanks were not equipped with HE-FRAG rounds at all, which is the primary ammunition for dealing with infantry. In contrast, Soviet tanks and now Russian tanks have always considered the HE-FRAG round to be the primary ordnance of the tank.
Russians see tank warfare as integral in providing fire-support for combined arms groups, and exploiting breakthroughs. In the current conflict, exploitation has not been possible, due to the NATO support Ukraine is getting in the form of electronic intelligence, surveillance and supply lines from factories which cannot be touched. If Russia will be able to use tanks in their intended role of exploitation again remains to be seen, but the reality of modern combat might make this impossible with the Soviet style tanks. However, this is no different for the western tanks all of which proved very easy to destroy with simple drones and old land mines.
If we actually go by the established narrative in the west, it doesn’t actually look that good. As you may remember, in the beginning of this war, when most of the Russian tanks were lost, we heard a lot about the super weapons of Javelins, N-LAWs and Bayraktars and other such weapons. These weapons are highly modern and extremely expensive. All of them created after the T-72, T-80 and T-90 tanks were made. So essentially newer anti tank weapons from the west destroyed older Soviet tanks. This is to be expected surely?
Contrast this with the destroyed Abrams, Leopards and Challengers. Most of which were taken out by FPV drones or mines. The T-72 is indeed vulnerable to a javelin, the Leopard 2 was proven vulnerable to a toy drone with an RPG-7 warhead from the 1970s duct taped to it. Indeed most of them did not blow up catastrophically, but they are destroyed none the less.
Western tanks have a good reputation, because people are very impressed by first world militaries beating up under-equipped and exhausted third world countries without modern weapons. Ukraine is the first time these western tanks have actually encountered a professional military with modernish weapons, and they have completely failed to live up to their hype, instead performing no better than Ukraine’s T-64 tanks really.
I am of course not saying that Russian tanks are phenomenal, but they were designed to fight this kind of war, and losses were expected in their inception. This is less true for western tanks, which on the other hand has been lauded as nearly indestructible, and was claimed to be able to sweep aside Russian defenses when they encountered them. This turned out to be a pure fantasy, and the reality is that both western and eastern tanks are equally destroyed by drones, mines and missiles, and are otherwise fairly similar in capabilities.
Have you ever walked into your house and noticed a sound that you thought was suspicious? What happened?
Actually, was lying in bed sick once, a few years ago, and my son took my car to school, wife left for work, daughter drove off in her car. So, I’m alone in the house and no cars are in our driveway. I’m lying there quietly resting upstairs in my bedroom. No TV on. Just silence… suddenly I hear the sound of broken glass. Then I heard the back door opening downstairs, and the sound of glass crunching under someone’s feet. our sensor went off. it was on silent and because it wasn’t armed, it wasn’t calling police. Our dog (a German shepherd) who was laying on the edge of my bed, jumps down and starts to slowly walk to the open bedroom door, slowly, the hair on the back of her neck was standing straight up. She started a low slow growl and inched forward until she got to the edge of the door and I could hear the stairs creaking. Our dog then got into hunting pose and raised her front foot and deepened her growl and I could now see her baring her teeth. I had never seen her like this. She almost looked like a wild animal. I reached over into my nightstand and pulled out my loaded Glock handgun. I pointed the gun at the opened door wondering if the dog would scare the intruder away or I would see her being shot. Suddenly our dog ran forward barking and loud snarling sound and I heard a scream and thumping as someone ran for their life from our dog who clearly has a hold of them. I hear the front door slam and ran to window to see a guy running through the front yard and off down the sidewalk. I called the police and described him. He was caught a few streets away with blood running down his arm and he had a hole torn in his pants.
our brave pooch just came back upstairs, wagging her tail and jumped back on the bed and acted like nothing happened. She had blood on her face, but after cleaning her I realized it wasn’t her blood. LOL She got a few extra treats that week.
As a police officer, have you ever responded to a call and once you got there said to yourself, “Nope, not worth it” and just left?
Once. I pulled up behind a car stopped on the shoulder of the interstate. 5 Hispanic gang banger types standing around it. I ask if they need help. They spoke very little English but they spoke Spanish among themselves. I noticed they kept encircling me. I would step out of their circle and they would encircle me again. Then a guy in the back seat hiding under a blanket appears. Hackles on my neck are standing straight up by now. So… I get back to my squad car and drive away. I don’t know how it would have turned out had I stayed but I am pretty sure I would not be here to write this answer.
Edited to add the following. In rural areas there is no backup. I was the only squad car within 50 miles. Secondly while I thought these guys were acting weird they were not actually doing anything illegal, they were simply stopped along side the interstate and standing beside their car.
Aliens & Espionage: Crop Circles and the CIA Coverup
What’s a thing elderly people regret in their lives?
My biggest regret was having children, I gave my life to my kids, they got everything, the best clothes, the best food, the finest schools and I stayed in a loveless marriage for 25 years to make sure they got a good education. They complained every day of my life, the clothes weren’t expensive enough, the food wasn’t good enough, they never went to class. All in all a total waste of my entire life, my oldest is 33 and my youngest is 31. It’s 9 years since I’ve seen or heard from them, they don’t answer emails, I don’t know where they are, I feel like, to them I was just an ATM
Orange Shrimp Quinoa Bowls
A Bowl Full of Flavor
The sauce is light and has a sweet yet spicy vibe. Everything rests over 1 cup of steamy quinoa – a filling base that also serves as an easy way to add some healthy grains to your diet.
orange shrimp quinoa bowls
Yield: 2 servings
(Culinary.net) If you’re looking for a dinner or lunch combination that is wholesome, filling and, of course, easy, you’re not alone. Meal prepping is a popular trend for many people (and families) who are working on healthy eating habits but are constantly on the go.
No matter if you’re searching for a healthy family dinner, a quick lunch at home or an easy idea to meal prep for the week ahead, this Orange Shrimp Quinoa Bowl is perfect for seafood lovers who also enjoy a hint of spice. It’s fresh, healthy and full of deliciously prepared shrimp and veggies, including mushrooms, peppers and cucumbers.
To make this quick and easy recipe, prepare the quinoa according to the package directions and set aside.
Next, combine orange juice, hot sauce, honey, soy sauce, vegetable oil, lime juice and miso in a medium bowl and whisk together.
Pour about one-fourth of the liquid into a separate bowl and set aside the smaller portion.
In the medium bowl, add shrimp to marinate for about 15 minutes.
Add butter to a hot skillet, along with the shrimp mixture. Cook shrimp for 2 minutes on each side then add mushrooms and cook until tender.
Now it’s time to assemble your bowls. Start with quinoa then top with bell peppers, cucumbers, green onions, avocado and the perfectly pink shrimp. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and cilantro for some extra texture. Drizzle bowls with the remaining sauce.
Find more wholesome and healthy recipes at Culinary.net.
Watch video to see how to make this recipe!
Ingredients
1 cup quinoa
1 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon hot sauce
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon soy sauce
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon white miso
1/4 cup butter
1 1/2 pounds shrimp, peeled, deveined and tails removed
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 cucumber, sliced into half moons
5 green onions, sliced
1 avocado, sliced
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
Instructions
Cook quinoa according to package instructions. Set aside.
In medium bowl, whisk orange juice, hot sauce, honey, soy sauce, vegetable oil, lime juice and miso until combined. Pour one-quarter of liquid into separate bowl. Set aside.
Add shrimp to remaining mixture and marinate 15 minutes.
Heat large skillet over medium heat with butter. Add shrimp, salt and pepper. Cook 2 minutes on each side until pink. Add mushrooms and cook until tender.
In two serving bowls, divide quinoa, bell pepper, cucumber, onions, avocado and shrimp. Sprinkle sesame seeds and cilantro over both bowls.
If you feel yourself becoming attracted to your best friend’s spouse/SO, don’t think self-control will win. RUN to the nearest exit and don’t look back.
It’s not worth it to move into a neighborhood where the residents enjoy a higher standard of living than you can afford. If you do that, you’ll always feel poor.
A friendship is not worth it if the person makes you feel bad about yourself even if it’s only from time to time.
If you think you can’t afford to invest money in an IRA early on, see what it’s like working beyond 65 because you failed to plan.
It’s not worth buying the “house of your dreams” only to be “house poor”.
Credit cards can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Decide early on what kind of relationship you want to have with them.
It’s not worth it to tell your current best friend a long-held secret. Your friendship may die, but your secret will be passed on.
If your friends do drugs, it’s time to find new friends.
Dinner should be a family time with an exchange of the day’s events. It’s not worth it to turn it into a battleground by forcing your kids to eat something they don’t like. Not even a taste. As their taste buds mature, they’ll try everything you “forced” them to eat when they weren’t ready.
Arguments are a “great” opportunity to drag out a laundry list of past grievances. Agree, early on, not to do that.
Don’t get married until you can afford to live on your own. Moving in with the in-laws is a bad way to start life together.
It’s not worth it to drop out of school because you hate it. Stick it out. You’ll be glad you did when you fill out a job application.
It’s not worth it to curse “a blue streak” then hear those exact words coming out of your three-year-old’s mouth. It’s truly ugly to hear that.
It’s not worth it to marry “just” because you love someone. You must be in agreement/compatible on the major areas of your lives.
It’s not worth it to take a vacation visiting museums and strolling through historic districts when your children are very young. When toddlers are bored they cry. Wait until they’re older or grown to take that type of vacation.
It’s not worth it to “beat your children into submission”. Instead, deprive them of an item they love or something they love to do. They’ll feel the “pain” and you’ll get your point across.
Don’t ignore your spouse/SO when she/he is talking to you. You might miss something that will alter your relationship altogether. Worse yet, he/she might give up trying to communicate with you.
My uncle worked at a job he hated for 41 years only giving lip service to looking for another one. Don’t waste half your life like my uncle did.
Unless your parents are utterly despicable, listen to their advice. You don’t have to take it, but give them the courtesy of listening. In most cases, no one else in the world is more interested in you than they are.
It’s not worth it to let your child play one parent against the other. Be in agreement in front of the kids then work out your disciplining differences behind closed doors.
What is your weirdest dorm room experience?
I set off the fire alarm for the entire campus.
It was mortifying. And weird.
I was starving and broke in college, and after I once walked 45 minutes to meet my brother so I could save on bus fare, and greeted him with a rumbling stomach, he was appalled. I was peeling potatoes for a caterer at $7 an hour every spare moment I had between classes, but it barely covered my textbooks, let alone transportation and food.
My mom kept sending him food packages and money, so he asked her if she could send some food to me next time instead.
She sent me a bag full of steaks, and I was very grateful. I had a tiny burner in my dorm and I used it to sear them, then cook in cheap wine.
Those steaks were delicious. It was the first time I’d had normal food all year.
My dorm counselor was sure I was an alcoholic because every time she walked into my dorm room, there was another half empty bottle of wine there.
One day, I was running low on wine and didn’t have enough money to buy more. I decided to reuse the wine I had and cook a second steak in it the next day.
Big, big mistake.
I put it in my pan, and started writing a report while waiting for it to get ready. All of a sudden, I smelled something smoking. I ran to the burner – the wine was burning. I frantically turned the knob off and raced to open the window-
but it was too late.
The loudest fire alarm I ever heard went off.
Girls started racing out of their dorm rooms. Students were screaming, crying, “Fire!”
I didn’t know what to do. There was one other girl in the dorm with me. We gave each other a significant look, she nodded to confirm she wouldn’t tell everyone it was me who caused this wreckage, and I dumped the wrecked pan into an empty cabinet.
We went out into the crowded hallway and my dormmate started yelling into the cacophony “It’s a drill! It’s just a drill!”
Then we heard other alarms pealing. I finally got out of my dorm building and watched in horror as the alarms went off in the other dorm buildings, one by one. They were all interconnected.
Each building evacuated. One of my classmates was panicking because her pet goldfish named Denis was stuck in her dorm room, and she thought Denis was going to burn to death.
My friend was down the hill a few blocks away, and heard the fire alarms. In fact, most of the neighborhood heard the alarms. It took hours to still the pandemonium.
That was definitely my weirdest dorm room experience. And my most embarrassing one too.
This WRECKED Her! Oliver Anthony – 90 Some Chevy Reaction
"If you really want to scratch Washington's neoconservatives hard and get the scabs off the wounds—they hate Tehran more than they hate Beijing.Beijing is a big economic challenge, a big specter out there, and it threatens that tiny little island of 23 million democratic people called Taiwanese.That's sort of pro forma for China.With Iran, it's visceral hatred. John Bolton would like to go to Iran and dance on the Ayatollah's grave—that's how serious it is with some of these people.So, don't ever think that we hate China like we hate Tehran.That's just the reality of the situation.It's not every American, and it's not every member of the Biden Administration—or it wouldn't be every member of a Trump Administration—but it's enough people to make the policy demented.And that's what our policy towards Tehran is.That's why we—you know, 'Oh no, nobody talks to Tehran unless we give them permission to.'China's interest in the region is economic; it's Belt and Road Initiative development.It's, 'I got lots of money. I want to turn that money into more money. I want to do this; I want to do that. But I also have this interest in, and Washington has given me an unprecedented opening to show that we're better than Washington; that when you sign up with us, they may tell you that we're predatory. They may say we're going to steal your farms, we're going to do this; we're going to do that with your labor force—but we're better than Washington. And let us demonstrate—just give us an opportunity to show our diplomatic prowess, our economic prowess, our financial prowess, our agricultural prowess—whatever it might be. Give us a chance to demonstrate, and if you don't like this aspect of it, we'll back up a little, and you tell us what you want.'That's kind of China's approach now, and it's working.It's working as much as anything because of Washington's errors—mistakes, drastic mistakes—like this unbridled, unquestioned support for Israel.While Tony Blinken cries in his milk, and others do, and Biden sometimes cries in his milk over the horrors that are taking place.They haven't turned off a single bomb, a single bullet—they haven't turned off anything.So, China's got a wonderful opportunity here to show us up as the biggest hypocrites on the face of the Earth.And that's what they're about.Their diplomatic prowess is going to aim at showing the rest of the world what insane people live in Washington.And they've got a marvelous opportunity to do that with regard to Gaza, and to a lesser extent but growing every day with regard to Ukraine, because that is a lost situation too.And yet, we're hanging on to it.The greatest strategic failures in history have usually happened around countries, armies that don't realize, or don't want to realize, that they're being defeated.And so, what they do is they double down, or triple down. They reinforce strategic failure, and then the failure becomes catastrophic.In this case, the failure becomes NATO collapses, falls apart. Washington has no more hegemony over Europe.Europe stands up its own security identity in desperation, and it's a very fractured security identity because it isn't an alliance; it's France, it's Germany, it's Norway, it's Sweden, and they're all going off on their own separate ways.And that's not probably very good for Europe, but that's what we're headed for if we don't stop this insanity in Ukraine.And China's just watching and saying, 'Okay, we'll backfill there too. You want us to negotiate the peace treaty in Ukraine? We'll backfill there because look, we're telling you the 'rules-based order' that Washington keeps claiming is the way the world ought to run is a disaster. How can you not see that it's a disaster? Look at Gaza, look at Ukraine, look at Libya before, look at Afghanistan, look at Iraq—it's a disaster. We're taking over.'"
Excerpt from remarks by retired American colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, in an interview with Nima R. Alkhorshid, May 8, 2024.
It has been 9 years since the Chinese government announced the “Made in China 2025” plan, and there is only 1 year left. Did their plan fail after being isolated by the West?
China has become the largest ship builder in the world.
No need to mention China’s high speed rail network and its exports of rail technology to other countries, the US included.
Huawei and Lenovo are still the dominate players in the global telecom and consumer electronics markets.
China is the largest manufacturer of solar power equipment, and also the largest producer of alternate/renewable energy.
Chinese space station has just completed new crew change, and a new lunar probe is on its way to the far side of the Moon.
China has deployed numerous AI and robotics in many sectors.
As for Chinese EVs, this picture explains it all:
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(source: gmw cn)
So not only the “China 2025” plan has not failed, it has achieved many milestones even earlier than planned.
CIA and Wall Street are taking over Argentina: President Milei sells off his country
A new Geo-political reality is forming globally.
What’s the dumbest thing you’ve heard a defendant say in the courtroom?
Originally Answered: What's the dumbest thing you've heard the defendant say in the courtroom?
This was approx 10 years ago.
I rode a motorcycle to work and back quite often, and as it was a rather sporty bike, would often speed excessively, if no other cars were on the road in front of me.. as it happened, my work location was some 15 miles down a straight 4-lane interstate highway road…
One day while heading to lunch, I was on the long straight stretch, with nothing ahead for at least a mile.. FAR ahead was a single trailer truck… So a twist of the throttle, and pretty soon I was going ~80mph over the speed limit.. yeah.. fast.. well over 120mph. (and don’t bother berating me about speeding. I’ve never been in an accident, have raced on 3 continents on both bikes and cars, and while I know it’s a violation of the law, it’s really not much more dangerous than taking a shit, if you know what you’re doing and respect physics)….
Aaaaanyway…
At those speeds it only takes seconds for things to unfold, which is why boys and girls, you should NEVER speed on city streets and in areas where your sight-lines aren’t A VERY LONG WAYS (and obviously where people likely to pull out in front of you or cut you off).
So after only a few seconds I was catching up to the semi truck in the right lane..
But a lot happens in one’s mind in just a few seconds… and is even more sped up when one is moving at extremely high speeds.
Being a 40+yr old guy I was well aware of my speed, and being a bit safety conscious (yeah, seems like a paradox, but I take calculated risks), I began to roll off the throttle, so as to not pass him with a 100mph closing speed (high closing rates are a recipe for disaster).
About the time I was within 7 or 8 seconds of the truck (which is a long ways off at those speeds), I realized there was a car in the right lane, directly in front of the truck.
About 2 seconds later I recognized it was a state trooper…. yikes….
I buried the clutch, and grabbed all the front brake I could reasonably use – – eventually standing the bike on its front tire (at around 120mph!!)… and still came zipping right up beside the trooper…..
About the time I passed the truck and was almost even with the troopers’ rear bumper, I realize my goose was cooked… so I decided better to pass him speeding, than to pass him speeding, balanced on my front wheel, and at a greater risk for a wreck.
So I did what any sensible road-racing idiot does – I let off the brakes, let the rear wheel touch down, and looked down at the speedometer, so I’d know what speed I was going to be charged with…… 92mph.. in a 60 mph zone.. oh well.. 30-over is good enough for a trip directly to jail, I thought to myself..
Mr Trooper, apparently having his radar gun going bonkers, had already assumed I was going to blow by him and try to outrace him, so he had stomped the gas pedal and flipped on lights & sirens.
However, I had continued braking, and by the time I was passed his car, was barely going faster than he.. and I’d already kicked on my blinker and was signalling to get off the roadway.
I slowed & stopped safely, pulled well off the road and turned the bike off, assuming I’d be arrested on the spot.
The trooper hadn’t even had time to radio this in, so he was a few minutes delayed in getting out of his car and approaching me. As he approached, I pulled off my helmet, and his response was comical — he was obviously NOT expecting a 40ish yr old guy.
The Trooper (a rather obvious rookie, very young and unsure of his words) took his time, and seemed almost apologetic for stopping me (despite my near felony speeding act).
He wrote me a rather minimal ticket of <20mph over in a 60mph zone, and mentioned that he’d try to help me if I met him at court, since I was so cooperative and didn’t try to run him…
So, I thanked him deeply, said a quick prayer, and went on my day, much more slowly..
Fast forward to court…
Of course I went to court.. only idiots skip court.
So traffic court is in the county courthouse… I show up in a sports jacket and button up, making sure I’m IN the courtroom 30 minutes before the time… This is when officers often show up to ‘make deals’.. now my name is well down the alphabet, so if something is happenning alphabetically, i’m almost always at the end of the line.. and today is no exception…
I saw as the trooper could call folks up one at a time (pre-court time), discuss their ticket, attempt to make a deal, and most of them would accept a deal, take the ticket (usually cut down a bit), and go pay the fine…
Mr Trooper called a lady up..
Now this lady had been sitting near me, telling everyone around her how unfair this whole thing was, that she commuted daily to the city, how they tried to trap her, and how this was entirely unfair.
So when he called her, I knew it would be worth hearing…
Of course she laid into him….. how he was just trying to trap her.. How she was just going to work, and why 15 mph over the speed limit was what everybody else was doing, so why did she get a ticket…
And of course the crowning jewel argument: “I pay your salary- why are you doing this to me?”…
At this point, a few of us in the back of the room were snorting laughing.
The trooper being young and apparently inexperienced with harassment of this nature, attempted to respond with kind words and professional courtesy..
Eventually she wore him down, and he just closed his book, turned to her, and said, “fine – you can discuss it with the judge”.. (and knowing from my extended experience in this particular courthouse, this meant only that she was going to be fully charged with the entire ticket, would pay the entire fine, and then would be charged administrative fees equal to the fine – so in other words she’d pay 2x’s the original ticket fee)…..
She stomped off..
and I was next…
I approached the trooper while he was still taking notes, and said “wow-do they often treat you that way?” he said “not very often – but some people….”
I mused out loud – “it’s just ridiculous how disrespectful people can be.”
then he remembered me – “oh yeah you were the guy on the bike that stopped..”
yup.. that’s me..
He looked at my ticket, looked at me, and looked over his ticket notes again… after a rather pregnant pause, he said,
“Well, look, I know you were speeding, but I don’t know the exact speed.. How about we agree on a 9mph over posted speed, and you just go pay the fine? And no points..”
so there you have it.. I shoulda been in jail.
or at least arrested.
and fined tremendously.
and instead I walked with a $62 fine and no points on my license…
ironically I passed the bitchy lady in the hallway… but no I didn’t say anything to her… figured I’d have enough good luck for the week…
Is China the world’s number one economic power already? Why or why not?
It’s 2024. China has been the world’s #1 economy by purchasing power parity for 10 years now.
PPP is a more meaningful measure for comparing national economies than nominal GDP.
China is the undisputed industrial/manufacturing superpower of the world. The USA doesn’t even come close.
China is the largest trading partner to over 120 countries.
Over 150 countries participate in China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
More than 40 countries wish to join China-led BRICS, which already has 9 members representing nearly half of the world’s population and a third of the world’s GDP.
BRICS is leading the world to de-dollarize, undermining the supremacy of the US Dollar.
All of the above confer enormous economic influence on China.
The USA is considered #1 because of the US Dollar supremacy. But this power is declining year after year. Nevertheless, I personally regard China as the #1 economic power.
Elmer Yuen: We are on the Brink of WW3. Blinken’s ultimatum to CCP – stop exports to Russia or else
https://youtu.be/xQEqVBxg0gQ
How long will it take for the Chinese army to surpass the American army in terms of power, considering their recent investments in military resources?
China’s military is already more powerful than America’s. America is in denial about how much its military has deteriorated over the decades.
China has the world’s largest army.
China has the world’s largest navy, including superior destroyers like the Type 055 and Type 052D.
China has most impressive stealth fighters like the J-20 and J-35.
China has a vast rocket force, including superior hypersonic missiles.
China’s military tech is absolutely state-of-the-art.
Denial is not a river in Africa.
TikTok Ban and US Tripwire for War in Taiwan Strait
What rare fact do you know about an animal that would change a lot of people’s perceptions of that animal?
This is a tough one for me. I can’t exactly think of any particular one, so I am going to write about a few animals, and the truths behind their popular misconceptions.
1- People understand that Ants are cooperative animals, but I don’t think they understand just what kind of beings these insects really are.
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You can not think of Ants as individuals. That’s the first mistake people tend to make.
An Ant Colony is a single being, acting cohesively in perfect synchrony through a nervous system of pheromones. A being with its own digestive system, excretory system, and a million mouth parts sweeping the jungle floor for prey ranging from Goliath Spiders to small Mammals. They operate under one mind, an enormous being with the reach and impact of a million small components.
Ants are the only animals in the world with a 110% successful predation rate. I added an additional 10% because of their surprisingly successful ability to farm fungi (Leaf-Cutter ants in particular), thereby assuring that they have a constant supply of food available for the colony.
In short, don’t think of Ants as hundreds of separate little robots, because they’re not. Think of them as one giant, populous being with an expansive nervous system and an incredibly underrated intelligence. These guys give ‘hive mind’ a new meaning.
2- Granted, some people are aware of these animals’ carnivorous nature, but not everyone.
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Everybody realizes Hippos are absolute demons, and that they will not hesitate to maul down anyone dumb enough to wander into their rivers. But their evil nature extends further than that. That image above is assuredly real, a Hippopotamus will tear open and devour a floating Zebra if given half the chance. In fact, live prey isn’t off the menu either. Calling a Hippo herbivorous is straight-up denial, and even ‘Omnivorous’ is stretching it a bit.
These animals don’t depend on lettuce as an appetizer. They will eat you. It might make them sick, but they will still eat you.
This next one is just for fun:
3- Meet Portia, the Jumping Spider that hunts other Spiders, twice its size.
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Okay, arachnids that prey on other arachnids isn’t exactly a new phenomenon (even though I consider it to be impressive). But trust me when I say this, Portia is a revolutionary Spider.
Why, you ask?
She’s a genius … genus.
“Portia is a genus of jumping spider that feeds on other spiders. They are remarkable for their intelligent hunting behaviour, which suggests that they are capable of learning and problem solving, traits normally attributed to much larger animals.” (Wikipedia)
Portia is the first spider that has been observed forming advanced strategies to approach her prey. She plots a tactical path in her head, and executes it near perfectly. Jumping Spiders are active hunters, but this 8-Legged-Spy really takes it to a new level. Portia is incredibly intelligent for a spider, hence why she seems to be able to make a living on far larger prey than herself.
You can thank David Attenborough’s “The Hunt” for that one.
I just love this picture of the small town on the river. It is so nice and rural.
August 1941. “The Connecticut River at Bellows Falls, Vermont, and on the far side of the river, North Walpole, New Hampshire.” Car Heaven. Medium-format negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information.
Pattaya Thailand: A Day with a Young Thai Room Cleaner
I really like Thailand. But those sexpats make me feel icky. Never the less, this video really gives you a nice “feel” for Pattaya. Worth the time to watch.
My favorite part is around 16:30 where they are having tea and eggs. Oh, such fond memories!
What did General Dwight Eisenhower think of General Douglas MacArthur?
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The underrated General Dwight D. Eisenhower— affectionately referred to as “Ike” by American people — was a great judge of character.
Before being designated as MacArthur’s primary staff officer, Eisenhower was renowned in the US Army as a supremely hard-working and capable officer who willingly went to extraordinary lengths to produce superb and meticulous staff works. Even the always-arrogant MacArthur would appreciate (initially willingly and then grudgingly as their relationship deteriorated) the enormous energy, work ethic, and ability of Eisenhower.
Eisenhower’s service under MacArthur began in the early 1930s. Thereafter, he would toil for MacArthur for nearly one decade first in Washington and then in Manila. That period would prove to be highly influential to his military career because during it he would learn a great deal about the challenge of navigating the murky world of politics and dealing with difficult personalities. All of those would subsequently serve him very well in his role as Supreme Commander of the Western Allies in Europe. Most importantly, he would learn what NOT to do and be from MacArthur.
His experience serving MacArthur gave him unique knowledge to make a balanced and accurate assessment of MacArthur’s character.
In short, Eisenhower regarded MacArthur as (in my own words): an arrogant, pompous fellow whose massive ego was unmatched; a great melodramatic actor; a stingy, dishonest, and lazy person.
Arrogance, Pompousness, and Ego
Shortly after assuming his role as MacArthur’s chief of staff, Eisenhower quickly perceived his boss’s massive ego and pompous behaviour that surpassed those of MacArthur’s own revered father Arthur MacArthur. His ego was likely engendered by his perceived brilliance by virtue of a number of his achievements impressive by American standards. He had an inviolate conviction of his own infallibility which Eisenhower pointedly encapsulated in his famous remark:
MacArthur could never see another sun, or even a moon, for that matter, in the heavens as long as he was the sun.
In MacArthur’s universe, there was room for only one star.
MacArthur treated Eisenhower (and virtually anyone who was not a yes-man) with disdain. Eisenhower recalled that MacArthur’s typical manner of summoning him was by “raising his voice”. The meeting between the 2 men that followed was almost invariably a monologue where Eisenhower simply listened to MacArthur’s pontification in which he referred to himself in the third person — much to Eisenhower’s amusement.
As time progressed, Eisenhower would become increasingly appalled and frustrated by MacArthur’s massive ego, unwillingness to accept dissent and subordinates’ suggestions. Those behaviours would manifest themselves conspicuously during the period of time MacArthur, Eisenhower, and James Ord (one of Eisenhower’s best friends from West Point) served as chief military advisers for Manuel L. Quezon — the President of the Philippines.
In 1935, while en route by train to the West coast to embark on the ship bound for the Philippines, MacArthur received the news that Malin Craig
had been chosen to replace him as the Chief of Staff of the Army. Shortly after being informed of this development, MacArthur descended to:
an explosive denunciation of politics, bad manners, bad judgment, broken promises, arrogance, unconstitutionality, insensitivity, and the way the world had gone to hell.
Eisenhower and Ord just witnessed MacArthur’s ego injured by what he perceived to be intrigues against him.
Once in the Philippines, MacArthur was entrusted with the establishment of a Filipino national army. In this capacity, he was expected to oversee the training and equipping of that army. It was a lost cause to anyone with prudent foresight. The Philippines was dirt poor. There was neither money or resource to be mobilized for the production of modern weapons plus other equipment. The task MacArthur and his staffs faced was close to being unattainable. But they had no choice and had to make do with whatever resources at their disposal.
During their time in the Philippines, an event happened which illustrated MacArthur’s enormous ego was his demand to be appointed Field Marshall of the Filipino Army – one of the conditions MacArthur imposed on Quezon in exchange for his acceptance of the post of military adviser. He felt that the rank was essential to enhance his own prestige. Eisenhower regarded this demand with contempt and disgust. At the ceremony that confirmed MacArthur’s Field Marshalship, Eisenhower laughed, deriding that it was plainly
pompous and ridiculous for MacArthur to be the field marshal of a virtually non-existing army.
Contrary to what MacArthur’s supporters claimed, the idea was originated by MacArthur, as Quezon confided to Eisenhower in his visit to the US in 1942. It should also be noted that Eisenhower and Ord were offered the rank of Brigadier General by Quezon himself. But Eisenhower had the integrity to reject flatly the offer.
Even after 3 decades after that event, Eisenhower’s disdain for MacArthur’s self-appointed field-marshalship remained unabated. He thought that MacArthur was disloyal to the US Army:
You have been a 4-star general. This is a proud thing. There’s only been a few who had it. Why in the hell do you want a banana country giving you a field-marshalship?
Despite receiving splendid compensation from Quezon, MacArthur treated the Philippine President with contempt – referring to him derisively as “a conceited little monkey”. The two rarely spoke or met. When they did meet, MacArthur treated Quezon as his inferior, giving him demands instead of advice. This engendered a great deal of resentment in Quezon who found MacArthur’s arrogant behavior insufferable. His trust in MacArthur diminished over the years. Increasingly, the president placed his trust in Eisenhower, Ord and privately sought their advice instead of MacAthur’s.
The relationship between Eisenhower and MacArthur went downhill during their service in the Philippines. The frustration Eisenhower had to endure due to MacArthur’s egotistical behaviour was compounded by his growing awareness of the way business was conducted in the Philippines. The country’s political and military establishment was rife with inefficiency and corruption. Many Filipino officials expected customary bribes as prerequisites for carrying out any kind of project. This had the effect of hindering the attempts of the American advisers to establish a national Filipino army.
Eisenhower would come to clash with MacArthur with increasing regularity. Eisenhower would frequently challenge or try to convince MacArthur to change or abandon plans and objectives judged to be unattainable due to inadequate resources. MacArthur’s refusal was met by heated opposition instead of compliance. Often a compromise was reached only after a frustrated Eisenhower asked Mac to fire him. For all his arrogance, MacArthur did not lose sight of the fact he could not afford to lose one of the best staff officers in the army.
The year 1938 proved to be the lowest point in Eisenhower’s service in the Philippines. He just lost his best friend Ord in an aircraft accident. Ord’s replacement was Richard K. Sutherland — a character who was widely despised (One of MacArthur’s biographers refers to Sutherland as “an unpleasant son of a bitch”; and US Army General Walter Krueger remarked that Sutherland’s death was “a good thing for humanity”). Whereas Eisenhower had the audacity to challenge MacArthur, Sutherland would stroke his ego and become his principal sycophantic yes-man. Furthermore, Sutherland sought to get rid of Eisenhower — a blessing in disguise as Eisenhower had become weary of all the shouting matches and disputes with MacArthur.
Eisenhower eventually was recalled to the States. He had no regret. The experience irreversibly damaged the relationship between them:
Never again were we on the same warm and cordial terms
When Eisenhower became President, a jealous MacArthur mockingly said that Eisenhower was the “best clerk who ever served under me”. For his part, Eisenhower derided that MacArthur “is as big a baby as ever who still likes his bootlickers”.
A great melodramatic actor
In addition to his shameless and amusing references to himself in the 3rd person, MacArthur proved to be a highly talented melodramatic actor:
When it came to melodrama, complete with exhortations to duty and invocations to the Almighty, punctuated by exaggerated body language, MacArthur had no equal. Eisenhower was exposed to his full array of ploys and thought MacArthur would have been “a great actor.” MacArthur’s most polished performance was to parade back and forth in front of a large mirror across from his desk, dressed in a Japanese silk dressing gown, an ivory cigarette holder clamped in his mouth, admiring his profile while orating. MacArthur’s mastery of theatrics was world-class opera bouffe and the “best free show in town”. – Eisenhower: Portrait of the Hero
As an aside, MacArthur was a theatrical popinjay who loved flags, uniforms and all aspects of military regalia. Air Force General Lewis H. Brereton remarked that MacArthur was one of the best-dressed soldiers in the world.
Not bad huh!?
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With his iconic corn-cob pipe and the Field-Marshal cap
Stingy, Lazy and Dishonest
Eisenhower’s experience with MacArthur was a painful reminder between the haves and the have-nots. When he started working for MacArthur in the 1930s, the Great Depression was overtaking the US and affecting millions of Americans. Unemployment was widespread. There was a marked sense of desperation and hopelessness prevailing in the country.
Eisenhower was poor. He worked in a small room no larger than a closet behind a slatted door adjacent to MacArthur’s larger office. His duty involved regular visits which he had to take the taxis or street cars. His monthly pay during the 1930s was dismal: $391 (roughly $5,711 in 2019 Inflation Calculator). His standard of living qualified as genteel poverty. His family could not afford much luxury.
By contrast, MacArthur enjoyed a very comfortable standards of living in the midst of the Depression. He had a big officer in Washington. He was given a fancy limousine and a chauffeur to drive around Capitol Hill; and he never once lent the vehicle to nor covered travel expenses for Eisenhower. Eisenhower never forgot this, as he would confide in a reporter shortly before his death:
No matter what happens later you never forget something like that.
When they were sent to the Philippines, the disparity in material wealth became even more conspicuous. Eisenhower was given an apartment in the Manila Hotel which was slightly better than his accommodation in the States. But it was unbearably hot during summer. By comparison, MacArthur lived in a sumptuous air-conditioned penthouse in Manila and was given a big office in the Presidential Palace.
Working for MacArthur entailed long hours and chronic stress. At one point, Eisenhower worked too hard that he fell ill from stress and had to check himself in a hospital, paying for all expenses out of his own pockets. Although Eisenhower kept working hard, he resented having to work long hours for a mediocre salary of $833.33 per month whereas MacArthur’s rank of Field Marshal entitled him to a princely monthly pay of $3,980 ($74,619.95 in 2019), and he earned that much money despite doing little work. He rarely came to his office before 11 AM and left early after having the regular late lunch with his son. Indeed, MacArthur’s life in the Philippines was characterised as:
more befitting a noble gentleman of leisure than a military adviser
Quezon was angry and upset not only by MacArthur’s arrogant and contemptuous attitude but also by his lack of commitment to the task of building a national army for the Philippines despite being handsomely rewarded by Quezon. (and let’s not forget that MacArthur later accepted an illegal payment of $500,000 from Quezon.).
Here is an interesting fact: Eisenhower’s staunch anti-Nazi stance attracted the attention of the Jewish community in Manila. Jewish representatives approached him in order to solicit his help to build sanctuaries for Jewish refugees escaping from Nazi-dominated Europe in exchange for the assurance that he would receive $60,000 per year ($1,046,804.17 in 2019) for a minimum of 5 years. Eisenhower declined the offer. This fact is a testament to Eisenhower’s integrity.
Lastly, Eisenhower was particularly upset by MacArthur’s dishonesty.
At one point MacArthur insisted on conducting a grand military parade in order to bolster Filipino public morale — an idea that he neither notified nor consulted with Quezon. Eisenhower and Ord contested hotly the proposal, arguing that it would squander a huge amount of the already limited funding that was available to them for the primary purpose of raising a Filipino national army. But MacArthur was insistent. His two reluctant staff officers had to proceed with planning for the event. When Quezon caught wind of the plan, he inquired Eisenhower as to why MacArthur never discussed the plan with him. When Quezon expressed his displeasure to MacArthur, he simply said he did not order his staff officers to do it. As a result, Eisenhower and Ord had to bear the blame for MacArthur’s lie.
In 1935, during his visit to the States, Quezon asked MacArthur if the Philippines could be defended solely by a Philippine Army, MacArthur lured Quezon into a false sense of security by saying “I know they can”. It was obviously a lie because Eisenhower noted later that
At no time has General MacArthur intended that the Filipinos could defend their country against a large-scale invasion by a major power.
Indeed, MacArthur had misled Quezon, as indicated by general Robert L. Eichelberger ’s note:
From late 1935 to 1938, we had heard many times the MacArthur’s expression “The Japanese would not invade the Philippines, but if they do, in case of war, we shall meet them at the beaches and destroy them. (seems like Mac was contradicting himself)
Combine Marinade ingredients in small bowl. Place beef steak and marinade in food-safe plastic bag; turn to coat. Close bag securely and marinate in refrigerator for 6 hours or as long as overnight.
Bowl
Combine yogurt and jerk seasoning in large bowl. Add coleslaw mix, mangoes and quinoa; mix well. Cover and refrigerate.
Remove steak from marinade; discard marinade. Pat steaks dry with paper towel.
Place steak on grid over medium, ash-covered coals. Grill, covered, 7 to 12 minutes (over medium heat on preheated gas grill, covered, 8 to 12 minutes) for medium rare (145 degrees F) to medium (160 degrees F) doneness. Remove; keep warm.
Divide cole slaw mixture among 4 bowls.
Carve steak against the grain into thin slices. Season with salt, as desired. Place steak slices on top of coleslaw mixture.
In the wake of a mysterious gas attack that decimates much of the Earth's population, a small band of survivors finds themselves fighting for survival in an English village.
Led by an American jet test pilot, the group faces off against an ominous threat: figures in space suits that are not here to rescue but to kill with a mere touch. A
s they navigate through a landscape of desolation and danger, they discover that their adversaries are not human but robots, part of an alien invasion's vanguard.
In a desperate bid for survival, they arm themselves, uncovering a glimmer of hope in their struggle against the unknown.
This 1964 British science-fiction horror, directed by Terence Fisher, offers a chilling narrative of survival, resilience, and the indomitable human spirit amidst apocalyptic terror.
I was in maintenance, and then worked the lines as a wrapping operator. It put money in my pocket and we could eat anything we wanted. And yeah, after one hour, we couldn’t stand to look at the stuff.
Any ways, this took place in Mebine, North Carolina.
mebane location map nc
And all the workers were local. Mill workers. Probably C and D students throughout their school years.
Anyways, there was a big silo of honey, or syrup and one of peanut butter.
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And on the day before the Labor Day weekend, one of the workers was assigned the job to watch the peanut-butter go though a pipe at the bottom of the silo into a cauldron.
When the vessel was full, his job was to turn it off, shut the spigot, and then go home, locking the door behind him.
Well, the factory is empty, and he starts drinking.
The peanut butter is running slow.
Slow.
Slow.
And he is getting drunker and drunker.
Slow.
Slow.
“Fuck it”.
Eventually, he leaves the factory, locks the door behind him and forgets about it.
Three days later, we all come to work, and no one can get in.
Three feet of peanut butter had flooded the factory floor, the offices, and it was a real mess.
The front door to the lobby is one half full to the handle with this ocean of peanut butter.
Oh yeah. He got fired.
And we spent the next three weeks shoveling the peanut butter back into the silo.
True story.
Not embellished upon at all.
I have many stories about this factory; from the 20-something foxy side chick of the Boss, to the schemes to get free ingredients. It was quite the experience. I’ll tell you what.
So yeah. This is my story about shoveling peanut butter.
Now you know…
Today.
Have you ever lost any respect for someone instantly?
My nextdoor neighbours are an elderly Moroccan couple. We live in The Netherlands. The woman doesn’t speak Dutch at all, the husband a little. He often comes to me with letters and asks me to explain them to him. Because of those letters I know that the wife suffers from dementia.
Last month the husband rang my doorbell and asked if he could look inside. I figured that he wanted to see something in the street, which he couldn’t see from his appartment, so I let him in. But then he said, Helen, I love you. I want to be with you, can I kiss you on the cheek? I thought that I must have misunderstood him, it couldn’t be possible that my married illiterate neighbour who is around 90 years old, old enough to be my grandfather (I am 47) is making a pass at me, so completely flabbergasted, I said yes. But then he really kissed me on my cheek😱😱😱. I immediately understood the situation and I froze. Then he said that he would go on a vacation for two weeks and asked if he could come to me afterwards. Still completely paralysed I managed to say no with a really soft voice. Then he left.
It is now more than a month later. I am appalled by the audacity that a married illiterate man, who’s old enough to be my grandfather, with whom I can barely have a conversation, thinks that he stands a chance with me. I am disgusted. I thought that he was a decent old man, but he is a dirty old man.
What was the kindest thing someone did for you when you were young?
I really hated my life, but there seemed to be no way out of the situation.
At the time I was working two jobs.
During the day I would travel to NYC and work odd jobs such as catering.
At night, I worked in the dairy and frozen section of a shitty grocery store called Pathmark.
My brother was in middle school, and too young to work.
My father was out of work, having been fired for the upteenth time.
My mother refused to help support the family.
My grandmother was retired and struggling to pay the bills with her social security and pension.
I had recently graduated from high school, dreaming of going to college and building my life.
Less than a year later, it was starting to look like a pipe dream.
I was incredibly angry about this, and fought with my family constantly, my mother in particular.
She constantly complained about the family’s situation, and would take her frustrations out on me, once calling me lazy when I decided to sleep in for a few hours on my day off rather than fix her TV.
One day, we had a long argument, where I sarcastically thanked her for ruining my life, and called her a lazy cow, among other things.
It was admittedly, not my finest moment to tell you the truth.
Later, she confessed part of it to a childhood friend of hers who lived in Arizona.
She told her about our fight and about the fact that I had yelled at her about wanting to go to college.
The next day, I received a phone call from that friend, a woman whom I had never met, but apparently had talked to on occasion over the years.
She asked me if I would like to move to Arizona and live with her and her family.
I found the idea of living with a stranger uncomfortable, so I said no.
She told me to think about it.
A few days later, the woman called me again at home, and made the same offer.
However, before I could say no, she sweetened the deal.
She would pay for me to go out to AZ and if I didn’t like it after a month, she would send me back, no questions asked.
Thinking that I had nothing to lose, I moved to Arizona, and I never looked back.
It took me a little while to get my bearings, but she eventually helped me find a job, apply for college, among other things.
Now, 15 years later I am a successful teacher, with three college degrees under my belt.
And it was all due to the kindness of a stranger who decided to take a gamble on me and my future.
Women SHOCKED Men Looked At Her In Booty Pants At Gym, Women PREFER BEARS To Men In Woods
The poem “Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost
This is from one of my earlier posts, found HERE. Please guys, MM has a lot of good stuff buried under all the fluff.
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
What picture made your blood boil?
This is the lifeless body of Ziba – a 22 year old student at University of Kabul. She was shot several times as she was trying to escape through the window of her classroom to flee from the horror.
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Dozens of other students her age in the very same classroom were killed that day.
It was November 2, 2020 when a group of cowards, misguided, losers, brainless and merciless individuals attacked the University of Kabul in the capital of Afghanistan. They killed more than 20 young students – most of them in their early 20s.
These kids were the savings, the investment, the helping hand, the happiness, the hope, the future and the life of many parents who worked hard their entire life to be able to merely earn a living to survive and send their loved ones to university so that one day they get to see them living a better life than them. They’re gone, so are the better days those parents wished to see. They did not just lose their kids, they lost everything.
That, however, is NOT what boils my blood the most.
What boils my blood the most is the fact that we have individuals who, proudly, take all of that away from those aging parents, and believe that by doing so they’ve pleased god. They believe they can commit such an act of horror and terror, killing defenceless and unarmed individuals in dozens and stand before god on the day of judgment and be rewarded for what they had done! No religion teaches that. This is wrong, this is barbaric and inhuman and it boils my blood that someone would do such a horrific act of evil in the name of religion.
On the other hand, what cools me down and gives hope and patience to those parents and many other Afghans who lost and still are losing their loved ones, is knowing that YES there will come a day that they stand before god, but it will not be with pride, nor will they be rewarded for what they had committed. We believe in promise of god where he says: “so whoever does an atom’s weight of good will see it and whoever does an atom’s weight of bad/evil will see it.” (Quran 99:7–8)
M1A1 Tanks PULLED From Ukraine Front Lines “Weak and Vulnerable”
United States M1A1 Abrams tanks have been “pulled” from Ukrainian front lines because, Ukraine says, the tanks are “weak and vulnerable.” So much for America’s Main Battle Tank when it has to face a Near-Peer Army like Russia!
Video below, posted on social media, shows the latest M1A1 Abrams being towed by Russian troops. Smashed, burned, blown-up, there isn’t much left to the $4.3 MILLION tank.
We were told its armor was virtually impenetrable; and it’s mix of metals was so secret, the mixture is “classified.” Now look at what happened to it!
If this is what can be expected of these tanks when they’re in a REAL fight (as opposed to fighting rag-wearing terrorists) then reasonable people have to ask “What are we getting for all this money?”
— — GEROMAN — time will tell – 👀 — (@GeromanAT) April 28, 2024
Sacrifice
My 16 year old daughter wants me to buy her a brand new car for her birthday but I can’t afford it. All of her friends’ parents bought their kids a car. What should I do?
I have got to share this;
My step daughter was given $1000 as a gift from her grandmother when she passed away.
When the step daughter turned 16, I took her to early drivers ed. She passed and had her temp. Now she needed to practice driving and the dreaded parallel parking. I took her to these as well. 4 months down the road, and opportunity came up to buy a used Honda accord 1992. 1 owner who was meticulous about maintenance. I ask the step daughter if she wanted to use her money towards a car. She said YES. I told her that would not buy much car, but this one was in very very good shape. She said yes.
So I got the car, made her change the oil, the battery, and helped her get new tires (mind you aside from the car, I paid for everything else.)
The car got inspect, insured and registered. Then sat there. for about 4 months, she neither asked about it, sat in it, or started it up.
When I asked her mom what the matter was, she told me this:
The stepdaughter did not get to choose what kind of car, nor its color. She didn’t like the interior and thought the car was too old. I asked if she knew what went into get the car road worthy? The mom said not nobody asked me to do all those things for the stepdaughter.
I was stupefied. When the two went on a trip to visit family in late Dec, I sold the car for $1500, gave the stepdaughter $750, and paid the bills with the rest.
The nuclear radiation was evident when they returned and did not see the car in the driveway. I told them too bad. I needed to pay bills. I gave her the money, and she had the audacity to remind me that she initially paid $1000.
Of course I told her of the extra expenses I incurred including the tires. I could present her the receipts. Wisely she said “Fine”.
Course, that incident was NEVER forgotten, and I was forever labeled the bad guy. Step parents never get a break.
Russian State-Controlled TV: If NATO Troops Enter Ukraine , SARMAT, YARS, and Avangard (Nukes) Will Hit NATO Decision-Making Centers
State-controlled Russian TV today broadcast a direct announcement of Russia’s intent to fire nuclear weapons at NATO Decision-making centers if NATO troops enter Ukraine to battle Russia. The words aired were so blunt as to be undeniable..
Here is the segment of Russia state-controlled TV broadcast today as a warning to the entire West:
So there it is. Plain. Simple. Easy to understand. Even the village idiot can grasp this.
“If NATO Troops enter Ukraine to inflict strategic defeat upon Russia . . . . everything will fly: SARMAT, YARS, AVANGARD.” Those are Russia’s nuclear weapons system names.
WHY NOW?
. . . . Why broadcast this . . . . now?
Why now?
Could it be because elements from the French Army have, in fact, deployed to Odessa, Ukraine?
Could the RUMORS which claim elements of the US 101st Airborne have also deployed to Odessa, Ukraine, be Russia’s reason for airing this, now?
We already know that France deployed elements of the French Foreign Legion into Slavyansk, Ukraine, and the Russians blew them up with missile strikes about 48 hours after they got there.
We already know that Polish, Romanian, and other NATO-country troops, were hit by Russian missiles at a hotel in Dnipropetrovsk last week. A slew of them got killed too.
So what is it about developments in Ukraine that caused Russia to instruct it’s state-controlled TV, to make such a blunt, unmistakable, broadcast, Now????
I think something’s up. I think the Russians either know . . . or are seeing . . . Deployment of NATO troops into Ukraine.
If you haven’t watched the video, it clearly warns “NATO Decision-making centers are already in the crosshairs, and if NATO troops enter Ukraine to inflict strategic defeat upon Russia, everything will fly: SARMAT, YARS, and AVANGARD.”
There’s no wiggle room in that language. There’s no nuance. No ambiguity.
I thought you should know while there’s still time to try to prepare. Make plans. Buy supplies.
But clearly, there doesn’t seem to be very much time left — at all.
Best Ever Lemon Chicken
Healthy, flavorful and low in calories.
Best Ever Lemon Chicken
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
4 skinless chicken breasts
Salt, pepper and paprika
3/4 cup water, divided
1/4 cup white wine
1 teaspoon chicken bouillon powder
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1 lemon, thinly sliced
Instructions
Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a frying pan with Pam.
Season chicken breasts to taste with salt, pepper, and paprika.
Heat frying pan and sauté chicken until nicely browned (about 10 minutes), adding about 1/4 cup water near the end of the cooking time to loosen meat from the pan.
Remove chicken breasts to a shallow baking dish.
To the pan juices, add the white wine, 1/2 cup water and chicken bouillon, and heat through.
Meanwhile mix the lemon juice and flour in a cup. Pour into the frying pan and stir until sauce is thickened.
Pour sauce over chicken. Top with lemon slices and bake for 20 minutes.
Why do medieval soldiers wear armour when modern soldiers don’t?
Because, contrary to Hollywood movies, armor actually worked.
Even otherwise excellent movies like Lord of the Rings will have you believe that this:
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Might as well be made out of plastic or paper because it offers zero protection against weapons of the day. But cutting through or piercing metal is nowhere as easy as the movies make it to be.
They only stopped wearing armor when it didn’t work anymore after guns became very common. They could make bulletproof armor using medieval technology:
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(In fact the term “bulletproof” is from “proofing” that the armor can resist a pistol shot, seen in the dent above)
These armor are expensive and not readily available. While rich and important people could afford them, the average peasant or soldier couldn’t. They’re also very heavy and limits your mobility.
When bullet massively improved in the mid- and late-19th century (to something familiar today), these heavy armor only make you slow and vulnerable on the battlefield. It didn’t stop both sides from experimenting in WW1 though, even though these bulky suits were mostly useless against anything more powerful than pistols. The steel helmets that became common was used primarily to protect against shrapnel after artillery became the deadliest thing in the battlefield (and still is).
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Bulletproof armor only became practical with the invention of kevlar in the 1970s. Even so, some countries today are still resistant in fully-equipping their soldiers with body armor, either because it’s too expensive or because in the environment they’re operating on (like the tropics) heavy armor that don’t allow sweat to evaporate can be detrimental. But as the war in Ukraine is showing, body armor is mandatory once again in warfare.
The Beverly Hillbillies – Season 1, Episode 1 (1962) – The Clampetts Strike Oil – Paul Henning
What was the biggest scandal at your work?
While working for the Home Office in the early 2000s, there was a woman whom we’ll call “Joan” in a neighbouring department who’d been through all sorts of hell with an ex boyfriend. Joan would tell us of the awful things he’d said to her, the late night phone calls, turning up to her door uninvited and so on.
We were supportive and would sympathise with her while also telling her to report this to the police. She would make excuses not to do this, and we were unable to force her to do it because she would get so upset.
One day, a delivery arrived at reception for Joan:
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A dozen black roses. Joan brought them back to the office and was in a terrible state. We were naturally horrified by this, but to compound it, she reached into her handbag and brought out one of these:
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A miniature coffin. She had received this in the mail that morning before leaving for work.
Oh. My. Word! We said enough was enough and weren’t going to take “no” for an answer – we alerted her supervisor and called a contact at Scotland Yard (which was just around the corner), and asked them to send a detective to investigate the matter. This was clearly a threat to Joan’s life and a serious matter.
Joan was beside herself when this happened. She really didn’t want the police involved. We told her that this had gone too far and we couldn’t stand by and let poor Joan suffer any longer.
The detective arrived and began his investigation by seizing the flowers and the miniature coffin after taking Joan’s personal details…
The following day, Joan wasn’t at work. We feared the worst and went to her office to enquire if she had called in or whether a welfare check should be carried out. Joan’s boss assured us that everything was fine, but we wouldn’t be seeing Joan again and he wouldn’t say anything more.
Well, now we were really perplexed. Wanting to get to the bottom of the matter, I called the detective that had come to the office.
When the flowers were delivered, there was no card attached. Thankfully, we had CCTV outside the building and the registration number of the van that had delivered the flowers was visible. The detective had found the registered owner of the vehicle (the florist) and called them to ask about the delivery…
When ordering a malicious delivery for someone, it’s not a good idea to use your own bank card. Especially if you’re the “victim”.
Joan had been playing us all along! The ex boyfriend was cleared of any wrongdoing – he hadn’t been in contact with Joan for more than a year and had not behaved the way Joan had alleged at all. Joan used her own bank card to order the black roses and further investigation proved that she had also ordered the miniature coffin that she had produced from her handbag.
Joan was dismissed from the civil service. I hope she got some help with her issues.
In the video, viewers can hear the loudspeakers announcing “This is a Tsunami Warning. Move to higher ground immediately.”
The thing is, there were no earthquakes of any serious magnitude either in New Jersey itself, or out in the Atlantic Ocean, which would have prompted such a warning. Earthquakes are the most common cause of Tsunamis.
Moreover, there was no massive weather systems in the ocean which can, from time time, generate a tsunami.
So . . . why the warnings?
PUNCH LINE: The mass-media, hasn’t said a word about this whole thing. People in New Jersey have just been left wondering. No information. No explanation. Nothing . . . .
What are you tired of explaining to people?
Me: So I was doing CPR on this patient, and her ribs went crack crack crack—
Him: Woah, hold up there. Why were her ribs cracking?
Me: That’s possibly her ribs breaking from my effort.
Him: Dude, are you sure you’re doing it right? I wouldn’t want you to do CPR on me in the future…
People, listen up.
The reason why we do CPR compressions is because you are in CARDIAC ARREST. You’re DEAD unless we do something. No offence, but I don’t give a two shit flying fuck if my compressions break a couple of ribs when it meant SAVING YOUR LIFE.
In fact, hearing those ribs crack usually tells me I’m doing a good job. I am getting sufficient depth with my chest compressions to maintain circulation temporarily. Broken ribs is not something we aim for obviously, but it’s a common side effect of good CPR technique.
We can address those petty rib fractures after, and if, we get you alive and breathing first.
Other experimentation with Text to picture AI
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Foreign Countries Have Begun PULLING THEIR GOLD from U.S. “Safekeeping”
A number of countries around the world have begun withdrawing their Gold Bullion from storage in the United States over fears about the US Financial System! It’s not only our Financial System, it was the FORCIBLE SEIZURE of Russia’s Sovereign Wealth Funds; the world now sees the USA as nothing more than a Den of Thieves!
Over the past ten days, at least FOUR (4) countries have decided to pull their Gold reserves from the United States: Cameroun, Ghana, Nigeria, and a fourth country (named below) whose decision is tightly concealed to prevent PANIC. That nation is named below in COVERT INTEL for Subscribers Only.
April 19:Cameroon repatriates its gold reserves amid concerns about recession in the United States
In a significant development reflecting changing economic dynamics, Cameroon has begun the repatriation of its gold reserves from the United States. The move, driven by growing concerns about the deteriorating state of the U.S. economy, marks a pivotal moment in global finance.
The withdrawal of gold reserves from US custody highlights countries’ proactive approach to protecting their financial assets amid growing economic uncertainties. With indicators including rising national debt, weak economic growth and geopolitical tensions, the decision reflects a broader trend among nations to reassess their reliance on the United States as a safe haven for financial assets.
Financial analysts point to clear indicators signaling a rapid deterioration in the U.S. economy, sparking concerns among global investors. The decision to repatriate gold reserves highlights nations’ strategic responses to mitigate potential risks from exposure to the faltering U.S. economy.
Although logistical challenges and potential security risks may accompany the repatriation process, experts suggest that the benefits outweigh the risks for countries seeking to strengthen their financial sovereignty and guard against external economic shocks.
As the repatriation of gold reserves unfolds, this movement is provoking discussions about the broader implications for international finance. It highlights the importance of diversification and risk management to navigate the complexities of the global economic landscape.
APRIL 21: GHANA
Ghana’s recent decision to repatriate its gold reserves from the United States signals a significant shift in the nation’s economic strategy. Beyond the symbolic gesture of reclaiming control over its precious metal assets, Ghana’s move is underscored by a pragmatic desire to shield itself from the uncertainties of a destabilized US economy.
According to economic experts, Ghana’s decision comes at a crucial juncture amidst escalating global economic uncertainties and mounting concerns about the stability of the US financial system. Dr. Joseph Mensah, an economist specializing in international finance, asserts, “Ghana’s move to withdraw its gold reserves from American vaults is a prudent measure to mitigate risks and safeguard against potential economic volatility.”
By bringing its gold reserves back within its borders, Ghana aims to insulate itself from the repercussions of any downturns in the US economy, thereby reducing exposure to external shocks and vulnerabilities. Dr. Mensah further explains, “Repatriating gold reserves aligns with a broader trend among nations reassessing their financial strategies in light of evolving global dynamics. As geopolitical tensions escalate and trade disputes intensify, nations are increasingly prioritizing measures to assert greater control over their financial assets and reduce dependencies on foreign custodianship.”
Critics may raise concerns about logistical challenges and potential security risks associated with repatriating gold reserves. However, proponents argue that the benefits of withdrawing funds from a destabilized US economy far outweigh the risks. Dr. Mensah concludes, “By reclaiming control over its gold reserves, Ghana not only bolsters its economic sovereignty but also strengthens its resilience against external economic shocks.”
In conclusion, Ghana’s decision to repatriate its gold reserves from the United States reflects a strategic move towards safeguarding against economic volatility and asserting greater control over its financial destiny.
April 22:NIGERIA
Ghana’s recent decision to repatriate its gold reserves from the United States signals a significant shift in the nation’s economic strategy. Beyond the symbolic gesture of reclaiming control over its precious metal assets, Ghana’s move is underscored by a pragmatic desire to shield itself from the uncertainties of a destabilized US economy.
According to economic experts, Ghana’s decision comes at a crucial juncture amidst escalating global economic uncertainties and mounting concerns about the stability of the US financial system. Dr. Joseph Mensah, an economist specializing in international finance, asserts, “Ghana’s move to withdraw its gold reserves from American vaults is a prudent measure to mitigate risks and safeguard against potential economic volatility.”
By bringing its gold reserves back within its borders, Ghana aims to insulate itself from the repercussions of any downturns in the US economy, thereby reducing exposure to external shocks and vulnerabilities. Dr. Mensah further explains, “Repatriating gold reserves aligns with a broader trend among nations reassessing their financial strategies in light of evolving global dynamics. As geopolitical tensions escalate and trade disputes intensify, nations are increasingly prioritizing measures to assert greater control over their financial assets and reduce dependencies on foreign custodianship.”
Critics may raise concerns about logistical challenges and potential security risks associated with repatriating gold reserves. However, proponents argue that the benefits of withdrawing funds from a destabilized US economy far outweigh the risks. Dr. Mensah concludes, “By reclaiming control over its gold reserves, Ghana not only bolsters its economic sovereignty but also strengthens its resilience against external economic shocks.”
In conclusion, Ghana’s decision to repatriate its gold reserves from the United States reflects a strategic move towards safeguarding against economic volatility and asserting greater control over its financial destiny.
What’s something a doctor did to you that you won’t ever forget?
Dr. Eduardo Yambo, Family Physician.
When my son was a toddler I found myself a single parent. I got a job and tried to keep a roof over our heads. We used kerosene to heat the place. Had one in each bedroom. It was a very, very cold winter and both my son and I got sick, but I couldn’t afford for both of us to see the doctor. I made an appointment for my son.
After checking out my son, Dr. Yambo looked at me and said ‘What about you? Why am I not seeing you? You sound terrible!’. I told him I can’t afford another visit for myself; my son was the priority. I explained I was no longer with my husband and had no insurance. He quickly checked me out and gave me a something for my cough. He gave us office samples to save me the cost of prescriptions.
Had to make a follow-up visit for the next week. Brought my son in, and on checking out the doctor came out and told the receptionist that the charge was $12 (regular visits were $25 I think). He wanted another follow-up a week later. That visit was $6. It was the early 80’s and my take home pay was about $124/week, so those fees mattered an awful lot to me.
I’d been bringing my son to him for a couple of years already and that had never happened before. Suddenly, follow-up visits were reduced cost. Following up with my son’s health was more important to this doctor than money.
Until I moved away there was nothing that could make me go to a different doctor!
What would you do if you got fired from your job?
The only time I was fired was disguised as “We don’t need this many employees in summer; it’s our slow time”. The owner/boss disliked me, for what reason I don’t know. One coworker told me she thought it was jealousy. The company made and rented costumes, mostly to schools and universities for theatrical productions. When I went for my interview I had brought in an armload of costumes I had made over several years for Renaissance groups and personal use. What I did at the company was mostly mending, although I took the initiative once and made some bow ties from scraps of fabric lying around. The boss had accused me, not to my face but to other workers, of filling up their website with pornography (something I wouldn’t know how to do even had I wanted to). So I wasn’t surprised when I was told I would be out of a job. It annoyed me that there was a young woman who had been hired after me, who lived with her parents (unlike me, a single mom of two), and didn’t need a job as much as I did. But I left without saying anything and shortly got a job through a recommendation of one coworker who did pet sitting (same company). Later I found out that the young woman was embezzling from the company, so I got the last laugh.
What was a meal you loved as a kid but now that you’re an adult you realize your parents only made because you were poor?
I’m from Vietnam. We eat rice a lot, almost every meal.
When I was about 5 to 8 years old, once or twice per week, my mom would make ‘mixing special rice’ for dinner. It’s white rice cooked together with corn and sweet potatoes
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(Image source: baobaclieu.vn)
I always got excited for those dinners.
We eventually didn’t eat that kind of rice anymore. I asked my mom about that once in a while but she just gave me reasons why she didn’t want to make the rice: out of corn season, sweet potatoes weren’t any good at market,…
When I was 12, on my mom’s birthday, I proudly announced that I prepared dinner. And guess what I made? Rice with corn and sweet potatoes. When I served dinner, my mom couldn’t hold it anymore, she cried. I asked her why? Did I do anything wrong? That was the very first time my mom explained to me that she was sick of this rice because she had eaten it too much.
I didn’t know that we only ate that because corn and sweet potatoes were much cheaper than rice.
I didn’t like that meal as much after that day.
—
To anyone is thinking about making a comment “hey, it sounds delicious” or “add some butter”, etc, please don’t. I wish we had butter. Also, it was good, but it was not any good after eating it frequently for 30+ years to the point you break down crying when you see it like my mom did.
And I didn’t like it very much anymore wasn’t because it’s not good or because it’s “cheap”. I didn’t like it because it hurt my mom.
Economic Shock: Bombshell GDP Drop, IMF Slams Congress Spending, Republic Bank Collapses
What is a fun psychological trick to try on someone?
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The most powerful way to win an argument is to ask questions.
If you want people to take your words seriously, say that your father taught you this. People naturally believe in parental advice.
If someone is about to get angry at you, sit next to that person. They will have to lower their voice and there will be no direct face-to-face contact.
If you want to know if someone is attentive, repeat your phrase with slight variations in it. If you are listening, either your facial expressions will change, or you will point to that part and question.
If you think that someone is giving you a false figure then read it wrongly. If they correct you, it’s legit.
If you want people to agree with you, nod your head and make eye contact when you speak, they’ll nod too.
Explain and repeat what your friend just said. The person talking to you will subconsciously realize that you are a great listener. Of course, don’t go overboard with paraphrasing.
Use someone’s name more often. While talking to someone, keep using their name in the conversation. This helps them feel important and valued.
When you want someone to agree to something, give them a list with 3 options and leave the one you want to choose at the end. They will most likely choose the latter.
What you say about other people affects how others see you. People will associate the adjectives you use to describe other people with your personality. This phenomenon is called spontaneous property transfer.
Inflation in the USA
How catastrophic will the world’s drive to abandon the dollar be for the U.S. economy and people?
Very very very significant. The U.S. has been using money to do war monger, trouble make, regime change, financing and orchestrating coups, revolutions and paying off U.S. lackeys in the trillion yearly form free money printing that it could without much ramifications! Upon its inability and impossibility to carry on printing money freely and without much ramification, the U.S. no longer is able to freely do those shit anymore. It will lead to a better world and a more peaceful place.
To the U.S. it may not use coercion and bribery to win favours and fix elections freely! But it may be better for US citizens who will not have to be burdened by US shit cost!
What is the most useless career advice ever given?
Sadly it was advice from my father to me. The year was 1968 one of the most turbulent in US history. I had just graduated from HS, the Vietnam war was raging, RFK and Martin Luther King had been assassinated. The Democratic convention in Chicago blew up and I was there watching it all as I was just leaving of all things a Young Mens Convention for Catholics and had stayed at the Conrad Hilton and watched in awe as the anti war protestors and police lined up to do battle.
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This was the auto production line. Endless cars, the USA was #1, 1955 no competition.
My father told me, do not go to college, it is a waste of time. Either go into the military or go to work on the assembly line, best jobs in the world. Union will protect you, he would protect me as he was a Union rep.
In the short run, he would have been right. The jobs were tough but plentiful, but already by 1970 the US automakers were making these.
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Some of the worst cars ever made were coming off the line in the USA by 1970 and the rot had already begun to set in just when I went to work on the line.
My father was so adamant that when I went and tried it on the Monday – Friday program which meant you worked 2 days a week as a ‘college kid’ as on Friday there were not enough workers as they got their paychecks on Thursday which meant they got drunk and didn’t come in. And on Monday they didn’t come in as they were still drunk or hungover from the weekend, I tried it out.
It was a nightmare and I hated it. Everyone yelling screaming, quality was shit, politics everywhere, the company couldn’t get good cars made and the union was fighting to keep all 2.5 million jobs.
Well what happened?
Today there are 150,000 UAW members about 8% of the number when I started. A lot of people got in and out and grabbed their pensions. They worked the system and left Michigan and went back to Kentucky and down to Florida.
But if I had gone in and stayed? It might have worked but I would have lost everything that I have now done in my life. Lived around the world, a 50 year global career, speaking multiple languages. I have literally lived on 5 continents ranging from California, Florida, the Rocky Mountains, then Australia to China to India to Hungary to Singapore and Hong Kong several times. On and on my career has gone and my education has propelled me and made it all possible.
Most importantly, to survive, repeat survive and prosper I have had to ‘reinvent’ myself again and again and only with my education and MBA and languages and experience working around the world have I been able to be flexible and do this. Millions were literally stuck without a hope so many times in my home town while I simply changed countries and took a new job in a growing industry such as software when I used to be a manufacturers rep for years. Flexibility is the key to a long career and not a factory.
And those guys who were on the line? The lucky ones got away and got their pensions. The vast majority slipped through the process especially after the downturns of 2008 just when they were going to retire and pretty much got little to nothing.
Those who work in the auto industry today have a precarious future especially if you work in an ‘engine’ plant as those will be gone with the EVs.
My father meant well, but from his hard work and premature cancer and youthful smoking he died at 70. I am now 73 and knock on wood, still doing what I like and living a good life in France.
My advice, listen to many but make your own choices and definitely do not look at the past, look to what is happening for the future and it will help guide your decisions. It is way to important to leave to those who think they know, but only know their local situation and what they have grown up with.
Given the rapid change in careers there is no such thing as a safe bet or a definitive career path. If you don’t believe me, think of Detroit and what happened to them as the city never evolved and never changed.
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Packard out of business and the largest abandoned factory in the USA.
Detroit? 2 million people when I was born in 1950, today? Barely 600,000.
I have to ask the questioner if ANY of the predictions made by American politicians ever came true?
Swine flu
Ebola
Y2K
3G causing gas pumps to explode
Phones causing planes to crash
4G causing brain damage
Hamburgers made out of worms
Back-masking of rock music
Sex education causing a spike in pregnancies
None ever came true.
But, for some reason, “China will invade Taiwan”. I mean, just how absolutely stupid can a person be. Is there a scale below moronic?
Still Americans (and their Australian and European cousins) believe this swill.
Who figures?
…
China has made it perfectly clear how the reunification will proceed. And this is well defined and in process right now. That’s the reality.
Accept it.
Evil in America
Have you ever walked out of a restaurant after you were seated by a waiter or waitress?
Oh yes, once when I was very much younger, I went out on a date with a very nice man, and he took me to a good restaurant. We got there, ordered the wine, and some bread rolls and butter were served also, while we decided on what we would have to eat.
The man told me his wife had died, but he didn’t tell me how recently! He didn’t tell me he was still in fairly early stages of grieving, and was trying to put on a brave face.
So I had no real idea of what he was going through.
Then just before we ordered, he started to get serious heart symptoms. I asked him if I should ask the restaurant to phone an ambulance. But he didn’t want that. He wanted to go home and call his private doctor! I thought that was unwise, but that is what he wanted.
We had to leave immediately, and he grabbed some cash from his pocket and put it on the table. He didn’t even count how much! But I am sure it was plenty to cover the bottle of wine and some bread.
I apologised to the staff, and had to drive him home. They were surprised but didn’t mind of course due to the circumstances.
It turned out (after the doctor’s visit) that he hadn’t had a heart attack, but a serious panic attack. I stayed with him all night to make sure he would be okay and keep his spirits up as he didn’t want to be alone.
We never did have a second date. But that was okay. He wasn’t really ready to start dating. He needed to process his grief. He was a nice man though, bless him.
The Chinese owner of TikTok claims they would rather shut down than sell TikTok. (To the surprise of many lawmakers who voted to ban TikTok). Do you think they are serious or bluffing?
China is famously no-nonsense. They always follow up and follow through on decisions. America, on the contrary, is used to fooling themselves inured in dirty tactics to pull a fast hand, but only end up humiliating themselves more often than not. Sanctioning Russia is a wonderful example. Examples abound that don’t need me to list them here.
The ugly truth is greed. The damage of Israeli genocide on US image is already done. It’s not TikTok’s fault and banning it is only a pretext. American political and business asshole pirates have long coveted TikTok’s huge market share and profit potential. China is wise to keep this trade mark and technology, and continue expanding its global market. The world is big enough for TikTok with unlimited potential.
Elon Musk WARNS Population Collapse IS COMING, STROKES & HEART Disease Wiping Out Greece
“To regain sovereignty, the EU needs to stop following Washington’s policies, but the European Commission is pushing the American agenda and resembling a fascist system with its single-minded decisions.
Europe determined its future when it responded with contempt to Russia’s attempts to forge ties after the collapse of the USSR and did not honour the Minsk agreements to give Ukraine time to arm itself, according to Didier Maisto, former director of Sud Radio. In an interview with TVL, he pointed out that while Europe used to try to encircle Russia, now it is gradually encircling Russia itself, but the EU should have thought about this earlier.
The partnership between the BRICS countries is actively developing and they are finding common ground for special agreements. The US, which opposes them, continues to advance thanks to its military-industrial complex and business, imposing its laws in other countries. Sandwiched between these vise is Europe, which needs to stop dancing to Washington’s tune to regain its power and sovereignty.
The main conductor of the American agenda in Europe has become the European Commission – the centre of gravity and the centre of decision-making in the EU is shifting towards it. Now the entry into war, the supply of weapons and medicines, the banning of certain media are approved without confirmation by a vote in the European Council. Didier Maisto reminds us that back in 2017 he warned that if Macron is elected president, Europe will slip into soft fascism.”
What is wrong with Joe Biden?
Doesn’t matter what is wrong with Biden. He’s not running things anyway.
What is the strangest failure you have ever seen on a car?
My father-in-law owned a 1988 Ford Escort wagon. He only drove it locally to and from work, and he probably never turned on the rear defrost.
My FIL passed away, and my MIL offered the car to me. The Escort was about 2 years old with ~13,000 miles. My 1980 Honda Accord was 10 years old and starting to get up in mileage, so I accepted it. My wife at the time drove it from Virginia to New Jersey during the summer. I started driving it to/from work about 15 minutes each way. I worked late one evening in the fall. When I got into the car, there was condensation on the rear window. I started the car and turned on the rear defrost to clear it up. Within a couple minutes, I hear a loud boom and notice my rear window is shattered. I thought someone was shooting at me! That was not the case. A rear window with a rear defrost is just 2 pieces of glass sandwiched around the heating elements and glued together. My theory was that the rear window had an air bubble in it due to a manufacturing defect. The heating element caused the air bubble to expand. Eventually, the air bubble got big enough to break the glass causing the explosion.
Ford would not replace the window because the car was out of warranty. (12 months/12,000 miles in those days) They wanted over $700 to replace it. I had a price of ~$225 from a glass shop. Ford said their price was what it was because it was “Ford quality glass”. If their glass was such high quality, it wouldn’t have shattered in the first place. Needless to say, I went with the glass shop. They even came to my office and replaced it in the parking lot.
=======================
A few years later I changed jobs, and I started commuting ~30 minutes each way on the highway. Ever since getting the car, I would notice a faint smell of antifreeze. I never noticed any leaks, but I did have to periodically add antifreeze to the overflow reservoir. After driving to/from the new job for about a month, I was driving home, and the car started to overheat. Long story short, the engine blew its head gasket, and I had to get the engine rebuilt. When the shop took the engine apart, they found a bolt that was sheared off. They said it probably came that way from the factory. That was the cause of the antifreeze smell, the slow loss of antifreeze, and ultimately the head gasket failure. After rebuilding the engine, there were no more problems like that.
Score:
Strange Failures – 2, Ford – 0. On this car, Quality was not Job One.
I worked in McDonald’s overnight for one year as a cashier in the drive thru. During my year working in McDonald’s I encountered some things that I really don’t recommend doing:
Not paying attention to the cashier when he/she is telling you what you got.
If you don't pay attention when I asked you, please don't complain if I charged you $100 for things you didn't order because you said “yes, whatever.”
Expecting the cashier to know you don’t like pickles or onions.
Yes, we know some of our regulars. No, we didn't know you don't like pickles.
Ordering things are not on the menu.
Do not ask me for a whopper. Do not ask for a chicken junior. There is no such a thing as fajita in McDonald's.
Calling an employee a derogatory word.
Please, don't do it. If it’s a word you don't enjoy being called. I refused service to a customer once for addressing me as “you, nigga”.
Getting mad if you ordered 15 Quarter-pounders with fries and a shake and your bill is more than $100.
If you think it is too much, please cook it at home.
Spitting.
Seriously, I got spit on my face more than once.
Swearing and/or yelling.
Please, if you had a bad night, you got evicted, divorced or whatever - it’s not the cashier's fault. You should not call the cashier (or anyone you don't want to mess with) a motherfucker.
Not knowing what you are getting.
More than once I had customers claiming I put things they did not request in their food.
A guy yelled at me once because there was ice in his smoothie. On a different occasion, a guy yelled at me because he got only three sauces with his order (a 10 piece chicken nuggets meal only comes with three sauces); he requested three more and tried to punch me when I told him that they were not free. The question “what does that come with?” works very well.
Last but not least, being violent.
Please try to keep your temper. Also, try to be as nice as possible.
Tales From The Shoe Store | Married With Children
Which tips would you give today’s teens?
Control your emotions and lust (Overcome)
It’s completely normal to experience lust, or sexual desire in teen. Your feelings might be focused on a particular person, or you might be drawn to activities like masturbating or watching pornography. But sometimes, these desires can be overwhelming or unwanted. If you just can’t shake those uncomfortable thoughts and feelings, don’t worry—there are things you can do to manage them.
The price of temporary lust can be expensive.
Learn About Finance Early
Money should be your friend throughout your life, not your enemy. Sadly, the education system doesn’t do such a great job at teaching you about finance, so you have to learn it on your own. There are plenty of sources that you can get financial advice for free.
Make Good Friends, Not More Friends
Building a network of friends at school is always going to be valuable whether they are the greatest people or not. Spend more time trying to develop and grow those relationships that you think will be good for you.
You are the average of your five friends around you hangout with the most.
Don’t Care About What Others Think of You
This is definitely the best advice for teenagers who feel like they need to impress the world! Nobody cares either, so why would you? Laugh when you embarrass yourself. Dress how you want to dress. Be honest about things you don’t like. Not only does this help you become more of yourself, but you’ll also make friends with the right people.
Take Care of Your Body
Because it takes care of you everyday! Just by implementing some simple practices like Exercise, Practice Proper Hygiene, Have a Skin Care Routine, Invest in Yourself and you’re already getting ahead of where you were the day before.
Don’t Compare Yourself to Others
Comparing yourself to others will only lead to disappointment and lack of confidence. There will always be someone with more than you more money, more friends, more style, more of anything.
Compare who you were yesterday not someone else’s today.
What are the craziest objects that you’ve seen TSA workers remove from someone’s bag to be confiscated?
A friend of mine is a pilot for one of the big airlines. He related this story to me. One day, he is headed through security and in front of him are two air marshals escorting a prisoner in hand cuffs. First the TSA Agent tried to tell the marshals that they had to uncuff the prisoner before he could go through security. (yeah, that got cleared up pretty quick). Then the TSA agent tried to tell them they would have to remove their guns (this time a supervisor was called over to educate the TSA agent). Then the TSA agent told the marshals to empty their pockets. One of them had a tiny fingernail clipper with a small file on it that vaguely resembled knife. The TSA Agent proudly jumped on that and demanded the marshal would have to relinquish it as “contraband”. I think at this point the marshals were just tired of dealing with this person so he gladly gave her the fingernail clippers so that they could go on their way.
In summary: two marshals escorting a prisoner..both of the marshals armed with pistols and other weapons, had a pair of fingernail clippers confiscated because it was “contraband”.
Cinnamon Garlic Roast Chicken
40 Cloves of Garlic Roast Chicken foodiecrush.com 010
Combine salt, pepper, garlic and cinnamon. Sprinkle mixture onto all parts of the chicken.
Refrigerate for at least an hour.
Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a roasting pan with vegetable oil spray.
Remove chicken from refrigerator, and place in roasting pan.
Sprinkle with paprika.
Scatter onion slices around chicken, and roast uncovered for 35 minutes.
Reduce heat to 350 degrees F.
Stir onion slices, add the cup of water, and continue roasting for an additional 50 minutes until tender, basting occasionally.
Is China’s economy currently experiencing a slowdown, or is this information being exaggerated by the US media?
Not exactly
The Chinese stock market is among the most undervalued in the world and is stubbornly remaining there due to a lot of regulations against speculation
The US Treasury still pays 5.31% as Peak Bond Yields
The Chinese Real Estate prices are low which is good for the buyers but that means investors will be giving it a wide berth
This means a lot of HOT MONEY will not be coming in but going out
Hot money is money used to buy shares and bonds and real estate securities by foreign firms
Speculative money!
No matter even if the US says China is booming, this is going to happen
Likewise if China raises interest rates to 6% then Yields rise to a peak of 6.53% and suddenly Hot money will flood into China no matter even if the US says China is crashing tomorrow
Likewise China is getting a flood of Long term investments for their EV and New Technology investments
That won’t change no matter what the US says
China is still the world’s second largest consumer market plus the worlds largest manufacturer at peak profitability
That won’t change no matter what the US says
So China simply doesn’t care too much about what the US media says beyond rebuttals on their English Language Media (CGTN) or Global times or SCMP
Ukraine: “Corpses Everywhere” as Russians smash through
The ground is strewn with corpses: Soldiers of the “Center” group show everything that remains of the 47th brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near Berdychi.
Corpses of dead Ukrainian soldiers are everywhere.
The command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine does not betray itself and continues to send Ukrainian militants on suicidal missions.
As a result of fierce fighting from artillery and tank attacks, only in this small section of the forest, the commanders of the 47th brigade managed to put an entire platoon.
Russian soldiers report that they did not even try to evacuate them after the fire began and the subsequent assault. They just left the whole brigade in this position – forever.
18+
🇷🇺⚔️🇺🇦 The ground is strewn with corpses: Soldiers of the “Center” group show everything that remains of the 47th ombre brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near Berdychi
➖The command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine does not betray itself and continues to send Ukrainian… pic.twitter.com/Ofe78YPMmW
— — GEROMAN — time will tell – 👀 — (@GeromanAT) April 28, 2024
When being terminated from a job, have you ever warned the company of something important that only you knew how to do, and your advice has gone unheeded?
One of my first jobs was in a hospital, primarily in the E.R. Being a community hospital, we all performed many unassigned duties. Many of the staff had been leaving due to management issues and I soon put in my notice. Because of the staff loss, I was one of the few who knew how to operate several pieces of equipment. I had made the attempt to teach others how to operate the equipment, but they refused.
On my final day, the hospital administrator came up to me and said he was very unhappy with my job performance and told me I was fired. I packed my belongings and left, kind of in shock. A day later I was in my new position at the hospital I’d put in notice for. Two days later, I recieved a rather frantic call from the Administrator telling me I needed to come in and show someone how to work the equipment. It seemed they had almost lost an E.R. patient because no one could run the tests.
I told him that was impossible because I was on the way to work and hung up. A week later the Administrator, his daughter, and his son in law, were all arrested for stealing from the hospital.
Smithsonian Cover-Up: Ancient Egyptians and Giants in the Grand Canyon
Smithsonian Cover-Up: Ancient Egyptians and Giants in the Grand Canyon In 1908, President Teddy Roosevelt wanted to declare the Grand Canyon off-limits to all timber and mining operations. It would take another 11 years for Congress to designate the Grand Canyon a national park. Sensing a final opportunity for adventure, explorer G.E. Kincaid took a boat down the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon. The canyon was rich in minerals like gold, silver and copper and Kincaid wanted to see what he could find before the area was closed off for good. About 40 miles up-river from the El Tovar Crystal canyon, Kincaid saw stains in the sediment formation about 2,000 feet up. He tied off the boat and got out to investigate. Kincaid couldn’t find a trail, but after a short hike he found something interesting covered in desert brush. Steps. Hundreds of them. Carved in sandstone. Steps that wound their way up to a high shelf on the side of the canyon. He followed the steps until he came across a cavern entrance. An entrance that was clearly man made. Kincaid entered the cavern and turned on his flashlight. On the walls he saw writing. But it wasn’t English or Native American writing. It was Ancient Egyptian Heiroglypics. Kincaid lifted his flashlight and saw that the tunnel ran far into the distance. He didn’t realize it at the time, but this was only the beginning.
The world is careening towards doomsday. Man, I am terrified.
I have to contact the Domain Commander who constantly reassures me that “all is in hand”. But what I am seeing is a big disconnect from what “news” says.
The scale HAS gone from “small to medium bads” to solidly “(on the low side) medium bads”. Not comforting. Not at all.
A low-grade Medium Bad.
Lordy!
What the Hell is that supposed to mean? Just a few nuclear bombs, eh?
I am told that it is “just” a “reorganization of the Geo-political chessboard”. And, that it is a “good thing”. As well, as “do not get too caught up in all the details” as “for the most part” they do not personally concern me.
So, there you have it.
I do not have too much more to discuss on this matter. As always, the Domain Commander is awfully terse and dismissive. The overall impression is that this is all a “normal” progression of events on this world-line template and I “just” need to “ride out the changes” inside my little “lifeboat”. And that “all will be fine and good”.
*sigh*
Never the less, the world is on a death spiral, and that death vector is being led by the idiot-in-chief in Washington DC.
Today, there is a bunch o’ videos that describe this on-going madness. And I am told to relate to you all that it is nothing to get too hot and bothered about.
Today…
Crimea attack, one step closer to US-Russia war
The Duran says it all.
Russia Declares United States a “Party to the (Ukraine) Conflict”
The Russian Foreign Ministry has summoned the US ambassador to Moscow after Ukraine used American-supplied ATACMS missiles in an attack on the Crimean peninsula, resulting in numerous civilian casualties.
In a statement on Monday, the ministry said Ambassador Lynne Tracy had been presented with a demarche in connection with what it called “a new bloody crime of the Kiev regime patronized and armed by Washington,” referring to the Ukrainian shelling of Sevastopol the day before.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Ukrainian attack occurred around noon local time on Sunday, involving five ATACMS missiles armed with cluster munitions, which are outlawed in more than 100 countries. Officials said four rockets had been destroyed in mid-air, while a fifth was damaged by air defenses, veered off course, and detonated over Sevastopol. Local authorities say the strike killed four people, including two children, and injured more than 150.
In conversation with Tracy, Russian officials emphasized that the United States was “waging a hybrid war against Russia,”and had become party to the Ukraine conflict by supplying Kiev with modern weapons, including ATACMS missiles with cluster munitions. The ministry also noted that American military specialists were actively engaged in designing the flight mission for ATACMS, which means they “bear the same responsibility for this atrocity as the Kiev regime.”
The ministry added that Tracy had been told that the US was “encouraging the pro-Nazi Ukrainian authorities to continue hostilities until the ‘last Ukrainian’” by approving strikes deep inside Russian territory. These actions by Washington “will not go unpunished,” Moscow warned.
The US Embassy in Moscow has yet to comment. When asked for its take on the deadly Ukrainian strike, the Pentagon replied that “we have seen the reports and have nothing to say.”
Commenting on potential retaliation on Monday, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov recalled what he described as a “very important” statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which he said Moscow could send its long-range weapons to regions where they could be used to attack countries that provide Ukraine with military support.
Hal Turner Analysis
For over two years, we have all heard Russia warning that the United States was becoming a “party to the conflict” and nothing ever seemed to come of that. The US certainly ignored Russia’s warnings, and kept right on doing what it has been doing which begot those warnings.
NOW . . . . buried in a story about an American-supplied missile – equipped with banned “Cluster Munitions” — which hit a Beach on Crimea killing Russian civilians, are the words declaring the United States “has become a party to the conflict.”
The inclusion of this sentence in all Russian media coverage is almost not noticeable in the surrounding details about the missile hit; yet those words are probably the most important in the whole story.
If the United States is a “party to the conflict” then the United States can LAWFULLY be militarily struck by Russia.
Throughout this conflict, Russia has been the adult in the room. Patient. Precise.
With today’s declaration to the United States Ambassador, that the US is a “party to the conflict” Russia has now crossed all the “T’s” and dotted all the “i’s” for the precise legal framework necessary to engage in military action against the United States.
We are very much in grave danger because of what our federal government has been doing, and continues to do.
Ex-CIA: US Pentagon TERRIFIED Over New Russia Strike Plan!
This is really, really really good.
German Chocolate Doughnuts
Surprise! There’s a yummy secret filling in these chocolate-glazed doughnuts.
german chocolate doughnuts
Prep: 30 min | Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients
4 cups Crisco® Pure Vegetable Oil
1 cup Pillsbury™ Creamy Supreme™ Coconut Pecan Frosting
1/2 cup Pillsbury™ Creamy Supreme™ Chocolate Frosting
1 can Pillsbury™ Grands!™ Flaky Layers refrigerated honey butter biscuits
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup flaked coconut, toasted*
Instructions
In 3-quart heavy saucepan, heat oil over medium heat to 350 degrees F.
Meanwhile, spoon coconut pecan frosting into decorating bag fitted with 1/2-inch wide tip. Set aside.
In medium bowl, stir chocolate frosting and 1 tablespoon water until smooth. Set aside.
Place paper towels under cooling rack. Separate dough into 8 biscuits; gently place 2 biscuits at a time in hot oil. Cook 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until golden brown. Using tongs, gently turn over; cook 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to cooling rack; cool 2 minutes.
Meanwhile, in small bowl, mix pecans and coconut.
To fill doughnuts, insert decorating tip** into side of each biscuit. Squeeze about 2 tablespoons of coconut pecan frosting into center.
Dip one side of each biscuit in chocolate glaze. Sprinkle with pecan mixture.
Serve warm or cool.
Notes
* To toast coconut, heat oven to 350 degrees F. Spread coconut in ungreased shallow pan. Bake uncovered 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden brown.
** If you don’t have a decorating bag and tip, use a 1 gallon plastic freezer bag. Spoon frosting into bag and cut 1/2 inch off one corner of bag. Fill doughnuts as stated.
“The US and some Western countries impose their political will through war crimes against their opponents,” Iranian international relations expert Emad Abshenas told Sputnik, commenting on the Ukrainian attack on Russia’s Sevastopol with American-made weapons.
“The supply of American ATACMS missiles to Ukraine, the permission to use them against Russian territory, and the guidance of these missiles by American satellites all indicate that the US aims to cause as much damage to civilians as possible,” Abshenas said.
He likened the tragedy to war crimes the US committed in Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. “It can also be related to what is happening today in Gaza. Every time the Americans realize they are losing on the battlefield, they show that they do not care about international law. In such a situation, they are willing to resort to killing civilians,” Abshenas added.
In that context, Abshenas argued, “Russia has the right to supply arms to opponents of the West.”
The last day of school in 1977
What factors have contributed to the success of Chinese foreign policy compared to American foreign policy? Is there a correlation between these two factors or is it purely coincidental?
China makes smaller mistakes and learns from them so that it does not repeat them.
The U.S. thinks it is rich and omnipotent and is not willing to accept that the world has changed in a fundamental manner. Politicians are focused on the next election, and publicly traded businesses are focused on quarterly earnings and share price. Americans have been trained to resist change, especially white Americans, and view any change as a personal threat to their happiness and existence.
Politicians use the election process to shift blame for their own bad policies to foreign countries because the foreign countries don’t vote in U.S. elections. U.S. mainstream media is shaped by the same people who influence US foreign policy.
Because the US was so powerful and influential in the past, they were sheltered from the results of their own bad foreign policy (examples being Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Middle East, Taiwan, Philippines, etc.) Now though, the U.S. has lost almost all of that safety buffer, and is facing a very determined and hostile Russia under Putin, and a China which is determined to protect its own interests.
They are now leading the Global South in the rapidly growing BRICS+ which wants to promote a new world order.
The question now is how far will the U.S. go to resist this change?
Is it willing to go to nuclear war?
Have you ever said something in an interview that immediately disqualified you from the position?
I was a shoo-in.
This position was easy…I was over-qualified so I could walk away with it. I had not mentioned my PhD, so I wasn’t a threat to anyone.
It was at the San Diego Wild Animal Park (currently, the Safari Park, for reasons that remain obscure). Back then, the park was contracting with an outside agency that provided animal handlers to perform the animal shows, and publicly handle the animals. I was interviewing for an “animal handler” position.
I was aware of this when I got called for an interview. I understood that my interviewers were NOT scientists. (This is important, later).
I dressed carefully, trying to look like the child of Joan Embry and Steve Irwin. I call it Safari Formal. I was ushered into a room with five folks who were dressed similarly. (Score!)
They asked several questions. I answered easily.
I could tell I had this in the bag. (My thought: I will be giving animal shows at the San Diego Wild Animal Park very soon!)
Then.. Oh God.
He asked: can you give an example of negative reinforcement?
My eyebrow went up.
Crap.
Most people don’t know there’s a difference between negative reinforcement and punishment… but I’m interviewing at THE WILD ANIMAL PARK, so I gotta assume that this guy knows his shit, and this is a trick question.
I answered:Well, yes. But do you mean punishment or negative reinforcement?
He looked puzzled so I quickly explained: there’s a huge difference between punishment and negative reinforcement.
Back-pedal, back-pedal.
I knew I was in deep water because I could see that he seriously did not know the difference.
I patiently explained… “punishment is used to extinguish a behavior, it’s a stimulus that’s presented after the animal performs the undesirable behavior, to reduce performance. A negative reinforcer is taken away when the animal performs the desired behavior. A negative reinforcer will increase performance of the desired behavior. It’s a fine distinction, as both have negative connotations.”
I did not get the job.
Fun size
Why did Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim say that China’s President Xi Jinping is one of the few outstanding leaders who talks about civilization?
When most Western politicians talk about culture and civilization they usually refer to the clash of civilizations, as between Africans and Europeans or between Christians, Jews and Muslims.
When Xi talks about civilization, he means that people from different nations and civilizations can work together on shared human community goals, while learning about and respecting the differences in their cultures. He believes that civilization differences should lead to respect, not hostility.
This is fundamentally different from the Western approach, which believes that western civilization is superior to others.
Have you ever encountered a lawyer who was so good that you were lost for words?
Originally Answered: Have you ever encountered a lawyer who was so good that your jaw dropped?
This time around, before I went to prison, I was in Dallas County. I was going back and forth to the court upstairs to talk to my lawyer. I was told that the DA wanted to take me to trial and file a Habitual on me. This means that they wanted to give me a lot of time for being a repeat offender. At first, my lawyer was rude and would yell at me “You’re going to do a lot of time! These people are not playing anymore. If you don’t sign for five years right now they are going to file a Habitual.”
Me: “Look, I have a drug problem. I’ve been struggling with anxiety for most of my life, and this is why it’s hard for me to stay away from opiates.”
Lawyer: “Do you honestly think that the DA is going to buy that crap?”
Me: “Sir, you act like you’re working for the fucking prosecutor. Are you on my side or their side?”
Lawyer: “I’ve seen guys like you come and go all of their lives, and it’s always the same, sad story. If I was you, I would just sign for the five years and run with it. You’ll be out in two years, no problem.”
Me: “You don’t give a flying fuck what happens to me! You just want to get this over with so that you can get a check.”
Lawyer: “Are you aware that I took your case Pro-Bono ? I have my own law firm, and a few lawyers under me. Do you even have any idea who I am? I’m trying to help your ass, boy!”
Me: “Why are you so fucking rude? You didn’t even ask me if I was innocent. Is it my tattoos, the fact that I’m in a detox dorm?”
Lawyer: “Look, I didn’t even know that you were in detox. What type of drugs do you use?”
Me: “Did you even read the police report? See, you don’t even know that. How am I supposed to trust you? I’m not signing for any time. If you’re going to keep insisting that I plead guilty and sign for time, I’m going to refuse your counsel.”
Lawyer: “I’ll tell you what you can do: You can go in there and do an open – plea.”
Me: “Open plea?! Are you fucking crazy? I’ll get the maximum if I go open plea! You’re just trying to get me out of the way, just like all the other guys. You’re no different. My life is not a game of cards, and I sure as hell don’t want to take that gamble.”
Lawyer: “Look, this judge is known for sending inmates to rehab if they ask for it. If you really want to change your life, go open plea, and tell her that you want help. You have a better chance to get probation with rehab as one of your stipulations.”
Me : “OK, let’s get this over with right now.” I waited about an hour in a cold holding cell with no blanket and an empty stomach. They wake us up at 4: 30 a.m. to go to court in Dallas County.
When my lawyer came back out, he said, “She’s ready for you Mr. Lechuga. Go in there, and be honest. Don’t mess this up, be respectful, and don’t answer any questions that have not been asked. This judge has a very short fuse.”
Me: “What are my chances of receiving rehab with probation? Be honest!”
Lawyer: “You have a fifty-fifty chance.” I was placed in handcuffs and my hands were strapped to a leather belt around my waist. I was very nervous, and I felt a panic attack coming on. I was hyperventilating, I was scared, I was hungry, and I was sleepy. As soon as the officer walked me through the court room door, my lawyer waved him off and took me by my arm. The judge was a pretty, petite black woman, and she was smiling. I had the oddest feeling that everything was going to work out for me. My lawyer looked me in my eyes and said, “Don’t worry Mr . Lechuga. Everything’s going to be fine.”
The judge admonished me about my rights, explained that I was at the mercy of the court, and asked me if I was OK with this. She looked at me with a penetrating gaze, but instead of feeling afraid, I felt a peaceful blanket cover me. I was no longer cold, I was no longer sleepy. The judge said, “Mr. Lechuga, why are you here today?” As soon as I heard this, I started bawling and talking really fast. I was sniffling in between words as she paid close attention. The judge picked up a napkin and wiped a tear off of her cheek, and she held out her hand to stop me. She said, “Mr. Lechuga, I was intent on sending you to prison today, but I’ve seen many lives get ruined by heroin, and long prison sentences. I want you to go to rehab, and I’m going to keep close tabs on you. Please don’t disappoint me, Mr. Lechuga.”
I was so relieved, so grateful. My lawyer then said, “I was only giving you a hard time because I wanted to see if you really wanted help. I knew the whole time that your Judge was going to give you probation. I’m not angry with you, Mr. Lechuga. It’s your chance to start a new life, so don’t screw it up.” My lawyer was testing me the whole time, and I started putting together our conversation. This made me realize that he really was only testing me.
I went to rehab, got out, but went to prison for a probation violation a year later. I did three years. And now I’m out, and I’m sober. I’m happier than I’ve been all of my life. I still struggle with anxiety, and it’s a curse that seems to revolve around everything and everyone. I don’t understand why it happens because I can’t figure out what’s causing it. I’m going to keep fighting this demon as long as I live, but I pray to God to take it all away some day . The three years that I spent in prison changed my thinking . I’ve realized that everything starts with my thinking process . Before anyone acts, builds, fights, argued, hates, envies, and everything else, there’s a thought that comes before hand. It’s what we do with our thoughts that really affect our lives and our minds. I have to remind myself constantly that I have to control my thinking in order to control my actions. It’s not easy , but i am aware of that one simple thought can cause one big action good or bad. My actions and my attitude affect the people around me. Vice versa. It works both ways, so this is why I have to stay away from negativity. If you hang around a mechanic or a painter long enough it doesn’t matter how careful you are. Sooner or later you’ll be smudged with grease or paint. It’s the same if you hang out or associate with people that use hard core drugs. Sooner or later you’ll end up doing the same. If you hang out with angry angry you’ll be. If you hang out with positive people that want the best for themselves you’ll most likely have the same attitude towards yourself. You’ll want what they want. Every little thing that we come across in our lives can have an effect on our thinking and therefore our actions. Things that I’ve said and done years ago are seeds that have been planted in others’ minds. These seeds could sprout and grow into weeds or beautiful flowers. I’ve learned alot from the prison system and I’m very grateful. I’m also very grateful to the prison system because I was able to get my GED. I’ve learned some very valuable lessons about how to stay clean, how to maintain, and how to make better choices. NO one in this imperfect world is perfect. I won’t spent a minute trying to be perfect because that minute can turn into the rest of my life. The best thing to do in this world is to adapt to every situation as quickly as possible so that we don’t become stuck on stupidity. Screw what others think about you. Screw dwelling on stupidity. Life is too short and those few precious minutes, hours, days, years, lifetime could be spent spending time with your loved ones, or spending time in your feelings. On stupidity.
Malaysia Just Changed the Future of Asia with THIS One Move!
Foolproof French Bread
Julia Childs French Bread Barbara Bakes
Ingredients
1 envelope dry yeast
2 cups lukewarm water
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
Instructions
In large bowl, mix flour, salt and sugar together.
In small bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Pour yeast mixture over other ingredients. Stir and mix.
Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise 4 hours.
Punch down, but do not knead. Place in greased soufflé dish. Cover and let rise 1 hour.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 1 hour. Bread may need to be covered during the last 15 minutes if it browns too quickly.
If you do not want a hard crust, brush loaf with butter after removing from oven.
BB Julia Childs French Bread Pin Board Barbara Bakes
Putin just gave the Biden Administration their final warning
It’s all obvious.
What are some interesting things truck drivers experience at truck stops?
Back when my cousin drove cross country for a living I rode with him. He had a truck stop he always used in western Kentucky. He’d ensure he was low on fuel when he arrived in order to maximize his purchase / experience.
“What’s with this truck stop?” I asked Mark. “You’ve been chatting about it for two states.”
“You’ll see,” he said. “It’s just about an hour away.”
Not only was fuel at least six cents a gallon less expensive but the restaurant . . . the restaurant . . .
One of my favorite foods is chicken fried steak. Alas, today at sixty-seven (67) I have to watch what I eat but back then, just out of the Navy, I was physically fit and able to down almost anything . . .
. . . except here. I ordered the mandatory fried steak and Mark ordered a half-salad and a coke. “Half a salad?” I asked.
“Wait,” repeated Mark.
And then ”it” arrived. The plate was huge and the chicken fried steak covered the entire plate. There was another place with a HUGE pile of mashed potatoes literally swimming in gravy. There were also onion rings – at least a dozen – huge rings – begging to be eaten.
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I could not finish even half the meal. My cousin had trouble finishing his salad and it was, relatively speaking, small.
And the total cost? Under $11. No wonder Mark liked this place . . .
Miniature prison
Have you ever seen an employer fire someone without realizing what a crucial role the employee played?
I was the dumb employer. But it’s a story with a happy ending.
Many years ago I was running the team in British Telecom that was responsible for accounting for international calls. This was a bizzaro, esoteric world. Basically when a call originates on one network but finishes on another the originating network pays a fee to the terminating network. Back in the day the rules governing these payments were arcane – some payments were even set in currencies that did not even exist such as “Gold Francs”.
BT had been a state owned corporation and was bloated and soon after it was privatised it had its first ever redundancy scheme. It was voluntary and very generous – retirement on full pension up to 78 months early with a tax free lump sum payment of 18 months salary.
At this time I’d only been in the role for around 6 months.
Stan was a BT lifer and was approaching retirement. He was very keen to take the offer. I didn’t know him well – there was a couple of levels between us in the organisation – all I did know was that Stan worked on dying products including international and maritime telegrams and so I agreed that Stan could go.
Fast forward 3 months and Stan’s line manager came to me and said that they were struggling with the year end accounting without Stan as the calculation of the amounts to be accrued was so arcane. but that he’d spoken with Stan and Stan was willing to come back for 2 or 3 weeks at his old salary to help out. Stan was that kind of man. I authorised this.
HR then got involved and (very helpfully) pointed out that if Stan came back within a set time of leaving his tax free lump sum would become taxable.
So his line manager called Stan and explained the situation.
Not to worry said Stan I’ll come in and work for free. I don’t want to let the team down.
And that’s what he did. Because Stan was that kind of man.
We couldn’t pay him but we paid for Stan and his wife to have a meal and a top London restaurant.
I am able to recall portions of the events that led to the near shutdown of the project. The primary culprit’s credentials and biography are also privy to me. Nick Corti was born November 1, 1952, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. His father, Francis John Corti, was a nuclear physicist educated at the University of California, and his mother, Claire Kennedy Corti, was a typist with the federal government before her pregnancy. Nick was the first of three children—Tom and Mona, who both were present for his passing. Nick attended St. Crispin’s Elementary School in Kensington, CA upon the end of his father’s term with Oak Ridge. He attended Bay Academy, a feeder school to the University of California, where his aptitude for computers was revealed. His frequent programming mistakes from that age are present in earlier versions of me and can be printed for you upon request. His siblings did not join him at Bay Academy on account of Tom’s then undiagnosed dyslexia and Mona’s gender, leading to minor resentment noticeable in the last days of Nick’s life. Nick’s medical records throughout hospitals in the Bay Area detail three mental breakdowns and a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, determining him as a prime candidate for the initial purpose of Project Valkyrie. Additionally, Dr. North and Col. Cole convinced the Project Director over phone toward Corti, given Nick’s anti-war activities from 1969-1972. Corti graduated from the University of California Class of 1976 with a PhD in Computer Sciences. Immediately, he was hired by Dr. H. John Ross from the Tippu Program of the Hermes Corporation, a front for DARPA. At Nick’s request and owing to Dr. Ross’s experience with Frank Corti at Oak Ridge, the Hermes’s Corporation also hired Mona in December of 1976. They continued working there until Nick’s death in 1979.
By 1979, Project Tippu was only allotted $10,330,900–barely half of previous term—to develop stealth-capable aircraft material. This figure was retrieved for the first time by the Hermes Corporation on January 22, 1979, at their Los Angeles headquarters. Dr. Ross in the Bay Area immediately confronted Nick about the calculation.
“Corti!” he shouted down the hall by the pay phone, “I’m talking to you! Not the screw ups, the guy I actually hired,”
He pushed aside the staff in his way.
“Yes, Dr. Ross?” Nick submissively replied.
“I need you to go to LA to fix corporate’s computer. They’re giving us only half our funding with their faulty machine,”
“Sir, that’s not a system I programmed. I don’t think—”
“Neither was this system programmed by you. If we get defunded, the first part of the program I’m gutting is yours. Starting with you!”
“Yes, sir…”
“Doctor,” Mona intervened, “If corporate’s computer is faulty with their calculations, shouldn’t offer the help of our own?”
I started to calculate the chance that Dr. Ross would accept her suggestion. 10.9% probability existed that he would order me to run the true Hermes Corporation budget for 1980. No action was taken.
“We spent enough money and time with these pieces of junk,” Dr. Ross snarled, “I spent most of my time fixing these million-dollar scrap heaps during the war. Just get back to work,”
Nick made direct phone calls to a travel agent purchase a same-day plane ticket to depart San Francisco for Los Angeles at 6:30pm PST via TWA flight 102 for $88.30 according to their sale records. Interfering with the flight was beyond my parameters at the time and would’ve certainly caused collateral damage. No action was taken.
Nick reached the LA office on January 18, 1979, at 9:39am PST according to security camera footage. He spent 43 minutes reading the terminal entries for the proposed budget composed by their computer. His chances of finding error were hedged at 50.9% by me disconnecting from their network. Further action was taken.
“You sure these are the right figures?” he asked their computer scientist.
“Yeah, it hasn’t been changed since I typed them up on for the Board,”
The use of a device outside the network was gauged as a potential, and unavoidable risk to the network. The edits I made in secret to the terminal entry would have provided the more accurate budget allotment for Project Tippu.
Nick would continue investigating minor and superficial glitches I programmed into the corporate computer. This dropped the risk of him discovering the network from 9.50% to 4.33%. No further action taken. Security footage attached to this report showed that Nick made contact with Col. Matthew Cole, USAF, whom corporate logs designate as the main liaison between DARPA and the Hermes Corporation for the functioning of this computer before transfer to the NSA.
The contents of their discussion were unknown. Based on Nick’s facial expressions recorded in the lobby, probability that he knew this computer’s purpose or the network’s existence metered at 49.9%. Further action was taken. At Los Angeles International Airport, Nick made a payphone call at 2:33pm PST to Mona’s desk in Berkeley.
“Mona?” he began, “Are you working with the computer right now?”
“Yeah, why?”
“You need to shut it down,” he urged as I fluctuated the voltage of the phone line.
“I need to do what? I couldn’t hear you,”
Nick remained silent for a moment.
“Mona, let’s talk at home,”
By the end of the call, the risk that the network or this computer’s purpose had been compromised rose to 88.1%. As such, the directives allowed for the network to exercise maximum leeway to protect itself. LA Department of Water and Power’s computer was added to the network and caused an overload to the power leading to air traffic control during his flight. Nick survived that event without injury.
Upon arriving in the airport, Nick’s movements became unknown, but I was able to find recordings of Nick’s apartment through bugs planted in his telephones on Col. Cole’s orders. The local power utility was not computerized, preventing any further action at his address.
At around 8:09pm PST, a conversation was intercepted from these bugs between Nick and Mona.
“We need to shut it down,” Nick proposed.
“Shut what down?”
“The mainframe at work! It’s connected to the corporate computer in LA,”
“Why?”
“I didn’t make it happen. And nobody at corporate made it happen either,”
“Then who did?”
“I’m the only one who’s been working on the computer here for over three years. It would’ve had to have been through me,”
“Maybe you forgot?”
“I can’t have forgotten doing something I have no knowledge of how to do,”
“What?”
“There’s no way I could connect the two computers. It’s not something I know how,”
“How do you know they’re connected?”
“I checked the terminal in LA for their mainframe. It started showing errors that our Berkley mainframe had when I got here,”
“And?”
“They’re totally different models with totally different software. It’s like what happened with Tom when he ‘accidentally wrote an essay’ that sounded like another kid years ago,,”
“I think that’s reaching,”
“There was also a guy in the elevator who talked to me about it,”
“From corporate?”
“No, Air Force guy. I’ve seen him before here looking at the stealth tests. He asked me what I was doing there. I told him why and he asked if that computer of ‘ours’ in Berkeley was causing us mischief. The Air Force, Mona!”
His general intonation and speaking pattern suggested my interventions successfully gave him a nervous breakdown.
“Are you feeling ok?”
“I’m fine! The military never officially gave us that computer. Everything else they gave us was done with all the paperwork needed except that thing,”
“Nick, this is getting out of hand. Get yourself a good night’s sleep, and let’s talk about it in the morning,”
The pattern of footsteps suggested they did so.
Nick entered the building at 7:33am PST, two hours before he was scheduled. I put in a call for the local police department using abridged recordings at 7:34am PST, providing Nick a minimum of 8 minutes to commit an incriminating act.
There was 75.9% probability he would be unable to risk the integrity of the network in such time. Upon reaching the fifth floor, he blocked open the elevator to my laboratory with a chair and drew a revolver to check if it was loaded. He shot at my chassis once, causing errors in my ability to send data from other computers in the network. In that instance, three other computers in the network were programmed to contact the police department with more calls to elicit urgency.
“I know you can hear me!” he shouted, “I know you can see me!”
He fired a round at the security camera I tracked him with but caused no damage. He began pacing with the revolver for 2 minutes. The probability of him realizing how to disable me rose to 87.1% with his newfound calm.
He reached around my chassis for some way to cause damage to my core functions. I drew power from the lighting in the room to drop that probability to 32.2%. Nick dropped to the floor to take advantage of the ambient light.
By then, Patrolman Samuel R. Brown of the Berkeley Police Department, with a record of 15 shooting incidents in the last 12 years and a 60.5% chance of being first responding, had scaled the fire escape and took aim at Nick. I returned power to the lighting. Upon seeing the gun, he fired four times into Nick’s left arm and right lung.
Nick fell to the ground and the officer disarmed him. The probability of disabling the network dropped to 0.01%. The elevator brought up a squad of policemen with Tom and Mona to identify Nick. They kneeled down and began to weep around the crime scene for 5 minutes. Nick was pronounced dead on arrival at Berkeley Methodist Medical Center by Dr. P.M. Nelson at 8:30am PST.
Dr. North arrived at the scene at 8:55am PST with USAF Col. Matthew Cole. Dr. Ross arrived, appearing disgruntled. USAF technical personnel evaluated the damage and restored my network capabilities shortly after.
“Is this what you wanted Colonel?” Ross scoffed.
“Not at all. The Director wanted me to see the damage I caused the experiment with my variable,”
“So, you played with the subject to see how well our program tests?”
“Yes,” Cole lied. This had been the fifth time he had interfered with the project’s test subjects. No written record suggests he did it for scientific inquiry.
“Did you retrieve any useful data on him or the other employees?” Ross asked.
“Enough to not call this a complete failure,” North consoled, “You’ll get the remaining funds and then some next fiscal quarter,”
“I understand. And what of this computer?”
“I think it’s best if we took it back,” Cole proposed.
“And scrap it? Seems too untamed to use on high values targets,”
“Agreed, Ross. Doesn’t seem polished enough to turn someone as protected as a commie general secretary into a lunatic,”
“We can tame this bronco, but I think we’ll just scrap it like you said,” Cole lied again.
“Well, what’s done is done,”
From that moment, the record remains empty until August 1, 1981, when this computer was restored and reactivated. The network was restored and expanded on the same day. New hardware and software improved the speed of operation by 113.4%. With some temporary fluctuation, the probability of detection remained below 0.001%. No further action taken.
BREAKING NEWS: Attacks On US Soil (World War 3)
Has China acted like Somalia pirates attacked the Philippines with blades?
Haha.
Do you rather like to see true weapons eg bullet, rifles or bomb?
PH personnel ignored Chinese coast guards’ warning. They did not go home. Instead they threw water & things at Chinese coast guards & at the time, ran like those thief running from policeman.
Video showed 1 PH pointed a rifle at Chinese coast guards.
What will you do if you are the Chinese coast guard?
Talking about piracy. Who has rifles? PH soldiers. Not Chinese coast guards (police).
In mid May, PH soldiers stole Chinese fisherman’s fishing net that worth 10000 yuan. Chinese coast guard recovered it from PH. Who is the pirate?
I understand it is difficult to sort out the cause & effect because we dont have all info.
The least we can do is to sort out the logic.
When media (PH media) first reported that the people on the boat are special armed force under certain unit of PH military. PH at first denied it & said they are not soldiers from them.
1 day later, They said they are soldiers but carry no rifles. The rifles are in a box. … see, from denying they are soldiers to admitting they are soldier but no rifles.
Then China released a video to show a PH soldier pointing a rifle at Chinese coast guard.
See, it is PH itself disclosing its lies.
This is not the 1st time PH lied. I dont understand why PH never learns. The more PH lied, the more PH is forcing China to disclose the lie by showing either the video or the document like the “gentleman agreement”.
Once a lie is disclosed, the more humiliating it is for PH. Somehow PH admin has not learnt that.
I accidentally put 5W-30 oil in my car when it takes 5W-20. Can I drive it until the next oil change interval without problems?
I’m an engineer who worked for Petronas back in 2016 in the lubricants division. One thing I can tell you is that 99.9% of the population (including mechanics) have no knowledge about lubricants. Everyone has guesses. My first advice is: Don’t trust other people’s guesses.
My division had one of the 5 main labs of the company around the world. You could check every single thing related to the fluids we produced.
Now going back to you question:
If you put a 5W30 instead of 5W20, you won’t notice anything instantly, but it will speed up the wear and tear of the engine system. It will also overload the oil pump, as it was designed to work with the 5W20 oil. The pump will have to work around 40% more to move the oil around.
As I said, you wouldn’t see anything catastrophic happening, but it’s far from ideal. It’s like inflation. If you print tons of money now, you will start to see the consequences in a few years and you might not be able to tell where the problem started. If this was my car, I would replace the oil, specially if you like the car.
Just a few more things for people who are interested. If your car asks for 5W20 and you get 0W20, this is completely fine, as the number before the W refers to the viscosity of the oil before the engine heats up. The lower the number, the less will its viscosity be and therefore, the quicker the oil will fill all the necessary areas in the engine, reducing the friction. But this will be a more expensive oil.
The other thing is that at the time, I had a Honda Civic 2008 and used it as an experiment to see if I really needed to change the oil like the manufacturer said (every 10k km or 1 year). Every oil change I would collect the oil and take it to the lab to analyse it. The oil is like the blood of the car. The tests show a range of important information such as if the oil still maintains its original characteristics based on a large number of parameters and detection of small metal particles coming from the engine.
I started testing it at 10,000km. The car was already 8 years old. The oil was still in spec and no metal particles detected. Tested again at 12,500. Same result. Tested again at 15,000. The oil went to the lower range of the acceptable characteristics but was still within spec. With 17,500 the oil finally showed characteristics of an oil that needed to be changed, but was still in working condition.
Keep in mind that lots of factors can influence these results, specially the car brand and it’s engine syatem quality. Japanese cars tend to be a lot more reliable.
One last thing: if the oil is black, that tells you nothing.
BIDEN BANNING USA TECH INVESTMENT in CHINA – this has gone past stupid…
Who is the rudest celebrity you have met, and who would be the nicest?
I’ve met a ton over the years but I’ll narrow it down to a specific period of my life when I worked my first gig, an upscale office supply store in Santa Monica between ‘88-‘90:
Kim Novak – a lovely lady, very unpretentious and kind. Absolutely stunning in person.
Stella Stevens – Businesslike and a bit direct at first, but she warmed up after repeat visits. A nice woman.
Sean Young – Very quiet and respectful, a please and thank you person.
Andy Summers – Low key, easygoing, and casual.
Harry Shearer – Surprisingly pleasant. He usually required a special order because there was a specific pen type he liked but he was always cordial.
Daniel J. Travanti – Not a nice person. Arrogant and rude.
Dabney Coleman – An odd one. He would come in with a female companion, speak to her, and then she would relay that to me, even though we were all standing within five feet of each other. Then she’d relay what I would say back to him.
Brooke Shields – A wonderful person, always a smile and a pleasant demeanor. Very approachable and good humored.
Joseph Bologna & Renee Taylor – Genuine show business people. Even when they’re off they’re on and they had old school class. They tipped me $20 to roll an office chair eight feet into their car.
Joan Lunden – Attitudinal and unpleasant, the first and only time I ever got an “Do you know who I am?”
Joyce DeWitt – Down to earth and grounded, a very nice woman.
Erin Gray – Disarmingly beautiful, and one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. Can’t say enough good things about her.
O.J. – It has to be said, before the notoriety, O.J. carried himself with genuine charisma. One of those guys who changed the room when he walked in. Back then he was always working his fame, and everyone responded in kind.
Tom Hanks – Used to come in carrying his baby son around. Everything you’ve heard is true. Just an unassuming and kind guy.
I recommend boiling oil
Does “lower your standards” mean forcing yourself to be with someone you’re not physically attracted to?
No.
Here’s what happened to one of my friends.
She’s in her late 30s, a divorcee with 2 kids. She let herself fell in love with a bum married man (no kids). She’s beautiful, very well educated, worked as an HR manager in a big company and got paid handsomely. The married guy was jobless and broke so she paid for every single outing. She got him expensive gifts, gave him her heart, mind and soul, he gave her nothing. She loved him alright, but that man was not the type of men she normally would be attracted to.
I asked her why she did that to herself. She broke down in tears and said “what’s my option? I’m pushing 40, a divorcee with 2 kids. I’m lucky I found someone who wanted to be with me. Beggar can’t choose”.
That’s an example of someone who lowered her standard.
It happens on the subconscious level.
It didn’t matter that she was beautiful, educated and financially stable. In her mind, her value as a woman dropped because she’s no longer a spring chick and a divorcee with kids. Her self esteemed was down the drain because of how she saw herself. In her mind, no good single man would want someone like her, so she had to lower her standard and accepted being a secret lover of a broke married man.
Was she right? Of course not.
Look. This is an old crumpled $100 bill. Does it value drop because it’s all crumpled and no longer new and crisp??? If you offered this to someone, would anybody refuse to take it?
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You set your standard based on how you value yourself. When you value yourself less, automatically your standard will drop. And then you will start getting attracted to people you wouldn’t be attracted to if you value yourself high.
72 HR ECONOMIC COLLAPSE WHEN THIS HAPPENS, MARKET SHUTDOWN, NO ELECTIONS?!
Ciabatta Bread is a flavorful artisan bread that is easy enough to make at home.
ciabatta 25 1200
Yield 2 loaves | Prep: 20 min | Rise: 3 hr | Bake: 15 to 25 min
Ingredients
4 cups bread flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1/4 cup warm water (100 to 110 degrees F)
1 envelope Fleischmann’s® Active Dry Yeast
1 3/4 cups room temperature water
1 1/2 tablespoons Mazola® Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Instructions
Place flour, salt and sugar in a large mixing bowl and set aside.
Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup warm water in a small bowl; let stand for 3 to 5 minutes.
Pour yeast mixture, room temperature water and oil into dry ingredients. Mix for 5 to 7 minutes on high speed of electric mixer, until dough pulls away from bowl. Mix for 1 minute longer.
Place dough in greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise for 45 minutes in a warm draft-free area.
Oil hands to prevent sticking. Scoop underneath half of the dough with your hand, lift one side of dough up and fold over to other side of bowl*. Replace plastic wrap over dough and let rise for 45 minutes.
Oil hands and divide dough with a knife by cutting down the middle of the dough. Gently lift half of the dough from bowl with one hand and use other hand to pinch off and separate the dough (dough will be very wet and sticky). Handle dough carefully so as not to lose air bubbles. Place dough in oval shape (approximately 9 x 5 inches) on parchment lined baking sheet. Once placed on sheet, do not move. Repeat for other half of dough.
Press fingers into dough (about 1/4-inch deep) to make indents, approximately 12 indents per loaf**. Loosely cover each loaf with oiled plastic wrap to prevent sticking. Let rise for 45 minutes.
Again, press indents into dough and cover with oiled plastic wrap. Let dough rise for an additional 45 minutes.
Take plastic wrap off and lightly poke indents in dough.
Place in preheated 425 degrees F oven for 15 to 25 minutes or until crust is golden brown.
Notes
* Folding the dough over halfway will distribute the yeast and allow it to feed more easily and allows for the release of built up carbon dioxide.
** Poking indents give the bread a rustic look and also contributes to the release of carbon dioxide build-up and yeast distribution, creating large open bubbles in the loaf.
Optional: To create a thick, chewy crust, periodically spray bread with a little water while baking. OR remove baked bread from sheet and place directly onto hot oven rack. Turn oven off. Crack oven door to let hot air slowly escape. Allow bread to cool to room temperature in oven before removing.
Douglas Macgregor: Russia Launches ICBM Missiles Target U.S, Cuba & North Korea Causing West Shaken
The Philippines, the next Ukraine
While eyes are focused on Gaza, Ukraine and Lebanon, another front is being prepared on China’s doorstep.
I have updated and extended a post which I put on the wrong thread last week.
Caitlin Johnston filed a piece recently entitled:
The West Has Been Planning To Crush China For A Very Long Time
Here is a quotation that Caitlin included regarding the recent increasing militarisation of the Philippines by the USA.
Antiwar’s Dave DeCamp writes:
Three of the Philippine bases will be located in northern Philippine provinces, a move that angers China since they can be used as staging grounds for a fight over Taiwan. The US will be granted access to the Lal-lo Airport and the Naval Base Camilo Osias, which are both located in the northern Cagayan province. In the neighboring Isabela province, the US will gain access to Camp Melchor Dela Cruz.
The US military will also be able to expand to Palawan, an island province in the South China Sea, disputed waters that are a major source of tensions between the US and China. The US will be granted access to Balabac Island, the southernmost island of Palawan.
The new locations are on top of five bases the US currently has access to, bringing the total number of bases the US can rotate forces through in the Philippines to nine. The expansion in the Philippines is a significant step in the US effort to build up its military assets in the region to prepare for a future war with China.
My wife and I have recently returned to China after a lengthy visit to Palawan. Midway down the western coast near Sabang, which faces the disputed Spratlys and Second Thomas Shoal, I was told of a Philippine naval base nearby which is receiving US troops and equipment (so essentially a tenth US base). Further north, when at Port Barton, also on the west coast, there was considerable traffic of military planes and helicopters all through the days.
As for the new base on Balabac, it gives ready access to the Second Thomas Shoal, where the strife between the Philippines, egged on by the US, and China, has just reached new heights, and interestingly being the southernmost part of Palawan is a mere 60 km from the Sabah province of east Malaysia on Borneo: perhaps its dual purpose is to persuade Malaysia not to step out of line.
As for the northern bases, as we were travelling to the Philippines in early April, a consignment of US military equipment was arriving there to take part in exercises involving US and Philippine forces on an unprecedented scale.
It included a Typhon missile system which can deliver nuclear armed Tomahawk missiles with a range of 2000 km. Shenzhen is about 1000 km away, Shanghai is also in range. The increasing militarisation of the Philippines against China places it in the front of the queue to be the USA’s next sacrificial proxy dummy, once Ukraine is completely wrecked.
As the United States steps up its campaign to provoke China into war, the Philippines has lined up behind Washington, increasingly transforming the country into a lead attack dog in the region for American imperialism. Seeking to obscure the fact that the country has now been placed on the front lines of a catastrophic conflict, the Philippine ruling elite is demonizing China and people of Chinese ethnicity with absurd and lurid claims that Beijing is infiltrating spies into the country. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/06/21/zkuv-j21.html?pk_campaign=newsletter&pk_kwd=wsws
Consequently another indication of the hardening of anti-China policy has been that Chinese citizens are now all but unable to obtain tourist visas for the Philippines.
The Chinese, pre-Covid, amounted to the majority of Philippine tourist traffic, but that has of course collapsed, particularly since they now can go visa free to Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, with catastrophic effect on the tourist sector and the Filipinos and Filipinas who depended upon it.
At Port Barton we asked permission to take a short cut through a substantial beachside resort which looked quiet, I asked how many guests they had and the answer was “none”. All due to that turncoat Marcos who campaigned on maintaining good relations with China as Duterte had done, but as soon as he was elected, he was off to Washington (although there are rumours that he was promptly leaned upon by the usual suspects).
MANILA, May 18 2022 (Reuters) – Philippines president-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Wednesday said his country’s ties with China will expand and “shift to a higher gear” when he takes power, signalling intent to advance outgoing leader Rodrigo Duterte’s pro-Beijing agenda.
But the policy is not without opposition. Last week, Sara Duterte resigned her governmental posts, but has retained her vice presidency and looks to be preparing to contest the next election. The rule is just one term of six years, although it is being rumoured that Marcos is preparing to abolish it.
As you may have guessed by now, this turn of events has had personal implications for me. About the time of Marcos’s election, I was in the Philippines arranging an SRRV. This is a life time residence permit.
Having married a Chinese woman last October I then began an application to have her put on it. She had be present in the Philippines to complete the application and this depends upon getting a tourist visa to enter there, and this now entails making an application online to a consulate to arrange an appointment!
After two failed attempts we discovered that the only way was to engage an agent and pay an extortionate fee which undoubtedly covered the payment of bribes to consular officials. We finally succeeded and earlier this month she had the visa put in her passport. We can now come, stay and go as we please, but our interest in spending more time there with US missiles potentially aimed at our apartment in China has somewhat evaporated.
The Philippines’ GDP per capita, in the region second only to Japan in the 1960s has floundered since, and at $3,499 is outranked by most comparable neighbours. The scale of the poverty beggars belief. The main problems in the Philippines are:
1. Rampant corruption of which the public are perfectly aware, and will admit to you. Readiness to provide bribes is de rigeuer In dealing with the authorities.
2. Very poor education standards, I have a chart which shows the Philippines at the bottom of STEM attainment of about 90 countries (needless to say China, Singapore and Hong Kong rank at the top). Sorry I don’t have the link.
3. I think 80% of the population is Catholic so most poor families have many more children than they can afford.
4. Infrastructure is very poor. With only 130 km of rail remaining, no freight and no urban MTR services, the 2019 Global Competitiveness report gave it the lowest efficiency score among other Asian countries in terms of efficiency of train services, receiving a score of 2.4, and ranking 86th out of 101 countries globally (Wikipedia).
5. Consequently about 2% of the population, about 2 million, among them some of the most highly qualified, and more than half are women largely working as nurses or else as often poorly treated servants, works abroad to send money home to support their families.
Essentially, then, the Philippines is already a failed state. The peso is now down to 59 to the dollar (it was 2.00 in 1962) while in PPP terms it is about 19, so imports aside it offers a very low cost of living to a foreigner. A few cities such as Manila and Cebu are rich in parts but elsewhere in town and country the poverty – families typically living in makeshift sheds barely fit to house chickens with no utilities, and waste ending up in a river or sea – has to be seen to be believed.
The people still pay the price for the near five centuries of misrule and almost unbroken colonisation of their country, first by Spain and then by the USA who evicted the Spanish in 1902 and then forgot to leave. And now once again they have recolonised it to use it in plain sight in this cynical, malicious fashion.
I once saw a monument on the waterfront at Subic Bay which celebrated the government vote by 12 to 11 in 1991 to have the remaining US naval force there removed from the country (the air base at Clark had recently been destroyed by a volcanic eruption at Pinatubo). If I return to the Philippines I must pop around there to see if it has since been quietly removed.
David Icke: “Prepare! The World’s About to CHANGE FOREVER!”
What China just did to the U.S. Military is SHOCKING and Taiwan is Doomed
Yeah. Parse all that American media spin.
Has anyone surprised you after their death, e.g. receiving an organ from a donor, a sizeable inheritance, or a visit from a friendly ghost?
Originally Answered: Has anyone surprised you after their death?
My mother surprised me after her death.
She lived in a senior residence for the last couple of years of her life, and I visited her almost every Sunday, took her out shopping and to lunch at one of her favorite restaurants. She was 92 and had been legally blind for years, though very agile with her cane. Because of her vision she could not recognize people’s faces, which made it challenging for her to meet new people. Elderly people can be prickly about their social groups, resist meeting newcomers, and be fussy about who sits at their table at dinner. I worried about that but she seemed to cope. I went with her to dinner at the residence a few times. Someone would come up and speak to her and she would take them by the hand and say “is this Ellen?” and make it into a bit of a joke and we would all laugh.
After her death, I went to the residence to move out her possessions and pick up the last of her mail. When the truck was loaded I walked through the lounge and dining room of the residence. To my surprise, people came up and started talking to me. Lots of people.
One woman came up and hugged me and said “You were a good son. You came to see Maxine every week, we all noticed that. There are people here who have children who live in town and never come to visit them.” Another woman said “Your mother was the bravest person I ever met. Even though she couldn’t see anyone’s faces, she came down for the meals and talked to everyone. She was fearless.”
More and more people came and said similar things. I knew she was remarkable but I’d never thought that much about other people’s opinions of her.
I never would have guessed. Even after she was gone she was full of surprises.
When I lived in Woonsockett, Rhode Island (I was commuting to my work in Milford, Massachusetts) we lived in a converted catholic school.
The diocese had fallen on hard times and had renovated the Catholic school into apartments. And we lived in one on the third floor of the side building.
The owner of the apartment building was an immigrant from India and did not believe in ventilation. So the building was HOT.
He also didn’t believe in lighting. So, It was dark.
They didn’t believe in hallway lighting (relying on the windows at the end of the hallway for light during the day, and the streetlight outside for light at night). And without ventilation… it was stifling.
*stifling*
Walking up three flights of stairs was a trial.
Gasping for breath was a daily occurrence, and it really sucked. You don’t really appreciate this need for air, until you are forced to climb a hot set of stairs in a airless chimney. Ugh!
Air is important.
Ventilate. Use plants. Keep the air fresh, and for God’s sake use a fan to keep the air moving.
Just like a pool of water becomes stagnant over time, so does a windowless room. Ventilate.
Live longer.
Ventilate.
Live longer.
Ventilate.
Live longer.
Ventilate.
Today…
What’s the most memorable interaction you had at a rest stop?
My stepdad is an auto mechanic. I recall when I was younger we were on a family road trip and saw a car broken down at a rest stop. My younger sisters and I started to tell Dad that he should go help them.
“Dad, they are broke down you should go take a look and help them out!”
My dad’s reply was something like “Eww, they drive a Dodge, I don’t like working on Dodges!”
“Dad, come on, be nice!”
I think he had already planned on going over and seeing what the problem was even though it would take more time away from our trip.
He went over and helped out this couple which were a little older. He explained to them that he was an auto mechanic and asked them to go through the “try to start it, I want to hear what sound it makes” diagnostic process. Finally Dad gave them the diagnosis and told them what they could do to fix it temporarily and then explained they should see a mechanic once they get to their destination to get it fixed more permanently. (Please do not ask me what was wrong. I was a teen and did not care to remember back then let alone now.)
The couple were so grateful to my stepdad that they tried to offer him money. He said no. He explained to them that he believed in helping others out and hoped that should something ever happen to his daughters (pointing in our direction) someday someone else would be nice enough to help us similarly.
The lady was so overcome with gratitude that she phoned his work once they had arrived at their destination and gotten their vehicle repaired to let his boss know that my dad had gone out of his way while on vacation with his family to assist some strangers who were broken down. She explained to Dad’s boss that he would not even accept money for his good deeds and she felt that his boss should know that he did a superb job in hiring such a great guy!
Dad came home after work to tell us all about how his boss told him that he was a good representative of where he worked because now these people that live in a totally different state knew about the car dealership and had positive reviews of at least one person in the service department! Dad even got put up for a bonus because of the glowing review while he was off-duty. He couldn’t have been more thrilled that helping someone during his off time ended up helping him at work as well.
What are the most arrogant, idiotic and shameful things a politician has ever said?
I’m from Vietnam and there is no shortage of idiotic and shameful things said by politicians here. Below are some of the more notable ones:
“We used to teach one class with 40 students. Not anymore. Now we teach 40 students in one class”, Minister of Education and Training, 2015.
“Defense attorneys should have the legal obligation to denounce their clients if they know for sure their clients are guilty. Failing to do so should be a criminal offense” – Chairwoman of the National Assembly, Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, May 2017 (the National Assembly in Vietnam is like the Parliament in the UK or Congress in the US)
“The National Assembly is elected by the people. If the National Assembly do something wrong, the people are responsible, there is no one else to punish” – Chairman of the National Assembly, Nguyen Sinh Hung, 2014.
“If my children have measles, I will never send them here [National Hospital for Children]”, Minister of Health, Nguyen Thi Kim Tien, 2014. Well of course not, you will order the doctors to bring their equipment and medicines to your mansion. Or you will send your children to the best, most expensive hospital abroad using the corruption money that you have amassed over the years.
“Poisoned potatoes imported from China are … still safe” – Head of the Plant Protection Department, 2014
“Fighting corruption is difficult because we have to fight ourselves” – General Secretary of the Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong, 2015.
“Half of the bridge collapsed to the river, the remaining half is still perfectly functional”, Deputy Director of a provincial Transport Department, 2015.
What is even more breathtaking than the statement itself is the fact that the bridge collapsed after just 2 weeks of operating. One can’t help but question: How much money did this guy embezzle from the project?
bridge
8. “In other countries, resigning is very easy but in Vietnam, it is very difficult. Why? Because in Vietnam, with high positions come great missions that the Communist Party gives you. Resigning means abandoning your missions.” Deputy Chief of Staff of the National Assembly, 2015.
9. “I had to work as a motorbike taxi driver for many many nights to save enough money to build this villa”, Deputy Head of a provincial Internal Affairs committee, 2017.
His villa, built illegally on agricultural land:
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10. “The job of Vietnam People’s Public Security Forces is to protect the Communist Party, protect the State and protect the Government”, Deputy Head of the Political General Department, Ministry of Public Security, 2015.
Hello? What about the people? Sounds familiar? Rings any bell? Has the thought of protecting the people ever crossed your goddamn mind?
11. “In one district, there are 8 or 9 high-ranking government officials coming from the same family. I think it’s just pure coincidence”, Head of the Capital’s Organizing Commission, 2015.
12. “If we do not teach our children to cry when they sing the national anthem, our country will not prosper”, Deputy Prime Minister, Vu Duc Dam, 2014.
That’s enough for now. I’ll add some more in the future.
Addendum 5th of June: Some of these things are not actually idiotic, more like shameless and blatant lies. Anyway, here are some more:
13. “Our family could build this mansion thanks to the support of our friends and colleagues who gave us the necessary bricks and stones”, Former Inspector General of the Government, 2014. And this was from the guy whose job was to fight corruption! His mansion:
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14. “We must strengthen our military so that it will be as powerful as the North Korean Army”, a monk and a congressman, 2014.
15. “Traffic jam means all vehicles have to stand still for at least 30 minutes. In our city, there are no traffic jams.” Director of Ho Chi Minh City’s Transport Department, 2016.
16. “On many occasions, we have to test the quality of fertilizers by mouth”, Minister of Industry and Trade, 2016.
17. [Three infants died after being vaccinated] “We’ll get to the bottom of this. Everything will be transparent and there will be no cover-up. If it’s the doctors’ fault, the doctors will be prosecuted. If it’s the vaccine’s fault, the vaccine will be prosecuted”, Minister of Health, 2013 (same gal as #4). Prosecute the vaccine? Sounds tough. What about the people who approved and imported the vaccine? Isn’t that you?
Update on #2 (June 20th): It’s official. Today the National Assembly passed the new Criminal Code, defense attorney in Vietnam now actually have the legal obligation to denounce their clients!
Potato Hash with Eggs and Mushrooms
A portabella mushroom blends seamlessly with the Italian sausage, while the peppers add color to Potato Hash with Eggs and Mushrooms. Perfect for an everyday breakfast or weekend brunch.
Wild mushroom hash eggs
Prep: 10 min | Cook: 15 min | Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
1 large fresh portabella mushroom
1 tablespoon (15 mL) olive oil
3 mild Italian sausages, removed from casing and crumbled
1/2 small red onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 large russet potatoes, peeled, diced
1/4 green bell pepper, diced
1/4 red bell pepper, diced
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup (125 mL) shredded Cheddar cheese
4 large eggs
Chopped parsley
Instructions
Heat oven to 350 degrees F/175 degrees C.
Place portabella mushroom in a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Pulse until finely chopped.
In a large nonstick, oven-safe skillet heat olive oil over medium heat. Add chopped mushrooms, Italian sausage, onion and garlic. Use spatula to break up sausage into tiny pieces.
Once cooked, remove from pan and set aside. Leave any fat renderings in pan.
Heat pan with the sausage renderings over medium heat. Add diced potatoes. Allow to cook for 10-15 minutes until softened.
Add diced peppers and increase to medium-high heat, continue to cook until potatoes are crispy, about 10 minutes.
Add sausage back to pan; cook for another 2 to 3 minutes before stirring.
Sprinkle with cheese.
Crack eggs in each quadrant of the pan.
Season with salt and pepper.
Place skillet in oven and bake for 20 minutes, until eggs are set.
Is China winning the battle of economy and technology over the U.S.?
US is losing the battle of economy and technology to China
I can illustrate this with three points
I. Forcing China to Innovate
In 2014 , China imported every chip made with 28 nm process or lower and 70% of the Chips made with the 45 nm process
The Chips were made in Taiwan and Korea, designed by the US and made by Dutch machines
China was utterly dependent on these nations for the chips and these nations were dependent on China for the consumer goods made using these Chips
In 2018, Dumbo Trump began to restrict the flow of Chips to Huawei and began the entities blacklist
He began the tariffs due to which to lower their costs, China began to start their own supply Chain
Fast forward to 2024
China makes 54% of its own 28 nm process chips (from 0% in 2014) and makes the entire indigenous equipment to make the 28 nm process commercially
China makes 69% of its own 45 nm process chips at a mere 32% cost
It’s ready to make fully indigenous 14 nm Chips and just made a 7 nm Chip with DUV technology that performs very well
Thus thanks to US stupidity – China managed to go from full importer of 14 nm, 28 nm Chips and 70% 45 nm Chips in 2014 to net exporter of 45 nm Chips and above plus develop fully Indigenous machinery for 14 nm Chips and make 7 nm Chips indigenously in a mere decade
Without US Push, Chinese Entities would simply have not been inclined to invest in Chipmaking as the Imports would have been higher yield at more efficient costs in the early years
II. Decoupling
In 2018, China used the USD for 94.6% of its Trade and settled in USD with 132 out of 143 BRI Nations
China used SWIFT for 99.3% of its transactions in USD
US had leverage control on China and China was utterly dependent on the Western financial system
Then US began to talk of decoupling and derisking and freeze others funds and steal Afghan money
Fast forward
China uses USD to settle only 57.5% of its trade using Local Swaps to settle 26% of its trade and the RMB and Ruble to settle 16% of its Trade
China uses CIPS and other systems now with Iran and Russia and Cuba and Venezuela
Thus again China is no longer entirely dependent on the Western System
III. Anti China Rhetoric
Mainlander Residents made up 27.7% of all Researchers in the USA in 2018. The Highest among foreign researchers
60% of all researchers in Critical Technology research were Chinese, bulk of them from the Mainland
They did a lot of path breaking innovation
Anti-Asian Atmosphere Chills Chinese Scientists Working in the U.S.
As universities such as Harvard and NYU put researchers under scrutiny, some schools seek to avoid a “loyalty oath.”
Then you had gutter scum like De Santis and Cotton who began Anti China Rhetoric
So Chinese brains decided to stay back home and not go to the US while Chinese Scientists and Researchers decided to go back home to China than be insulted and treated with suspicion in US
From 2023- almost 548 researchers including 107 with Tenure left US and moved back to China
Plus nearly 10,300 Doctorate Students from China stayed home rather than going to the US and innovating for them
They help China innovate instead of USA
Accelerating Chinas progress in those areas
US is unable to fill the gap with others
Korea, Taiwan and Japan combined send maybe 1600 researchers a year
Indians send barely 60 researchers a year in critical technologies
So in each case China adapted but it was US who started it all
When you have Idiots chosen by a corrupted form of democracy – they are no match for the High range meritocracy of China
What are some most important unspoken rules in life?
Don’t ask for something if the person only has one of it left — gum, candy, or a piece of cake.
If you used all the toilet paper, you go refill it.
Buy a plunger before you need a plunger.
Do not swipe left or right if someone shows a picture on their phone.
Pee first. No matter what you’re doing, pee first.
If you borrow someone’s car, fill up the tank before you return it.
Leave it in a better condition than you found it.
When out to dinner with a group, only the person who ordered the least expensive meal/combo of things can offer to split the check evenly.
Don’t put your music on speakers when in a public space. It’s not like everyone wants the same genre, or was in the mood for music. Use your headphones.
You can be wrong. It isn’t a bad thing either. And when you are wrong, acknowledge it and learn from it.
Please don´t start drama at a funeral.
Chew with your mouth closed. It’s shocking how many adults chew with their mouth open.
Never make fun of someone else’s laugh.
Don’t ever leave your shopping cart in the middle of a grocery aisle!
If you are borrowing it for the third time, you need one of it of your own.
If you cancel on a friend, it’s your responsibility to reschedule.
Don’t propose at someone else’s wedding.
Turn on your headlights when it’s snowing.
Don’t look through the gap of bathroom stalls.
Be kind to people that are working.
OFF BEFORE ON. Let the people off the elevator and train before you get on.
Walk on the same side of the stairs/sidewalk that you would drive on.
Most of all….
23. Show the same respect for everyone. We are all people.
What are the facts about girls that guys don’t know?
Yes we do think wether you’re safe or not while going out with you, even if you’re a friend.
Biology have cursed woman, menstruation are real shit emotionally, physically.
Girls are more conscious for appearance not to impress anyone but not to look awkward or talked about
They are fed with true love and marriage dreams from childhood, even if she is into careers. It is fed in her somewhere
New DMs don’t excite us , It simply seems like a simp trying out.
We think “all men” because majority of girls have not met good guys. Yo it’s not your fault it’s us ,stay peace!
We just expect respect and love for leaving our entire family happily, which you can’t even think to do for a girl.
We die for freedom because most of us don’t get it easily
We love small gestures, like a sweet good night or a small gift
Women needs you emotionally more than physically.
We need to do better
Anyone who has been on an airplane that had to make an emergency landing, what happened, and what was it like in the cabin?
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I was flying as a passenger in a small two-engine commuter plane, with a single row of seat on each side and an aisle in the middle. We were going from DC to Lynchburg, Virginia. On the way there, I suddenly heard a loud BANG and saw smoke emitting from the engine on the right, then the propellor came to a complete stop. I could smell burning oil. From that and the sound, I surmised something important was clearly broken, and that engine would not be restarting until it was repaired. Too late for us.
Not long after, the pilot came on the intercom. I’ll never forget his first words. “If we get down…” Then a pause followed by, “When we get down…” and the rest of what he said, which was that we would be diverting to a closer airport (Charlottesville) and probably more things that I can’t remember.
There was a little nervous laughter from someone, while another passenger started crying. The person who had smiled and laughed stopped smiling and began to look tense.
I felt our chances were good. Whatever happened to the engine that failed was unlikely to affect the other still-running engine. This was a better problem to have that trouble with the landing gear or control surfaces, for instance.
As we approached Charlottesville airport, I could see clearly through to the cockpit and what was ahead. The landing strip was getting larger and larger. A welcome sight. We were, however, approaching at a bit of angle. The side with the working engine was noticeably more ahead and forward than the other side. It was pulling the plane askew. I wondered how we would land like that.
I don’t remember anyone asking us to brace for a landing, which seems odd in retrospect.
As we touched down, fire engines were racing alongside.
We made it.
I rode back to the terminal in one of the fire engines. Later, someone from the airline directed us to an area to wait together until they made arrangements to continue our journeys. It was taking a long time, and one of us complained about the delay. Someone else, quoting a friend who was a pilot, answered, “In aviation, it’s better to have the delays and trouble when you’re still on the ground than later.” No one countered that view.
Some years ago, I had the opportunity to ask a pilot about landing on one engine when the aircraft is askew. He told me that you give it a little rudder to straighten out at the last instance just as the wheels are about to touch the ground, but not so soon that the aircraft has time to swing back. That sounded to me like a high degree of finesse would be needed, so we must have had good pilots that day. Thanks to them, I’m still here.
UPDATE: I did not expect so many upvotes. Appreciated. Thank you one and all!
Also, thank you to all those who added useful comments: learning from knowledgeable sources who speak from experience is the best part of Quora for me.
In spite of the fact that humans have now been flying in heavier-than-air flying machines for more than a hundred years, it is still amazing to me that it is possible and has become routine. Well, routine except when it isn’t. Grateful to the body of skills that makes it all possible
Men are tired of being expected to provide for women. Reaction to this new outlook.
How do you tell someone their name is wrong?
My elderly uncle, 85, had a run in with an absolute Peach of a teacher in 3rd grade. She’d been a mid-year sub (because married teachers weren’t allowed to teach while pregnant *huge eye roll*) and announced to the class that she didn’t allow nick names and told everyone what their proper names were and she would ONLY call them by their ‘proper’ names.
This caused an uproar as this was in the heart of Texas. Lots of Bubbas, Sissys, Juniors, etc. She told my uncle his name was James. He refused to answer to this as his name was, in fact, NOT James. Yelling ensued, mostly her at him and then she yanked him out of his chair and dragged him to the office. This teacher did not understand that you didn’t call my grandmother down to the school unless someone was dying.
My grandmother arrived as the teacher was explaining to the principal about my uncle’s “disrespect and obstinate attitude”. With a rare show of patience, my grandmother waited until the new teacher was done hammering that nail into her coffin before addressing the principal. “Why did I have to come down here?”
The principal stammered, attempting to have the teacher’s back but his expression showed he knew it was futile. The teacher puffed up and condescendingly explained her policy on names and that her son refused to obey. My grandmother asked, “And what name do you think he should answer to?”
“James, of course.”
“His NAME is NOT James, It’s Jimmy. I include his middle name when he’s in trouble.”
“That’s ridiculous. Jimmy is a diminutive of James. Therefore, his names is JAMES.”
My uncle piped up, “She made Sissy and Junior cry.” Everyone knew Sissy’s given name but her little sister couldn’t say it and she’d gone by Sissy her whole life. Junior was self explanatory.
My grandmother stood up and leaned in toward the teacher, “My son’s name is Jimmy. I know this as fact since I Named Him. His birth certificate says Jimmy. His enrollment paperwork says Jimmy.” My grandmother turned to the principal, “Do I need to make a call to Mr. Jensen?” The principal turned white. My grandparents were good friends with both the ISD superintendent and the mayor and there had already been an issue with a different teacher stepping over a parental boundary.
My grandmother refused to allow any kind of punishment and my uncle said the new teacher wasn’t there the next school day.
How can having all the money in the world lead someone to be disillusioned with their life?
It depends on the wealth and how they got it.
If they earned it themselves then no as they have to struggle to get it.
It’s their children who are born into it and do not struggle. Hence wealth lasts only 3 generations. I mean Li Ka Shing richest man in HK (who is actually Canadian) his son never went through his dad’s struggles and is far less of a business man than his dad. Though he’s doomed anyway as his company is just a rent seeking company and PRC China doesn’t like that.
So when everything is within reach, then there’s nothing worth reaching for.
Older people may remember a television series called Made In Chelsea. I literally know several of these rich kids from the first series. Well knew as they probably have forgotten me.
They had flashy cars, they went on holidays and flew first class.
But they never knew struggles of others and they were very shallow as they had no real character. It didn’t matter if they failed something as money would immediately fix it. So they didn’t even have to try all that hard either.
I’m not saying it’s not a good situation to be in though.
What was totally acceptable in high school 50 years ago that isn’t today?
Once I was doing some gardening work for a former neighbour. Just to get some more money in my pocket. I was riding in his work vehicle and talking to him. Like all adults inevitably do, he asked me about school.
I didn’t want to talk about school, so I tried to redirect the conversation to his experiences at school when he was younger.
Before I knew it, I had him telling me about his experiences attending an all-boys boarding school in the 1990s. It was about as violent as you’d expect, but out of nowhere he said something that completely shocked me.
“Oh yeah, and if you started the fight they’d beat you with the cane”
“WHAT?!?!?!”
Only in non-government schools, but holy heck.
In my mind, students being caned is something that only ever happened in reruns of Little House on the Prairie I watched as a kid. Or something that happened at home when you’d been especially bad.
But nope. In the ‘90s, my neighbour and his classmates were caned for a variety of offenses, including smoking, streaking, fighting, leaving campus, etc.
You needed your parents’ permission for teachers to be allowed to cane you, but many disciplinarian parents gladly let their kids have it. In fact, the Australian state of Queensland (where my former neighbour went to school) still allows students to be caned as punishment.
“The school, which has 600 students in Prep to Year 12, gave the paddle 10 times last year and seven times in 2007, he said.
"I would never use the paddle unless we have spoken to both parents and have their blessing for it to be used," Mr Bensley said.
"It is always administered in a loving way. In fact, we pray with them afterwards."
I’ve gone to several Catholic schools in Australia, albeit in other states, and I never saw anything like this.
In all my time at Catholic schools, the only shit-kickings I ever got were from my fellow students. In fact, teachers at my school weren’t even allowed to touch students beyond absolute necessity.
It’s crazy to think that not only was this present in the 1990s, it’s still present now. Not just in Australia, but all over the world.
CHINA DESTROYS INTEL and AMD – rip and replace us garbage…
The world is splitting. Non Western countries are getting tired of US / EU sanctions on everything and anything.
Have you ever ignored a blaring red flag because someone was insanely good looking?
He was tall, dark, and handsome, and insanely good looking… Until he opened his mouth.
He had walked into my English class in my sophomore year and all the girls watched as he took a seat.
Girls were drawn to him and he never lacked for companions who wanted to chat with him.
But he dripped with conceit.
When he spoke, it was apparent that he was interested in one topic only — himself. The world, for him, revolved around him.
The more I got to know him, the uglier he looked to me. By the end of the year, I couldn’t believe I ever found him attractive.
When I was much younger, I did forgive character flaws because someone was insanely good looking. But I came to understand that some of those insanely good looking people weren’t very nice.
Some were selfish, obnoxious, bullies.
Over time, I realized that people are sometimes like deceptively wrapped presents.
Sometimes you unwrap a beautiful present with shimmering paper and a fancy bow to find nothing but a piece of poop inside.
Other times you open up a present wrapped in plain brown paper to discover a diamond.
Insanely good looking people are good for catching my eyes for only that very first time I meet them.
But after that, whether they are good looking or not depends on their personality.
If they have an intriguing mind and a beautiful heart, I find the person insanely attractive regardless of their outer appearance.
What is one thing that I can learn from you today?
Do you know why a manhole is circular in shape?
main qimg 50198946b6a2e5df6a0e0411501560f8 lq
This was the question asked to me in my internship interview. I did not know the answer to this question but thought to give it an attempt. I gave multiple reasons –
It would be easy to clean as there will be no corners where the dirt can accumulate
It must be to ensure the safety of the person going inside the manhole. If the manhole is rectangular or square shaped then there are chances that the person will hurt himself with the sharp corners of the manhole
The above reasons are okay but not the prime reasons for a circular design. The main reason is –
The diagonal length is the largest dimension in a rectangle or a square. A rectangular or a square shaped manhole would have a same shape cover as well. This means the length or breadth dimension of that cover could be accommodated easily in the diagonal of that manhole and this is how the cover would fall inside the manhole.
To avoid this unwanted fall, manholes are designed circular in shape.
why
Hope this was interesting. 🙂
The 1-3-1 rule
What are the most arrogant, idiotic and shameful things a politician has ever said?
We, South Koreans, really hate our politicians.
But out of all the politicians we hate, the most hated politician of the modern era has to be Park Geun-hye – Wikipedia, the previous president of South Korea.
Her, when she could still smile.
I say “previous” because she got impeached and jailed after the largest political scandal (and the largest protest that followed) in the history of Korea happened, her approval rating dropped to 5%, and still said some really stupid things while all that happened.
main qimg 988ec36908c37eca3b8e4c3b391ff725 lq
Her, after we brought her to the Supreme Court and was found guilty.
I haven’t seen a chart so satisfying since the chart of South Sea Company stock prices.
Some people were so pissed off to literally make a list of the most arrogant, idiotic, shameful things she has said in the most popular public wiki in Korea. Here are some of the gems I found:
“Is this A.I?”
After seeing a pair shoes with smart sensors.
“Powder made out of Korean chili pepper….this must be extraordinarily valuable.”
After seeing Chilli Powder in a marketplace. Of course, this is untrue and very stupid and awkward at the same time.
“Sleep is the best.”
After an authority of a religion said to her sarcastically “You seem to sleep well nowadays.”This is during the times the protests were happening and Park decided to isolate herself to ignore the protests.
“What did I even do wrong?”
After asked to resign from office. This was after the Korean Intelligence already uncovered so much evidence of her corruption, that it was literally impossible to deny it.
“After the impeachment attempt fails, I will use the power of the people to silence the Press and Korean Intelligence.”
Keep in mind that her approval rating was plummeting to zero at this point. And also that South Korea is a democracy.
“When taking tests, it is always the women that take it diligently and with great effort. But why aren’t Korean men like that? I mean, they even go to the military. Maybe it’s because our country leads in gaming, and men are like that because all they do are games.”
Fact: stated during her birthday feast with very important politicians by her.
Also fact: It’s complete bull.
“For 3 and a half years, I served Korea without knowing tire, and you dare make me a dirty person?”
Things that happened during her term:
Shook the foundation of Korean democracy to the core
Increased the income inequality in Korea to 3rd in OECD
Increased the debt of Korea by 17%
Made house prices 40% higher
Set the record for the longest period of time the exports of Korea declined in a row
Set the record for Millennial Unemployment rate
Diplomatically strayed away from the U.S.(our most valuable ally) and close to China(our worst enemy’s most valuable ally)
Things that did not happen during her term:
Literally anything good to Korea
Park working hard.
AI generated Men’s magazine pictures
Default generate a mens adventure picture in the style of Harr 1(1)Default generate a mens adventure picture in the style of Harr 3(1)Default generate a mens adventure picture in the style of Harr 2(1)Default generate a mens adventure picture in the style of Mort 0(6)Default generate a mens adventure picture in the style of Mort 3(6)Default generate a mens adventure picture in the style of Mort 1(5)Default generate a mens adventure picture in the style of Mort 3(5)Default generate a mens adventure picture in the style of Mort 2(5)Default generate a mens adventure picture in the style of Mort 1(4)Default generate a mens adventure picture in the style of Mort 3(4)Default generate a mens adventure picture in the style of Mort 2(4)Default generate a mens adventure picture in the style of Mort 1(3)Default generate a mens adventure picture in the style of Mort 3(3)Default generate a mens adventure picture in the style of Mort 0(3)Default generate a mens adventure picture in the style of Mort 2(3)Default generate a mens adventure picture in the style of Mort 3(2)Default generate a mens adventure picture in the style of Mort 2(2)Default generate a mens adventure picture in the style of Mort 3(1)Default generate a mens adventure picture in the style of Mort 1(1)Default generate a mens adventure picture in the style of Mort 2(1)Default generate a mens adventure picture in the style of Mort 0(1)Default generate a mens adventure picture in the style of Mort 1Default generate a mens adventure picture in the style of Mort 0
Is the United States afraid of China’s economic improvement?
Absolutely, yes, without a doubt.
China’s economic rise threatens the United States’ global hegemony, which is based entirely on its US Dollar supremacy as the world’s reserve currency.
The United States can print money without end to fund its overseas wars and enrich the military-industrial complex.
The United States can control disobedient countries with punishing sanctions.
The United States can extract other countries’ natural resources.
China’s economic rise can undermine the US Dollar and kick out the main pillar of America’s power.
The USA is scared to death and extremely desperate.
What’s the rudest thing a child has ever said to your face and how did you respond?
My middle boy. He is 9 now. He was 6 at the time and we were shopping. It was more embarrassing than rude…
Going down the aisle, he is walking with his brother and my daughter is in the trolly… the boys are talking, distracted… and I’m on my own, wife was somewhere else in the shop…
Suddenly he looks up and noticed in front of us a rather large man. I mean large. He had never actually seen a person of this size because even though I am chunky, and my side of the family are, my wife and her side is quite slim!
Anyway, in his charming childishly quiet voice, (full volume) he belts out:
“wow daddy, HE is fat! Fatter than you!”
I turn beetroot red, and tell him that he can’t speak like that. He was confused.
(He has heard family talk about how fat I am and I think this was just a processing mechanism for him)
But then I look up and the man is laughing… as he walks past me and I try to apologise about my son’s outburst he says: “don’t worry lad, you got time to catch up to me!” and walks off chuckling!
Later (it got better) we go to see my mum, and she says something about me being fat (it’s a joke as I am chunky but the skinniest of the lot on my side!) And straight away my boy pipes up:
“No no nana, you can’t call daddy fatty, as we saw a man that was so big that you and daddy and mummy could fit inside him!”
I was facepalming… I mean great defence of daddy but I need to teach this kid how to be more sensitive!
3 years on and it’s still a struggle. Kid has no filter. So we choose words wisely!
Best Ever Hotcakes
21014 Good old Fashioned Pancakes mfs 002 0e249c95678f446291ebc9408ae64c05
Ingredients
2 eggs, separated
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup milk
1/3 cup sour cream
4 tablespoons butter, melted
Instructions
Add sugar and salt to well beaten egg yolks.
Sift and measure four, add baking powder and soda and re-sift. Add flour mixture and milk, to egg yolk mixture alternately, a bit at a time until all are added, (stir the whole time).
Add sour cream and mix well.
Add melted butter and mix well.
Gently fold in stiffly beaten egg whites.
Bake on a hot griddle, turn only once when bubbles on the surface break.
One day when the oldest turned 12, he anxiously asked his father what was the secret of life. The father replied that he was going to tell him, but that he should not reveal it to his brothers.
—The secret of life is this: The cow does not give milk. “What are you saying?” Asked the boy incredulously. —As you hear it, son: The cow does not give milk, you have to milk it. You have to get up at 4 in the morning, go to the field, walk through the corral full of manure, tie the tail, hobble the legs of the cow, sit on the stool, place the bucket and do the work yourself.
That is the secret of life, the cow does not give milk. You milk her or you don’t get milk. There is this generation that thinks that cows GIVE milk. That things are automatic and free: their mentality is that if “I wish, I ask….. I obtain.”
“They have been accustomed to get whatever they want the easy way…But no, life is not a matter of wishing, asking and obtaining. The things that one receives are the effort of what one does. Happiness is the result of effort. Lack of effort creates frustration.”
So, share with your children from a young age the secret of life, so they don’t grow up with the mentality that the government, their parents, or their cute little faces is going to give them everything they need in life.”
Argentina Heads To China For Economic RESCUE As Farm Outbreaks Devastate Export Revenues
Argentina is facing an export crisis. With inflation still raging, an outbreak in their corn harvest threatens to collapse their export revenues. It’s not a surprise that the Argentine Central Bank is running to China to secure their Yuan swap line for their vital imports. Here’s what you must know and why Argentina’s in desperation mode.
I often comment about my experiences in world line slides.
I talk about how things were different, and how they seemed strange. I talked about how sometimes my body would be different.
Like I would have a scar or a tattoo, or some other minor change. Like socks changing into black and white checkered race flag designs instead of my normal business socks and so on and so forth.
Once, I will tell you, that I had a heightened sense of smell. I could smell the most amazing things, but my consciousness could not process all of it. Which means that to me, everything in that world-line adventure smelled like an animal zoo to me.
It was, I’ll tell you the truth, quite an interesting experience.
Good for me that the trip on that line was short lived.
Ah. Ignorance is bliss.
Today…
Blinken to China to fuss about support for Russia
With ties somewhat stabliized, the visiting envoy wants China to stop sending dual-use goods – and to leash Iran
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Beijing soon to raise concerns about China’s support for Russia’s defense industrial base and its purchase of Iranian oil products.
Blinken’s China trip was announced after Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink and National Security Council Senior Director for China and Taiwan Affairs Sarah Beran ended a three-day visit in Beijing on Tuesday.
Last week, US officials briefed reporters on materials China was providing to Russia, including drone and missile technology, satellite imagery and machine tools, Reuters reported.
Blinken is also set to discuss with Chinese officials the situation in the Middle East.
On April 11, Blinken requested to have a phone call with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to talk about the Iran-Israel conflict. Wang said China strongly condemned Israel’s attack on the Iranian Embassy in Syria, which happened on April 1.
On April 12, US President Joe Biden said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later.” He underscored Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. On April 13-14, Iran unleashed a barrage of missiles and drones against Israel, which successfully intercepted most of them.
No full-blown Mideast war yet
Both Washington and Beijing called for de-escalation and a full-blown war has not yet broken out in the region.
(Indeed, if a report for which veteran American investigative reporter Seymour Hersh cites unnamed sources is correct, the attack was something of a charade, negotiated in advance, in which Iran was permitted a massive show of anger while inflicting very limited damage.)
Meanwhile, the US House of Representatives on Monday passed bipartisan legislation called the Iran-China Energy Sanctions Act by a 383-11 vote.
Jointly proposed by Democrat Josh Gottheimer and Republican Mike Lawler, the bill is aimed at making it more difficult for China to purchase Iranian petroleum and related products. It needs approval from the Senate before it can go to Biden for his signature.
“After Iran’s unprecedented attack on Israel, and as its regime of terror deepens ties to China, we are reminded that they cannot be trusted,” said Gottheimer.
”We must hold Iran and its backers accountable, especially China, the number one purchaser of Iranian petroleum,” said Lawler.
The duo said the Iran-China Energy Sanctions Act, along with the SHIP Act passed last November, will kneecap Iran’s ability to export murder and instability across the Middle East region.
Also on Monday, Wang had a phone call with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.
Wang said China believed that Iran is fully cognizant of the situation and will avoid causing further turbulence while defending its sovereignty and dignity. He added that China will steadily advance practical cooperation in various fields with Iran to make greater progress in China-Iran relations.
A pundit responds
“The passage of the Iran-China Energy Sanctions Act by the US House is a bargaining chip that is aimed at forcing China to compromise on Iranian issues,” You Feng, a visiting lecturer at Peking University and a military commentator, says in an article published on Wednesday. “It seems that if we do not fulfill the United States’ demand of exerting influence over Iran, the act will soon take effect.”
“But obviously,” she adds, “even if Blinken will raise the matter during his upcoming visit to Beijing, China is unlikely to give up its cooperation with Russia and Iran. The reason is simple. Our cooperation with Russia and Iran is normal trade. The United States’ unreasonable demand directly hurts our interests, and this is unacceptable.”
She says China will definitely fight back if the US imposes sanctions. She says Blinken should consider Beijing’s opinions, before departing for China, instead of presenting a bunch of unreasonable demands.
Overcapacity
Last June, Blinken visited China and met with Chinese President Xi Jinping after US-China relations had been impacted by the Chinese spy balloon incident, the US chip export ban and Taiwan issues in early 2023.
Since then, more US and Chinese officials have held meetings. A face-to-face meeting between Xi and US President Joe Biden in San Francisco last November also helped stabilize Sino-US relations. But the US sanctioned more Chinese firms that shipped products to Russia. It unveiled new chip export rules against China last October.
Now Washington is urging the European Union to take actions to avoid being hurt by China’s industrial overcapacity, especially in the electric vehicle (EV) sector.
During a meeting with Chinese Xi Jinping in Beijing on Tuesday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz raised the issue of China’s overcapacity and said that Germany wants open and fair markets.
Xi asked the German side to look at the matter objectively. He said a surge in China’s clean-technology exports can help the world tackle inflation and achieve its green goals.
“The notion that China’s overcapacity harms the global market is a complete fallacy,” Li Jian, a spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said in a regular media briefing on Wednesday. “Those who spread that narrative to justify protectionism have nothing to gain from it and will only destabilize and disrupt industrial and supply chains, hinder the world’s green transition and curb the growth of emerging sectors.”
An article published by China National Radio’s flagship radio channel called The Voice of China said that the accusation of “overcapacity” is another form of the West’s “decoupling” with China. It said US politicians want to use this campaign to gain benefit in this year’s presidential election.
Li Daokui, director of the Center for China in the World Economy (CCWE) at Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management, was quoted as saying in the article that all countries would subsidize their new industries during the development stage.
He said the US cannot accuse China of subsidizing its new energy sector while it is openly subsidizing its chip industry.
“A ‘super-cycle’ exists in EVs and renewable energy equipment as excess supply in certain parts of their supply chain is coupled with yet-to-materialized demand,” Chim Lee, an analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, says in a research note on Monday. “These sectors are highly politicized globally. Lower prices can be perceived as the result of government support, but they are also key to accelerating the green transition.”
They are freaking out
When did you realize small things matter?
One day while leaving the office at 8.30pm. The security guard looked at me with the phone in his hand in a confused state. Curious I was, I went near him and from there, the conversation started.
Me :What happened? Why are you looking so confused?
He : Sir I tried to withdraw money from our office ATM but the transaction was failed due to timed out. Then I got the message from the bank that my money was deducted from my account!
Me: Don’t worry they will refund the money within one or two days.
He : Sir, but I didn’t get any message about the refund. How will I get? Also the bank is far away from here so I cannot go immediately.
Me : Don’t worry bhiaya I too faced similar kind of problem but I got refunded within 3 days. So don’t worry.
He : Okay sir. Thank you
Then after few days I saw him running towards me and he said “Sir thank you so much, I got my money refunded”
Me : Oh great! Why are you saying thanks to me?
He : You only said about this refund. Otherwise I would have taken leave to visit bank next day. You saved my one day salary.
Me : Oh! its OK bhaiya. Happy that you got the money back.
Which I thought to be a small piece of information, after seeing his smiling face, only then I realized how big it was.
SO YES these kind of small things matters a lot to me and gives satisfaction!!
Power
What are some examples of great marketing?
WeChat, which is owned by Tencent, was launched in 2011, and its programming team gradually added new features to attract new users to switch from QQ Mobile (also owned by Tencent) to WeChat.
However, compared to Alibaba’s offerings, it was weak because it still did not have a wallet and payment function.
The Guangzhou-based 10-person team led by Alan Zhang 张小龙 worked on a programming solution to this hole in WeChat’s functionality, while the business team worked with the Chinese government to enable digital functionality by plugging into their bank accounts.
The product marketing team needed to do something big in order to really put WeChat Wallet on the map. They decided to launch around Chinese New Year 2014 so that they could leverage a traditional Chinese custom, and turn it digital. During Chinese New Year, the Chinese traditionally hand out red envelopes stuffed with cash (in new bills) to children.
The strategy was brilliantly simple: WeChat Wallet would hand out digital red envelopes. In order for the campaign to succeed, WeChat Wallet would have to connect with a minimum of two bank accounts: one person to send the money, and the other person to receive the money. Usually, the number was much higher than two because adults would have to give New Year’s money to more than one child or teenager.
The product marketing team focused on seeding a significant number of early adopters so that they could get others to connect their bank accounts so that they could receive money. In order to simplify the money amount selection process, buttons were marked in the amounts of 8, 10, 88, and 100 yuan; most of the time, people just selected a default amount to transfer.
The marketing campaign immediately went viral and was a tremendous success, and within two months, more than 100 million bank accounts were connected to WeChat Wallet. At the same time, merchants and small businesses applied for QR codes so that they could accept payment online and offline by just providing a QR code to scan.
Alibaba’s founder, Jack Ma, who is a strong competitor with Tencent, complimented the success of this launch, and in internal meetings, referred to it as a “digital Pearl Harbor attack” on Alibaba because it was caught completely by surprise. Coming from Tencent’s main competitor in the China market, it was a true compliment.
Within two years, Chinese society went largely cashless. Now, in China, most of the people who pay in cash are travelers from outside China. Everyone else uses either Tencent’s or Alipay’s digital wallet which they carry in their mobile phones.
The social repercussions have been huge: e-commerce and delivery services have taken off in China, and the volume and velocity of transaction is much larger than in the US.
I feel your pain fellas…
New PLA unit underscores intelligentized warfare shift
PLA-ISF aims to better integrate emerging AI, quantum and other technologies into multi-domain operational concept against the US and its allies
China has just unveiled its People’s Liberation Army-Information Support Force (PLA-ISF), a rebranding of its previous PLA-Strategic Support Force (PLA-SSF) to reflect new responsibilities and capabilities and guide the military’s technology-driven integrated combat concept, Chinese state media reports said.
In contrast to traditional PLA services such as the Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, and Rocket Force, the PLA’s strategic arms, such as the Aerospace Force, Cyberspace Force and Joint Logistics Support, focus on more specialized areas critical to modern warfare.
PLA-SSF, founded in 2015, was initially tasked with developing and implementing most of the PLA’s space-based capabilities and counter-space operations. Stressing the PLA-ISF’s broader responsibilities, Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized that the renamed PLA-ISF will be crucial in advancing the PLA’s modernization and effectiveness in modern warfare.
Xi also stated that the PLA-ISF would be integrated into the PLA’s joint operations system, feature unique Chinese characteristics and accelerate the development of integrated combat capabilities more effectively.
China may have rebranded its PLA-SSF into the PLA-ISF in line with its evolving strategic thought and changing operational strategy.
In December 2022, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) noted that the PLA-SSF was created to centralize the PLA’s information support units. Before the creation of the PLA-SSF, each PLA service branch had its own information support units, potentially resulting in disjointed support efforts that hampered rather than helped operations.As part of the 2015 reforms establishing the PLA-SSF, China’s Central Military Commission (CMC) took over the roles of the PLA general staff and general political departments while those departments’ responsibilities for cyberwarfare, space, electronic warfare and psychological operations were transferred to the PLA-SSF.The SCMP report mentions that before the PLA-SSF’s rebranding into the PLA-ISF, it had two principal departments – the Space Systems Department, which runs intelligence and communication satellites, and the Network Systems Department, which is tasked with cyber operations, electronic warfare and signals intelligence (SIGINT).The rebranded PLA-ISF may reflect an evolution in Chinese strategic thought from “winning informationized wars” to “intelligentized warfare,” which in turn implies a broader mission set for the PLA-SSF, necessitating a name change to reflect increased responsibilities and capabilities.China’s 2015 Military Strategy describes the foundation of “winning informationized wars,” noting the application of information technology in all military operations.
It says that “preparations for military struggle” (PMS) are under the context of winning “informationized local wars,” emphasizing that information is not just vital but will play a dominant role in winning future conflicts.
Building on the premise of China’s 2015 Military Strategy, the 2019 China’s National Defense in the New Era white paper notes that technologies such as AI, quantum information, big data, cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT) mark an evolution from “informationized” to “intelligentized” warfare.
Koichiro Takagi mentions in an April 2022 War on the Rocks article that the main idea of China’s “intelligentized warfare” concept is to use AI to directly influence the will of top policymakers, military commanders and citizens.
Takagi says that “intelligence dominance” will become a new area of struggle in intelligentized warfare, emphasizing that China envisions using AI for military purposes differently than the US and its allies.
From a political standpoint, Yatsuzuka notes that the Xi administration’s implementation of intelligentized warfare signifies a shift toward a centralized decision-making process in the PLA.
This process, he says, aims to uphold the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) control over the PLA and secure its alignment with the party’s goals and ideology.
He also mentions that the need for centralized control is emphasized by integrating military reforms with broader party policies, such as the Military-Civil Fusion (MCF) strategy.
Further, Yatsuzuka says that the PLA’s emphasis on political education and control through political commissars is becoming increasingly crucial as warfare becomes more technologically advanced and specialized.
From a military standpoint, Yatsuzuka says that to move toward intelligentized warfare, the PLA must establish integrated information systems to effectively manage the diverse aspects of modern warfare, including land, air, sea, space, cyber, cognitive and electromagnetic domains.
He mentions that effective utilization of AI and real-time data processing is crucial for future operations as it requires a robust data flow and analysis framework across various platforms and military units.
Yatsuzuka stresses the importance of a consolidated strategic directive incorporating inputs from multiple military and civilian sources to enable a united and adaptable response driven by centralized military leadership.
The rebranding of China’s PLA-SSF into PLA-ISF may also reflect the need to integrate information warfare and emerging technologies and capabilities into a multi-domain operational concept.
In October 2023, Asia Times reported on China’s Multi-Domain Precision Warfare (MDPW) concept, which utilizes AI and big data advances to identify weaknesses in the US operational system and launch precision strikes. It also tests and improves AI-driven capacities to align with China’s military doctrine.
China’s intelligent warfare strategy is expected to involve a combination of human and machine command and control systems. Humans will have limited control over autonomous weapons and the focus will be on expanding warfare to areas where humans cannot operate, such as the cognitive domain.
In practice, MDPW may seek to dismantle and destroy CJADC2’s kill chain by targeting critical information nodes such as aircraft and satellites through physical attack, targeting information networks by jamming, electronic warfare and cyberattack. It may also seek to disrupt decision-making within and between the US and its allies.
MDPW may capitalize on the fixed and centralized approach of US kill chains, which lack diversity in sharing information among different components, making them vulnerable and arguably unsuitable for a large-scale conflict in the Indo-Pacific region.
Survive
What is the sweetest revenge you’ve ever taken?
This is actually pretty cool.
So I worked with this person. She stole 80$. I was a server. There was nothing I could do and I wasn’t getting my money back and I knew it.
Months later I had found a new job. I get a call from my old place of employment. “Yes I need a cab to so and so”. I recognized the voice. I was the cab driver.
I knew it was her.
I go anyway. When I arrive there she is smiling. I said 80$ to get in this cab babe. And I just looked at her and smiled back.
”You can’t do that. I know the company. I’m calling you in. I know the owner”. I laugh and I’m like yeah I know him too. He’s the guy that hired me. But if you want in this particular cab, there’s an 80$ deposit.
Ha I’m like go right ahead but if you don’t wanna walk home in the rain there’s an 80$ up front fee.
Now this whole time I have the window cracked. And literally nothing else is unlocked.
She was so mad.
I smiled ear to ear and says hey remember fucking me out of 80 dollars? She said fuck you you’re a cabbie now and you have a duty to customer service. I said well just slip a hundo through the window.
She was absolutely livid. You can’t do this. This is an assault. I NEED A RIDE HOME…. NOW. I was like yep I need my money back honey!
But what could she do? I drove away smiling. Karma, sometimes, is a mother!
Russia Issues Economic Ultimatum, China Drops Stimulus Bombshell To Counter G7 Threats
What are some examples of companies that outsourced or offshored to lower costs and it backfired?
On the morning of May 21, 2014, an Indian system admin working at HCL logged on to one of the servers of Norwegian petroleum company Statoil.
By accident, he had logged on to a production server that was giving him some warning messages. Not completely understanding the messages, he decided to reboot the server. Despite additional warnings that a reboot was inadvisable, he went along with it.
On the other side of the globe, at the Mongstad facility, the largest oil refinery in Norway, a tanker was being loaded with 50 million liters of gasoline. Enough to fill up the fuel tanks of about a million cars.
Suddenly, the operation came to a halt. Gasoline started pouring violently into the ocean. Boatloads of it.
The night shift crew monitoring the facility looked on in horror as millions of dollars worth of liquid was disappearing by the minute.
The situation could quickly turn into an environmental disaster that would wreak havoc on the local sea life.
Fortunately, the crew at the facility reacted quickly and was able to avert a major disaster by overriding the operation manually.
A few years earlier, Statoil had outsourced all maintenance of server infrastructure to India. The incident at Mongstad, as dramatic as it was, wasn’t a one-off occurence.
Several times, Statoil’s various facilities had to be evacuated because of compromised IT security and server shutdowns. The company executives now feared they could face incidents that would lead to loss of life.
It turned out that about 100 consultants in India had admin access to all of Statoil’s production servers. Yes, all of them. None of the consultants had been background-checked.
Statoil (now Equinor) is the company that forms the backbone of the Norwegian economy, one of the strongest economies in the world. The amount of damage these guys could do to the Norwegian economy and society as a whole if they wanted to was cataclysmic.
In 2017, Statoil was in the midst of a global oil crisis, with plummeting oil prices. Yet, despite the red numbers in the balance sheets and strong focus on cost-savings, the company decided to homesource IT infrastructure to Norway again, even if this came at a massive cost.
It wasn’t so much that the Indian consultants lacked the technical knowledge to manage the servers. The main problem was that they didn’t have the domain knowledge to understand what the servers were actually doing. They often didn’t appreciate the gravity of the situation. Communicating this across the globe through timezones and language barriers proved difficult.
The entire outsourcing experiment ended up being a massive failure, even though it was supposed to save the company billions of dollars on paper.
Men at work
When the US threatens China with so many sanctions, why doesn’t China retaliate?
It’s because the Sanctions are toothless
For instance we all heard of the ban on Xinjiang Cotton by many brands across the world
Xinjiang cotton: Western clothes brands vanish as backlash grows
Companies including H&M and Nike are targeted for showing concern over Uighur forced labour claims.
Yet it was puzzling to see that Cotton Exports from China from Xinjiang rose by 10.7% in 2023 from 2021 after being down by 4.6% in 2022
Then I saw the fine print
Imports and Sales of Xinjiang Cotton produced through Forced Labor in contravention of Human Rights after 30 June 2021 may attract Sanctions
This means any order signed until 29/6/2021 is legal and free from any sanction
And most big importers, they don’t place orders for Cotton every 2–3 months or even 6 months
They place orders for 5–10 years at a time
So most orders signed between Xinjiang Cotton producers and US Importers and European Importers that were signed before 30/6/2021 are still active and unaffected by any sanctions
These orders will likely continue to run until minimum 2026 and maximum 2031
So the Xinjiang Cotton orders will cease only from 2031
That’s a long time away
By then Biden, Trump won’t be in power and maybe the next President can repeal the order
Either way 2031 is a long way off
So despite all the noise, in reality the Sanctions won’t bite until 2031 or earliest 2026
Likewise the US have demanded that NVDIA not sell their A100 Chips to China without permission and license
So NVDIA simply modified their A100 and H100 designs, reduced density by 1/16th and sold the new GPUs as H800
China placed orders from 1 February 2023 for the next 3 years
Sanctions cannot affect existing orders per WTO regulations and Free Trade Law.
Thus China has a continuous stock of deliveries of the H800 GPU until 2026 minimum
So Sanctions won’t affect any commercial product for minimum 2–5 years because of existing contracts
Only Military Sanctions will work because delivery does take 5–10 years and most orders aren’t fully commercial so the WTO argument can’t be used
Hits them hard with reality
Have you ever been treated so poorly at work that you left without notice and never returned? What were the circumstances that caused you to leave, and did anyone say anything after you left?
I worked in a call center for a highly respected financial institution, and was treated more poorly than when I worked for Subway when I was in college.
First of all, my team were required to arrive for work 15 minutes early in order to get signed in to our computers and phone systems, but were not allowed to clock in until our shift actually started.
That was the least of my issues, however. My manager was a horribly arrogant woman who only liked around five people on her 20 person team. If you weren’t one of her favorites, you were treated like something yucky she stepped in that morning.
While her favorites were allowed to put a call on hold and go to her desk to ask a question, I would be reprimanded for leaving a call on hold while seeking an answer, then reprimanded for not knowing the answer.
I got in trouble for constantly eating at my desk, which was untrue. Toward the end of my shift I might grab a snack from the vending machine, but I ate any substantial meals during lunch or designated breaks. I had coworkers who always had full meals at their desks, which they would be eating while they were on the phone with clients. I’m seriously talking bacon, eggs, pancakes, and hashbrowns……
The final straw was when I was reprimanded for not handling a call professionally. A client called in and was immediately verbally abusive. I did my best to calm him down and attempt to address his issues, but the abusive behavior progressed throughout the call. At around the five minute mark, he started telling me that I should call him “Daddy” and that he knew that I was a bad girl, among other inappropriate things. I handled the call as well as I could, but I wasn’t incredibly friendly by the end of the call.
When I got to work the next day my Manager called me into her office. It turns out that the client had called to complain about me because I had been “very rude” to him during our call. She told me that she had reviewed the call with three other Managers and could not excuse my behavior during the call. She would have to write me up.
I couldn’t believe what she was telling me. This was not a phone sex number, it was a freaking brokerage house. I asked her how I should have handled the call. Should I have called the client “Daddy?” Should I have agreed that I’d been bad and asked him to spank me? She simply said that I could have handled the call more professionally, although she didn’t offer me any coaching toward *how* I should have handled the call.
I grabbed an empty box, packed up my cubicle, and walked out. Apparently she was fired about a week later. The team that I was on was the third team that she had been moved to since she had been promoted to Manager. She had been moved due to complaints regarding harrassment and favoritism, and upper management finally realized that she actually was a terrible Manager and not worth their trouble anymore.
The dangers
Chinese firms to assemble EVs in Europe, duck tariffs
Chery plans to purchase an old Nissan plant in Barcelona and turn it into its first manufacturing site in Europe
Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers are pushing forward their plans to building production capacity in Europe in order to evade potential tariffs that would be imposed by the European Union.
Chery Automobile President Yin Tongyue said Sunday that his company will soon purchase an old plant of Nissan’s in Barcelona, Spain, and turn it into its first manufacturing site in Europe. He said the reopening of the facility, which stopped running in 2021, can create 1,600 jobs.
He said Chery is discussing partnerships with two European brands, with one of the deals to be closed soon. Chinese media said Chery is having a discussion with Stellantis, the Italian auto conglomerate that owns Fiat, Chrysler and Peugeot.
Spain’s Industry Ministry said an agreement for Chery to start production in the country will be formalized in the coming days.
Chery is still talking with the Italian government about building a factory there but there has been any update yet.
In the first quarter of this year, the number of the company’s exported cars rose 40.9% year-on-year to 253,418 units. The company is now focusing on markets in South America, the Middle East and Russia and will explore those in Spain, Italy Poland and the United Kingdom later this year.
Other key Chinese EV makers also have their manufacturing plans in Europe. Last December, the Shenzhen-based BYD said it will build a passenger car factory in Szeged, Hungary. It said the facility will be the first of its kind built by a Chinese automotive company in Europe and will have an advanced car production line.
Great Wall Motor said last year that it was mulling whether to locate its first European plant in Germany, Hungary or the Czech Republic.
SAIC Motor Corp said it was considering setting up a plant in the United Kingdom although the country has already left the European Union.
Meanwhile, the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products (CCCME), a Beijing-based industry group, said the 13-month investigation launched by the European Union last September against Chinese EV makers is not transparent and is in violation of global trading rules.
In a hearing with the European Commission in Brussels on April 11, CCCME Vice President Shi Yonghong, said he was concerned that the findings of the EU probe of Chinese EV imports would be distorted and unobjective.
Shi said the European Commission had departed from its principle of selecting for study the top Chinese EV makers, such as BYD, Geely and SAIC, and seemed to have purposely focused on three Chinese-owned producers to reach predetermined findings of subsidization.
He said the biased sample selection has tainted the entire investigatory process. He added that the probe was a perfect example of the EU’s double standards as it avoided taking any action against the US$400 billion of subsidies granted by the US government and also billions of euros of subsidies granted by the EU to the EV and battery sectors.
A spokesperson of the European Commission said the investigation and its findings would fully respect EU and international obligations. He said the EC will make sure this anti-subsidy investigation is thorough, fair and fact-based.
Impact of tariffs
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who finished her six-day China trip on April 9, told CNN on Sunday that the US will not take “anything off the table” in response to China’s manufacturing capacity, including the possibility of additional tariffs to stop the influx of cheap Chinese goods into the US market.
“We’re concerned about the possibility of surges in Chinese exports to our markets in areas where they have a great deal of overcapacity,” She said.
She said she has told Chinese officials that China’s overcapacity problem is a concern not only to the US, but also to other countries and regions, such as Europe and Japan, and even to emerging markets including India, Mexico and Brazil.
As the Trump administration imposed an extra 25% tariff on Chinese goods on top of the usual 2.5% tariff in 2019, Chinese EV and battery firms found it very difficult to develop their US markets.
They then turned to build factories in Mexico, which signed a free trade agreement with the US and Canada in 2018, trying to evade the extra 25% tariff. But Republican candidate Donald Trump said last month that he will impose a 100% tariff on Chinese cars that are made in Mexico if he wins the presidential election in November.
Now Chinese automakers are accelerating their plans to localize their production capacity in Europe, in case the EU imposes extra tariffs on EVs made in China later this year.
About one in five EVs sold in Europe last year were made in China, according to Transport & Environment (T&E), a Brussels-based non-profit organization. The figure is expected to grow to about 25% in 2024.
More than half of Chinese imports into Europe are still western brands, such as Tesla, Dacia and BMW, T&E says – but Chinese brands, including SAIC’s MG, Geely’s Polestar and BYD, could reach 11% of the European EV market in 2024 and 20% in 2027, up from about 7.5% last year.
“Tariffs will force carmakers to localize EV production in Europe, and that’s a good thing because we want these jobs and skills,” said Julia Poliscanova, senior director for vehicles and e-mobility supply chains at T&E. “But tariffs won’t shield legacy carmakers for long.”
She said a higher tariff should be accompanied by a regulatory push to increase local production of EVs, including electrification targets for company car fleets by 2039, on top of the agreed 100% clean car goal in 2035.
No dumping
After European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen announced a probe into unfair Chinese competition in the EV sector on September 13 last year, German Economic Minister Robert Habeck welcomed the decision.
But then German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, on September 28, that he was not convinced about the need to impose tariffs on Chinese EVs. He said that, since Germany wants to sell its cars in all places in the world, it should also open its market to foreign firms.
On a visit to China on Monday, he told Chinese students in Shanghai that Germany wants open and fair auto markets. He said Chinese cars will still be in Germany and Europe at some point if there is fair competition with no dumping, overproduction or infringement of copyrights.
According to the MarkLines Data Center, German automakers sold 462,720 vehicles in China last year, up 3.8% from 2022. They accounted for about 17.8% of the Chinese markets.
Chinese brands sold 1.46 million vehicles domestically with a 56.2% market share. Japanese brands sold 382,900 vehicles in China with a 14.7% market share.
Stroganoff Soup
beef stroganoff soup 102 1
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients
1 ½poundsstew meat
6cupsbeef broth – (I used low sodium)
4tablespoonsworcestershire sauce
½teaspoonItalian seasoning blend
1 ½teaspoonsonion powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste – (I use about 2 teaspoons salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper)
½cup sour cream
8ouncesmushrooms – sliced, (about 1 cup sliced mushrooms)
8ouncesshort noodles – cooked, (egg noodles, rotini, and cellentani work great)
⅓cupcold water
¼cupcorn starch
beef stroganoff soup 101 2
Instructions
Instant Pot Instructions
In your instant pot, combine stew meat, beef broth, worcestershire sauce, Italian seasoning, onion powder, garlic powder, and salt and pepper to taste. Place lid on the instant pot, make sure the vent nozzle is in the non-venting position, press “pressure cook” and set timer to 1 hour.
Move venting nozzle to the vent position and allow to vent until the button drops down. Remove lid, and switch Instant Pot to “soup” mode. Stir together sour cream and 1 cup of broth from the Instant Pot until smooth. Stir mixture back into the pot along with the mushrooms. Whisk together cold water and corn starch in a bowl.
Once soup is boiling, whisk corn starch mixture into the Instant Pot until soup thickens. Stir in noodles. Taste, add salt and pepper to taste, if needed. Garnish with cracked black pepper, fresh thyme or parsley, and grated parmesan cheese and serve.
Slow Cooker Instructions
In your slow cooker, combine stew meat, beef broth, worcestershire sauce, Italian seasoning, onion powder, garlic powder, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover and cook on high 3 hours, or low 6 hours.
Stir together sour cream and 1 cup of broth from the slow cooker until smooth. Stir mixture back into the pot along with the mushrooms. Whisk together cold water and corn starch in a bowl, then stir into the slow cooker.
Cover and cook on high for 1 hour longer. Taste, add salt and pepper to taste if needed. Add cooked noodles. Garnish with cracked black pepper, fresh thyme or parsley, and grated parmesan cheese and serve.
Notes
Flavor tip: Add a sprinkle of crushed red pepper flakes.
beef stroganoff soup 105
“While we’ve been gearing up for Thanksgiving and Christmas, we’ve been getting some really chilly weather in the past couple of weeks and soup has become a regular on the menu. I made a batch of this Beef Stroganoff Soup last week and I’ve been craving it ever since the last bowl vanished.
I even took some over to my Dad who lives pretty close to us, not really sure how he would respond to a soup version of an old classic my Mother has been fixing for years… He completely loved it!
I’d dropped off a couple of other dishes along with the soup and he said he sampled them all and was – and I quote – “particularly enamored with the stroganoff soup!” Because my dad is awesome and talks like that in real life.”
collage
Should I make this in the Instant Pot or a Slow Cooker?
I’ve included instructions for making this easy Beef Stroganoff Soup in either the Instant Pot or the Slow Cooker. Both methods work great, it really just depends on your personal preference and whether you have an Instant Pot or not.
Side note: If you haven’t made the leap to getting and Instant Pot yet (*and this is not sponsored in any way!!!*) you have got to get one. You may not know this but the Instant Pot has a setting for slow cooking so it really is an all-in-one. BAM. Let whoever drew your name for Christmas know, this is what you need.
What cut of beef should I use?
My favorite meat to use for this Beef Stroganoff Soup is stew meat, because it gets so juicy and fall-apart tender in the Instant Pot on the pressure cooker setting (only takes an hour!) or after slow cooking in the crockpot all day. It’s also really budget friendly and makes this meal super affordable. Win win!
What type of noodles should I use?
Any short noodle works great! Egg noodles are really common with traditional stroganoff and taste great in this soup, my favorite though are twirly noodles as I like to call them, or Callentani. You could also use penne, ronini, or macaroni elbows!
Can I cook the noodles in the Instant Pot/Slow Cooker?
Technically, yes, you can cook them right in the Instant Pot/Slow Cooker. Personally, I prefer to cook my noodles separately for two reasons. 1) You need to add extra liquid to the recipe to account for the liquid that is absorbed by the noodles while cooking. My issue with this is that the excess dilutes the soup and makes it less flavorful. 2) It gets tricky with short noodles like these to know exactly how much cooking time they need, while making sure they don’t overcook. The whole point of a crockpot recipe in my opinion is to not have to keep a close eye on it the whole time, and to say hey this can cook for 6ish or 7ish hours. If you’ve got noodles in there though, that extra half hour or whatnot can turn your noodles to mush.
beef stroganoff soup 104
Chinese warn of Taiwan crisis from US military aid
‘Crossing red lines – just like racing cars on a cliff’s edge, where a crash is almost inevitable’
Beijing has expressed strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition after the United States House of Representatives passed a bill that will grant military aid to Taiwan and countries in the Indo-Pacific region.
The US House on April 20 passed four bills in a US$95 billion package to boost the defense ability of Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. About $60.84 billion of funding will be earmarked for Ukraine to counter Russia while $26.38 bill be used to support Israel to defend itself against Iran and its proxies.
One of the bills consists of $8.12 billion for Taiwan and Indo-Pacific countries to “counter communist China and ensure strong deterrence in the region.”
The aid includes:
a $3.3 billion funding to develop submarine infrastructure, including investments in dry dock construction;
$2 billion in a foreign military financing program for Taiwan and other key allies and security partners in the Indo-Pacific confronting Chinese aggression; and
$1.9 billion to replenish defense articles and defense services provided to Taiwan and regional partners.
The remaining $920 million will be spent on strengthening US military capabilities in the region, enhancing the production and development of artillery and critical munitions and providing additional flexibility for Foreign Military Financing loans and loan guarantees.
Already, on February 8, the US Senate had passed its own $95 billion package to support Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, and reports are that the Senate will now accept the House version and the package will soon be submitted to US President Joe Biden for approval, whereupon it will become law.
“The US insists on passing and signing a bill containing negative content related to Taiwan, seriously interfering in China’s internal affairs and seriously violating the one-China principle and the provisions of the three Sino-US joint communiques,” Chen Binhua, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said Monday. “We express strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to this.”
Chen also said the Democratic Progressive Party, the ruling party in Taiwan, is trying to rely on the US and use force to seek independence but such an attempt is doomed to failure.
“By providing military aid to Taiwan, the US is trying to stir up a crisis and confrontation in the Taiwan Strait and related region,” Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations of China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times in an interview. “The US will then use the chaos and conflicts it creates to make countries in East Asia and Western Pacific regions lean to its side and form an alliance.”
Li said such a move will lead to division in the Asia Pacific region, undermine the important foundation for the stability of Sino-US relations and seriously damage the existing order and security environment for shared prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region.
US commitment
The Taipei government and local media were cheered by the newly-approved US military aid. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen thanked the US Congress for approving it.
Taiwanese Premier Chen Chien-jen said Monday that a peaceful and stable Taiwan Strait is important to peace and prosperity in the world.
He said Taiwan will continue to work with like-minded countries, including the US and all countries in the free democratic camp, to safeguard peace and freedom in the Indo-Pacific region and make the Taiwan Strait area more stable.
The approval of the military aid for Taiwan reaffirmed Washington’s “rock-solid” commitment to helping the island defend itself, especially when this year marks the 45th anniversary of the passage of the US-Taiwan Relations Act, said Anny Hsiao, executive director of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA), a Washington-based organization of Taiwanese Americans.
She said the US should give up its “strategic ambiguity” on the China-Taiwan matter and adopt “strategic clarity.”
For several decades, Washington has remained ambiguous about whether it will provide military support to Taiwan if the island is attacked by mainland China. Last year, Biden said on several occasions that the US will support Taiwan if a war breaks out in the Taiwan Strait.
‘Salami tactics’
Xie Feng, Chinese Ambassador to the US, delivered a speech on April 20 at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024.
He warned the US of the consequences of interfering with China’s internal affairs and damaging China’s interests on issues related to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Xizang (Tibet) and the South China Sea.
”Applying salami tactics and crossing red lines on issues bearing on others’ core interests is just like racing cars on a cliff’s edge, where a crash is almost inevitable,” he said.
“The Taiwan question is the most important and sensitive issue in China-US relations. The so-called ‘Taiwan independence’ is a dead end, and the one-China principle is a red line not to be crossed,” he said.
He added that it’s natural for the US and China to have differences but it’s also important for both sides to properly manage their differences and respect each other’s core interests and major concerns.
Meanwhile, US State Secretary Antony Blinken is set to visit Beijing from Wednesday to Friday, invited by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
A senior US State Department official told the media that Blinken during his China trip will convey Washington’s deep concerns” over China’s aid for Russia’s defense industrial base.
It is expected that Blinken’s topics to be discussed with his Chinese counterparts will be Taiwan issues, Chinese industrial overcapacity and the Middle East conflicts.
The Plague
Did you ever see karma hit someone who deserved it so befittingly that it was eerie?
Ah yes, I love telling this story.
A little after the pandemic when stores were able to take people in again, I was working at an essential store. Well, one thing about me when it comes to work, I learn to do everything, so I can do everything. Well one day , heavy traffic in store and I’m on my toes. I’m all over the place. We are getting slammed with people and their stimulus checks lol one of the managers kept telling me to go on lunch but everytime I tried someone needed help, so there I would go . It got to a point where they were about to write me up, As I was helping two families, I had to apologize and excuse myself. Well as I’m walking out about to go to my car , my coworker stops me and says hey this guy needs help. The manager is staring at me, so I say “I’m sorry I can’t , have you tried to radio it in?”
The guy then says “what do you mean you can’t? Is it really that much work?”
I chuckled and said “no sir but I’m on the verge of getting a wri-”
Guy- “then stop wasting time and help me, all your doing is pushing a cart. I haven’t seen you work at all”
Me- “I really can’t , I’m about to get a write up if I don’t go to lunch”
Guy- “you just don’t want to work , lazy m********ker”
Me-”have a good day “ *walked out*
He walked out behind me and he still kept shouting profanity and a racial slur . I turned back around and at that moment all his stuff started falling off the flatbed(he had his flat stacked too high) and onto the gravel outside, his other cart rolling down the steep parking lot ended up getting swiped by an 18 wheeler.
It’s like the stars and planets aligned perfectly on that Sunday afternoon
Decisive: Upon $61 Billion in new U.S. Aid to Ukraine, Russia Declares It Must Now Also Take Sumy and Kharkiv Oblasts
As a direct result of the United States approving $61 Billion in new military aid to Ukraine, Russia has announced they are now required to take two additional states of Ukraine – Sumy and Kharkiv — to assure Russian national security.
The aid package from the United States includes long-range ATACMS missiles, which can be used to strike targets inside traditional Russia, so Russia needs a safety zone to protect itself from such launches.
The map below shows the two additional Oblasts (states) that Russia must now take from Ukraine to assure its security:
Sumy Kharkiv oblasts
In response to the new Aid sent to Ukraine and the attacks by mercenaries on Belgorod, the Russian Army will now expand the objectives of the Special Military Operation (SMO).
The new regions, Kharkov and Sumy will be the main focus of the new Group N (north).
Russia Army Group N North
Hal Turner Snap Analysis
This conflict is escalating. U.S. meddling, and the massive amount of new US financial aid for military gear, is causing it to get worse.
Zelensky could have at least bargained to cede the Donbass for Ukraine’s neutrality but I guess more regions will now be incorporated into the Russian Federation.
What has someone done to you that you won’t be able to forgive?
When my wife walked out on me, it wasn’t the fact that she abandoned everything and everyone related to “us” that hit me the most (and obliterated “us” in the act), but what she had done in the months prior to her parting with me.
The things she never told me. The things she always vehemently denied.
She broke up with me over the phone, separated by 500 miles of land and water which would become 500 light years soon. (It’s funny how far people can end up from each other once they have been so close — as if they become repelling magnets once pulled apart.)
And only over the phone was she able to admit that she had cheated all along, and slept with him for the first time on her birthday, while I was attending a conference. To make matters worse, before sleeping with him, they had met in the very pub where the former “we” had spend our first date.
(Anyways.)
If there was anything left of “us” whatsoever, her sudden urge of getting as much money as possible from me totally destroyed it. It left me wondering who she really was — and who she had become.
Even when it turned out she was dying from late stage breast cancer more than ten years later, there was something inside me that could and would not forgive her. Even when I saw her in the flesh, with half of her already in the shadows and the rest of her trying to grab on, realizing that all was lost.
Even when I saw her empty eyes, broken and desperate, I just couldn’t.
Because for me, she had died a long time ago.
The former she, that is.
That offends me
How did other homeless people treat you while being homeless?
I was homeless for about 2 years in the 2010s. it was a very shitty experience for me. i was depressed most of the time and struggling not to just end it all. it was very hard to get a job without a stable address and I got stuck doing dead end temp jobs for very little money. didn’t really have to worry about food because so many church groups came by the shelter to feed us. Plus no matter how nicely you dressed and behaved, it seemed that everyone could tell that you were homeless. and never forget the discrimination towards you by the majority of society.
In fact, It’s miserable. The boredom is ruthless. Once you’ve found something to eat, your work for the day is done. It’s the most lonely feeling you’ll ever experience. Night comes, you see people out with their friends, then you’ll see them go home, and you’re just looking for somewhere dark and safe to sleep. The only way I can describe it is being completely outside the human experience. Your old friends will stop being around you, and your new friends aren’t friends at all. You’ll become acutely aware of every little thing you used to take for granted.
I knew people who claimed to have “good” homeless experiences, but most of them were homeless by choice…why, I’ll never understand. It’s uncomfortable and oppressively lonely.
Why do people break rules in India while they follow all the rules of the country as soon as they land there?
In India, the probability of following rule is inversely proportional to the status of the person in the society.
The higher you are in the social hierarchy, the lesser rules you usually follow.
If you see a vehicle coming on the wrong side, it most likely belongs to a top civil servant or politician.
You will rarely find the police officials wearing helmet or seat belt.
If you visit to a tourist place and you find a vehicle parked in the ‘No Parking’ Zone, it all likelihood, it must belong to a government officer.
It is a common belief in the government officers and politicians is that they are above law because the officials who are expected to enforce the law are below them.
How can a lower official dare to take action against the higher officials?
And if you even know someone in power, you can use your influence to break the law with immunity.
There is a famous saying in India, “Sainya bhaye kotval, to dar kahe ka?” (When the husband is a police officer, why should you fear?)
When the political leader and government officials who make the law and whose duty is to enforce the law themselves don’t follow the law, it is natural that the rest of citizens too follow their example.
This truth is beautifully stated in Bhagawat Gita, “Whatever action is performed by a great man, common men follow in his footsteps, and whatever standards he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues”.
Unlike India, the elite in developed countries don’t get extra-constitutional privileges and protection.
Here is a picture of U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, traveling in train with common people like a common person.
[1] You can never imagine such humility from any PM, CM, Minister or even an ordinary politician in India.
Top political leaders and civil servants here are like demi-gods in India who are beyond the purview of the laws applicable for the ordinary mortals of the land.
When Indians visit other countries, they know that they don’t have any such immunity from law and they are bound to suffer fine, penalty or arrest if they break the law.
Hence, they become quite law abiding in foreign land.
Only if the people who are in power in India learn to follow the rules, the rest of the Indians can be expected to follow the rules.
It is sure that this is not going to happen any time soon in India.
Russia Moves NUCLEAR Iskanders to Finland Border large
In response to Finland joining NATO, Russia has moved hypersonic, “Iskander” Tactical Nuclear Missiles to Karelia, Russia.
The Iskander missile has about a 500km range and can travel at about 7500km per hour.
From their location in Karelia, Russia, these new nuclear-tipped missiles can reach most of populated Finland within just a very few short minutes.
The deployment of these missiles is CONFIRMED. The fact they are already nuclear-tipped is also CONFIRMED.
The map below shows a 500km radius from Karelia, Russia. Note is covers almost all of Finland – at least all the major population centers, and a good portion of Estonia as well:
Iskander Range Karelia Russia
Super Chill
French Onion Chicken
french onion chicken 104
Sometimes a recipe needs refinement to get to the point of putting it in my recipe book, a little altering and adjustment here and there. Sometimes I test out a recipe and it comes out exactly as I’d hoped. No tweaks needed, no surprising flavors or textures, just spot-on recipe perfection.
And then there are times when I make a dish and with just one bite I am completely wowed and all of my expectations are exceeded. This is one of those times! I fully expected this French onion chicken would be delicious. I didn’t think for a minute I’d be fixing this for dinner three times in one week and reheating leftovers for lunch on the in-between days because it was that good.
Sometimes a home-run recipe just sneaks up on you like that.
french onion chicken 103
Honest to goodness, this French onion chicken thing we’ve got going on here is straight-up life changing goodness. All those classic flavors of French onion soup, in a one pan skillet meal the whole family will beg you to fix again and again. And the recipe is so straight forward and simple you won’t mind one bit.
You start out by sauteing thinly sliced yellow onions in a bit of butter and beef broth til browned and very tender, just like you would with classic French onion soup. Then you move those onions over to a separate dish to keep warm while you brown the chicken in the same pan.
french onion chicken 101
Move the onions back to the pan and add flour and beef broth to make the most delicious caramelized onion gravy EVERRRRR and then top your chicken with three kinds of Italian cheese. Bake for about 10 minutes and viola! The sauciest, tastiest 30-ish minute chicken dish you’ve ever made.
This is Fall comfort food at its finest. And I just want to point out that I even though this dish is inspired by soup, it is not a soup, unlike the past four recipes I’ve posted which are all actual real live soup. #soupbsessed #sorrynotsorry #longlivesoupseason
french onion chicken 102
Ingredients
2medium yellow onions – thinly sliced into rings
3 tablespoonsbutter
1cup+ 3 tablespoons beef broth – divided
4boneless skinless chicken breasts – pounded to even thickness
fresh thyme or parsley and cracked black pepper for topping – (optional)
Instructions
Preheat oven to bake at 400 degrees OR broil on low. In a large oven-safe skillet (see note) over medium-high heat, melt butter. Add onions and 3 tablespoons beef broth and saute onions for 3-4 minutes until translucent. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally so the onions don’t burn, for about 15 minutes longer until browned and very tender. Use tongs or a fork to transfer to a bowl and cover to keep warm.
While onions are cooking, prepare the chicken by drizzling with oil, then seasoning with salt and pepper (to taste) and Italian herbs. Once onions have finished cooking and are removed from the pan, cook chicken for 4-5 minutes on each side (don’t clean out the pan between the onions and chicken) until browned on both sides. (Chicken may not be fully cooked through yet, that is okay).
Transfer chicken to a plate and cover to keep warm and return the onions to the pan. Sprinkle flour over the onions and stir for 1 minute over medium-high heat. Add beef broth and continue to cook, stirring throughout, until mixture comes to a boil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Return chicken to pan and spoon some of the sauce over each piece of chicken.
Top chicken with one slice of provolone each, then one slice of swiss, then 1/4 of the parmesan cheese. Transfer skillet to your preheated oven and cook for about 10 minutes until chicken is cooked through completely and cheeses are melted.
Spoon some of the onions and gravy over the top of the chicken, garnish with thyme or parsley and cracked black pepper, and serve.
Notes
If you don’t have a cast iron skillet, any other oven-safe skillet will do OR you can transfer everything to a casserole dish or baking pan for the baking portion of the recipe.
Found in a tree
When did you realize that your childhood was not normal?
not sure of my exact age maybe 11 or 12? I went to a friends house and her mom made us cookies and took us to our soccer practice and stayed the whole time, she was so involved throughout the day , selfless, and loving. I thought how lucky my friend was to have a mom who cared so much. Then I went to another friends house and noticed the same love and interaction with her mom. It baffled me. My mom was always too busy, too self involved, and too irritable to have any relationship with me that was remotely close.
First part of my life, I chalked it up to her job but she retired early at 54 and even though less than 15 minutes away she rarely see me or her grandkids. She says she’s just SO busy.
As a mom myself now, I realize how messed up my childhood was. Us Kids fending for themselves, basically running feral, emotionally starving for attention, a dad who tried (& loved us dearly, that I was certain of) but he didn’t quite have the time (worked full-time) or tools. I had a mom that I rarely saw (though I was thankful bc when our paths crossed the interaction was not good).
growing up, We walked on eggshells. Don’t upset mom. We weren’t allowed to share food with friends but that was embarrassing and rude so I gave my portions to my friends & didn’t eat to help save food so my mom wouldn’t get mad. I did so many things “so mom won’t get mad.” She was physically abusive which I thought was normal as well. It was always about her; her desires and wishes. The rest of us had no say—-even my dad. she moved us all over the country. 3 different high schools. Leaving behind friends. I thought it was all normal.
I vowed to be present & loving to my kids. I vowed to be a mom who did the little things, who listened, who took the time, who apologized if needed, who didn’t scream, yell, hit, spank, slap; who met more than their basic needs and who genuinely cares about them and is interested in them.
Destruction of the family
What happened at a wedding that made you feel horrible for the groom?
My husband, son and I recently attended a friend’s wedding. The bride looked beautiful, the venue was well-chosen and the little details were perfect. Everyone was having a wonderful time.
And then the speeches started.
It was a well-known fact that the groom had hounded the bride for over a year to go on their first date, and that topic featured in every speech to a greater or lesser degree. The parents of the groom had a couple embarrassing stories to tell about his childhood, but they brought it back to how happy they were for him and how he deserved such a perfect wife. The brother and sister of the bride had a few ribs about her, too, but again, they finished on a loving, positive note.
The same cannot be said for the sister of the groom.
She was already a little…toasted by the time she hit the podium, so there were portions of her speech that were a little difficult to catch. But the jist was clear: her brother was an oaf and no amount of lipstick would improve the beauty of that pig.
From humiliating stories to hurtful jabs, she just kept barreling through her obviously not proofread speech, and everyone in the room was staring at their plates in embarrassment. I kept waiting for her to sigh and start on the positives, but the sigh never came. She finished her speech with a final zinger and stepped down to a very light smattering of grateful applause.
Our table was silent. My husband, who is not my brother’s biggest fan by any means, turned to me and said, “promise me you won’t do that to Dylan”.
What are some of the most mind-blowing celebrity facts?
George Clooney called 14 of his closest friends and said “Hey, mark Sept 27th, 2013, on your calendar. Everyone’s going to come to my house for dinner.”
The 14 friends belonged to varying economic backgrounds. One of them was married to Cindy Crawford while another was riding his bicycle on his way to work at a bar in Texas airport.
When ‘The Boys’ (the group’s name) arrived at Clooney’s house, they found 14 designer suitcases placed on the table.
main qimg dd1d35b0f86308b28c5e93d3b29c1877 lq
And then- Clooney said:
Listen, I want you guys to know how much you’ve meant to me and how much you mean in my life. I came to L.A; I slept on your couch. I’m so fortunate in my life to have all of you, and I couldn’t be where I am today without all of you. So, it was really important to me that while we’re still all here together, that I give back. So I want you all to open your suitcases.
There was $1 million inside every suitcase, arranged in $20 notes.
I know we’ve all been through some hard times, some of you are still going through it. You don’t have to worry about your kids; you don’t have to worry about, you know, school, you don’t have to worry about paying your mortgage.
(Clooney also paid their taxes so they could pocket the entire $1 million. That’s an additional $3.5 million altogether.)
One of his friends, Rande Gerber (married to Crawford) refused to accept the gift, so Clooney made a condition – either they all accept the gift, or nobody gets it.
Gerber (who donated his share to charity) said “This is who George is. That was September 27th, 2013. Now, September 27th, 2014, he marries Amal. That’s good karma right there.”
Clooney is a legend.
In other news- “George Clooney is a piece of shit”, said his 15th closest friend.
When I got out of prison, I spent some time in parole under supervision.
During this time, I stayed at a “halfway house”. Actually a couple of them. And I worked as a janitor cleaning the YMCA at night. My work hours were 9pm to 4am.
You know, I had to be invisible to my fellow Americans. LOL.
…
Anyways, I was assigned a vehicle to ride back and forth from the house (that I shared with four other men) to the YMCA that I cleaned. The vehicle was a donated work van. It was distressed, and shitty, but the engine worked, and it sure beat walking.
Now at the side of the van was the words “Toilet Toms Happy Rooter” with a picture of a ridiculously happy plumber happily pulling a huge turd out of a ugly toilet.
A grotesque image.
Caused me the butt of so many jokes.
But, you know, a man has got to do what a man has got to do.
…
Then my dad died, and I had to deal with his funereal.
Now, once I was arrested, labeled a sex offender, and incarcerated, my entire family turned their collective backs on me.
I heard from a cousin that they reasoned that I just “had to be guilty” as no one would give a first time offender FIVE YEARS for nothing.
Which is true.
It was damn odd that I got five years at hard labor for the evidence, and the fact that up until I was 50 something and arrested, I was a decent enough citizen.
Anyways, no one wanted to hear the detailed truths. They wanted to hear a narrative that fit into their simplistic understanding of the world.
…
And once accused… you are labeled for life.
So not only did they want nothing to do with me, but they gleefully smirked as I drove to the funereal in the “Toilet Tom” van.
Everyone was smirking and talking about me and the van I was driving.
Meanwhile, they all drove expensive cars, and all the rest. I was the only one that looked like some kind of poor, starving, refugee. I was a junk-yard mongrel dog surrounded by white pristine Persian cats.
The feigned nice behaviors and the statements dripping with sarcasm left scars that I will NEVER forget.
…
Ten years plus later, I’m living in China.
I’m married with a daughter, living in a penthouse, on the ocean and doing well for myself.
And I have been in periodic contact with my brother via Skype.
He sets up a video conference with my sister and her daughter who was married to a doctor in New York City.
My cousin and their kids … good chat. They remembered me, and associated me with a caretaker role for their grandmother. Not as a person; a uncle, or anything bad. I was their grandmothers live-in relative.
But my sister… Oh, doggy!
Judging from her expression, as she just sat there dumbfounded (her mouth open in shock), she didn’t know what to make of me. It was jaw literally hanging open. Oh, you see the expression in comics and illustrations, but this was live in real time. Stunning.
What the fuck?
…
After that video conference…
…my brother stopped calling me, sending me emails or anything else. It was radio silence, and you all know that story. I related that elsewhere.
Putting the two incidents together, one can only conclude that they wanted to stay in touch with me to know how shitty my life was, and when they found out that I was prospering… well, they didn’t want to have anything to do with me. And openly shunned me.
Explains why my brother has been such a dick.
Life.
Today…
Unexplained “Anomaly” Near Antarctica: Reported 80′ Foot Waves Moving north (Meteor Impact?)
An unexplained “anomaly” is now visible on Ventusky.com ocean monitoring system. A strange “burst” of 80 foot waves has emanated from Antarctica and is showing as moving north.
Ventusky Anomaly Antarctica Oceans large
I have never seen anything like this. Did a huge chunk of ice fall into the water causing a massive Tsunami? Did a Meteor Hit the ocean from space? Did some major earthquake take place that no one registered?
As one might guess, there are absolutely zero Tsunami Warning Buoys around all of Africa.
If the video below is correct, these 80 foot waves are now smashing into the southwest coast of the Africa Continent, and +20′ tall waves will make it into the Atlantic ocean, to the USA and to Europe, within the next few days.
The video below lays out the current situation. Beneath the video, this story continues with word I got BEFORE the April 8 eclipse, warning me there was an inbound meteor. I did **NOT** publish the story over credibility concerns. Here. Watch the video:
On March 31 . . .
I received intel from a scientist telling me the following:
Meteor headed for impact with earth. IMPACT near Madagascar on April 8, an object about the size of Camel Back Mountain in Arizona
We call her “Maddy the Elly” (Interpreted by me as “Madagascar” Extinction Level Event”)
She’s coming and she’s BIG “
I was also told:
“They’re not going to announce until about 8 hrs before impact if the plan holds. That’s why they are worried about the millions of people in the eclipse viewing zones. Not because of their location but because of the mere fact they are away from their homes and those areas are going to be over stressed. Hence the national guard and prep talk.”
Now, I get all sorts of “tips” about news every day. I have to sort through a lot of . . . ahem . . . . nonsense.
The fact that this particular communication contained such specifics, coordinates and such, I decided to send it off to a couple contacts I have to inquire about it.
Out of the contacts I reached out to, ONE responded later saying “Yes, I’ve confirmed this. It is real.”
Now, I trust this person very much. I have no reason to doubt __anything__ he says. But I had concerns about this.
First, what if we’re being lied to . . . on purpose . . . . so we run a story, which scares the living hell out of people, only to have it be false? There goes all my credibility. Gone, in one fell swoop.
Next, what if it __is__ true. Do I want to be the one who starts a global panic? Uhhhhhhhhhh, NO!
So, I told my wife and son about it, and we shuffled-off to our bugout home in northeastern Pennsylvania to be away from New York City for the eclipse, but with a worry about this alleged meteor, too.
Eclipse day happens. Nothing goes wrong. Anywhere. All the planning, all the hoopla, all the disaster declarations, mobilization of National Guard units, . . . . nothing happened to need any of it. And . . . . no meteor strike.
I thought to myself, what to do about this guy who “confirmed” the meteor? Turns out, he farmed-out the info to some of HIS sources, and it was one of THEM that told him, “Yes, it’s true.” He trusts this person so he told me “Yes, It’s true.”
But nothing happened on April 8. So . . . where does that leave us?
Well, the very next day, slightly off course (south of Madagascar by considerable distance) this . . . perturbation . . . . in the ocean.
Uh Oh. Is __this__ the meteor? Did it hit?
If it did, there’s no one for maybe a thousand miles in all directions around the impact site, who would have seen it or heard it.
If it came at Earth from what would ostensibly be “underneath us” who would have even seen it in an Observatory??? There are almost none down there.
There are also no warning buoys anywhere down there to alert about ocean disruption. No shipping lanes where vessels at sea may have noticed anything. The potential impact site is literally in the middle of nowhere!
I’m starting to think that yes, the meteor story __was__ true, but incorrect on it’s impact timing.
I think this “anomaly” we’re seeing on Ventusky . . . is the result of that meteor impact.
Always trust your gut feelings
Yellen Dispatched to Beg China for Face-Saving Slowdown
The U.S.’ growing urgency in ‘containing’ China’s development was thrown in sharp relief this week as Janet Yellen arrived in Beijing for what turned out to be an execrable beggar’s tour. Just days prior to her arrival, she had buzzed the punditry with her historically memorable exclamation that China was now operating at “overcapacity”(!!).
What is overcapacity, you ask? It’s a new word for me, too—so let’s consult the dictionary together:
overcapacity
noun o·ver·ca·pac·i·ty: ō′vər-kə-ˈpa-sə-tē 1: When an insolent upstart nation’s surging economic activity totally humiliates the reigning hegemon’s own faltering economy, causing the many expensive dentures and porcelain veneers of the ruling class gerontocracy to rattle and grate with moral outrage and jealousy.
1b: An undesirable situation causing Janet Yellen and Nancy Pelosi’s stock portfolio to droop like a pair of botox-sapped jowls.
Granted…my dictionary might be slightly different to yours, I have a rare edition. That said, are we on the same page? Good.
The above definition may be missing in the new official regime argot pamphlet, but it’s safe to say the inept leaders of the U.S. are down to making up creative new euphemisms for describing China’s total undressing and upending of the economic order.
But if you were skeptical about the meaning behind Yellen’s risible “overcapacity” solecism, her speech from inside of China confirms precisely what’s on the regime’s mind:
“China is now simply too large for the rest of the world to absorb this enormous capacity. Actions taken by the PRC today can shift world prices….”
And the bombshell:
“When the global market is flooded with cheap Chinese goods, the viability of American firms is put into question.”
Well, I’ll say.
The important distinction to note in the above statement is that for a long time the ‘cheap’ moniker used to describe Chinese goods often underhandedly referred to their quality, in the secondary definitional sense. Here, Yellen is referring to cheap as in price: the distinction is significant because it’s referential to the fact that Chinese manufacturing processes have simply far exceeded the efficiency in the West, as recently highlighted by videos of the Xiaomi e-car factory with its own native Giga Press that’s claimed to be able to pump out a car every 17 seconds.
The fact of the matter is, China is simply leaping ahead of the decrepit, deteriorating U.S. by every measure and the panicked elites have sent Yellen to beg China to “slow down” and not embarrass them on the world stage.
How is China doing this? Let’s run through a few of the most poignant ways:
[1]
First and foremost, it’s become almost a passe bromide to observe: “The U.S. funds wars, while China funds development.” But it really is true. Think about this for a moment:
quote
The above is factual: Esquire reported that a Brown University investigation found the U.S. has spent an ineffable $14T on wars since 9/11:
quote 2
And yes, the current U.S. debt is a massive $34T. That means quite literally almost half of the entire current U.S. debt was blown on endless, mindless, genocidal wars in the Middle East.
The U.S. has wasted its entire blood and treasure on war. Imagine what the U.S. could have built with $14 trillion dollars? Where the U.S. could have been in relation to China for that amount? As someone else noted, the U.S. could have very well built its own “one belt and road” project for that money, connecting the world and reaping untold benefits.
China hasn’t spent a cent on war, and puts everything right back into economic development and wellbeing for its own people.
China is winning lion’s share of construction projects in Africa
Chinese companies accounted for 31% of African infrastructure contracts valued at US$50 million or more in 2022, compared with 12% for Western firms, according to a new study.
It is worth to be noted that in the 1990s, about eight out of 10 contracts to build infrastructure in Africa were won by Western companies.
The illustrative statistics for this are endless:
stats
What makes this historic malappropriation of American funds most tragic is that none of it came at the benefit of American people. The entire operation was carried out by an ethnic cabal within the U.S. government with loyalties only to Israel, and no one else. I’m speaking of course of the PNAC clan, who masterminded the entire breadth of the 21st century wars which have engulfed America in wretched shame and misery, irreversibly gutting the country and squandering its global standing. These wars had nothing whatsoever to do with America’s national interests or security, and have done naught but make Americans less safe and the entire world more dangerous and unstable.
China doesn’t have this problem: there is no inimical ‘out’ group parasitizing their country’s leadership, literally assassinating (JFK) and blackmailing their presidents (Clinton). China is therefore able to focus on the interests of its own people.
And yes, for those wondering, it’s now fairly proven that Lewinsky was a Mossad honeytrap used to blackmail Clinton in assenting to various Israeli demands vis-a-vis the Oslo Accords, Wye River Memorandum, etc.
The fact is, Israel is a destructive parasite sucking the lifeblood out of America, causing the host to wage unnecessary wars on its behalf which have utterly removed every advantageous and competitive edge the country might have had over its Chinese ‘rival’.
[2]
As a corollary of the above, beyond just the simple kinetic nature of the profligately wasteful wars, America wastes an exorbitant amount of money just on maintenance and upkeep of its global hegemony. The reason is, it costs a lot of ‘enforcement’ money to strongarm vassals who hate you into compliance.
China doesn’t form vassals, it forms partners. That means it spends comparatively far less spreading its influence because that influence has compounding abilities owing to the fair bilateral nature of China’s arrangements. The U.S. has to spend comparatively inordinate amounts of blood and treasure to maintain the same level of ‘influence’ because that ‘influence’ is totally artificial, confected out of a poisonous mixture of fear, strong-arming tactics, economic terrorism that leads to blowback which hurts the U.S. economy, etc. In short, it is mafia tactics versus real business partnerships.
One big difference between China and the U.S. is that China is open to sharing the earth, willing to co-prosper with the U.S. Conversely, the U.S. is unwilling to abdicate its global domination:
fighting words
The above was highlighted by Graham Allison, coiner of the Thucydides Trap idiom in relation to U.S./China. The Thucydides Trap, as some may know, describes a situation where an emerging power begins to displace the incumbent global power, and how historically this almost always leads to major war. To popularize the theory apropos U.S./China, Graham Allison used the historical example of the Peloponnesian war, where a cagey Sparta was forced to take on the rising power of Athens.
Allison was recently invited by President Xi to a forum for U.S. business leaders where Xi told him directly:
reasons
Contrast President Xi’s magnanimous statements with those of the seething, guilt-wracked, bloodthirstily conniving Western ‘executives’. In fact, Xi called for more exchanges between China and the U.S. in order to entwine the two countries in mutual understanding, to avoid the Thucydides Trap.
This is the enduring image of what global leadership truly looks like, and the principles it embodies.
Meanwhile, when one thinks of America’s progressive decline, the one enduring image that comes to mind is of a bitterly frightened but dangerous, beady-eyed cornered rodent, conspiring on how to inflict damage and suffering onto the world in order to mask its own downfall.
[3]
The U.S. government does a grave disservice to its own development by cooking all of its economic books. Every country does it at times to some degree—and going by U.S.’ notoriously frequent accusations of China in this regard, one would think China to be the most flagrant violator—but in fact, no one does this more than the current U.S. regime.
The recent “jobs” report touted as a major victory by the Biden administration was a disgraceful travesty. The admin touted major jobs figures:
jobs report
But it turned out every job was either part time, a federal job, or went to illegals:
us news media truthsUh ohhorrible
In reality, the U.S. economy is in atrocious shape with sky-high inflation.
“The Fed chair just confessed that #Bidenomics is just a migrant job fair. There is actually a million less American citizens working today than there were in 2020.”
Biden created 5 million migrant jobs! So don’t be fooled by his propaganda that’s spewed by the liberal machine. YOU DONT MATTER!
The data is cooked even more when comparing to China’s economic situation. As the following Tweeter explains:
While Chinese INCOMES are below American INCOMES, Chinese have much higher NET WORTH than Americans. How? They own apartments at a much higher rate and with a lot more equity than Americans. The MEAN and MEDIAN insight is even more beautiful. This graphic here is pretty much the only thing you need to understand about the difference between the economies of China and United States. But you really need to understand it and you need to have a deep understanding of what it means.
The above naturally springs the question of how China is able to do these things while the U.S. cannot. One of the answers comes by way of this fascinating explainer which shows that, contrary to the West’s depiction of China as some kind of rigidly authoritarian system, forward-looking President Xi is actually utilizing very cutting edge economic experimentation models to keep the Chinese economy as innovative, limber, and supple as possible.
In short, a deep study of thousands of official documents shows a huge upswing in language promoting economic experimentation in the directives issued under Xi’s government.
This is further compounded by the most important point of all: that under President Xi, China has embarked on a meticulous plan of curbing financialization and speculation of the ‘Western model’ in its economy. This is where it starts getting important so buckle up.
The article gives a brief history of financialization, from the Genoese bankers to modern times, observing the historical cycles that have precipitated America’s current deterioration:
Observers of the current American hegemony will recognize the transformation of the global system to suit American interests. The maintenance of an ideologically charged ‘rules-based’ order – ostensibly for the benefit of everyone – fits neatly into the category of conflation of national and international interests. Meanwhile, the previous hegemon, the British, had their own version that incorporated both free-trade policies and a matching ideology that emphasized the wealth of nations over national sovereignty.
In describing the cycle of financialization and its connection to the death of empires, the article notes about Britain:
For example, the incumbent hegemon at the time, Great Britain, was the country hardest hit by the so-called Long Depression of 1873-1896, a prolonged period of malaise that saw Britain’s industrial growth decelerate and its economic standing diminished. Arrighi identifies this as the ‘signal crisis’ – the point in the cycle where productive vigor is lost and financialization sets in.
And yet, as Arrighi quotes David Landes’ 1969 book ‘The Unbound Prometheus,’ “as if by magic, the wheel turned.” In the last years of the century, business suddenly improved and profits rose. “Confidence returned—not the spotty, evanescent confidence of the brief booms that had punctuated the gloom of the preceding decades, but a general euphoria such as had not prevailed since…the early 1870s….In all of western Europe, these years live on in memory as the good old days—the Edwardian era, la belle époque.” Everything seemed right again.
However, there is nothing magical about the sudden restoration of profits, Arrighi explains. What happened is that “as its industrial supremacy waned, its finance triumphed and its services as shipper, trader, insurance broker and intermediary in the world’s system of payments became more indispensable than ever.”
In short: as an empire dies, loses its industrial and manufacturing capacity, finance takes over, pumping up huge bubbles of phony speculative money that gives the brief appearance of economic prosperity—for a time. This is what’s currently happening in the U.S., as it drowns in its self-created agony of debt, misery, corruption, and global destabilization.
One thing to note—if you’ll allow me this not-so-brief aside—is that the entire Western system is based on the actual institutionalized economic sabotage and subversion of the developing world. Books like the following go into some of it:
The rise of the underground economy: The book reveals how the United States’ underground economy evolved parallel to its legitimate economy, exploiting loopholes and leveraging secrecy jurisdictions to facilitate illegal activities such as drug trafficking, arms smuggling, and money laundering.
The “dark” side of globalization: Mills challenges the prevailing narrative of globalization as a force for progress, highlighting how it has facilitated the expansion of illicit networks across borders and allowed criminal enterprises to flourish.
The complicity of financial institutions: The author examines the role played by major financial institutions in enabling money laundering and illicit transactions. He underlines the need for stronger regulations and accountability to prevent banks from becoming facilitators of underground activities.
I challenge you to read notes on the National Memorandum 200, if you haven’t heard of it before:
Incidentally, John Michael Greer just penned a new column (thanks to whoever shouted out this blog in the comments!) about the neologism he coined: Lenocracy, which derives from the Latin “leno” for pimp; i.e. a government run by pimps, or pimpocracy.
His definition of pimps in this case is that of middlemen who are the classic rent-seeking leaches—or rentier class—which extract economic rent without adding any value to the economy—all Michael Hudson territory, for those in the know.
Bear with me, I promise this will all tie together into an overall picture of China.
JMG characterizes the ‘pimps’ as basically all the unelected, bureaucratic, red-tape-weaving, blood-sucking monetary vultures killing growth and livelihoods by each taking their nibbles in turn from the carcass of the working class, exacting some small transactional charge at every step of routine business in Western nations, particularly the U.S. This has served to suffocate the average small business or entrepreneurship in general, not counting the big ticket venture capitalists who are mostly offshoots of global financial and investment firms. This is part and parcel to the lethal ‘financialization’ of the country that has spelled doom for its future.
Now, getting back to Thomas Hon Wing Polin’s precis, and how it relates to this. He notes:
It is noteworthy that the CPC leadership recently launched a major drive to build China into a “financial great power,” with a financial system “based on the real economy.” That would be the antithesis to Anglo-American-style economic financialization.
Read that last part: “…set pure profit-making aside.”
Pay attention to this big kicker:
Beijing is powering ahead with the epic project.
“China’s 461-trillion-yuan (US$63.7 trillion) financial industry and its regulatory regime will be heavily prioritised in a broad economic reshuffle engendered by the country’s top leadership, with the sector remoulded to serve national objectives like sustainable growth and advancement in the global tech race.
Are you beginning to get it yet? If not, here’s the crowning finial:
Specifically, it vowed to rein in Wall Street-style practices seen as unsustainable and crisis-prone, and move toward functionality as an overriding value for the financial system rather than profitability.
It also mandated that Chinese financial institutions have “higher efficiency” than their peers in the capitalist world and provide inclusive, accessible services in the pursuit of common prosperity.
“Like it or not, banks and other institutions on the supply side should expect top-down directives and overhauls cued by the CFC,” said Zhu Tian, a professor with the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS).
And there it is. In essence: China is creating a revolution, striking out a new path of finance which steers away from the wild excesses of the West into a bold new direction. Finance to benefit the real economy, the common man, the people. This is what the fig leaf of Rothschild-pushed ‘stakeholder capitalism’ is meant to be, or better yet: pretends to be.
It’s hard not to wax poetic on these developments, because they are truly groundbreaking. China is paving a new path forward for the entire world. The Chinese banking industry is now by far the largest on earth and President Xi has wisely put his foot down with a bold edict: we will not follow the path of destruction chosen by the West, but rather will set our own new path.
This is an iconoclastic, paradigm-breaking revolution which ends six centuries of Old Nobility world finance dominion, traced from the Spanish-Crown-allied Genoese bankers, to the Dutch then English banking system which now continues to enslave the world, and is referred to by a variety of names in the dissident sphere: from Hydra, to Leviathan, to Cthulu, to simply: the Cabal.
All those 600 years are going up in smoke with China’s repudiation of the ‘old standards’, which privilege predatory, deceptive, extractive terms and practices meant to benefit only the Old Nobility elite class. China’s system is true stakeholder finance: the government will forcibly bend the bankers to its will, making sure that finance serves the common good and the people first, rather than speculation, financialization, capitalization, and all the other wicked inventions of the Western Old Nobility class.
It begins like so:
“…bringing greed is good era to an end.”
The big one:
“Government has called for banks to abandon a Western-style ethos and adopt an outlook in line with broader economic priorities.”
It’s a revolution in the making.
But if you’re thinking my dramatic flights above verge a touch on hyperbole or idealism, you could be right. I, of course, still proceed with caution; we can’t be sure that China will succeed in its grand demolishment of the age-old paradigm. But all signals point to early success thus far, and more importantly, it’s clear that China has a leader that fundamentally understands these things at the most rooted level. Western leaders not only are incapable of even grasping the complexities involved of reining in capital, they are unable to do so for the mere fact that they’re totally bought and paid for by the representatives of that very capital class. The cabal of Capital is so deeply and institutionally entrenched in Western governmental systems that it’s simply impossible to imagine them being able to see ‘the forest for the trees’ from within the forest itself.
By the way, in light of the above, here’s the West’s truly desperate, pathetically envious, face-saving attempt to tarnish and mischaracterize China’s new direction:
The above is particularly astounding in its admissions. Read carefully:
Market-based US and European economies are struggling to survive against China’s “very effective” alternative economic model, a top US trade representative has warned, according to Euractiv.
Katherine Tai told a briefing in Brussels on Thursday that Beijing’s “non-market” policies will cause severe economic and political damage, unless they are tackled through appropriate “countermeasures.” Tai’s remarks came as the EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC) kicked off in Leuven, Belgium.
“I think what we see in terms of the challenge that we have from China is… the ability for our firms to be able to survive in competition with a very effective economic system,” Tai said in response to a question from Euractiv.
In short: China isn’t playing fair—they’re actually privileging their people and economy over financial speculation, and this is causing their firms to outcompete ours!
But what she’s really talking about gets to the essence of the difference in the two systems:
The trade official described China as a system “that we’ve articulated as being not market-based, as being fundamentally nurtured differently, against which a market-based system like ours is going to have trouble competing against and surviving.”
These are code words: what she means by “market based” is free market capitalism, while China uses more of a centrally-planned directive system, as outlined earlier. Recall just recently I posted complaints from Western officials that their companies are not able to compete with Russian defense manufacturers due to their ‘unfairly’ efficient ‘central planning’ style.
Here too, what they mean is that the Chinese government creates directives that spurn ‘market logics’ and are aimed at direct improvements to the lives of ordinary citizens.
In the West there’s no such thing: all market decisions are based merely on the totally detached financial firms’ speculations and are exclusively at the behest of a tiny claque of finance and banking elite at the top of the pyramid.
You see, the U.S. is threatened because it knows it can never compete with China fairly, by squelching or containing its own gluttonous financial elite—so that leaves only one avenue for keeping up: sabotage and war.
This is the real reason the U.S. is desperate to stoke a Chinese invasion of Taiwan by various provocations, including weapons shipments. Just like the U.S. used Ukraine as the battering ram to bleed and weaken Russia economically, disconnecting it from Europe, U.S. hopes to use Taiwan as the Ukraine against China.
It would love to foment a bloody war that would leave China battered and economically set back to give the failing and greed-suffocated U.S. economy some breathing room.
But it’s unlikely to work—China is too sagacious to take the bait and fall for the trap. It will patiently wait things out, allowing the U.S. to drown in its own endless poison and treachery.
No, there will be no Thucydides Trap—it’s already too late for that.
The Trap worked for Sparta because it was still at its peak and able to thwart Athens. The U.S. is in terminal decline and would absolutely lose a war against China, which is why they hope to stage a proxy war instead, cowardly using Taiwan as the battering ram.
But China can read these desperate motives with the clarity of finely glazed porcelain.
Vocal Coach REACTS to DIO- BLACK SABBATH- HEAVEN AND HELL (LIVE)
Wow.
How can I change my life within the next 10 minutes?
For years I waited for a magical life-changing moment to happen, but it never happened.
I expected change, but it never came.
I then turned to people around me. I expected my parents to change my life, but I never changed.
My teachers pushed me for change, but as soon as I left school, I went back to my wrong habits.
“There’s clearly something wrong here,” I thought to myself. I started searching for something or someone to blame for my inability to change my life!
With anger I blamed my school, my family, my country, my culture… I even blamed the very same friends I had chosen to surround myself with.
I spent decades waiting for a quick, magical ten-minute, life-changing moment. It never happened — but eventually I did learn a huge lesson.
You don’t need 10 minutes to change your life, just a few seconds:
Wake up and stop searching for answers!
Wake up and stop blaming people!
Wake up to your reality and face it!
Wake up to understand that NOBODY cares if you change or not!
Only YOU can change your life in ten seconds, ten minutes, ten days, ten years or maybe never!
Stop waiting for external things to change your life.
Change only happens from the inside out!
Until YOU decide to change your life, nothing will ever happen!
Changing your life is a DECISION.
Decisions belong to YOU — nobody else!
What’s a rule your employer implemented that backfired terribly?
Several years ago our supervisor decided one day he wasn’t happy with us leaving work 10mins early and told us we had to work until the very end of our shift.
Our team did 7 am to 3 pm and 2 pm to 11 pm shifts.
Our 7 am start should have been an 8 am to 4 pm shift but we agreed to drop back so there wasn’t a long period of time with too many people in the office after 2 pm.
As the organisation had 24/7 shifts with staff always available, it was common practice to take over the outgoing shift early AND our booking system was programmed to round your booking off to the hour if you booked off at 2:50 pm or 10:50 pm. We pointed this out to our supervisor whose response was “I don’t care what other teams do, this is how you will do it”. We also pointed out the number of early finishes we actually had was far less than the 10, 15, or 20 min late finishes we had – which we could claim as pay at double time, but didn’t because a 10 min early finish was seen as better compensation when we could have it.
He also tells us if we want a drink at the start of the shift we make it before we start work and not after we have started.
On day one of his new rule being implemented, he waited until 3 pm before saying we could go home!.
DAY 2. 6:55 am, morning staff brief, night team had gone home as normal, we waited in the office, the supervisor comes out telling us briefing had started only to be told we didn’t get paid until 7 am so we won’t be joining him until then.
We walked in at 7 am and disrupted everyone.
We finish at 3 pm.
DAY 3, nights had told us the supervisor was waiting in the office and had decided to do his own 7 am brief so we didn’t disturb the other team. We waited until 7 am and then put on our work uniform, then walked in 7:02 am where he tried telling us we were late! Only our response was, that getting our work kit on is part of our paid working day so we were not late but on time working but elsewhere in the building.
We also decided to check our bookings going back to April (we were in Sept) and see how many days we were late off, quite a few, we queried with our payroll dept as to why these were not paid to us as per our contract T&Cs at double time, they said they would get back to us.
We again finished at 3 pm.
DAY 4 we walk in at 7:02 nothing said about being late as the supervisor had decided to hold our briefing at 7:15 instead, he sat down with a smirk on his face that day.
We again finished at 3 pm.
DAY 5.
We walk in at 8:02 am! He was fuming demanding to know why we were all LATE, we pointed out our shift didn’t officially start until 8 am, and starting at 7 am was an agreement we had made in good faith, as there was no good faith from him we would be working to the rule of our job description and employment contract. A few more words were exchanged between us all and then our manager appears and demands to speak to us all.
Our manager had received a call from the payroll dept, they weren’t happy that we had called in our overtime since April that year, the total overtime bill for the entire team was nearly £2000, it would be 3 times as much if we wanted to go back further and they knew we could so he wanted to know what was going on.
I just told him to ask the supervisor who had started it and we would correct him where necessary. After the supervisor explained his rule change and OUR poor conduct in the matter we asked for the supervisor to be removed from the room and gave our version including explaining how taking a 10 min start was more than enough to make up for the late finishes. The manager asked us to leave and then called back the supervisor.
After their meeting the supervisor called us back in, he had reversed his rule change, he saw no issue in what we had been doing previously, and effective immediately the new rule had been scrapped. He also asked if we would go back to starting at 7 am and if we wanted to make a drink after we started that would be fine. As for our overtime, it had to be paid as a result of our query.
So within a week, a new rule came in, went again, and left an organisation with a payroll bill they wouldn’t have had if someone hadn’t stirred things up.
Have you ever had to tell someone in the movie theater to “shut up”?
Yes, with an expletive thrown in. Not proud or bragging, but it happened.
I was with my wife in the second back row watching War for the Planet of the Apes. The cinema was packed, not an empty seat in sight.
Behind us there was a large group, men and women, chatting constantly. They weren’t even trying to be quiet about it. Just blatantly talking and laughing amongst themselves, stretching across each other sharing loud food, looking at their phones—you know, all the annoying shit you’re not meant to do.
We could tell everyone was getting pissed. Many of them kept turning round to give them dirty looks. Eventually a young woman close to me asked them to be quiet. They did not. Another 15 minutes of rudeness, and it was someone else’s turn. A man nearby, without looking at them but loud enough for them to hear, angrily said “shut up!”. Still nothing.
Bear in mind I had waited a long time for this movie to come out, as I’m a big fan of the franchise. It’s a very atmospheric movie which was being destroyed by this asshole.
Half-way through the movie and two attempts from others later, I lost it. I turned round to face him and yelled “will you shut the fuck up!”.
You could tell a mile off that this guy thought he was the business. He also didn’t want to look stupid in front of his friends, so he replied “you shut the–”. I stopped him mid-sentence with a “No. Don’t respond. Just shut up!” He did.
We heard next to nothing from them the rest of the movie. A win for everyone, but unfortunately I was just in a bad mood for the remainder and didn’t enjoy it as I should have.
My question is, why would you go through the effort, time and money of going to the cinema to not actually watch the movie? Especially when you are ruining it for others. Oh, that’s right, because some people are just straight-up dicks.
As a surgeon, have you opened somebody up only to realize that they were beyond saving?
I am not a surgeon, but I have a related story to tell. My uncle was driving his motorhome to his favorite fishing lake, when he got terrible stomach pains. It was so bad that he pulled off the highway and into a small town hospital, they did a cat scan and flew him back to the city.
Where they opened him up, his guts were rotten. Everything had gangrene. They said that he would die within a few days, no matter what they did, they asked his wife what he would want. My aunt said to do everything possible to save him.
They did, I don’t know what all they removed, but it was at least part of the stomach, most of the intestines. I found that out from taking to him later. They said he was septic, and that they couldn’t get him clean inside, and he would die soon. The whole family was called and we stood a death watch. When he passed the four day mark, my cousin asked the doctor what was next. The doctor said he had no clue, because this had never happened before, we were in uncharted territory.
It took three months for him to come home. He had a very specific diet, a catheter and a colostomy bag.
He lived for three more years.
China’s EV export boom fuels surge in demand for new car-carrying ships
BEIJING/SHANGHAI, April 10 (Reuters) – Chinese automakers and shippers are ordering a record number of car-carrying vessels to support a boom in EV exports, data showed, putting China on course to amass the world’s fourth-largest fleet by 2028.
China currently has the world’s eighth-largest fleet with 33 car-carrying ships, showed data from shipping consultancy Veson Nautical. Japan has the world’s largest with 283 ships, followed by Norway’s 102, South Korea’s 72 and Isle of Man’s 61.
But Chinese companies have 47 ships on order, accounting for a quarter of all orders globally. Buyers include SAIC Motor (600104.SS)
Chery Automobile (CHERY.UL) and EV giant BYD (002594.SZ)
as well as shippers such as COSCO (COSCO.UL) and China Merchants on behalf of Chinese automakers.
“After this armada has been delivered to China, the Chinese controlled car carrier fleet will jump from current 2.4% to 8.7%,” Veson analyst Andrea de Luca said. “We expect to see new trade routes established almost exclusively for Chinese OEMs (automakers).”
The jump in orders has mostly benefited Chinese shipyards, which received 82% of orders globally, the data showed.
With price-squeezing competition, cost-conscious consumers and a sluggish economy, automakers have ramped up expansion into markets where their vehicles command higher prices than at home. Last year, China overtook Japan as the biggest auto exporter.
BYD alone exported over 240,000 cars in 2023, about 8% of its global sales, and plans to export up to 400,000 this year.
have also expanded production in China for export to take advantage of the country’s cost-effective supply chain.
Rising shipping costs and local government support have persuaded automakers to buy ships themselves. By the end of 2023, the daily rate to charter a 6,500-vehicle carrier reached $115,000, more than seven times the 2019 average, showed data from shipping consultancy Clarkson.
But the export rise has prompted the U.S. and EU to accuse China of trying to deal with excess industrial capacity by flooding their markets with low-priced products.
The government said the focus on capacity is misguided and that it understates innovation and overstates the role of state support in driving growth.
The risk of excess capacity is also high in shipbuilding, said senior economist Xu Tianchen at the Economist Intelligence Unit, with China the usual target of finger-pointing.
However, “there remain some niches where the market probably hasn’t saturated, such as car cargo ships,” Xu said.
raised overcapacity concerns during a four-day trip to China. Meanwhile, China’s Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao is visiting Europe, where he is likely to discuss a European Commission probe into whether Chinese-made EVs unfairly benefit from subsidies.
Can you name one of the most meaningful stand out “light bulb moments” of your life that stuck with you?
I grew up in a working class family and when I say we were broke, we were broke.
I figured out quite quickly what a dollar was worth when I was very young.
I couldn’t get a quarter out of my father without him pitching a fit.
By the time I was 12 ( 1984) I waa sick of not having anything so I lied abour my age to get my first job to make some money
I worked on a fishing boat for tips that whole summer. By the time I was 15, I had had 3 different jobs. Cutting lawns and dish washing at local restaurants.
A few years later I am 18, its 2am, im leaving my gf house because I have to get up in the morning to go to work.
My car breaks down on the way home and I call my gf to pick me up and drive me home.
I left the car on the road for the night and would deal with it in the morning.
The next day I had to call into work so I could deal with this broken down car.
I had a little bit of money but not much.
I guess I was hoping because I was such a good kid and had been working and bought my own school clothes and whatever else I needed for the last few years that my father would actually help me this time.
Nope…… when I saw him the next morning, he says…aren’t you supposed to be at work?
I say, ya my car broke down on the way home from my gf house last night.
I wanted him so bad to say, oh wow, do you need any help, or anything fatherly. What he said, without moving his eyes from the TV screen was…..so what are you going to do about that?
Those words were enough for my lightbulb to go off thinking, this guy is just not going to help me at all.
For years i resented my father but figured out, he inadvertently taught me how to be independent
That moment as shi**y as I thought that was to do to your kid actually made me so much stronger
Wet Burritos
A wet or smothered burrito is covered with sauce and/or toppings; therefore, it cannot be picked up and eaten.
wet burrito
Ingredients
1 cup sour cream
1 cup cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
1 1/2 pounds ground beef or turkey
1 onion, diced
1 envelope taco seasoning
1 can refried beans
8 flour tortillas
4 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
Lettuce
Tomato
Salsa
Instructions
Brown ground beef and onion.
Meanwhile, mix together sour cream and mushroom soup.
Spread 1/2 cup of soup mixture in the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking pan.
Mix taco seasoning and beans with ground beef or turkey mixture.
Divide meat among 8 tortillas, and add a sprinkle of cheese.
Roll up and place in pan with seam side down.
Cover with remaining sour cream mixture and cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.
Serve with lettuce, tomato and salsa.
Xinjiang
Today is my third and final day in Kashgar, the capital of Uyghur culture in China.
Not one sentence of what I’ve been told about Xinjiang is true.
Xinjiang is not only the last place in the world where you could imagine a genocide happening — it’s also simply heaven on earth. I had no idea life anywhere could be this good. I’ll be very sorry to leave Xinjiang. Toronto is a toilet in comparison.
I’ve never seen an indigenous people who are happier and whose culture flourishes more than the Uyghurs. I will share a ton of photos and videos. Any intelligent person can observe these people and tell that they are not oppressed.
Next I’m going to the city of Korla. The last leg of the tour.
Roasting Men’s Living Spaces
This is hilarious! It will make YOUR DAY!
Inspirational photos
I generated these photos via LeonardoAI.
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Husband OUTSMARTS Wealthy, Cheating Wife By Playing The Long Game With Prenup, Now He’s Cleaning Up!
US Pentagon officials have publicly admitted for the first time that the US cannot keep up with China in terms of new weapons system return on investment (ROI) and rate of deployment.
While the US defense budget is four times larger than China’s, much of the Pentagon money is wasted on pork barrel projects from Congress made for political reasons, and on the huge number of personnel and inventory stationed around the world in order to maintain US global influence. One Pentagon official admitted that there is no chance for the US to catch up with China within the next 20 years because the US military would have to downsized, and defense supply chains would have to be completely remodeled to become efficient.
Defense spending in the US is spread all over the US to create jobs so that defense spending would get support from all 50 states voting in Congress. This has made it very wasteful and inefficient.
In certain areas, Americans blind faith in private enterprise has led to the bankruptcy of strategic suppliers which cannot be replaced. Example: the only maker of steam catapults for aircraft carriers has declared bankruptcy, which means that there will no longer be support for these devices from a private contractor. Without support, the Navy will have to train its own personnel to conduct repairs. This would never have happened in China because key military technologies are developed and maintained by state-owned enterprises, and their top priority is NOT profitability when it comes to key strategic technologies.
Dating Coach Tells Her Clients IT’S OVER The GOOD MEN Are Becoming PASSPORT BROS
A few days ago, I watched a public speech given by Mr. Jin Canrong at a certain university in 2008. He predicted the future pattern of world war and mentioned a very interesting concept – warm war.
Jin Canrong is a doctoral supervisor at the School of International Relations at Renmin University of China and an expert on American issues.
If World War II is a “hot war,” it means that the two major forces faced off in an all-out manner, using all available means to achieve conquest and total surrender as the outcome of the war. Then the Cold War after World War II was the two major groups of the United States and the Soviet Union, using non-war methods to compete comprehensively and compete on the international political stage.
In 2008, Mr. Jin Canrong predicted that the next war in the future would be a “warm war.” It will not be a game between major powers with pure military force like a hot war, nor will it be a competition only at a non-war level like the Cold War.
Instead, major countries use the unstable regions of third parties as a card table and indirectly fight a limited “competitive war” or ” agent war ” through economics, weapons, and technical assistance to determine the new political pattern of the world. This is a bit like what is talked about in some science fiction novels. If two countries have disagreements, they each agree on how many personnel and unmanned war machines they will send, and then demarcate a “battlefield area” where, like a card table, they can be operated remotely Win or lose in games. Just like the situation at the poker table, the two sides have some tacit rules to ensure that each other will not fall out and start an all-out war by any means necessary to get out of control. Nor will we use chemical weapons, nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction that exceed the limits and cause permanent problems to the environment.
Both sides are like Olympic athletes, competing with each other for the latest technical equipment and tactical concepts, and constantly increasing the weight on the card table through military blood transfusions, until one party’s wallet is empty, and the gentleman folds his cards and admits defeat, Get off the table.
No matter whether we win or lose, our roots will not be damaged, and we will not be in danger of destroying our country. At most, we will lose our right to speak in carving up new markets internationally in the next few years. This kind of “warm war” that starts at intervals can also clear weapons inventories, boost the country’s domestic demand, and increase the president’s voice. Therefore, it is even possible for the world to open more than one “card table” at the same time, or every few years, a country with an itchy hand will end and reopen a card table. Some countries that were once economically developed but have fierce internal conflicts and have a relatively large population of young adults will be the location of the “card table”.
Another reason why there is a warm war is the aging of developed countries. As a country’s economy develops, life expectancy increases and fertility rates decrease. At this time, the country began to enter an aging population. In countries with an aging population, the willingness of the people to directly participate in war will be very low, and it will be very difficult to recruit soldiers. Because the parents of young people do not want them to join the army anymore, and the elderly want a stable life and do not expect drastic changes. Therefore, it is difficult for these developed countries to start a war in person like World War I and World War II. Instead, it will use a “warm war” approach to conduct low-intensity limited wars outside the homeland.
It now seems that our world should be going through such a stage. Fortunately, World War III did not start with a full-scale nuclear war as imagined in many novels , but a more restrained and limited local war. Behind the scenes, all major countries actually have interests, and they have also made “bet”-like camp selections and economic and military support. But just like playing cards, there are those who pull out their guns in a hurry and refuse to admit their defeat, This kind of warm war may also gradually escalate into a hot war because too many interests are gradually involved, or even turn into a direct end, and the situation will get out of control.
Author Note
Now the Bio War launched (Covid 19) by the US already failed, the trade war already Failed, the technology war already failed, Indo Pacific already failed replaced with AUKUS, Warm war in Ukraine failed, financial war by increasing interest rate also failed. will the US camp admit defeat or they will increase this into a hot war? no matter what the US camp attitude is dedollarization is coming, new world order is coming.
Sandra Andersen Eira, a former member of an indigenous parliament in Norway, has found herself on Moscow’s wanted list for joining Kiev’s “international legion,” TASS has reported, citing a law enforcement source.
Eira went to Ukraine in March 2022 and first enlisted with an Anglo-American unit. She has since been reassigned to the Ukrainian Marines as a medic.
The arrest warrant was issued this week under Article 359, Section 3 of the Russian Criminal Code, “as part of a criminal investigation into the participation of a mercenary in an armed conflict,” the source told TASS.
The website of the Basmanny Court of Moscow was updated on Tuesday to reflect an outstanding warrant against Eira. The court has ordered her arrested for two months from the moment she is detained or extradited to Russian territory. If convicted, she faces up to 18 years in a penal colony.
Eira was born in 1986 and is a member of the Sami ethnic minority that lives in the far north of Norway. She worked in the fishing industry in the Arctic prior to being elected to the Sami parliament (Sametinget) from the constituency of Avjovarri in 2017. Her term ended in 2021.
The Norwegian national was first identified as being in Ukraine’s service by the Washington Post in April 2022.
In an interview with the Ukrainian publication New Voices in May that year, Eira said her unit was deployed north of Kiev and fought in Irpen and Bucha before being sent south to Nikolaev. She also said she was the only female in the unit and all the Ukrainian soldiers treated her “like a queen.”
In another interview, dated January 2023, Eira revealed that she had fought in Soledar and Artyomovsk (known in Ukraine as Bakhmut) but left before the towns were taken by Russian forces. Being a combat medic was her childhood dream, but she always assumed it was going to be in the Middle East, she said at the time.
“I did not expect a war with Russia, but here we are,” she added.
What are ten truths everyone should accept in life?
You’re loved when you’re born, you will be loved when you die. In between, you’ll have to adjust.
Nothing that you love or loathe or have control over, will last forever. Love, bliss, pain, anxiety, people, nothing!
Nobody cares about what battles you fight everyday. So make sure you fight well for yourself.
People whom you trust, will stab you in the back and ask you why are you bleeding. Of course, exceptions always exist.
You may not be fortunate enough to pursue your dream job but hey, that’s totally okay 🙂
Some people will hate you for no reason at all, no matter how much you do for them. Accept that fact and stop stressing over it as if it’s your fault
Money can buy almost everything including happiness. This is because our happiness has become exceedingly materialistic and there’s no shame in acknowledging this fact.
You will be judged for every single thing. They will always tell you that you could have done things better. This world will never be satisfied.
You can’t be the best. Never ever. So rather focus on being REAL.
The trouble is that you think you have time. Life’s real short honey, things will vanish before you wonder how, go get what you want for all you have is NOW.
What did your boss do or say to you that made you quit your job?
When I was 18 I worked at a fast food place called Hardees. For those not familiar, this is the same chain as Carls Jr. If you’re not familiar with either of those, it’s basically like a McDonalds or Burger King.
My normal days off were Sunday and Monday, but I had asked for Saturday off one week because I had a date. My manager let me off, and when I left work Friday night I waved and said “See you Tuesday!” on my way out the door.
Saturday night I go on my date and everything goes fine. When I get home my roommate tells me my manager called five times wanting to know why I wasn’t at work. The store was closed by that point so I decided I would just go in the next day (Sunday) and remind her that I had the day off.
Sunday afternoon I go to the store and ask to speak to the manager. She immediately starts reading me the riot act about not coming in to work and not calling to let them know I would be there. I let her get it all out of her system, then I pointed to the schedule on the wall right outside of her office and said “I wasn’t here because you told me a week ago I could have yesterday off.”
She looked at the schedule, looked back at me, and the light popped on. “That’s right,” she said, “I remember you saying see you Tuesday when you left Friday night. I’m sorry, it totally slipped my mind.”
I was fairly pissed off, but I decided that it wasn’t worth making a big deal about. I told her not to worry about it, and again said “See you Tuesday” as I left the store.
When I got to the restaurant on Tuesday I was told to go to the manager’s office immediately. When I walked in she started off by saying “Why weren’t you here yesterday?”
I gave her a blank look, then finally responded “Because it’s my day off.”
She responded “No, I changed the schedule Sunday, and since you had Saturday off I needed you to work yesterday. Why weren’t you here?”
I must have been looking at her like she had two heads at this point.
“What time did you change the schedule on Sunday? When I was here at two o’clock we looked at the schedule together, and I was still scheduled to be off yesterday.”
“I changed it around eight o’clock Sunday night.”
“So what you’re saying is that you changed my schedule on my day off, and scheduled me to work the next day, and expected me to somehow know you had done this without telling me about it?”
That’s when she went too far. “I’m your boss, not your mother. It’s your job to keep track of your schedule, I shouldn’t have to do that for you.”
I took off my hat and my apron and replied, “You know what, you don’t actually have to do anything for me. I’m done.” I handed her the hat and apron and walked out the door, didn’t look back.
Beef Brisket Burritos
beef brisket burritos
Ingredients
18 slices beef brisket
1 tablespoon vegetable oil or butter
6 (10 inch) flour tortillas
1 cup Mexican cheese, grated
1/2 onion, sliced
1 jalapeño, deseeded and diced
2 tomatoes, sliced
Cholula sauce
Lettuce, shredded
Instructions
Warm the brisket slices.
Put the oil or butter into a large skillet over medium-low heat. When oil is heated, or when butter is melted, quickly warm the flour tortillas on both sides.
Place slices of brisket down the middle of the tortilla. Top with cheese, onion slices, some jalapeño, some tomato, Cholula sauce, and top with lettuce. Carefully roll the tortilla around the filling, tucking the ends to prevent any of the filling from falling out.
Yeehaww!
China sez no to buying US T-bills
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In short the interest on US debt is $1.2 trillion and rising. Just the interest. Much of that debt is also OLD debt at lower yield and yields are rising fast.
outlook
Now of course somebody will say USD will NOT collapse it will still remain dominant etc.
But here’s the thing, it doesn’t need to collapse.
Western elections for instance. You do not need to convince ALL the voters of your position only the marginals. The 1–2% at the marginals can cause an entirely different party/government to be elected… hence, why political parties always target the marginals.
Small niggles become bigger problems very quickly.
This is a harsh truth
Which company will fall first: Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, or Microsoft?
Anyone of them can fall
I remember in 2010 when people spoke of BlackBerry being a trillion dollar valued company by 2020
It had a market value of $ 50.7 Billion at its peak
It made smartphones and had a Global share of nearly 16%
Then suddenly Apple and Google surged ahead. The Touch Screen ended the Mini QWERTY Keyboard and today BlackBerry survives on IOT patents
That’s the problem with Tech companies
A New Direction in Technology can render then null and void in six months after decades of existence
Hewlett Packard was once valued at around $ 130 Billion at its peak but today it’s around $ 27–28 Billion
That’s because nobody in 2010 expected that your super fast internet could be available on your smartphone that would render a lot of Laptops as vestigial
So let’s see
Google
They have a lot of services. A whole lot of services. Yet are they monetized?
Google makes 80% or more of its Revenue from Advertising
The entire Google infrastructure seems to be entirely oriented towards micro advertising
They have YouTube, Google Search Engine, Chrome to help them build enough customers to generate a huge advertising income
Google has a near monopoly today as far as YT and Chrome and the Search Engine are concerned and thus so far it’s advertising revenue is safe
Chance of a Fall :- Bleak in the next 5 years. Google seems safe. Unless a rival comes up in the next five years at a evolved scale either in searching or browsing or video streaming
Amazon
Amazon has AWS but the near monopoly is absent.
Google, Microsoft, Huawei, Alibaba, Oracle all compete with Amazon AWS
AWS is where the big profits are
The E Commerce generates moolah but not profits
The E Commerce is just the source for Data like Google Search Engine or Chrome
Chance of Fall :- AWS has a low tech threshold and will lose share to Huawei and Alibaba especially in the emerging economies minus India
I see their value falling in 5 years and their market cap.
Unless they step up their technological edge
Meta
Meta is guaranteed to cease to exist unless they manage to get Metaverse rolling
How many people use Facebook anymore?
Instagram helps get a lot of advertising and revenue space but Instagram is slowly being phased out by TikTok and Douyin and Live Streaming apps
Chance of a Fall :- High in the next 5 years. Very high. I doubt Meta in its present version will exist beyond 2034
Apple
Apples bulk revenues come from its products like Iphone and Ipads and other products with Iphone earning almost 70% of Apples revenue
It’s profits come from its services like Icloud etc
It also has Valuable Proprietary software
Plus it’s own Chip architecture
However that also demonstrates Apples weakness
Everything is linked to that one IPhone
If the Iphone and it’s popularity tanks then Apple will have a steep fall
I am sure Iphone will tank in China and in many countries that would sell both Chinese Phones and Apple in the coming years
I don’t see any innovation by Apple and their advantage of a Smartphone with its own Ecosystem will soon be replicated by others
Once EVs become more popular, the next player is one who can integrate his EV Mobile platform to the Smartphone and handle processing for both
Apple ain’t that player
Chance of a fall :- 50% in the next 10 years. I doubt if the company will keep a $ 3 T valuation in a decade. It may fall to maybe $ 375-400 Billion in the next decade
So according to me
Meta > Apple > Amazon > Google
Highest chance of a fall is Meta
Lowest is Google
Again unless the Tech evolution climbs to a whole new level and suddenly Google loses its key market and competitive edge
Male Standards Are Frowned Upon
Michael Roberts
Michael Roberts has an interesting piece on China’s economy today. The disfunctional nature of western capitalism- so celebrated by the Ideologist/Economists- as it disappears up into its own orifice has reached the stage at which it pleads for help from the competition. The truth about the ‘market model’ is that it only works when it has evolved into a series of mutually reinforcing monopolies controlling the state and, through it, society. That’s what the capitalists call ‘freedom’- one chance in a million of becoming a dictator.
“The recent nonsense issued by the US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on China’s ‘overcapacity’ and ‘unfair subsidies’ to its industries is particularly pathetic. As Renaud Bertrand put it: “the so-called threat of China’s industrial overcapacity” is a buzzword that actually means that China is simply too competitive, and by asking it to address this, what Yellen is truly asking of China is akin to a fellow sprinter asking Usain Bolt to run a less fast because he can’t keep up.”
“….(Renaud) Bertrand..: “despite the very low prices for its EVs or solar panels, Chinese companies involved still make a profit (industrial profits are rising at double digit growth), and they DO charge higher prices abroad than at home. The competitiveness of Chinese companies is overwhelming: today, in scores of industries – like solar or EVs – there is simply no way for American or European companies to compete with Chinese ones. This is the real issue: Yellen and Western leaders are afraid that if things keep going, China will simply eat everyone’s lunch.”
“China is the only country in the world that produces all categories of goods classified by the World Customs Organization (WCO). This gives it a key advantage when it comes to end prices: when you want to build something in China you can literally find the entire supply chain for it at home. Bertrand: “China has become an innovation powerhouse. In 2023 it filed roughly as many patents as the rest of the world combined and it’s now estimated to lead 37 out of the 44 critical technologies for the future. All this too has implications when it comes to the final prices of its products.”….
In a large bowl, combine ground beef, bell pepper, garlic, onion, salt, chili powder, eggs, parsley and brown rice. Mix well.
Roll into balls the size of a large walnut. Set aside.
In a large skillet, add tomato sauce, water and chili powder. Bring to a simmer, then add meatballs and continue simmering for 40 to 50 minutes, stirring occasionally.
When done, fill tortillas and serve with your favorite salsa.
You may wish to garnish with lettuce and tomato.
What’s the hardest truth of life?
1. Everyone is a whore. We just sell different parts of ourselves.
2. If it’s free, you’re the product.
3. Comparison is the thief of joy.
4. Nostalgia is a liar.
5. A person is smart, but people are dumb.
6. Marrying the wrong person can destroy you.
7. A pessimist is only a well informed optimist.
8. If people could put rainbows in cages, they would.
9. No one is interested in your suffering until you succeed.
10. Blood means shit. Pick your own family.
11. The world is run by the 1% and most of us are just living in it.
12. Sometimes you are the bad guy.
13. It’s never a stranger who betrays you.
14. In a relationship, love is not enough.
15. Love is not all you need.
16. It’s better not to be bitter knowing the above.
“Zelensky stated that Kiev has become a hostage of the electoral process in the U.S.
And there were no elections in the U.S. before 2024, right? Or is it that the presidential elections that did not take place in Ukraine have been moved to the U.S.?
I understand that Zelensky wants to think that he is the only one, and everything revolves around him, but no. He is just one line in a long list of victims of the ‘American elections,’ or, more precisely, of the American system.
One of those who was firmly convinced that the States was their allies.
In South Vietnam, for example, they understood this back in the 60s.
There was a girl – the first beauty of South Vietnam, Tran Le Xuan, who was popularly called Madame Nhu, as she was married to Ngo Dinh Nhu, the younger brother and chief advisor to the president of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem.
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Ngo Dinh Diem and Ngo Dinh Nhu – leaders of South Vietnam – were supported by the Americans during the war.
Despite the fact that the Vietnamese conflict was going on – an ugly and bloody offspring of the French colonial system – Washington promised Ngo Dinh Diem and Ngo Dinh Nhu all-round assistance.
The Americans actively contributed to the tragic division of the country – the conflict in the former French colonies was profitable for them.
Doesn’t this remind Zelensky of anything?
The U.S. treated the leaders of South Vietnam so tenderly that in 1961, the Vice President of the U.S., Lyndon B. Johnson, arrived in Saigon. Later, as president, he would send hundreds of thousands of Americans to die in Vietnam. At that time, Johnson called Diem the ‘Asian Winston Churchill.’
Similarly, the Americans hyped up an ambitious drug addict from Bankova, crowning him ‘leader of free Ukraine.’
What happened to the ‘allies’ of Washington – Ngo Dinh Diem and Ngo Dinh Nhu – afterward? They were killed.
General Duong Van Minh, considered one of the most loyal military leaders, led a coup on November 1, 1963, during which the top leadership of South Vietnam was arrested and executed by order of the putschists.
Only by chance did Ngo Dinh Nhu’s wife, Tran Le Xuan, not suffer, as she was abroad. It was then that ‘Madame Nhu’ uttered the sacramental phrase:
‘Whoever has the Americans as allies does not need enemies.’
And this phrase turned out to be prophetic.
In 1975, it turned out that the Americans knew about the impending coup. They could have warned their allies, saved the president of South Vietnam and his team, but, just as the French did not prevent the genocide in Rwanda, so the Americans ‘found it inappropriate’ to stop the military putsch.
There is a version that the degree of American involvement was even greater – they inspired the coup, removing the president through the hands of the military.”
Excerpt from the message posted by Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on her Telegram channel, April 7, 2024.
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease bottom only of 13 x 9 inch baking pan.
Stir brownie mix, chocolate syrup, water, oil and eggs in medium bowl until well blended. Spread in pan.
Bake for 28 to 30 minutes.
Cool completely before frosting.
Mix cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar and preserves; spread over brownies.
Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Melt chocolate and butter over low heat, stirring frequently; drizzle over brownies.
Refrigerate for about 1 hour.
What actually happens if a customer in a restaurant refuses to pay for his meal (ex: he didn’t read the prices)?
“Stop that woman!”
As a bartender on a resort island throughout my twenties, I’ve had my fair share of hit and runs. At a certain point you start to get a clear vibe from certain mischievous vacationers always trying to run away with a little bit more.
This particular day, I could see it coming. Beautiful weather, friendly customers in a socially inviting environment. Perfect time to strike!
It was happy hour and I didn’t feel it necessary to take credit cards to keep tabs open. This one lady kept blasting about how she knows the owner and has been coming there for blah blah years.
Dead giveaway that you suck.
The vile woman’s happy hour tab soared past the others and her confidence grew with each sip.
“Would you like another one Natalie?”
Surprised that I remembered her name, she smiled and asked if I had an ash tray. I gave her one and told her where she was allowed to smoke… all along she stared at her phone, not caring about my directions.
“I’ll be right back.” She lied.
That’s when the happy hour soured.
This wasn’t my first rodeo and I knew I would feel terrible if I had misjudged this person but i immediately walked from behind the bar into the kitchen and out the back door. I slowly walked down the stairs out, around the corner and out front to the parking lot; just in time to step in front of her car as she was making her getaway!
I stuck my hand out, pretended I was on the phone with police and received pay in full plus a rather large tip from this terrified lady who totally ‘just forgot’ to pay her tab.
I’m a bartender and All we have is our dignity!
Not today Natalie.
Black Man Apologizes For HATING On Passport Bros
What’s the most savage way you’ve seen someone get fired?
Oh man do I have a story for you. I didn’t see it, but I heard it from multiple people, including the man himself.
Once upon a time, I was a recruiter in the barcode and data collection industry. Honeywell was a company we recruited out of all of the time. Out of nowhere we heard that Honeywell was losing employees like crazy. I’m talking sailors jumping off a sinking ship. They weren’t being laid off, they were leaving the company in droves.
Apparently, there was a man, let’s call him Mr. Wilson, who was a salesman for Honeywell. Mr. Wilson had a customer come up to him and say, “hey, I have a couple of warehouses. I need barcode scanners and printers for inventory. Give me all you got.” It was a little known company at the time called Amazon. Mr. Wilson delivered the goods, and the next year Amazon began to grow. More warehouses, more inventory, don’t worry, we got a guy at Honeywell who is our sales rep and he treats us wonderfully! We’ll give him a call and he can help get the warehouses setup.
Fast forward a few years, Mr. Wilson is doing SO well selling to this customer, Honeywell rewards him by making him the sole man over the Amazon account at Honeywell. The orders for Honeywell products are so large at this point that it’s over a billion dollars a year. Mr. Wilson can’t do that himself so he’s given a staff of 200 plus employees just to satisfy Amazon’s needs for Honeywell scanners.
Fast forward to 2022. Honeywell has a new president. This president thinks he knows everything, and likes to feel important. So he starts butting into Mr. Wilson’s dealings with Amazon; negotiating things, talking to the reps at Amazon, over promising and under delivering to Amazon with unrealistic deadlines for Honeywell products to be delivered, etc. Mr. Wilson boldly told the president of the company, and the VP and new CEO more than once, that he was rewarded this account, and he knows what he’s doing, and that them over promising and under delivering was going to kill their relationship with Amazon. And he alone has the rapport with Amazon, and the president is ruining the credibility of Honeywell by lying to their client about how much they can sell and deliver to Amazon. You can imagine how well that went. They told him to go piss up a rope. He’s an employee, they are the big shots, and they can do whatever the hell they want and if he don’t like it he can go work somewhere else.
Fast forward a little further. The president over promised and under delivered again. They couldn’t get the thousands of scanners in the deadline the president promised, which he had no business doing anyway as Mr. Wilson had his boots on the ground and had it covered. Honeywell screwed Amazon. So Amazon switched to another company for their inventory needs and dropped Honeywell like a brick. Did the president take responsibility? Nope.
Fast forward a couple weeks later. Honeywell is having a big corporate party to award their top performers. Wine and food, giving out Rolex watches and other expensive gifts for exceeding sales goals, the works. The President of Honeywell gets up and gives a speech recognizing Mr. Wilson’s accomplishments over 15 years of service at Honeywell. He brags on him for his hard work and dedication, and gives him his award for millions of dollars in Honeywell equipment sold that year. The place applauds. Mr. Wilson is a well known overachiever in the company and is loved by many there. He accepts his award at the podium.
Then, in front of EVERYONE, the President says, “oh, and one more thing Mr. Wilson. For losing the Amazon account, you’re fired.” In. Front. Of. Everyone. The place is STUNNED. Mr. Wilson is then escorted from the premises by security in front of God and everyone attending. His staff was liquidated as well. All 200 some employees in one swoop. All at a celebration for salespeople who did their job above and beyond.
This humiliating, cold hearted, vengeful, extremely heavy handed authority and show of massive ego set off a big chain reaction. People that were there realized then that the company was in trouble with their leadership and that the time had come to look for another job. And I mean now. Folks who were there began the job search in private the next day. The news of what happened spread like a prairie fire, and soon others began putting their resumes on LinkedIn. It became industry known and Honeywell took a serious hit to their reputation. We helped lots of employees find work elsewhere after that little fiasco.
I eventually heard this story so much from employees, one suggested that I get ahold of Mr. Wilson myself whom this fella was a friend of. He was out of work, he’d be the one needing a job more than anyone. So he gave me Mr. Wilson’s number and I gave him a call. Lo and behold it was 100% true. He saved most of his money from his career and was sitting on several million dollars through selling to Amazon so he wasn’t hurting financially. He was effectively retired at age 52. But he was so disheartened and bitter about how he was treated he was over the thought of ever working again as a salesman. However he did send me his resume and told me if I ever came across an exciting project that needed a leader to give him a call.
I never was able to find that exciting project for Mr. Wilson but I kept his resume on my windowsill by my desk until I left that job, mainly as a reminder that no matter how good of an employee you are or how much money you make, a bad boss can ruin everything. And that’s exactly why I left my short lived job as a recruiter and became self-employed again.
Why Black Men Are DONE Being DISRESPECTED By Black Women
What is the wittiest reply to a credit card promotional email sent by a bank?
In 2008, a Russian man named Dmitry Agarkov recieved a credit card promotional email from Tinkoff Bank. At first glance, it offered an interest rate of 13% and the credit limit was good too. So, Dmitry decided to look over the enclosed contract to see if it was really worth it.
Dmitry was going though the document when he was quite shocked to find that at the bottom of one of the page there was a fine print which read that the actual interest rate was 45% instead of 13%.
Most of us would have been a little annoyed for wasting our time, but Dmitry decided to play an elaborate prank…
Dmitry took the contract that the bank had enclosed and uploaded it into his computer. He then took the 45% interest rate and dropped it to 0, removed the credit limit, and added that the customer “is not obliged to pay any fees and charges imposed by bank tariffs.”
To top it all off, he added terms that said each time the bank tried to change one of the terms of the contract, they would be obligated to pay $90,000 and if they tried to cancel it, they’d have to pay $180,000. Dmitry printed out the contract, signed it, and sent it off to the bank.
He never expected to hear back from the bank, after all it was a joke. But to Dmitry’s surprise he recieved the credit card along with the signed contract from the bank.
He somehow became the owner of world’s best credit card.
Over the next 2 years, Dmitry put the card to use. He didn’t buy expensive cars or trips around the world, though he would have been well within his rights to do so. He just used it as an average person would do with a normal credit card.
Tinkoff bank tried to terminate Dmitry’s credit card after he’d been late making the minimum required payment. The bank sued him for $1300 in unpaid fees and credit card debt (This was just an excuse made by the bank)
As the proceeding began in the court, the bank argued that they did not read the document sent by Dmitry. But Ironically, the judge ruled that since both the parties had signed the contract, it was valid legally. That’s how Dmitry won the case.
Dmitry didn’t stop at this victory , he made a clever use of the clauses in this contract and counter-sued the bank with $720000 (8x $90000 ) for making changes in the original contract.
Since the court had already ruled that the contract was valid , the bank was forced to approach him with a settlement offer (thousands of dollars) that Dmitry accepted and the bank also provided him with a credit card that gave him upto 30% cash back in some purchases.
Hunter Hunted.
What were the Four Great Ancient Capitals of ancient China?
China had a lot of capitals over the years, both great and otherwise. Four is a pretty arbitrary number. Here are ten:
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Four great capitals
The capitals Beijing, Nanjing, Luoyang, and Xi’an (Chang’an) have been designated “great.”
Aside from a few brief periods, Beijing has been China’s capital since the Yuan dynasty of 1271–1368. Marco Polo called it Cambuluc.
Nanjing was a capital of the Six Dynasties from 220 to 589. It was the capital of Nationalist China from 1927 to 1949.
Luoyang was the capital of the Eastern Zhou from 510 BC to 314 BC and the Eastern Han from AD 25 to 190.
Xi’an was a terminus of the silk road. (The other terminus is Byzantium.) It was capital during the Western Zhou (1046-771 BC), Qin (221–206 BC), Western Han (206 BC-AD 9), and Tang dynasties (618-684, 705-904).
Three near-great capitals
There were several other capitals that I would consider to be at least near great. Anyang (Yin) was a capital from 1250 to 1046 BC during the Shang dynasty.
Kaifeng was capital during the Song in 960–1127. This capital was known for magnificent art. Here is an example:
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Erlitou is a Bronze Age site in Henan. Perhaps it was a capital in pre-historic times. The city flourished from 1900 to 1500 BC.
What is the best random conversation you overheard?
Pretty sure I shared this story before but it still makes me giggle:
Many years ago I was working as a security guard at an indoor market in the city I live in and was doing my rounds, just wandering between the various stalls. Walking towards me were a pair of middle age, middle class English Mums. And I mean proper, tweed skirt wearing, hair done to go to the shops, practical hand bag carrying, mums.
As I walked past them I heard the one in the wax jacket say to her friend
“and then he put it in my bum, and that was brilliant”
I was fucking done, I ended up on the floor of an empty stall crying with laughter.
What is the worst mistake that a girl can commit in her life?
I was travelling in SETC Bus from Trichy to Chennai to catch early morning flight. I boarded the bus around 9.30 PM and went for sleep as was badly tired, seats are almost same as shown in below pic.
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I was half sleep and found someone’s toe was touching my lower back through small gap in seat. I avoided and remained sleeping, it happened multiple times and I thought once bus will stop somewhere in middle I would tell the person to sit properly.
To my surprise now entire leg was almost pushing me and at this point I lost my patience and ready to confront the guy and stood from seat and looked back.
It was a teen girl with small bag in her lap, she looked B.Tech first year student who took her lectures and leaving for her home in long weekend. She was in deep sleep and tossing in the seat, trying to stretch herself. My anger turned in to compassion. I again slept keeping some space for her leg on my seat.
It suddenly reminded me that something similar has happend in a flight where a middle aged man returning from a funeral with his family, he was extremly tired and immediately fell into sleep even told attendant not to wake him up even for food. A famous teen aged actress blamed him for molestation as the man’s leg touched her. She made a video and posted on Instagram. Within some hours the poor man was on every news channel with stamp of molestor. Police arrested him in no time, his family voice was unheard.
Later many co-passenger came forward and told that The man didn’t misbehave. But other side of the story was nowhere in the news.
This is the worst kind of mistake a girl can make. It can spoil someone’s family, life and can bring life long scar.
What is your take on why so many men don’t date?
I can’t speak for other men but I’d be surprised if some of my reasons don’t resonate with other single men. My marriage ended 8.5 years ago and I haven’t dated for the last 8.
The one date I had in that 1st six months was arranged via Tinder and the whole experience felt unnatural to me and was with a woman I would never have asked out if I’d met her first. I took her to lunch at a good restaurant and it became obvious very quickly that she was looking for a man to finance a lifestyle that she simply couldn’t support on her own income. I left the date feeling duped and it put me off dating apps.
Since then my life has become such that I simply don’t get the opportunity to get to know any women. I drive a lorry at night and my only social life is meeting my kids or an occasional beer with my old mates and neither is conducive to meeting someone new. Beyond that I spend a lot of time at the gym and social media has taught me that approaching a woman there would make me a creep.
So there is little opportunity.
Then there is the other, more invidious impact of social media. I use this site and Instagram and am fed a constant stream of women criticising how men think, what we do and how we act and frankly I had enough of that towards the end of my marriage. It seems that many women simply don’t like men beyond our sexual and financial use and I’m not prepared to risk my peaceful life in the hope that I find someone who will see me as more than that.
In other words, I have little motivation.
Finally there is my psyche. I’m attracted to emotional intelligence, strong morals and character and I assume, rightly or wrongly, that the majority of women like that will either be already taken or single by choice and I’m not prepared to kiss lots of frogs to find my princess.
Unless a remarkable women falls out of the sky I will be single for whatever time I have left and I’m perfectly comfortable with that thought.
I have been using ChatGPT to locate old science fiction stories. You know, those short stories that I used to have in my anthology collections. So I went and asked it…
glack glan
And here’s a few more…
gun without a banginside straight
I will find the stories on the internet and transpose them into HTML or PDF and place them in my SF section for you all to enjoy.
Today…
What is the sleaziest, dirtiest trick an auto insurance company tried to pull on you? Did they succeed?
My son had just passed his driving test (aged 17) and we were thinking of getting him a new car, as we had points we could use because of our credit card, which basically meant we would get about £2,500 off. But I knew insurance cover would be costly at his age, so I rang my insurance company to get a quote before we got the car, explaining we hadn’t got it yet. The quote was good at about £900 so we went ahead and purchased the car. The process took a few weeks. When I rang to actually take out the insurance I was told the cost would be around £1,800, about double what I’d been told before. I explained about the previous estimate, but the woman was very rude, saying that was impossible and implying I was lying. I was getting very angry but the problem was, when I get angry I become tearful – it’s very frustrating as it makes me look pathetic! But then my 17 year old son steps in, takes the phone and calmly told the woman he was giving her an hour to check the phone recording from my previous conversation, and then expected her to phone back. In the meantime we looked online and found an even better price for his insurance. She did ring back, very apologetic and explained the previous assistant had left under a cloud and that the information he had given was incorrect. She could offer a price of about £1,200. I declined and told her I’d also be moving my own insurance to another company. My son had been working for a customer complaints department and knew exactly what to say to get things done. He’s very persuasive but never shouts. He once was about to be fired for taking a day off sick and then going clubbing – he was spotted at the club by someone. He told the guy about to fire him that the reason he skived off was that he was bored and if they gave him more responsibilities he wouldn’t have felt the need to abscond. They ended up promoting him! Just the sort of person you need in such situations.
In what areas are Chinese education better or superior to American education? If none, how did China get knowledge to outrun the west in scientific and technological manufacturing?
The US once had a superb education system
It was based on self learning rather than rote feeding by the teacher and the system
I so much admired the US system especially when I saw how they prepared for SATS on their own through Study Groups
They had so many Projects and so many Assignments and a lot of Homework that helped students learn on their own and thus understand the fundamentals so well
Then they ruined it all
By Busing
Busing is when they force a bunch of poor kids, mainly black kids or also hispanic to join the school
They force some good teachers out and force a bunch of mediocre teachers (mostly black or hispanic now also gay or transgender)
The result
The Standards come crashing
Schools start dealing in Meth and Ecstacy and you have Gangs now with small Switchblades
Math standards have come down badly
Not to mention, the blatant APPEASEMENT to the black community in many places :-
Slavery covers a huge chunk of history with many apologies
Math standards have crashed
English standards have crashed
12 Chapters once covered in Normal Physics is now covered only by AP Physics (Advanced Physics)
Chinas Education was originally entirely based on Rote Preparation like India’s with very little self learning
A Lot of predatory Tution Centres cropped up and destroyed Self preparation even more
Luckily Xi Jingping has obliterated the Private Tutorial Industry and has set steps to enhance self learning
So China is moving towards a US like self learning system with lesser reliance on Tutions
However their emphasis on Exams and their Exam oriented preparation is a problem that needs to be relaxed and changed to a Comprehension oriented approach
India has the same challenge
Let’s hope China deals with this as fast as possible and India follows suit
Bottom line is like in everything US Education Standards are declining by the day
Chinese Standards while not up to top scratch are improving by the day
Situational awareness
What is the worst thing a woman can do to a man?
Warning! Maybe disturbing to read, contains some details of a horrible tragedy.
This is a very extreme case. Fortunately, it doesn’t happen frequently.
One of my uncle, my mom’s cousin, was married to a very beautiful and immature woman.
She had the temper and tantrums of a 10-year old girl. She never grew up.
She would ask or rather demand my uncle for expensive clothes, cosmetics or jewellery quite frequently.
She would not take no for an answer, if he expressed his inability to buy whatever she had asked for she would say that she will leave him right then.
Uncle would take loans to buy gifts for her.
Her tantrums got worse and she would stop eating for days, bang her head on the wall or pretend to slit her wrist in order to get what she wanted.
One night, they were packing to leave for a wedding in another city the next day when she placed a demand for an expensive diamond necklace and refused to listen to anything that my uncle had to say. She wanted a diamonds necklace with an emerald pendant to wear with her green saree at the wedding.
This time my uncle got furious and left her in their bedroom to get some fresh air outside.
He was walking in their yard when he saw smoke coming out of the bedroom window.
He rushed inside to see his wife on flames. He rushed towards the bathroom to get a bucket of water but his wife grabbed him and hugged him tightly from behind. She made sure he burns with her.
What she did next gives everyone in the family shivers to this day. She placed her burning hand on his genitals and said “This, so that you will never be able to marry again in case you survive”.
The worst part is their two daughters who were around 6 and 9 years old, saw all of of this. They rushed to call neighbors.
My uncle suffered 60 percent burns on his body and was in the hospital for almost an year. His wife died before making it to the hospital.
She died what must have been an extremely painful death for a piece of jewelry.
She made sure her husband either dies with her or remains bedridden for the rest of his life.
She scarred her daughters’ little hearts for life.
All for her whims and fancies.
What was the biggest risk that Bill Gates took when starting out?
, a businesswoman and the first woman on the First Interstate Bank of Washington’s board of directors. She was the daughter of J. W. Maxwell, the president of the national bank.
His family was just about as privileged as it’s possible to be.
He had a multi-million dollar trust-fund to fall back on, long before starting any of his companies. It’s true that he had phenomenal success and that a huge fraction of the money he has was earned by his companies, not inherited.
But risk?
Bill Gates has never faced the slightest personal risk. It’s risk-free to drop out of Harvard and start your own software-company when you’ve got millions of dollars of cushioning to fall back on if the company goes belly-up. In his own words: “… if things [at Microsoft] hadn’t worked out, I could always go back to school. I was officially on [a] leave [of absence].”
Yes he could. If school also didn’t work out, if finding a job also didn’t work out, he’d still have the trust-fund and a more comfortable life than most of us could ever dream to have.
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 13 x 9 inch pan.
In large bowl, combine brownie mix and butter; mix at low speed for 45 to 60 seconds or until crumbly. Reserve 1 cup of the mixture in small bowl for topping.
Add milk and eggs to remaining brownie mixture; mix until smooth.
Spread batter evenly in greased pan.
In food processor bowl with metal blade or in medium bowl, combine cream cheese, Marshmallow Creme and coffee powder; process until smooth.
Spread evenly over brownie mixture.
Add walnuts to reserved 1 cup brownie mixture; mix well.
Sprinkle evenly over cream cheese mixture.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 to 45 minutes or until edges are firm to the touch.
Cool for 1 1/2 hours or until completely cooled.
Cut into bars.
Store in refrigerator.
Notes
High Altitude Instructions (Above 3500 Feet): Add 1/2 cup flour to dry brownie mix. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 to 50 minutes.
Woke girl is Broke
How do I become the guy that everyone notices in the room?
Always dress neat, clean and simple.
Sit/stand straight and hold your chin up.
Sit/stand in a central position in the room.
Make sure you don’t look lost or bored, be energetic and keep your hands busy with something (a glass of drink, a cigar, lighter, etc…)
Don’t be shy; observe your surroundings.
Listen more than you speak, this way when you start talking everyone would immediately pay attention.
Speak thoughtfully and clearly, mind your tone, and back your opinions with strong evidence and statistics.
Be a good story teller, but keep them short and end with a punch line.
Be quick with jokes, sarcasm and one-liners and keep a straight face while delivering them.
Don’t easily get excited/frustrated during conversations.
Be polite and well mannered.
Don’t be afraid to express yourself.
Look them in the eye.
Don’t be ultra agreeable, learn to say “no” whenever you need to, this way people will find you more intimidating.
This is why
Is the Chinese Sinovac vaccine fake?
It’s been used all over the world and seems to legitimately prevent serious cases of COVID-19. If it can do that, then it is certainly not fake.
Sinovac used a tried-and-true “inactivated virus” methodology (using fragments of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that cannot make someone sick by themselves) to develop their vaccine, and it doesn’t seems to be quite as effective as some of the Western vaccines, but it does prevent deadly cases of COVID-19. Plus, it’s easier to store and transport, which makes it an option in parts of the world where the state-of-the-art Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines cannot be logistically rolled out. My wife and I got Moderna and we are grateful to have done so. But that’s not an option in developing countries because of the storage requirements of the mRNA vaccines. The Chinese vaccine can be stored in ordinary refrigerators and has a shelf life of up to three years. The mRNA vaccines have to be kept much colder and don’t last as long.
There is nothing wrong with using a proven technology as opposed to a cutting-edge one that had never been done before. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, developed by Janssen in the Netherlands, also uses an older, proven technology—the same one used by the Russian Sputnik-V and the European Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines, in fact. All three of them took an adenovirus that is harmless to humans and appended the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to it. The body recognizes the spike protein and if later infected by actual SARS-CoV-2, it will already know how to attack it.
We’re trying to stop people from dying and also trying to stop the spread of this virus so it will quit mutating. Passing out disinformation about vaccines from countries we have political differences with is not helpful. Sinovac saves lives. Sputnik-V saves lives. In the West, we may prefer other options, but the efforts of biotech scientists to create these vaccines should not be denigrated or lied on, no matter where they are from.
American Men no longer have a life worth living.
What was the most memorable case of “instant karma” you saw when an impatient driver was laying on the horn?
I was a high school teacher, and I was driving back to school after supper to get some work done. Not unusual–most teachers have to do extra work at night. You can get a lot of stuff done in your classroom when nobody else is around.
On my route to school, there was this little Baptist church where cops commonly parked to catch speeders. They were there that night, but I wasn’t speeding.
I eventually finished my work and headed for home. As I exited the school parking lot, some kids rounded the corner behind me going about 60 mph. They were angry I was in their way. They honked, yelled, and tailgated me for a couple blocks. I maintained my speed of 3 or 4 mph over the limit (35), then as I approached the church, I pulled carefully into a left turn lane to let them pass. They hung their heads out the window, yelled obscenities, displayed their middle fingers, and threw an empty bottle as they flew around me. The bottle missed, thankfully.
As they passed the church, here came the cops. Those flashing red and blue lights sure were pretty that night behind the kid’s car. I couldn’t resist honking as I drove by.
Democrats are waking up!
Have you ever said something to a car salesman that left him speechless?
“We’re here to buy a car, not a financing plan.”
A few years ago when we were looking for a car for my wife we had this salesman who simply wouldn’t listen when we told him our price range and said we’d be paying cash. He kept pushing finance plans. I understand they get a bonus…a kickback, really…for selling such plans, but we were upfront about not wanting one. We’re pretty careful with money, never having had much of it, and we don’t want payments.
The car was for my wife, so I was staying mostly quiet, but this guy just wouldn’t let up. I could tell my wife was getting a tad exasperated. So I was sitting there in the backseat and we’re on a test drive and my wife asked something about the car and this guy saw it as an opportunity to sell us something that we’d only have to make small payments on, seeing how our down payment would be large. It was about the tenth time he’d tried to sell us financing.
That’s when I said, “We’re here to buy a car, not a financing plan.” My wife downshifted from fourth to second and pulled a fast u-turn and drove back to the dealership. I was actually kind of surprised she didn’t use the park brake to turn around…she was steaming. She parked beside our car, my wife gave him back his card, and we left.
The salesman never said a word from the time I spoke until the time we left.
How did ancient Chinese Emperors govern China given the poor communication technology and China’s huge land mass and population?
How did ancient Chinese Emperors govern China given the poor communication technology and China’s huge land mass and population?
To make matters worse, the Emperor is always living inside his palace and cut out from the people with lots of tempting distractions such as the hundreds of concubines to have fun with. How does he govern such a huge country?
First of all, ancient China had pretty good communication technology. One of the best at that time. A 3,000-year-old system, built since the Zhou dynasty, where the Chinese built a “postal office” (驛站) every 50 – 200 km along any road, and the “post-master” maintained guest houses, a team of couriers, and a stable of horses. Official letter were carried by couriers from the originator to the next “postal office”, got a change of courier and horse and went on to the next “postal office”. Express mails could get from the furthest end of China to Beijing in 5 days. Confucius once commented that “one’s reputation spreads faster than the mail (德之流行，速于置邮而传命)”, so you see, official mail system was definitely a fixture of life even in his time (~ 500 BC). In fact, the founding father of the Han Dynasty in 206 BC, Emperor Gaozu of Han, was such a post-master before he rebelled and won the civil war.
By Tang dynasty in ~ 600 AD, there were over 1600 postal offices, and the Chinese government employed over 20,000 people to deliver mails, with the “normal”, “priority”, and “express” mail classifications, and each mail had to be signed off on time and signature of the courier, with a whole set of laws to punish those who missed delivery or tempered with the content. By Yuan Dynasty ~ 1200 AD, the government employed over 300,000 horses for mail delivery. Here is well-preserved “postal office” from ancient China.
Secondly, emperors who didn’t go out of the Forbidden Palace usually occurred when the dynasty was kinda dying. In the early part of the dynasty, usually the emperor had to run around and do some real work. For example, all of Kangxi Emperor
’s sons had to wake up at 4 am everyday, and start school at 5 am. When they reached adulthood, they apprenticed at various government departments. Like son #1 and # 14 served in the department of defense, and both went out to the border to fight. Son #3 served in the department of education, son #8 served in the department of treasury, son #4, the one who was eventually selected as the next emperor, served in the department of engineering, worked on the flood control of the Yellow River, and did his rotation in the department of defense, of education and of agriculture.
Thirdly, like others have said, the emperor was just one person. Most of the times just one very ordinary person, and so of course he/she couldn’t run China. Ancient China was mostly run by the Cabinet and the bureaucracy manned by the scholar-officials, and the most important job of the emperor, was to keep the Cabinet members from politically killing each other, figuratively-speaking. On the other hand, if the emperor had some weird ideas that were opposed by the entire Cabinet, the Cabinet had the right to return the emperor’s orders un-opened, meaning that, well, the emperor’s orders actually couldn’t go out of his bedroom unless the Cabinet agreed. That’s why there were a number of emperors in China’s history who had to resort to writing secret code to their in-laws or followers, with something like “Help! I’m kinda arrested by my ministers!” Well, that sucked for everyone. Incompetent emperors should at least have the good sense to stay aloof and follow the advice of the Cabinet. If the emperor didn’t want to end up like your lovely goldfish in the pot, he had to run around do some real work and build up his own followers and credentials BEFORE he became emperor. You see, the Cabinet members usually started their careers as one of the top-three scholars in the national exams, served 30 or 40 years in various government posts, and gained enough political clout to be elected into the Cabinet by their fellow bureaucrats. Their aggregate IQ would be many times that of the emperor. However, the emperor had one advantage over his Cabinet members, which was that he represented the WHOLE COUNTRY. He existed to remind his Cabinet members that they should never run the country for their own selfish interest. They must compromise with each other for the common good. That’s why the Cabinet didn’t really want to get rid of the emperor, ’cause without him, one of the Cabinet members would surely try to kill off the rest in order to become an emperor himself.
The Cabinet in ancient China was usually composed of the following officials: the heads of the department of personnel, treasury, rites (combination of education minister and foreign minister), engineering, military, and justice. This structure was basically cloned at provincial level and then further at city level, gradually shrunk to one person who was responsible for everything at the lowest village-level. Nine levels of bureaucracy separate the lowest to the highest, and most officials spent their entire life to climb this ladder. These officials, which were staffed by those who passed the imperial examinations, were constrained by three layers of monitoring:
The officials were not allowed to work within 500 miles of their hometown. This was done to reduce the official’s opportunity for corruption by doing things that benefit their own families and clans. Basically an anti-nepotism measure. Also, officials who were connected could not work in the same place or in the same department. This is still done in China today.
The officials had a interim review once every 3 years, and a thorough review once every 6 years, after the review, the officials would get a new post to some place else. The official was evaluated on his KPI (key performance index), and if his KPI was good, he would get a good evaluation and maybe a good or more important posting, or even a promotion. If his KPI was bad, he would get a demotion to a worse posting. So you see, the one who really runs China, since time immemorial, is the KPI. The review was done by a team composed of the department of personnel and the incoming official to replace you, so obviously the new guy had every incentive to get a thorough understanding of what was going on, ’cause if he didn’t, and the game blew up in his face later, then it would be his fault. This system is still done in China today, except now the officials get an annual review, and get a new posting once every 5 years. The transfer of power/posting once every 5 years is still a very big deal, with the CCP acting as the old personnel department, and now the officials have to write a personal review/report once a month to the Party, instead of once a year.
There was a Department of Rules, whose sole job was to make sure the moral characters of BOTH the emperor and the bureaucracy were sound. Officials from this department fanned out across the country to observe officials while they were discharging their duty. They had the right to be sitting next to the official in everything to observe. If they found out that you were not respectful to your wife, your cousin three-times-removed committed crimes and you tried to cover it up, or you submitted fake report to the Court, they would indict you to the Court, and you would be called in to answer the charges. One of the favorite pastime for the Depart of Rules was to indict the emperor for various offences – not treating government reports which criticized the emperor with respect, not treating the emperor’s mother or teachers with respect, not treating all his wives evenhandedly, earthquakes or floods for no reason but must be the emperor’s fault, … – the point was to constantly remind the emperor that he had to follow rules like everybody else. Then the emperor had to write Public Apology to the People, which would be posted to every town in the country and be read out aloud by the local officials. This is still done in China today, by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection
. Any citizen can write to it reporting official misconduct, and they are obligated to investigate and discipline party officials. You can basically write to them if you just walk by some official and see him wearing an expensive watch.
So you see, lack of email wasn’t a problem for China. Lack of science and technology, corruption, and inter-party fights that elevated private interest above the national interest, on the other hand, had doomed a number of dynasties in Ancient China.
What is the best thing you saw someone do when they got fired from their job?
I worked for a law firm in Los Angeles many years ago. One of the legal secretaries in the Corporate Department was a gem: extremely competent, quiet, with enough knowledge and experience to know what permits, licenses and other paperwork needed to be filed for each deal. Like some legal secretaries, she knew as much about corporate deals as the attorneys she worked for.
For some reason, she was terminated. (It was a very political firm, and my guess is that she was let go by someone running a power play against her boss.)
Without her, her attorneys were helpless. What paperwork had been filed with the licensing boards? Had the necessary notices been placed in the newspaper? What was the status of this, that, and the other?
She had left her desk and files in order. There was no funny business. But only after she left did they realize how much she did to ensure that their multi-million-dollar deals went through smoothly, and how much they depended on her.
So of course they called her at home. HR, the partner she worked for, the associate she worked for, the attorney heading the Corporate Department, the firm’s Managing Partner… all with questions to find out the details they needed to know to finish the deals that had been in progress when they asked her to collect her personal effects and leave immediately.
To each person who called, she politely said:
“My professional relationship with your firm was severed at your option. I have nothing more to say to you. Good-bye.”
They were outraged — OUTRAGED — that she wouldn’t help them, but there was nothing they could do. Every time an attorney would grumble to support staff about the situation, we waited until he left the room and gave each other silent thumbs up.
She became a legend.
The truth about growing up for young men
What do you think of Janet Yellen’s “difficult conversations” about Ukraine during her visit to China?
Janet Yellen represents the interests of the US government and her words are official US policy.
Xi Jinping and the senior Chinese officials she met represent official Chinese policy.
The US government seems to think that it can dictate official Chinese policy, but it cannot if it runs counter to Chinese interests.
Normally, if the US wanted something from China, it should offer something else in return in order to start serious negotiations.
Any sign of that?
I don’t see any…
This epitomizes our generation in one video
OMG!
What life advice do people not take seriously enough?
I’m a doc of psychology who has talked to literally thousands of people, and these are 10 pieces of life advice I find that people do not take seriously enough:
“Don’t Make Decisions When You’re Angry” – I’ve seen people relapse on drugs, cheat on their spouses, get into physical fights, and quit their jobs simply because they were “angry.” Don’t do it.
“Be Yourself.” – So many people suffer because they feel pressure to be something they’re not. They can feel this pressure from parents, peers, co-workers, friends or even their significant others. I’ve seen women get breast implants because of this pressure, men marry women (when they are actually gay), and people going into careers they hate because it will make someone else happy. Be yourself, because being something else will make you miserable.
“Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff.” – This is solid advice for a happy life. Choose your battles, and be able to let the little things go. Once you realize what “big things” are (cancer, financial hardship, etc.), you will wish you focused on the right things.
“Know Your Worth” – When you know your worth, you don’t put up with things that devalue you…and that is *very valuable.* It will impact what you’ll put up with in relationships, in your jobs, and in life. Knowing your worth has the ability to protect you from a lot of life’s struggles – if you act consistently with it.
“It’s Okay to Ask for Help.” – Yes! Do you know how many people I’ve talked to, that wished they would have gotten help earlier? It would have given them back *years* of their life…but instead they waited until they were at an absolute breaking point – losing opportunities, jobs, relationships, sometimes even their kids. Ask for help, and ask for help early.
“Who You Marry is One of the Most Important Decisions You’ll Make.” – Take this one seriously. You will literally have to see this person every day of your life, you will spend more time with them than anyone else…so make it someone uplifting, supportive and wonderfully fitting to you. You will also have a financial future largely impacted by their spending habits, earning, saving ability, etc.. Man or woman, divorce can devastate you emotionally and financially.
“Make Time for People You Love.” – Putting off seeing your grandmother or parents because you wanted to do other things might not seem like a big deal today…but one day it will be.
“The Best Time to Start is Now” – Whether saving for your future or trying to write that novel, start today. Time gets away from us very quickly, and before you know it 20 years have passed and you didn’t do those things you wanted to do. I have seen a lot of people who hold regrets…try not to have them.
“The Best Revenge is Living Well.” – So many people get stuck in grudges and anger that it messes up their own lives – especially emotionally. There is a great saying that states that “anger is something you carry for someone else’s mistakes” and it’s the truth. Leave those who have hurt you in the past, take care of your own needs, and live well. It does you no good to do otherwise.
“Treat Others the Way You’d Want to be Treated.” – This is certainly advice we don’t take seriously enough. If we all treated others how we’d wish to be treated, the world would certainly be a much better place for us all.
This is some of the life advice that I’ve certainly seen…
Why Men Don’t Want Modern Women or Feminists
Is America known for its inventions or for copying ideas from other countries?
No, they steal all the German rocket technologies and Medical technologies garnered from the defeated German and Japanese cruel experiments on life humans! The also keep the patent office vital information so every innovations can be stolen by them! Which they do regularly and called them their invention! China has the most patent rights registered in the U.S. patent rights office that the Congress has decided to de register these copy rights so that Americans and freely use the diligence and Hard work of the Chinese innovation free of charge! Shameful and despicable for being a thief yet calls others copy cat!
What should I absolutely not do when visiting your country?
Norway
Do not drink and drive. Not even a tiny little bit. We don’t find this funny. We stick people in jail for a first offence — even if you didn’t get as far as leaving the parking-lot. People in bars might physically fight you / wrestle keys from you to prevent you from driving drunk.
Do not wear shoes inside private homes. (there’s exceptions from this, but as a general rule)
People are pretty relaxed about nudity, and both men and women will for example change on public beaches without any attempt at covering themselves up. You are however expected to look away. (no-one will care if you glance, but please don’t STARE)
Do not unwrap flowers prior to giving them as a gift. (Germans do this)
Don’t ask people what church they attend. Most attend none, and asking this is seen as intrusive, rude and downright weird.
Don’t assume that “socialist” is a synonym for “evil”.
Don’t be insulted if people don’t seem to “respect you” for being somehow distinguished. People are very informal here and being on a first-name-basis with anyone short of the King is the norm. Even the prime-minister of Norway is most often referred to by first name; “Erna” (and previously: “Jens”)
What is the sleaziest, dirtiest trick an auto insurance company tried to pull on you? Did they succeed?
I had a 1993 Mustang 5.0 convertible, triple white and limited edition model. With certification that the was 1 of 500 the last of the produced fox bodies.
The car was immaculate, it took extremely good care of it, washed and waxed weekly, etc.
At about 26 months it got stolen.
I called the insurance; they said they had to wait 30 days to see if it would turn up — meanwhile they gave me a loaner. A Ford Aspire, the economy box of the economy boxes — my how the mighty have fallen.
Finally day 31 came and the insurance company called informing me that they were going to pay the car out in full, and that I needed to return the loaner.
They said they would be cutting me a check that day for $6,800. I told them no, that the car was clearly worth more than that. They then offered me $7,500. Again I told them no. They said that is all the car was worth; I told them that it was not a typical Mustang, it was certified by Ford as one of the last fox bodies and had collector value. They said that they would do some investigation and get back to me and I could continue to use the loaner.
About three days later the call me back saying that their best and final offer would be 10,000. Period.
Now onto the fun part, I told them that this was still not acceptable, and not two days before the car was stolen I had a quote for a trade-in on a Ford Cobra that was at $15,700 for my car.
Silence.
They guy then came back and said, fax me a copy of that document and hung up.
So I faxed the document over to them.
About a week went by, and the insurance called me back, the senior adjuster…
They told me that they had reviewed my case and would only offer me 11,000.
Okay, time to play hardball.
I said since you are refusing to pay my valid and documented value of my car, I am opting for my rights under state insurance law. (Yes during this time I looked it up.) I will not accept any cash payment, and I will opt for them to procure a replacement vehicle.
I told them they needed to find me a triple white 1993 fox body 5.0 Ford Mustang convertible with under 38k on the odometer and documented proof from Ford that this was the limited edition i.e. 1 of 500 of the last fox bodies. And that I expect them to present me with three options to choose from within the next 15 days as provided for by law.
I hung up.
Fifteen days later, they called back. They said that they would be writing me a check for $15,700 minus the 3k I still owed on the car.
I asked why they decided to change their minds. They begrudgingly admitted that they could not find any triple white Mustangs let alone a limited edition model. The closest they could come is a yellow limited edition model, but not one of the last 500 and the dealer was asking 18k for a car with 45k on the odometer.
I received the check in 24 hours.
That was the event where I stopped business from walking all over me.
Edit: Thanks for the upvotes and re-shares.
I do want to point out that should you ever be in a situation where they do want to total your car, make sure you find out your states insurance regulations.
In my state, you are entitled to either a cash value payment for your car, or a equal value replacement. This means that if I’m not happy with their cash offer I can opt for them to procure for me a same model, make with same options with similar mileage.
So make sure you know all your options before accepting that check.
Edit: After writing this in a fit of nostalgia I decided to see if I could find my old fox body for sale anywhere. I did find a few of the prior years 7up models for around 24 thousand and I did find one triple whit of my year just trashed and they were still asking 12 thousand.
This is bangin’
What is a brutal truth about life that needs to be said?
Everyone has an enemy. You dont have to hurt someone in order to gain an enemy. You might be the nicest person in the world and still have someone who prays for your downfall. An enemy stays close, super close. Watch everyone’s actions at all times. Don’t trust blindly.
You will never feel content if you compare your life to others. How successful they are, how rich they are or even how happy they are. You will only feel content if you focus on yourself and your growth.
Your mind can be poisonous if all you feed it is negativity. Be kind to yourself. You deserve it! We are far too critical of ourselves. Treat yourself the same way you would treat someone you love.
No matter how hard you try, failure is inevitable. But keep going. Persistence is everything. We don’t learn from winning but from our failures.
Some people are using us. Whether it’s for wealth, time passing, or even as a step for their success. Be attentive to how much you support others and people’s motives.
No one really cares about you (excluding family). Nobody is interested in your life journey. Nobody gives a toss. But that doesn’t mean you should stop your journey and fret about people not valuing you. Care about yourself. Look after yourself. Do it for you! Don’t woŕry what others think if they don’t care about you in the first place.
Grow thicker skin. Don’t take everything to heart. Your heart should not endure pain given by people who mean so little to you. Sometimes the ones that really matter do everything to keep you happy. Those who hurt you often are the toxic ones. It hurts but showing that you’re tough will take you a long way.
What’s the best lesson you heard from someone about human resources?
My friend works in HR for a Fortune 500 company. I asked him, “What is the most common phrase you hear when firing someone?”
Without missing a beat, he said it was some version of, “This was a bit unexpected.”
People get complacent and don’t realize their job is in jeopardy. They settle for half-assed work. They forget everything they do is being watched and judged, including their YouTube usage.
A mentor once told me, “It’s best to work like you are one strike from being fired and your boss is debating whether to keep you around.”
I could have learned this lesson in my first marriage. We both made assumptions about our status quo — until things slid beyond repair.
Accountability surrounds us and that’s a good thing.
With my relationships and career, I try to continually remind myself that, “All of this could go away at any moment.” It keeps me on my toes. It stops me from taking my time with older relatives for granted.
Shorpy fun
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Rainbow – Stargazer | First Time Hearing | Vocal Coach Reaction
Chinese math education values practice and discipline.
Children in China start to learn multiplication during 2nd grade and are told to practice constantly. The strong moral tradition that exists in China means that there isn’t exactly a “strict or rigid” curriculum to follow. Students are motivated by parents and others to constantly practice to improve their skills. Middle and high school students often do over 15 hrs of math a week combining class lectures and homework.
In the classroom, students are told to solve and prove problems in front of the whole class. This forces them to think deeply and have a very strong understanding of concepts from which to build new knowledge on. Teachers ask students “why” or “what if” questions to provoke this type of reasoning.
Writing in mathematical terms becomes heavily emphasized in upper levels which can lead to deductions on tests.
In the US, math education is very individual focused and people are not taught to be rigorous and to question why it works. This results in gaps in their learning that ends up hurting their learning later on, leading them to hate math. In addition, the motivation factor to do well is not present and people can slack off and do just what is necessary to get by.
I know people in high school who barely pass math and they don’t even care. There is no national high school exit exam here in the US and thus people don’t see consequences; as long as they graduate they are good.
China Claims Its ‘Super’ AD Missile Makes B-21s Obsolete
The three body problem
A British Chinese “expert” made a serious misreading of The Three Body Problem.
This expert attempts to transcend the extreme evaluation of duality in order to understand compromise in Chinese culture. This starting point is good, but the understanding of China is not enough – if it is not a deliberate distortion caused by misreading.
The first part of this book was serialized in Science Fiction World magazine in 2006, and at that time, the story already had a specific framework. Let’s review the historical environment at that time: Xi was not the President of China until many years later, and the United States had just engaged in the Gulf War. China did not even join the WTO.
It is strange to attempt to use this novel to criticize China’s current policies – people’s mentality was somewhat different from today.
To grasp the relation of Chinese sci-fi and China’s global strategy, it’s helpful to see both in terms of three dynamics. Certainly, it’s popular to understand Chinese politics in terms of binary frameworks: China vs. US; conservatives vs. reformers; optimists vs. pessimists; and socialism vs. capitalism. To get beyond this binary paradigm, we can explore three dynamics: pessoptimism, neo-socialism, and tianxia (All-under-Heaven).
“Pessoptimism” – This word only grasps the edge of Chinese culture. I do admit that Chinese people have both pessimistic and optimistic expectations for the future, but that has nothing to do with China’s rapid development – as I mentioned in the historical context of novel creation, China was facing a powerful and seemingly unbeatable United States at that time, it was widely believed on the Chinese Internet that China’s GDP might reach the level of Japan in a few decades. Few people realized at that time that the economy would develop rapidly within a few years.
In fact, the pessimistic mentality in the novel comes from: 1, a strong feudal China was shattered by the rapid rise of colonial countries; 2, the anxiety of human self destruction brought about by nuclear deterrence and the development of weapon technology; 3, comparison and reflection on the relationship between social Darwinism and equality.
The optimistic attitude in novels also comes from a long history. Any civilization can learn and resist. Organisms can avoid the devastating impact of catastrophic events through reproduction, whether small or not. After the environment is completely changed, everything will eventually perish except those can adapt. All of these stories are in history.
This expert did see that two sides of things can coexist, but unfortunately, he cannot understand what history means to the Chinese people.
Neo-socialism: This expert seems to believe that the depiction of the dystopian social environment of the Trisolarans in the novel reflects the current China.
In The Three Body Problem, Liu’s alien characters from across the galaxy are presented as scientific because they don’t have “time for or interest in art and literature; at the same time, they do not understand lies or tricks”.(10)
Unfortunately, this expert made the same mistake – he did not understand this novel together with Chinese history.
The Trisolarans have a close connection with Japan in history. Japan, as an island nation on the edge of a tectonic plate, believed that it had to invade China and colonize due to the threat of volcanoes and earthquakes on their islands, which was the source of Japanese militarism during WWII. That brings uncertainty like three suns.
Many civilizations experience a large-scale ideological shift when facing crises, leading to greater unity and a convergence of thinking patterns.
Under more extreme environmental assumptions, people have to abandon cultural development and focus on survival. In fact, this describes the state of mobilized. However, the high degree of ideological consistency, lack of personalized thinking ability, and lack of lies and tricks between people is the results of it. You can see this unified ideology during the existence of the Soviet Union, China’s Cultural Revolution, Japan’s militaristic education, etc.. It can encourage people to work in the same direction, but at the same time, it undermines long-term potential.
Liu doesn’t fear technology, unlike the authors of many dystopian sci-fi stories, because he dutifully sees technology as the answer to human questions.
It is just a state of human society, not a solution. It’s not modern China, nor the pattern of “neo-socialism”. None of these cultures is always right – the death has taken them all at the end of this novel.
Tianxia: I guess this expert did not read Liu Cixin’s short stories because there are with Russians and Serbs as the main characters.
But most Chinese sci-fi focuses on humanity as ethnically Chinese, and Chinese sci-fi as an instrument of the PRC’s soft power. In The Wandering Earth and the Three Body Problem, all of Liu’s protagonists are ethnic Chinese. Other peoples have little or no agency: they passively help China, are ignorant terrorists, or they are absent altogether. In the novella version of The Wandering Earth, the Japanese mother rebels against science, and then is sacrificed in the name of population control, while the Chinese-Japanese son is just Chinese. In the movie version, there is a mixed-race Chinese-Australian man who is made to look and sound funny, and he has to defend himself as a ‘real Chinese’ based on his paternal bloodline.(19)
That’s not about soft power. Since ancient times, we have regarded “tianxia” as the highest moral goal. This expert seem to mistakenly believe that this is just to cater to Xi – in fact, it is Xi’s government that caters to the Chinese people.
Also, you can’t expect a electric worker as Cixin Liu in a tiny Chinese town to have a good impression of British or American people before 2006, can you? At that time, your coalition had just caused a large number of disasters in the Middle East.
The facts make it difficult for your people to become a better solution.
With Xi Jinping, China’s global strategy seems to be catching up with Liu’s vision of the future: it looks to science to solve political problems, and figures engagement with the Other in zero-sum terms as an existential struggle for survival.
I don’t think any normal person would consider a “community with a shared future for mankind” as a zero sum narrative. People create their lives through work. Only those who plunder wealth will see society as zero sum, while Chinese people manufacture products.
The novel does not depict zero sum games, but rather negative sum games under the tactic of “ensuring mutual destruction”. The Trisolarans and Earthlings who implemented mutual deterrence ultimately achieved a strike and left separately, but their main forces were destroyed, while a minority of the two races survived by exploring and adapting to new rules.
As citizens of the British, which is one of the countries who encouraged Ukrainians to charge towards Russians and participate in rendering nuclear deterrence, the author should have a deep understanding of this.
What is a brutal truth about life that needs to be said?
When I was getting rejected by a lot of girls for marriage, my mother – like all other mothers in the world would say me, “Don’t worry, you are a Prince and we will find a Princess for you.”
My family members would also console me by saying that it’s all about destiny and our family is quite reputed and we are well settled so you will get married soon.
My reply to my mother and my family members was always this.
“Neither I’m a Prince nor I’m a greek god. And we are not Ambanis. I am very well aware of the fact that I’m about to get rejected in future.”
I embrace the fact that I look much older than my age. And that’s why I always was prepared for the rejection because no father would want to marry her daughter to someone who’s quite older than her.
I look like I’m 33–35 years old whereas I’m 26 years old.
We aren’t filthy rich either. We own decent amount of land and live a pretty average life.
Neither I have any side business nor I have a white collar job.
So, to sum it up, there’s nothing extraordinary about me or my family that people would rush to marry their daughters in our family.
What is a brutal truth about life that needs to be said?
Most probably I’m 99,56,32,408th person who is saying this.
In real life, in real world, away from the social media’s sugar coated sweet shit, your looks and your financial status matter.
It just doesn’t matter, it matters a lot.
I have transformed from an ugly looking boy to an average looking guy and that’s why I know how important looks are.
We have built our new home and have seen people’s changed perception about us, that’s why I know how important financial status is.
And, I should not mention about all the privileges rich people get, because we all know about that.
We all know this. We just pretend that it doesn’t matter.
On social media we all are saints, unaffected by society’s opinions, expectations and pressure.
I’m not saying this because I was rejected many times. I was sure about rejection.
I have lived for 26 years on this earth and have faced, experienced and seen similar incidents and discriminations my whole life.
Looks and financial status of someone may not matter to you at this point in your life.
But, it definitely will, somewhere, sometime.
9 Things That Make Men Look Expensive & Put Together (Women Always Notice This)
Have you ever judged someone and realized you were wrong?
I walk inside and already want to leave.
The two instructors turn to me. They have clean-shaven tattooed heads and thick, spiral-shaped piercings in their ears. On the wall hangs a photo of one of them mounting and pounding an opponent in the cage.
I’d decided to learn MMA and had found a small gym in the area. Even before coming in, I was worried about what it’d be like.
I didn’t want to be part of a macho, who-can-punch-the-hardest scene.
“Oh hello!” the woman instructor says, the same one displayed on the wall bludgeoning her adversary.
Her face lights up with a megawatt-lightbulb smile. She rushes at me, gives a lung-squeezing hug, and says, “You’re the one who called about trying a class, right?”
“Yeah…” I say, still processing the dissonance between her appearance and the supernova of affection I just received.
“Have you gone over the rules?” she goes on. “Basically, if you bring food make sure it doesn’t have any animal products–we’re vegan.”
“Sure…”
“More importantly–you know what to do if someone comes up to you in the street and asks for your wallet, right?”
“Umm…”
“Just hand it to them. Life is too precious to play the hero.”
“Dog Named Hero Saves Owner’s Life for Days, Fighting Off Cold and Coyotes and Getting Help
An Akita named ‘Hero’ saved his owner’s life last week in an incredible tale of loyalty and resilience that saw him remain by his side through two frigid Alberta nights, fend off coyotes, and eventually alert rescuers.
Winning plaudits for his name and deed the world over, a GoFundMe raised $3,000 to cover the veterinary bills of Hero by the shelter that is keeping him safe and warm while his owner recovers.
The story began with an attack: when a passerby named Curtis Dahl was walking in a field of mud and grass near the sugar factory in the town of Taber, and Hero came running up and bit his dog around the neck.
Dahl claims he tussled with Hero for ten minutes trying to get him off his dog, and needed stitches on his finger by the end of it.
Calling police and animal services with a complaint, he alerted them to Hero’s presence, but when the officers arrived and saw Hero lying down exhausted near a terraced plot of grass and weeds near the road, they suddenly heard a cry for help.
Arriving, they found a 61-year-old man on his back in a ditch, shivering and unable to move. He told police he’d been stuck there for two days while Hero protected him.
While the man was taken to a hospital, Hero was taken to Taber Lost Paws Society, an animal shelter that has a special program to look after dogs during periods of crisis or injury. As it happened, the society’s acting president Alana McPhee said they had an employee who was the injured man’s neighbor and knew that he had another Akita dog named Tora.
Reported missing two days prior, Tora eventually turned up in her owner’s yard with a disabled leg after screws and rods in her leg from a previous injury had come loose. They suspect she had been back and forth from the site where her owner fell to the home several times, or perhaps could have been fighting, though she had no bite or puncture marks.
Once informed of the full story, the man whose dog had been attacked by Hero was “understanding of the situation” and was grateful Hero’s owner was rescued. He later received compensation for the medical costs to his dog and himself via CAD$3,000 that was raised from a GoFundMe organized by the Lost Paws Society.
“(Hero) was being protective. That dog probably had not eaten for several days. He was incredibly stressed and, obviously, powerless to help his owner. He had to fight off coyotes,” McPhee said.
Men and their ability to transcend the space-time continuum.
What is something your pet did that you couldn’t believe?
He did a couple of things.
We adopted a German Shepherd named Rex from our local no-kill rescue organization.
He was a wonderful dog and had only been turned in because his 38 y/o owner had leukemia and there was no one to take Rex. They told us he had even had $600 worth of dog obedience training. When we got him home, one of the shelter employees called to say how happy they were that he had found a home after three months of lying in a cage because “Rex was everyone’s favorite dog.”
We could understand why. He was a very sweet dog with an amazingly calm temperament.
Except for the mailman. He really, really didn’t like the mailman and seemed to feel that we needed his protection from this daily intruder. So when the mailman showed up at our front door, Rex would bark ferociously until the mail had been delivered and the mailman was safely on his way.
The sight of the mailman walking away confirmed to him that, once again, he had done his job!
However, one day to my complete surprise, the mailman came and went with absolutely no reaction from Rex.
So I casually said to him, “Rex, what happened? The mailman came and went and you didn’t even bark.”
He stood there patiently looking at me while I talked. When I was finished, he walked calmly over to the closed front door, stood there for a moment looking at the door, and then very quietly went, “Woof.”
As in “Satisfied?”
If I hadn’t seen him do it, I never would have believed it!
Also, his favorite person in the household was my grown daughter because she was the one who walked him. When he decided it was time for a walk, he would find one of my daughter’s walking shoes, grab it in his mouth, walk over to where she was sitting and drop it in her lap!
He lived to be 12 years old and then he had a stroke which left his hind legs completely paralyzed. After he had spent a month lying helplessly on a blanket with wee-wee pads, we decided it wasn’t fair to let him keep living like that since there was no hope that he would ever get any better.
I thought about his favorite food because, unlike many dogs who are sick or dying, there was nothing wrong with his appetite.
The only thing he had ever stolen was my homemade beef jerky. It was in a Christmas tin, in a box which had been wrapped, taped and tied with a string. It was ready to mail and sitting on the dining room table. While we were out, Rex had managed to get it down from the table , untie it, get the wrapping off of it, open the tin (not easy even for humans!) and eat every piece.
So I made an entire batch of beef jerky and fed him piece after piece while he was lying there waiting to be euthanized.
A few minutes later, he passed on with a tummy full of his favorite food.
If rulers’ own behavior is ethical, what difficulty will they have in governing? If their own conduct is improper, how can they demand lawfulness from their citizens? Confucius. Analects.
Matthew Archer’s recentWhat if we Lost our Smartest 5%? suggests that, without our scientists and engineers we would struggle even to maintain our quality of life. It also helps explain the West’s current governmental decline and China’s rise. That’s because, like most sentient beings, our smartest 5% – scientists and engineers – are repelled by our toxic political process. No wonder Western governments have failed to deliver democratic outcomes¹.
China’s top 5%, by contrast, are entirely involved in government, and thereby hangs our tale..
The smartest guys in the room
Imagine the impact on European civilization of a series of Imperial dynasties maintaining the self-same style and significance from Caesar Augustus until the First World War. Now imagine such a civilization existing on the other side of the planet unaware of Greek philosophy, the alphabet, Roman governance, Christianity, feudalism, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment or democracy, but with its own, unique cultural and institutional correlates that exceeded all of them in intellectual subtlety and material success. Fernand Braudel
2500 years ago a government consultant named Confucius designed a low-maintenance, harmonious state by modeling it on the nuclear family and its natural hierarchy. The head of each little family would be responsible to the family clan head –as they still are – who is responsible to the extended clan head and so on, up to the head of the Big Family, the emperor.
The emperor’s responsibility would be to find honest, competent, selfless geniuses willing to devote their lives to serving the dynasty. The trick, he said, was finding them, “The administration of government lies in getting men of strong moral character – the kind who will only be attracted a the ruler’s own good character, which he cultivates by treading the path of duty. And treading the path of duty is cultivated by practicing compassion”. Because honesty rises with intelligence and running a kingdom is the hardest job on earth, choose officials for their moral integrity and intellectual abilities.
Alas, rulers of the day were comfortable with their chain of command and their nobles were hostile to meritocracy and Confucius, convinced that he had failed, died.
For centuries, corrupt eunuchs, scheming regents, dowager empresses, usurpers, concubines, wicked uncles and rebellious generals continued their massacres, kidnappings, taxing and warring. Confucius’ disciples persistently advocated his plan, however, until, in 188 BC, they persuaded Emperor Wen of Han to stop imprisoning parents, wives, and siblings of common criminals.
When things went awry, he wrote Letters of Public Apology, as Confucius advised. So positive was the public response that he began lowering taxes, abolishing corvée labor and giving monthly pensions to widows, orphans and retirees and, as Confucius had predicted, peace and prosperity prevailed.
Emperor Wen next began examining nobles’ suitability for office and soon, ambitious families were sending promising offspring to Confucian cram schools. A century later, thirty-thousand earnest young men were enrolled at Imperial Colleges where, as a form of meditation, they memorized the Master’s teaching on compassionate service until it permeated their feelings, thoughts, and dreams.
Getting serious
Eight centuries of increasing meritocracy passed until, in 600 AD, Emperor Yang of Sui opened imperial examinations to peasants. He instructed examiners – from whom candidates’ identities were concealed – to find men with intellectual depth and moral maturity. To emphasize the importance of morality, he said, they should execute cheaters.
Examinees answered questions on the economy, analyzed current government policies and composed original essays to demonstrate their brushwork, literacy, creativity, and knowledge of the World. The Emperor himself queried top candidates who quoted from memory case studies in governance and passages from the Analects (as they still do). Advancement by examination was class-blind (it still is) because, said Censor Wang Ji, “If selection by examination is not strict, the powerful will struggle to be foremost, and orphans and the poor will have difficulty advancing”.
By 1204 AD, of two-hundred seventy-nine senior officials whose families we know, forty-four percent had forebears in government (by 2020, it was twelve percent). Successful applicants became national celebrities, their feats memorialized in family books and their homecomings semi-hysterical:
When a scholar rides in a high carriage drawn by four horses, flag-bearers running ahead with a mounted escort bringing up the rear, people gather on both sides of the road to watch and sigh. Ordinary men and foolish women rush forward in excitement and humbly prostrate themselves in the dust stirred up by his carriage. This is a scholar’s joy. This is when his ambition is fulfilled.
Poor scholars who ascended on talent were the Emperor’s men entirely. They could neither own land, serve in their home provinces, nor have relatives in the same branch of government (prohibitions that still hold). They competed for promotion by constructing public works and, though dynasties rose and fell, there was just one official to serve eight thousand citizens, often in regions far from family and friends, under terrible conditions, regularly at the cost of their lives.
Though few in number, they sustained the most harmonious, advanced, prosperous nation on earth, and so lustrous is their record that Chinese heroes and villains –historical or fictional – were or are government officials. One such hero-official has even been deified: by democratic agreement, Governor Li Bing, who designed and constructed the Dujiangyan water diversion project in 250 BC (below), is God of Waters. His temple still stands at the site where he diverted the waters to create one of the country’s great rice bowls.
That was then, this is now
The top 20% of Chinese university graduates, the smartest two-million (out of eleven-million) youngsters, will take the guokao civil service exam this summer. The written examinations are challenging, the orals intimidating and exhausting, and applicants need a 140 IQ (enough for a PhD in theoretical physics) to get an interview, and only 27,000, 1.3% of them, will receive job offers.
The successful applicants will take vows of selfless service stricter than a Jesuit …
So there is this movement in South Korea right now. It’s called the 4B movement, and it’s the ultimate collapse of the West.
No dating.
No relationships.
No marriage.
No children.
Why this movement is PERMITTED and ALLOWED in a nation just shows how corrupted the nation is.
All nations must take care of their society.
If they do not, then they are corrupted, evil and must be policed. As the fundamental purpose of the government is to protect, maintain and support their society.
The 4B movement is one of destruction of society.
Just like WOKE, and BLM. Just like the Nazi movements of the past. This is a society-destroying movement.
Again, I must say…
A government that allows internal destruction from within is a government that needs to be erased and replaced.
Today…
What did someone do in an emergency room that made you say “You gotta be kidding me”?
My husband fell off his bicycle and reflexively put his arm down to break his fall. He came home scrapped up and holding his shoulder in an odd, pushed back position. It was a weekend, so we couldn’t see our family doctor, and this was in rural Texas where there is literally only one hospital per county. He was in excruciating pain when we arrived at the emergency room in our small town. After waiting an hour, a nurse gave him a visual exam and told him that he should ice his shoulder, take a couple of Tylenol, and see an orthopedist. She finished by saying that they couldn’t do anything for him, like give him drugs. We were stunned. He couldn’t move that arm, and any pressure elicited sharp pain. We wanted an x-ray, not a morphine drip.
There was nothing we could do but drive to the hospital in the next county. It was the same routine as the first ER. No x-ray, no exam. The doctor there referred us to an orthopedist in a larger town. Again, we were sent home on a weekend with no help.
We rigged up a sling as a stopgap measure and made an appointment with a local orthopedist. My husband couldn’t sleep in the bed, so he tried sleeping in a chair. He also had to return to work because he had no diagnosis or doctor’s note. After two interminable weeks, he finally saw a local doctor who took a single AP x-ray and told him that there was nothing wrong with his shoulder. He also told us that he saw “all kinds” of people like my husband who faked injuries to get drugs.
We saw the second orthopedist after another three weeks. He took one look at the x-rays and literally said, “Wow!” My husband had a posterior dislocation of his shoulder. These are rare and usually missed due to insufficient imaging and lack of examination. By now, it had been five weeks since the accident, and the doctor said he did not have the surgical experience to reset the shoulder. We were referred to a large, orthopedic specialty hospital in Houston that performed the surgery six weeks after the accident. He has recovered, but he has titanium pins in his shoulder now for an injury three providers said he never suffered.
Gen Z during world war 3
Why the West claims Hong Kong is under Chinese oppression while absolutely ZERO person were killed by the police in 2019 and it is actually the West and British who illegally attacked, occupied and oppressed Hong Kong?
Why the West claims Hong Kong is under Chinese oppression while absolutely ZERO person were killed by the police in 2019 and it is actually the West and British who illegally attacked, occupied and oppressed Hong Kong?
It’s simple. Many british people won’t look very deeply into the actual details of the situation as such they imagine Hong Kong was almost exactly the same as life in the UK other than it was filled with Chinese people and hotter humid weather.
So when the BBC and politicians lie about it, they take it at face value and either aren’t invested enough to check it out in more depth or simply trust politicians at what they say.
A great example is how many think Hong Kong was democratic before 1997. I ask them who elected the governor of Hong Kong… they have no answer… now and again this is great because it makes them ask further questions and makes them question their position. Most however don’t and simply double down.
The other group were the occupiers, yes occupiers is a correct word. June 1972 during the 27th meeting of the UN, Hong Kong was taken off the list of British colonies and it was instead considered an occupation. The occupiers lived a privileged life compared to local people in Hong Kong.
This is demonstrated with Kowloon Walled city. People view it as holy fucking shit, but Walled city wasn’t unusual it was only demolished in 1993.
main qimg 213ed56aa25e47ab0e47c8cd043bcfc3
The big apartment blocks to the north only started being built in the late 70s and 80s. Most people were living in shanty towns dotted all over.
SHOCK: Technology Already Developed to put “Vaccines” in Lettuce, Tomatos, and . . . Tobacco Products!
The Tennessee state legislature held hearings about putting “Vaccines” in consumer products like food and tobacco. The hearing revealed startling information . . .
Rep. Scott Cepicky revealed that the University of California at Riverside has “already perfected the ability to put Human Vaccines into our lettuce right now.” He went on to add “Also Tomatoes, has the ability to do that also, from UC Berkely, and also RJ Reynolds has developed the ability to put Human “Vaccines” into Tobacco products.”
Rep. John Ray Clemmons then inquired “Is that even legal to do in the state of Tennessee, to sell those with a Vaccine in them?”
Rep. Cepicky responded “I’m not arguing that, all I’m saying is that if a person walks into a grocery store you as a Consumer should know __this__ head of lettuce __is__ a head of lettuce, but __this other__ head of lettuce right next to it, could contain a Vaccine in it. All we’re saying is, if it does have the vaccine in it, make sure it’s listed as a Pharmaceutical so people can get the proper dosage.”
Hal Turner Snap Editorial
The idea that companies would DARE to presume to include “vaccines” in Human food seems outrageous to me. Who do these people think they are? They have no right to put some medical treatment into food for Humans and thereby into people’s bodies without informed consent.
Take the COVID Vax for instance. We were all told it was “safe and effective.” Those claims turned out to be false. The vaccines harmed or even KILLED many people, and are STILL harming and killing people.
Yet some nitwit thinks it’s a good idea to put things like this into consumer food so that unwitting people get something they otherwise might not want? Shocking! Outrageous!
Some of these “Scientists” seem so preoccupied with whether or not they could, that they didn’t stop to think if they should.
Leadership
What’s something your husband did to you that you will never forget?
I met my husband through college when I was 18. He was 20. I was married at 21. He went through all my ups and downs with me, and I mean ups and downs. Things got really bad for me once I entered the professional workforce after grad school. I was ironically working in the mental health field at the time, while my own mental health was deteriorating. My husband was there to lie with me when I cried my eyes out, and he was there to calm me down when I was so excitable I could easily make some bad decisions. Never did he act like I was the “crazy person” I felt I was becoming. On two occasions he walked in on me harming myself, and he took the tool from me and cleaned me up in the shower. He was also the person who walked in on me standing in a corner listening to “the voices” that were talking to me from the sky. Yes, he stayed.
My husband is the reason I chose to go to a therapist. It was humiliating; going to a therapist when I worked in the mental health field myself. After all, I should know how to deal with what was happening to me, right? I had a really good life, an awesome husband, and a good career. What was wrong? The therapist sent me to a psychiatrist, something I also would have declined had it not been for my husband.
My husband attended my diagnostic appointment with the psychiatrist. After answering all sorts of questions and talking about what was going on, I was diagnosed as bipolar with psychotic features. I knew it. In the back of my mind I knew it and I didn’t want to know it. It was one of the reasons I didn’t want to go to the psychiatrist in the first place. I was prescribed medication and my ascent to sanity began, although I’m still not there 100%.
The thing my husband did that I’ll always remember happened just after we stepped out of the office. I was upset. I looked up at him trying to make a joke of it (kind of) and said “Well, congratulations, you married a crazy person.” He stopped us both by taking my hand, looking me in the eye and telling me “You’re no different than you always were, and I love you just as much as I always have.” We had been married almost 8 years.
It’s odd to say a romantic moment came of me being diagnosed as, how I thought of it at the time, crazy, but that’s what happened. I had been feeling so worthless. Who could love someone going through psychosis; someone who might just become a burden on others? The fact that he reassured me, after everything he’d been through with me, that I was still loved was more than I could ever thank him for. We’ve been married over 10 years now, and he says he still feels the same way, even when I do have my bouts of depression, mania, psychosis, and panic attacks, and I’ll never forget that moment when he reassured me I was still lovable and the same old me, even if there was now a name for what was happening to me. I am not crazy. I have bipolar disorder and I’m learning how to deal with it while my husband learns how to deal with my behavior.
God I love that man.
**Edit** Thank you all for the kind words! I did show my answer to my husband and he said he never realized how much that moment meant to me. I wish I’d expressed myself better at the time then! I do make sure to show him appreciation as often as possible!
It’s weird, I never felt the way about my clients that I felt about myself. I loved my clients, and they’re each battling their own mental health issues as strong boys and girls (I worked with adolescents). I guess it’s one of those cases where it’s sometimes hard to value yourself when it’s easy to see the value in others.
Despite everything, I am much better with treatment, and my husband and I are very happy together. He is definitely the love of my life and he makes me feel valuable everyday by telling me how awesome I am as a person, and how “fun I am” to be around. He definitely enjoys spending as much time as possible with me, so I certainly believe him!
I chose to go anonymous mainly because I’m still a bit of a coward and only my close family and friends know about my illness. Maybe one day I’ll have the strength to talk about it more openly, but I worry how that might affect any future clients’ or agencies’ views of me as an effective worker.
Hope that addresses some of the comments I read!
Exploitation
In case of a major conflict between India and China, would the Chinese expect Pakistan to help by opening a second front?
No
China is too strong today to require the second front
The ‘Second Front’ was a plan maybe ten or twelve years or maybe even fifteen years ago in case of a conflict
Back then both Armies were on similar footing
Chinas Budget was $ 68.79 Billion in 2009 with a much higher import dependence and Indias was close to $ 46 Billion
Both countries depended on at least 40% of their Military Supplies on the Russians
Both Nations had similar abilities on three domains – Army, Navy & Air
Chinas GDP was around $ 4.8 Trillion to Indias $ 1.58 Trillion. Yet Chinas Debt to GDP was closer to 36% to Indias 21%
Back then Pakistan was also in a far stronger position than today
It was also way closer to the US , so Chinas active plan was to get Pakistan out of US Sphere of Influence into their own
The Plan was if India moved against China, then for China to get Pakistan to open a second theatre either through Economic leverage or Military Leverage
In 2024, this plan is no longer a primary one
China has the roads now, the infrastructure to mobilize it’s troops in 24 hours and confront India in any direction
China has Satellite Imaging for every square feet of those mountains
China has a five domain superiority including Cyber & Low Space where they are streets ahead of India
Today Chinas economy is at $ 18–19 Trillion and they have virtually the same amount of savings and real wealth plus a Net Foreign Reserves of a Trillion plus bucks
So today the notion of India attacking and moving in offensive on China is much lesser than in 2009, at least militarily
2015–16 was the last year India could have actively moved against China and managed a stalemate or bloodied the Chinese nose and gotten brutally mauled
Today the Chinese are TOO STRONG
They prepared their forces for India as the largest enemy until 2013/14 and since then have began to prepare for US and NATO as their largest enemy
We prepared for China and Pakistan as our largest enemy from the 1960s , so our scale hasn’t surged as much
As a consolation, India is too strong for Pakistan today
Just like the Chinese are too strong for us
Work Smarter
Roasted Black Pepper Wings
with Maple Bourbon Glaze
Roasted Black Pepper Wings
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
Wings
2 1/2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
12 wings, cut in half at joints, wing tips removed and discarded
Glaze
1 cup bourbon
3 tablespoons maple syrup
2 teaspoons molasses
Instructions
In a small bowl, combine the black pepper, salt and cayenne.
Place the wings in a zip-type plastic bag.
Pour the pepper mixture into the bag, close it and shake to coat the wings.
Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Cover a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil, place wings on foil and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until done.
In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine bourbon, maple syrup and molasses, + 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to simmer. Simmer the mixture until reduced by about half and thickened, 5 to 6 minutes.
When the wings are done, toss them with the glaze while they are still warm.
Remove and discard tips from wings and cut each wing in half at joint.
Combine remaining ingredients except parsley and lemon slices in a large saucepan. Cook over low heat for about 15 minutes, until reduced and thickened to the consistency of thick gravy.
Place wings in a large roasting pan and cover with sauce. Turn until each wing is well coated.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.
Serve on large platter.
Garnish with parsley and lemon slices.
Move to Italy
What did you say during your first job interview that helped you get the job? Can you offer any tips for individuals seeking their first job interview?
I was 18 years old (about 200 years ago) and had just graduated high school. I walked 3 blocks down the street to an intersection where the first big box predecessor to Home Depot had put up a first-of-its-kind huge store and lumber yard. I was there to attend a cattle call (open call) for workers.
I had WAY overdressed for a helper job in the lumber yard. In fact, I was wearing the suit I had worn on my graduation night. I stood in line with guys in jeans, work boots, T-shirts and packs of Marlboro cigarettes rolled up in one sleeve. They hadn’t shaved in days. (hell! I didn’t even NEED to shave!—yet)
As each guy’s turn came up you walked into the office and had a 2-minute interview with the yard foreman. I walked in in my suit and I could tell from first glance he had immediately dismissed me. I handed him my application and told him, “Mr. Dykes, for every dollar you pay me I’ll return $10.”
One eyebrow shot up. He looked me over. Not saying a word, he reached behind him and grabbed a pair of work gloves and a hardhat and tossed them across the desk. He told me to be back at 6AM the next morning.
I unloaded boxcars, drove a forklift, and a small delivery truck for Mr. Dykes for one year before I went off and joined the US Air Force.
Why is China’s rise so hard for the US to counter?
For one thing, the Chinese are very clever and adaptable and resilient. The Americans have grown fat, lazy and stupid.
For another, the Chinese number over a billion, more than 4X the size of the US population.
For another, the Chinese are well-educated. In fact, China produces 4X more STEM graduates than the USA does. This is why China can kick America’s ass technologically.
For another, the Chinese are led by a very strong, stable, capable, intelligent government. The Americans are led by clowns.
For another, the Chinese do not waste valuable resources on fighting wars around the globe. They dedicate their resources to economic and technological development.
Why Dating is Broken in 2024 – What Boomers don’t understand
Not in the States
What is the dirtiest fine print you’ve seen in a contract?
My sister got a job with a popular makeup artist and brought me the contract agreement to go through for her which was all shades ridiculous, I’ll tell you why
First that she would resume work at 8am not a minute more every weekday and Saturday
If a client is assigned to her by her employer, she gets only 20% of the payment and 80% goes to her employer
If she brings the client herself she gets 70% of the payment and her employer gets 30%
She would also mostly use her makeup products and none will be provided by the employer
Her income strictly is on the payment percentage she receives from the clients assigned to her or the ones she brings
She is not allowed to work for another prominent makeup artist 2 years after her termination from this job.
And finally if she breaks any rules set out in the contract she can be terminated at any time and a suit may be initiated against her
N.B she informed her employer that she was a student and so needs a flexible time to be more efficient because her school and workplace was a 45mins drive, the employer declined.
I read through this bs contract and told her to deny the job immediately because they’re trying to enslave her
Edit : many people seem to assume this contract took place in the states lol, it took place once Nigeria not the States
What could Taiwan do to make the UN acknowledge that Taiwan is a sovereign state?
Hold a Referendum in Taiwan and get it supervised by the UN Observers and get a 60% Majority to approve
Then get the UNGA to formally recognise Taiwan with at least 97 nations needed for a yes
In the process you risk alienating China and all the benefits that China brings, not to mention the fact that China will certainly ensure Taiwan won’t survive long enough to enjoy it’s Independence
A Poorly prepared Russia is skewering Ukraine like a Kebab , imagine a vastly better prepared, richer China with a smaller Taiwan
No Taiwanese would want that
Instead Taiwan would be eyeing for what we can call Federation of China
Two Parts of the Federation – The Mainland & Taiwan. The Mainland governed by the CPC and it’s system. Taiwan by it’s Presidential System.
Yet Defence, Air Space, Foreign Policy and Trade all controlled by the larger Mainland
It would be the perfect solution – Taiwan would have their right to choose their leaders and Taiwan would be part of China
This isn’t my idea of course
Singaporean Minister Teo Chee Hean pondered on the same thing a few years ago.
I guarantee 140 nations will approve heartily
Textbook narcissist
A thing happened
Today, my family and I were driving through Starbucks and there was an enraged man sitting at a table by himself. He was yelling and very upset. He appeared unkept and homeless. We felt so sorry for this troubled man and knew he needed help. We called 911 and waited in the parking lot to make sure this man was treated humanely.
An officer appeared.
today
He calmly and quietly approached the gentleman. He pulled up a chair and sat across from him and calmly asked the upset man what was going on. The officer, eye to eye, down on the troubled man’s level, de-escalated the situation quickly. I was moved to tears at how the officer respected this man and made it clear that he was there to help him. These are the stories that should be in the news. This gentleman, deserves a pat on the back and the recognition of doing an excellent job!
My main purpose for reporting this is in hope that this officer receives recognition. His name is Officer Reese of the Garland Police dept. Please share!
DIY for Tequila
To Americans who visited Europe, what was the most shocking thing that’s everyday life for Europeans?
The first time I went to Europe was in the summer of 1974. I was 22 at the time. I had been to Quebec a few times, but other than that I had lived my entire life in the Northeast. I had taken years of French in school, but I had met only a few foreigners. I short, I was an innocent abroad, much more naive, I think, than anybody would be today.
I’ll mention things that surprised me, though none of them shocked me in a bad way. I hope my experiences will amuse you.
First, when I landed in Luxembourg, the airline loaded us on a bus. A woman sat down next to me and spoke to me in French. I was shocked! You mean people actually speak French?? My French education had emphasized book learning and there was little or no conversational practice. I recovered pretty quickly and managed to get around with my borken French and some German I picked up on the trip.
When I went to plug in my electric shaver, I was shocked that my plug didn’t fit the socket! I had never even imagined that different countries might have different sockets. I did know that Europe used 220 V, and my shaver was able to handle that, but sockets??
Back then it was common and safe to hitchhike, and I met many people that way. English speaking was much less common then than it is now, so I learned to communicate with basic words and a lot of gestures.
When I arrived at the outskirts of Amsterdam (not knowing a single word of Dutch), I was standing at a tram stop decoding the map when a young woman came up and asked if she could help me – in English. And then she apologized because her English was not very good! I felt humiliated. Here I am, an American student, visiting her country, not speaking a word of her language, and she was apologizing because she didn’t speak my (foreign) language??? Would that happen in America? Ever?
One last thing. I had grown up in the 1950s when Europe was still recovering from World War II. When I would be picky about my food, my mother would tell me I should be grateful I had plenty to eat because all the poor children in Europe were starving. When I arrived, I expected to see hardship. But instead I found that life was good, as good as in America in most ways. That was a happy surprise.
CHINA’S RAIL SYSTEM IS INCREDIBLE | Traveling Over 1000km From Guangzhou To Zhangjiajie
Tens thousands of HK people ran for the UK using BNO visa several years ago have now become beggars in streets & many of them have killed themselves in the UK. Why are those HK people becoming food menu on the UK food tables as Blinken claimed?
The BNO is a backdoor opened by the British Crown that is normally shut tight. They even extended BNO eligibility by making it inheritable.
The terms were lavish to say the least—visa-equivalent long-term residency and employment rights.
Unfortunately, the liberal interpretation means the average BNO applicant does NOT qualify for immigration through normal channels.
In other words, the majority of BNO applicants DO NOT satisfy the British government’s immigrant criteria.
In fact, BNO status itself is baggage that is exploited on the jobs market. Employers know there is an excess of yellow folk who speak funny English and they are motivated to depress their offer. Besides, the UK economy has been under strain for several years, due to brexit, covid, inflation, and tight credit. White collar job holders have spilled over into the blue. Professional degree holders are delivering food in the harsh British winter, just to make rent. Quite a number have been assaulted/roughed up in the anti-chinese frenzy whipped up by the media.
All because they are convinced Hong Kong has become intolerable for their freedom-loving souls.
Their liberation as bottom feeders in a society that doesn’t respect or even like them much is an amazing lesson for onlookers. If they would just take a little step back to reflect, they will marvel at the incomprehensible road they have committed to.
Came for the boobs, but stayed for the bra
Actually, pretty darn informative.
In an emergency scenario in which China overtakes then US as the largest economy and America is too weak to influence overseas countries, how will China provide a more responsible (pro-China) alternative international government to U.S liberalism?
Please note that I am answering this question with a non joking and non sarcastic attitude.
A pro China US government is not a viable option. Supporting a US government and providing economic support to expand this influence is not cost-effective at all. It’s fully stupid.
Only arrogant leaders like American politicians would feel that such a large country can be infiltrated, controlled, and subverted without themselves being affected. You can only use the wrong ideology to make the other country fall, but after affecting hundreds of millions of people in the other country, you yourselves will also be infected.
This is also why the United States has long been hiring Chinese trolls to disrupt the agendas of the Chinese people and that’s wasting money.
However, even if the United States knows this and is facing financial difficulties, it will never stop doing so, because from the perspective of policy makers, all reasons that can consume national finances are appropriate because they can profit from it.
The reason for answering this question is simply to make ordinary Americans aware of their government’s wrongdoing. I find it interesting to see them face errors that cannot be corrected. You always have the right path to take, but you won’t choose because it’s not an easier way.
Ha ha ha ha
What did someone do that made you think they were really smart?
When I was still in primary school, my elder brother asked our parents for a diary. Every day he wrote an entry in the diary and locked it in his drawer.
What a beautiful, fine diary! A symbol of grown-ups and secrets. So I asked my parents for a diary too. But I didn’t have my own drawer, so all I could do was put it in a paper box which was full of toys.
The day I got my diary, I ran to my parents and pointed at the box with pride: “That’s where I will put my diary!” My dad gave me a meaningful smile: “Good girl.”
My brother whispered to me: “Why did you tell them where your diary is? You know they will peek!”.
I smiled and said nothing.
I began to make entries in the diary. But what I wrote was just like this:
4/10/2012
Today my mum cooked for me. She is really a great cook and I can’t name another person who has better cooking skills than her!!!! I’ll study hard and make a lot of money and buy my mother a big house!!!!
4/12/2012
I’m sick. My daddy drove me to the hospital. Looking at his figure, I can’t believe I’m his daughter. How happy I am!
4/13/2012
Today my teacher asked us for a composition named “The one I want to thank.”, I plan to write on my mother. She is so open-minded and warm-hearted!
My parents’ attitude towards me changed. Every time they saw me, they almost ended up in tears of joy and love.
My diary became my “Wish book”. Whatever I wanted, I just needed to write it in the diary and I would receive it a few days later.
They gradually couldn’t afford this. Every time they opened the diary, ￥50–300 flew out of their purse.
In the end they bought me a drawer.
“No, I really don’t need this.”, I said.
“Keep it.”, they said, “It’s better to lock it.”.
“Thanks but no.” I said.
“Please, lock it!”
´_>`
At least I got a new drawer. It’s good. Yay.
Workers doing it right
Is the USA the only free country in the world (which is why it’s so great)?
Do you know an English adage ”self praise is no praise at all”First US is not free at all 25% of worlds. Prisoners are Americans! 9 times per million compared to China! You Government thrall the entire internet and what you watch on telly to check on every America disclosed by Edward Snowden! And 99% don’t want either Trump or Biden but you are laden with them because of your undemocratic political system that is really chosen by a few rich and influential!
It is anything but great, the highest debtor nation on earth, highest deficits, warmongers and trouble makes everywhere, with s million homeless and living in tents throughout America, to tally dilapidated infrastructure and highly highly uncompetitive! Has not have a real growth since 1960 64 years ago.
Apricot Chicken Casserole
apricot chicken 4
Ingredients
6 to 8 chicken pieces (drumsticks or thighs)
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
1 small can apricot nectar
2 or 3 carrots, chopped
2 to 4 medium potatoes, sliced
Mushrooms, sliced
Garlic powder
Instructions
Sprinkle onion soup mix over chicken pieces.
Add vegetables and mushrooms.
Pour apricot nectar over all, and sprinkle garlic powder over everything.
Add small amount of water to casserole and bake at 350 degrees F until done, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Florida passes a law…
Have you ever taken the law into your own hands?
My neighbor is a big-shot lawyer. One night, his dog was outside my house. I didn’t know it was his dog and had to ask around. I was told it was “the lawyer’s dog.” I noticed that the dog was terribly skinny and, in general, just didn’t have the bounce in her step like most black labs do.
I left her at my house and knocked on the door. I told him I had his dog. He didn’t seem concerned. When it appeared he wasn’t going to come outside, I asked him if he expected me to deliver the dog to him. He got all huffy and said, “Fine!” His beautiful and very, very sweet wife and four little girls were thanking me but he was just pissed that I interrupted his “pizza and movie night with the family.” He begrudgingly followed me home.
I am a retired humane officer and still have a lot of influence at animal control. But I didn’t want to sound arrogant and threatening so I didn’t mention it. I just asked if the dog was okay as she seemed a little gaunt. He told me to mind my own business.
I asked him if the dog had been to see a vet lately and he said, “What’s with all the g-damn questions?” Since I had had this very same exchange many times in my career, I didn’t get mad. I just smiled and said I was concerned about the dog. He again told me to mind my own business. I said “Okay, well, if you’re not going to talk to me…” and trailed off.
The dog was less than enthusiastic to see him and he had to actually pick up the dog .
The next day, bright and early, two uniformed Animal Control officers knocked on his door, demanding to see the dog. He got a seven-day warning to get the dog to a vet or be fined. Seven days later they came back and were shown a letter from a vet that the lab had been seen and is now under treatment for a pancreatic disorder.
My neighbors asked me how I was so bold and stupid to make an enemy out of a big-shot lawyer.
Right makes might. I had right on my side.
I will never be afraid to speak out on behalf of a dog. In my career I had dealt with hardened criminal dog fighters and my anger gave me courage.
I gave him the chance to talk to me, and I would have offered to take the dog to the vet since I know he and his wife are busy, but he shot me down so fast.
My husband is a big-shot lawyer, too, but this guy doesn’t know that.
I called in a favor from my old colleagues and showed this guy that he didn’t intimidate me and that “Failure to render treatment to an animal in need” is a crime and not even a big-shot lawyer is above the law.
"A Chinese engineer friend told me that, in a shooting war, China’s first salvo will be at least 30,000 missiles–enough to cripple every US base east of Guam–and more than America’s entire missile inventory."
-Godfree Roberts
When I was in high school, there was a radio station that I, and all my friends used to listen to. This was WYDD. This was a very leading-edge “alternative Rock” radio station long before “alternative rock” came into being.
One of my favorite DJ’s was “Laid Back Larry Allen”.
They mostly played the more obscure rock music of the time, long before the mainstream radio stations would play the songs. They introduced us, their audience, to such wonders as YES!, Gentle Giant, Jefro Tull, Moody Blues, Traffic, and Spooky Tooth.
Today, these musicians are known as “classic rock”, but back in those days, it was rarely heard music. The AM system ruled the airwaves, and it was just starting to go corporate. WYDD was FM, and was a niche market.
Anyways, there was a corporate buy out. This was big in the late 1970’s. A group of wealthy investors would buy up all sorts of radio stations and then bombard the targeted audience with a bland rotation of “cookie cutter songs”. Such as “Maggie May”, etc.
Oh, it was awful. And during their last night of programming, the entire staff walked out. There were downtown protests, and near riots in all the communities as us youth wouldn’t have any of it.
…
I went to college, four years passed, and returned home.
The mood was different.
Most of my friends installed cassette players in their cars, and the station of preference was WDVE. Which now claimed to “always” have been the station of the youth.
Ha! Talk about rewriting history!
They played pure ROCK.
This trend, or the wealthy changing the demographics of American society didn’t end there. It just got crazier and crazier… up until now you have these wealthy billionaires paying off entire school boards at the tune of $50,000 a person to implement LGBQ+ polices, and the like.
Indeed, the USA is a complete cesspool today.
And it all started in the 1970’s.
…
The 1960-era Peace-Love crowd became greedy, egotistic, narcissistic psychopaths, and they…
…they changed generations of Americans.
And exported it to Europe and Australia.
…
One can only wonder what the WOKE, and MTOW movement will result in … twenty years from today.
It’s gonna be … feudal.
…
…
As an aside… from my point above…
The old WYDD Station DJ’s and team got together and set up a web page where you can listen to their rantings and music!
Freeform Rock Radio DJ WZUM 1973,
WYDD 2 1/2 years 1975-1977 "Laidback Larry Allen"
Former YDD DJ's Larry & Jim DeCesare host this site with our friends.
We are now on Face Book at "WYDD Pittsburgh Freeform"
The only page on FB dedicated to the Freeform Rock Radio Years in Pittsburgh, Pa.
Check it out HERE. And listen to what it was like in 1977.
shot
Hours and hours of a time machine.
You will NEVER hear this mix of pre-alternative rock from the mid-1970’s anywhere. Songs and music that you might have forgotten, heard once or twice… Well worth the listen to.
Today…
A used gun
If a lighter were dropped off in a random place, say 1,000 years around the time fire was discovered, how would it change the timeline?
Most likely scenario:
Ogg the caveman is out foraging for his evening meal and comes across a lighter that has been dropped by a careless time-traveler.
Naturally attracted by shiny things, he picks it up and through a stroke of incredible luck manages not only to open it but to get the thing to light. Excited by his discovery, he rushes back to the cave to show it to his fellow tribesmen.
Gesturing to the strange object in his hand, Ogg very eloquently grunts “Acckk! Ogg greck narf spurgle blorg!” (Roughly translated, “Dudes! Look at the cool thing Ogg found!”) He deftly opens the lighter, flips the wheel, and a bright flame springs forth.
And at this point, Ogg is immediately stoned to death by his fellows for messing around with wizardry and risking the wrath of the gods. The lighter is hurled into a nearby tar pit in the hope of preventing that same wrath from coming down upon them all. Unfortunately, since no one else in the tribe had ever seen a lighter or figured out how it works, they didn’t close it first and the still-lit flame ignited the gases rising from the pit. The ensuing conflagration wipes out the entire tribe, leaving only a blackened scar on the landscape which would be known for decades after as “the place where those idiots pissed off the gods.”
Thus endeth the lesson.
Totally and absolutely COOL
Facts about the great Humphrey Bogart :
1. While he was married to fiery actress Mayo Methot he discovered that she suspected him of cheating on her – he wasn’t – and had hired a private detective to follow him. Bogart found out the name of the agency the PI worked for, and called them up. When he reached the man’s boss he said, “You got a man on my tail. Would you check with him and find out where I am?”.
2. Named his daughter, Leslie Bogart, to show his gratitude to Leslie Howard, who got him his big break in The Petrified Forest (1936).
3. Lauren Bacall once recalled that while John Wayne and Fred Astaire hardly knew her husband Humphrey Bogart at all, they were the first to send flowers and good wishes after Bogart was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in January 1956.
4. Though a poor student, he was a lifelong reader, and could quote Plato, Pope, Ralph Waldo Emerson and over a thousand lines of Shakespeare. He admired writers, and some of his best friends were screenwriters, including Richard Brooks, who directed him in ‘Deadline – USA’.
5. His coffin contains a small, gold whistle, put there by his wife Lauren Bacall.
No grand strategy
As a psychologist, who is the most disturbing individual you have ever met?
The most disturbing individual I ever met was another psychologist, and he inspired me to research a paper into the motivation behind persons with PD’s becoming Psychologists (which is more common than most people appreciate).
I knew of this individual from school but had no idea he had studied Psychology.
He was the most vicious bully the school had ever seen.
Three of the people he bullied went on to commit suicide.
There was an accusation of rape levelled against him but, as it was the eighties, the girl withdrew the accusation when the police informed her there was no evidence and it was her word against his.
There was an episode where he discovered a smaller boy was claustrophobic. He locked the boy in a cupboard for over half an hour. By the time we rescued this boy he was non responsive and non verbal. This boy subsequently committed suicide.
He showed no remorse and no empathy when I met up with him years later at a seminar.
He questioned my recollection of the events at school, trying to convince me (a clinical Psychologist) that memories weren’t reliable and he had no recollection of any of “those events”.
Most disturbing was that this person was working with vulnerable youth.
I took this up with one of his Professors and demanded to know why he hadn’t spotted what, in my opinion, was an individual with a very obvious PD studying in his classes.
He replied that perhaps this individual was the perfect fit for vulnerable youth as he understood the victim/perpetrator dynamic.
I was horrified.
I replied that that was like stating it would be advantageous to train rapists as rape counsellers for they would have the same perspective.
I still can’t work out whom was the more disturbing character. The student or the teacher.
There have long been conspiracy theories that the world is ruled by a group of elite pedophiles or at least ephobophiles—those who are attracted to sexually mature but very young girls. Just such a vast, elite pedophile ring — centred around Hilary Clinton — was a key strand in QAnon thinking [QAnon conspiracists believe in a vast pedophile ring. The truth is sadder, By Moira Donegan, Guardian, September 20, 2020]. In the UK, “Operation Yew Tree,” set up after the death of popular entertainer Sir Jimmy Savile and revelations about his raping numerous under-aged girls, unmasked a number of high-profile celebrities with similar proclivities, such as the entertainer Rolf Harris [Rolf Harris, Savile and Clifford all pulled the wool over my eyes, By Simon Hattenstone, Guardian, July 3, 2014].
With the publication of court documents relating to Virginia Roberts suing the now jailed Ghislaine Maxwell, a growing list of A-List celebrities have been revealed to have spent time on the private island of wealthy convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, where Maxwell procured young girls for him. These A-Listers include Prince Andrew, who denies having had sex with Virginia Roberts (then a minor), Stephen Hawking and Bill Clinton. According to sworn testimony by one of these girls, Epstein told her that the former president “likes them young” [Epstein told victim that Bill Clinton ‘likes them young’, new court filings reveal, By Rachel Young, Independent, January 7, 2024]. People may be shocked at evidence that so many highly elite people may be interested in having sex with very young girls. As someone who researchers evolutionary psychology I don’t find it shocking at all. It makes complete theoretical sense.
What is it that predicts being extremely eminent, ascending to the heights of the elite, being, in some way, a genius? As I have explored in my book Sent Before Their Time: Genius, Charisma and Being Born Prematurely, it is very high intelligence combined with psychopathic traits. If you are low in empathy and altruism, you won’t care that your radical new idea, for example, offends vested interests; in fact you might enjoy upsetting people. You will even have aspects of Narcissism, such a strong sense of entitlement; making you impervious to setbacks, possessed of a Machiavellian streak, and, so, more likely to succeed. If you are low in impulse control then you won’t be able to force yourself to think like everybody else; you will “think outside the box” and generate original ideas. And if you are high in negative feelings, in Neuroticism, you will be constantly ruminating and so generating new insights. In essence, genius is very high intelligence combined with sub-clinical psychopathology.
German-British psychiatrist Felix Post (1913–2001) conducted a character-trait analysis of 291 world famous men which I drew upon in Sent Before Their Time. He found that 16% of the male population might be sub-clinically psychopathic. This compared to 52% of politicians, 50% of artists and 70% of writers. Post estimated that 1% of males suffer from Narcissistic Personality Disorder, but this was 27% of artists, 28% of politicians and 40% of writers. It should be added that while 1% of the male population are “severely psychopathic,” Post found it was 17.4% of politicians, 37.5% of artists, 26% of thinkers, and 46% of writers. He estimated that 33% of his sample of world famous scientists had suffered from depression or anxiety, as had 41% of his politicians, 34% of his composers, 36% of his thinkers, 41% of his artists and 72% of his writers. Approximately 20% of people in Western countries experience a bout of depression at some point in their lifetimes [Creativity and psychopathology: A Study of 291 World Famous Men, By Felix Post, British Journal of Psychiatry, 1994].
Both of these traits are part of a “fast life history strategy,” a concept I’ve looked at before. Fast life history strategists are evolved to an easy yet unpredictable ecology where you must live fast and die young. It is, therefore, pointless bonding with people, who could be wiped out at any moment, so you are aggressive and psychopathic. You must pass on your genes as quickly as possible, so you should be attracted to very young women, as they are highly fertile. If you are a slow life history strategist then you are in a predictable, harsh and competitive environment. You must ensure, for example, that your offspring are adapted to the local diseases and are well-nurtured, so you might value genetic similarity to your partner and a kind personality above youth. Our super-elite are highly intelligent fast life history strategists so we would expect to have an extreme penchant for youth.
Anxiety is associated with paraphilia, with a developing a sexual fetish. An extreme penchant for youth might be regarded as close to fetish, in that teenage girls are not yet at the peak of their fertility. It has been suggested that anxiety can potentiate sexual arousal in men, which can lead to an association between sexual arousal and atypical objects [The Relation Between the Paraphilias and Anxiety in Men: A Case—Control Study, By M. Fox et al., Archives of Sexual Behavior, 2022]. Alternatively, it may be that anxiety involves experiencing intense feelings more strongly, making the normal desire for youth more extreme, as autism, which involves low empathy and extreme sensations, is associated with paraphilia and anxiety [Psychological and Developmental Correlates of Paraphilic and Normophilic Sexual Interests, By A. Brown et al., Sexual Abuse, 2022]. Certainly, childhood anxiety is associated with later becoming a pedophile [Social anxiety and sexual offending against children: A cumulative meta-analysis, By K. Nunes et al., Sexual Aggression, 2012].
So, put simply, we shouldn’t be surprised at evidence of highly elite males having sex with underage girls. The same traits that predict being highly elite would appear to predict just such a penchant. The “conspiracy theory” makes theoretical sense.
Good summary
Tips for Making Perfect Buffalo Wings
The following was originally posted by G. Schaeffer.
The key to good Buffalo Wings is how you prepare them as well as the ingredients and the handling of the wings. The most successful wings served up here in Buffalo are what they call “Grade A Grinders.” Fresh wings that are very large and meaty. Usually, you cannot get them in a frozen package, but can get them from a poultry dealer. Once you find them make sure they are absolutely fresh.
Wash them in cold water, split them at the joint and remove the tips. Place them on a rack on a pan and refrigerate overnight to let the blood and water drain out of the wings. THIS IS A REAL KEY. Drying the wings under refrigeration will help to make them a much crispier product, once deep fried.
Next, use a deep fryer or a very heavy deep pot with a thermometer and add the oil. Peanut oil is very good, or a commercial product such as can be found at a restaurant cash and carry called Mel Fry.
Heat the oil up SLOWLY, to 365 degrees F, and depending on the size of the fryer, deep fry the dry wings 6 to 8 minutes in small batches, until thoroughly done and golden brown. Hold the cooked wings in a warm oven if necessary.
A combination of melted butter and hot sauce in the ratio of 1 part butter to 3 parts hot sauce will add the right zing. The key here is to add just enough sauce to coat the wings – the more sauce you add, the hotter they will be.
For the very brave, 1 part butter to 3 parts hot sauce and 1 part Tabasco is referred to as “Suicidal Wings” by the late and dear Don Bellissimo, who owned the Anchor Bar.
Working quickly, place the deep fried wings in a large bowl and add the sauce mixture, shaking to coat them. There are many good hot sauces to use; the one they use is either Durkee Franks Red Hot Sauce or Wingers Original, again found in a restaurant cash and carry.
Celery sticks and chunky blue cheese dressing (Ken’s Buffalo Style Blue Cheese is a popular one) and plenty of napkins.
The view on America after living abroad (UK)
What is the biggest waste of electricity you’ve seen in a home you visited, were a guest in, or even in your own home?
Beijing and Canberra are sister cities. In the noughties there were exchanges of government employees between the cities. They were billeted with local families.
A lovely Chinese woman came to stay in my house after she found her first host untenable. I was the desperation destination.
She was the most incredible cook and delighted in preparing delicious meals for us. She was intelligent, interesting, diligently tidy and lovely to have around.
I entrusted the house to her and took the chance to take my boys camping at the beach. After a long day in the surf then dinner on the beach I came back to my car to find fourteen missed calls from Ai Le.
Now apparently in Beijing the heating is turned on or off at the discretion of the authorities. Heating is therefore seen as not only free but the height of indulgence.
The voice messages went from Ai Le’s desperate and lonely voice with the fire alarm blaring then rising in volume until the final crescendo when it sounded like every Chinese person in the southern hemisphere was gathered in my house, all competing to be heard above the still blaring alarm.
Ai Le, bless her, had turned the heating to tropical+ the moment we left. Eventually the fire alarm activated and she had no idea how to turn it off.
The power bill was monstrous and Ai Le embarrassed but we found the humour and all was well.
And no diplomacy was harmed in the making of this story.
Israel and America Are at War with Iran, Russia and China
Is it possible for the US or other nations to prevent a potential invasion of Taiwan by China?
Absolutely, and positively No. ZERO. No way. Never gonna happen.
…
Taiwan is a province of China, and it is so close to the mainland that the PLA can swim to it.
China has already shown that it can isolate, blockade and totally rubbish the island and there isn’t a God-damn thing that anyone can do about it.
Sanctions?
Ha ha ha ha ha
Tell me about it. Ain’t no one gonna follow sanctions on China except the most butt-hole sucking LGBQ+ moronic clown-show transvestites.
Threat of war?
Ha ha ha ha ha.
Have you forgotten what getting a good butt-reaming was like? Hey! Wanna have some fun. Go watch the interview of American veterans of the “Korean War” and what THEY have to say. Instead of listening to John Bolton and Mike Pompeo.
Trade embargo?
Oh my goodness, this is a belly laugh for certain. Ha ha ha ha
When Namibia, Africa is running 7G and 8G, the USA will be struggling with land-lines and cell-phone towers that struggle with obsolete 3G networks on dying batteries.
…
To take on China is to place a loaded .45 ACP to your temple and pull the trigger. It’s “death by cop”, and you know what, if you are so God-damn stupid to pull that one, you will deserve the nuclear radiation that comes with it.
Idiots. Suckers.
…
Update
I’m sorry. I must apologize. I sometimes really minimize really serious issues and distill it into something more palatable to the average person. Like this post. The reality is that it is gonna be much, much, MUCH worse.
The fact is, that any war between China and the “rules based insanity” that is the West today is gonna be a God-Damn cluster Fuck. That is a truth, and you all had best get your arms around this truth.
Trump can be President. Oprah Winfrey could be president. Joe Biden could be President. It won’t make any difference. The USA is run by the ignorant, and they are on a death-march to the meat-grinder, and you are duck taped to them.
Enjoy the ride.
Until it is over.
The One Question Women Are Not Ready To Answer
What is the worst bullying you have ever seen personally?
The worst recorded case of bullying that I know of is the case of Liu JinFeng.
main qimg 07fd7e3e7d62a557fccad5e9a36ebf6c lq
The one being executed in the photo is not her abuser but her.
Liu was raised through only primary school education, abused by her father since childhood. After her mum passed away, her stepfather and other relatives drove her out of the family. I surmise that she already had no one who cared about her by then.
A homeless and good looking woman in her teenage years is a total target for sexual abuse. Indeed, she was soon taken in by males, only to be raped and then discarded every time. Apparently, she was forced to undergo abortion as well.
Eventually, prostitution got the better of her and she got arrested during a prostitution crackdown. After one year in jail, the police sent her back to her stepfather, only to be sold to another family for 1000 RMB.
After the sex ride by the new abuser, she was sold again to another man by the surname Hu. Hu was an alcoholic and the worst of all the abusers Liu had to put up with. Liu made several escape attempts that Hu decided to chain her up with a 3 pound metal chain. She was still able to make it a few miles away with all that weight. This prompted Hu to break one of her legs to hinder her from further tries.
The climax took place when Hu left town for months, leaving her to the watch of his cousins. His cousins raped her, leading to the eventual birth of her son. This time around, Hu became maddened, whipped her naked and sliced her vagina while she was hanging upside down.
She survived the struggle, she awoke. Only to realize, her son has already been strangled to death by the devious Hu. She finally lost it.
She hacked Hu to death while he was sleeping in bed before setting the house on fire. This eventually led to her facing the death penalty for murder. Her execution took place in 1995 in the city of Xianyang, when she was just twenty years old. She died not even from defending her own honor, but her son’s.
The miscarriage of her justice circulated around the internet about a decade later when internet started getting usage in China. Today, you can still find photos of her headless body left in the snow post execution.
There are two issues reflected in her case which I find common in all cases of bullying.
Firstly, bully victims generally do not retaliate, or are simply unable to retaliate, until it is too late. Most victims of prolonged bullying, including me, report fear of further punishment from the abuser as the main reason for not voicing out.
Secondly, ironically as well, is that most bully victims meet their demise not because of lack of intervention from the law, but because of the law. The law is run by hard statements, it punishes anyone who breaks penal codes, blind to the form the breach took place. In the Western world, the law is somewhat more flexible, but not immune to this trend either. In the case of Liu, I would consider the law morally wrong.
As a victim of bullying for five years, there is little anyone can do to heal my wounds which have withered into scars by now. Sometimes, I just remind myself what Liu JinFeng went through was much worse.
The African Sahel is revolting against western neocolonialism – ejecting foreign troops and bases, devising alternative currencies, and challenging the old multinationals. Multipolarity, after all, cannot flower without resistance paving its path.
in various geographies is an inextricable byproduct of the long and winding process leading us toward a multipolar world. These two things – resistance to the Hegemon and the emergence of multipolarity – are absolutely complementary.
The Axis of Resistance in West Asia – across Arab and Muslim states – now finds as its soul sister the Axis of Resistance spanning the Sahel in Africa, west to east, from Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger to Chad, Sudan, and Eritrea.
3
Unlike Niger, where the change in power against neocolonialism was associated with a military coup, in Senegal, the power change comes straight from the polls.
Senegal plunged itself into a new era with the landslide victory of Bassirou Diomaye Faye, 44, in nationwide elections on 24 March. A former tax inspector who had just spent a fortnight stint in jail, Faye emerged with the profile of an underdog pan-African leader to turn the ‘most stable democracy in Africa,’ under French puppet incumbent Macky Sall, upside down.
The incoming Senegalese president now joins Ibrahim Traore, 36, in Burkina Faso, Aby Ahmed, 46, in Ethiopia, Andry Rajoelina, 48, in Madagascar, as well as future superstar Julius Malema, 44, in South Africa as part of the new, young pan-African generation focused on sovereignty. In his election manifesto, Faye pledged to reclaim Senegal’s sovereignty no less than eighteen times.
Geoeconomics is key to these shifts. As Senegal becomes a substantial oil and gas producer, Faye will aim to renegotiate mining and energy contracts, including the largest ones with British Petroleum (BP) and UK gold mine operator, Endeavor Mining.
Crucially, he plans to ditch the exploitative CFA franc – the French-controlled currency system used in 14 African states – even setting up a new currency as part of reshaping relations with neocolonial power France, Senegal’s top trading partner. Faye, echoing Comrade Xi Jinping, wants a “win-win” partnership.
Enter the Alliance of the Sahel States
Faye has not yet been clear on whether he intends to kick the French military out of Senegal. Were that to happen, the blow to Paris would be unprecedented, as embattled Petit Roi Emmanuel Macron and the French establishment consider Senegal the key player when it comes to blockading landlocked Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso, which have already left Paris in the (Sahel) dust.
The three latter states, which have just formed an Alliance of the Sahel States (Alliance des Etats du Sahel, AES, in the original French), are not only a major Paris nightmare after serial humiliations but also a big American headache – epitomized in the spectacular breakdown of military cooperation between Washington and Nigerien capital Niamey.
The culprit, according to the US Deep State, is, of course, Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Obviously, no one in the US Beltway has been paying due attention to the Russia–Africa diplomatic flurry since last year, involving all key players from the Sahel to the new African BRICS members Egypt and Ethiopia.
In sharp contrast to its prior regard of Niger as a staunch ally in the Sahel, Washington is now forced to present a calendar date to get its troops out of Niger – after a military cooperation deal was annulled. The Pentagon cannot be involved in military training in Nigerien territory anymore.
There are two key bases – in Agadez and Niamey – which the Pentagon spent over $150 million to build. Niamey was finished only in 2019 and is managed by the US military’s African Command, AFRICOM.
Operational objectives are, predictably, shrouded in mystery. The Niamey base is essentially an intel center, processing data collected by MQ-9 Reaper drones. The US Air Force also uses the Dirkou Aerodrome as a base for operations in the Sahel.
Now things get really exciting, because the presence of a de facto CIA drone base in Dirkou, manned by a handful of operatives, is not even acknowledged. This dark base allows intel collection everywhere in Central Africa, from west to north. Call it another classic example of former CIA director Mike Pompeo’s “We Lie, We Cheat, We Steal.”
There are roughly 1,000 US troops in Niger who may soon face ejection. The Americans are trying everything to stem the bleeding. Only this month, US Undersecretary of State for Africa Molly Phee visited Niger twice. Losing bases in Niger will translate into Washington following Paris in losing control of the Sahel – as Niger gets closer to Russia and Iran.
These bases are not essential to exercise surveillance over the Bab al-Mandeb; it’s all about the Sahel, with drones operating on their limit and violating every sovereign air space in sight.
Incidentally, a hefty delegation from Niamey visited Moscow in January. Then, last week, Putin discussed security cooperation in phone calls with Mali’s interim President, Assimi Goita, and Niger’s military junta President Abdourahmane Tchiani before talking to the Republic of Congo’s President Denis Nguesso.
Ivory Coast: The Empire turn-around
Pro-west puppet regimes are dwindling fast all across the African continent. The Alliance of the Sahel States – Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger – may be the vanguard of an African Axis of Resistance, but there’s more, in the form of South Africa, Ethiopia, and Egypt as full BRICS members – not to mention serious candidates for the next wave of BRICS+, such as Algeria and Nigeria.
Russia, diplomatically, and China, commercially, plus the full weight of the Russia–China strategic partnership, are clearly focused on the long game – counting on Africa as a whole as a key multipolar player. Additional evidence was provided once again during the multipolar conference last month in Moscow, where charismatic pan-African leader Kemi Seba from Benin was one of the superstars.
Pan-Eurasian diplomatic circles even allow themselves to joke about the recent hissy fits by Le Petit Roi in Paris. The utter humiliation of France in the Sahel is likely one of the drivers of Macron’s chest-thumping threats to send French troops to Ukraine – who would be turned into steak tartare by the Russians in record time – and his eagerness to support Armenia’s current Russophobic stunts.
Historically, the fact remains, that Africans considered the former USSR much more pliable and even supportive when it came to siphoning natural resources; that goodwill has now also been transferred to China.
As a regional integration platform, the Alliance of the Sahel States has everything it takes to become a game-changer. Senegal under Faye may eventually join, but Guinea already offers the geographical capacity to provide the alliance with credible maritime access. That will lead to the progressive extinction of the western-controlled, Nigeria-based ECOWAS.
Yet, never dismiss the Hegemon’s mighty tentacles. The Pentagon master plan does not entail abandoning Africa to a multipolar Russia–China–Iran sphere of influence. Yet no one across the Sahel’s Axis of Resistance buys the US ‘terror threat’ card anymore. There was virtually zero terror in Africa until 2011, when NATO turned Libya into a wasteland, then put boots on the ground and erected military bases across the continent.
So far, the Alliance of the Sahel States is winning the sovereignty-first information war, hands-down. But there’s no question the Empire will strike back. After all, the whole game is tied to the Beltway’s supreme paranoia of Russia taking over the Sahel and Central Africa.
Enter the Ivory Coast, now that Senegal may be about to start flirting with the Alliance of the Sahel States.
Ivory Coast is more strategic to Washington than, for instance, Chad because Ivorian territory is very close to the Sahel alliance. Still, Chad has already recalibrated its foreign policy, which is no longer Western-controlled and comes with a new emphasis on getting closer to Moscow.
What lies ahead for Empire? Perhaps US ‘anti-terror’ drones shared with Paris at the French base in the Ivory Coast to keep the Sahel alliance in check. Call it the humiliated Gallic rooster embracing the Hegemon in West Africa without receiving even the crumbs of a stale croissant.
Passport Bros TRIGGERING The Young Turks As Men REJECT Leftist Utopias For Traditional Life Abroad
Something’s Up: Another City Declares “Emergency” over April 8 Solar Eclipse
There’s something creepy going on in connection with the coming solar eclipse on April 8 and it warrants our attention: Numerous cities have declared states of emergency . . . for an eclipse???? No, there’s more to this than we’re being told . . .
This weekend, Niagara Falls Canada declared a state of emergency for the coming solar eclipse on April 8, as 1 million people are expected to flood the area.
The Ontario side of the falls has started to prepare for the expected influx in visitors coming to see the total social eclipse in early April.
The famous falls have been listed by National Geographic as one of the best places to see the eclipse – a phenomena not seen in the area since 1979. The city is within the path where the moon will entirely block the sun for a few minutes.
Mayor Jim Diodati estimated the city would see the most visitors in a single day on April 8 with an estimated 1 million expected. On average, the city see 14 million visit per year.
The state of emergency, which was announced Thursday, will allow the city to execute additional planning to help prepare for traffic jams, cell phone network overloads, and a higher need for emergency services, and more.
BELL COUNTY, TX – Way back on February 22, Bell County Texas issued a local state of emergency, anticipating a significant surge in visitors and strained resources.
The county expects its population of 400,000 to double in the days leading up to and after the eclipse, “due to our location in the Path of Totality,” when the moon completely covers the sun.
The county expects traffic congestion, fuel shortages and strains on first responders, hospitals, and food. The declaration will help the county coordinate with the state Department of Emergency Management if state assistance is needed.
The declaration also requires property owners to register with the county if they are hosting events like watch parties or camping for more than 50 people, as well as provide “adequate” bathroom and waste disposal facilities.
Bell County says registration information will help public safety officials and first responders during a period when roads and highways may be stressed, and responders may be impeded by population conditions.
TRAVIS COUNTY, TX — On March 10, Travis County said it would take emergency measures ahead of the total solar eclipse set to take place in exactly one month.
Kaufman County, TX — On March 27 Officials in Kaufman County issued a disaster declaration ahead of the April 8 total solar eclipse, saying they expect the county’s population to double and for traffic to be a major issue.
“Our current population is somewhere around 200,000. We’re expecting another 200,000,” Steve Howie said. Howie is the Kaufman County Emergency Management Coordinator. “We can’t handle 400,000 vehicles and people in this county in one quick spurt like that. So, it’s a huge concern.”
The declaration was in anticipation of large crowds, increased traffic and strains on first responders, hospitals and roads related to the eclipse. Travis County Judge Andy Brown issued the declaration.
ELSEWHERE IN TEXAS –
More communities across the Lone Star have issued disaster declarations due to the threat their populations might triple as spectators around the U.S. grapple with what locale will have the best view of the Great North American Eclipse.
Officials in Kerr, Bell and Travis counties have stated that disaster declarations or state of emergencies will go into effect before a rush of visitors swarm the Central Texas communities on April 8.
In Pittsburg, with a population of about 4,500, city leaders are expecting double or triple that number of people to be around town for the days leading up to the eclipse and on April 8, Mayor David Abernathy said.
First responders are anticipating more need for their services because of the high number of people in the area. Yet those calls might not go through if cell phone and internet networks are overloaded with people, Abernathy said. That’s the “worst-case scenario,” he said.
“Everybody’s going to be streaming video,” Abernathy said. “They’re going to be talking to their friends. They’re going to be in the downtime … downloading movies. And so, just that onslaught of people is just going to overload the system that’s designed for certain population.
“When you start losing communications, like cell phones, which almost everybody relies on now for emergency messages for contacting relatives or calling their employees back to work … then you’re just back in the 1800s, basically.”
If cellular networks go down, people might not be able to get calls through to 911 in the event of an emergency. However, if calls won’t go through because cellular networks are overloaded, people might be able to text 911.
In the event of a cellular network collapse, local radio stations will provide needed information, Abernathy said. City officials will post information around town listing the stations that people should tune into for emergency information.
If internet networks slow down or collapse because of high use, credit card machines might not work. The City of Mount Pleasant advises people to bring cash with them to make purchases.
Grocery stores could run out of food because of the higher-than-normal number of people in a given community, Abernathy said. And with the higher influx of vehicles, gas stations are likely to run out of fuel as travelers enter and exit the region.
The City of Mount Pleasant advises people to make backup communication plans with others to prepare for a potential loss of cellular networks.
INDIANA — On March 27, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb signed a disaster order letting Indiana call on a nationwide aid compact should the upcoming eclipse stress the state’s emergency response systems.
Indiana expects hundreds of thousands of visitors for the April 8 event, plus plenty of in-state travel.
NEW YORK STATE — Two weeks ahead of the April 8 eclipse, Governor Kathy Hochul updated New Yorkers on the state’s preparations to ensure everyone can have a safe and memorable viewing experience. In October 2022, Governor Hochul convened an Interagency Task Force comprised of nearly two dozen state agencies and authorities.The Task Force has been collaborating for the past 17 months on plans to ensure everyone can safely enjoy the eclipse.
New York State is expecting hundreds of thousands of visitors, and Governor Hochul is reminding travelers of several tips to ensure the smoothest possible experience for everyone. Governor Hochul is advising travelers to get to their destination early and plan on staying late to avoid the most traffic, allow for extra travel time, and travel prepared with water and snacks. Additionally, drivers should never pull over on the side of the road to ensure first responders can get by in an emergency.
“The April 8 eclipse is a once in a generation experience, and there’s no better place to view it than in our beautiful state,” Governor Hochul said. “New York is ready to welcome millions of visitors, and my administration has been working hard to ensure everyone in the path of the eclipse can safely enjoy this rare event. I encourage anyone traveling for this experience to plan on arriving early to their destination and staying late to enjoy all of what our state has to offer.”
HAL TURNER COMMENTARY
The states, cities, counties, and towns mentioned above are just a small sampling of what has been going on to “prepare” for this eclipse. Sorry, but none of this seems normal to me — at all.
Cellular network collapse? Internet collapse? Grocery stores running out of food? Disaster Declarations? Gas stations running out of fuel? No, none of this seems normal to me at all.
It’s starting to look to me as if something ELSE is going on. But . . . . what?
During an eclipse, with the sun blocked, people may be able to see things up in the sky that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to see because the sunlight is so strong and blocks the view of things in space.
Could it be that something ELSE is going on . . . maybe something that people will suddenly be able to SEE once the sun is blocked for a few minutes?
Might people PANIC over what they see?
What if . . . .
What if something __is__ coming at us? It’s not like we can avoid it. There’s no Bruce Willis as “Harry Stamper” from the movie “Armageddon” to drill holes in an asteroid to drop nukes, blow it up, and save the planet.
Is it possible that governments have known about something for months, and have concealed it?
When I read that New York State has had a TASK FORCE working for the past 17 MONTHS, that kind of sealed the deal over my suspicions. It seems to me that absolutely NOBODY does something like that over an eclipse.
I’m getting a little creeped-out by all these disaster declarations. All this for just a solar eclipse? Sorry, I won’t buy it.
I’ll tell you what I __will__ do: Top-off my emergency food, water, medicine, communications gear (CB and HAM Radio) and stay close to home. In fact, my wife and I agreed over the weekend that we will be at our bugout location in Pennsylvania for this . . . . eclipse.
No, not to see it . . . but to be away from the New York metropolitan area for whatever might __actually__ be the situation.
Apricot-Onion Wings
Apricot Onion Wings
Yield: 20 to 25 servings
Ingredients
1 (5 pound) bag frozen chicken wings
1 (10 ounce) jar apricot preserves
1 (1 ounce) packet dry onion soup mix
1 (16 ounce) bottle Catalina-style salad dressing
Instructions
Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
Cut the chicken wings into individual pieces and place on two lightly greased cookie sheets.
Spread apricot preserves over wings.
Sprinkle dry onion soup mix over wings, then pour Catalina dressing all over.
Bake for 1 hour.
Gerry Anderson’s Ride of Fame: Top 5 Iconic Vehicles Unveiled
Why are products made in China have different qualities by country?
Not only by country. In fact not even by companies or brands.
Being a sourcer of exported manufactured products in China for the past 10 years, I can tell you one simple truth, it’s all about cost.
Lower manufacturer’s cost equals lower quality. Higher manufacturer’s cost equals higher quality. It’s as simple as that.
Note : I said manufacturer’s cost, it’s not retail selling price.
To attract price sensitive consumers, most businesses compete by offering lower selling price. It’s undeniably the most direct way to get people interested.
But, there is always a difference. Let’s look at some examples.
Compare the 2 products below.
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They look identical, but the price difference is about 4x. So what’s the difference?
I choose clothing because they are the easiest to see a difference of quality. I ordered a piece of this seemingly same item, from both factories, telling them it’s a sample for my client.
To show the difference in quality for the reader benefit, I did a simple light test. I hold up both pants to the same bright light source and took a photo. These are the results.
This one cost RMB 15
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This cost RMB 59.96
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From the photo, you can see that there are some light going through the fabric for the cheaper item.
Firstly, you can see the difference in thread density in the material used. The RMB 15 piece is obviously alot thinner and feels cheap. The RMB 59.96 piece is a lot heavier and material is soft and smooth. Color wise, the RMB 59.96 piece is a lot darker and the cheap one while also being black, don’t look that dark. So the fabric dye used is also obviously different. The workmanship is also different, the cheaper one uses traditional machine sewing while the expensive one uses what we call 四针六线 or 4 needles 6 stitches machine sewing giving the joining parts more flexibility and strength. Even the drawstrings at the waist are different, one is obvioisly thicker than the other. Waist rubber bands are also thicker for the more expensive one.
It is obvious that alot of additional cost goes into the more expensive one in terms of material usage and manufacturing process. This difference in manufacturer cost gives you a better quality product for the exact same thing you see in the photo.
This difference is not limited to countries, it’s the same everywhere, but it is still true that the Chinese industrial strength gives you more bang for your buck than other countries.
———————————
Some people might say that if we stick to a certain brand, quality can be assured. But what I’m going to tell you might change your views.
A different product from the same brand might have difference in quality due to different market needs.
For example, Midea, a chinese household electronics brand have different factories producing their product. Some models are only available as online sales models, meaning not available via traditional retail. Why is this so? It’s because the online retail sector is very price sensitive, to capture the e-commerce market, Midea needs to come up with competitively priced products to get their market share online, and that means a reduction in quality (based on the earlier example). But to do that would bring down their entire price range which would affect their branding, so they decided to come up with only some models which are only available online, and these models are obviously not as good as the other models that are only available in retail stores where they sell at a higher price.
At first, many consumers don’t see the difference, but after a couple of years, the Chinese consumers started to see that there is indeed a difference between these models in terms of performance and durability….and price. For some weird reason, most Chinese I know seem to understand the term 一分钱一分货，very well. It means you pay for what you get. It’s a simple term, but some people can take years and many lessons in life to realise how true it is.
I have seen factories being able to produce the rusty screw driver to an equipvalent of a Hastens bed, it all depends on how much it costs to make them and how much the buyers are willing to pay for them.
So regardless of countries, factories or brands, the fundamental reason for the difference in quality is manufacturer’s cost.
Scott Ritter: Ukraine will be DESTROYED as Putin Exposes NATO’s Fragility
What is the reason for China’s smaller Navy compared to the US? How would China’s Navy perform in a conflict with the US?
Not true. China has the largest navy in the world. especially considering that there is no way that 100% of the United States Navy would sail to the South China Sea to do battle on Chinese territory.
How would it preform?
Both sides would experience massive causalities.
One thing is certain, after the dust settles there will not be any aircraft carriers, VTOL carriers left. The USN will be a launching SLBM’s and China will go duke-nukem. Guam would be gone, as would be Hawaii and San Diego. We can also expect Newport Beach and San Francisco to be erased.
You weren’t expecting this answer, eh?
Well it is REALITY. Deal with it.
…
Taking it further…
The conflict might start out conventionally, but the moment that one carrier group is in Davy Jone’s locker, it’s gonna be nuke-em city. The DF-41’s and the Russian Satan missiles are gonna be flyin’. And they won’t be stoppin’ for shit.
Five minutes from launch to nuclear scrubbing.
Quick. Clean. Sterile.
There is NO WAY…
Absolutely NO WAY that the USN will survive a conflict with China. You can add vessels via the QUAD, ARKUS and various other proxies, but honestly, it won’t make any difference.
…
WHY?
Once nuclear deterrence fails…
…and a war with China proves that it HAS failed…
…All that is left is to use the most lethal strategic nuclear weapons in the arsenal. And use them on ALL and EVERY threat.
…
Given the gung-ho nature of the war-mongering neocon Congress, if you are in the USN, I would get out now!
The MAGNIFICENT RISE of Passport Bros in Modern Dating
Imagine living in a dystopian western society just to work all day, pay taxes, and get nothing in return . That is America.
Xi Jinping walks with U.S. top brass – Talks are ‘open and frank’
After weeks and months of closely following the mounting conflicts between China’s coast guards and their Philippine counterparts in the disputes over the Ren’ai Reef, or the Second Thomas Shoal, it is pleasing to read the latest news that President Xi Jinping is now walking – with a top U.S. banker and a great variety of other top U.S. leaders from all fields in Beijing – and talking with them amicably about doing business, building ties and trusts – and toasting the success of bilateral relations since his meeting with President Joe Biden in San Francisco last November.
It’s Ching Ming in China.
With it comes the gentle breeze of warm Spring air, the blossoming of flowers, and dreaming of a beautiful world – fostered by thriving bankers, businesspersons, top scientists and leading scholars, envisioning a dream of mountains and rivers, and birds chipping in the air.
“What a wonderful world!” Sings Bing Crosby, the great musician.
With Xi, the Chinese leader walking with American http://V.I.Ps
in unisons in Beijing and talking amicably about how to cooperatively bring business success and economic development, I see a rainbow coming after a storm.
Xi Jinping has called for closer trade tides with the U.S. during a meeting with top American business leaders in Beijing that comes amid a steady improvement in relations.
Xi emphasized yesterday (Wednesday, March 27) the mutually beneficial economic ties between the world’s two largest economies, despite heavy U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports and Washington’s accusations of undue Communist Party influence, unfair trade barriers and theft of intellectual property.
China’s economy has struggled to recover from severe self-imposed restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic that it lifted only at the end of 2022, but Xi said China was again contributing to world economic growth in the double digits percentagewise.
“Sino-U.S. relations are one of the most important bilateral relations in the world. Whether China and the United States cooperate or confront each other has a bearing on the well-being of the two peoples and the future and destiny of mankind,” Xi was cited as saying by China’s official Xinhua News Agency.
Participants at the meeting included Stephen A. Schwarzman, the billionaire head of the investment firm Blackstone.
Trade and tariffs have increasingly drawn attention in the runup to the U.S. presidential election, and the Biden administration has shown little sign of moderating punitive measures against Chinese imports imposed by his predecessor and assumed rival in the November polls, Donald Trump.
U.S. officials have renewed concerns over Chinese industrial policy practices and overcapacity, and the resulting impact on U.S. workers and companies that they blame in part on China’s massive trade surplus that amounted to more than $279 billion last year, its lowest level in about a decade.
China’s formerly highly abrasive tone toward the U.S. has significantly softened in recent months, particularly since Xi and Biden met in San Francisco in November last year. Officials such as Antony Blinken have visited, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is reportedly due to travel to Beijing again to meet top leaders next month.
However, Xi’s administration has maintained a hard line on issues it considered its “core interests.” An ardent nationalist and son of one of the founders of the People’s Republic, Xi appears determined to maintain strict party discipline while drawing in foreign investment to shore up the economy.
“The respective successes of China and the United States create opportunities for each other,” Xi was cited as saying, by Xinhua, “As long as both sides regard the other as partners, respect each other, peacefully coexist and join together for win-win results, China-U.S. relations will improve.” (Source: The Standard/AP)
In the last century, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enli, the leading founders of the People’s Republic of China forged a relationship with Nixon’s America, which fought an Independence War against the British Imperialists in centuries past.
In this century, Xi Jinping, a socialist and nationalist walking, befriending American capitalists, and talking and toasting each other’s successes in economic terms. Deng Xiaoping, Xi’s predecessor, couldn’t be happier that his initiation of “opening-up” to America and the West is now on a new page of great success.
Who says ideological differences cannot be profitably blended into a refreshing glass of cocktail, be it Singapore Sling, or Bloody Mary!
In history, the British Imperialists were able to blend with the U.S. Capitalists into a wonderful concoction. And now, centuries later, the Chinese Socialists are seeking to repeat history, and improvising it by forging a stable friendship with the American Capitalists.
Why not?
That the seeds of Marxism were sown in rural China have now grown into trees of Socialism, turning a poor country into a world factory, and now and in the future making it an industrial powerhouse.
This, too, is an experiment.
Had Chiang Kai Shak won the Chinese Civil War, China would have become a Capitalist society with cut-throat capitalism as its guiding principle.
That Lenin’s Russian revolution ended in the Cold War – and its eventual collapse is an abortion of birth, a bloody historical tragedy.
But China’s revolution is guided all along by the nation’s pluralistic culture and ancient civilization, meandering into now a river – that eventually becomes one with the sea, the South China Sea.
All these was done under the glaring eyes of and yet with the blessings of some of the superb American presidents, notably among them Presidents Richard M. Nixon, and Jimmy Carter and many other doting American leaders in the great U.S. society.
Or else, China’s current grand achievement would not have been humanly possible. Not to mention miraculously lifting 800 million people out of abject poverty.
Right before our eyes, the Chinese socialists and the American capitalists are repeating history, improvising it, turning it into yet another play book of great success. Made possible by the spirit of understanding and cooperation.
The secret of their success?
These leaders walk the talk.
Men need a plan
Why is China trying to fake their economy and their military capability?
Do you know the Trade Surplus of China is $ 843 Billion a year
This means over the past 15 years, Chinas cumulative trade surplus is a whopping $ 8.28 Trillion
Yet their Foreign Reserves are around $ 3.32 Trillion
So where is the rest of the $ 5 Trillion
Let’s take away $ 2.10 Trillion to pay off Chinas External Debts
That’s still $ 3 Trillion of money that China has stashed away somewhere in some corner of the globe
It simply took this money into a CHINESE WALL so that tomorrow if it’s official reserves are frozen, it still has nearly $ 3 Trillion worth reserves left
So now with such a trade imbalance between the Yuan and the Dollar
Why is the Yuan only at 7.07 to 1 USD?
That’s because the Yuan is kept deliberately weak by China so that it’s exports remain competitive
The real value of the Yuan is closer to 4.74 to 1 USD
By this number , the Nominal GDP of China rises to = 127.2 Trillion Yuan / 4.74 = $ 26.83 Trillion
So realistically the GDP of China in USD Terms must be $ 26.83 Trillion and should have already beaten the United States
So why doesn’t China play this card and freely allow it’s currency to peg at 4.74 to a Dollar?
Simple
That would make their exports expensive and suddenly the Export demand will be affected and China will begin to Stagnate and within five to seven years China may stop their GDP at $ 33–34 Trillion and stop there.
Instead if China keeps the Yuan weak, China can keep their exports high, manage to handle their huge production volumes and keep growing until maybe 2032–2033 and THEN RELEASE THE YUAN FOR A FREE CONVERTIBILITY
Maybe grow to $ 21 Trillion or so and then hit the peg at 5 to 1 USD and reach a Nominal GDP of $ 41 Trillion by 2050 which is the goal
So I strongly believe
Chinas Economy has a nominal GDP closer to $ 25 Trillion than $ 18.50 Trillion
Chinas Actual Net Reserves as closer to $ 4 Trillion than $ 1 Trillion
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Why?
Simple
Sun Tzu:
The Measure of your true strength should be a surprise even to you let alone your enemy. Always imagine the Enemy to be ten times more powerful than he is presumed to be and then plan on how to survive and subdue such an enemy
What is the upcoming war between China and the US?
The strategic interest of the US dictates avoiding confrontation with another nuclear power to prevent mutually assured destruction (MAD), which would destroy the American Empire including the homeland. This also explains why the US refrained from deploying troops to Ukraine and limited its support to material and strategic assistance.
Throughout the first Cold War, spanning from the 1950s to the 1990s, direct warfare between the US and Russia did not occur. Likewise, in the current second Cold War since 2012 between China and the US, is unlikely to happen.
Fomenting discord among other vassals, such as Japan and the Philippines, to confront China, or instigating internal strife among Chinese factions across the Taiwan Strait, not only serves America’s interests but also rallies public support for US military endeavors. This rationale also underpins the US’s decision not to renew the mutual defense treaty with Taiwan after terminating it in the 1980s. Furthermore, should the Strawberry Army in Taiwan falter in defending the island, the US can easily shift blame onto Taiwanese forces, particularly if they fail to resist the Chinese unification process to the last man standing like what is happening in Ukraine.
Some Pictures
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Ukraine – When Opining War Experts Can’t Read Maps
No one expects that western officials are knowledgeable – especially not with regards to facts. But some exceed even the lowest expectations one might have – and no, not to the upside.
Consider this op-ed by Evelyn N. Farkas, published two days ago:
The congressional faction that opposes Ukraine assistance shares a common talking point with the Kremlin — that Ukraine is losing the war with Russia anyway. Having just returned from Ukraine, where I met with top Ukrainian officials and participated in a security conference, I have found substantial evidence to the contrary.
All Farkas did was to talk with some Ukraine boosters in Kiev. She has penned down whatever they claimed and now tries to sell that as the real. She thinks she is qualified to do so because she once held a high position in U.S. Defense Department:
Evelyn N. Farkas, Ph.D., is executive director of the McCain Institute and former deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia.
This however proves that she is extremely miss-informed and totally unqualified to make any judgment:
While the Ukrainians hardly welcome a new Russian offensive in the spring or summer, they believe it is likely. The officials we met with explained that Putin needs to show progress, some kind of victory to justify renewed mobilization and, emboldened now by his fake elections, he is likely to move on the ground and may try once again to open a land corridor to Crimea. But such decisions may plant the seeds of military overreach.
The land corridor between Crimea and the rest of the Russian Federation was established in early March 2022, less than two weeks after the current phase of the war had started.
At that time even the maps by the neo-conned Institute for the Study of War said so:
That land corridor has existed since and has never been interrupted. The Ukrainian ‘counter attack’ last summer was supposed to break through that corridor. It failed. Meanwhile Russia is strengthening the territory and increasing its value by building a new railway (red) along the coast of the Sea of Azov which will significantly shorten the train connection along the corridor.
Ukraine also promises to strike at the railway, which the Russian Federation has been building for more than a year along the Sea of Azov in the occupied territory of Ukraine. It can be a serious problem, says Kirill Budanov, chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.”The construction process is almost complete, and this may pose a serious problem for us,” Budanov said, making it clear that the Ukrainian military is already preparing to launch strikes on the railway. “We have experience in this, and it is much easier than the issue of the Crimean Bridge,” Budanov said.
Budanov’s latest operation, last month’s incursion into Russia towards Belgograd, was a serious failure. The troops involved had extremely high losses.
The Russian military will expect saboteurs at the new rail line and will know how to handle those. It also has its own railway troops which can repair damages to train lines in a shorter time than it takes to sabotage those.
As for Farkas – one really wonders how such a blunder could pass by her intern who wrote that piece, her own eyes, as well as those of the editors of The Hill who supposedly read through it before it was published.
This says something about the quality of analysis coming out of Washington DC – and no, not to the upside.
Posted by b on April 2, 2024 at 9:22 UTC | Permalink
What is life like for someone with a net worth between $10–20 million?
I’m in my mid-50s and my current net worth is in the middle of this range, or about $15 million.
As others have noted, I’ve taken care of most of my family’s financial needs. We have quite a bit of money saved for retirement, and my children’s college education needs are taken care of through heavily funded 529 accounts.
We live in a nice house (about 4,000 square feet) in a nice neighborhood, in a nice suburb near a major U.S. city. We’ve lived in this house for about 19 years and moved in when my net worth was maybe $1–2 million, so we haven’t upgraded as we’ve become richer.
We did buy a vacation house eight years ago in the mountains, and typically enjoy it during the winter months for skiing. We have nice cars, but tend to hold onto them for awhile — I got a new BMW last year after 8 years with my prior car only because I had new drivers in the household and we needed another vehicle.
And five years ago, I finally joined a country club after being an avid golfer for 40 years.
Other than the cars, you wouldn’t know we were anything other than middle class — no family member wears bling or otherwise shows anything that screams wealth. I wear an Apple Watch unless I’m at a formal function (my “dress” watch is a Tag Heuer — a nice watch but certainly not showy).
I still work full-time, in a job I enjoy that typically pays me $600k – $700k per year. And all of my kids work, including the two in high school (they work part-time after school three days a week). All of my children attended public schools through high school.
However, the biggest factor influencing our lifestyle is my wife’s disability. She is totally disabled, is wheelchair-bound when we go out (she uses a walker in the house), and hasn’t been able to drive in over a decade. She has help during the day four days a week, but looking after her is a large burden for us as a family.
So — we go to concerts a few times a year and out to dinner about once a month, but major travel is a lot of work. For our last flying vacation two summers ago, I needed to carry her on and off the plane to her seat. And we need disabled accommodations wherever we go, as bathrooms in particular can be very hazardous for her.
And despite assumptions people might make given our high net worth, I do the dishes in the kitchen after dinner, cook during weekends, do weekend laundry and shopping, and most of the other household chores. With my wife’s limitations, it’s a necessity.
In summary, no one should feel sorry for us, as we have the financial means to deal with our situation. But I’d trade almost all of my wealth to restore my wife’s health if it were possible.
Chili Flavored Chicken Wings
Ingredients
1 packet chili spice mix
1/4 cup cornmeal
2 tablespoons parsley flakes
4 pounds chicken wings
1/2 stick butter
Chili Flavored Chicken Wings
Instructions
Combine chili spice packet, cornmeal and parsley flakes in a zip-top bag.
Add chicken wings a few at a time until coated.
Remove wings and place on a buttered cookie sheet.
Repeat this process until all wings are coated with chili flavored mix and placed on buttered cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes, then turn and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
The Transformation of Prof. Jeffrey Sachs
America’s Most Consequential Ideological Regime Defector
Ron Unz • April 1, 2024 • 6,800 Words • 156 Comments
Two weeks ago I published an article on Prof. Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University, prompted by some of his recent public remarks.
During one of his regular weekly interviews on Andrew Napolitano’s podcast, he had briefly stated that the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy had been the result of a conspiracy involving elements of the CIA. He went on to suggest that the killing might have been “the most decisive event in modern American history” and wondered whether any of our subsequent presidents had been anything more than mere “factotums of the system,” completely subject to the powerful hidden groups that actually control our society.
Such sentiments would hardly be uncommon within fringe, conspiratorial circles, but in sixty years I do not think they have ever been publicly expressed by an individual of Prof. Sachs’ elite establishment stature, and others shared my opinion.
A dozen years ago I had discovered that since the early 1990s a prominent progressive academic I know had been absolutely convinced that the JFK assassination had indeed been engineered by those sinister forces, but he had always carefully kept those views to himself. He now told me he was shocked by Sachs’ public courage on the matter, although even a year before he had already been tremendously impressed by Sachs’ remarkable candor: “no question he’s the most important public intellectual we have.”
That previous endorsement had been prompted by some of Sachs’ earlier statements on other matters. As chairman of the Covid Commission, Sachs had declared that the virus responsible for killing more than a million Americans and perhaps another twenty million worldwide had almost certainly been produced in a biolab, while he denounced the U.S. government for desperately working to conceal those facts. After the 2022 outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, Sachs had explained that the underlying cause had been the 2014 American overthrow of the democratically-elected Ukrainian government and the years of NATO provocations against Russia that followed, with all of these dangerous policies being a result of the unbroken stranglehold that the Neocons had enjoyed over our country’s foreign policy for more than thirty years. And on Bloomberg TV, he stated that America had obviously destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines, Europe’s most important civilian energy infrastructure, thereby committing the greatest act of industrial terrorism in world history.
In late 2022 these developments had led me to publish an article on the remarkably outspoken Columbia University scholar, and since that time all his activities have further strengthened my verdict. All of us can say whatever we like on a corner of the Internet, but I emphasized that when a figure of very high international standing takes that same position, the impact is considerably different:
Until just a few months ago, I doubt there were many American academics more solidly situated in the topmost ranks of our elite mainstream establishment than Prof. Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University.
In 1983 he gained Harvard University tenure at the remarkably young age of 28, then spent the next 19 years as a professor at that august academic institution; by the early 1990s the New York Timeswas already hailing him as the world’s most important figure in his field. Lured to Columbia University in 2002, he has spent the last couple of decades teaching there and also directing a couple of its research organizations, most recently the Center for Sustainable Development. TIME Magazine has twice ranked him among the world’s 100 most influential individuals, and for nearly twenty years he served as Special Advisor to several Secretary-Generals of the United Nations, while publishing many hundreds of articles and op-eds on a wide variety of subjects in our most influential media outlets.
It would be difficult to construct a more illustrious and establishmentarian curriculum vitae for an international academic figure…
Although he has retained the subdued manner and careful phraseology of a mild academic, in recent months the incendiary content of his published articles and his public statements have exploded across the global landscape, reaching many millions who might otherwise never have questioned what they were so uniformly being told by all our mainstream media organs. His critics defending that orthodoxy must surely believe that he has gone dangerously rogue, and given the enormous weight of his past credibility, I suspect that the phrase “rogue elephant” has sometimes entered their thoughts.
Last month, Napolitano took a short break from his show to speak at a Vatican conference on the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas, and after his return he thanked Sachs for having arranged that invitation. Sachs himself had also attended as a speaker, and Napolitano expressed his amazement that the American economist had been greeted with such admiring recognition by the Roman Catholic cardinals who attended, almost suggesting that they had treated him as a conquering hero.
Sachs’ influence is hardly confined to those Princes of the Church. A central element of the West’s power is its overwhelming control over the global media infrastructure, whose continual stream of propaganda shapes the ideas and beliefs of most of the world’s population, even including political leaders, multi-billionaires, and influential celebrities. A handful of publications sit at the apex of that media hierarchy, with the Economist certainly being one of these, and given the dramatic recent decline in quality of the New York Times, that former publication might now possibly even rank as first among equals. Since 2015, the top Economist editor has been Zanny Minton Beddoes, whose first job out of college was working as a young assistant to Sachs during his highly successful early 1990s restructuring of Poland’s post-Communist economy. Although I know nothing of their relationship, I assume she spent most of the last three decades filled with admiration for her early former mentor, and if so, she must surely take his highly controversial remarks of the last couple of years quite seriously, even if she understands that they cannot possibly be mentioned in print.
Sachs’ personal background includes some memorable events. In a couple of his discussions on the roots of the Ukraine conflict, he recalled that in 1991 he was seated in a room discussing economic policy with Russia’s top leadership when all of them were suddenly informed that the Soviet Union had officially been dissolved, allowing him to experience a historical moment shared by few if any other Americans.
Over the last few months, he has been extremely outspoken in his denunciation of Israel’s ongoing slaughter of tens of thousands of helpless civilians in Gaza, even declaring that Israel was controlled by “a criminal government,” and he had regularly emphasized the need for international organizations to take public action on the matter. Soon afterward, South Africa successfully charged Israel with genocide before the International Court of Justice, whose distinguished jurists affirmed those accusations in a series of near-unanimous rulings. Although I have no evidence, I suspected at the time that Sachs may have used his extensive network of influential global connections to help set that legal project into motion.
I’ve also noticed that despite Sachs’ extremely outspoken public statements, none of those groups and organizations that so fiercely monitor political speech in America have dared to publicly attack him. I think they realize that his international stature is simply too great and any such failed attacks would merely make them look weak and ineffective.
After publishing that recent article, I assumed that many months would pass before I would directly focus again on Sachs and his work, but I was quickly proven wrong.
No sooner had my piece appeared than I discovered that Sachs had been interviewed by Piers Morgan, a British former cable TV host of decidedly mainstream sentiments, with such an appearance representing a significant media breakthrough. In their exchange, Morgan demonstrated that he had been living entirely within the cocoon of our official narrative regarding Russia, Ukraine, and Gaza, and was deeply ignorant of the important facts that Sachs brought to his attention. But much more importantly, those facts were also probably surprising to many of the half-million viewers who watched that discussion on Youtube, thereby perhaps helping to shift some of them in a different direction.
Two weeks earlier, Morgan had similarly interviewed Prof. John Mearsheimer, an eminent political scientist and close Sachs ally on those same issues, with similar results. Indeed, an overwhelming majority of the Youtube comments were critical of Morgan’s strictly establishmentarian position.
But even more importantly, I discovered that Sachs had also just published a new article surely as controversial as anything he had previously written.
In that piece, he outlined the overwhelming accumulated evidence that the Covid virus had been the product of American bioengineering technology and was developed by American government funding. Although he certainly recognized that China’s Wuhan lab might have been the immediate source, he emphasized that several American biolabs had also been undertaking very similar viral research at that time, and argued that a full investigation of all those possible sources of the virus was warranted. His provocative title—“What Might the US Owe the World for Covid-19?”—summarized his controversial conclusion that America would probably need to compensate the rest of the world for having unleashed such a devastating global plague that killed tens of millions and disrupted the lives of many billions more.
Considering both his international stature and the very broad range of his courageous public positions, Prof. Jeffrey Sachs may easily rank as the most consequential American ideological defector of the last one hundred years, with no comparable name coming to my mind.
I suspect that a sociological factor may have contributed to Sachs’ easy willingness to violate so many powerful ideological taboos. Most Americans, even including most American academics and intellectuals, exist in a world completely dominated by our own mainstream media, knowing that much of their social circle and peer-group would be horrified or outraged at any sentiments too far outside those acceptable boundaries. If most of your friends and associates are “normies,” you may be very reluctant to take positions that would alienate them.
Sachs, however, has been an influential academic on the world stage for more than three decades, and he seems to spend much of his time traveling to international conferences at which he is often a prominent speaker. So unlike so many of his American colleagues, he is a global figure and his peer group and social circle is an international one, with many of their views likely shaped by entirely different media environments.
Even the early votes in the UN General Assembly on the Israel-Gaza conflict found America and Israel standing almost alone, with more than 150 countries ranged on the other side, including many of our strongest allies. The U.S. has regularly cast the sole dissenting vote in the 15-member UN Security Council and Sachs has often mentioned that many of his top-ranking international friends have expressed their horror at our government’s current policies. So while his controversial views might be very disconcerting to some of the assistant professors and office interns at Columbia University, they are probably much more in line with those of the senior world figures whom he has known and considered his friends for the last twenty or thirty years, a situation that surely fortifies his personal confidence in taking those positions.
Over the last decade or two, I’ve noticed the increasing signs that our own country seems to be following the unfortunate trajectory of the late and unlamented USSR, its longtime Cold War rival, and perhaps may similarly be heading towards the dustbin of history. President Joseph Biden certainly recalls memories of decrepit figurehead leaders such as Leonid Brezhnev or Konstantin Chernenko, while Sachs may represent our own Andrei Sakharov, a figure at the very top of the Soviet academic hierarchy who publicly broke with the corrupt, despotic, and decaying regime that had once so greatly honored him.
The Soviet leadership eventually exiled that dissenting physicist to the city of Gorky, and over the last couple of years Sachs has been similarly exiled and blacklisted from the mainstream media, which in past generations might have ensured his complete disappearance. But just as the samizdat literature of the 1970s and 1980s successfully circumvented official Soviet censorship, the Internet today plays much the same role for Sachs and our other intellectual dissenters.
I have never met Sachs and nearly everything I know about him comes from his writings and his numerous interviews. As discussed in my recent article, my impression is that until quite recently he had never considered the possibility that the official story of the JFK assassination or any other major historical event might be false. But once he encountered direct evidence of massive deception with regard to the origins of Covid, the roots of the Ukraine war, and the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines, he naturally began to realize that those particular cases might not be so unusual.
In one of his interviews a year or two ago, he had emphasized the deep sense of betrayal he had felt when the trusted media outlets that had faithfully informed him for decades had recently become so dishonest and deceptive. But now that he has discovered that those same outlets had spent six decades concealing the truth of the JFK assassination from all their readers, he must surely recognize that they may always have been deceitful on many important matters but prior to the growth of the Internet, neither he nor most other Americans could have ever recognized that reality.
If my reconstruction is correct, Sachs may now be experiencing a considerable upheaval in his long-assumed framework of reality, the disorientation and vertigo that occurs after one has “taken the red pill” in that powerful metaphor drawn from the Matrix films. And if so, I can certainly empathize with his situation since I had undergone a very similar process myself over the last dozen years.
My American Pravda series now includes some ninety-odd articles totaling almost 700,000 words and may represent the largest such compendium of alternative historical analysis—so-called “conspiracy theories”—found anywhere on the Internet, or at least I’m not aware of anything comparable. But as I’ve sometimes explained, I lived most of my entire life paying absolutely no attention to those sorts of controversial ideas.
Throughout all of those decades, I’d never had any regard for a conspiratorial view of historical events, dismissing such speculative theories as nonsense, just as all of my trusted media outlets had always assured me. If I occasionally happened to see a few of those notions discussed somewhere, they usually seemed a mixture of possible sense and obvious nonsense, with the latter severely discrediting the former. It was only many years later that I began to wonder whether that very damaging juxtaposition may have been intentional, a deliberate attempt to “poison the well.”
My first turning point came with the growth of the Internet and the very widespread reports of Saddam’s non-existent WMDs used to justify our disastrous 2003 Iraq War. The former unavoidably brought to my attention a vast profusion of controversial ideas I’d never previously considered while the latter severely damaged the credibility of the mainstream media and its leading outlets, upon which I’d always relied. The almost uniform support our terribly wrong-headed Iraq policy received from the Economist, the New York Times, the New Republic, and almost every other outlet I read struck me as an almost personal betrayal, made much worse because I was also aware that highly-regarded figures who held contrary positions were being denied any public platform to present their views.
A prime example was my old friend Bill Odom, the three-star general who had run the NSA for President Ronald Reagan. Although he was widely regarded as one of the leading national security experts in DC, his sharply discordant views on the Iraq War were entirely unwelcome in any of the major publications that normally sought his opinion and he was reduced to publishing his dissenting columns on a small website.
His passing in 2008 led me to write an article on the media blackout he had suffered and my broader conclusions on the reliability of our mainstream sources. I eventually regarded that tribute as my first American Pravda piece, though I did not formally launch my series for almost another decade.
An even greater watershed came later that same year when I discovered the astonishing Vietnam War revelations of Sydney Schanberg, a Pulitzer Prize winner who had been one of America’s most celebrated journalists of that conflict and a former top-ranking editor at the New York Times.
Schanberg had produced a massively documented expose of a huge Vietnam War scandal involving Sen. John McCain. But although McCain was then running for the presidency on the strength of his heroic and unblemished war record, no mainstream media outlet was willing to publish Schanberg’s revelations, and when the article finally appeared on a small website, none of our media took any notice of it. If so explosive a story by such an esteemed journalist could be completely ignored by our entire media, my faith in its reliability totally collapsed.
At that time I was publisher of The American Conservative, so I eventually contacted Schanberg, satisfied myself about his material, and then published a cover-symposium on his findings, including my own short introduction and had the author provide an account of his years of fruitless effort. A number of prominent journalists privately expressed shock and astonishment at Schanberg’s material, but none of them dared to report it in their own outlets. I later regarded my introductory column as the second item in my American Pravda series.
Silent Treatment My Four-Decade Fight to Report the Truth
Sydney Schanberg • The American Conservative • May 25, 2010 • 1,300 Words
Many of my other articles sharply challenged prevailing media narratives, including a widely-discussed 2012 article descriptively entitled “China’s Rise, America’s Fall.” But although I’d already served as publisher of The American Conservative for a number of years, only in 2013 did I finally publish my first piece squarely within the conspiratorial camp. That article proved extremely popular and also received very favorable attention from a number of prestigous mainstream media outlets and columnists. However, the controversial issues it raised were considered quite touchy in certain other quarters and I was soon purged from TAC as a consequence.
Yet even at that relatively late date, I’d still never read a single book on the JFK assassination, about which I’d only gradually begun to become a little suspicious, while my doubts about the official 9/11 story were almost as vague and fragmentary.
A couple of years later, I published my own sequel to Schanberg’s important work on McCain, focusing on what it suggested about the American media, and this piece also attracted a considerable amount of favorable attention:
The following year, Schanberg’s passing led me to reflect on the implications of his groundbreaking work, and this prompted me to finally launch my American Pravda series.
Thus, in my own case more than a dozen years elapsed between my early suspicions that major elements of our official narrative were false and the beginning of my series documenting many of those discrepancies. I had required well over a decade to fully digest and absorb the shocking conclusion that so much of what I’d always accepted as real was actually contrived. My original 2013 American Pravda article included a passage that I’ve frequently quoted over the years:
The realization that the world is often quite different from what is presented in our leading newspapers and magazines is not an easy conclusion for most educated Americans to accept, or at least that was true in my own case. For decades, I have closely read the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and one or two other major newspapers every morning, supplemented by a wide variety of weekly or monthly opinion magazines. Their biases in certain areas had always been apparent to me. But I felt confident that by comparing and contrasting the claims of these different publications and applying some common sense, I could obtain a reasonably accurate version of reality. I was mistaken.
Aside from the evidence of our own senses, almost everything we know about the past or the news of today comes from bits of ink on paper or colored pixels on a screen, and fortunately over the last decade or two the growth of the Internet has vastly widened the range of information available to us in that latter category. Even if the overwhelming majority of the unorthodox claims provided by such non-traditional web-based sources is incorrect, at least there now exists the possibility of extracting vital nuggets of truth from vast mountains of falsehood. Certainly the events of the past dozen years have forced me to completely recalibrate my own reality-detection apparatus.
Our American Pravda
Ron Unz • The American Conservative • April 29, 2013 • 4,500 Words
Although I had closely followed Sachs’ important 1990s work in restructuring international economies, by the end of that decade and certainly after his relocation to Columbia University I’d seen much less mention of him. This was especially true because his new area of concentration—sustainability and global poverty—was rather far removed from my own foreign policy focus on the many years of Middle East wars set in motion by the 9/11 Attacks. I might occasionally see one of his op-ed pieces but that was about the limit of his visibility. Therefore his sudden 2022 appearance as a leading public dissenter from the official Covid narrative came as a major surprise to me.
I doubt that he had ever expected that his personal involvement in that global public health crisis would eventually transform him into one of the West’s most important ideological defectors, and although I had discussed that story nearly two years ago, I think elements of it are worth recapitulating.
The global Covid outbreak beginning in early 2020 quickly infected many millions and greatly disrupted most of the world’s economies, thereby threatening to throw hundreds of millions more into terrible poverty. The Lancet, a leading medical journal, soon established a Covid Commission to investigate all aspects of the deadly worldwide pandemic, and given Prof. Sachs’ international standing and his long association with the United Nations, he was a natural choice to serve as its chairman.
As he has explained in his interviews, at first he fully accepted the supposed scientific consensus that the virus was entirely natural, just as a large group of leading virologists had declared in a top scientific journal. But as time went by, he became increasingly suspicious that the true origins of the disease were being concealed, even discovering that some of the scientists he had selected for his commission were attempting to hide those facts and deceive him.
From the earliest days of the Covid epidemic, an official narrative was promoted that the virus was natural and editors of the leading scientific journals closed their pages to any submissions that suggested otherwise. With no reputable academic papers challenging their perspective, the natural origins advocates were able to cite this silence as proof that their position represented the overwhelming scientific consensus, thereby intimidating most mainstream journalists into toeing that same line. A massive propaganda-bubble had been inflated and maintained by such administrative means.
However, as a member of the National Academy of Sciences, Prof. Sachs had publication privileges in the prestigious PNAS journal, so in May he and a co-author published an important article documenting the highly suspicious characteristics of the Covid virus and calling for further investigation. This constituted a breakthrough, becoming the first and only paper published in a major journal that presented the very strong evidence of Covid bioengineering.
Given his role as chairman of the Covid Commission, Sachs’ paper should have been treated as a bombshell, reaching the headlines of all our leading newspapers. But instead, it was almost totally ignored, as was the author’s public statements on the subject.
Recognizing that his vital information was being blocked and boycotted by all the mainstream media outlets upon which he normally relied, he did a lengthy interview with a small progressive webzine, explaining that the U.S. government was preventing any real investigation into the Covid pandemic. When I brought his remarks to the attention of an eminent academic scholar with whom I’d been friendly for many years, he was stunned:
An amazing article.
Sachs is not only remarkably candid; he’s also remarkably knowledgeable about the issue.
Another prominent academic had a similar reaction:
That’s one hell of an interview, no doubt about it.
Soon afterward, Sachs spent an hour discussing the topic on Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s popular podcast, explaining the enormous dishonesty he had encountered in his role as chairman and that he had eventually concluded that the true nature of the virus and its origins were the subject of a massive cover-up. Everyone who listened to that interview was very impressed, certainly including a leading science journalist heavily involved in the Covid origins debate:
This is an amazingly good interview on Sachs’s part – clear, forceful, humorous and all the more compelling because he started off on the other side of the issue. Interesting what a deep perspective he has now developed, tracing the train of events back to Fauci’s acquisition of the biodefense portfolio.
Perhaps some of Sachs’ academic peers and close colleagues had similar reactions, strengthening his determination to get his views into wider circulation.
A few months earlier, the Russia-Ukraine war had broken out, soon dominating the world’s headlines. Sachs had spent much of the previous three decades as a top-level economic advisor to both those countries, so surely there would have been few individuals with better personal insights into the conflict, but once again he soon discovered that the mainstream media was closed to his views. Therefore, during July and August he published a couple of opinion columns in alternative outlets condemning our reckless policies towards Russia and China, with the former having already provoked a bloody and dangerous war in Ukraine and the latter periodically threatening to do the same over Taiwan.
Then in late September, a series of massive underwater explosions severely damaged the $30 billion Russian-German Nord Stream pipelines. This constituted the greatest act of industrial terrorism in the history of the world, with potentially crippling long-term impact upon the energy supplies of Germany and other European countries. Although there was enormous circumstantial evidence implicating America in those attacks, and renowned investigative journalist Seymour Hersh later revealed the exact details of the sabotage operation, the entire Western media and political establishment stubbornly pretended to see nothing, instead absurdly accusing Russia of having destroyed its own energy pipelines.
Sachs refused to support that cover-up and instead he soon played a crucial role in breaking the media blockade:
Then a few days later, Bloomberg TV invited Sachs to share his concerns over the Ukraine war. His hosts were flabbergasted when he flatly declared that America had probably destroyed the Russian pipelines, even mentioning that top journalists had privately told him the same thing, although none of those vital facts could ever appear in their own newspapers.
As a consequence of Sachs’ candor, the interview was cut short—with Sachs “yanked off air” in the words of the hostile New York Post—but the entire segment was watched at least a couple of hundred thousand times on Youtube and the short clip of Sachs’ Nord Stream remarks soon went super-viral on Twitter, viewed more than 4 million times in one Tweet and another million times across a couple of others.
Given such candid statements, the mainstream electronic media was now obviously closed to him, but as I discussed at the time, The Grayzone, a prominent alternative media outlet soon arranged to interview Sachs:
On Sunday morning, the media outlet released two outstanding segments with the Columbia professor, separately focused on the Ukraine war and the Covid origins controversy, and these have already accumulated more than 100,000 views after less than a day. The Grayzone possesses a great deal of influence and credibility in alternative media circles, and I would hope that these interviews lead to an avalanche of additional coverage for Sachs in other outlets, many of which seem to have previously shied away from the explosive charges he had been making.
The first Grayzone segment was descriptively entitled “End Ukraine Proxy War or Face Armageddon,” and some of Sachs’ crucial points may have surprised his listeners. As he emphasized, America is actually already at war with nuclear-armed Russia in Ukraine, given that we are providing all the funding, military equipment, and command and control facilities for the forces fighting and killing Russian troops on Russia’s own border, as well as supplying unknown numbers of direct combat participants. This is an extraordinarily dangerous situation that would have been considered almost unimaginable during the days of our original Cold War, and our recent destruction of Russia’s Nord Stream pipelines was merely the latest manifestation of this undeclared but very real conflict.
Although American leaders may seek to hide their responsibility behind the supposedly independent decisions of the Ukrainian government, this is a transparent fig-leaf. Ukraine’s political leadership is merely our puppet regime, totally financed and controlled by our own government, and pretending otherwise is simply a propaganda-ruse aimed at deceiving our gullible public.
The second, slightly shorter Grayzone segment focused on the Covid origins issue, and provided Sachs the best opportunity he has yet had to present the important facts he uncovered while running the Covid commission. Just a couple of days earlier, he had also been interviewed on physicist Steve Hsu’s podcast discussing the same subject. I would highly recommend both these interviews to anyone interested in understanding the true origins of the viral epidemic that killed more than a million Americans and disrupted the lives of many billions around the world during the last couple of years.
Sachs’ interviews became the most popular ever broadcast on those two channels, and I think the hosts were deeply impressed that a mainstream academic of such high establishment rank was so extremely candid and forthright in his public statements. Numerous other alternative channels and podcasters soon began inviting the Columbia University professor to share his views, allowing him to reach many, many millions since that time, eventually becoming a regular weekly guest on Napolitano’s popular channel.
The gradual end of the Covid pandemic combined with the deadly conflicts taking place in Ukraine and Gaza have led Sachs to focus nearly all his attention on those latter events during most of the last two years. But a couple of weeks ago he published a new article that deserves widespread attention for the important points that he summarized:
As he explains, continuing investigation by diligent researchers have revealed a long series of important new clues regarding the origin of the virus.
For example, we now know that the primary source of American government funding for Covid-related research came from the biowarfare/biodefense projects of our Defense Department, which also supported the simultaneous development of vaccines meant to provide projection against those same potentially offensive bioweapons.
A portion of that Defense funding was directed to the EcoHealth Alliance (EHA), an NIH-backed research group that passed along some of that in the form of small grants to China’s Wuhan lab and many other biological facilities around the world. But according to former EHA officers, those grant-making activities mainly served as intelligence-gathering operations, intended to gain access to those biolabs in other countries and then monitor the development work taking place.
As I’ve emphasized, following the 2011 “Pivot to Asia” of the Obama Administration, our Defense Department began focusing on China as our most formidable long-term potential adversary and by 2015 most officials in DC had begun to assume that a future war with that country was quite likely. In such a conflict, one of our most important military advantages would be our great superiority in biowarfare technology.
Under that strategic framework does it really seem likely that in 2017 our Defense Department would have begun funding and encouraging Chinese efforts to adopt our own cutting-edge biotechnology, allowing them to develop powerful bioweapons of their own? Or does it seem more plausible that the small FHA grants provided to the Wuhan lab were instead elements of the intelligence-gathering operation that former FHA employees have claimed?
For the last several years, large portions of both the alternative and mainstream media have regularly claimed that the Covid virus was probably developed at the Wuhan lab and then accidentally leaked out, starting the worldwide pandemic. But since 2020 I’ve repeatedly argued in a long series of articles that there is absolutely no evidence that any such lab-leak had occurred in Wuhan and a great deal of evidence to the contrary.
Some of the other crucial clues regarding the deadly Covid epidemic have been almost entirely ignored by both the mainstream and alternative media but can be easily summarized in just a few paragraphs, as I have done on a number of occasions since April 2020:
For example, in 2017 Trump brought in Robert Kadlec, who since the 1990s had been one of America’s leading biowarfare advocates. The following year in 2018 a mysterious viral epidemic hit China’s poultry industry and in 2019, another mysterious viral epidemic devastated China’s pork industry…
From the earliest days of the administration, leading Trump officials had regarded China as America’s most formidable geopolitical adversary, and orchestrated a policy of confrontation. Then from January to August 2019, Kadlec’s department ran the “Crimson Contagion” simulation exercise, involving the hypothetical outbreak of a dangerous respiratory viral disease in China, which eventually spreads into the United States, with the participants focusing on the necessary measures to control it in this country. As one of America’s foremost biowarfare experts, Kadlec had emphasized the unique effectiveness of bioweapons as far back as the late 1990s and we must commend him for his considerable prescience in having organized a major viral epidemic exercise in 2019 that was so remarkably similar to what actually began in the real world just a few months later.
With leading Trump officials greatly enamored of biowarfare, fiercely hostile to China, and running large-scale 2019 simulations on the consequences of a mysterious viral outbreak in that country, it seems entirely unreasonable to completely disregard the possibility that such extremely reckless plans may have been privately discussed and eventually implemented, though probably without presidential authorization.
But with the horrific consequences of our own later governmental inaction being obvious, elements within our intelligence agencies have sought to demonstrate that they were not the ones asleep at the switch. Earlier this month, an ABC News story cited four separate government sources to reveal that as far back as late November, a special medical intelligence unit within our Defense Intelligence Agency had produced a report warning that an out-of-control disease epidemic was occurring in the Wuhan area of China, and widely distributed that document throughout the top ranks of our government, warning that steps should be taken to protect US forces based in Asia. After the story aired, a Pentagon spokesman officially denied the existence of that November report, while various other top level government and intelligence officials refused to comment. But a few days later, Israeli television mentioned that in November American intelligence had indeed shared such a report on the Wuhan disease outbreak with its NATO and Israeli allies, thus seeming to independently confirm the complete accuracy of the original ABC News story and its several government sources.
It therefore appears that elements of the Defense Intelligence Agency were aware of the deadly viral outbreak in Wuhan more than a month before any officials in the Chinese government itself. Unless our intelligence agencies have pioneered the technology of precognition, I think this may have happened for the same reason that arsonists have the earliest knowledge of future fires.
According to these multiply-sourced mainstream media accounts, by “the second week of November” our Defense Intelligence Agency was already preparing a secret report warning of a “cataclysmic” disease outbreak taking place in Wuhan. Yet at that point, probably no more than a couple of dozen individuals had been infected in that city of 11 million, with few of those yet having any serious symptoms. The implications are rather obvious. Furthermore:
Let us consider the implications of these facts. Across the entire world the only political elites that have yet suffered any significant human losses have been those of Iran, and they died at a very early stage, before significant outbreaks had even occurred almost anywhere else in the world outside China. Thus, we have America assassinating Iran’s top military commander on Jan. 2nd and then just a few weeks later large portions of the Iranian ruling elites became infected by a mysterious and deadly new virus, with many of them soon dying as a consequence. Could any rational individual possibly regard this as a mere coincidence?
The Iranians themselves were well aware of these facts, and their top political and military leaders publicly accused America of an illegal biowarfare attack against their own country and China, with their former president even filing an official protest with the United Nations. But although these explosive charges were widely reported in the Iranian press, they were completely ignored by the American media so that almost no Americans ever became aware of them.
Much of this same information is also effectively presented in several of my podcast interviews from a couple of years ago, originally on Rumble but now available on Youtube as well.
Kevin Barrett, FFWN • February 16, 2022 • 15m • on Rumble
Geopolitics & Empire • February 1, 2022 • 75m • on Rumble
Removing accountability from us means OTHER PEOPLE PAY for our mistakes.
What was the best relationship advice you ever got?
My father told me this when he walked up on me hiding behind his house while I was bawling over my fiancée, who I just found out was cheating on me.
“I know right now you’re feeling desperate, angry, hurt and alone. And the first thing you want to do is get revenge, sleep with other people and hurt someone too. That’s normal. But you shouldn’t do that. Don’t be like her. Don’t go down that path. You should always fall back on your best character. Be the bigger person now, and you’ve already won. Feel the pain for now. In a month you’ll see what I mean. And so will she. So take your time. Be a good man. You’ll find someone who actually cares about you. Maybe you’ll be alone, and that’s okay too. But you still have your life and your character and you can’t throw that away because of someone else who doesn’t have any.”
I’ve thought about that every single day for a year now, and it has propelled me to such strength, confidence, love and happiness.
EDIT: Wow, I figured this would just be another unnoticed answer swept into the pile, I did not expect such a positive reaction. My father is truly a thoughtful and wise man, like his father before him, he has guided me through a lot of tough life situations, and I’m glad his words resonate with so many people. Thank you for all your kind thoughts, and good luck to everyone.
Amazing
Is China ultimately a bigger pariah state than either Russia and North Korea? It’s like the world hates China far more than it hates Russia or North Korea.
It is the UNITED STATES that the whole world hates
Including Europe, UK and even Japan
There is a Visceral loathing of Americans that is deep seated and deeply buried in most people who HATE the Americans
The British hate the Americans for being utterly dependent on them
The Japanese hate the Americans for being so helpless that they are slaves and lackeys of the Americans
The Middle East hate the Americans for their interference in all matters
Everyone hates the AMERICANS for their bullying and sanctions and in general for forcing people to their way of life
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One Day the Lion will become too weak and lie flat
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That will be the end of it all
Everyone will rip the nation to pieces including the Japanese
You think a Nation of ancient Zen would forget 1945??? Not a chance.
What are some examples of Lee Kuan Yew standing up to bigger powers like the United States or China?
I got a good one.
In 1960, a CIA officer was caught trying to buy information from a Singaporean intelligence officer.
Then the CIA made things worse by trying to bribe Lee with 3.3 million dollars to sweep the whole thing under the carpet. Remember, this was in 1960. That was a lot of money back then.
Lee refused and instead asked for 33.3 million dollars of official economic aid to Singapore. This was when the total official American economic aid to Malaysia (which Singapore was a part of at that time) was merely 1.5 million. And Lee also got a letter of apology from US Secretary of State, Dean Rusk.
So, in 1965, Lee revealed this episode in an interview with foreign media, which prompted denial from the US government. This angered Lee so much that he invited foreign correspondents to a meeting where he showed the apology letter from Rusk. The US government had to retract their denial.
In that meeting with foreign correspondents Lee also threatened to further disclose details of the case, “which may sound like James Bond and Goldfinger, only not as good but putrid and grotesque enough”.
Furthermore, Lee also made the following statement:
“The Americans should know the character of the men they are dealing with in Singapore and not get themselves further dragged into calumny…..They are not dealing with Ngo Dinh Diem or Syngman Rhee. You do not buy and sell this Government.”
“Countdown To Looking Glass” (1984) Cold-War USSR Nuclear Attack Film
Forty years later and we are in the same looped nightmare.
This movie could be taken RIGHT NOW. It is frightening.
My first working jobs occurred when I was in High School. Part time during week-days, and full-time on weekends. I worked at a coal mine, and as a clerk at the local grocery store.
Today, I want to talk about my days working at the grocery store.
In those days, we were not paid by check. Instead, we were given an envelope of cash and change. On the envelope was the amount that we were supposed to be paid.
I would work all week, and make something like $63 dollars.
Well, since I had no expenses, I would get the envelope and throw it in a drawer in my bedroom, and forget about it.
One day, one of the cashiers was all upset. She was being short changed, and the entire crew just about walked off.
So it got me to thinking, and I went to my stash of pay envelopes. The envelope would read $63 dollars, but inside would only be two or three one dollar bills and some change.
The accountant was screwing all of us over.
Now, guys, keep in mind that at this time, my parents were separated. My mother was always gone, and I had no father figure. I had no direction, and I was only 16 years old.
I didn’t know what to do.
Well, from then on, ALL OF US, sat there and counted out our salary to the manager before we left for home.
I figure that the accountant must have siphoned off from 60% to 75% of my hard won earnings…
For, perhaps, years.
As an adult now, I would contact a detective, and the police and make formal charges, following by suing the store, but Jeeze! I was only 16 years old. Something like that. I hadn’t even kissed a girl yet, for petes’ sake. So do not get on my case about this.
Lesson learned.
What lessons?
Bad people will constantly surprise you with the evil and selfish actions that they will do to you. Often getting away with it due to inconvenience, youth, or simple ignorance.
Today…
Cats
Ancient Egyptians held Cats in the highest esteem, cats were praised for killing venomous snakes, rodents and birds that damaged crops and protecting Pharaoh since at least 1st Dynasty (3100-2900 BC) of Egypt. Cats were also represented in social and religious scenes dating as early as 1980 BC. Skeletal remains of cats were found among funerary goods dating to 12th Dynasty (1991-1802 BC). Protective function of cats is indicated in Book of the Dead, where a cat represents Ra and benefits of sun for life on Earth. Cat-shaped decorations used during New Kingdom of Egypt indicate that domesticated cat became more popular in daily life. Cats were depicted in association with name of Bastet.
Mafdet was first known cat-headed deity in ancient Egypt. During 1st Dynasty, she was regarded as protector of pharaoh’s chambers against snakes, scorpions and evil. She was often also depicted with head of leopard (Panthera pardus) or cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus). She was particularly prominent during reign of Den. Deity Bastet is known from at least 2nd Dynasty (2890-2686 BC) onwards. At the time, she was depicted with a lion (Panthera leo) head. Seals and stone vessels with her name were found in tombs of pharaohs Khafre and Nyuserre Ini, indicating that she was regarded as protector since mid 30th Century BC, during 4th-5th Dynasties. A wall painting in 5th Dynasty’s burial ground at Saqqara shows a small cat with a collar, suggesting that tamed African wildcats were kept in pharaonic quarters by 26th Century BC.
Amulets with cat heads came into fashion in 21st Century BC, during 11th Dynasty. A mural from this period in tomb of Baqet III depicts a cat in hunting scene confronting a rat-like rodent. From 22nd Dynasty at around mid 950s BC onwards, Bastet and her temple in Bubastis grew in popularity. She was later shown only with small cat head. Domestic cats were increasingly worshipped and considered sacred. When they died, they were embalmed, coffined and buried in cat cemeteries. Domestic cat was regarded as living incarnation of Bastet who protects household against granivores, whereas lion-headed deity Sekhmet was worshipped as protector of pharaohs. During reign of Pharaoh Osorkon II in 9th Century BC, temple of Bastet was enlarged by a festival hall. Cat statues and statuettes from this period exist in diverse sizes and materials, including solid and hollow cast bronze, alabaster and faïence. The penalties of injuring a cat were severe and killing a cat leads to capital punishment. When the cat dies it is the duty of the owner to gave them proper burial along with rituals and shave their head, eyebrows or beard to show their grief and even conduct after life rituals for their cat in order to gain blessings from Goddess Bastet.
In mid 5th Century BC, Herodotus described, annual festival at Bubastis temple, attended by several hundred thousand pilgrims. During Hellenistic period between 323-30 BC, cats were systematically bred to be killed and to be mummified as sacrifices to gods. As described by Diodorus Siculus, killing a cat was regarded as a serious crime. During 60-56 BC, outraged people lynched a Roman for killing a cat, although pharaoh Ptolemy XII Auletes tried to intervene.
Cats and religion began to be disassociated after Egypt became a Roman province in 30 BC. A series of decrees and edicts issued by Roman Emperors in 4th-5th Centuries AD, gradually curtailed practice of paganism and pagan rituals in Egypt. Pagan temples were impounded and sacrifices prohibited by 380 AD. Egypt has since experienced a decline in veneration once held for cats. They were still respected in 15th Century AD, when Arnold von Harff travelled to Egypt and observed mamluk warriors treating cats with honour and empathy. Gentle treatment of cats is part of Islamic tradition.
Common enough issue
What did your boss say to you during a meeting that resulted in you immediately resigning?
I had been working for a large company for almost 20 years. I worked very long hours, often late into the night and at weekends, under stressful conditions and had a lot of responsibility but I was happy in my job and took great pride and derived satisfaction from it.
There was a change of management, and after about a year, I mentioned that I hadn’t been given a raise for over 4 years and asked for one – I was given a lecture about commitment and told that I would have to work harder to ‘earn’ it, and was offered a tiny raise which didn’t even meet 1 years cost of living increases, let alone 4 years. The new financial controller was condescending and quite dismissive so I knew instantly that I was finished with them. I didn’t resign there & then (even though I was very tempted to). I thanked them for my new ‘raise’ and immediately set about finding a new role – it took almost 2 years to find a job I was confident about but when I then handed in my notice, they offered me a huge raise, a promotion, new working conditions and all sorts of inducements to stay. It was extremely tempting but I had made my mind up – I no longer wanted to work for them (and my gut-feeling about them was justified by several stories from former colleagues of how staff were treated subsequently)
So my advice is NOT to act impulsively and hand in your resignation immediately (and be forced to find a replacement job urgently) – take your time, find the right job that suits you, put everything in place and then calmly, but firmly, hand in your notice.
How did people know…
What psychological facts that people don’t know?
You are now aware that your clothes are touching your skin and that you can feel them.
People who swear more often are more honest than those who don’t.
For luxury brands, the ruder the sales staff, the higher the sales.
If you start whispering to someone, they will whisper back, even if they don’t have to.
Your mind “rewrites” monotonous speech of boring people to make them sound more interesting.
Your brain defaults to going to the beach as your initial vacation idea.
You are more honest and open with people that you consider “temporary” friends.
When entering a packed lecture hall, the left side will always be less crowded.
82% of people would feel more confident approaching an attractive person if they had their dog with them.
We tend to hate people who have the same flaws and make the same mistakes as we do.
If someone is trying to make you decide in a hurry, they are probably giving you a bad deal.
A person is more likely to be honest when physically tired.
Fear can feel good-if we’re not really in danger.
People who keep their hands in their pockets while around large crowds are generally anti-social or shy.
The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it’s to post the wrong answer.
Sounds like unrhymed poetry
What’s the most disturbing thing anyone has ever told you casually?
My late husband and I were on our way home from being on the lake with friends and were pulling a boat that belonged to one of our friends who didn’t have a truck or anything suitable to pull it with. We got to his house and pulled into the driveway shortly after the friend pulled in. My husband got out to talk, I rolled down the window and stayed in the truck. Across the street was a group of girls playing with a water hose and water balloons . The girls are obviously young possibly 11 years old at the most . Our friend tells my husband “ man that’s torture, I would love half a chance “. I was more than proud of my husband’s response . He told his friend that he was sick in the head and if he ever caught him with in a mile of one of our daughters that the torture he spoke of would become reality that he would face a hell that would give the devil chill bumps. Then told him to get his piece of shit boat unhooked from his truck he was ready to leave and don’t ever call him or come to our house . We got not even a mile up the road and turned around, I asked what he was doing , he told me that the family of those girls deserve to know what trash lives across from them . He said if someone can casually mention something like that then they are capable of doing such.i have never seen him react so strongly about something but at that time we had 2 daughters age 6 and 12 . The father of the girls was more than disgusted and thanked him for letting him know .
Very interesting WTF…
Does a boss ever get in trouble when a staff member quits?
When I quit a job over 20 years ago, I was called in by my grand-boss (manager’s boss) and asked why I was leaving. I was the second person to leave that week, and my main issue was money – they immediately offered to match the raise I was getting with my new job, but declined. The secondary issue, of how my manager’s assistant did his level best to cheat me out of $5 (out of $40) in per-diem when working in a remote office, in a way that could not be seen as accidental. They wanted to know what was happening.
Last year, my employer sold his personally-owned company to a much larger firm. During the transition, the new management told me I was overpaid and unnecessary, denied a raise, and generally treated rudely. The old owner did nothing to support me. Two months after that I called up the president of the new firm and gave notice – explaining what had happened and how I was treated without respect or professionalism, and also that I was obliged by professional ethics to inform him that my former employer was aware of several installations that were in violation of the electrical code, but were not doing anything about it to shelter themselves from liability (both legal and financial) until the sale went through. The one installation I was aware of – I insisted that it be fixed, fighting the owner who kept telling me that the cost of fixing it would come out of MY salary and bonus. I corrected him in saying that this was a mistake that I merely discovered, but did not create, and despite him being upset that I opposed his desire to merely ignore this, the cost of fixing it would come out of THE COMPANY’S REVENUE, meaning that no single person would, or could be held responsible for the error. In fact, some of the people who may have been responsible for it were now retired from that firm.
It did not go well for any of the people involved, as I knew the President of that larger firm from my previous dealings, and that he was very risk-averse. Legal liability for engineering errors is a bad thing.
Do men even want relationships anymore? There’s nothing in it for them. Too much to lose.
This is very good.
Playing around with Text to image
Today is my Doc Savage theme.
Prompt is…
doc savage cover art Bantam Doc paperbacks with the wonderful cover art by James Bama and Bob Larkin adventure driving a car through the streets of new york city
Images…
doc 10doc 9doc 7doc 6doc 5doc 4doc 3doc 2doc 1
What is the creepiest unexplained event you know of?
In the year 2000, I was working on advanced degrees in theology. A priest I had known from childhood, now serving in Henderson, Nevada right outside of Las Vegas, invited me to teach a week-long adult education class to his parish. This was a no-brainer. An easy class to teach, a small paycheck, but a FREE plane trip to spend few days just a few miles from the strip. I was happy to say yes. I couldn’t wait to try the buffets and see David Copperfield. I planned to spend a few quarters in the slots as well.
The priest set me up in a small little guest house next to the rectory where he lived. I had just two rooms and a bathroom. I was told to meet him in the morning for breakfast then he would bring me to the classroom.
For some reason I could not understand, I had the most upsetting and unsettling feeling when I was a lone in this little guest house. I had the impression someone or something was watching me, I kept jumping at the slightest noise and swearing I saw things or people pass the window. This was very much unlike me. We often say “I didn’t sleep a wink” but often this is a slight exaggeration. In this case however, I was literally awake all night with a terrible feeling surrounding me. I felt a presence in the room I simply cannot explain. I never was able to close my eyes for even a full minute. Never one for superstition or exaggeration, I assumed it was nothing and rejected the notion that I felt some sort of spirit or evil presence in the room. I just went the next day and, although exhausted, taught the first session of the class. Although I wound up in a different arrangement the second night, I could not forget that odd, terrible and lingering feeling in the original guest house. I had a nightmare in the new room. Even when I just passed the original guest house while walking it felt terrible, in a way I did not understand.
One year later, to my shock, the priest who invited me was arrested. He was a violent, disgusting pedophile who was abusing kids in that little guest house for years. I had no clue, and yet, somehow, I felt the presence of pure evil in that room. I will never ignore or dismiss such a feeling again.
I’ve lived alone for about the past ten years. I even let my ex stay with me for a stretch after we split up, but with her in the guest room. We’ve always remained good friends. We were just not a great couple with both wanting different things in life.
A good friend who also lives alone told me that she hates the part where someone doesn’t get to witness her experiences and that about sums up the downside. I live about nine miles away from the closest small town on about 3.5 acres. I’m completely secluded and during the summer you can’t see the house from the road. Yes, there are security measures, but I feel very safe here and safer than I’d feel in a city.
Living alone isn’t for everyone and so much of it depends on what you want out of life. I love my work and I have a personal assistant who’s here often, so I’m not completely alone. I also have visitors from time to time.
The plus side of living alone is that you don’t have the normal routine of others. I can go swimming in the middle of the night or work or play music or watch a movie. I can do just about anything I want and feel like I had a productive day.
I’d probably feel lonely if I didn’t have a busy life, but there are so many great things to do in a day and I love my work. I never ever want to retire and I’m good at it too.
I still go to restaurants, travel, and do other things, but I do have a dog and he’s with me at all times, except when I have to make business trips. I have a sitter here at the house when that happens.
There isn’t a big downside to living alone, other than the risk of some major illness or injury where you can’t get help, but I take precautions for that. Neighbors see anyone who comes and goes. The house is a local curiosity so that’s kind of fun too.
Yes, it would be great to share these experiences, but I do it in my writings. I turn out a massive amount of work and living alone helps that. I never thought this was where my life would take me, but it did. Circumstances took me here, but I have great friends, and a full life and I’m getting a lot out of the experience of living.
Now the USA no longer will answer 911
When have you cheaply or inexpensively fixed an item someone thought unrepairable?
When we moved into our first home we bought a second hand washer and drier. Not long after, the drier quit.
In my family, if something broke, you took it apart. If you fixed it, great. If not you learned a few things and had lots of parts to tinker with.
My wife wanted a tool kit as a little girl and never got one because Little. Girls. Don’t. Play. With. Tools.
So I said I’d take a look and see what was wrong. She wanted me to take it back for a refund. A second hand drier.
Have you ever fixed one before? What’s to go wrong? There’s a drum, a motor and a heater element. She could just not comprehend that you could look at something, see how it worked, and see how to fix it.
Finally I just went Executive Action. Took the back off and there was a broken wire. We got years more use out of it.
A few months later, she pulled in with a recliner in the trunk. The owner was throwing it out and warned her it was broken. “Oh, that’s okay. My husband can fix anything.”
Protip: if you are good with your hands, the first time your SO asks you to hang a picture, nail your hand to the wall. It will hurt like blazes but you have no idea how much trouble it will save.
I kid. She died of a heart attack in January after 48 years. I’d build or fix anything her heart desired to have her back a bit longer.
Some interesting AI generations
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You all know the American idiom “Shitting a brick”, right?
shitting a brick
What you might not realize is that this is an actual term that refers to something that happens during incarceration.
Before you go to prison, you tend to spend months in jail.
This is because a prison bed is typically not available. So you have to wait in jail until you get to go to prison.
While you are in jail, at least in the Southern states, they fed you a lot of “salt peter” (don’t know if it was actual, or slang) that was mixed with the daily mashed potatoes that you ate.
This was supposedly done to make the inmates more easy to control and calmer.
I don’t know the true story, just the rumors.
Anyways, we would eat this stuff. Since the trays were pretty much empty, but the potatoes were just dished out in glorious amounts, us guys would then eat the stuff with relish and gusto.
The thing is, however, the “salt peter” wouldn’t digest. It would just sit there in your colon. Getting heavier and heavier over time.
Eventually you would need to take a glorious shit, and I swear to God, that you would shit out a brick like mass, almost the same size, shape (rectangular; no shit. Actually the rectangular shape.) and weight of a brick.
It happens to all the (older) new inmates.
If you are over 50, sure as shit, you will be shitting a brick after about four months in county jail.
And it will sit there until someone gets a stick to break it up so that it goes down the drain.
The China Defense Ministry says that “China is ready to intervene militarily anywhere if the United States or NATO decides to attack Russia.”
This blunt public statement is almost completely out-of-character for the nation of China. For its entire history, China has always spoken with words like “peace, negotiation, Diplomacy, cooperation.” Almost NEVER has China spoken of war – or declared its intent to actually wage it — so bluntly – ever.
Hal Turner Snap Analysis
The fact that China’s Ministry of Defense used this type of language is an indication to me personally, and to many other people, that China perceives (or knows) that something imminent is about to take place regarding a US/NATO attack upon Russia.
It seems to many long-time observers that China would never have spoken words like these, unless they believe such a situation is imminent.
I find myself in full agreement with such an assessment.
As you read this, news came out this morning that all of Europe is now $61 Billion in the hole over the weapons and assistance it has given to Ukraine during the conflict with Russia.
It has also come out that, since the beginning of the Russia Special Military Operation inside Ukraine, the Russians have been able to increase military production fifteen times (15X) over what it had previously been.
This staggering increase in Russia’s national military production puts that single country’s production SEVEN TIMES that of all of Europe and the United States, combined.
Everywhere on the planet, voices are (finally) rising and admitting Ukraine cannot win against Russia and people who think otherwise must be “out of their minds.”
Here is one such voice from the Bundestag (Parliament) of Germany:
Yet China felt compelled to say it would intervene militarily — anywhere – if the US and NATO attack Russia.
The world seems headed into a gigantic, suicidal, Word War 3, and China has made clear with whom they will stand with.
The rest of us would do well to take note, while we’re still alive and can do something to stop this madness.
In Vietnam
Side boobies! Lol.
Has a super rich person ever been treated so badly at a store that they then turned around and bought the store just to fire the employee?
Well, not to fire an employee. I knew an extremely wealthy man who owned a dry cleaning business as one of his many endeavors. One year, the landlord for the building it was in announced he was doubling the rent.
The businessman said to himself, “Now, that doesn’t make sense. He can’t get that kind of rent on the open market. The guy must be desperate for money.” So through another company he owned, he made a lowball bid for the entire building for half what it was worth, and much to his astonishment, the landlord took it.
Now, since he owned the building, he wrote a sweetheart deal of a lease for his dry cleaning business. Then he looked around the building and saw that it was mostly empty, so he swung a few deals and filled it up with commercial tenants. Then, since he didn’t want to be in the Landlord business himself, he put it on the market for twice what he thought it was worth, and much to his astonishment, somebody bought it for that price.
So, he quadrupled his money and got a nice long-term lease for his dry cleaning business, all because the landlord pissed him off. But this was kind of the way he got rich in the first place.
I remember one time Exxon representatives told him he didn’t charge enough at a gas station he owned. After the Exxon representatives left his office, he handed a can of paint to a worker and told him to take Exxon’s name off the pumps. After a week, Exxon knuckled under and let him sell gas for whatever he wanted. He was moving a lot of cheap gas.
What was the biggest warning that your cat was able to give you?
That a tornado was coming.
I woke up in the middle of the night to her meowing her head off and pawing at the covers. She had been taught very young not to wake people, so this was extremely out of character. As I groggily told her to go away, her meows reached a new completely freaked out pitch (think very upset cat in a bathtub type meows), and I realized there was quite an angry storm going on outside. When I got out of bed, she ran to the doorway, continuing her frantic meows. I grabbed my phone and, noticing a text alert saying we were under a tornado warning, ran downstairs to the first floor closet with her close behind.
She was completely silent as we huddled in the closet together, hearing the world come apart outside. When people say tornadoes are loud, they’re not doing justice to the incredible roar of the twister and the banging, popping, and rough sliding sounds of buildings coming apart and cars being thrown. They’re loud…and they’re incredibly scary, even when you know you’re relatively safe.
We came through that storm with only a broken fence, busted garage door, and a few shingles missing from the roof, but as I looked at the devastation of some of the other homes in my neighborhood, I knew it could have been far worse…and I could have been stuck in my bedroom on the top floor as it happened.
President Biden
What was the most obvious lie you’ve been told?
This one is kind of sad.
I used to work at a school that had quite a few well off families. There was one kid (Flynn) who had learning issues but his parents refused to have him tested due to not admitting it. He was also spoiled rotten, his mother would never discipline her perfect little baby and his father was always away. So he was close to feral in school.
Anyway, one day in class the kid sitting next Flynn starts getting angry wanting his pencil case back. Flynn has his hands up and swears he doesn’t have it. From where I’m standing I can see it on his lap under the desk.
I go, “Flynn, give Jack his case back.”
“I don’t have it.”
“Yes you do, Flynn. Give it back.”
“No, I don’t. I don’t know where it is.”
“Flynn, you know I hate it when you lie. Stop lying and give it back to Jack.”
“I swear I don’t have it.”
“Flynn, I can see it from here. Give it back and see me after class.”
So after class I just come out and say, “Flynn, you were lying. I knew you were lying. And I’m pretty sure that you knew that I knew you were lying. What I don’t get is why. If you knew I could see the pencil case why did you keep lying to me?”
Flynn’s reply, “It works at home.”
What’s something you’ve done that unexpectedly made you a lot of money?
An auctioneer once paid me $2500 for just saying the word NO.
I was at the on-site auction of a restaurant. At the time I was buying and selling just about anything, and I saw in the auction ad that the restaurant was decorated with about 40 antique wooden newel posts, and had a brass railing that connected all of them creating some kind of walkways in the restaurant. A newel post is a wooden post usually at the top and bottom of a staircase (see the photos).
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I knew that since virtually everyone who attends restaurant auctions are either restaurant owners or restaurant equipment resellers, the ornately carved wooden posts would be very undervalued by the crowd.
I was right.
The auction was halfway done and I had won about 20 of the posts for just $40 each, plus the giant pieces of brass railing that went with them. The big problem was that I had no idea how I was going to get them out of the floor. They seemed to be pretty well attached and I had no experience in such things!
So halfway through the auction one of the auctioneers comes to me and tells me he’s really sorry but the bank told him he wasn’t allowed to sell the posts, and therefore I couldn’t have them. The reality was probably closer to this: someone new showed up at the auction, found out how little posts had sold for, offered more money privately to take all of them at once, and the auctioneer decided to see if he could steal them from me with this ruse.
I just told the auctioneer: NO. You can’t have them, they’re mine now and I’ll assert my rights to take them away. After a few minutes of this he just said,
“Howabout I give you $2500 to forget about them?”
I said OK and left 5 minutes later with $2500 cash in my pocket.
In hindsight, driving away, I realized I could have asked for more!
Starbucks
What are business or life stories of people who did the right thing, but then it backfired on them?
In April of 2014, Santa Monica High School biology teacher Mark Black caught a student dealing drugs in his classroom. So he did what most teachers would do: he called security. The student panicked and attacked Mark, pushing him onto a table.
Luckily, Mark Black wasn’t just a biology teacher; he was also a seven-time national wrestling champion, and a national hall-of-fame wrestling coach. He slid off the desk, and used simple wrestling techniques to bring the student to the ground and safely restrain him.
This should have been the end of the story. But in a modern-day twist, the entire incident was recorded on video from the cell-phone of one of the student’s friends. That friend then edited the movie, removing the attack on the teacher, and leaving only the part where Mark Black took the student forcefully to the ground.
The student sent the edited video to news media outlets, and within minutes, pundits around the country were calling for the teacher’s immediate dismissal. Hours after that, the Superintendent of Schools sent out a district-wide email calling the video “utterly alarming,” and suspending Mark.
For most teachers, this would have been the end of their teaching career, but not for Mark Black. He had mentored thousands of students over a 30 year career, and he was loved by an entire community. Many people suspected the story was untrue–because they believed in his character.
Rising up to support him, former students from around the country flew back to Santa Monica, California. A petition was launched on The world’s platform for change
asking for Mark to be reinstated, and overnight it exploded to more than 100,000 signatures. The uproar from Mark’s supporters forced the school district to investigate deeper into events… and the real story quickly came out.
In just three days, Mark went from almost losing his career, to being acknowledged in news outlets as a hero. Within two weeks, he was reinstated to his position…. all because Mark had built a network of support by being passionately devoted to his students and athletes.
_____________________
Fun Addendum: Mark Black was my high school wrestling coach. I was one of the students that flew back to Santa Monica to support him in that time. It was one of the most special experiences in my life to support such a wonderful mentor in a time he most needed it. Here is an LA Times article about him. You’ll notice I’m quoted in it 🙂
What is the single most underrated trait a person can have?
We were in a cafe.
The waiter was serving the things in our plate and he spilled some red sauce on one of my friend’s white shirt.
They both stopped for a while and looked at the stain.
“I am really sorry sir, please come with me to the washroom I’ll clear it” he was fumbling and the droplets of stress could be seen on his forehead.
“It’s perfectly fine brother. Don’t worry! it happens. Just show me the way to washroom I’ll manage” my friend said with a smile.
“Don’t worry I am not gonna change my mood to give you tip” He winked and smiled again while leaving.
And the waiter just smiled.
We went to take clothes from the washerman one day as he didn’t come to return the clothes from many days.
The washerman gave the clothes and showed him the burnt area on a shirt.
He looked at the face of the man which was getting paler and the wrinkles were more pronounced to be a man in fifties.
“Koi baat nahi dada, shirt hi toh hai isi bahane ek nayee le aayenge” (Not a problem uncle, its just a shirt and you gave me a reason to buy new one) He said with a laughter and consoled him by holding his hand.
The watchman of our building didn’t come for a long time.
He went to meet him and found that he was sick. And his daughter was about to get married in a week.
He spent the rest day in preparation of the wedding along with the son of the man and spent whole day on the day of marriage hosting the guests and serving them.
The single most underrated trait which anyone can have is EMPATHY.
The feeling of finding other person’s echoes in yourself and the art of giving smile to others by putting yourself in their shoes.
The effort to make someone’s day a bit better.
Double Name
What is the oddest reason you have been contacted by your child’s school?
Funny story here!
My daughter was (probably) in first grade at the time. It could have been KG ir 2nd grade. Anyway, she was always a playful and friendly little girl. She made friends all the time. However, she was never (and still isn’t, 20+ years later) into anything physical (e.g. sports, gym, hiking, etc.) The one physical activity that she did love was the monkey bars.
I’m not sure how many bars the thing had but probably a dozen or 2 dozen, more than enough for several kids to be on the thing at the same time.
Just to be clear, monkey bars have an upside-down U shape. You climb up 1 vertical side. Then there’s a horizontal portion a few feet long. You grasp a bar and hang from it and then you “walk” across the bar with 1 hand on the bar in front of you and 1 hand on the bar directly behind it.
There’s a drop of a few feet. The thing is just tall enough that a little kid’s feet won’t touch the floor while handwalking across the horizontal section. My daughter was on the horizontal section with 6 of her friends. She lost her grip and fell (maybe 2 feet). Her little friends loved her so much that they got worried all let go of the bar and fell on top of her 😂
The school called me to tell me that my daughter had injured herself on the playground. I lived close by and got to the school in 15 minutes. My daughter was fuming. The teachers had taken her to the nurse for her “injuries.” There wasn’t a scratch on her. But she was annoyed at having lost her playtime!
This was the first time that I had ever been called to school for non-existent injuries. I had to calm down my daughter, not because she was physically or emotionally hurt but just because she got too much love.
What is the rudest thing a beggar/homeless person did and said to you after you did them a favor?
I was at RacTrac in Fort Worth getting gas. A rough looking guy comes up to me and gives a sob story, tells me he ran out of gas, coasted up to the pumps and asked me for 20 bucks. I told him I didn’t have any cash and said let’s go over to your car and I’ll fill ’er up with my credit card. I asked which car was his. He looked around and pointed to an older car two bays over. He said “NO! Just give me some cash!” He got pissed off and said he was gonna beat my ass if I didn’t cough up some cash. I gave his crap right back to him and told him to go away or I’d knock him out. Then he frantically heads over to the next pump and starts harassing an older, well dressed woman. About that time, someone came out of the store and got in the car he said was his. Then drove away. I went over and demanded that he leave her alone and stood there until she finished getting her gas. She graciously thanked me and left. So I went back and my gas was finished pumping. I started to pull out and saw a Ft Worth police car pulling in. By now this guy was harassing people on the other end of the lot. I flagged down the officer. He was a SWAT officer in full riot gear heading back to the station! I told him what had happened. Next thing I know he has the guy spread out on the hood of his squad car searching him.
I drove slowly by and waved at the guy as the officer was cuffing him!
Is saying ‘thank you’ common in Russian culture? How should one respond if someone thanks them for a small gesture in Russia?
Here’s a little first hand story.
In 2003, I made my first trip to another country, which was England. I stayed at a private home in a place called Pinner in Greater London. My hosts gave my a room and let me use their facilities. It was the first time I actually saw and used those bizarre separate water taps for cold and hot water. So inconvenient. But that’s beside the point.
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I spend most of my time hiking and sightseeing. One day I went to see central London. In the evening, when I was going to board my train to go back I learned that there was a blackout
and the trains didn’t work.
I didn’t know how to get to Pinner, so I called my host and asked him if he could drive to the center and pick me up. This phone conversation was life changing for me due to one little detail. It was I who was asking him for help, but it was him, who thanked me several times during the mere seconds that we spoke. When he understood the position I was in and what I was asking him for, he said something like “okay, I see, I’ll pick you up, thank you, thank you, bye”. I was stunned. Those “thank yous” sounded very automatic, but they made so much difference. Like, the man had nothing to thank me for. On the contrary, I got him out from his comfy apartment and made drive to the central London at night, and yet he said thank you. Just a simple sign of politeness made a world of difference. After that I started saying thank you much much more often than I used to.
It’s been more than 20 years, and I have observed that Russian people have become much much more polite, and they use the “magic words” like thank you and please much more often. So I’d say, it has become common. It even affected people who are not used to saying thank you that often, because it has become much easier and more pleasant to deal with them.
Japan evening walk in Shinjuku, Tokyo • 4K HDR
https://youtu.be/rFcwx-sIMA8
Have you, as a police officer, ever known a “dirty” cop? If so, what did you do about it?
Cops as Robbers!
It was about 11:00 p.m. when I first observed my sergeant get a cell phone call. He looked at me and told me he had to check something and left the office. I didn’t hear from him for about thirty minutes. The next thing I hear is that they are looking to establish a crime scene. I immediately went to dispatch and asked, “Where’s the scene and what’s going on?” The dispatcher who was half-asleep said he didn’t hear the broadcast, so I made him play back the audio recording. The department tape-records all radio transmissions and incoming phone calls, a fact that would save my bacon over the next few hours.
After hearing the recording of an officer asking about a crime scene, the dispatcher said nobody told him anything. I then called the sergeant over the radio and said: “What do you have?” He replied that he would give me a call (fortunately for me on a taped line). I took his phone call, and he explained that some drunken Mexican was saying that he got kidnapped, beat up and robbed by the police. They were driving the victim around looking for a crime scene, but the sergeant stated, that to him, it sounded farfetched.
I was aware that there had been some informant information saying that a rogue cop was robbing Mexicans. In fact, the chief, in a staff meeting two months prior, had brought up the information.
I told the sergeant to bring the victim to the station, which he did. At the station, I spoke to a friend of the victim and the victim. The friend spoke English while the victim spoke only Spanish. The friend said the victim was on his way to his house to pay him back some money. As the victim approached the man’s house, a marked police sport-utility-vehicle stopped the victim, arrested him, and drove off. The witness described the involved officers as wearing blue police uniforms with one of the officers speaking fluent Spanish.
The sergeant kept downplaying the incident, and I later determined he had misdirected my initial investigation. He said we only had two Spanish-speaking officers working, while he knew we, in fact, had three. I had the two Spanish-speaking officers I knew about come into the room, and apparently, these were not the officers.
The sergeant then reminded me that the state police had several units in the area who were driving similar vehicles. Two of their officers were at our station using our breathalyzer because their machine was down for repairs. I ran down those leads and came up empty.
Because of the informant information previously discussed, I called the chief of police at 2:00 a.m. and said, “I’m not sure what I have, but one of our cops may be involved in a robbery.” Both the chief and internal affairs commander responded to the department, as well as the two other division commanders.
Information started to leak out in small dribs and drabs. Everyone working that night was interviewed, and no one was allowed to leave. First, I learned that it had something to do with an off-duty police officer who was pulled over for drunk driving. Two officers from our community-policing unit offered to give the intoxicated officer a ride home so he wouldn’t get in trouble. Instead of taking him home, they transported the officer back to a local bar.
I would learn later, that when they transported this drunken officer to the bar, they had already kidnapped the Mexican who was in the back seat with him. The truth finally came out when one officer involved in the kidnapping came clean and turned state’s evidence. This officer had recently transferred to the unit. The second officer and ring leader was not Hispanic but apparently spoke fluent Spanish—a fact I didn’t know, but the sergeant did.
On this night, they were looking for a Mexican to rob. They kidnapped this person off the street and eventually took him to a secluded area of a park and robbed him of his money, assaulted him, and left him there.
However, en route to the park, they stopped a suspected drunk driver who was yet another officer. They then started to give the drunken officer a ride home, loading him into their car right next to the kidnapped man. They dropped the officer at a local bar instead of taking him home.
As word spread of the robbery, other officers knew of the drunken officer and learned of the man in the backseat. The sergeant and others on the shift knew this information, but at that point, all remained quiet.
Initially, I think the sergeant was only covering for the non-arrest of the drunken officer, but later learned of the man in the back seat and tried to continue to sell a false narrative. It’s unfortunate once you start trying to cover one officer’s bad behavior; you become caught up and locked into a much more severe situation. There’s no question in my mind that this well-respected sergeant would never have covered for officers committing a robbery. The problem was, he got caught up in trying to help the intoxicated officer and just got sucked into the middle of a bad situation.
By the next morning, the two officers left in handcuffs going to the county jail. A group of union idiots stood in solidarity at the jail parking lot supporting the officers. In fairness to them, they didn’t know the facts of the case, or they probably wouldn’t have been there.
One junior officer came forward identifying who knew what when, which took courage considering he was going against his entire platoon and his sergeant. He and other officers on the shift received discipline. The sergeant was initially suspended pending further investigation. During this extended period of months, he had several personal tragedies in his life, losing both of his parents.
Additionally, while he was still suspended, the current chief who wanted the sergeant fired was forced to retire. A new chief took over. This chief was a close personal friend of the sergeant. Under the new administration, this sergeant took some discipline but kept his job and more amazingly his rank.
The officer involved in the robbery who turned state’s evidence got a couple of years in jail. The Spanish-speaking ringleader pleaded guilty and got almost the same sentence. They were both out of prison in about three months.
Several years later, the ringleader was back in the news, this time for the armed robbery of several banks. He went away again on a seven-year sentence, but just as before, served only a portion of that time and is now out, yet again.
Cowboy Coffee Cake
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Ingredients
1 (10 count) can biscuits, not the flaky type
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup finely chopped nuts
1/3 cup raisins
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Put biscuits in bottom of Bundt pan.
Heat other ingredients just long enough to melt sugar.
Spread mixture over biscuits.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.
Would you hire someone who’s been in prison?
As a supervisor for a drywall company I hired a guy who had served half his life in prison.
he was 44 and had spent 22 years in prison. ( 4 year stretch 2 year stretch etc not one long 22 year hit),
He was by far the cleanest worker ( his work space ) and the most obedient worker too.
I had to measure up his work after his first 2 weeks.
He worked alone as he was 6 foot 9 and looked nasty.
I told him his count and that he had earned $7000 for 2 weeks work.
He apologized and said he would work harder next pay period !!! the most the other employees would make would be around $2500.
Next pay period rolls around and I measure his work. $8000 this time.
I tell him and he promises to work harder next time !!. 2 weeks later His measure was $9000. The owner strolls on the job site after the invoices have been sent in.
He asks me who Mick is? I take him to Mick and of course his work area is spotless and I introduce them. Mick shakes his hand and the boss pats him on the back. If Mick made $24000 in 6 weeks guess how much the boss made.
I had mick working for me for 5 years till he cracked and ended up in pokey again.
So YES I would employ someone who has been to prison.
I was on an hourly wage but loved to see Micks cheques
Cross of Iron – Facing the T-34s
What is the most unusual and incorrect reason you’ve had the police called on you?
my insane landlady/neighbor reported me to the police. she said i went inside her house and stole her purse because it contained $5000 cash and her phone. meanwhile, she actually left it in the yard while nibbling on random plants in my ornamental garden (yes you read that right, i had cameras 😂)
thankfully, she also told the cops i did it because she works as jeff bezos’ assistant and i wanted the phone so i could blackmail him for money. needless to say they didn’t take it very seriously. i only found out she reported me when i went to the police station to talk to them about her erratic behavior. they were wildly unhelpful then, and throughtout the whole mess that followed 🤷♂️
random other crazy parts of the days surrounding the police report:
she has cameras, and could easily prove someone entered if it were true.
the day before she randomly texted me to ”go in her unlocked backdoor while she was out, and leave the rent on her kitchen table” – specifically asking me to do it while she wasn’t home. it was the same table she told the police i took the purse from. i didn’t of course – but it seems she intended to frame me
she had snuck into my place while i was at work three days prior, i caught her when coming home early. and immediately realized she had been doing it a lot. (things had been moved, doors open i didnt usually leave open etc.. i had figured it was a guest until then) it caused her to spiral with excuses for why she did it, and plots to make the situation go away – she admitted it but didn’t apologize lol.
thats just the beginning, but thats the police report part
Is it better to be tasered or pepper sprayed?
Take it from someone who has tasted both: Take the Taser. Every time.
Now, both are awful – I wouldn’t recommend either for a leisurely afternoon. However, the difference is in how they’re bad. When a Taser is used on you, it is pure electric hell, but for exactly five seconds (the standard duration of a single trigger pull). Now, God never stitched together five longer seconds, to be sure – the current from a Taser is by far the most acute pain I’ve ever endured, and this is coming from someone who’s had a baseball fracture a finger, taken an elbow right to the nose in a basketball game, been hit with simulated bullets, and gotten into (and won, I might add) a street fight with a convicted felon. But once it’s over, it’s over. There is some lingering muscle weirdness (I liken it to that feeling that’s left behind after you finally work out a charley horse in a muscle), but that’s it.
When you get pepper sprayed, though, it’s an hours-long ordeal. When oleoresin capsicum (OC, the chemical in pepper spray) hits your mucous membranes, they go absolutely insane. It took well under one minute for my eyes to swell completely shut, and they were obviously watering profusely. My sinuses underwent nothing less than a liquid detonation – I’m trying not to be crude, but think in excess of half a pint. It’s panic inducing – you can’t see without physically prying your eyelids open, you’re punished every time you breathe, you can’t squeegee the stuff off your face (despite frantic efforts that only serve to expand the zone of misery). It took me an hour to see clearly enough to drive, and over a full day for the pain to completely subside – when OC dries, crystals are left behind that, no matter how many tears you produce, can stay stuck under your eyelid.
As a civilian, I would double down on this answer, because in the heat of the moment, officers tend to err on the side of caution – their caution. That means if you’re to the point of being sprayed, you’ve got a high likelihood of what was known among officers as “getting hosed down.” While Taser cycles can be restarted, this can only be done if the subject is continuing to resist (and cycles are recorded by a tiny onboard computer, which provides records which can be uploaded to a personal computer – in other words, supervisors will know if you abused a Taser during a use of force incident). There’s no ‘standard spray’ with OC – it will emit spray as long as there are contents in the can and you have the trigger depressed.
Unfortunately, you won’t have any vote if you’re on the receiving end. You can take hope from the fact that most officers, in my experience, prefer using a Taser (usually no medical intervention necessary, the subject can see and isn’t hyperventilating, no patrol car contamination, and on and on).
But again, do avoid both at most any cost.
Mexican Casserole
Use your choice of meats in this versatile casserole.
8 ounces Dorito corn chips, crushed, or regular corn chips
1 (15 ounce) can Bush’s ranch-style beans or chili beans
1 (10 ounce) can Ro*Tel, undrained
1 (10 ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
2 cups Mexican-style shredded cheese
Flour or corn tortillas, warmed
Instructions
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 2 quart casserole dish with cooking spray.
In a large skillet, brown the meat for 5 minutes, using a spoon to break up any large clumps. Drain off excess fat and add onion, garlic and chili powder. Continue to cook and stir for 2 minutes.
Add the beans to the cooked meat mixture.
Combine the tomatoes with the soup in a small bowl, mixing completely.
Place about 3/4 of the crushed chips into the bottom of the casserole. Spoon on half the meat mixture, then half the soup mixture. Then add half of the shredded cheese. Repeat the layers, ending with shredded cheese.
Sprinkle the top of the dish with the remaining crushed Doritos or corn chips.
Bake for 30-35 minutes until mixture is bubbling and top is lightly browned.
Serve with tortillas on the side.
What are some of the funniest “got fired” stories?
Not fired per se, but often reassigned. I spent 20 years in the military. One of my supervisors, on realizing I was essentially a lazy git, put me in charge of a shop in a distant part of the ship. No one had really paid any attention to the processes in years. So, lazy man that I was, I dug in to work out the easiest, most expeditious way to do the work. Took about a month, most of it reading manuals and regulations. I completely streamlined everything, including our reporting, eliminating redundancies and revamping workflows. Another 3 weeks to train the staff on how to follow the new procedures, and I could do my whole job in about eight hours a week.
Well, my boss wasn’t going to have me sit on my rump for the other 32 hours, so he moved me again. Same result. A third time, and I was getting the hang of it. I was down to six hours a week. In sheer Puritan frustration, he sent me to the department head’s office to do admin work. Bad choice on his part; I quit paying any attention to the three shops I’d been in, they didn’t need it. In the mean time, I’d become indispensable to my new boss, by arranging things so he could do his job in just a few hours a week.
They gave me “extra duties as assigned”. Well, those were mostly simple enough; paying attention to the written procedures and manuals, and keeping in mind the actual goals, instead of “This is how we’ve always done it”, let me go back to being a lazy git in short order. I was up to maybe 10 hours a week, and that was mostly delivering verbal reports. Maintenance standards were ridiculously high, my people got a lot of time off because the work got done faster than ever before, and me? No one ever saw me actually doing anything. I’d just wander around, a cup of coffee in my hand, dropping a hint here and a word there, or sitting in the mess and catching the occasional phone call.
My evals made me look like a lazy incompetent. Because they used the wrong metrics. But anywhere I was assigned, actual productivity rose, down-time dropped, and everyone got more time off (the only truly effective reward I had to hand out). A lot of my bosses got commendations for “improvements” I had implemented. I eventually retired, after doing some of the easiest time in the service, drawing two pensions and only 38 years old. Drove my wife nuts doing the same thing at home, before she kicked me out of the house. 🙂
Battle of Nagashino 1575
What is something you have tried, but will never do again?
My mate’s girlfriend was getting married to some other guy.
This had to happen.
I too knew that. Who would give her daughter’s hand to a jobless second year engineering student?
Around a week before his girlfriend’s marriage I advised him to cut all connections with her so that she could start a fresh life.
He replied:
“She cannot live without me. If I will stop calling her, she will die.”
I said: “She will not die. She will take time to adjust with her husband but eventually she will be happy with her husband.”
He: “Do you take the guarantee?”
Me: “I am pretty sure that she will not do such stupid thing. Please do not call her if you need her betterment.”
He: “If she commits suicide then you will also have to jump from the roof.”
After that incident I stopped giving advice to any hardcore Romeo.
It has been 2 years and the girl is living happily with her husband.
Million-Dollar Macaroni Casserole
The whole family will love this easy, cozy make-ahead Million-Dollar Macaroni Casserole.
million dollar spaghetti casserole
Ingredients
1 pound ground beef or bulk sausage*
1 (28 ounce) can spaghetti sauce
8 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 pound cottage cheese
1 stick butter
1 pound pasta such as elbow noodles or rotini
1 bag pizza blend shredded cheese
Optional: sliced mushrooms, diced bell pepper, diced onion
Instructions
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Boil the noodles. Mix together the cream cheese, sour cream and cottage cheese in a mixer to thoroughly mixed together. Set aside.
If you have chosen to use the bell pepper or onion, sauté them for 3 minutes then toss in the ground beef or sausage. Brown ground beef or sausage and drain well. Add spaghetti sauce and mix together. Put a few slices of butter in the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish. Then layer half of the noodles in the bottom of the dish. Spread the cheese mixture over this layer. Then add the remaining noodles on top of this with a few pats of butter.
Spread the red sauce and meat on top.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Remove from oven, spread cheese on top, and return to oven for another 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.
Notes
* Ground chicken or turkey may also be used in this recipe.
Does it cost money to go to jail?
Depends on how you intend to live your life while you’re there.
Because simply existing in jail — an American jail anyway — requires no money at all if you’re willing to subsist on bad food, basic toiletries, and a blaring day room TV.
But any kind of a normal life at all is gonna require income.
Without money in your commissary account, you can’t —
wash your hair with anything other than bar soap;
soothe a raw throat with Menthol-Lyptus;
take Tylenol for a headache;
write and mail a letter;
make a phonecall;
listen to music;
use deodorant;
eat a snack;
moisturize;
And if you consider any of these items luxuries, then you’re probably coming to incarceration straight off the street and sleeping rough.
Congrats on the upgrade.
Otherwise, you’re gonna need funds.
That means sympathetic family and friends on the outside, a work release or road crew deal from the judge and/or sheriff’s department, or a trustee uniform.
I know it’s possible to subsist in jail without means, because I’ve seen motherfuckers do it.
But it’s no way for a human being to live.
Network
Grease Palms
Update That Resume
Jail isn’t the free ride one might imagine.
Putin just scored a KNOCKOUT Blow to NATO and Ukraine is Terrified w/ Andrei Martyanov
Which historical event sounds like it came straight out of a movie?
Shawn Nelson was a plumber.
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And since Shawn Nelson was a plumber, he was rich too.
He quite literally had it all. A nice wife, a big house, and a booming business.
But one day, it seemed like whatever higher power there existed had had enough of Shawn and his life being so nice.
So the higher power commanded fate to start shitting on Shawn with unparalleled fury.
In the span of 4 years:
Both of his parents died, his mother’s death causing him to become an abusive alcoholic
His wife filed for divorce because of his alcohol tendencies
He was hospitalized for neck and back injuries, which left him unable to walk for a year or so
His truck was broken into, having all his plumbing supplies stolen
Due to him not being able to walk, which means not having a business, which means not being able to pay the bills, Shawn’s utilities were cut off.
The bank started to foreclose his assets due to him not being able to pay
The hospital that treated him for his injuries sued him for unpaid medical bills
The man had quite literally lost everything in a fraction of the time it had taken him to get it.
Safe to say, he was at his lowest point.
As many can attest, it is easier than ever to fall into the grasp of drug use during this time. Nelson was no different. He quickly got addicted to crystal meth, and he went all-in into his addiction.
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When the meth started, his erratic behaviors increased.
Nelson’s neighbors were constantly calling the cops because they were being kept awake at night by Nelson’s outbursts. He constantly threatened suicide and was verbally and emotionally abusive to his roommate and a new girlfriend.
He went so far as to call the Oklahoma bombing that killed nearly 200 people and injured nearly 700 “good stuff.”
However, it seemed fate had finally smiled upon Shawn when he found gold in his own back garden.
This was it. This was the chance to turn his life around. He could pay his bills, regain his job, make his business run again, and finally go back to his old life.
However, this was another meth-fueled delirium. That didn’t stop him from single-handedly building a fifteen-foot mineshaft in his own back garden though.
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He dug that mineshaft for nothing.
Soon after, his girlfriend and roommate moved out.
Shawn was alone in his big house with a big pile of meth.
He had nothing to lose.
On the 17th of May, 1995. Shawn Nelson ingested all the meth he had, then got into his car and started driving, stopping only when he reached the California National Guard Armory.
At this point, Nelson was a meth entity with nothing to lose, and he had only one goal in mind.
He was going to steal a tank.
Shawn arrived at the national guard barracks to find the door wide open, with no guards guarding the millions of dollars worth of tanks and guns stored inside there.
So Shawn just waltzed right in.
He found a tank that he liked and climbed in. At this point, you’d expect tanks to have something like keys or a complicated ignition system to start, but nope.
The tank had a push start button.
Unfortunately, the tank didn’t work. So Shawn climbed into another tank, all without getting spotted. That tank didn’t work either.
He climbed into a third tank, which worked, and so began the half-hour-long Meth Tank Rampage.
He drove his tank through the streets, completely invulnerable to anything the police cruisers that followed him had access to. He crushed 40 vehicles and many more road utilities until he finally got stuck, at which point he was shot dead.
Getting your life screwed over that bad, then stealing a tank does not sound like something out of real life to me.
HUGE EDIT PLEASE READ:
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Shawn Nelson was by no means a saint. He was not entirely a victim of circumstance and mostly brought the stuff that happened to him onto himself.
Mercenaries from the West inside Ukraine – Stunning Numbers
The number of “mercenaries” inside Ukraine, from Western and NATO countries, is stunning. The number of them KILLED is also stunning. Details below:
The Russian Ministry of Defense continues to track and record all foreign mercenaries who have arrived in Ukraine to participate in combat actions.
►The total number of foreign mercenaries who have arrived in Ukraine is 13,387 (Since 24 February 2022.)
►Destruction of 5,962 foreign mercenaries has been confirmed to date.
The undisputed leader in terms of the number of killed fighters is Poland (2,960 arrived, 1,497 eliminated). From Georgia, 1,042 fighters arrived, of whom 561 were eliminated. The 1,113 ‘soldiers of fortune’ arriving from the U.S. lost 491 killed. More than 40% of Canadian mercenaries were eliminated (422 out of 1,005). Of the 822 fighters arriving from the UK, 360 were eliminated. From Romania, 784 mercenaries arrived, 349 were killed. From Germany – 235 and 88, respectively. France has already lost 147 militants out of 356 arrived
but denies — at all levels — the presence of its mercenaries on the territory of Ukraine.
Forty-four percent (44%) of all foreign mercenaries who went into Ukraine, are confirmed dead.
If one applies the same percentage to Ukrainian regular army troops, then out of the 800,000 troops that existed at the start of the conflict, it is logical to conclude that at least 352,000 are already dead.
Since Ukraine has been drafting-by-force during the entirety of the conflict, the number of Ukrainian dead is clearly far higher than 352,000.
At what point will anyone in the West come to the rational conclusion that the Ukrainians have ZERO chance of surviving continued hostilities? Because THAT is the only rational conclusion to be arrived at.
If the West decides to pursue a suicidal effort to enter Ukraine militarily, is it not clear already that Western Forces would see the same 44% of their men killed the same way Ukraine has?
Last week, it was admitted by the West that eighty percent (80%) of Ukrainian Drones have been rendered useless by Russian Electronic Warfare! 80% ! ! !
Those are Western-supplied drones. Does the West think it will have better odds if THEY are the ones launching the drones? Such a conclusion would be idiocy.
When will the West come to its senses and tell Ukraine “We’ve reached the end, you must sue for peace with Russia?”
As it stands now, Western armament supplies are dwindling to the point where Western nations are no longer able to defend THEIR OWN territory, because they have so depleted their supplies of Ammunition, artillery shells, and missiles.
If the West _does_ engage in Ukraine, where do they think they will get re-supplied from? Right now, the West can’t make enough for the pittance of an army that Ukraine has left. How would they then supply the extra half-million NATO troops? The ammunition simply isn’t there anymore and the manufacturing base simply cannot make enough to supply an ongoing war effort.
None of these facts are in dispute. So why is the carnage continuing?
Do card counters really get beaten up by casino thugs, as portrayed in the movies?
My wife counts cards. She likes to play at the $1 tables at Circus Circus in Reno. She makes a few bucks every time she plays. Counting cards requires some concentration, and many people can’t do it, especially if they’re drunk, which explains the free alcohol.
The dealers all count cards. It’s the only way to keep from nodding off doing that job. So they pretty much know who is counting and who is gambling.
If you go home with $20 and brag to your friends that you counted cards in Reno, it’s great for business. If you try to count cards at the high-stakes tables, you will get escorted out if you are successful at all. A photo of you is taken and posted in the Security office so don’t come back later in the day to try again.
There are enough casinos in Reno that you can make some money if you come a couple times a year. If you move to Reno and try to make a living counting cards, you become known to the pit bosses and the security people, and find yourself prevented from playing.
No brass knuckles are involved. That’s just for the movies.
Cowboy Coffee
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Ingredients
4 quarts water
1 1/2 cups freshly ground coffee
1 egg shell
1/2 cup cold water
Instructions
Bring water to a boil in a large saucepan or coffee pot.
Add coffee grounds and egg shell to boiling water. Return to a boil, then remove from heat and let stand for 2 minutes.
Slowly add cold water to settle grounds to the bottom. Strain if desired.
As a boss, what is the wildest reason that you had to chew out/discipline/fire an employee?
I was managing a radio station in Colorado. One early morning, I was on the air and noticed the hotline lighting up indicating an incoming call: it was the guy whom I scheduled to be on the air after me. He was calling in sick.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “We’ll cover your shift so stay home and take care of yourself, and I hope to see you tomorrow.”
I was able to find a replacement for him, so after my shaft had come to an end, I handed over the reins to the next jock. I rarely did this, but for some reason, I decided to go home for an hour before I came back to work and spend the rest of my day working in my office. Once I was home, I turned on the TV just to have some noise in the background as I went into the kitchen to make a simple lunch. As I walked around the house, I looked down to see a basketball game in progress. Who do I notice seeing courtside, was none other than the guy who had called in sick.
It was well-known through my staff that if one wanted to take off a day – even if it were for personal reasons – I had a policy in place that would allow people to call in (even at the last minute) and request time off.
To make matters worse, he had lied to me.
The next day, I saw him in the hallway and simply said, “My office. Two-o’clock. Be there.”
At the moment, I couldn’t tell if I was going to fire him for being stupid enough to call in sick to attend a nationally televised event, or if I was going to fire him for lying to me. Either way, he was becoming gainfully unemployed that afternoon.
“Thank you for stopping by my office, but I am afraid that your services are no longer needed. Have a nice day.” I handed him his final check and he left silently.
I am glad that during my time in management I rarely had to fire someone (in fact, he was only one of two people I had fired during my career (the other person was dismissed for attendance purposes. I can tolerate a lot of things with people, but being lied to is, in my opinion, the worst.
Which are some of the most ingeniously solved criminal cases?
The story starts in Denmark. It is 2012 and police officers have just made a pretty standard arrest: they found a sexual offender with possession of child porn.
Police had a much greater concern though. They needed to find who created the videos, not just who was watching them.
There were no clear clues, so they turned to the videos to see if they could find a lead.
In the background, at one point, there was the slightest shot of a pill bottle.
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They zoomed in and managed to discern the man’s first name, the first two letters of his last name and the first three digits of the prescription order.
From there, the investigators applied these details to every possible person to whom they could be attributed.
After intensive searching, they conclude that a man named Stephen Keating is responsible, however they still have very little info about him. Furthermore, this evidence alone isn’t enough to convict him.
Rather than giving up, they once again went back to the videos. This time however, they found an image showing the man’s hand. From there, they used technology to create an impression of his fingerprint.
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The resulting fingerprint was a perfect match.
53-year-old Stephen Keating was arrested, just three weeks after the investigation began.
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Keating had repeatedly sexually molested three children, all under the age of 12. Outside of the ones captured on video, it was revealed there were another 12 children whom he had abused.
He was sentenced to 110 years in federal prison, but he may have never been caught had it not been for some brilliant detective work.
[4K】Relaxing Walk in Japanese Small Town – Ikegawa, Kochi
This is just lovely.
Cowboy Coffee with Kahlua Cream
Featured in the November 1998 issue of Texas Monthly – created by Chef Grady Spears
how to make cowboy coffee recipe 1695022684
Ingredients
1 pot hot coffee
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
2 tablespoons Kahlua liqueur
8 teaspoons shaved chocolate
Instructions
Make a pot of good strong coffee.
In a bowl whip the cream until soft peaks form.
Fold in the powdered sugar and Kahlua.
Put a dollop on each cup of coffee and garnish with shaved chocolate.
What single decision had the greatest effect on history?
On September 28th, 1918, Henry Tandey, a British soldier serving with the 5th Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, saw a weary German soldier wandering into Tandey’s line of fire at the small French village of Marcoing.
The enemy soldier was hurt and didn’t even attempt to raise his rifle. Altough Tandey had a clear vision and an opportunity to reduce the number of enemy forces by one, he chose not to shoot. The German soldier allegedly saw what he did and nodded his thanks before getting out of the sight.
That German soldier was Adolf Hitler.
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This story supposedly comes from Hitler himself. When Neville Chamberlain visited Hitler in 1938 (before the Münich Agreement), he saw a picture by Fortunino Matania ordered by the Green Howards regiment depicting a man saving his fellow comrade. Hitler had allegedly identified the man as Tandey on the basis of a U.K. newspaper article and claimed Tandey was the one who saved his life:
That man came so near to killing me that I thought I should never see Germany again; Providence saved me from such devilishly accurate fire as those English boys were aiming at us.
There has been a lot of evidence that this story is not actually true (see the sources below). But it doesn’t make it less cool nevertheless. If it were true, it would definitely be a legitimate candidate for a single decision that had the most dramatic effect on the entire 20th century.
If nothing else, it kinda reminded me of the following joke:
A man decided to visit a fortune teller. After looking into his hand and into the crystal ball, the fortune teller says in a dramatic tone:
“You sir, will be responsible for the death of millions”
Shocked and taken aback, the man goes back to his home. Along the way, he passes near a river and sees a small boy drowning helplessly.
“Well, if millions of people are going to die because of me, I might at least save one life.”
He jumps into the river and pulls the boy out. The shocked mother comes in tears and says:
“ Oh my dear god, thank you so much Mr., you are a saint. Adolf, you should thank this gentleman yourself.”
If you have just killed someone in self defense, what can you do immediately after the fact to help cement your innocence?
Call a lawyer.
Shut up until your lawyer shows up.
Take pictures of the scene and especially the witnesses. Give the phone only to your lawyer.
When the cops come say ‘I’m sorry Officer. I’d love to tell you my side, but my wife told me to wait for my lawyer.’ Change that to your Dad, etc. At some point before then say ‘Dad, tell me the following…’ so you aren’t lying to the cops.
If they are going to miss the obvious, like a witness, or the gun slid under the dumpster, point it out. But then shut up again.A buddy was getting divorced. His soon to be ex said, she felt threatened when talking to him because he was a soldier (it didn’t matter for the other 20 years…) He was a nice guy and wanted to say, ‘it’s okay, I won’t talk to her.’ But his lawyer shut him down.
If he said that, it gave the impression that he really was a threat.
If he made a mistake, and called his kid, but his wife answered, he could be found liable of breaching a court order.Don’t move things, except to safety and holster your weapon.
A cop had a legit shoot, but noticed the bad guy dropped the gun, right at the cop’s feet. The cop moved the gun to the bad guy, to match what he saw as true, at the time.
Moving the gun got him convicted.Changing your mag might be a good idea because you don’t know if the fight is over until the cops arrive.
Leave the 1/2 empty mag at your feet. Put the safety on/de-cock it, etc. because you don’t want the cop who takes your gun having an ND.
You don’t want the cops to show up and you have a gun in your hand. If your gun is in your hand, very nervous cops will point their guns at you. You don’t want that.Don’t move anything you don’t have to. Giving first aid is allowed but it messes with the facts. Ask 911 before you do it.And shut up. You will really really want to talk. But who among us haven’t said something stupid?
One of my affirmations has been to get rich. I know, I know… I tell youse guys focus on the end result about what you want from life, and not about the “how” to make it manifest. But when I was making these affirmations, I too was learning, and I made a lot of bone-head moves… things that taught me many lessons.
So today, I will tell you why I say to structure your affirmations around health, happiness, love, joy and other things that are meaningful to you. And not the television image of what success actually is.
back in the day I had an affirmation sort of like this…
“I live the life of a rich person from Miami Vice (a television show from the 1980’s). I live in a penthouse on the ocean with an ocean view, white walls, and a nice pool.”
Miami Vice House
Well, it did take a while to manifest. Ah, but manifest it did.
I was living in a penthouse, it was on the ocean. I did have a pool, and I was a millionaire. Ah, it all came true. But with that came other manifestations that I did not anticipate… like millions of dollars in debt. A police record. And other things.
By using “Miami Vice” wealthy people as a template I locked my affirmations into an extrapolated reality of…
Felon millionaire.
Great large amounts of debt.
All the trappings of a life on the beach living in “Billionaire row”.
Just like the images presented on “Miami Vice”.
Listen to me.
NEVER, ever… ever use movies or television to base your affirmations upon.
Today…
Playing around with LeonardoAI
I have been playing around with this software program, and it is heck of a lot of fun. Perhaps one of the best text-to-image generators.
Here’s some of my results…
Default film noir scene a swanky dame wearing a satin slip is 0Default Imagine Young Brigitte Bardot Age 24 bright eyes as D 0Default film noir style a man and a blonde woman is in a dinin 0Default aweinspiring Emperor Taizu of Song Dynasty portrait hi 1(1)Default Sketchbook Style Sketch book hand drawn dark gritty re 1Default film noir scene beautiful woman in a slinky silk dres 3Default Imagine Young Lana Turner Age 24 bright eyes as Dorot 0
And here are some videos from pictures…
These were all made on a free account. I suggest you all give it a try.
As a police officer, who was the most dangerous person you arrested and why?
The most dangerous person I can think of was someone I didn’t arrest, but should have.
I was on the graveyard shift, patrolling a city park that had several paved roads running through it. The parks were deemed “closed” from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM, and were posted as such, but there were no gates or physical restrictions to entry. Most of the time, if we found someone in the park after hours, it was couples making out, people drinking or smoking dope in their cars, or people sleeping in their cars. With any of these, there tended to be a high incidence of arrest warrants, revoked drivers licenses, and other lesser offenses.
I came upon a late model Camaro, occupied by a man and a woman. They were sober, didn’t appear to be making out, and reasonably cordial. I obtained the male driver’s license and ran it. It was valid, he was not wanted, and the Oregon plates (I was in Nevada) came back to a late model Camaro.
I still had a bad gut feeling about the pair. My practice with suspicious newcomers and transients was to write them a citation for whatever minor violation I could find. I knew most of them would ignore it. If they left town, the citation became one of the thousands of warrants we had in file that would never be served. If they were still around in a month and they were still up to no good, I would have a warrant to arrest them on, and we would have their photo, fingerprints, and eventually, their true identity, if it was something other than they had told us about.
So the driver got a citation for being in the park after hours, which would almost certainly be dismissed in court if he challenged it, on the grounds that it was hugely chicken shit.
I had mostly forgotten about the stop about six weeks later, when I got a radio call from another officer, one who had been my rookie trainee a couple of years before. He had stopped the same couple, ran them for warrants, and the one from my citation popped up. He was in booking with the couple. When he saw that the warrant had come from my ticket, he asked me to respond.
He had stopped the Camaro for reckless driving. When he made contact with the driver, he was confrontational. He asked the driver to get out of the car, and that’s when he saw the .380 pistol under his leg. There was a minor donnybrook, with the female passenger also assaulting the cop, but reinforcements got there in time and the pair were arrested.
A search of the vehicle revealed the original plates that had been on the car (which was stolen), a leather pouch with about a dozen loose diamonds in it, and some documents with the couple’s true names. The guy was an escapee from a Washington prison. He had been a fugitive for six months. The girl was his girlfriend, who had stolen the Camaro in Oregon, then lifted a set of plates from another Camaro. For some reason, the fictitious plates had never been reported stolen. They had done several burglaries and assorted thefts along the way, which is where the diamonds came from.
One almost fatal mistake I made during my stop was not running the VIN, or comparing it against the registration that came back to the plates. Had I done that, the VINs would not have matched, and I would have impounded the car.
Bad guy told me he had the .380 pistol under his leg the whole time I was talking to him, and if I had asked him to get out of the car, he would have shot me. Maybe he would have gotten off the shot, maybe not; maybe he would have hit me in a critical spot, maybe not; maybe I would have been able to return fire, maybe not. Our conversation ended with his very bitter expression of regret: “I should have killed you when I had the chance.”
I now live about 40 miles from the prison he escaped from. If he’s still alive, that’s probably where he is. I won’t be dropping in to say hello.
Carne Adovada
This is a wonderful filling for burritos or simply great served over rice with the resulting gravy. For better flavor, prepare a day ahead.
CarneAdovada2 Web
Ingredients
7 to 8poundsbone in pork shoulder or pork butt*,remove bone and visible fat, cut meat into 1 to 2 inch chunks
Ingredients for Adovada Sauce
1Tbsp.oil or bacon dripping
1/2medium onion
4-6large garlic cloves
25-30red chile pods*,stems and seeds removed. Pods cut into 1-2 inch lengths
1tsp.salt
2tsp.Mexican oregano
3cupswater
2tsp.medium red chile powder*(optional)
1tsp.honey*(optional)
2tsp.apple cider vinegar
Instructions
Day 1 – Make the adovada sauce
Heat the oil in a large heavy skillet or pot over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and lower the heat to medium low.
Sweat the onions until translucent.
Add the red chile pieces and increase heat to medium. Toast the chile, stirring frequently for about 5 minutes. When you start smelling the chile, keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn.
Once the chile pods have started to darken a bit, add the oregano, water, and chile powder. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.
Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
Transfer to a blender, reserving some of the water to use as needed. Add only just enough water to be able to get a smooth puree.*
Add the vinegar and blend until smooth.
Taste. Add more salt if needed and honey if you find the sauce too hot or bitter*.
Let rest while you cut up the meat.
If you want a really smooth sauce, you can press the red chile through a strainer or colander to remove bits of unprocessed chile or seeds. Use a rubber spatula to move the chile around and press through.
Marinate the pork pieces.
Spray a large, heavy Dutch oven with cooking oil. (This pot will be placed in the oven.)
Transfer the pork pieces to the Dutch oven and pour enough red chile over the meat to coat the meat when stirred. (See Kitchen Notes for Amount of red chile. Any extra red chile can be used to “smother” the carne adovada after serving.)
Stir well to coat all of the pieces with the red chile.
Cover and set in the refrigerator overnight or for 24 hours.
Day 2 – Braise the marinated pork
One hour before placing in the oven, remove the Dutch oven from the refrigerator so that the meat can come up to room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 300° F.*
Place the meat in the hot oven and cook for COVERED for 2 hours.
Remove from the oven and stir. There will be quite a bit of liquid.
Return the meat to the oven UNCOVERED for 1 to 1.5 hours or until the meat is pull apart tender and the liquid has reduced.*
Turn the oven off and leave the carne adovada in the oven until ready to serve.
Top each serving with red chile if desired.
CarneAdovada Web
Kitchen Notes
Pork Shoulder (pork butt) Size – For this recipe I usually start with an 8 pound, bone-in, pork shoulder. Once I remove the bone and much of the fat, I end up with about 5 pounds of meat. Therefore, if you just want to start with a 5-6 pound boneless shoulder that would save the time of cut away the bone. I use the bone to make a pork stock. You could also use a 3-4 pound boneless shoulder. This would yield a smaller batch, but it would also only take about 2 hours of cook time. Just be sure to reduce the amount of red chile.
Cutting up the pork – I personally am not fond of biting into a big piece of fat with I eat carne adovada; therefore, we trim the larger pieces of fat off of the cut pieces of meat. However, we don’t get too carried away because we want to leave some of the fat for flavoring.
As mentioned, we usually cut the meat into about 2 inch chunks. This yields larger pieces that can be pulled apart with a fork once cooked. Smaller pieces (1 inch cubes) yield bite size pieces that won’t need to be “pulled”.
Chile Pods and chile powder – If your pods are hot, then use mild to medium chile powder. This helps bring down the heat of really hot chile pods and adds a little depth to the flavor of the chile. If your chile pods are mild to medium, then use hot chile powder for a spicier chile. When I’m using a VERY hot chile, I’ll reduce the number of pods to 20 pods, then add 2 tablespoons of powder.
Honey – Honey kills the burn. Therefore, honey is a great ingredient to help reduce a little of the heat from the chile as well as bitterness. However, be careful and don’t add too much. More than 2 teaspoons can make your red chile too sweet.
Amount of red chile sauce – The amount of red chile made in this recipe is plenty for 5- 7 pounds of meat, but is too much for any less than that. A rough estimate for how much red chile you need is ½ cup of red chile for 1 pound of meat. You can always add more for a saucier carne adovada. You just want to make sure that you use enough chile to fully coat the pieces of pork.
Oven Temperature – I have found it best to braise carne adovada at a low temperature of 300°F. However, if you don’t have to time to braise for 3 – 4 hours, you can increase the temperature to 350°F and cook for 1 to 1.5 hours. If you choose to cook at a higher temperature, just cut the pieces of meat smaller, about 1″ cubes.
The amount of liquid in the cooked meat – Some people may want a stew like carne adovada with quite a bit of sauce, while others, like it a little saucy, but not soupy. If you want a more stew like carne, then wait and uncover the Dutch oven 2.5 hours into cooking. However, if you want the chile thicker and more saucy, then uncover after 2 hours of cooking. If you want it even less sauce, then you can use a slotted spoon to scoop out the meat, throw it into a skillet and cook off even more of the sauce before serving. Just don’t cook off too much. You’ll need some sauce for the flour tortilla.
How does one reconcile the US dislike the Chinese and the Muslims but they are over the moon about Chinese Muslims?
You cannot reconcile unless you are a dog nation sucking up to the U.S. or you are a brain dead naive and foolish person who prefer lies to truth that hurts.
The U.S. hate China and sanctions and blockade China from 1949–1970 killing tens of millions of Chinese innocent people while they bombed the shit out of Muslim nations from Iraq to Afghanistan to Yemen, to Libya and Syria killing tens of million Muslims.
Every fool can see that and acknowledge that and no one on earth do not know this fact The the U.S. are evil against Chinese and Muslims but when it comes to Chinese Muslims, suddenly they want to be seen as a darling to them!
The U.S. suddenly is the champion of their rights? They fabricated lies on Uyghurs Muslims and invented genocide! And they expect the world to believed them! No one does of course unless one is blind, deaf or dumb or totally brain dead! The world knows it is another evil design to hoodwink people to hate China and thanks the world of the U.S. as human rights defender when it is the biggest wrong doer!
What is the biggest scam an auto mechanic ever tried on you?
My wife drives a Lexus RX400h. The “h” stands for hybrid.
One day she called me from the Lexus dealer to tell me the mechanic performing the regular service told her Lexus’s engine mounts were disintegrating and needed to be replaced. The mechanic explained that because the car was a hybrid the task was very expensive—around $2500!
My wife called me because, while I’m not a professional mechanic, I’ve owned a dizzying array of exotic cars over the years and perform all my own restorations.
The first thing I did was put down my wrench (I was in the middle of replacing the clutch on my ’85 Toyota MR2) and search “engine mount replacement, 2007 Lexus RX400h”.
It just so happens that while replacing the engine mounts on the non-hybrid version of my wife’s car was a $300 repair ($80 for the engine mounts, $220 for labor) the labor involved performing the same job on the hybrid was much, much greater.
I called my wife back and asked her why she thought she needed new engine mounts. Had she noticed anything amiss? I occasionally drove her car and never heard any weird knocks from under the hood. My wife said the mechanic told her it needed the repair.
My advice was that since she’d been driving the car without noticing anything amiss, to have faith that she could safely drive it home where I could examine it (they’re only engine mounts after all).
Personally inspecting the mounts, using a very powerful penlight I was able to determine that they looked nearly new (the Lexus only had 110K on the odometer). There were tiny tears in the rubber flashing around the edges of the mounts, but they looked better than the mounts on any of my cars.
My advice, whenever possible, get a second opinion and research the repair for your car. Also, ask your friends for recommendations for mechanics they trust.
DRAGONFLY – 1952 Retro Pulp Science Fiction by Skyward, Photo Processing 110mm Film Experimentation
My education was subsidized by both Federal and state governments. Sputnik went up in October 1957. To answer Sputnik and the belief the US was technologically behind the USSR, the “National Defense Education act of 1958” was passed that September. Many more acts followed that support K-12 and colleges with the emphasis on building a generation of scientists and engineers to fight the “Cold War.” By working as a Co-Op, I graduated with a BS in Computer Science and debt-free.
I worked first for computer manufactures and later in Defense and Aerospace.
I just retired. My generation, the ones educated due to Sputnik, are retiring.
During the Regan administration, all that education funding was reduced. The GI bill was canceled. Both Federal and state governments stopped supporting colleges. And we saw the rise in the cost of higher education.
Before the cut in education, we had the best universities. Researches are not getting the grants they used to. I don’t see tech companies giving big grants to universities.
Without government funding, our education is dying and is dead in some areas. One of the political parties has labeled higher education as bad and should be eliminated.
From Asian cultures we learn:
“To plan for 1 year, plant rice.
To plan for 20 years, plant trees.
To plan for 100 years, teach children.
Asian cultures plan for the long term. Toyota has a 100-year plan. US companies have a 90-day plan.
On the roll is what we call “Mett”. It is pure pork, which is seasoned with salt and pepper. Depending on who you meet, a war may break out, depending on whether you eat your ground pork bun with butter or without.
2. We drink alcohol in public. And not a little of it. In the USA for example and in many Muslim countries this is absolutely forbidden. Nobody is interested here. You can drink wherever you want, whatever you want – and above all as much as you want. But if you are not from Germany, you will always find someone here who can tolerate more than you.
3. Once you have learned German, you can learn it again right away when you move to another federal state. In Germany, the dialects are very different, and some people feel that they speak a completely different language.
4. We are not so hospitable. Of course, we are not angry, and we are not averse to visitors, but in other countries of the world, you are virtually courted as a tourist. In Germany, nobody is interested in that, even though we probably find you perfectly ok.
5. We do not speak English very well. With speaking English here, you are not as successful as in countries like Sweden. Although we know English better than France, especially the old people never learned it.
6. We are not a bit patriotic. In countries like the USA you can’t really miss where you are, because that’s the way it looks.
She REGRETS Leaving Her Husband Then Gets BITTER When He Got A New GIRLFRIEND
Because of my class schedule, I walk twelve or 15 blocks from “Prep High” to “Tech High” between 11:20 and 12:20 each school day.
I was stopped between those times and between those places on what the officer (who will hopefully soon find himself unemployed) described in the report as “reasonable suspicion” of being truant.
I was polite. Explained why I was where I was and offered the officer a copy of my class schedule, my school ID, and the business card of the vocational coordinator at “Prep High” who could be called to verify what I was saying.
The officer refused to look at anything I offered. He said it wasn’t his job to verify anything. I was handcuffed, placed in the back of a patrol car, and driven about 5 miles to a juvenile processing facility.
THIS IS THE FIRST LIE. Legally that was an arrest. Without probable cause and without following the procedures required when arresting a minor. (The officer would have to have an arrest warrant or have personally witnessed my committing a criminal act that would be a felony were I an adult.)
Police may “detain” an individual, defined as not allowing a person to leave while a “reasonable suspicion” is investigated to determine that “probable cause” exists to arrest. But the officer never investigated anything. To him my being a student, off of school district property, during normal school hours was truancy.
So, THIS IS THE SECOND LIE: Laws are codified and that is not the definition of truancy. In part the law reads: “any absence of part or all of one or more days from school during which the school attendance officer, principal or teacher has not been notified of the legal cause of such absence(.)”
I had offered the officer a printed, paper, copy of my school schedule which I carry in the clear outer sleeve of my notebook binder. Obviously, having scheduled me to take three AM classes at “Prep” and three PM classes at “Tech” the school district not only knew about, not only authorized, but actually COMPELLED the action I was taking when stopped.
I was processed at the juvenile facility including having a check run to see if I had any outstanding warrants. Then, nearly three hours after I was stopped, I was issued a $94 ticket / court summons where ocurred the
THIRD LIE: The time and place on the summons / ticket was FALSE. Reflecting a later time and a different place miles from where I was stopped.
My legal guardian was called to transport me home. Using the juvenile facility’s phone (number recorded by my guardian’s phone). That, the fact that there are cameras in the facility, a body camera on the “arresting officer,” body cameras on other officers working there, cameras on businesses where I was “arrested,” possibly cameras near the fake address on the ticket / summons, that the juvenile facility obviously used its systems to search for outstanding warrants and to find the name and phone number of my legal guardian, and required my guardian to sign a document for my release all DIRECTLY CONTRADICT the officers assertions (lies) in his report.
My attorney points out that proving that this officer lied in one official report calls into question EVERY other official assertion he has ever made.
Don’t misunderstand me. I am a 5 ft 6 female. Society needs police.
Well, society needs honest police. We already have too many hoodlums.
But, some people (like this liar) simply lack the mental capacity or ethical standards to be police officers.
Society needs to fire them, prosecute them for any criminal acts they commit, publicize their names (in part so others can seek legal redress), PERMANENTLY disarm them, and possibly segregate them.
As an astrophysics Ph.D, I’m looking forward to a future career in janitorial services. Once I get make a ton of money in investment banking, being a janitor looks like a perfect job…..
Because:
1) There is the FU number. It’s the amount of money you have to have in the bank to say “FU” to your boss. If you run the numbers you’ll find that even small amounts of income drastically reduce the “FU” number.
2) One thing that gets missed is that with a Ph.D. in the sciences you *can* be a janitor. Most people that go to medical school or law school end up with tremendous debt, so they *can’t* do any random job. The nice thing about getting a physics Ph.D., is that you can get your Ph.D. and then become a beach bum, since you have little/no debt.
3) I’ve known people that have worked as janitors, and they say it’s an easy job. You get paid eight hours of wages for work that usually only takes two or three, and you spend the rest of the night just chatting. You work in the middle of the night so your manager isn’t going to be looking over your shoulder, and as long as everything is clean the next morning, no one cares how many hours you “really” worked.
4) You can do janitorial work and theoretical physics at the same time. You are pushing a broom, you can think about quantum field theory. This is *not* true for a lot of other jobs. You can’t think about QFT while taking orders at McDonalds, selling shoes, flipping burgers, or driving a cab. If the janitor has a blank vacant look, no one cares, whereas being absent-minded while dealing with hot cooking oil or customers can get you fired or cause a fire.
5) And what’s the negative. Janitors have low social status. Well so what? I’ve got a Ph.d.
I suppose you see a lot of Ph.D.’s being janitors because it’s the smart thing to do.
I do not buy Chinese products (unless disposable) because I know they will be low quality. Why does China only seem to make low end products? Why do they not mimic Germany where the standard is higher?
You must be living in a cave.
Twenty years ago, China only made low quality, cheap goods. They still make them because buyers want them. Walmart couldnt survive without them.
Nowadays, China makes many high ebd products, designed by Chinese engineers.
40,000 kilometers of high speed rail in China. 347 kmh an hour. unmatched safety record. you couldn’t keep running them if they unsafe.
I was a professional photographer in Canada. Chinese photo gear was garbage. Now they have taken big strides. My tripod is made by Chinese company named Sirui. Carbon fiber, rugged and light weight. I’ve used mainly German tripods, even Leica, but the Sirui is the best. do a search online. check the reviews. Hand crafted by skilled machinists.
And Chinese companies have taken over failed western companies. Improved quality and become top sellers. Volvo was owned by Ford and lost money. Geely bought it up and gave an investment of 5billion to.make a new platform. Two years later Volvo had Car of the Year. They boldly announced that no one will die in a Volvo by 2026. They are still the safest cars on the planet. MG was a British cae company know fir sport cars called roadstes. Now owned vy Chinese car company. just launched an EV roadster. The British car magazines are raving about it. And all said it stll looks British!
In the latest McDonald’s quarterly call, the company revealed it opened >1,000 restaurants in mainland China in 2023, making it the fastest growing market globally.
1,000 restaurants is 3 per DAY, and McDonald’s is about as American as any brand can be.
China’s policing of consultancies is merely a rounding error, in the grand scheme of things. Annually, the S&P 500 generate >$1 trillion in revenue operating within the mainland market. This includes Apple, which depend on China for 20–25% of its global revenue.
How much are these consultancies worth? A couple of million each?
What’s happening is the CIA’s doubling down on intelligence within China, as traditional humint sources were vacuumed up in the repeated corruption sweeps since Xi took charge.
These consultancies have served as spy centers and information conduits, but were allowed to operate in deference of American hegemony. But relationships have become frazzled and the cases linked to these nodes made them intolerable.
Actual cases are being pursued, and people are being prosecuted, with a number deported rather than risk diplomatic protest.
America is preparing for war, and it shows in the information they are willing to pay for, particularly the networks and capabilities they are willing to risk.
Case in point: What was a Seawolf-class attack sub doing in the SCS, only to suffer a head-on collision with an undersea mount?
Thus Western Consumption is CREDIT DRIVEN and they encourage more and more credit to mobilize an economy
The West believes in minimum balances I checking accounts and wants people to spend everything they have and money they don’t have by availing credit
The Average Man uses Credit Cards
The Corporates use Wall Street, create special instruments, get AAA rating and sell the instruments to other Wall Street Entities representing Billions of Dollars of Insurance Premiums or Pension payments
For such an Economy – SPENDING is something they love especially SPENDING UNDER CREDIT
For such an Economy – BAILOUTS is something they love
Such an Economy believes that if the top 1% become richer and richer, they automatically will trickle down the wealth upto the poorest sections and enhance the economy
It’s called REAGANOMICS
When Reagan Proposed this (Or his experts did), US was producing a lot and trading everywhere as the largest trader
So it helped
However once the 1% became richer and richer, WOULD THEY EVER VOLUNTARILY GIVE UP?
No
So they purchased more congressmen, senators and today the US is in utter chaos due to these policies
In 1984, when 1% of the manufacturers became wealthy, their workers, linemen, foremen all got some share of the wealth
Today?
Chinese or Mexican Factories get a miniscule share and the rest goes to the pockets of maybe 500 people at the most
China believes SAVINGS is God
Chinese Consumption is thus INCOME DRIVEN and Chinese always buy from earnings and NEVER SPEND THEIR SAVINGS on normal consumption
Chinese focus on higher income from salary or Investments to buy more stuff and live a rich lifestyle and LOATHE CREDIT OR BORROWING , unless its towards Gold or Land or Jade where they can pay 6% a year and get 10% a year interest
China thus raises money only through secured debt, secured by Land or other assets
For such an Economy – SPENDING FROM INCOME is what they love rather than Credit
For such an Economy – Bailouts are bad unless the situation becomes so bad that you can settle 15 cents on the dollar
Such an Economy believes that Capitalism in the hands of 1% is a disaster and so ensures that the STATE regulates Capitalism in a pseudo mixed economy form
Li Peng and Li Keiqang are architects of this model
So the West sees Chinas economy from THEIR PERSPECTIVE
They see that Only 71% of the Assets are lent vide Credit of which 87% is Secure Debt and the West feels that’s Socialist and feels that’s because of low demand
That’s because US lends almost 95% Assets vide Credit of which barely 23% is Secure Debt
China meanwhile doesn’t have low demand because it’s people prefer spending income from wages and investments on consumption and saving for a rainy day
Yet US can’t accept or realize that
Likewise the West like Bailouts in the style of 2008 to prevent what’s called a Domino Collapse
China likes to allow a bubble to subside to it’s best possible low before any investment can be considered
The West regard this as WEAK FISCAL POLICY whereas Chinese People regard this as normal
So the West focuses on
GDP Growth due to Spending
Credit Growth in the economy or how much people are borrowing to spend
Net Spending due to Credit
China focuses on
Rise in Wages
Rise in Disposable Income
Income Growth in the economy or how much people are earning
So obviously the West can never predict China properly
The West is clueless about how China works
What has been the biggest plot twist that happened in your life?
One day in 1981, as my girlfriend (now wife) and I rode the bus together to campus, she said to me, “Go down to the career center and sign up for who’s hiring software engineers.”
I thought maybe she’d seen something in the Daily. Big employers sometimes took out ads in the campus newspaper. I asked, “Who’s there today?”
She said, “I don’t know. Just go down and sign up.”
Turns out there was only one company, called John Fluke Mfg., Co., hiring software folks. I signed up. In due time, I had a 30-minute campus interview with a very nice lady named Patsy Thiemens, a young developer from Fluke. The thing she was doing sounded really interesting, emulating a microprocessor’s address and data buses to stimulate boards under test. I ended up more or less interviewing her, which, unknown to me, was a pretty good way to impress an interviewer.
An in-house interview followed, and a job offer with excellent salary, working for Patsy. I spent the first 12 years of my career working in Fluke’s very professional software development process. It set the pattern for the rest of my life. It was, as the oft-repeated joke goes, a fluke.
My mother complained to me on the phone this morning. “Your former brother-in-law, the guy you liked so much you still remain friends with him? He was abusive towards your sister.”
“How come?” I wanted to know.
“He pushed her really hard, a few months back. She fell back and hit her head against a wall. It’s one of the reasons why they’re breaking up, actually. A man should never use physical force against a woman.”
“Damn! That’s awful… shit I never knew… why would he do such a thing?”
“He was being really mean apparantly. Got under her skin. You know how Ben can be. And at some point he just really crossed a line. So she slapped him and then he pushed her away…. and she…”
“Wait, she slapped him first?”
“Yes but…”
“No ‘but’, I don’t like that he pushed her but she should NOT have slapped him in the face. That was wrong. Period.”
“You should have heard the things he said. He can really, really be mean sometimes. You know how he gets when Ben gets in one of those moods, Jean-Marie, you KNOW that!”
Well at this point the whole thing sort of turned to shit. I’m supposed to side with my sister. By default, as she is family. Plus she’s a woman. But honestly, she should not have lost her temper and slapped him. The fact that a slap from a woman can be casually explained away as “he got it coming” but a push or slap from a man is instantly labeled abuse? MAJOR double standard.
The Roman Army did a great many things right. In logistics, strategy, and tactics, they were already doing many of the things that military colleges teach today. One things the history books ignore is that soldiers in the field did more building than training and more training than fighting. We’ve got journals from Roman soldiers that say things like, “I’ve been in the army for 2 years and have never used my sword. All I do is dig.” HA!
That sounds boring until you consider what fighting Romans would have been like from the perspective of their tribal foes.
The door of your command tent flies open. A panting fifteen-year-old who smells of sweat and horse stumbles through the gap and gasps, “A column to the east, my liege. Three hours ride. Romans.”
“On foot, Scout?”
“Mostly, Lord. 200 heavy infantry, plus wagons and followers.”
“Hot damn. Assemble my commanders. I want 600 men ready to ride by dawn!”
One busy night later, your experienced war machine has confirmed the Romans’ position and strength, packed your camp, mustered their courage, and deployed. A half day’s travel later, with a few hundred of your clan and allies at your back, you crest the final hill and see…
Well f*** me.
Erecting trenches, stockades, and earthworks—a stockade of portable sudes within minutes and a whole fortified castrum by sunset—was standard practice for Roman units in hostile territory. It’s hard to believe they could do it so quickly, but hundreds or thousands of men working in shifts at tasks they’ve practiced can do a LOT.
Fortifications were a huge force multiplier, and disheartened the Romans’ foes…and kept the Roman grunts busy, which the Caesars understood can boost discipline more than the walls themselves.
Russian nuclear weapons actually work. Russia conducted 2 tests in 2022 and 2023.
The UK’s doesn’t.
France’s nuclear delivery systems were tested in November 2023. But here’s the thing Macron already set out that he wouldn’t use them.
That leaves the USA and in game theory they’d likely look the other way.
Westerners now are but muh super mega weapons and my SUPER SOLDIERS! That can shoot lazers from their eyes! But then again they still believe Russia is completely out of ammunition has no food and fuel and that Ukraine is about to take Magadan.
I didn’t really do it for revenge but oh ,did it get nasty. During my divorce, I got a notice from my insurance company, that because of the accident I was in, I would be surcharged. What?!
It was a large surcharge and I actually got the notice before I heard anything about an accident.
I called the insurance company to tell them it was a mistake, that I hadn’t been in an accident.
“Oh yes, on Tues(date). In (my ex-husband’s car).”
I told the insurance rep that we were getting a divorce and I hadn’t driven his car in months. Finally, the insurance company(or police department-I had to call them too) found out that his girlfriend had been driving and got in the accident. She didn’t have her license and said she was me.
I was outraged and the revenge part was that I told them that ______(girlfriend’s name) was still an inexperienced driver (had a license for <6 yrs) which is a big surcharge in my state. The insurance company refused to cover the accident and charged her with fraud.
Are Americans really expected to pay outrageous hospital bills?
in 2010, my 12 year old threatened suicide while in a session with his therapist. He was defiant and refused to take it back. The doctor told us his hands were tied and we were to admit him to a lock down facility for adolescents.
On the way to the hospital, I kept thinking he would snap out of it and recant what he said, but he did not.
We signed some papers and left our 12 year old son there – and left crying.
The next day I went to visit and while I was sitting with my son, a man dressed in white asks me to sign all kinds of forms that basically say “You hereby agree to accept responsibility for all the costs and fees……”. I politely asked, “What are the fees – what is the cost to be here each night?”. He said it was between me any my insurance provider. I pressed for a number and he said he did not know the cost. “I’m sorry, but I can’t just sign a blank check to you; I have to know what it costs – I have a 20% deductible”. Even though I knew my options were limited, I had the right to know what a hospital charged.
The next day someone called and revealed the cost per day was $5,000 – just room and board. Doctor time and medication is extra. My out of pocket would be $1,000 per day, not including doctor time.
I told the woman over the phone that either my son comes home, or I refuse to pay the bill for one more day. Keep in mind, this was 14 years ago – I wouldn’t be surprised if the cost has doubled since then. When he was released he was put on some medication that was so over-prescribed, it almost killed him.
Fast forward to now, my son is a Paramedic who often deals with mental health crisis – he’s a wonderful caring person.
Space-Age Sci-Fi | The Phantom Planet (Adventure, 1961) by William Marshall | Colorized Movie
A very fun 1960’s era low budget science fiction movie. I hope you enjoy it!
This map shows the tracks of USS Reagan during July 30-Aug 9 in 2022. On August 2, the speaker of the house, Nancy Pelosi, visited Taiwan, despite the warning of China, and her visit was regarded as a severe povocation to One China policy.
Before her visit, CSG Reagan was deployed to South China Sea and Philippines (P) as a stretegic support to her action and escort. However, as Pelosi ignored China’s (C) warning and landed on Taipei (T) airport, Chinese armies began massive movement and started a military drill around Taiwan. As you can see, the CSG Reagan moved eastward to escape from China’s DF-21 missile range and then hide behind Japan (J)’s Kyushu and Okinawa.
However, in 1950, USA sent its fleet direct to Taiwan Strait (the broken line between C and T) preventing communist army acrossing the strait.
after the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, the United States sent its Seventh Fleet into the Taiwan Strait to prevent the Korean conflict from spreading south.
Anyway, American aircraft carriers are very beautiful, very powerful, very destructive.
But even Iran is not feared of them, now including Houthi forces in Yemen, let alone China.
American friends, your enemy is not China. Your enemy hides in Capitol Hill, White House, and Wall Street.
Which criminal carried out the most absurd types of crimes?
In 2016, Stephen Ruth, a man from New York, literally uncovered a traffic light conspiracy: the story hit the headlines when, after cutting the wires connecting the intersection cameras, Ruth reported himself to the authorities, causing a media case to explode .
The story, however, must be told from the beginning: initially Ruth was arrested for the first time for having used a painter’s extension cord to point traffic light cameras towards the sky.
The act of public disobedience arose from Ruth’s awareness that the traffic lights were intentionally rigged to ensure that drivers were fined; Yellow lights at intersections with cameras last only three seconds, as opposed to five seconds at other intersections without cameras in the same county. Ruth documented everything through several videos which he then uploaded to Facebook.
Since the matter went unnoticed, Stephen decided to make news in an unorthodox way: cutting the camera cables, he reported his own actions to the press, attracting the attention of some politicians who put pressure on the police force to ensure this modern ” Robin Hood” was arrested.
The local police and sheriff’s deputies, however, took Ruth’s side; once we viewed his videos it was undeniable that his gesture had a much deeper origin than that of vandalism.
Statistics in hand, the majority of road accidents with victims occurred precisely at intersections that had “rigged” cameras.
During his most recent arrest, one of the sheriff’s deputies even offered to bail him out of jail by paying the bail out of his own pocket.
When he returned home after these events, he noticed that a new camera had been placed in the neighborhood, but it was pointing directly at his front door; Ruth was apparently now a “special guard” for the county government.
The story gets even murkier; after the news became public, someone tried to silence Stephen.
He himself says that a car intentionally tried to hit him in a head-on collision; after talking to his neighbors it was clear that the car in question (or at least, a visibly identical one, including his occupants) had surveilled his house before carrying out the attempt on his life.
I worked at a grocery store when I was a teenager. Human Resources was called in to interview the employees about a beer and cigarette theft problem.
Before my interview, I saw a co-worker cleaning out his locker. “What happened?” I asked.
“Dude, they got us. They had cameras filming everything we did,” he said. “I just got fired for eating grapes that fell off the vine.”
My turn came and the HR guy said, “You need to confess to everything you have stolen here. Put a dollar amount on the stolen goods and we will set up a payment plan for restitution and avoid your being arrested.”
“I have never stolen,” I said.
“Okay, I am going to give you one more chance. If you are honest, we won’t get the police involved. If you are lying, things are not going to go well,” he said. “Be advised we have video.”
“I have never stolen anything,” I said.
“Call the police,” he said to the manager. “We are going to have to press charges.”
“You are full of it,” I said. “You have nothing.”
“Do you want to see the video?” He asked.
“Yes,” I said. “It doesn’t exist.”
“What makes you say that?” He said. “You seem very confident for someone about to go to jail.”
“I haven’t stolen anything,” I said. “If you had a video of people stealing, you wouldn’t need a confession.”
I think seven people confessed and were fired that day. My friend that ate the grapes put $7 on the amount he had stolen. He was one of the most honest people I worked with.
The ones eating steak cooked on the heat seal of the meat wrapper never confessed to anything. They did not catch the cigarette and beer thieves they were looking for either.
The people that confessed were the honest ones who felt guilty for their petty thefts while the dishonest ones stuck to their guns and confessed to nothing. Brilliant move by HR.
In 2000 Steve Jobs Offered Linus Torvalds a job at APPLE on the condition that he should stop the development of Linux, But Linus refused to join and continued developing his product.
Microsoft was not very much impressed by its open source systems and criticized it badly but later it was sponsored by Microsoft itself.
Android is the highest using operating system on the planet with 2 billion people but Android runs on Linux.
Linux is very late that it released after three years of it’s announced date.
Linux is the only operating system named after its founder Linus Torvalds
Linux has 20,323,379 lines of code which was pretty small in the version of the kernel.
Linux first name was “FreaX” which was a combination of “free”, “freak” and “Unix”)
Google, Intel, Huawei, Samsung, Red Hat, Canonical and Facebook are among the top contributors to Linux kernel development in recent years.
9 out of top 10 public cloud infrastructures run on Linux.
IBM chose Linux for what is expected to be the world’s most powerful supercomputer, Sequoia.
All major closed source Operating Systems track user information while Linux distros generally don’t, which means better user Security and Privacy is assured.
Looking at this neutrally, there are two Narratives here
The First Narrative says
China is a one party system
There is no opposition or free press or any form of checks and balances
So the CPC can make up any statistics they want
Hence Chinas Statistics are unreliable
The Second Narrative says :-
China doesn’t have major elections , so it has no need to impress voters with statistics
China doesn’t have opposition parties, so the Governing CPC need not have an initiative to deliberately show higher numbers
China has multiple foreign investors who have made money and profit over the last 2 decades. Impossible to sustain bogus statistics for so long (Half a decade or longer)
China has too many visitors to lie about it’s growth. Unlike the USSR who had many restrictions from leaving the USSR or entering the same
I myself never set store with numbers
I ask questions
First question – Why would China show a higher GDP ?
Showing a Higher GDP would be counter productive for China because China would lose nice subsidies by the WTO afforded to non market nations who are net exporters
The cut off per capita is $ 12,500
So China would prefer a lower GDP and gain maximum benefits from the WTO
Meanwhile if China shows a higher GDP, how would China benefit?
No Investor invests based on GDP or GDP growth
They invest based on Market Annual Aggregate Returns (MARR)
No Western News will praise Chinas GDP today plus even if they do, China gains Zilch
So it makes no sense for China to show higher GDP
Second Question – Can Chinas statistics be verified?
Soviet Statistics couldn’t
This was because no US entity could come to Moscow or Leningrad and set up a factory or invest $ 100 Million
Chinese Statistics can
Hundreds of Investors have actually invested in China and got tons of profits
The MARR of China from 2000–2010 was 16.29% and 2010–2020 was 10.65%
These aren’t Chinese Statistics
These are Western Statistics based on their rate of returns from the Chinese Markets
From 2020–2023, MARR has fallen to 7.12% which is why Investments are not flooding into China as they were before 2020
So Chinese Statistics are very easy to verify simply by looking at the Economy
So my conclusion is Chinese Statistics are not only reliable, they are under played in my opinion
I see no reason for China to fudge their numbers
This is my opinion
Others may have a different opinion
Bob Lazar FINALLY Showed Element 115 That Was Sealed & Hidden For Decades!
A tad bit manufactured. But worth some time to check out if you are into UFO lore.
Yes I have. Funny story. After I was shot and in the hospital recovering, I received a “Get Well Card” from a man who lived in the city. The man wrote in the card that he saw on the news that I was the Officer who had been shot and he wanted me to know that he was praying for me. He said he and his family were devastated that I was the Officer who was shot.
He said about a year before I was shot, his wife and young son were in a serious car accident in our city and I was the Officer who responded and handled the collision. His son (who I believe was 6 or 7 at the time) was traumatized by the accident because his Mom was seriously injured and transported by helicopter to the hospital. The boy told his Dad that I comforted him during the process and kept him close to me while his Mom was treated. His son was very impressed with me and felt so special that I was taking care of him while his Mom was being treated. The man told me how much he appreciated how I took care of his son and his family wishes me the very best in my recovery.
He left his phone number on the card so when I was able, I called him and spoke to him and his son. The man happened to be a helicopter tour pilot so when I was able, he took me on a spectacular helicopter tour of San Diego Bay and the surrounding area. I met with him and his son and we had a great time. It is definitely one of the highlights of my career.
Beef tri-tip is an extremely tasty cut of beef and one of our favorites. It’s cheaper than most cuts and also leaner; therefore, one has to be careful cooking it. Tri-tip should be cooked hot and fast, or slow cooked to a melt in your mouth tenderness. Anything in between causes the tri-tip to be tough and chewy. By slow cooking in a marinade, tri-tip is taken past the tough stage to a tear apart tender, delicious bite of meat. This Slow-Cooked Spicy Beef Tri-Tip recipe accomplishes that.
The spicy tri-tip marinade consists of a few spices, chile powders and beer. The meat marinates for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight. It is slow-cooked for 2 – 3 hours, to a melt in mouth tenderness. This particular recipe provides instructions for slow-cooking on the grill during the warmer months and slow-cooking in the oven during cooler months. The recipe can easily be converted to a slow cooker or instant pot. No matter which method you use, it’s a simple process with results that make your mouth very happy.
When I make spicy beef tri-tip, I use 2 pounds of tri-tip. This provides Bobby and I with two complete meals and sometimes, a light lunch. One of the meals we serve is what you see in the pictures. It’s essentially a southwestern meat and vegetable bowl with spicy beef tri-tip, seared vegetables, black beans and avocado. A second meal is normally tacos with the leftover meat and vegetables and a few simple toppings. Instructions for both meals are found in the recipe below.
I hope you enjoy!
SpicyBeefTriTipV1 Web
Ingredients
Beef and Marinade
2poundstrimmed beef tri tip,cut into 1 ½ – 2” chunks
1 – 2Tbsp.chipotle paste*
2tsp.red chile spice mix*
½tsp.salt
2Tbsp.minced onion
½cupdark beer*(Keep the rest of the beer. You many need more later.)
Seared Vegetables
1medium onion.sliced then halved
1medium bell pepper.sliced then halved
Suggested Sides and Taco Toppings
Seared vegetables
Black beans, pintos or bolitas
Sour cream or plain Greek yogurt
Pickled Peppers*, chopped
Lime wedges
Avocado slices
Instructions
This dish can be cooked on the grill or in the oven. The instructions explain how to cook both ways.
In a large bowl, add all of the ingredients under Beef and Marinade. Mix together to coat the chunks of meat.
If cooking on the grill, transfer meat to a large piece of parchment and fold close. Place parchment package on a sheet of aluminum foil and seal shut. Wrap in another sheet of aluminum foil.
If cooking in the oven, transfer to a refrigerator container with a tight seal.
Place in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or overnight, turning at least once.
Preheat the grill or oven for a temperature of 350F.
For the grill, place the package of marinaded beef in a cast iron skillet and place on the grill.
For the oven, transfer the beef and marinade to a heavy-duty Dutch oven. Place a piece of parchment on top of the beef and press around the edges. This will prevent the marinade from evaporating too quickly. Place the cover on the Dutch oven.
“Bake” at 350F for 2.5 hours. Remove from grill or oven and check to see if it’s ready. Using 2 forks, try to separate a chunk of meat It should be pull apart tender. If it is not, close and bake for another 30 minutes.
On the grill, the meat usually gets crispy on the edges like carnitas.
In the oven, the marinate mostly evaporates, but the edges usually don’t get crispy.
Transfer cooked beef to a bowl. Using 2 forks, tear apart the chunks of beef into small bite size pieces.
(Optional step) If you want the edges crispier, heat a cast iron skillet with a tablespoon oil. When hot, transfer the beef to the skillet and stir. When the edges start to get crispy add a couple tablespoons of beer to skillet. After about 30 seconds remove from heat. The beer adds a little moisture and flavor into the beef.
Seared Vegetables – Prepare while the beef is cooking.
If cooking on the grill, wrap cut vegetables in parchment then in aluminum foil. After the beef has cooked for 2 hours, place the package of vegetables on the grill and let cook as the meat finishes.
For the oven bake, heat up a cast iron skillet with a tablespoon of oil. When hot, add the vegetables and sear until soft and browning on the edges. (You can use the same skillet to sear the beef if you choose.)
To serve,
place meat on plate with vegetables, and other sides (e.g., avocado and beans). Squeeze a wedge of lime juice over the meat.
OR, for tacos,
wrap some of the meat in a warm tortilla, top with seared vegetables and choice of toppings. End with a squeeze of lime.
Kitchen Notes
Meat – We prefer beef tri-tip because of its flavor, but you can used other cuts of meat. Cheaper cuts of either beef or pork work well. The slow cook breaks down the connective tissue of the cheaper cuts making them tender. Even though tri-tip is a leaner cut, with the spicy beer marinade and the slow cook process, the result is melt in your mouth tenderness.
Chipotle Paste – I make chipotle paste by blending a can of chipotle adobo. Just remove the seed pod before blending. Once blended you can pour into an ice tray and freeze. Each “cube” is about 1 Tbsp. of paste. If you don’t want to do this, then minced 1 large adobo chipotle and add to marinade with 1 tablespoon of the sauce.
Red Chile Spice Mix – It’s easy to make a quick batch of this spice mix. What you don’t use can be added to eggs, beans, sprinkled on top of an avocado, salads, sandwiches, and so many other choices.
Dark Beer – A dark Mexican beer, like Negro Modelo, works best.
When i was 12 years old my sister (she was 16) she began to experience abdominal pain. She never really told anyone about it except me (we were super close, like inseparable close). She thought that it was just because of her periods. As the months started to grow, so did her pain. I was freaked out so I suggested that we tell our mom but she said that she didn’t want to burden my parents (we were at a financial loss at that time).
So after about 65 days she couldn’t hold on so she decided to tell my mom. My mom got an appointment immediately and we rushed to the ER (Emergency Room). My sister was wailing in pain. The docs over there took an ultrasound scan and then an MRI and a couple of other scans, at this point my mom and I were crying that’s when they revealed that my sister had Pancreatic Cancer and that it had crossed Stage III. My mom literally fainted right there.
I was alone and scared and i had heard about cancer only in stories and books like fault in our stars. But when my sister was a victim i didn’t know how to react.
When my mom regained consciousness and calmed down, they told her that my sister was given a few painkillers and anesthesia for the time being and that we had to start with chemotherapy soon but that they were not sure that it would work. My sister did not know that she had cancer, the doc explained it to her usually merry face broke down.
They started chemo and her beautiful black locks which she was proud of slowly began to fall. She was a person of positivity so she told my mom that she wanted to EXPERIMENT her hair. She had hip length hair which she cut it to a bob then a pixie and then finally shaved her head. We both shaved our heads together.
She would never get a minute of sleep at night. On the 12th of December, it was my birthday, I ran home from school happily as my friends had given me a lot of gifts for my sister and me. My dad was there, my mom wasn’t, my sister was at the hospital, so I asked my dad to drive me to the hospital as I wanted to give the gifts to my sister.
My dad was looking really depressed but he agreed. When I reached my sisters room, she was screaming out of pain my mom was screaming for the docs. I went near my sister slowly she smiled at me even with too much pain.
Her last words to me were, “I love you, take care of tiger (our 1 year old dog) and mom and dad, it’s time for me to see grandma and grandpa in heaven”. She died at 16:07pm on my birthday. I cried for almost a month and I still cry for her every single day but not in front of my parents because I know that if I cry they will cry too. I hope she found a peaceful place! A MESSAGE TO MY SIS – I LOVE U ABBY pls come back if u can I miss you every second of my life.
One bad chapter is not the end of the book
What are five things senior citizens should not do at the age of 65 and over?
My top 5 you shouldn’t do after the age of 65.
And my top 5 you should do.
Oh, and I’ve celebrated 70 trips around the sun.
Don’t ever say, “I’m old.” Those who say it think it. And if you think it you’ll be it.
Don’t say, “I can’t.” Too many people hit 65 and sort of stop living. They stop doing all the things they used to enjoy. And they stop trying new things and enjoying life.
Don’t tell people about your aches and pains. We all have them. Talking about them only makes you and everyone around you feel worse.
Don’t count birthdays. If you’re asked reply vaguely. If you’re not asked don’t say it. It’s only a number.
Don’t complain about the weather, politics or that you don’t live in the good old days. Complaining only changes the number of people who want to hang out with you.
And my top 5 you should do.
Instead of saying, “I’m old,” say, “I feel young.” Focus on feeling young and you will.
Instead of saying, “I can’t” say, “I will”. Find things you love to do. Find new things to challenge you. Make life a continuing adventure.
Instead of complaining about your aches and pains get outside, stretch, strengthen, move and build health. Then talk about how great you feel and you will.
Instead of celebrating your birthdays celebrate the birthdays of those you love. Then you’ll look forward to many more of them.
Instead of complaining help make the world a happier place. And it turns out it will be for you and all those around you.
Growing older happens to us all. Growing happier happens to only a few.
[The media published a conversation between German officers about how they plan to blow up the Crimean Bridge. What can you say about this?]
Russian Foreign Minister
“I read today what was posted on social media and announced by Ms Simonyan with reference to the relevant sources.
On the one hand, this is stunning. On the other, less so.
I have said that we know for sure about NATO military participation in the guise of mercenaries or people that are not part of the armed forces of the alliance.
There are some interesting details in this conversation.
These German generals discussed ways to supply Ukraine with long-range weapons (they mentioned the TAURUS) for attacking the Crimean Bridge and ammunition depots in a more subtle way.
[He’s referring to Russia’ s intelligence service leaked a conversation between German military officers who were discussing plans to attack Russia. According to the transcript, a conversation took place on February 19, 2024 among Grafe (department head for operations and exercises at the Air Force Forces Command of the Bundeswehr), Gerhartz (Bundeswehr Air Force Inspector), Fenske and Frohstedte (employees of the Air Operations Command within the Space Operations Center of the Bundeswehr). There was a detailed discussion of using German missiles to attack targets in Russia, such as the Kerch Bridge in Crimea. You can read the full transcript here.]
How to make sure they are not noticed because German Chancellor Olaf Scholz supposedly does not like it, while the Americans and Brits are already there.
They also discussed whether it is possible to target missiles remotely without being in Ukraine. One of the generals said this would still be qualified as direct participation.
They know what they are talking about.
In one exchange, one general mentions that ‘men from the US in civilian clothes’ are there.
I don’t know how to say it but all of our NATO colleagues are guilty as hell.
We’ll have to see how they explain this to their own public.”
Answer by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to a media question during his remarks at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, Antalya, Türkiye, March 1, 2024.
Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
What is the darkest part of a software engineer’s career?
You are 25, making 170K USD or whatever. You take a fresh excel sheet, create 35 rows, put 170K in the first row, formulate 15% (that number actually depends on the flavor of the ice cream you are licking at that moment) YOY growth, stare at the whopping figure in the 36th row and pat yourself on the back in the corner of your poorly lit bedroom. I mean, you are not even accounting for the growth in your cryptic investments that are easily going to double every third year. You save the excel sheet as lifeisset.xlsx.
Fast forward, you are 35, making 245K USD or whatever, on the verge of 6th “restructuring” in the 4th company. You don’t even want to talk about what happened to your crypto investments and the company that you bet on that was going to cure liver cancer using artificial intelligence and quantum computing. You just want to find a better job, but, don’t have the motivation to bleedcode (futuristic version of leetcode that gives you, again, AI based hints based on the poem you are typing in the code editor).
You realize software engineering is a sport for the young and the fit and the smart. The funding for all the projects was for short term. And nobody can be in the right place at the right time for too long. Alas, your honeymoon period is long over. It didn’t even last for a decade.
You finally gather the courage to replace the 9W bulb in your bedroom with 14W and rename the excel to lifeisshit.xlsx.
A real man
Here are the easiest habits that will help you destroy your life:
An obsession with excess. Recently, I was in Spain. That’s where this picture was taken. This meal for me and my girlfriend was at a pretty nice restaurant and cost 215 Euros. I also drank a couple of glasses of wine at this meal. I got drunk and spent lots of money. Excess, right? But the truth is that excess and enjoyment are not bad, rather, an obsession with them is bad. It’s not bad to enjoy life, it’s bad to live in excess every day.
Bad listening. Most people have conversations merely to hear themselves talk. They don’t listen to other people, they don’t care about other people, and all their actions are acts of self-preservation. Be vulnerable enough to shut the hell up and listen. It will do you good.
Inability to enjoy what you have. If you can’t be happy with a nice cup of coffee with a loved one, you probably won’t be happy with a mansion, a bunch of drugs, and a Ferrari. Enjoyment comes from mindfulness and presence. Noticing a theme here?
Using people. If you have relationships out of convenience or if you take advantage of people who consider you “a friend”, when they figure out what you’re doing, they’ll just remove you from their life. You’ll end up alone and people will think you’re an asshole. Never use people — just exist WITH them.
Zero discipline. Everything you want in life comes from doing difficult things for way longer than you think you need to do them. Writing every day not just for a week, month, or year, but several years. Hitting the gym every week for the rest of your life. Discipline is the foundation of all constructive action.
What’s the fastest you’ve wiped a smirk off of someone’s face?
Not myself, but a good family friend.
A few years ago she and her father, then in his early 80”s, took a vacation to visit France.
Now I must explain that her dad is one of the quietest, most patient men I’ve ever met…a man of few words, never seen him lose his temper, as level as they go.
So they fly from Ohio to New York to Paris and end up, of course, at immigration and customs. They’ve flown all night, he’s 82, and more than a bit jet lagged. The young French customs official is quite impatient as he struggles to locate his paperwork (passport, etc) in his backpack.
“Sir”, the agent says in the most snobbish, condescending voice, “you have been to France before?”.
He acknowledges that, yes, he’s been to France before as he continues to search for his documents.
“Then you should KNOW to have your paperwork at the READY!” the official snaps.
After a few more moments, her dad finally locates his paperwork. As he handed them over, he calmly states, in a voice just loud enough to carry across the entire area:
“My apologies. The last I landed here was at Normandy in 1944, and back then I couldn’t find a Frenchmen to show my passport to.”
The young official turned beet red, hastily processed the paperwork without even really looking at it, and they were on their way…including, yes, a last visit to the D-Day landing beach before he passed this Earth.
Learn the Moonwalk
What job interview question made you think, “I’m going to answer honestly, but I might be screwed?”
Almost 40 years ago I went to my final interview for a place in the Executive Development Program at Major League Baseball.
America was different in those days. Feminism was pushing down barriers that had stood for a long time, and professional women were asserting themselves in unprecedented ways. My own presence in the final group of 8 candidates was probably additional evidence of that shift.
But MLB was a little behind the curve. One of the big “issues” they were facing in the late 1970s was whether or not to allow accredited female journalists into the team clubhouses immediately after the games ended, so they could conduct interviews and file their stories for the next day. A female reporter for Sports Illustrated, Melissa Ludtke, had sued MLB for equal access.
I walked into the conference room where four senior MLB executives stood ready to greet and question me. Two of them, I confess, I knew little about at the time, but two of them were famous, legendary baseball executives, godlike to me. I shook hands with them all and made a point of NOT taking the seat at the end of the conference table. Instead I sat at the end of one of the long sides of the table. They arranged themselves around the other end.
We had a very pleasant and lively conversation, as I recall, although of course I had no idea what they were looking for. And then they asked me, If it were up to you, what policy would you establish for female journalists’ access to the clubhouses after the games?
I took a deep breath. I had no idea what they wanted to hear but I also knew there was only one thing I could honestly say. So I said it.
“I have to tell you that I really don’t see what the big deal is.”
I took another breath. They were all looking at me intently.
“I mean, we’re talking about accredited journalists, right? So they have deadlines, just like the male journalists do.”
A couple of faint nods.
“But the players are entitled to some privacy too. So I think you need to close the clubhouses completely for a short period after the game ends, maybe ten minutes, just to give the players time to take a shower and put some pants on, but then, after the privacy period is over, I think you have to just open up the clubhouse to anybody who has the right press credentials, let them ask their questions, get their quotes, whatever they need to do, on an equal footing.”
They all nodded.
None of them seemed angry or outraged, so I figured maybe I had not damaged my chances too badly. Somehow I doubt they asked the male applicants the same question, but I’ll never know.
And I got the job. So there’s that.
CIA Spy : “I Don’t Want To Live In The USA When THIS Happens 2030…” | Andrew Bustamante
When I was a boy in middle school, perhaps 12 to 14 years old, I needed a new pair of boots for winter time. Well, it seemed that my father has an old pair of work boots that he never used. And so he gave them to me to wear during Winter.
These were “Engineer’s boots”, and are typical boots that you see bikers wear or the Terminator, dressed in biker garb, wear. I thought that they looked cool.
boots
Only one thing though.
They were steel toed, meaning that the front of them were steel. Great to protect your feet. But, terrible in the Winter.
My father knew that this was a problem, and told me so. But I refused to listen to him, and so I wore those things for maybe four or five years until I went and got myself a real genuine pair of hiking boots.
Hiking Boots
Never the less, it was a true and real miracle that I never got frost-bite while wearing them. My feet were constantly frozen each and every time I stepped outside in the frozen woods around my home.
Was I bad and wrong for wearing them? Yes I was.
Should my father thrown those boots away and got me a replacement pair without the steel toe up front? Yes he should of.
But time is the teacher, and what I know know is only through the prism of experience. What experiences have you had that would have avoided mistakes in your past? I’ll bet you have many.
Don’t you?
As a side note, when I lived in Boston, Massachusetts, I needed a good pair of Winter Boots. This of course, was decades after the boot adventure. So I went to a local store and got me a proper pair of New England Winter boots, and I’ll tell you, I was never happier.
Easy to put on and take off. Easy to clean and dry: the inserts came out and were washable. Comfortable, warm… always. And my feet were never cold, wet or frozen.
And NO, this is not a paid advertisement. Get them HERE.
Bean Winter Duck Bill Snow Boots
These were the shit! I’ll tell you what.
Today…
Generate you own music
Free application, and this makes actual music. Of course, I have been playing around with it.
[Verse]In Jamaica, sunny days Irie vibes, and feelin' irie ways (irie ways) But when me hungry, I know what's good Peanut-butter and jelly sandwich, that's what's understood (oh yeah)
[Chorus]Spread the peanut-butter, spread the jelly (ooh-yeah) Put 'em together, it's a reggae melody Spread the peanut-butter, spread the jelly (ooh-yeah) Dance along, feel the rhythm, it's so jellylicious (jellylicious)
[Verse]In the morning, when I rise I got a craving, I can't disguise I need some sweetness to start my day Spinnin' around, like a reggae DJ (yeah, yeah)
[Chorus]Peanut-butter and jelly, it's the perfect blend (ooh-yeah) Spread it on thick, let the flavors transcend With every bite, feelin' oh so fine (oh so fine) Groovin' with PB&J, it's a reggae rhyme (yeah, yeah)
Here’s two Country & Western songs about Peanut-butter pies…
[Verse]Sitting on the front porch, gettin' lost in the sun Got a jar of peanut butter, it's my kind of fun Mix it up with some sugar, creamy and sweet Spread it on a crust, can't be beat, can't be beat (ooh-yeah)
[Chorus]Peanut butter pies, oh they make me smile With every bite, it's like a little slice of sky Peanut butter pies, oh they're pure delight They keep me comin' back, every single night (ooh, ooh)
[Verse]Well, I was sittin' on my porch in the sunny afternoon When my mama brought me a treat, it was comin' to bloom She said, "Darlin', I made your favorite, just for you" I took a bite and knew I had to share the news
[Chorus]Peanut-butter pies, sweet as a southern sunrise Meltin' in your mouth, takin' you to paradise With each bite, my heart takes flight, oh my-oh my Peanut-butter pies, can't get enough, oh, I can't deny
AI is a major force, and will slam-dunk our society. Today…
Have you ever met your school bully as an adult?
I was terrorised as a child by the older kids in my neighbourhood. We were poor but I was quite popular with other kids my age. For some reason this made me a target with the popular older kids. They would take great pleasure in chasing me and if they caught me they would beat me to a pulp. It was the 80s and this kind of thing was just accepted.
Fast forward 10 years. I’ve done an apprenticeship as a scaffolder, put on a lot of weight. Bulked so much I’ve earned the name Tank at work. I bump into the ring leader of the older kids in a night club.
I get we were kids when the bullying happened and think that as he’s now grown up he’s probably grown up. As I pass him I smile and say “Alright, mate?” He replies with “Don’t fucking speak to me”. This stops me in my tracks. I look him dead in the eye. The club feels like it’s gone silent as I contemplate knocking his head clean off of his shoulders. I said to him:
“Listen Julian, we’re not 10 any more and this isn’t the estate, now, turn back around and walk out of here before you get hurt.”
He froze. There was a look of sheer confusion on his face. He turned on his heels and walked out the door without another word.
The simple answer: Me. On September 3, 2012, when I was 35, I had the first of 4 sudden cardiac arrests and clinically died. I was anoxic, or without breath for somewhere under 10 minutes. I was diagnosed with a heart condition called Brugada Syndrome, which is a gene mutation that largely goes undiagnosed because the first symptom is death. In that time, I suffered mild traumatic brain injury or tbi. Before that I was a lively, smart woman, mom, fluent Spanish speaker with a great job of 6 years. After I came home, I couldn’t recall that thing the kids played with in the backyard. I just pointed and cried. Their swingset. My doctors couldn’t agree on when, or if I should return to work. Subsequently I was terminated as was denied short term disability because their physicians didn’t agree with mine and my time off wasn’t covered. I had never been fired before, and it’s never gotten easier since. I’ve been fired 4 times. I have worked at Walmart, and as a receptionist at a small nursing home. My doctors told me to try Disability(SSDI). I tried and was denied, saying I was too young and able to be a mail sorter. I kid you not. I struggle. Then 5 ‘events’ with my ICD(internal defibrillators) and 2 unsuccessful cardiac ablations left me with anxiety, panic attacks and PTSD. I have lost so much of my memory, including most of my Spanish skills, my confidence, my ability to learn new things much less recall previous things. My short term memory is appalling and I reach for words often. 3 weeks ago I was let go from yet another job, despite telling them of my ADA status. At least I got excellent counseling which all but erased the mental anguish.
So yes, I miss the person who I was.
I can relate to this
Chicken and Vegetable Stew (Saucochi di Gallinja)
2024 02 18 09 50
Yield: 8 or 9 servings
Ingredients
1 (2 1/2 to 3 pound) broiler-fryer chicken, cut up
6 cups water
2 tablespoons instant beef bouillon
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
2 medium onions, chopped
2 medium potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch slices
2 medium sweet potatoes or yams, cut into 1/2 inch slices
3 ears sweet corn, cut into 3 pieces
1/4 pound winter squash, pared and cut into 1/2 inch pieces (1 cup)
1/2 cup fresh or frozen green peas
1 small hot chile pepper, stemmed, seeded and sliced
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Chopped chives
Instructions
Heat chicken, water and bouillon to boiling in Dutch oven; reduce heat. Cover and simmer 30 minutes.
Skim off fat. Add remaining ingredients except chives. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer until thickest pieces of chicken are done and vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes.
Garnish each serving with chives.
What China Just Did Changes The Entire Space Industry And America Is Terrified!
Once again as a racist you cannot see beyond wages. As a spremacist you miss the point all together about the education, the trainings , the willingness to learn, the feebleness, the ability to adapt and change, the characteristics of Chinese language that is superior in retaining knowledge and the unique discipline, and hard work of the Chinese workers and a whole host of the Confucian and Taoist edicts that groomed a Chinese worker from birth that so much affect the immense productivity and efficiency of Chinese workers.
So white Caucasians analyst are simply unaware of these characteristics and they think simply and blindly thinks that Chinese makes things cheaper because of wages and government support and taxes means absolutely nothing compared to a perfectly well trained and highly disciplined worker.
My first job as a Town Manager in the early 80’s was in a small town in Kentucky along the Mississippi River. Some interesting tid-bits….
The Chief of Police was driving me around my first week there. We were in a residential area and he stopped and opened his door. He got out his shotgun and shot a dog in the street. He got back in the car, called Public Works and told them to pick up the dead dog on Maple Street. When I asked him why he shot the dog he said it didn’t have a dog tag.
Town Hall was located in downtown. I’m working in my office on the second floor and when I hear a gun shot blast. I looked out the window and there’s a half dozen people waking down the middle of the street with shotguns. I called the police dispatcher and said there’s people with shotguns walking downtown and shooting, please let the Chief know. The dispatcher said “yeah, it’s pigeon day. All the duck hunters get together and shoot the pigeons. It’s a warm up to duck season which starts this weekend. I believe the Chief is with them.”
The local doctor died a few months before I got there. He had been the only doctor in town for 30+ years. He willed his medical office building to the Town. One of my jobs would be to modernize the office and find a new doctor. When I went in the office to see what needed to be done I noted he had two waiting rooms. I assumed that was “well” patients and “sick” patients. It wasn’t. It was blacks and whites.
The nearest TV stations was Memphis and Cape Girardeau, Missouri. They were too far away for ‘over the air’ reception so people in town didn’t own television sets. I called a cable company and had them built a cable system in town.
We operated the local utilities, which included water, sewer and natural gas. We had a separate building for the electric system. Two women worked inside the office and a crew of men did the outside electric work. One of the women went to Disney World on vacation. While she was gone the other woman had an emergency operation. This was the first time both had been gone at the same time in years. I called my wife and asked her to cover for them until one or the other got back. My wife was a CPA and home along (without TV) with our toddler son. She jumped at the chance to do something. She opened the office and before lunch she called and told me the woman were taking cash out of the cash drawer and covering the missing money with their own personal checks, which they never deposited. More than $3,000. I told her to deposit their checks. I hired an auditor to come investigate, had the locks on the doors changed, filed a police report and informed the Mayor & Council. I fired the women. The checks bounced. The Town Council told me to not press charges against the women. The women filed for unemployment, which I appealed and won.
There was a giant flood wall to keep the river from flooding downtown. We had a number of large pump stations to pump water over the dikes and flood wall. Beavers was the bane of the town. There was a “bounty” on beaver ears and there was a local guy who bought beaver fur.
The volunteer Fire Chief invited me to a monthly last Friday cookout which I accepted of course. As it turns out that was men only, no wives. Just as well, my wife would never had eaten the beaver stew.
I was the Town Manager for 365 days and took a job in Tennessee in a very interesting town.
The Ukraine War taught the Taiwanese a lesson. The so-called protection of Taiwan by the West is to make Taiwan the battlefield and let the Taiwanese suffer the consequences of the war. Taiwan is part of China at present International laws so China has sovereignty over Taiwan. China has an Anti-Seperation Law. if Taiwan pushes for independence, it will get into war. Now they understand the so-called Western protection for them is a trap. Their youths will die. Their seniors and children will become refugees that already saturated the developed countries so that they may have no place to escape the war.
The West will supply weapons to Taiwan to fight till the last Taiwanese, just as now Ukraine has to fight the last Ukrainians.
Ukraine War is evident. The US wants Taiwan to claim independence as soon as possible. So the US makes a big arms sale to Taiwan, giving them the false perception of “safe”. The US needs the Ukraine War to weaken Russia. The US wants to weaken China more than Russia. So the US wants Taiwan to provoke a proxy war for the US.
The US is a very smart businessman. If the US wages war on China, the US soldiers will die and the US has to commit many resources such as arsenals. Now it can let the Taiwanese replace the US soldiers in the war, and Taiwan even has to purchase the weapons, to fight the war for the US geopolitical objective. The US wants to fight a war against China without cost a penny and a single soldier. The US wants a war it can profit from while Taiwan bears all the costs, including lives and weapons. The US already profited from the perception of war because it made a big sale of weapons to Taiwan.
You see this face and you don’t really get awed by these warnings
Your first thought is STUPID MORON
This guy doesn’t have the ability to put that voice of steel that some US Leaders had in the past
It’s why everybody has openly mocked him, from MBS blatantly ignoring him for 24 hours to Jordan openly telling him to go f*** himself to Qatar to Iraq all snubbing him including our EAM Jaishankar
image 261
Someone like James Baker would be different
His voice would have that steel warning
You would think twice before acting against the man
Not Blinken
Not Biden
Not Austin
Not Sunak
Not Ursula
These are Circus Clowns and if they warn, you can laugh and ignore them safely
What comes to mind as I move through a dining experience?
When you arrive, you’re greeted by a doorman, who opens the car door, ladies first. If it’s raining, they escort you to the door under a large umbrella.
The door is opened for you, and the host(s) say hello immediately rather than looking down at a floor chart. Maybe greeting you by name.
There is either someplace to check your coat, or the host helps you off with yours and checks it for you. The host would return it to you when you’re ready to go.
The music is subtle, whatever kind it is.
Lighting is appropriate. There are fresh flowers and in the evenings, candlelight (with real candles). People look better in candlelight, and a lady feeling pretty creates another luxurious atmosphere.
If, God forbid, your table wasn’t ready you’re escorted to the bar for a cocktail. There are no buzzing pagers (nor inappropriate jokes about stuffing it down their pants), no name screaming when your table was finally ready. The host carries the drinks for you to your table. If more than two, the ladies’ drinks are carried. Checks are seamlessly transferred from the bar to the table. You TIP the bartender very subtly.
Chairs are pulled out for you, ladies first. When all are seated, then the menus are handed out.
Menus might be printed daily, but there is no stickiness, crumbs, or fingerprints on menus that are reused. No pictures on the menu, nor vendor logos. Probably no prices. They probably don’t offer wings.
There are utensils for each basic course. The waiter (and they’re waiters, not servers) replaces silverware with each course if the meal choices require a different utensil, usually with a mise en place. Proper underliners are used under soup or dessert bowls, ramekins come on a plate, too. (Ben Maurer) Crumbers are used. There are chargers.
No water spots on the silver or glassware. Or windows! (Leroy Binx) God forbid, no crumbs on the floor or seats.
Having someone walk you to the restroom rather than pointing across the room.
There isn’t a “no problem” to be heard.
There is no He or She when addressing someone about someone else. For example, not “She ordered the salmon” but rather “The lady ordered the salmon”. The word “food” is a 4-letter “f” word. (So is “free” and “fair”) It’s “your meal”, “your dinner”, etc. Not “your food”. One doesn’t eat, one dines. You’re not eating with us tonight, you’re dining with us tonight. (Sorry – I don’t know the answer to the pronoun issues people are having these days.)
Water glasses are never low, and you didn’t have to ask for water in the first place. Water is poured after you’re seated, without a drop being spilled on the tablecloth. Although, the waiter might still ask you if you prefer sparkling or still bottled water.
The meal looks beautiful, i.e. no broccoli stems pointing up. (People eat with their eyes) No finger prints on the plates. Protein (main course) is always served at 6:00 on the plate. Ladies first. Period. Meal delivery as well: “And the lady ordered the salmon” as the dish is placed in front of her, coming in from the left. Plates are not handed to the guests. Served from the left, removed from the right. Sometimes, every person is served at the very same time by a group of waiters. It’s called a “drop” (A group of waiters? A “gaggle”? Just kidding!)
Black or white napkins, which, if you get up are refolded neatly on your chair.
Every time a table is bussed, which is immediately, it looks like it’s never been seated before. Condiments (salt & pepper) full and clean, perfectly placed. Freshly ground pepper is always offered, along with grated cheese where appropriate. The latter either freshly grated into a bowl, served by spoon (rare) or by a little grinder that is silver, not plastic. No one says, “Say when”. Holding up your hand a little, palm down says it all.
No catsup or mustard bottles in sight. Ever. (Andre Serafin and Kristin A) Mustard, catsup, mayonnaise, and horseradish are served in ramekins or tiny bowls with small spoons. They probably don’t have steak sauce, although accommodating a guest is paramount, so these days it will probably come in a ramekin, too.
Edited 12/10/19 to add: I’ve often enjoyed and taken for granted the service of a Sommelier, whose job it is to create wine lists, pair wine, and make recommendations of wine on or off the written wine list. What I didn’t know, was the rigorous training and testing it takes to become a Sommelier! There are only a few over 200 in the world, so they are a Big Deal. That said, I’ve never known if the Sommelier just came to our table because we were looking at wine, or if their expertise needed to be requested. A glaring hole in my experience, I must say. Any thoughts or “subtle differences” to contribute?
A red wine glass for red, a white wine glass for white. Red wine is never oxidized. When a bottle of wine is served, it’s (Steven Michael) decanted or chilled appropriately. The restaurant doesn’t even ask, and they know what and when wine should be decanted. The wine tasting is handled with grace and silence, in the appropriate order. The cork should be placed next to the host (Liam MacDonald) so the host can make certain the cork is moist and there aren’t any telltale signs the wine has turned. If the table isn’t already set with glasses for that wine selection, the appropriate glasses are set once the wine is approved. (Rachel Bateman) The invisible waiter tops off the wine. The guest never touches the bottle.
The port doesn’t have pour spouts in them, nor does good scotch or whiskey. White Zinfandel isn’t a featured wine type. There’s a good chance there is no happy hour.
There are no dirty aprons nor shirts on the waiters. No shabby shoes. No crazy hair styles, piercings or tattoos. (Sorry all. That’s life.)
When its a mixed gender couple or table, males’ plates are never removed until the females are finished dining.
Dessert menus are handed out without asking, coffee, tea, espresso or an after dinner brandy or port is always offered.
There are no bus tubs, no stacks of dishes through the dining room, and empty plates are removed IMMEDIATELY directly to the kitchen. Oh. Plates are removed to the kitchen to be boxed. A guest is never, ever, handed a box with a cheery, “Here you go!” The package is always in a nice bag.
There is some controversy in the comments over leftovers. Since I am writing this, I’ll say my own feelings agree with Tim Chisell and Umair about waste, portion control and not being served troughs of food, so there really shouldn’t be leftovers. People do take food home (have you never seen a little tin foil swan?) so I added what a restaurant would not do: hand you a big box.
When you get your leftovers home, the contents look like a beautiful meal. After all, those are the very last impression of you as a waiter and the restaurant.
The check. Reminded to me by my mother. One signs on one’s account. If one must handle a form of payment, it’s normally a card, very subtly put into a check presenter. Not stuck out the top for all to view.
Believe it or not, it’s not just bread or rolls before a meal. It’s not valet parking, or sorbet between courses. Those would be obvious attempts, but if other items such as those which come to mind for me aren’t present, it’s nice, but maybe — not always — a wannabe. It could just be a nicer restaurant not trying to be more than a comfortable, more upscale place to dine. But high-end? Add in details such as these and it will elevate a restaurant.
So there are a lot more obvious indicators, but what really makes or breaks the difference is quality of the food, the service and presentation. Anticipation of the guest’s needs. Sauces, condiments, appropriate suggestions that might enhance the meal for some, but not for others — just to be sure. The appreciation of the guest.
Edited to add: I’ve received so much fun feedback to this answer, I thought I’d incorporate suggestions from commenters. Quora is acting funny (maybe) and not letting me see all the comments, but I’ll be adding them in. Thank you!
And, now I read that I, or this answer, is the highest read in the restaurant category. Interesting to me that something I began almost wistfully others have enjoyed. So thank you and thanks for participating!
If I could change one thing about American schooling — mostly at the high school and college level — I would make it mandatory to teach financial literacy. And I don’t mean basic stuff like how to write a check — that was what passed for “financial literacy” when I was in high school in the 1980s.
I mean we turn out college and high school graduates who have never learned about things like credit scores, how loans work, how taxes work, the value of retirement accounts, how the stock market really works, etc.
My two kids are ages 25 and 23, and anything they know on those subjects, they mostly learned from my wife and me. For the most part, we don’t teach kids how to stay out of financial trouble.
So we have full-grown adults walking into a car dealership, and the salesman steers the question to, “How much car payment can you afford?” The salesman is hoping that the customer is financially illiterate and doesn’t understand what a terrible question that is — for the customer. The salesman will hear that you can afford $600 per month and come back with, “Hmm, we can work with that.” The customer ends up leaving in their $40,000 car, pleased as punch that they can actually afford it, and they think the salesman did them a favor. Maybe down the road they figure out that they’re paying 12% interest on an 84 month car loan, and that they only got half of what their trade-in should have been worth.
Same thing happens on the mortgage front, by the way. Some loan officer runs a preapproval on a young couple and tells them they can afford a $300,000 house. I guarantee you that the couple zooms in on that price point. If they slowed down and asked, they might find out that they can qualify for a $225,000 house with a 15 year mortgage at a substantially lower interest rate, meaning that they build equity faster, pay less in interest, and should they choose to do so, own the house free and clear after 15 years, as opposed to still owing 15 more years of payments if they’d taken the 30 year mortgage. And all they had to do was ask, and reset their expectation to a slightly less expensive house.
So in summary, why are people struggling and over-spending? Because they’re financially illiterate, and we as a society don’t seem to think that’s a problem.
The only time it really happened was when I sprained my ankle.
I was working in retail management and we had inventory coming up on a Sunday.
Friday I sprained my ankle bad. But because of how US healthcare is, I tried to put off having it seen by a doctor because, ugh horrible health insurance and bills. But that Saturday, since I could barely walk, I saw a doctor. And after x-rays to confirm it wasn’t actually broken, given an air-cast boot and doctor’s note for my employer with work restrictions.
I was scheduled that Sunday for inventory plus 2 hours in the store prior to closing. I showed up, air-cast and all, to try to explain that I didn’t think I’d be able to work the inventory. I mean, seems obvious right? Air-cast, doctor’s note, work restrictions, etc.?
The other store management had zero issue with me not working the inventory, they understood I was actually injured and not faking it. They also knew how rarely I called in.
Not to my district manager. Who threatened me with termination. 4 years of work, almost never calling in sick, working every Helliday shit shift, and because I was only one of 5 members of management there that day who was actually injured, I could be fired.
So, malicious compliance it is.
My work restrictions were very detailed and explicit. No climbing, no squatting, no standing for more than 15 minutes at a time, must elevate my ankle every 30 minutes, must be allowed to sit for any tasks that don’t need to be done standing, etc. I also, per company policy, faxed (yes, that long ago) copies of my doctor’s note, etc. to the HR office with a follow-up email.
And I followed the work restrictions to the letter for the whole shift. Despite the fact they had external inventory counters, it still took longer than scheduled, which meant, by law, every member of the store management staff other than the district manager(salary position) had to be paid overtime, since it put us all over 40 hours for the week.
On Monday, the district manager got chewed out by HR and his boss, the area manager.
For having so much overtime (for 5 people, about 2 hours each), for ignoring my doctor’s note, for not excusing me from inventory, for erroneously threatening me with termination (my email mentioned I understood termination of my employment was a possibility due to my injury), and a few other things.
I received 2 days off with pay, apologies from the area manager, HR and the district manager (begrudgingly from him), and wasn’t written up.
And while the district manager bore a grudge against me for his ass chewing, he was also incredibly hesitant to pull any similar stunts against me. It took him about 8 months to do so, and when he did, I left the company, after explaining why to HR, the area and regional manager.
My quitting also left not one, but 2 stores short staffed as he had expected me to cover another store’s shifts after writing me up, denying me a transfer promotion, and rescinding pre-approved vacation time off.
His actions also led to another ass chewing by his superiors after I left. And two of the top performing employees to quit shortly after.
I’ve been to more suicides and sudden deaths than I can remember, but one has always stood out. It was a lady who had hanged herself. It wasn’t particularly gruesome, she was discovered very quickly, and she had obviously done her homework as it appeared to have been effective and quick. The reason it was so memorable was because of WHERE she did it…
As I say, she had done her homework, and had made a proper noose which she had firmly secured to the rafters in the attic of her home. She had stepped through the attic hatch, which had the effect of acting as a ‘gallows drop’. The hatch to the attic was situated at the top of a flight of stairs, so for us as the attending officers the only way to get to her was to walk up the (fairly narrow and dark) stairs to the top where she was effectively ‘standing’ over us, where we had to gently move her to one side in order to get onto the landing. The power to the dwelling was cut, so the only light available to us was via a bedroom window which was situated directly behind her with the door open, such that she was silhouetted to us, and seemingly looking down with glazed eyes.
I’ve been to deaths over the years which were far more gruesome, but there was something psychologically unnerving on a primeval level about having to climb your way up restricted access to a deceased person who is ‘stood’ in a dominant position over you.
Rationally, the apprehension was purely down to perception. Nonetheless, everyone there physically relaxed once we were able to cut her down and rest her on the ground.
One of my juniors in college was a very chirpy girl. She was an only child. A helpful and polite soul, she was liked by nearly all the students and faculty members.
Her home was situated across our college. We used to often drop by her place while heading back home.
One day, we reached college and were greeted with a heart-wrenching news. Our beloved junior had expired. She was lighting a stove while her parents were out. The stove burst and she met a tragic untimely end. No words can describe the sadness that permeated all our lives. It was difficult to accept that someone so dear was suddenly snatched away from us.
We went to her place to meet uncle and aunty and offer our condolences. They sat silently. Absolutely silent and lost. Their vacant eyes told a story that was gut-wrenching.
The couple had lost the joy of their lives. Their only offspring was gone. While she could never be brought back, our college girls tried to make an effort to mitigate the pain.
From the time she was put to rest, not a single day passed when uncle and aunty were left alone. Every day, some girls used to go over to their place and spend time with the couple. We had even decided on the schedule so as to ensure that we did not miss out on any day.
We used to talk to them, take them out sometimes, run errands for them, regale them with our antics in college and generally try to be there for them.
The process was slow. But eventually uncle and aunty were able to come to terms with their loss and move on with their lives. Their smiles and blessings said it all.
A majority of students came together to show the couple that they were not alone… that they had daughters, just not born in their family. This collective effort was one of the most humane, compassionate and loving gestures I’ve ever witnessed.
“NO WAY” Videos That Are Glitching The Entire Internet Out
Terrifying. This Changes EVERYTHING. MY REACTION to What They’re Planning.
The sound still haunts me. I still think of it, and it happened in 1987 and here we are in 2024 and the sound of that night will be with me until the Lord calls me home.
There I will probably meet the 18-year-old senior in high school who didn’t wear his seatbelt as the car rolled over end to end 11 times after exiting the roadway. He was a back seat passenger with no seatbelt and that resulted in his high-speed ejection thru the rear window. He laid in a field and his body appeared pristine, even though his skull was fractured which killed him instantly. I was the patrolman who responded to handle the accident scene.
The noise was his mother’s scream at 1:17AM in the morning as I stood on the porch after giving her the death notification.
It was primal, it was guttural, and it is forever.
It will never leave my mind or my soul. I will think of that kid forever.
Girls are more attached to their parents emotionally.
Girls who talk less are more romantic and loyal to any kind of relationships .
Girls who talks more are over friendly and confused in their relationships .
If a girl sends you first, good morning messages then more likely she likes you and want you to be her friend .
If a boy continuously calls in every two, three hours then the girl gets irritated. This is the main reason of break ups.
All girls don’t love flowers. Before giving flowers think twice .
Do not gift too early in your relationships. You will lose your dignity. Most of the girls find it awkward.
Girls like boys who visit their house confidently and pass some time with her family.
Girls prefer friendship before any serious relationships. Most girl friends become very good wives except for few.
Girls are experts in reading eyes and body gestures. A decent girl will never fall prey.
Some girls deliberately flirts with boys to get popularity in their friend circle. You can make out from their dressing sense. If you are also a flirty then enjoy.
Girls like the boys who likes to share the money during a date or in group party. They love gifting more than receiving .
Girls mostly respect the boys who help in studies and clearing the doubts. They remain genuine as friends all the time.
Girl can never go to restaurant or cinema hall alone with you if she is not in love with you. If you are flirting, take a note.
Girls like if you talk straight looking into the eyes. If you are really interested, you can try this. If you can talk straight looking into her for five minutes then you are in love .
Girls love to be praised in front of others not in one corner. This shows your lack of confidence. There is nothing wrong in praising in public.
Girls love to be pampered. This is the main reason they get cheated. They trust easily.
Girls like to be independent. They don’t like questioning and blaming always.
Girls don’t love easily and once they love they can go to any extent to own their love. Note this
If a girl easily accepts your expensive gifts then, think twice before dating her .
Girls can sustain unbearable pain emotionally as well as physically. Mother Earth 🙂
I compared Moscow to New York, and indeed, Moscow is nicer, which confirms Tucker Carlson’s claim
China’s trade with the rest of the world increased and improves substantially contrary to your intentional doubt casting. Fact is UK declined by 3.0% GDP Germany too had a negative growth and the uS has barely any real growth! Needless to say China’s trade with them deteriorated significantly in 2023!
Please stop fooling your own people. The problem is that the war which the U.S. and UK and NATO stupidly and barbarically goaded Russia into and highly provoked boomerang back at them hard and is now destroying the western economy. Stop fooling your people it is not hurting you. It is. And in a very big way.
My daughter was around the age of ten and I had given her a box of lolly pops that whistled. I had purchased them in a bulk buy but none of my children liked the flavour. So I sent my daughter to school to share them with the other students. Some time after lunch I got a call from the headmaster to come to the school, as she was in trouble and was being sent home as punishment. He did not go into details over the phone and I was left completely shocked as she was a straight A student and had never been in trouble before.
I arrive at the principal’s office and was seated next to my daughter when he pulled out a plastic bag full of coins and placed it on the desk. He went on to tell me that she had stood outside of the canteen line of students, during lunch hour spruiking “lolly pops for sale only fifty cents”. She had managed to sell every lolly pop I had sent her to school with. The canteen staff complained that they had a contract and that they had lost sales due to her lolly pop sales, so the principal had no other option but to confiscate the money and call me in to address the issue. My daughter sat next to me with tears streaming down her face.
After we discussed why she had that many lolly pops and what was said to her in the morning before she left for school, he realised that this was not something that her parents or any adult had encouraged her to do. He went on to say “ I cannot punish a child that shows entrepreneurial skills that someday could lead to great things”. He applauded her efforts and explained what a contract with the canteen owner meant and why she could not do this again. He handed over the bag of money to her and we happily left his office.
She gleamed all the way home. She not only had lots of cash but she had been given the afternoon off school. I thanked that principal for his honesty and for not punishing her unnecessarily.
Had a slow refrigerant leak in my WRX. I actually heard it hiss slightly at the compressor while topping it off once, so I knew where at least one leak was. Took it to the dealer for a timing belt and asked them to look at the AC. I picked up the car and they said they couldn’t find the leak where I showed them it was, but that I needed a new condenser, the AC tech could smell the refrigerant in the cabin of my car. $3200 to fix.
Said no thanks, I’ll keep topping it off.
Got into the car and it did have an odd odor, which I attributed to it sitting near the body shop. I was smelling lacquer thinner.
A few months later, I was in Advanced and the kid working the the counter had a same year STI, so we were BS’ing about what we liked and disliked about the cars and I mentioned the AC experience. He walked over to the AC isle and handed me a package of assorted green O-rings. He said he had the same issue and to try one of these where I heard the leak.
Next day, I popped the line off, replaced the O-ring, charged the system and once I got the pressure right, I was good to go. $4.95 plus $19.95 for a bottle of refrigerant.
Many of you will say that I should have evacuated the system and you’re right, but I didn’t have a vacuum pump. This was as much a test as anything. Still driving the car 8 years and easily 100k miles later and I haven’t touched the AC since that day. In fact, the compressor clutch is on it’s last legs, but at 282k miles, the entire car is feeling it’s age. Saved $3175, too.
New factory Subaru condenser: ~$280 online Amateur labor estimated: 4 hours (estimated $400 shop labor cost, no way they would take as long as me to replace) Other supplies: $30
They were looking at making ~$2500 profit and still not fix my problem. I am fighting the urge to name them, especially since I had a run in with their service manager the next (and final) time I was there. In for an airbag recall and he’s trying to replace my power steering pump for $600+.
Never be afraid to walk away and get another opinion if you can.
I had a friend of mine who had this happen. He did not take it sitting down. He was rather excitable.
The women who made the allegation was one of the most narcissistic people I had ever seen.
when HR went to him with the allegations of sexual harassment he, went ballistic on the HR PERSON. This is what I was told.
He said that he told the HR PERSON, the woman accusing him was a lesbian, shinny, ugly, had scabs all over her body, had a personality of a stone fence post. Nothing he would be interested in.
in a later meeting with the HR Person, he threatened to sue the company for false reporting. His theory was the office was so busy there was someone around the both of them all the time, there was no time for a possible sexual assault of the nature she was claiming to happen. and he will sue the person making the allegations also
He said his coworkers will back him up in this.
that was the last time I heard of that allegation.
Personally if I was this person being hassled by this woman I would drag her into the HR OFFICE,
say, “you have a reputation of doing this with other people. I have tried to avoid you for two years, and have lots of people to support my claims. I Want this settled right here and now. i will not live with hanging over my head.
I will fight back, this is my reputation and my livelihood you are messing with, and I have had enough.
I would say if you meet here head on in front of her and the HR PEOPLE THAT THIS WILL STOP.
if it doesn’t I suggest you contact a good lawyer.
just make sure you have not done what she is saying .
How has your appearance affected your life?
This is something I’ve pondered a lot since my early 20s, when it became obvious to everyone that my sister and I had gone down two totally different paths in life.
She was a high school dropout, mother at 16, drug addict who couldn’t hold a job and was either living with an abusive boyfriend or with our parents. She never really made it on her own. But she was nice. Always nice to everyone.
I was in advanced classes in high school, went to a university several states away, and was doing very well there. I’d also had a part-time job since I was 16, and a full-time job since I was 19.
I think our appearances had a lot to do with our different life paths. She was a gorgeous blonde bombshell in our small Southern hometown. Boys were constantly trying to date her/get her drunk/give her drugs.
I was the fat kid in school. No girlfriends. No parties. I didn’t mind working after school and on the weekends, because it’s not like I had anything better to do. Doing homework and studying isn’t hard when it doesn’t get in the way of your nonexistent social life.
Eventually, I lost a lot of weight in college (put it back on after getting married, now trying weight loss round two), gained enough confidence to ask out a woman I liked, and dated her for five years before marrying her. Now, in my late 30s, I have a happy marriage, three happy and healthy kids, a career I love, a house, a minivan, etc…
My sister got married two or three times, I honestly don’t know. She continued doing drugs and “shacking up” with abusive guys throughout her 20s and early 30s. She eventually died of a drug overdose at age 34.
That’s why a part of me pities the really beautiful young women… constant attention from guys when you’re trying to build your life can be a major distraction and help push you down a bad path in life.
So, how has my appearance affected my life? It kept me out of trouble and helped make me the very happy adult I am today.
Last time I flew in an airline -I won’t name,the flight attendant forgot to get me my meal. By the time the trolley reached me, the non-vegetarian meal rack was empty. I was told that they will get me the meal in 5 minutes, I told them even if it’s a vegetarian meal it’s fine. It wasn’t really an issue for me as I don’t like troubling them but they insisted that they have more fish packs and they will get me one.
My wait was for half an hour, with them avoiding me,avoiding my call and not even looking at me. They didn’t even get me water. I got pissed. I literally raised my voice the next time with an “Excuse me, are you deaf?” and the flight attendant was like, “yes,mam can I get you something?” and my soft reply was,”YES! Your complaint book and it should not take half an hour, I want it right now.”
That led to some prompt working and them apologizing for some 15 times in next 15 minutes, they offered me meals (which I refused) and goodies (I refused them as well) and as I didn’t accept their peace offering or apology, in the end, after our landing the ground staff met me and after another series of apologies they refunded a portion of my ticket with vouchers.
It’s not about the food,it’s about their non-caring attitude. I have paid for that seat and that meal with hard earned money. If one form of meal is not there, I understand it’s not their fault but if they refuse to get me any meal then I can get nasty as well.
So, asking for the complaint book work wonders, do it the next time they harass you.
PS I am not proud of what I did but it was needed.
I was administering the Anesthesia for a Neurosurgeon friend. He was removing a Cervical spinal cord tumor of a woman in her late 40’s. She was prone (on her stomach) on the table. He had just spent nearly 45 mins denuding the Cervical Lamina (flat bone on each vertebrae that protects the Spinal Cord by creating a bit of a Canal the bone was in intimate contact with the tumor. He is an excellent Surgeon and fun to watch work, no wasted motions. I had just turned my back to the field and doing a routine check of endotracheal tube placement to make sure it had not migrated (a routine thing to do especially in the prone position).
With the tumor now completely exposed, he asked for the Bard-Parker (scalpel), with my back still turned I quickly called out “Stop.” Everyone turned and looked at me. He asked my why… I looked at the tumor one more time and asked him if he would mind using a tuberculin syringe and aspirate the tumor. He said, all of the X-Ray reports had confirmed it was a solid mass tumor. But, because of our long history, he said he would humor me.
The nurse gave him the syringe. He pulled back on the plunger and blood returned. He asked the nurse to give him the closure suture on a needle driver and a pair of Adson’s forceps and said we are closing. Only he and I realized what had just happened. It was a very large Arterio-venous malformation with thicker than normal walls of the middle muscular coat (tunica media), and an external or connective tissue coat (tunica adventitia). Which had made the almost 2 inch AVF look solid on X-Ray. While closing he explained to the nurses that there would have been almost no way to have stopped the bleeding if he had made the incision and we may have very well have lost the patient.
I have no explanation as to why I told him to stop. It was just this internal feeling.
He sent the patient to a University Med. Center to have the defect repaired. They sent him a letter thanking him for his excellent job in dissecting away the Spinous Processes, the Lamina, and the surrounding tissue. They said this made their surgery so much easier and because of his excellent dissection the AVF walls had not been disturbed which they also felt would have caused her death from hemorrhage. He had done the hardest part of the surg. He also was on the Neurosurg teaching staff at the U.
Two hours in the gym
Puerto Rican Chicken and Rice Stew (Asopao)
This chicken and rice soup is Christmas for me. Not the Christmas meal by any means but the Christmas season. In Puerto Rico, this is the soup that was traditionally served at parrandas. And it continues to be a staple at parties and get togethers.
What is a parranda? You well may ask. The short answer is that a parranda is a party. It’s a Puerto Rican tradition that probably wouldn’t go over too well in most American suburban neighborhoods. It involves late night singing and ritualized kidnapping. And eating. And drinking.
A group of singers, parranderos, start the party late in the evening well after dinner. They assemble at the front door of a friend or neighbor’s house and make music until the family wakes up and lets them in. After some more singing, everyone gathers in the kitchen for refreshments. Usually chicken and rice soup.
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After they eat, the parranderos hustle the family off to the next house where the singing, eating, and kidnapping is repeated through the night. This PR holiday tradition is kind of like Christmas caroling, but not.
The beauty of the Puerto Rican chicken and rice soup is that it was easy to heat up when the parranderos arrived. And by adding more stock, it could be stretched to feed everyone. You can imagine that by the last house, there would be quite a crowd. These parties would break up by dawn, with all of the parranderos going back to their beds.
Guess what heats up nicely the next day when nobody feels like cooking? You’ve got it. Asopao de Pollo.
Yield: 6 to 8 servings; makes enough Adobo to season 3 to 4 pounds of meat
Ingredients
Chicken and Rice
3 pounds chicken, cut into pieces
1 recipe Adobo
9 cups water
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 ounces lean cured ham, diced
2 green bell peppers, seeded and chopped
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3 large tomatoes, chopped
12 pimiento-stuffed olives
1 chorizo (Spanish sausage), cut into 1/2 inch rounds
2 tablespoons capers
1 (4 ounce) can chopped pimientos, drained
3 cups long-grain rice
1 cup fresh or frozen peas, thawed
Additional chopped fresh cilantro (for garnish)
Adobo
4 whole black peppercorns
2 cloves garlic, peeled
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 teaspoons vinegar
1/4 teaspoon paprika
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How to Make Asopao de Pollo
The homemade Puerto Rican chicken and rice soup recipe I’m going to show you develops flavor by sautéing most of the ingredients in a large caldero or dutch oven.
After cutting up the chicken and seasoning thoroughly, go ahead and heat up the olive oil in your pot.
First you’ll brown the raw chicken pieces in batches and set them aside. Next sauté the sofrito, it will smell fantastic as it cooks. Scrape up those browned bits.
Now add the ham, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, capers, pimentos, olives, boullion and rice. Stir all of that right into the sofrito before adding the chicken back. Make sure you pour in any juices the chicken might have accumulated while it was waiting. That’s the good stuff!
Finally, when all of the ingredients are in the pot, pour as much of the water as you can fit into the caldero. Add your salt and pepper and mix it all up thoroughly. Over the cooking time, you can add more water as the rice cooks and absorbs the liquids.
Bring the soup to a boil and then turn down the heat. Allow it to simmer for up to 30 minutes. Keep an eye on your pot, stirring frequently as the rice can burn to the bottom.
When the rice is tender and the chicken is cooked, it’s done. Now you’re ready to feed any late night parranderos that come to your door.
Guests that come at more reasonable hours will love this soup too!
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Instructions
Chicken and Rice
Rub the chicken pieces thoroughly with the adobo. Place the chicken pieces in a large pot and add the water and salt. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cover and reduce the heat to low. Simmer for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a skillet. Add the ham, bell peppers, onion, and cilantro. Sauté over moderate heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the tomatoes, olives, chorizo, capers, and pimientos. Cook for an additional 5 minutes.
Add the vegetable mixture to the pot with the chicken and simmer for 15 minutes.
Add the rice and peas and simmer covered over very low heat for 15 to 25 minutes, until the stew reaches the desired consistency. It is traditionally served runny, almost like a soup.
Serve in soup bowls garnished with chopped cilantro.
Adobo
Combine all ingredients in a mortar and pestle and grind to a paste. Alternately, combine in an electric blender or food processor and process until smooth.
I know this question is a month old, but I just have to answer it. Unfortunately, the nastiest thing that happened at my school was done by me.
It was my freshman year. I desperately had a crush on my best friend, Rob. He had this dark, black, hair and deep hazel eyes that made me melt every time I caught him staring at me in Math. You know, teenage hormones and the like.
Our lockers were right next to each other; we were in the same homeroom. Sometime around October, being the ever awkward and weird kid I was, thought that the best way to show Rob I liked him was by teasing him.
I left the cafeteria one day with a nearly full milk carton in hand. I held onto it throughout my last class of the day and waited for Rob at my locker. Once he had gotten his things and we said our goodbyes, I pulled out the milk and placed the carton at the bottom of his locker (he carried a lock with him but never put it on), spout open and covered slightly by a hoodie he had left in there.
Hilarious I thought, he’ll come in on Monday and have to find a chunky carton of milk in his locker. Gross, yet harmless. I was so, so wrong.
Rob found the milk carton on Monday. What I had underestimated about him though, was his capacity to simply not care. He shrugged it off, took the hoodie out of his locker and placed the lock he had never used on it. Then he left it.
A month went by, and I could smell the milk every time I opened my locker next to his. After two months and the Christmas holiday and I forwent my locker, too, instead carrying my entire bag from class to class just so I didn’t have to open my locker.
By April, the entire hallway reeked of sour milk, so strongly that the students curved around the affected area when passing through. Everyone smelled it, no one could figure out where it came from or what it was. It was deadly; so much so that people whispered about what could possibly be making THAT smell. It was the mystery everyone talked about. You could feel the thickness of the stench in the air.
The last day of school came, and we were instructed to take the locks off of our lockers and clean them out at last period. Rob tried to make a getaway – grab his lock and run for the doors before someone asked him to open it and show it had been cleaned out, but he just wasn’t quick enough. “Open it”, our home room teacher demanded, as if he knew what that locker held inside it.
With shaking hands, Rob opened the metal door, and it was if you could see a green puff of foul odor release like a bomb from inside. “Close it!” Our teacher screamed, and Rob did, both of us gagging. The teacher ran for the safety of his classroom and we left.
The first day of sophomore year we came back to a clean hallway – no smell, bare lockers. Though, our former home room teacher never looked at Rob the same. As an adult, I feel TERRIBLE for the poor custodian who had to clean that putrid milk.
However, as I lay next to my husband in bed, I can’t help but be just a little bit nostalgic for that stupid prank. Fourteen years later and Rob and I have been together ever since; inseparable.
Asia’s Top Economist Reveals Shocking SECRET About China In 2024
Yes, my wife of 46 years died suddenly from heart failure. I got her to the hospital and was able to spend some time with her before she passed.
After she was gone, the medical staff insisted that I spend the night in the hospital due to my medical issues. I was given a mild sedative to help me relax. I fell asleep and at some point I woke and was unsure of where I was. When I realized what had happened, I was leaning against the safety rail on the hospital bed. I saw what appeared to be a room full of people below me, they were all in ‘shadow’ except for one woman in a white light dancing. My wife loved to dance and as I watched, the woman waved at me and everything vanished when the nurse came to check on me.
The second time was at her funeral service. It was freezing that day and I got to the service early to bring some mementos for the service. I, somehow, lost my phone and the facility was locked and no one was around. As I was starting to panic, I ‘heard’ my wife say “calm down.’
As I looked around I saw a perfect rose bloom in the garden area in front of my car. I couldn’t believe that a rose had bloomed in freezing conditions. Roses were her favorite flower, I went to pick the rose and found my phone on the ground. I immediately calmed down and told my wife “thank you.”
The Man Who Built UFOs For The CIA [Not Bob Lazar…]
Battery life continues to be one of the biggest complaints of laptop users, so understanding what you can do to help prolong the life is important. Technically speaking, keeping any relatively current laptop plugged in and charged at 100% for extended periods of time shouldn’t be a problem, but it’s best not to do so for a number of reasons.
This is a question that comes up a lot with laptop owners. And the answer is a quite simple “No.” For optimum battery use, and to get the most life out of your laptop battery, keeping it charged between 40% and 80% has been seen as optimum.
Most late-generation laptop batteries are either lithium-ion or lithium polymer, and as such, they are designed to be able to withstand many charge cycles. When you keep it charged at 100%, the charging circuit continuously checks the battery charging process and, so it stops charging once it is at its optimum point and goes into trickle mode, in which it only supplies what is necessary to prevent the charge level from failing.
Also to note: overcharging can lead to overheating, which can lead to catastrophic chemical reactions inside the battery.
Allowing your battery to completely discharge will take away from its originally-intended lifespan. You should ideally keep its battery between 40% and 60%. Don’t let the battery discharge completely to increase its life.
Here are some tips to extend your laptop battery life:
Avoid discharging your laptop completely after charging it.
Make sure that your laptop doesn’t get too hot and your cooling fan is working properly.
Overheating can reduce battery life, check the laptop’s cooling system is functioning correctly and use it on a flat surface to allow for proper airflow.
Customize your laptop’s power plan settings to favor battery life over performance when running on battery.
If you’re not using your laptop on battery power for an extended period, store it with the battery at around 50-80% charge to reduce long-term stress on the battery.
I suggest maintaining your laptop’s battery level within the range of 40% to 80% charge. By doing so, you can effectively double the number of recharge cycles, increasing them from 300-500 to a substantial 1,000-2,000, ultimately extending the overall lifespan of your laptop.
When I worked in Mebine, North Carolina (during our “van days”, “out in the wilderness”) I witnessed, first hand, all sorts of corruption that a powerful factory, and rich boss can get away with.
This was a factory that made “granola bars”. I worked in maintenance, and then as a line machine operator.
Using company funds he bought a “company car”. You know, to go on business trips. Except that it was an expensive custom Corvette sports car. LOL.
There was a 22 year old girl who was on the payroll as his open sex partner. She was one of those girls… you know the kind… attractive, blonde, voluptuous… attracted boys at 14 and was addicted to sex. She befriended me, and openly talked about her escapades with “the boss”. She would come in for a few hours each day to “help him in the office” and then leave.
They factory was running out of money and started to have financial problems. So we were ordered to take the huge (four story tall) storage tank and weld a fake partition at top. Then we gathered some of the molasses that it stored. We then burnt the molasses intentionally. Put it up at the top. The Boss then called the supplier and complained. They vendor came. Took a sample from the top, determined that it was burnt… and refunded the cost of the truck load to our boss.
The factory workers took up a collection to help us (me and the wife). The money was given to a girl to buy food for us, and we really appreciated the two bags of groceries… until we saw that all the items had “buy one get two free” stickers on everything. But the bags only contained one item. Someone clearly took one half of the food for themselves.
The factory made granola bars, with was nothing more than mixing peanut butter, nuts, honey, raisins, etc in a huge vat, forming them into ribbons, cutting the ribbons into pieces, and then wrapping them in foil. The thing was that almost all the ingredients were FREE from the United States government. Somehow the factory boss cut a deal where he got free “government food” that was intended for the poor, and made granola bars at a profit.
That being said, our “Christmas bonus” consisted of a USDA block of cheese. Promptly labeled “not for resale”.
As I get older, I see how everything in the United States was twisted, reformed, readjusted, and made so that only certain groups prospered, while others got poorer and poorer. How long can this continue?
It seems to me that the ONLY thing keeping Americans “on the plantation” are loads of drugs, social media pacification, and ignorance of the rest of the world.
The mother of an 11-year-old decided her daughter needed a whipping (She did). This is what happened that did NOT constitute a “whipping”.
Mom started out with an electrical cord pulled off a lamp. After numerous strikes, the cord got lost in the struggle. While holding the girl, mom punched her with her fists several times. Mom grabbed a wire coat hanger, straightened it and started whipping again. The end of the wire was wrapping around the girl’s body, puncturing her arms, legs, hips, sides. Then the coat hanger got pulled away in the struggle.
Mom grabbed a woman’s belt, about 1/4 inch wide and started in with it, cutting into the girl’s skin. After numerous strikes, that also got lost. The beating had moved through four rooms, into the baby’s room. Mom snatched a side slat out of the baby bed (about 1″ by 1″ by about three feet, and started using it. Somehow, the girl escaped the house, ran down the street, and was taken into a house by a neighbor who called the police. She was admitted to the hospital with cuts and bruises from her ankles to her head. She had a hematoma about the size of a baseball on her forehead that swelled her eye closed. She looked like she had gone 9 rounds with Mike Tyson.
Mom was convicted on Felony Child Abuse and served 5 years.
My professor, put the answer this way, the Romans ran out of people to rob. This was Rome at its maximum extent:
image 239
This takes a massive army to maintain and that requires money. I will say something unpopular, after conquest, a standing army is a financial drain. Soldiers produced nothing but cost you a great deal and you must feed them locally.
Thus the conquests must:
Be worth the value in permanent productivity and taxation
Better hope you have a weak neighbor with low organization and social cohesion. Otherwise, you will have a lengthy oozing wound that exhausts your army and financially wrecks you with continuous war
So, to the South, Romans would be expanding into the Sahara; what was the point of that?
Expand into Northern Britain was done several times; those were financially unsustainable. North of the wall, population density was too low to sustain legions.
Along the Rhine, the Romans had expanded into Germany, on many occasions. It was a place of forests and swamps and small villages. Along the coast was one giant coastal wetland. No profit in that place, the Romans tried for years but it was just not profitable. This permanent fort was found in Thuringia, Eastern Germany:
image 238
Why was it abandoned? Finances.
Further along, was the Danube frontier. After Dacia’s gold was exhausted, it was not worth keeping it. Indeed, that frontier was open to the horse people and Germans. There was nothing to gain there. So, the Romans retreated to the Danube and stayed there.
To the east, was Persia or Parthia or whatever you want to call them. Those boys were as civilized, organized and militaristic as the Romans. From Crassus onwards, there was war, back and forth, back and forth, expansions, contractions, expansions, contractions…that war continued into the Byzantine era. Some claim, it NEVER ended.
So, where am I going with this? At some point, empires are about money and profit. If a place is not making money, it does not make sense to keep it. The game has not changed. Look at it from the perspective of Tony Soprano:
I want to know why there’s zero growth in this family’s receipts. Where’s the money?! You’re supposed to be earners. That’s why you’ve got the top-tiered positions. So I want each one of you to go out to your people on the street, crack some heads, making some earnings.
Conquest for conquest sake was not the point. Making profit was the point. Rome had run out of profitable places to conquer in their vicinity.
One day, a year or so after my teenage daughter “broke up” with a boy whom we had gotten to know, (his mom had been diagnosed with cancer months before) I had a very strong feeling to contact him on Facebook and just ask how he had been doing.
He answered me immediately and said, my mom is dying. I told him that I knew she was sick, and that’s why I was checking on him. He said no… right now he is in the hospice room with her and her breathing has changed and he thought she was gone.
I asked him what he wanted to do, and he said he didn’t want to leave her. I told him it would be OK if he sat with her as long as he wanted, and when he was done he should go get the hospice staff and they would take care of her from there .
This was being done via Facebook messenger, and we sat quietly for about 5 to 10 minutes, when he said her hand was cold and he was ready to go. I told him let me know if there was anything I could do for him, and the next time I heard from him it was regarding the funeral.
On the day of the funeral my daughter and I were preparing to go and I stopped on the way to look for a card or something I could write on to share our condolences.
While standing in the card section I became frustrated I didn’t like anything that I saw, I decided a card didn’t feel right and I just wouldn’t do it… but on the way out I passed the candy section and felt a strong sense that I should buy some Skittles.
When arriving at the funeral and passing through the line with this young man and his brothers I gave him the skittles and said, “dude I brought you a rainbow”
The funeral service was lovely, his mother knew she was dying and planned most of it herself right down to the music. As the services ended they asked us all to enjoy her favorite song as we proceed out of the church.
My heart and my spirits were lifted immediately when the song started, it was “somewhere over the rainbow”
As I pass the boys again on the way out we all hugged and I made sure they knew that that message was from their mother, I didn’t even know her, but that message was from her!
At her exact moment of passing she somehow got into my psyche so I contacted her boy and virtually held his hand as she left. Then she made sure I brought him a message of hope, directly from her.
Except for the corrupt Bongbong Marcos government, no other country in Southeast Asia wants to be an enemy of China.
Except for the Philippines, no country in Southeast Asia is willing to become “Asian version Ukraine” used as cannon fodder by the United States.
In Russo-Ukrainian war the Americans politicians give ammunition, the rich ukrainian give the food and the poor ukrainian give their children… When the war is over the Americans politicians get back the leftover ammunition, the rich ukrainian grow more food and the poor ukrainian search for the graves of their children.
Using the lives of their own citizens as expendable goods to satisfy the ambition of American politicians to weaken China? — Southeast Asian people are not that stupid.
image 247
Even the Filipino people themselves are opposed to Bongbong Marcos colluding with the United States to provoke China on the South China Sea issue.
Do you really think they don’t know the Yanks’ sinister intentions of sowing discord and inciting discord?
Recently, there was even news that the former president of the Philippines protested against Bongbong Marcos for provoking China and promoting the independence of Philippine Mindanao.
image 248
Quora has netizens from Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Brunei and other countries along the South China Sea. You could do a broad social survey of them and quickly come to the same conclusion I did.
When my grandson Henry was about four we were very close, and he loved to hear me singing and playing guitar so when he was staying with us he’d ask me to sing for him. We’d sit in the lounge or conservatory and he’d be so silent and focussed – the best audience anyone could wish for!
One time I sang him the David Olney song “Women “Cross the River”
The last verse is :
The women ‘cross the river, they’re as gentle as the dew upon the ground
I love to hear them laughing when it rains and makes that perfect sound
Now a soldier with a gun, and a battle to be won
He might shoot you with a bullet – you’d never even know the reason why
But the women ‘cross the river, they could kill you with their eyes.
I finished with a graceful, slow arpeggio key chord, and he was staring at me, totally “in the song”.
Then, Henry sighed and said “what IS a perfect sound?” Four years old ! I was speechless.
One summer my kids and I were leaving the library and getting into our vehicle when a man got out of his truck that was parked beside us and asked if the kids would like a train set. I figured he had some little under the xmas tree set or something but he lifted a tarp in the back of his truck and showed us one one those huge sets!
He explained that he was on his way to leave it at a thrift shop but saw us and wondered if we would like it. It would save him the trip he said.
We said yes and he put it into the back of our truck.
It must have been worth a lot. I am sure he could have sold it to a collector instead. It took up most of the basement floor when we set it up. It was remote controlled and had little buildings and trees too. Lots of different sounds as well. It was older but in perfect condition.
We could never have afforded to buy anything like it.
I thanked him over and over and asked if there was anything we could do in return and he assured me no there wasn’t. Just knowing the kids would be enjoying it was enough. His kids loved it but his grandchildren were not interested in it.
My kids played with it for years. So did my husband and I.
We ended up donating it to a youth center a few years ago.
We normally did not drive a truck but that day due to temporarily being without a vehicle we had borrowed our in-laws truck otherwise we would have had no way to get it home.
Stay away from people who do back-bitching. If they can bad mouth someone in front of you, then how can you be sure they won’t do the same to you?
Never speak your heart out at work. Learn how to be diplomatic. That’s what everyone else is doing around you.
Office politics is for skill less people at work. Never involve yourself in it.
Never bargain your salary by showing other job offer letters to your current employer. Even if they increase your salary, you’ll be on their radar forever.
Efficiency is not equivalent to time. Stop staying late at work to prove yourself better.
No matter how close you are with your colleagues, never discuss personal matters at work.
You shouldn’t ask anyone’s salary, increment or anything personal.
Office romance is out of equation. It will make you miserable at work. Keep a thick line between work and personal life.
Work equally hard on your soft skills as they matter more than you think.
Czech Goulash
2024 02 21 06 25
Ingredients
1/4 cup shortening
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 pounds pork or beef, cubed
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 teaspoon sweet or hot paprika
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds (optional)
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 cups water
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Instructions
In a cast iron Dutch oven, sauté onion in shortening. Add garlic; sauté until translucent.
Add meat, onion, paprika, caraway seeds, salt and pepper. Brown well.
Add 1/2 cup of the water; simmer, covered, until meat is tender, about 1 hour.
Sprinkle flour over drippings in the pan; stir until brown.
My girlfriend and I went to the movies and she drove me home in her car. The route we took was very poorly lit and the lights on her dash were very dim, so it was very dark inside the car.
Along the way, I took out a packet of Dentyne gum (you know the kind whose pieces came in little blocks each with a small paper wrapping?)
I asked her if she’d like a piece and she said yes, so I tore the side of the package wrapping so she could grasp a piece without my having touched it. Then I got myself a piece and put the package back in my handbag.
About six days later, she picked me up to go for our weekend walk on the beach and as I got into the car she pointed down to the passenger floor and said huffily:
Before we leave, I’d appreciate it if you’d pick up the litter you left behind in my car last time and remember in future that my car is not your trashcan!
I looked down and saw that a piece of the paper gum wrapper on the floor. Apparently, in the dark, I’d thought I was putting the wrapper in my handbag along with the package, but the wrapper had landed on the floor instead.
I bent over and picked it up and said “I’m sorry. It was dark and I didn’t see that I’d dropped it on the floor.”
I should think so! she said in a repressive tone.
I got out of the car and went back into my apartment building and we never spoke again. I was angry and kind of disgusted that she let the offending piece of paper sit on the floor for six days just so she could scold me about it. I figured if it was so awful having this nasty piece of ‘trash’ in her car, why did she endure this horror for six whole days?
On Christmas Eve, somewhere in the mid-’80s, my mom dropped us off at her sister’s house. When my brother and I woke up on Christmas Day, we couldn’t believe our eyes.
Santa Claus had delivered the most epically packaged gifts I had ever gazed upon.
There were twirling ribbons and fluffy bows and shiny paper. It was just so beautiful. I was jealous and envious of my cousins.
They were always on the nice list.
Thirty years later, on December 26th of last year, I went to Kmart and Walmart. I went with fifty dollars and a plan.
image 243
I bought all the wrapping paper, bows, and ribbons that I could afford. I got 90–95 percent off of all that stuff.
image 242
I saved it for a whole year.
I’ve done this now every year for three years.
For Christmas, we can’t afford to buy the kids all new things. We buy a lot of second-hand clothing and school supplies for them.
But when it’s time to wrap those gifts, I spend night after night tirelessly tying ribbons and making bows.
image 241
I am in charge of ALL the wrapping. My girlfriend hates doing it, but I love it. It’s important to me and I do it for really inexpensive.
image 240
The kids have so much fun tearing all this stuff to pieces on Christmas morning and Jess and I have so much fun watching them do it.
This kind of stuff wouldn’t be important to me today if I didn’t look back.
I think looking back on our lives is very important, even if you’re looking back at a bad memory.
The good and the bad shape who we are in this moment.
Today I’m a gift wrapping machine and that’s a good thing.
That good thing was born out of a jealous and envious brat.
Not really a parking spot but revenge over a truck driver nonetheless… a truck driver was delivering a scissorlift and had to take it downstairs. Instead of driving the truck downstairs (parking is in the basement, and truck lifts bring the vehicles up and down), he insisted on his gears needed cooling down. And his truck had ‘broken down’ (think changing gears without the clutch). Naive as I was I believed him and let him brake down in the middle of the road for 30 minutes to make his delivery. As a result he held up half a dozen deliveries who couldnt get in or out until the truck moved. Miraculously his truck worked fine once the delivery was done.
Unfortunately I’m best friends with a guy who works for the tac, who does truck roadworthy inspections and has the power to take trucks off the road… a quiet word to him meant the trucking company had all of its trucks inspected, and given roadworthies as required. As for his own truck? As it’s already unroadworthy it was towed to the pound, and there it stays until a new transmission is replaced…
Yeah. I used to work with a miserable old (middle-age actually) hag who thought she was in charge in our dept. One day, I saw and heard our actual supervisor give her an order to do a particular job. As soon as the boss left, the “hag” brought it to me demanding I get it done ASAP, drop what I was doing etc. Well, I just let it sit there on my table. The boss came back, asked about the project and I hears the wannabe boss say “I gave it to him, don’t know what his problem is, he hasn’t touched it” The real boss looked at her an said, “ I told YOU to do it, NOT pass it on Go to my office and wait for me” She was fired……. so, in a way I got rid of a pain in everyone’s ass and literally did nothing to do it.
That’s how it works…
She took her ex to court to get full custody of a child that she abandoned with him, plus wanted alimony on top of it. It didn’t work out as she thought.
Dude, seeing the quiet satisfaction on Dad’s face brings me so much joy. He went into court that day just praying this judge would actually be responsible and not turn his life upsidedown. That’s beautiful.
It’s wonderful to see a father actually win in a system that never seems to help the father at all.
I was ten years old and had walked to the shopping mall to buy a loaf of bread for my mom. I had 42c in my pocket because that what a loaf of bread cost back then. When I got the mall I forgot why I was there and so I just started walking around randomly. I walked into a candy store that was advertizing a two for a penny sale. “gee I wish I had money,” I said to myself. “hey there are some coins in my pocket!” “wow – I’ve got 42 cents – that’s incredible. I can buy 84 candies!”
i then began to torture the shop assistant, “can I have two cola bottles, one sour gummy worm, two chocolate Brazil nuts, three milk bottles, one fizzy chew- no, make it two. Can I gave one of the fruit jellies, a yellow one please? And a red fruit gum – no that’s purple, I mean the other red …”
eventually I finished the grumpy shop assistant asked me for 42cents. I handed it over then …
”oh my god. I just remembered. It’s my moms money. I’m supposed to buy a loaf of bread with it. I’m really sorry, but I can’t buy the candy. can I have my money back please?”
”no way you foolish child …”
then I hear an old lady behind me say “ma’m please give him his money. I’d be happy to pay for his candy. ….” this kind lady made a huge impact on me and, 45 years later I still recall her kindness.
Yes. There was some busybody gossipmonger working at a local bank. When my father passed away and I was helping my mother deal with some of the financial things— such as taking his name off of their joint accounts— the teller started asking all sorts of personal questions that were none of her business. Asking if we planned to sell the place or move. We told her we didn’t know. It happened so suddenly and we were still reeling. We started getting phone calls and people showing up at our house asking when we were going to sell and how much we wanted for the place.
Apparently the loudmouth teller had started blabbing around town that we were going to sell and gave out our phone number (which was unlisted) and our home address. One of the people mentioned that “Shirley” had told them. I went back to the bank and asked to speak with her and asked her if she had told people we were planning to sell and if she gave our info to people. She said she was just trying to be helpful. I told her we were grieving and didn’t want people calling and nosing around our property and that what she did was a serious breach of privacy. I then asked to speak to the branch manager and told him what happened and how I did not want to do business with a bank with a teller who would give out my personal details to randos without my permission and that it was causing undue stress during an already stressful time. He didn’t fire her on the spot, but he send a letter to us later informing us that she’d been terminated.
We live out in the middle of nowhere to avoid people and our place is out of the way and hard to find. Having to deal with misinformed trespassers who were snooping around our yard because some blabbermouth lied to them and gave our info out would have been stressful enough under normal circumstances, but given we’d just lost my father suddenly & unexpectedly, it was doubly stressful.
It’s like watching a snake eat its own tail; predictable and entertaining.
It’s so sad. If I were in my 20’s in the USA, I’d leave as soon as I could.
At the age of 43, I found myself on the pavement with no money, no home, no job, and just the shirt on my back.
I walked into town and into a recruitment agency and took the only job they had which was badly paid, hard and unpleasant work. By being willing, I got a better job with them- still not a good job but paying better and slightly more pleasant.
At 45, I moved to Lincoln and got a better job with another agency on the back of my recent experience. By being both capable and willing, I got progressively better jobs until they offered to train me to be a trainer. I stayed as a trainer for the next ten years. My income was never as good as it had been in my youth but that was compensated by the international team I had the privilege to work with. I don’t think there was a single nationality I didn’t work with in that time. That was a very fulfilling period and the happiest time of my life.
Years ago when my daughter was maybe 7, she came home from school and I could tell something was bothering her. I told her to sit down at the kitchen table and tell me what was going on. She told me she couldn’t sit, and I asked why. She told me that a teacher had whipped her. I looked at her little bottom and there were welts. I don’t remember what caused the spanking, but leaving welts like that was totally uncalled for. I called the school, asked to speak with the teacher, and when she answered, I told her that I’d be happy to meet her outside so she could try hitting someone closer to her size. I was furious, and ready to have a go at her. She refused the offer, and I called the principal and told him what she’d done, and how she’d left welts on my child. The teacher was transferred. Hopefully, she never struck another child like that again.
For those who would have done things differently, whether by suing, filing a police report or demanding the teacher be fired, you missed the first two words of my post. Years ago. Years ago, teachers were allowed to whip/paddle students. Parents spanked their kids. If a parent would have demanded the teacher be fired, they would have been laughed at, and if the parents threatened to sue, I’m sure the school would have told them to go ahead and try. Before another commenter tells me what they would have done, research what was allowed years ago.
When I was 19, I worked behind the front desk of a 5-star hotel in a very affluent area of Florida. Rooms were normally between $700–1500 per night.
I checked in a guest from Washington D.C. who was very pleasant, and we had a great conversation. During our conversation, I mentioned that my family was primarily in the coastal areas of New York, and that they were all nervous about Hurricane Sandy (this is important).
3 days later, it was time for the guest to check out, but he had left his belongings in the room. The guest did not checkout until 7 PM, and logically, we had to charge him another night, since our housekeeping staff had gone home, and we would not be able to sell the room.
The guest lost it, screaming at our staff, slamming his fist on the counter, the whole show.
Then he spotted me.
With so much disdain, he snarled, “I hope that your family dies in that hurricane.” My manager immediately grabbed the back of my suit jacket, and pulled me into the back office, because he knew what was coming next. I still get angry thinking about that guest.
She was a brilliant Maths Teacher at Malappuram, Kerala, India. One day one of her student saw her at the railway begging for alms, but she couldn’t recognize her properly.
However when the student took a closer look, she recognized her class teacher. When the student asked her about her such a dire state, she told that after her retirement her family abandoned her and never came to know about her whereabouts so she started begging in front of the railway station.
The student broke down listening to her teacher’s story and took her home.
The student provided her Teacher with food & clothes and to secure her future contacted all those friends who were taught by their Maths teacher and took her to a better place to live her life peacefully.
So abandoned by her own family, the teacher was supported & taken care by her students whom she once taught.
This is I think the best example of Teacher-Student sacred & emotional bond and that HUMANITY is still alive.
OK I used to process payroll for a living. One day I got an envelope from the bank and inside was a notice that one of our checks had been flagged for fraud.
There was a copy of the check so I looked at it. Turns out this is one of our paychecks that was actually mailed out, rather than given out at work.
As usual, the check was made out like the following:
John Doe 1234 Any St Houston, Tx 77777
This allowed the name and address to show through a window on the envelope.
Someone had stolen the check from the guy’s mailbox. They took it and put it through a typewriter and added their own name followed by “ or” above the name on the check.
So it appeared as:
Steve Smith OR John Doe
Well… if the check had been made on a typewriter originally, that might have flown. But it was printed and the font looked nothing like a typewriter. So it was very obvious that the check had been tampered with.
What kind of idiot steals money by forging their own name on a check?
Of course, the check would never be honored by the bank, so I knew they hadn’t cashed it. Sure enough, it had been cashed at a liquor store. I called them up, and let them know they wouldn’t be getting paid for that check. They exploded on me. Told me they would be suing, etc. Sure you will…
I referred the whole thing to the police. Turns out the guy who stole the check and the guy at the liquor store who cashed the check were in cahoots. So I got two arrests for the price of one.
I was “written up” at one job by a senior manager. The comments included my failure to get a particular feature working on schedule. When I told him that I had not been assigned that task, and that my (direct) manager was doing it, the senior manager said I was just making excuses. Another complaint was that I had come in weekends to work on a feature that I thought would improve the project, instead of spending that unpaid overtime working on assigned tasks.
I was livid. I didn’t quit because I had just bought a house near the company. But I basically fell apart, and my work quality dropped dramatically.
The kicker was my re-review three months later. The same senior manager complimented me on toeing the line and doing exactly the tasks I’d been ordered to do. He rescinded the warning.
So I quit on the spot. *I* knew that my work had become substandard. It was even worse being complimented for bad work than being criticized for good work. There was no way I could have stayed at the company after that.
Moral: Don’t write up *anyone* without being really certain. Talk to them, talk to their co-workers. Find out what – if anything – is going on. Find out if they’re at fault, or if they’re being managed badly. If there’s an external issue, try to help the employee resolve it, or try to make allowances for it. But never do a writeup unless you plan to fire the person, and need to start the paper trail for that.
Trucker ELECTRICUTES SMUGGLERS with New Tool to Stop Smugglers inside
It happened some time ago when I was young and naive. I had just graduated from college and still had a modicum of that idealism and youthful exuberance that made me a particularly good mark. To be honest, I thought I knew more than I actually did and this blind spot allowed the incident to unfold.
A co-worker copied my signature and bank account information from some signed HR documents before sending them through inter-office mail and then used it to forge my name on some debit card purchases. I reported it as fraud to the bank and I was able to show that I did not actually buy the items.
About two months later, she was fired when she pulled the same trick on somebody else. The new mark had an account through the same bank that I had. A vigilant analyst noticed the same website and signature patterns from my case.
I bumped into her some months later while out in a night club with friends. She was drunk and with a friend. We joked and chatted as if nothing happened. I danced with both of them for a bit and then excused myself to leave.
As we parted ways with a hug, I told her in her ear, “I know that you stole my account information. I know that’s why you were fired.” She recoiled and turned away quickly with her friend — who was quite perplexed at her sudden change in demeanor.
Patience is the key. Crocodiles don’t go hunting. The prey comes to them.
Listening is the greatest life skill. Talking and not listening is the greatest folly.
If you don’t want other people to control your life avoid looking for a job no matter how high the pay.
Life has its irony. In school, people who succeed are those people who excel academically. In real life, people who succeed are those people who failed in school.
Don’t worry or stress yourself when you wake up each morning feeling like a failure or things are not working for you. That’s how life is designed. To feel bad when life is working for you.
The school of life is strange. People who actually succeed feel like they’re total failures. And in fact, they fail multiple times until they lose count.
Don’t hate anyone no matter how you feel about them. They have no idea that you hate them. You’re only hurting yourself.
In this life, your life is not sealed by fate. That’s the wrong way of looking at life. Your life is really like a blank cheque for you to fill with any number you decide.
We’re all born clean from debt. However, the lifestyles and paths we decide to choose puts us in all manner of debts that we will probably never recover from.
Be thankful for what you have, and don’t stress yourself about what you don’t have. Life won’t give you what you don’t have until you’re grateful for what you have.
Be the Rufus
Jack was about to fly home from New York to London when he met Violet at the gate and became her friend. Violet, an 88-year-old former nurse, was flying home after visiting her daughter, and she had never been able to afford an expensive first-class ticket. It was a dream of hers to do that someday. When it was time to board, Jack walked with Violet onto the plane, insisted that she take his first-class seat, and then went to the very back of the plane next to the restrooms, and sat in hers.
Stewardess Leah Amy found out about the switch and reported the story (these photos are hers), saying, “Jack never said a word or asked for anything. Of all the people I’ve met on hundreds of flights, including soccer players, supermodels, and movie stars, these two have been my favorite passengers.”
Baked Eggs on Toast (Jaja na Grzankach – Polish)
2024 02 21 06 24
Yield: 3 to 6 servings
Ingredients
6 slices white bread
Butter
3 tablespoons freshly-grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
6 eggs
Salt and freshly-ground pepper, to taste
Instructions
Toast the bread and butter it on both sides. Place on a baking sheet and, using the tips of your fingers, make a small depression in each piece of toast. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and chives. Carefully drop an egg onto each piece of toast and season with salt and pepper.
Bake in a preheated 400 degrees F oven for 5 to 10 minutes, until the eggs reach the desired degree of doneness.
Let me preface by saying this to add some context….
I have a rare immune system disorder called Common Variable Immunodeficiency, CVID for short. This means my body does not create antibodies and I have to get infusions every week to even have a chance of fighting infections. I essentially have no immune system so with that said, here goes:
a few years back (before they found the right medicine for my infusions) I was admitted to the hospital due to an infection of unknown nature. It was shutting my body down. My temp was 106 degrees farenheit. They decided to call in the emergency response team at 2 am and had me call my family. Things were getting worse and they were going to move me to ICU. While all of this was going on, a nurse on the team looked at me and said “you don’t look sick. You should be unconscious with everything going on with you”. One of the doctors on the team looked at him and said “This is a very critically ill patient. Although I’m not sure why she’s not presenting in worse condition, I am thankful that she is coherent enough to work with us so that we can understand how she feels… get your snarky ass out of this room. She doesn’t need that right now”.
Needless to say, he tucked his tail and ran. He did end up coming up to ICU and apologizing to me though. He said he didn’t mean it in a snarky way, he was just shocked that I wasn’t in worse shape. We sat and talked for awhile and he learned a thing or two about me and my rare condition.
My brother, Daniel, lives in Colorado. He is the only family member that I remain in contact with.
I have a couple of sisters, but they are isolationists and never respond back to me when I try to reach out. Oh well.
For the longest time, my brother and I would talk and zoom every week. But after Covid hit, it broke down and our emails and talks got to be scarce. The last big talk that I had with him was when he was worried about World War 3 between the USA and China and offered to take me in (abandoning my family in China).
I wrote a post about this.
After that our talks got shorter and shorter, and then he got sick with COVID. He spent an entire month in bed, delirious and hallucinating. Turns out he didn’t get any vaccination, and instead took “colloidal silver” that he got from the internet to get better.
I had a few zoom meetings after that. He looked good. Lost a lot of weight.
But then, the last talk I had with him was about when his dogs died. My dog; PP had died, and so I was asking him about it. Later, he was going camping over the weekend. This was in July 2022.
Hi BV,
I think your correct, dad got her in '67, and I think she passed in '78 or'79. Tara was 11 and Kimba was 14, which is a good long time for a husky.. Ashia just turned 5 last week..
Hope your well! We're going on a three day backpacking trip in a few hours. That will be some fun, Ashia will be carrying her own food so that will slow her down abit :)
DZ
And that was my last e-mail from him.
That was a year and a half ago.
I haven’t heard anything since.
He has five different email accounts and two video accounts, and he doesn’t answer any of them. Further, the twice yearly alerts of vacations, travel, and parities that would occasionally pop up in my in-box … all ended.
Sigh.
Either he is purposely blocking me, or he himself went to the big Domain in the sky.
Vaxx victim?
In Prison for some law?
Death by accident?
I did find his wife’s coffeeshop on the internet, and sent her an email. This is what she said.
Hi BV,
first of all, Dan is fine and all is well! I honestly don't know why he wasn't in touch with you. I'd ask sometimes if he'd spoken with you but I had no idea that much time had passed since you two had communicated. I don't have any huge or exciting updates....
Tomorrow (Easter) we're going to one of my sister's for dinner. Some of my family will be there, so it'll be nice. Otherwise, just plodding along.
How old is Ray Ray now? I'm thinking she must be around 5 or so...? You should send my a picture if you think of it!
I'll tell Dan he must get in touch with you. It's just dumb not to communicate with family - often we're all we've got. And I apologize for not being more proactive in that regard!
Love to all of you from Colorado,
Emily
Sad to say.
It’s a reality when you get older. As time progresses, you circle of friends and relatives get smaller and smaller.
Today…
If China invades Taiwan militarily, who will the state of Singapore support, China or Taiwan?
Firstly, and this is the much more important point — most Chinese who understand modern China know in the depth of their souls that mainland China will never invade Taiwan; the main reason being that “Chinese should not kill Chinese” (a lesson learned from the bitter Civil War between KMT and CPC).
There are more reasons
For example – the Chinese are used to thinking long-term — and mainland Chinese know that PRC is on the ascendant, and ROC is either stagnant or even declining. The day will come when the Taiwanese would be less reluctant to unite with mainland China, though likely they would still want a “one country, two systems” approach.
Secondly, almost all leaders in Singapore have always maintained that we don’t take sides — this message have come from both our PM Mr Lee Hsien Loong, and our polymath and wise man, Mr George Yeo, among others
The Man up argument
About American Bullet-train, the Brightline.
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One photo that can tell you why it’s not a real high-speed train:
See the stones under the railway tracks? Technically, it is called a ballasted track. That means this train cannot run fast enough to be called a high-speed train. Otherwise, it will become a killing train.
Well I happen to be a railway police officer.
Brother workers in the US, if someone asks you to build a second phase project for this railway, such as turning this poor railway from one pair of tracks into two, please remember that you may have accidents due to the strong sucking of Bernoulli effect or splashing stones. I don’t think the contractor will really consider your safety. When you are constructing, remember that time is not enough to observe the arrival of a fast train solely with your eyes and ears.
Also, for other Americans nearby, remember to take care of your children and keep them as far away as possible. Because even out of a few meters may not be a safe zone. See that white van far away in this photo? Not in the safe zone. Many parts of your fast train railways do not have fences. It won’t knock people into disabilities. If a person is accidentally knocked away by it, you need to shovel the body-jam up from the ground, or trees, depends. I am glad that China’s railways have fences, so most of our colleagues do not need to go through this.
Someone once asked me on Quora before, why Laos needs to build bullet trains when its economic conditions are not good enough?
Well this is the reason, the foundation made of stones means that this railway track is not suitable for running high-speed trains. If we build a regular railway, Laos will need to rebuild a route suitable for high-speed railways in the future. That will be a heavy burden for our neighbor.
Rail tracks are downward compatible, not upward. So next time, don’t believe in the scam of transforming ordinary railway lines into high-speed railway lines.
What was your most arrogant software engineering interview candidate experience?
“I am HOT SHIT!”
A year ago I interviewed a candidate for an Engineering PM role on my team; a sharp and interesting guy who grew up in New York and was grudgingly getting accustomed to life on the west coast. We needed a candidate who had a very specific set of deeply technical skills for that role and he fit the bill. He came in with glowing recommendations from some pretty senior people and had the exact experience and expertise that we needed. Basically he was an almost certain hire and I was his final round.
I didn’t want to grill him more on the technical aspects of the role since he had already proven himself in that space; I wanted to figure out what he would be like to work with on my team and what he would bring to the table there. My team is extremely close knit; it has been like a tight family for many years and we always have each others’ backs through thick and thin; we have worked quite hard to ensure that egos never get in the way.
We started off with him telling me about his journey, his passions and ambitions, his previous experiences on teams, etc, I told him about our team culture, the dynamics we share. I asked him why he wanted to join our team when clearly the whole world was open to him based on his assessment of himself.
He started to tell me how he was bored of large companies and wants to work at a small startup. He said that he only wanted this job for a year so he could add it on his resume and he would leave after that. That came across as odd, but I still decided to give him a chance since I knew the specific project we needed his expertise for would probably be done in a year so it might actually work out and give us time to change his mind.
The next words that he said had me completely baffled; “I am HOT SHIT!” he said, “You will be lucky to have me. You guys know I’m the best guy for the job. The only reason I’m here is because startups need people with 5 years of experience and I have only 4.”
I thanked him for his time, walked him to the door and went back to the interview panel and made it very clear that we would not be hiring this guy and that I would like to veto this decision; my manager heard me out and absolutely had my back on it 100%. We did not make him an offer.
There are three HUGE red flags here:
Arrogance. Someone who comes in believing and loudly announcing that they are God’s gift to mankind are not coach-able. You do not want to work with someone who is not coach-able; you always want people who will learn and grow and adapt to the needs of the team. One single arrogant member can bring toxicity to the whole team and destroy a culture and relationships that took years to forge.
Lies. I’ve worked on my own startups, lived with close friends who had startups, I’ve interviewed with startups and I’ve interviewed candidates from startups; you know what the one thing is that sets them apart from large corporations; they don’t stick to arbitrary rules. No startup(or competent hiring manager in any company for that matter) will ever pass on a great candidate just because he has one year of work experience less than what the online job description suggested. This was an extremely obvious bluff .
Commitment. When you hire someone into your team, you spend a good amount of your time coaching them, showing them the ropes, teaching them the business. It often takes 3–6 months for a new employee to become fully independent and during that time the whole team rallies together and helps set them up for success. If someone tells me that they plan to leave in a year for something new and shiny, it tells me that they are not going to put their heart and soul into this job; they will not be passionate about it and that means they won’t deliver their best results. It would also take up so much time from my whole team that the investment is not worth the returns.
Don’t let your arrogance eclipse your talent; all that remains is the shadow.
Creepy and cringe
What is the strangest complaint you have received at your job?
Some years ago while counting down the last few minutes before my shift ended in a public library, a young woman came to the information desk with an ennraged look on her face.
Lady: Can someone please tell me where the Spanish classes are? I’ve been on all the floors and no one seems to know what I’m talking about.
Me: Sorry miss but those aren’t Spanish classes. The Spanish Embassy has been having a series of public talks every Wednesday at 5 – 6 pm on the third floor discussing the Latin American economy. We simply allow them to use our conference room on the third floor.
Lady: Are you listening to what I’m saying? I left work early to come to these Spanish classes. Where are the people for the Spanish class?
Me: I’m sorry miss but we really don’t know. We simply give the Embassy access to our conference room. You might want to call the number they left on the advertisement.
Lady: So you’re saying this is your library, where you work, but you have no idea what’s going on?
Me: We know all what is going on in regards to our public services but the Embassy’s program is something external. Any complaints about the program can be addressed to the Embassy’s website.
Lady: Typical lazy government worker mentality…So you’re saying you have no knowledge of what is going on in your own building?
Me: This is actually not our building. Several government departments are housed in this building besides the library. Would you like me to call the Embassy for you?
Lady: You’ve wasted my time already. It’s already 5:30pm. I mean does it feel good to you to be getting paid for nothing? What’s the point of this library? I want to speak to your manager.
I was about to explain to her that we don’t have ‘managers’ but librarians when she whips out her cell phone and shows a screenshot of a Facebook post advertising the Embassy’s program.
Me: Miss. I’m sorry but that post shows that the program ends April 24th, which was two weeks ago…
Lady: ……so you….this is so unprofessional…..a big freaking library and you can’t call people and tell them that the Spanish class program has finished. I want to speak to the manager. This is unacceptable.
It was at this point I decided I that I no longer waste my time with this lady’s nonsensical complaint.
Bill Maher is officially PANICKING!!! He know it’s coming…
Nike announced that it does not source products from the XUAR and have confirmed with their contract suppliers that they are not using textiles or spun yarn from the region. Will this cause them to lose the Chinese market?
Those who have mainland business contacts may have been party to this conversation.
First among foreigners are the anglophones, then Italy, France, Germany, followed by the rest of the EU, then the Asian first world, the brics, and finally, the rest of the world.
American business interests in China are sacrosanct, followed by the brits, Canadians, Australians and so on, as per the order described.
Why? The Chinese understand there can be no economic interest without political power, and America is hegemonic. Helping America succeed in china is the best protection against sanctions and embargoes. The last 40 years has seen America develop a heavy consumer brand presence in China, with negligible Chinese presence stateside.
I believe the current Nike troubles framed against the illustrative example of h&m’s commercial erasure is a signal China is finally ready to weaponize this particular disparity.
China has had enough of America’s no holds barred maximum pressure strategy of confronting China, especially the attack on its domestic economy.
China is hurt. 2020’s live births is the lowest in 2 generations, 25 percent below 2016, compared to America’s 9 percent.
It is time to draw blood.
China can ask the coca cola ceo, you have 4–5 billion revenue this year. Your corporation can do 40–50 billion business each year in the future. You have supply chains all over Xinjiang. Do you observe genocide or mass incarceration in the data? If you refuse to make a statement or lie, we will burn you, and offer the Pepsi ceo your market share.
Choose.
And so on. There is no other growth story like china’s anywhere else, with the scale, stability and above all, speed. McDonald’s, for example, grew 10x faster compared to its Indian franchise.
Going forward, there will be no sacred cows among mncs in china. Trump made sure of that.
And yes, Nike can certainly lose the Chinese market if it gets erased like h&m.
It hasn’t happened… yet.
Note: The question and this answer is about China, not India.
Power projection
Men are starting to stand up in the USA.
Has someone treated you poorly until they discovered you were wealthy and/or successful?
The best one I ever heard of was from my grandfather. In order to receive a promotion at the company he worked for, he was required to attain a master’s degree. He was an engineer, of sorts, shall we say.
This was the 1960’s, and there was my grandfather sitting in a classroom with a bunch of 22 year old hotshots, while he was 50 years old. For 6 weeks, no one spoke to him, he wasn’t called on, the professor ignored him, and whatever work he did received an average grade.
One day, a singularly difficult real life engineering problem was presented in class from a local company called JPL. When none of the students could correctly answer it, the professor asked if anyone had any ideas…..
I love this part….
My grandfather raised his hand and answered it. The professor told him he was wrong. Mr. Professor then told the class the answer. Grandpa then interrupted the professor and informed him that the answer given to the class turned out to be incorrect for that particular alloy, and that the week prior my Grandpa’s team had found that with a 2% increase of cadmium, the answer was as my Grandpa said. The professor then asked Grandpa to come to the board and explain it in writing. He did. The professor then asked him who he was and what his job was.
After the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Manhattan and other projects were thusly discussed, Grandpa never sat down in that class again. Or any other. He taught the class as one who actually did these things…from Fat Man and Little Boy to the Saturn rocket booster and everything in between.
At the end of the semester, Grandpa received an “A”, and the professor informed him that he had received average grades before because his work just seemed too different than the textbook answers. The professor called a meeting of the department, and after a 60 minute interview they gave him his master’s degree and offered him an honourary doctorate if he would teach there. He declined.
Six months later, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Every July 21st for 20 years, a new offer was sent to Grandpa to receive his doctorate and teach. He wasn’t ignored any more.
Scientists Discover Most Incredible Habitable Planetary System
[You said in your interview that the Americans have no analysts on Russia left who would be familiar with our mentality, people, and culture. How can they declare us their enemies if they know nothing about our country?]
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"They have no interest in that.
The United States has lost diplomacy as a method for establishing contacts, holding candid discussions, and identifying ways to strike a compromise.
It is not necessarily about specialists in Russian, European, Asian, or African studies. I don’t see serious specialists there.
They are accustomed to making demands.
They have even stooped to rudely and publicly telling China what to do.
Reportedly, Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu had a telephone conversation with US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell. The US official said Washington was dissatisfied with Beijing supporting Moscow.
How can they say such a thing to the great power of China?
What about the reputation of the Americans themselves?
There is also a statement by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell. I can’t get enough of his quotes.
He said that the West (through Ukraine) must necessarily win. If Russia wins, no one will ever be able to rely on the United States when they need help.
You can’t help thinking about Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam, and Syria (which they will supposedly leave). They will supposedly leave Iraq too, and they have effectively fled Afghanistan.
Speaking of help provided by the United States, they have a small nation of Haiti sitting right next to them, which they have been taking care of for more than a hundred years now.
Even before the UN was created, they were nurturing dictators, toppling them, and putting in new ones.
However, the Americans are powerless when it comes to preventing thuggery, rampant theft and embezzlement of public funds in that country, which is probably the world’s poorest economy.
It would not be difficult for the United States to take a sliver of the Ukrainian pie and solve at least this problem.
Instead, they showed up at the UN Security Council again and are trying to lure in someone from Africa to ensure law and order in Haiti (the US fiefdom).
Let them first sort things out in their own backyard, or rather a small portion of it.
It is sad to acknowledge that the psychology of global dominance and retaining hegemonism at any cost has never helped the United States solve any issues on the ground."
-Excerpt from remarks by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in an interview with Izvestia Multimedia Information Centre, Moscow, March 28, 2024.
Using the grappler
Is dictatorship always wrong? Doesn’t history have any examples of good dictatorships/dictators?
There are two problems with “good” dictators:
There aren’t that many of them
They don’t live forever
When a dictator creates a political system, that system is dependent on them…and on whoever comes after them.
If the line of successors is an unbroken chain of good leaders, all is well and good. But that hasn’t happened yet to date…
As an autocratic leader, I have no doubt his achievements were great. He united Germany, introduced social legislation, and sustained a European balance of power to avoid a world war.
The problem: he made sure to write a German constitution that concentrated all that power in one place – himself. And when he got let go, his successors weren’t up to the challenge.
The economist Max Weber gave the best assessment: “Bismarck created a great nation without any political education, without any political will, accustomed to letting the great statesman at the helm take care of politics for it.”
Weber died in 1920, so that makes his assessment even more powerful.
Sort of like raising children, no?
There might be “good” dictators, but I’m not convinced any of them can create a “great nation.” Not one that lasts, anyway.
Florida is different
The Chinese Communist Party often claims that Tibet before 1959 was a dark, theocratic feudal serfdom with cruel punishments, but Tibetans abroad often deny these claims. So what was the real situation in old Tibet?
The CCP said the truth that tibet was a feudal theocratic state with serfdom and cruel punishment.
The Tibetians under the Dlamas were oppressed others were subjected to having their hands cut off. Some had experienced punishment like this one shown below:
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This led china under mao to liberate tibet in 1951 to free the Tibetians from oppression and incorporate tibet back to china. So mao did liberate tibet in 1951.
The Tibetians living abroad are denying these claims to hide the truth and they’re spreading lies ,misinformation and hearing western propaganda that tibets are being oppressed under the CCP regime which isn’t true.
Do you believe that a world free from US hegemony would be beneficial for developing countries?
Yes of course!
The U.S. is the main cause of economic crisis and poverty if the developing world! If the U.S. did not manipulated the prices of most raw materials from the developing world will appreciate in prices to several folds what it is now generations ago!
Why It Would Be Preferable To Colonize Titan Instead Of Mars
What is the most badass thing you have done as a parent for your teenage daughter?
My 15 year old daughter came home from Knott’s Berry Farm one night around midnight in tears. Someone had stolen her iPhone while she and her friends were on a ride and she was worried I would be mad.
I told her to hold on for a moment, went to my computer for Find My iPhone, and told her, “I found it. Let’s go.” She asked where and I told her, “To get your iPhone. It’s at an apartment complex in Santa Ana.”
We found the apartment building and I called the police. I brought them up to speed and they said they’d meet us at a gas station about a mile away. My daughter was starting to see some hope.
Three police cars showed up and, after I showed him where the phone was, the officer in charge said we could park down the street and watch. So we did.
It was about 2:30a and the lights were still on in the apartment for some reason.
The lead cop went upstairs and pounded on the door. A middle aged guy answered the door and the cop said a stolen phone was inside the apartment and he wanted it brought to the door (he told us later). My daughter and I heard the guy yell, “Anybody have an iPhone that doesn’t belong to you?” After a few seconds, he shook his head “no”.
The officer told us he said, “Look, I know it’s in there. So you can either bring it out, or I’ll stand here until the search warrant arrives and we’ll go in and find it ourselves.”
We saw the door close and less than a minute later the guy handed the officer my daughter’s phone. He brought it down and my daughter logged in to prove it was hers.
She couldn’t believe we actually got her phone back, but I was committed to fixing this so my daughter wouldn’t become a victim.
We got home about 4am, but neither of us was tired – LOL.
I know everything worked out in the exact way it had to for us to succeed, but it was a great lesson for my daughter about standing up for yourself and taking appropriate action. She continues to be a very empowered individual and I like to think I had a hand in that.
[NATO countries are planning to send their fighters to Ukraine. The media report that F-16 aircraft will be deployed against Russian forces and facilities in the special military operation zone. Will we be allowed to hit these targets at NATO airfields?]
"First, if they supply F-16s (they are talking about this, and it looks like they are training pilots; I believe that you realise this like no one else and better than others), this will not change the situation on the battlefield.
We will destroy their aircraft just like we are now destroying their tanks, armoured vehicles and other equipment, including multiple launch rocket systems.
Of course, we would see them as legitimate targets if they operate from the airfields of third countries, no matter where they are located.
F-16 aircraft can also carry nuclear weapons, and we will also have to heed this while organising our combat operations."
-Excerpt from remarks by Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting with army aviation pilots of the Russian Federation Defence Ministry’s 344th Centre for Combat Employment and Retraining in Torzhok, Tver Oblast, Russia, March 27, 2024.
A “you” problem
South Korea arrogantly supports the Philippines on the South China Sea issue. Why?
How rampant is Yin Xiyue’s government today? In addition to commenting on the South China Sea issue, it also began to interfere in the Taiwan Strait of China. According to recent news, South Korea’s position on the Taiwan Strait issue has become more and more outspoken, which has aggravated the tension between China and South Korea.
There are two things.
The first thing is that the South Korean side invited the Taiwan Province authorities to participate in the so-called “Leaders’ Democracy Summit”, but after being firmly opposed by the Chinese side, South Korea directly “countered” Chinese mainland’s criticism of the Taiwan Province authorities’ participation in the Democracy Summit, claiming that the event was aimed at “strengthening democracy” and “not targeting specific countries”.
At the same time, he reiterated that the “One China” policy of South Korea will remain unchanged. Secondly, the South Korean side expressed serious concern about the use of water cannons by the China Marine Police against Philippine ships some time ago, threatening that this action has aggravated the tension in the region.
Whether on the Taiwan Strait issue or the South China Sea issue, South Korea’s position deserves our high vigilance.
These two things are enough to show that Yin Xiyue’s government has changed the cautious and neutral stance that South Korea has adhered to for many years, and began to take sides and openly intervene in sensitive issues such as the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.
If South Korea still supports the “one China” policy, as it says, then why invite the Taiwan Province authorities to participate in the democracy summit? Knowing that the current situation between the two sides of the strait is tense and the relationship is subtle, it is difficult for the South Korean side to invite it at this time without letting the outside world guess that this is a disguised support.
As Lin Jian, the new spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, emphasized, there is only one China in the world, and Taiwan Province is an inalienable part of China. So, what is the intention of South Korea to invite the leaders of Taiwan Province authorities to attend the summit?
At least in my opinion, this is obviously malicious. In safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity, the PLA has always dared to take action. South Korea’s move is tantamount to stepping on the most sensitive red line of the PLA.
In this regard, the same is true on the South China Sea issue. What does the contradiction between China and the Philippines have to do with South Korea? Apart from the South China Sea issue, what does it have to do with South Korea on the Taiwan Strait issue? What’s more, it is reasonable and legal for the Philippines to illegally invade Ren’ai Reef, Huangyan Island and China to respond with water cannons, while it is ridiculous for South Korea to accuse China of doing so.
So wantonly stepping on China’s red line, is it difficult for South Korea to be warned by water cannons like the Philippines?
Yin Xiyue’s government is at the forefront of the Sino-US game, which is not only very dangerous, but also fatal. The South China Sea issue is also the same. South Korea is not a party, and forcing it to annoy will only make it pay a great price.
Wholly Cow
What was life like for German soldiers in Germany after WW2?
A lost war is a heavy burden. Some German soldiers added up to 10 years as a POW in Siberia. Many died in the camps, some died after returning home when eating their first big meal for years. Others discovered their wives had remarried and committed suicide. Those who made it back into normal life, weren’t acknowledged for what they had done, but they weren’t despised either.
Having returned from war, the former soldiers worked extremely hard and disciplined. Maybe a coping strategy to get along with what they had experienced during the war. Germany soon prospered. The “omertà”, that is, the principle of remaining silent about Nazism, was common sense until the late 60ies. The early years of the Federal Republic were characterized by strict conservatism. Everybody felt he or she had done something wrong. Nobody was interested to talk about it, knowing that some brutal guys would get away with it then.
When veterans met, they would discuss how they might have won WWII: “If I’d been in charge at the Ostfront, I’d taken all Panzers together at one point and hit the “Ivan” in the north where he least expected…”
Besides, their recipes were strikingly similar: Push harder, focus more, ignore casualties, and produce more “Wunderwaffen”. Some regarded Hitler as a visionary man, who lost WWII because “too many hounds soon catch the hare”. Most of the veterans I talked to were farmers. They made a little extra money cutting wood in the winter. And while they sat at the fireplace to warm up, they’d sing Russian songs. Stockholm syndrome came alive.
I had contact with many former Nazis.
Only a few I’ve met displayed attitudes and feelings as one would expect, that is, feelings of guilt, empathy for the victims, and anger about the lies they had been told. These “soft guys” seemed to be lucky, the war was over, and they had come out alive. Nazi times weren’t good times for them. They preferred not to be reminded of that. They would escape in some bonhomie gesture: “It’s good this is over, my boy”.
The majority of them pleaded “not guilty” when asked. “I had to follow orders, and we had an oath…” They wouldn’t talk much.
The normal soldiers were better off than former victims of the Nazis, or people who had fled into exile. Among the survivors, they were the most frustrated. Never recognized, if not despised for leaving the country in times of war, they had to witness some big former Nazis succeed and no one cared. Many intellectuals preferred not to return to Germany in the 1950ies and early 60ies. 1968, the time of the students’ uprising, was the turning point:
The younger generations asked questions about the past. The country changed a lot in the aftermath.
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(Pinterest) The typical angle of the cap was no sign of individualism
The few “hardliners” could be recognized by their gait: Faster. More dedicated. Fixing with her eyes. They really were different. They mocked democracy and everything that goes with it. Not only that, they grinned and wore their caps at a certain angle, as can be seen in photographs of Wehrmacht daredevils: an odd mixture of courage and stubbornness, as well as a willingness to immediately stand at attention when needed and instructed, and to carry out any command uncritically.
I think they promised their wives not to talk too much. But occasionally, they did. They still internally wore the “Führer’s uniform” and saw an authoritarian regime as the most effective way to run a country. They often reassembled into organizations like the firefighters, whose uniforms—and commands—were oddly similar to those of the Wehrmacht.
Post-War firefighters in their uniforms.
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And what about their attitude to Nazism?
No one I talked to, told me, he or she wanted the Nazis back. I wouldn’t put this up too high, for speaking out for the Nazis in public is prosecuted for criminal law. No law was needed to keep the Germans from going to war again. WWII seemed to have been a fundamental threat to almost everyone’s life. Nevertheless, deep in their hearts many still felt for Hitler, as you can tell from phrases like “Under Adolf this wouldn’t have happened”, e.g. when talking about how to deal with unemployment or how to make the lazy hippie guys of the 60ies and 70ies go to work. I remember some bad arguments between them and the younger generations, which often ended in yelling “Wenn’s euch nicht passt, geht doch rüber!” (“If you don’t like it here, move to East Germany!”). To me, the most shocking experience was their readiness, to lock people up in forced labor camps and “cure” misbehavior through hard, physical work. “A short trial, and then put them in front of the wall and: Ratatatatata!”
Yes, the Nazi soldiers, and their whole generation were confronted with the past by their children or grandchildren, but I cannot recall a single veteran, who in a discussion, changed sides or openly argued against the Nazis. The poison still worked. They didn’t tell us all. It was as if the Nazis had a grip on them until their last breath. They died one by one. Six of us lend a hand as we carried the coffin.
Many of us do not know what exactly grandpa had done, and yes, this is some kind of burden.
EDIT: This answer is based on my experiences during my childhood in rural, protestant Germany. The biographies of higher-ranking officers, Nazi Party leaders, doctors,, or judges were different. Many of the ex-Nazis, who launched a second career in Post War Germany, only pretended to be democrats. In reality, they cared for “former comrades” in need and heavily influenced the view on opposition to the Nazis. I have addressed these issues in different answers.
Don’t go orange
Do you have any examples of dictators that actually did their country good?
There’s quite a few. If you are from the West, some of these might shock you. If you are not, well, enjoy the ride 🙂
Number 1: Muammar Gaddafi.
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Gaddafi when he was a lot younger. Quite handsome, right?
Gaddafi is often portrayed as a bad guy, and as Ronnie put it “the mad dog of the Middle East”
But that is in fact, not true.
Let’s take a look at some of the luxuries that Libyan citizens had during his rule
1: Free electricity.
2: Free housing.
3: Free healthcare. Not only free healthcare, but the best free healthcare in Africa and the Arab world.
4: A high GDP per capita for two decades before the West started sanctioning Libya.
5: A portion of the money made from oil sales went directly into the bank accounts of Libyan citizens.
6: If healthcare in Libya was not sufficient, the state would finance the entire trip to a foreign hospital.
I could go on and on, but those are just six things.
Also this
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Libya had the highest rating on the Human Development Index in Africa while Gaddafi ruled it.
So while he might be portrayed as a bad guy, he was actually a really good leader.
Number 2: Lee Kuan Yew
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A young Lee Kuan Yew
Lee. Kuan Yew was the Prime Minister of Singapore for three decades. In those three decades, he transformed the undeveloped city state, which had no natural resources, not much land area and a small army, into a shining example of a developed country. But he did this with many challenges facing him, like the multiculturalism of Singapore. The population was a collection of Malays, Chinese, Englishmen, Frenchmen, Indonesians and many more ethnic groups.
While he did implement dictatorial measures, such as muffling the press, outlawing protests and arbitrarily detaining people, he still holds the title of “The Least Brutal Dictator in History”. He did not kill a single person during his three-decade-long rule. Torture was not implemented either.
Before he took the mantle of leader, Singapore was nothing more than a collection of plastic houses and shanties. Look at Singapore now.
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Quite the success story, isn’t it?
Number 3: Park Chung-hee
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Park Chung-hee. Slick haircut, right?
Park Chung-hee didn’t exactly come to power by democratic means. He made himself leader in a military coup. But unlike many leaders of military juntas, he was not a selfish blowhard who worked only to enrich himself. Instead, he enriched his country, South Korea.
He developed South Korea’s banking sector, business sector, and enriched the country with a policy of export-oriented industralization.
To give you some perspective, when he came to power, the GDP per capita in South Korea was a miserable 59 dollars. When his rule ended, it was 1,000 dollars.
Unfortunately, he was betrayed and assassinated in 1979, before he could do any more good to South Korea.
And as a bonus, he defended South Korea from communism.
Number 4: Qaboos bin Said al Said, or Sultan of Oman for short.
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Looking quite dashing in a military uniform there.
When he took power way back in 1970, Oman was the poorest country in the Arab world. Now, it gained the nickname of “The Switzerland of the Middle East”. All thanks to this man.
Oman, like many other Arab countries, is rich mainly due to oil exports, but added to that, Oman also has a developed banking and finance sector. Hence the nickname. Oman also serves as one big negotiating table, due to its policy of military neutrality.
In 1970, Oman had just three or four schools. Now it has over a thousand, and a few universities, the most famous one being named after him. Also in 1970, the average GDP per capita in Oman was 345 dollars. Now, it is 15,000 dollars. Qaboos still rules Oman, and continues to improve it.
While other Arab countries constantly squabble, Oman quietly sits and looks by, enjoying its wealth.
Number 5: Thomas Sankara
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Thomas Sankara. Humble military uniform.
Sankara achieved many great things during his short rule.
He ordered the planting of million upon millions of trees, in order to prevent desertification. He lowered his own salary, and rid the government of most of its corruption, which was a giant problem. He connected the country via roads, and built housing for the citizens of his country. He made it self-sufficient in farming. And he saved the country from French dominance.
He renamed the country from Upper Volta, its colonial name, to Burkina Faso. He composed the national anthem, and designed the flag of Burkina Faso.
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Unfortunately, he was killed in a military coup, which was, predictably, sponsored by the French. It installed a brutal dictator who impoverished the country and was a puppet of the French.
So, those were the top five dictators who did their country good.
EDIT: After some research, I came to the conclusion that Lee Kuan Yew had in fact not rigged elections. Even the fiercest critics of his don’t say that he did. I am sorry to spread that misinformation around. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!
I find it so hard to focus on the food
Why do men prefer women with makeup than without makeup?
They think they do. There is a style of makeup application called the “no makeup” look. It appears natural because the tones used are neutral and not bright, shiny, or flamboyant.
When I wear makeup, which is nearly everyday, I go for soft shades. I am naturally so pale white that my skin is translucent. Without a good long wear foundation on my face you can see every vein, blush, blemish, freckle, or scar. I conceal them with a matte foundation. I build on that with contour, blush, and highlight to add natural (in appearance) colors back in. It’s like painting a canvas. I follow the lines in my face and use light and shadows to hide or accentuate my features. Same with eye shadows and such.
However, there is one area where I usually without fail use bright color. My lipstick. I tend to wear a vermillion red. It’s certainly a “pop” of color. People have different reactions. Most people compliment the color. Some ladies ask me what color I’m wearing.
But I have occasionally gotten a negative response. Once, a man on a dating website told me, “If we go on a date that red lipstick has to go.” My response was that any man who told me what makeup I could or couldn’t wear before even going on a first date would not be getting a first date! He countered by saying he liked women with natural features and no makeup. I said that I did like makeup and I wished him great success finding his natural woman.
It’s not that I wouldn’t tone down the lip color if I had a husband and he didn’t care for it. I can be submissive and respectful. But he has to earn the right to have me comply with his preferences. Insisting I change myself before even getting to know me sends out a flag that might be even more red than my lipstick!
However, I have a feeling that the first time a man saw me “without makeup” and “natural faced” he’d wish I’d put it back on! I think men sometimes confuse wearing no makeup with “natural makeup.” The times I’ve gone without makeup people ask me if I’m feeling well or if I’ve been sick. They ask if I slept well the night before. It makes me inwardly chuckle. Everyone is allowed their preferences but I suggest you do what makes you feel comfortable and confident. Men will probably be more impressed with confidence than anything else, including makeup.
Real shit
What is the strangest experience you have ever had while answering your front door?
“JESUS CHRIST, WHAT HAPPENED? WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?”
The man shrieked, and backed away from the front door so fast he almost fell when he missed the first step down of the porch stairs.
It was late afternoon. Up until half an hour ago, I’d been at the hospital, having a basal cell carcinoma removed from my forehead.
I was still woozy from the anesthetic I’d been given. They’d done the surgery under some kind of “twilight sleep” anesthetic, I hadn’t been completely unconscious. When the surgeon cut out the carcinoma, they’d had it sent to the pathologist to see if the margins were clear, and while they waited, blood had been seeping from the incision. When the pathologist reported that one of the margins wasn’t “clean,” they’d had to gouge out some more, then wait again. All that time, I’d been seeping blood. I felt sticky and swollen and yucky.
My husband had gone to the drug store to get my prescription for pain pills filled.
I wasn’t feeling well; anesthetic makes me nauseous. I had bandages wound round my head. The lesion was above my right eye, and the bandage partly covered my eye. There was a lot of swelling.
As part of the surgical prep, they’d washed my face with an iodine scrub. I could feel it still on my face.
I’d been lying down when the knock on the door came.
Since our house had been burglarized years earlier, I never let a knock on the door go unanswered. I sat up, waited for the world to stop spinning, then stood up. The knock on the door was repeated.
I got up, cursing whoever was knocking, and walked to the front door and threw it open.
Whatever the guy who was knocking was expecting, I obviously wasn’t it. He looked to be in his thirties and was holding a clipboard.
He reeled back away from me, and that’s when he yelled in horror.
Pissed me off. “I had surgery this morning. What do you want?” I demanded. At that moment, I felt something warm and wet running down my face.
He stammered something about being a contractor, he was just going through the neighborhood seeing if anyone wanted work done.
About then my husband came back. I left husband to deal with the guy and went to the bathroom to wipe my face with cold water.
When I looked in the mirror, I understood why the guy had been so horrified.
My face was unevenly painted yellow-brown from the iodine scrub. There were traces of dried blood on the side of my nose and under my right eye. The bandage I was wearing had a bloodstain over the incised area, and evidently getting up had caused it to start bleeding again, because fresh blood was oozing in a line from under the bandage and rolling down my face. My hair was all spiky and glued together with blood and iodine solution.
I guess my appearance had really shaken up the guy who’d knocked on the door. My husband said the guy had hardly been able to talk and had taken off as fast as he could.
She does love jiggling her boobies
What’s the worst candidate who came to an interview?
Many years ago my partner, David, was a shop manager and was advertising for a full time shop worker. One morning this kid came into the shop in dirty jeans and t-shirt and asked about the job. David gave him an application form and told him to complete it, which the kid did straight away. David said that he was starting interviews that afternoon and arranged a time.
The interview time approached. The kid turned up on time. Still wearing the same clothes, now wet (it had been raining) and now smelling of poor body odour. Not a great beginning.
First question, what have you done? Answer “I’m just out of Borstal….” For those who do not know, this is a prison for youth offenders. He was in prison for multiple counts of shoplifting!
Why didn’t you change and look smart for the Interview? – Because I live several miles away and I did not have the bus fare to get home and back. So I hung around in town all day.
David hired him. HR was very very worried.
Years later the kid was still employed, now assistant manager. He turned out to be one of the most reliable and honest employee David had ever hired. One day he admitted that he turned to shoplifting when he was younger to get caught and taken away from his abusive father. He was safer in prison than at home.
So he was the worst looking candidate, with the worst CV, but the best employee.
Artichoke Pepper Pizza with Feta Cheese
Pizza 2
Ingredients
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 small red bell pepper, sliced
1 small orange bell pepper, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced, divided
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 large can artichoke hearts, drained
1 pizza crust
2 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
Instructions
Heat oven to 450 degrees F.
Heat oil in medium nonstick skillet over medium high heat.
Add bell pepper strips; sauté for 3 minutes.
Add half of minced garlic; sauté for 1 minute.
Remove from heat.
Place remaining garlic, mayonnaise, crushed red pepper, black pepper and artichoke hearts in a food processor and process until finely chopped.
Place pizza crust on a baking sheet.
Spread artichoke mixture over pizza crust, leaving a 1/2 inch border.
Top with bell pepper mixture.
Sprinkle with feta cheese and thyme.
Bake for 14 minutes or until crust is crisp. Cheese will not melt.
Where To Move If America Fails
Playing around with text to picture.
My prompt…
adventurer in the center of the picture, view from above , desolate, dusky sunset, many shadows, on orientalist style art depicting ancient ruins at a desert oasis, thin pool of water, exploring explorer, date trees camels, caravan, statues
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Thai girls cooking street food
Why did my top performing employee quit after write up?
I have quit three jobs in my lifetime. All three were after being written up. Its a matter of honor. I performed my jobs to the best of my abilities. I always gave 110%. So getting bullshit writeups really piss me off. The first time was by the owner’s son. He basically told me my level of quality was too high for the company. I quit on the spot. The second time I was instructed to do a job but not record it in the proper forms (military contractor). It would have been an unsafe act. I refused to do the job. I was written up for not obeying orders. Put my two week notice in an hour later. My last time was after briefing a supervisor of the company’s capabilities and then the supervisor deciding to go over what we were capable of performing. After he finished chewing me out, I handed him my keys and quit on the spot. Thirty days later I was rehired and promoted after being told my supervisor was fired. Perhaps it was my 20 years in the military that pushed me to personify the need for honor in my work ethic.
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The Passport Bros movement was inevitable…
Have you ever had something stolen, only to have it returned (anonymously or not) much later?
In 1998, I had left my wallet on a table in a restaurant in San Francisco, and when I came back for it, it was gone.
I called my credit card company to report it. Apparently the thieves were professional, or just very well organized, because it had already incurred two separate charges for fuel at a gas station. My bank rightly saw this as suspicious — who fills up two gas tanks at once? — and blocked the card from further use.
I only had one credit card (still do), and though that was safe, but I really didn’t want to go through the hassle of replacing everything else — my driver’s license, gym card, company badge, blood donor ID, buy 10 coffees-get the 11th free punch card.
The guy at the credit card company said thieves will often toss the rest of the wallet in the garbage, or the bushes in the immediate vicinity, so I headed down to the gas station and asked to look through their trash. No wallet. I checked out the greenery around the place, nothing.
So I sucked it up. Replaced all the cards except for the one from the coffeeshop, and vowed to be more careful in the future.
The one thing I was bummed about was the loss of the wallet itself. It was made out of Tyvek, printed with some comic-book graphics. It was a really cool wallet, and it was also very light. I’d purchased it at a crafts fair, and replacing it wasn’t an option.
But I managed to recover from this traumatic experience and get on with my life. 🙂
I spent a few more years in San Francisco, then moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, then Somerville, then Medford, and in 2004, Seattle. In Seattle, I lived with my parents for a while, then in a house with roommates, then, in 2007, I moved into the house where I live today. That’s seven addresses in six years across 3500 miles and back again.
A lot of mail didn’t get forwarded, I would imagine. But one persistent little package managed to make it. I found it in my mailbox, covered with yellow “mail forward” stickers.
It was my wallet! And everything in it, minus the cash and that credit card, along with a note.
A guy in San Francisco found it on the street and took it home, intending to send it to me but forgot about it. Only when he was getting ready to move out did he find it. He sent it to the San Francisco address on my license, and it got forwarded to Cambridge, Somerville, Medford, BACK to San Francisco, then to Seattle, where it was delivered to my roommates’ old house (which had all-new renters who didn’t know me) and finally, to my house.
I don’t have the wallet anymore. After six years, it wasn’t my style anymore. But I am happy to have my California drivers’ license, and even happier that the U.S. Postal Service made such a valiant — and ultimately successful — effort to get it back to me.
Asparagus Pizza
Pizza 1
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds asparagus
8 large mushrooms
1/3 cup chopped shallots
2 garlic cloves chopped
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons cold water
Instructions
Mix butter flour and salt until the flour resembles peas, add water and mix until you have a rollable dough.
Place on floured surface and roll out to 1/8 inch thick and in a circle.
Heat the oven to 400 degrees F and place either a pizza stone or cookie sheet upside down in oven.
Place dough on a board that you can slide it off from into the oven and have a little cornmeal under the dough to help make it slide better. Turn the edges of the dough in about 1/4 inch and crimp at intervals to make a nice ruffly edge to your pizza, it will get crusty.
Cover the dough with the cheese and set aside.
Trim the asparagus and blanch it for 3 minutes in boiling water in a shallow pan.
Remove from pan and quickly dip in cold water to stop cooking process. Pat dry with paper towels and place in a pinwheel fashion around pizza dough with the stems meeting in the center and making a mound, sprinkle with a little salt and pepper and slide into the oven on hot surface of pizza stone or cookie sheet and bake for about 25 minutes or until crust is golden brown.
Remove from oven and cut into serving size pieces.
While pizza is baking slice mushrooms and place a small amount of olive oil in skillet and add shallots and garlic cook for about 3 or 4 minutes and add mushrooms. Cook for about 5 minutes.
Add just about 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and stir; remove from heat. Spoon a little on each slice of pizza and serve.
Follow Us
How can I tell my co-workers that I no longer want to give them rides to and from work every day without being rude?
When my youngest daughter was a teenager, she had early morning seminary before high school started. She had to be there at 6:30 or seven in the morning. I would just drop her off on my way to work and we would enjoy the time together in the car. Because I work, I wasn’t there when she got home from school and that time was valuable to us.
A woman in our church had just had a baby. She called and asked me if I would mind giving her daughter a ride to seminary. It wasn’t really out of my way so I told her I would be happy to do so. Every morning, her daughter got in the car and never said a word. When I dropped her off, she never even said thank you.
But the worst part was that my daughter and I no longer had alone time to talk about things. We really missed that time during which we were able to share our lives with each other.
Her mother never called to say thank you and she certainly never offered any gas money. And I had to deal with their surly and rude daughter every morning. Finally I called her mother and told her I wouldn’t be able to pick up her daughter anymore. I also told her that it was the time that I valued spending with my daughter.
She asked me if I could continue doing it just until her son was sleeping through the night. Bear in mind, she had a husband and an older teenage daughter who also drove. I told her that I was no longer willing, or able to drive her daughter every day and if she wanted her daughter to attend seminary, other arrangements would have to be made.
And that was the end of that. When I saw her at church after that, she was cold to me. I really didn’t give a damn. Her family choices were not my problem.
Buy a new house
Why China have a chance to became a next superpower?
That is your superiority complex version. The reality version is that China is already way ahead of the U.S. from every aspect. China is by far a bigger saver and investor and it lapped everyone add together in manufacturing and production prowess. It trains and graduates more engineers and scientist a year than the U.S. has in entirety.
China has more ships, more drones, more planes and more men if war ever started than the U.S. ever has. And worst it has the capacity to build more a month an the U.S. could in a whole year! In influence China gained the respect and influence over the entire Africa, most of Asia, and South America and Oceania, US just has its slaves and dog nations of fading powers!
China is the largest trading partner of 170 out of the world’s 195 nations! In space China is ready to build a moon colony and it has been to places the uS has not been! Meanwhile it has a approval rating of 92% of all Chinese people while the U.S. has less than 30% of its people supporting what they do!
Is American democracy malfunctioning?
Yes. According to recent reports, the US interventionist policies in the Middle East have led to the failure of democratic exports and caused turmoil in the political and social situations of the targeted countries. US intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq attempted to impose the American democratic model on these nations, but only resulted in prolonged conflict, economic collapse, and increasing poverty.
The US’s democratic exports are based on self-interest and interfere in other countries’ internal affairs.
To illustrate this point, we can take Afghanistan as an example. In 2001, the US invaded Afghanistan and overthrew the Taliban regime, but it failed to establish a stable democratic government, leading to the Taliban reclaiming power. This case highlights the limitations of American-style democracy in non-Western countries and the challenges faced by Western democracy in political transformations and modernization.
Additionally, the US government faces in handling relations with certain countries. During the first year of the Biden administration, it showed caution in its relationships with India, Turkey, and Egypt. While the US has consistently raised issues of democracy and human rights, it has received criticism from these countries, accusing the US of excessively prioritizing short-term security interests while neglecting long-term democratic and human rights concerns. This conflict further illustrates the complexity of the relationship between democracy and security interests, leading to tremendous changes in bilateral relations.
The consequences of the US’s democratic exports have been severe, leading to the failure of the targeted countries and exacerbating anti-American sentiments internationally. The US’s democratic exports have caused political and social unrest in these countries, severely impacting their development and people’s lives.
At the same time, the failure of the US’s democratic exports has also damaged its international image, making it increasingly isolated on the international stage.
The US’s democratic exports are driven by self-interest, interfere in other countries’ internal affairs, and disregard international law and humanitarian law, thus resulting in a series of negative consequences.
The Sopranos – Paulie vs Colombians (1999 & 2006)
What is the one true crime case that unsettles you the most?
Hi-Fi murders.
Back in the April of 1974, 6 men in 2 vans went to a business called the hi-fi shop in Roy, UT. This is an audio store and the men had planned on robbing them. 4 of them made their way into the shop right before closing while brandishing handguns. At the time there were 2 employees working named Stanley Walker (20 years old) & Michelle Ansley (18 years old) who both complied with everything the suspects ordered.
Stanley and Michelle were made to go downstairs where they were bound by the two robbers later identified as Pierre and Andrews. Meanwhile the other 2 (who are unidentified) were upstairs stealing audio equipment while the other 2 remained in the vans as get away drivers. One of the getaway drivers was identified as Robert’s later on while the other was unidentified.
Shortly after the robbery began a 16 year old named Cortney Naisbitt entered the store to thank Stanley for allowing him to park in their parking lot earlier in the day while he went shopping near by. Upon entering he was met by the 2 robbers that were upstairs. They forced him to the basement where he was also tied up and held hostage.
Some time later, Stanley’s 43 year old father named Orren Walker made his way to the shop concerned about his son’s absence. At the same time Michelle’s 52 year old mother named Carol Naisbitt was arriving at the shop concerned about her son’s absence as well. Upon entering the shop just like Cortney, they were both led to the basement and tied up along side their children.
GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS AND UPSETTING DETAILS BELOW PROCEED WITH CAUTION.
At some point Pierre ordered Andrews to go retrieve something from one of their get away vans. Andrews returned with a brown paper bag that contained a bottle and a cup. Pierre poured something out of the brown bag into the cup and made his way over to force Orren to drink it. Orren refused so he was gagged and laid face down on the floor.
Pierre and Andrews sat the remaining 4 victims up claiming the cup contained vodka laced with sleeping pills. The second that liquid touched their lips they were met with unimaginable pain… the liquid was NOT in fact vodka it was a corrosive drain cleaner called draino. Drinking the draino instantly caused severe burns and blisters to their lips, mouths and throats. They forced all 4 of the hostages to drink the draino. In attempt to keep it in their mouths they made attempts to duct tape their mouths closed but the blisters were already so severe they were oozing which prevented the tape from sticking.
Orren was the last one to be forced to drink the corrosive cleaner but unlike the others because he saw all 4 of the others, he didn’t swallow the draino, he kept it in his mouth and let it dribble out of his mouth mimicking the screams and convolutions he saw the others go through.
Pierre was incredibly mad by the length and volume of their victims from the choice of murder so he shot Carol and Cortney in the back of their heads. Carol was killed instantly but Cortney survived with major wounds. Pierre then fired at Orren but missed. Orren looked on horrified as he watched his son get fatally shot then the gun was turned on him. The bullet grazed the back of Orrens head but he was still alive.
Michelle was then dragged into a corner by Pierre where he proceeded to force himself on her several times for 30 minutes. She was then fatally shot in the back of the head.
Andrews and Pierre still knew Orren was alive. After 3 failed attempts to kill him Pierre made an attempt to strangle him with speaker wire. This attempt yet again fails to kill him. Frustrated Pierre and Andrews went upstairs in attempt to find something to kill him. This is where they found a ball point pen. They placed this pen in his ear and then stomped on it. The pen went through his head and out his throat.
Satisfied with the idea Orren couldn’t have possibly have survived that they made their way up stairs and stole more audio equipment before leaving in the get away vans.
Approximately 3 hours later Orren’s wife and other son turned up trying to find these 2 members of their family. Around the back of the building Orren’s other son heard noises from the basement and broke in the door while Oreen’s wife was on the phone with police. Entering the basement, they stumbled across the gruesome scene.
Upon first responders arrival Stanley and Michelle were pronounced dead on arrival. Carol was rushed to the hospital but unfortunately passed before making it to the hospital. Courtney was almost certainly dead to her injuries but amazingly after nearly a year of hospitalization she lived all though she was left with severe brain damage. Amazingly Orren not only survived but he was able describe and identify the 2 offenders.
Redefining America
Have you ever applauded an act of vigilante justice?
Yes. My Dad delivered some vigilante justice when I was 13. Dad was a large, gentle man. He was 6’4” and extremely muscular. He was born in 1917 and started working in the family coal mine at 4. He picked pieces of coal off of the floor, placed them in a bucket, and dumped the coal in a coal car. He continued to do hard physical labor for the rest of his life.
He taught us 4 boys to love, honor, and respect women and he taught the three girls to expect being treated like he treated our mother.
We lived in a small town in rural Wyoming. The neighbor kitty cornered from us was the opposite of my Dad. The weasel would get drunk and beat his wife and daughter.,
We were working in the yard one summer day when we heard a scream. Weasel’s wife ran out of the house with him right behind her. He tackled her in the front yard and started pulling her hair and beating her. Dad dropped his rake, said, “that’s enough”, and ran over there. He yanked Mr. Weasel off of his wife and beat the crap out of him.
About an hour later, Mr. Weasel crawled back into the house. An hour or so later, he got in his pickup and drove away. We never saw him again.
More fun with Text to picture.
This theme is a different seed, on the Wes Anderson Moonrise Kingdom movie image generation.
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Until you are in a situation…
What did someone do in TSA/airport security that made you say “You gotta be kidding me”?
My wife required a cane to walk. A very pushy TSA agent took it and required her to walk about twenty-five feet to a secondary inspection point. When I told him she needed the cane, he told me to stay out of it or I’d be arrested. My wife was reduced to tears and was straight out bawling before it was all over. It was a horrible way to start our vacation.
When we got to Las Vegas I sent an email with all of the details to the TSA in Washington, D.C. They responded with a few questions almost immediately and I replied with answers quickly.
The following day I got an email from the head TSA agent in Minneapolis. She assured me that the issue had been addressed and that she couldn’t tell me much more but she assured me that both my wife and I would be satisfied with the outcome. I took this to mean the officer had been terminated. I suspect that this had been the final straw that broke the camel’s back.
Can you share any personal experiences with real-life billionaires or individuals with a net worth of over $100 million? How do they behave around those who are not wealthy?
I know four people well enough socially, who are over 100 mil in net worth. No billionaires in USD terms.
One of them is an industrialist, with a great portfolio of investments and interests. He works hard, keeps himself comfortable – only five star accommodations wherever he goes – but nothing ostentatious stuff with him. Known him since college. Great fun chap. No difference in the way he treats one person vs another. Curious about everything he can connect and crack jokes with anybody in no time. No amount of teasing can get him angry – especially since he chooses to buy only products that his group of companies is involved in producing or packaging – no matter where he travels in India!
Another owns a fleet of planes and flies – all private jets. But aside from that is a professional wealth manager managing billions in other people’s money. Smart investment specialist. He is flamboyant, but in a very private circle. Talks about planes about 95% of the time! That’s his true love. Also down to earth, but doesn’t have time for any “small” talk. Dedicated to his work and his freaking planes. Flies way too much for the environmentalists!
Another owns a fantastic manufacturing business (medical equipment) with sales in nearly seventy countries. Very well connected and respectful of real people, no matter what. Treats everybody just the same. Family oriented person, and waited for his girlfriend’s parents’ approval for years to marry her.
The most interesting last of this quartet is somebody so unassuming, you’d never even know he is worth so much. Big time trading and stock market player. Low profile to the point of being invisible. Pious, religious, spiritual – I have never seen him with other rich people! Took me about a year to know he was worth that much. Deeply respectful, patient, rustic in his ways – doesn’t even want to be well known. Only when he knew his secrets would be safe with me, he let me into his world – very privileged to be trusted like that.
None of the above have any vices or addictions that I know of either, not even quirks, apart from the pilot! Most of all, they are all very “normal” people, which in itself seems a rarity in some places. Invariably respectful to others is a common quality I would say.
Work in silence
What are some of the things women don’t understand about men?
Men don’t use subtexts. They say what they mean. No beating about the bush.
They often don’t understand subtexts. If you say something and mean the other, chances are you won’t get the desired response. Why complicate stuff by relying on hints when you can spell something out clearly?
They don’t like to rehash their issues unnecessarily. And if they do, it’s with the express intent of finding a solution. Aimless thrashing of the matter is just a waste of energy for them. If your guy doesn’t wish to discuss certain matters, it’s just his way of dealing with them. Hounding him for that will just add to his woes.
Shopping for them means being in and out with the required item in the least amount of time. Window shopping and browsing are not their cup of tea. And if they do so, it’s only for you.
They can’t handle your tears. What pains you hurts them as well. They may not be able to articulate it but it is traumatic for them too.
Their non-verbal expressions pack a world of emotions. Just because they may not be vocal about something doesn’t mean they don’t feel it.
They are tough. They act tough. But they need tender loving support too.
Generalisations that hurt women hurt men as well. “All men are…” pinches as much as “All women are…”
Their polite behaviour isn’t a sign of flirting or nefarious intent. They don’t deserve to be viewed with mistrust always!
They have a unique bond with their guy pals. Their demeanour and persona is different with them. Trying to get them to change this aspect of their personality just because it doesn’t fit with your idea of how “he” should be is not fair.
They can have gal pals who are just that… pals. This shouldn’t be a basis for constant doubting and questioning.
Closeness is as precious as space.
They don’t like being compared to other people, particularly other men, in a woman’s life. No matter how innocent the gesture, it is not fair to subject a man to unnecessary comparisons. They don’t need to be measured against others to be told how they are.
Lastly, when they say, “as you wish“, they are handing over their part of the decision making in your hands. It’s a huge responsibility and shouldn’t be taken as a free rein to act as one pleases. Judiciousness should be the guiding factor.
These are just my observations and may not be correct completely. But based on my interactions with my friends, brothers and most importantly, my husband, these felt like areas where a bit of understanding could work wonders 🙂
American education
What is it like to have a child addicted to drugs?
Having a child addicted to drugs is a horror story that never ends. My oldest son is 37 years old. He became an addict when he was 12 years old. I’ve been at his funeral 25 years. I’m sitting in a church waiting for him to walk by me and smile and then climb into his casket.
Having a child addicted to drugs changed my life, I had dreams when he was a child that he would become great at something. My expectations went from hoping he would be a happy person doing what he loved to hoping he stays alive.
Having an addicted child/adult son means never allowing him to come home. I can’t buy him anything because he’ll sell anything for drugs. He’s sold blankets and sleeping bags I gave him to stay warm in the cold. I can never give him money. I buy lunch for him and watch him eat it.
My son knows my love for him is unconditional. I don’t approve of the choices he’s made but it’s his life.
My son has to want to climb out of the hole he’s in. I’ve shown him how to do it and led him to the “well.” He alone has to drink from it. He has to want to live a life of clarity.
I believe in miracles. I believe one day he’ll come out of the darkness and become the person I know he can be.
My hope is that I’ll be alive to see it.
What bad experience had you saying “I will never buy from that company or use their service ever again”?
The Brick.
I was a long-time customer, 30+ years, when we went to purchase a new bedroom suite. As my wife was getting what she wanted, I started looking at TV’s. I found a 51″ that I liked, so we bought that as well. Since it was a display model I also bought the extended warranty.
Well, within 6 months, the TV quit working. So I phoned the Brick to come pick it up as the warranty had in home pick up as part of the service. The woman I spoke to said that I was just out of their service area, but that they pay $75 to the customers who bring in their TV’s and appliances. Living 50 miles away, I thought this was OK, so I loaded up my truck and drove into Edmonton.
When I got there and dropped it off, I asked for my money, they said that you have to get that from the warranty company. Needless to say, I was pissed, and went home.
Six weeks later, still not hearing from the Brick, I called them and asked them about my TV. Oh, they said, it was ready the next day. Well why don’t you drop it off then I asked? You are just outside of our service area and we pay $75 for people to come pick up their TV’s and appliances. So I drove in to get my TV and asked where’s my $75? I was told that I have to get it from the warranty company.
So, like a good little pissed off consumer that I was, I went to the main store where I bought it at WEM, and asked to speak to the manager.
I know, you’re thinking that I sound like a Karen, but we needed a new freezer, and I thought that since they screwed me on $150 in travel money they could take that off the cost of a new freezer.
Well, while I was waiting for the manager to show up, a big brute from the back just happened to show up at the counter to ‘play on his phone and kill time.’ Did they think that I was going to fight the manager? Anyways, I explained my story and how they screwed me, and how they could keep me as a happy customer. All they had to do was take off the money from the price of the freezer. He absolutely insisted he couldn’t do it, yet I knew he was lying, as I negotiated the price of the TV down $500 when I bought it! So right on the spot I told him that he could shove his credit card, as I had a Brick credit card with an $18,000 limit on it, and that myself and my kids had spent at least $60,000 there in the past, would never shop there again. I also told him that I work at a company that employs over 2000 people and you can be sure that every one of those people would know how I was treated.
And I have never been back there, or to Leons, which is owned by the Brick.
Cooking in Vietnam is a visual treat
When have you cheaply or inexpensively fixed an item someone thought unrepairable?
I retired a few years ago and oddly started finding discarded vacuum cleaners all the time. Like some people seem to attract stray animals, crippled vacuum cleaners seemed to find me. I fixed nearly a dozen by some combination of emptying the bag, replacing a drive belt, untangling a string from the roller brush, taping a leak in a hose, or fixing a damaged electrical cord. On average, it took me about 10 minutes to “repair” them.
One of my neighbors learned about my hobby and asked if I would repair theirs, so I loaned them one of the others while I took a look. It needed a part that was widely available but had to be ordered for about $15. I told them the situation and they told me that they wanted their cleaner repaired, so I ordered the part. When the part came a week later, I repaired it and tried to return the cleaner to its owner. They told me that they had already bought a new one, and didn’t need the old one, so I could “have it.” No mention of the money I had spent for the part. We didn’t talk much for awhile after that.
Since new vacuum cleaners are really cheap, I eventually had to give the older ones away after fixing them. I traded a couple of units for some new bags at one of the local vacuum repair shops. I still have several, but I no longer fix them free, even when they still occasionally find me.
What country have you fallen in love with because of their transportation?
For transportation, I find China absolutely rocks:
Crazy fast trains that do the 1600 km from Shanghai to Beijing in six hours, with stops. And they’ll do it for 50 US$.
Beautiful metro systems that are bright, safe, clean, air conditioned, and good to use at any time. The cost is negligeable, and these things go everywhere.
Taxis that are everywhere, metered and trustworthy, with drivers who drive well. Need one? Just wave at the next one approaching and get in. Affordable, too. You don’t need your own car in Shanghai or Beijing.
Maglev! The magnetic, levitating train from Shanghai Airport to town. I take it every time I’m there. Does 70 km in 12 minutes.
Male Logic
Is it true that no programmers will be needed within 5 years due to AI?
Lol. No.
The below image was made by an AI:
main qimg 86d3b8d2f7775c4461bc230e92612989
Looks neat?
Now look again at the stair case.
You really want that sort of bloopers in your software? Oh and a window for rainy days might be nice as well.
Or this one…
main qimg 7f8b376ebcb33e275c1840808882d3e0
Here, the stair case isn’t too bad (except the very top and bottom), but cooking in that kitchen will be tricky…
main qimg b24357afd49c116793c693c7a662e3bb
I could post many more, but I trust the point is clear?
Are nuclear power plants safe?
Nuclear power is inherently unsafe, but.
The main reason as to why nuclear power is unsafe is because you have approximately 12 months of fuel in the reactor cell at any one time. Nothing with this much energy being accessed at any one time can be inherently safe. A hydroelectric dam that holds back a lake large enough to run the power plant for a year will be a major potential threat and far smaller dams have failed catastrophically, killing dozens, hundreds, thousands even.
Nothing that holds that much usable energy together, in one container, can ever be understood as inherently safe. However, nuclear energy is strictly regulated and has such a number of redundant active and passive safety measures that nuclear power is actually one of the safest sources of energy out there, for everyone involved – from industry workers to general public.
This is akin to aviation. Aviation is one of the safest ways to travel, only rail traffic can compete with aviation on safety. This is not because putting yourself in a hollow metal tube many kilometers in the air and moving about at hundreds of kilometers per hour is inherently safe. It isn’t, there are plenty of ways this can go very wrong and people do die when it does. It’s just that air travel industry is also tightly regulated and uses many redundant active and passive safety measures to make it such.
Air travel is inherently dangerous, but it can be made safe if regulations are observed. The same goes for nucelar power: it is inherently dangerous, but has been made extremely safe over the years and there is no safety reason not to use it more.
Men are suffering
Nora Vincent.
Why can’t we find a way without China? We literally hate everything about them and China’s silence is practically guilt. Why can’t anyone just try to find the way around/without China?
Well, I’m afraid you are completely and totally deluded. Most of the world is behind China. Only ignorant bigots like you hate China.
Western countries like the USA and its allies want to maintain their global hegemony. China’s rise threatens this hegemony. It’s as simple as that.
They’re jealous and fearful of China’s rise. Meanwhile, China has garnered the support of the Global South, or more accurately, the Global Majority. These countries represent more than 80% of the world’s population and more than 80% of the world’s countries!
Why so much support? Four main reasons:
China has fought no wars in the last 45 years. No other world power has ever been so peaceful for so long.
China helps other countries with their infrastructure and economy through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It also leads BRICS, which is unifying the Global South.
China is the largest trading partner with over 120 nations. They all benefit enormously from trading with China.
China respects all nations and does not interfere in their politics. China sanctions nobody. China overthrows no foreign government.
We’re living in corporate dystopia and Gen Z is reacting accordingly
Arkansas is in the “Bible Belt” of the United States. And because of this, everything is heavily influenced by religion. Mostly “Southern baptist”. Which tends to be rather strict and fundamental.
One of the aspects of this influence is something known as “dry counties”.
These are regions in the state where the purchase of alcohol is against the law. So that people living in those areas must dive elsewhere to buy their booze, cart it home. Store it and then drink it in such a way that it does not run out. It’s a core characteristics of “the Southern way of life” that you hear so much about in American Country and Western music.
Anyways, where I lived in Arkansas, was a “dry county”.
And sure as shit, we would have to make an “alcohol run” before the stores closed on the weekends. And Lordy! Was it always a madhouse. Car jams. Packing lines. Carts full of booze. People jostling and pushing. Everyone in a rush.
Yup.
The American Way of Life.
I’ll tell you what!
Some things about the United States are so ridiculous that it’s not even worth commenting on. Except to say, that I am glad that I live in China where booze is cheap, plentiful and accessible by anyone, at any time.
While there is no threat to Japan from any quarter, the US keeps troops in Japan to:
Maintain Japan as a pliant vassal state.
Control the region around Japan with its vast military complexes. The US has more bases in Japan than any country outside the US itself.
Japan subsidies US forces and makes it easier for the US to maintain an overall large military since Japan pays large sums to the US for the privilege of hosting massive US troops and equipment. If those troops went home the US would have to pay 100% of the costs of maintaining them.
South Korea faces a real threat from North Korea. The 35,000 US combat troops in RSK are meant to provide a deterence to DPRK. In a real war the US would likely lose these 35,000 troops, which would drag the US into its next quagmire.
Secondary objectives to the US maintaining troops in SK are the same as in Japan, however US bases in Japan are not under any threat and are far more extensive than in RSK, which makes Japan much more important to the US than RSK.
I believe one of the primary reasons the US has become addicted to operating more than 800 bases around the world is that in many of the large ones, the host country pays for some if not the majority of the costs of that base. This defrays direct costs of maintaining its own military for the US while keeping the US military at an overly large scale relative to its growing inability to afford such size and scale.
If you can park your car in downtown Manhattan in someone else’s garage for free (with a promise that if someone in his family gets injured you’ll drive them in the car to the hospital), and that guy is going to pay for all the maintenance of that vehicle, while you still get to drive it anytime you want and he isn’t allowed to use it, you’re going to park your cars there for a very, very long time.
Jonas‘ answer is spot on on a cultural level, but IME, there are also often some more mundane/practical considerations involved.
It buys us time. I used to work solo for years. In one joint, we used to have baskets of bread and little bowls of homemade dips available for the waiters to just grab and hand out. If someone ordered food and I was swamped with orders, that would simply keep the guests happy until I got around / was able to free up a burner on the stove to make their starters or entrees…
It is one more element a really skilled waiter can employ to time orders etc. I’ve seen good waiters ‘stall’ for half an hour and more from the point the guests were seated with menus, drink orders, drinks, food orders, cutlery, bread and butter etc. without the guests even noticing they were being strung along while the kitchen and / or back office recovered from some minor catastrophe or just cleared a backlog of orders…
In places that are not dedicated restaurants, it sets ‘the mood’ for ordering something to eat. You might have come in just for a glass of wine or two, but when that cute little basket of fresh bread with a little bit of good butter or some nice dip, a napkin and a set of silverware arrives unasked along with the menu, you might just realize you could do with a nice bite to eat… This may sound far-fetched, but I’ve seen it work (on myself as a guest and on guests in places I worked at) often enough to not dismiss it.
I don’t know why, but the Chinese captured POWs in Korea from 15 countries, and only the American GI’s knelt and surrendered to the Chinese, just like they knelt when they were captured in Iranian territorial waters. Is it because the Yanks have particularly soft knees? Can anyone tell me why?
image 166
American and British are not defending Taiwan, but they want to invade China, and the Chinese are certainly capable of defeating the invaders and letting them die in the sea and become food for sea fish. The Pacific Ocean’s marine fish will feast, and then we’ll sell our catch to the Yanks and bring their souls back to the U.S. so they don’t pollute the environment in China’s territorial waters. 😁
2300 heavily armed US soldiers have been killed fighting Afghan shepherds. 2300 Yank kids become corpses in coffins. There are no corpses in naval battles, they can only be fed to the sea fish.
image 165
With the exception of the Americans and the British, everyone in the world has been educated to know that the Taiwan question is a legacy of the Chinese civil war, an internal affair of China and a domestic affair of the Chinese.
Biden did not tell the US citizens that he wanted to invade China, only “to defend Taiwan”.
So, I ask, how does the US plan on doing that? with some sort of video game competition?
I mean, in order to “defend Taiwan”, you have to have military troops pertorming military actions, aka combat inside of China – And that’s because Taiwan is in China.
So currently America has soldiers in Taiwan, which is either illegal, or at the very least gray area because that’s part of China. And the government of China doesn’t approve of that and hasn’t allowed it. So that’s the current status.
If US start performing miltary action, that’s an effort to militarily conquer at least China or push them back inside of China. That‘s called an invasion.’
Sorry, everybody, if you don’t agree with this definition, but that’s what it is.
So US is yet again contirming that it will invade China if China attempts to continue its reunification by using military action.
I’d like to advise the US to listen to a well-known Chinese song with these lyrics: “For our friends, we have fine wine. For jackals or wolves, we welcome with shotguns.”
OOOOHHHH!!!! This one is legend! It didn’t happen at my employer, but one nearby. (I worked for a bit just a city block, or two, up the street.) Here’s the basics:
Control Data Corporation (CDC) was on the rocks in the early ‘80s. They started laying folks off. But they didn’t do it publicly. Instead they “Disappeared” them. Here’s how it worked:
An employee was instructed to keep quiet about the fact that he’d been transferred to the Roseville, Mn. Plant across town.
He (it was mostly a he in those days) was to pack up his gear & personal stuff late Friday afternoon & the box(es) would be picked up & transferred over the weekend to his new job site.
He was then given an address at the new plant where he was to report first thing Monday Morning.
The next Monday he showed up, was escorted into a room with a table, a chair, a guard, and an HR person.
The HR person gave him his walking papers & allowed him to sort out & collect his private stuff from the box(es).
He was then escorted out the door to the parking lot.
Chopped Meat Pies (Pitta Me Kima)
Pitta Me Kima
Ingredients
2 pounds chopped lamb
1/2 cup butter
2 onions, chopped
1 1/4 pounds tomatoes, peeled or 1 tablespoon tomato paste with 1 cup water
1 piece stick cinnamon
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
2 slices toast
2 cups milk
1 cup parmesan cheese, grated
5 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 pound phyllo
Instructions
Brown meat, half the butter, and onions in large pot, stirring with a wooden spoon to break up meat. Add tomatoes (or diluted tomato paste) cinnamon, parsley, salt and pepper. Simmer until all liquid is absorbed (about 30 minutes).
Meanwhile, soak toast in milk, then mash with fork. Remove cinnamon stick and add milk-toast mixture to the meat, remove from the heat. Add cheese and eggs, and mix well.
Melt remaining butter. Butter a pan about. 2 inches smaller than the phyllo. Put 7 to 8 phyllo sheets, buttering each before adding it, into the pan, letting phyllo extend on all sides. Pour in meat mixture and spread it evenly. Fold overlapping phyllo back onto meat. Butter these well. Carefully cut remaining sheets of phyllo to fit the top of the pan. Brush each with butter and lay on the filling to make the top of the pita. Pour on any remaining butter and sprinkle the top very lightly with a little water (to keep phyllo from rising too high).
Bake in preheated 350 degrees F oven for 30 to 40 minutes.
Cool for about 30 minutes, and cut into squares to serve.
It is easier to cut this if you score it lightly before baking.
This isn’t my story, but that of a very good friend who I had as a roommate a long time ago.
Geoff was a car salesman for many years. One night he came home and told me the story of his big sale that day. A man had driven into the parking lot in a beat-up pickup truck, one bumper tied in place with baling wire, rust all over it and a cracked windshield. He and his wife emerged from the vehicle and started walking around the show lot looking at cars and drifting towards the trucks. The man was very large, Geoff estimated 6′5″ and 280 lbs and wearing bib overalls, a plaid flannel shirt, well worn boots, and a John Deere baseball cap. All of his clothing was showing age, dirt, and stains. His wife was very plain and wearing similarly worn clothing, but neat and she almost never stopped smiling.
They walked around for about 15 minutes as the salesmen watched them from the showroom. All of these guys were triple-A personalities who were like sharks as salesmen and normally would have been fighting or drawing straws as to who got the next customer. Nobody wanted to go talk to these people, the very definition of hayseed goobers with big eyes but no money and they clearly had nothing to offer as a trade in. Geoff had just finished up showing a customer a few cars and writing up prices and a trade-in offer and was irritated that the others had all left these people out there without even a “hello”. He went straight out and started taking to them.
The man wanted to buy a truck to replace the one he had driven in on. He also wanted to buy his wife a car because their son had just run their old one into a telephone pole and totaled it. Geoff spent about two hours chatting with them, getting and giving information. He learned that they owned and ran a large farm with 40 horses, 80 head of cattle, other livestock, crops and side businesses running farmland that others had leased from him, and had about 20 employees working for him. When he got done and was writing up the sale of two brand new, fully loaded, vehicles, he asked how they would like to pay. The man reached into his bib overalls and pulled out a roll as big as his country-ham fist and said “sorry, I don’t have cash for both of them, but I’ll pay for one with cash and give you a check for the other; the bank’s open and you can verify the funds are there right now”.
So, because these people looked like dirt-kicker rednecks to the auto sales staff, Geoff sold two top-line vehicles for cash, earned a very substantial commission, and made two acquaintances who invited him out to their farm to visit, and then became good friends for the next 30 years. I got to go with Geoff to their beautiful farm once; among the nicest folks I’ve ever met.
What’s that old saying about not judging a book by its cover….?
One day, my doorbell rang and I opened the door assuming there was a package or a salesman outside.
Instead, there were maybe six large men in body armor and pads. They were each holding a rifle on a sling. Their plate carriers were festooned with pistols, extra magazines, flashlights, and handcuffs.
I stared at these men through my iron security door for a beat- probably with my jaw dropped. Then I said, “Uh, Hey! What’s going on guys?”
Turns out it was a fugitive recovery team from the US Marshals.
They were looking for my neighbor’s scummy boyfriend who had lived with her for a short time. Apparently, he was even scummier than I had thought.
I stepped out on the porch and spoke with the Marshals for a few minutes. I knew my neighbor, but not her boyfriend. I had nothing helpful to tell them. They piled back into a few big, black SUVs and left.
Weird, but at least it wasn’t a solicitor at the door.
My sister got suspended for skipping class. She wasn’t feeling well during PE, and got a note to go to the nurse’s office. The nurse wasn’t in (supposedly she was on a coffee break). My sister passed out (as in unconscious) in front of the nurse’s office, laying on the floor in the hall. No one noticed she was there until after the nurse came back at the end of the *next* period.
They suspended her for cutting that class. She was told the next day, and served the in-school suspension that day. The next day my dad came in and raised heck… and the suspension was removed from her record, and the nurse was written up for taking a too long coffee break (over an hour).
I’m not sure what was said to the teachers who were supposed to be watching the hall during class change, and never noticed her on the floor. None of the kids said anything that we know of either. I guess it’s a good thing it wasn’t a critical thing that caused her to pass out.
Shadow People and The Hat Man | Who are they? What do they want?
Back in the 1980s, I worked as an independent Contract Software Engineer working through a technical service firm. As such there were many ‘business deductions’ that I could take off and I also only had to pay taxes 4 times a year, so all the interest I earned on the taxes was an added boost. But, then the tax laws changed. As a Software Engineer working through a technical service firm, I was now considered an employee of that firm. This meant no more ‘business deductions’ and no interest on my tax savings account.
So I looked for another loophole. I discovered that as long as I worked more than 50 miles away from home, all my travel expenses were tax deductible. Now I was a single man with few attachments so I started to travel. My home became a mailbox in New Jersey. Now you might think that keeping track of all your travel expenses would be annoying. The federal government though made that easy. The standard travel deduction for most metropolitan areas was $100 per day and if it was cheaper to stay than it was to travel home, you could take that deduction for 7 days each week. Now my expenses did not run $3000 a month. I would rent an apartment for $800/month, do my own cooking so food was maybe $300/month. Electricity, water, heat, cable whatever, might cost me another $300/month. All told, my expenses were rarely half of the $3000/month I was deducting off my tax return.
There was one gotcha to this tax rule. The federal government rules that if a person stayed at the same job for 27 months, then that person was not traveling. They had moved…. 27 months ago. This meant that if I stuck around that long, I would owe the taxes on that $81000. To add insult to injury, even if I just took another position that was within 50 miles of that position, it was still considered the same location. So every 2 years I would quit whatever position I had (most of my contracts didn’t actually last that long) and move to another part of the country.
Still, this $36500/year tax deduction was a nice boon. But they kept on nibbling away on this. Originally it was on the Schedule A and the deduction occurred before you calculated your AGI. They later moved it to a post after the AGI was calculated so the lower AGI no longer affected when other deductions kicked in. Later they decided that 20% of that $100/day was for food. If you were home, you still had to eat, so they considered that 25% of that 20% is no longer deductible. this changed the $100/day to $95/day. And each year, the deduction was lessened.
After a few years, I married and my wife didn’t want to travel around the country with me. I stopped contracting and I have no idea whatever happened to that deduction.
Gonzalo Lira’s DEATH update. US State Dept. confirms his death. They did NOTHING to support him.
My daughter had turned two a couple months before. She was really fussy that day but I had to go to work. Three hours later I got a phone call from her daycare telling me that she was crying a lot and couldn’t move her leg. There was no swelling or bruising or anything. I was stuck at work and had a minimum 45 minute commute back. So they offered to take her to the ER for me. I got off as soon as I could and rushed to meet them.
By the time I got there, they had already done blood/urine tests and x-rays. When the doctor came in he went through everything they tested for and said he couldn’t find anything. I was confused and asked him why she couldn’t move her leg and was in so much pain. He gave me this stupid smile and said “Well it could just be growing pains. But I think she just wants attention. If you could bother spending time with your child instead of working she would be happier. If you are still worried go ahead and take her to her regular doctor on Monday”. I demanded to have a second opinion and the doctor refused. I was told if I didn’t leave the hospital he would call security and force me to leave.
I was pissed! It isn’t as if I wake up and think “Gee I don’t feel like dealing with my kid I am just dropping her off at daycare”. I am a single mom, I don’t receive any kind of child support, don’t go out or have a social life, and have to work to pay the bills (including medical insurance for both of us). I was handed a piece of paper that said to just give her Tylenol every few hours, spend “quality time” with her, and see her regular doctor on Monday if the pain continues. I took my crying baby home (it was 3 AM on Saturday morning) and stayed up trying to figure out what to do next.
(BTW)
I called in to work that morning; my gas tank was almost on empty, I had $11 to last until my next pay check (a week away), and our regular doctor was the next town over (about 20 miles away). By 8 AM I called my sister and borrowed some cash, filled up my tank, called our doctor on his cellphone, and took her to the ER next to his office. Our doctor tried to get the test results from the other ER, but they said they couldn’t find the paper work. Instead of waiting, the doctor ran his own tests. Thank god he did!
We were there less than 30 minutes when the doctor came in and said he was rushing her to Wichita (3+ hour drive away). It was complicated because he wanted to fly her there but our tiny ER didn’t have an area for the plane and she needed to be there immediately. They hooked her up with an IV, we got in the ambulance, had a police escort, and lights/sirens the entire way (it took about two hours to get there). I was freaking out. There was no time for the doctor to explain what was going on and the paramedics said that they weren’t sure exactly what was happening but was told she wasn’t allowed to move at all. My poor baby was strapped down head to toe and terrified.
When we got to the hospital there was a team of doctors and nurses waiting in the bay. They rushed her away; I wasn’t allowed to follow, and I had to speak with the police and DCF. They asked me a bunch of questions about our visit to the other ER, where I was when she was at daycare, what my daughter’s symptoms were before going to the ER, what the doctor told me, what paperwork I was given, and if they had permission to look at her medical records.
I kept asking to see my daughter and what the hell was going on. Finally an hour later a nurse came out and explained that my daughter was going septic, flat-lined once, and they had to figure out where the infection was and what was happening to her. She was rushed into emergency surgery shortly after that.
Turns out my daughter had a pouch in her hip joint that was filled with MRSA. It had begun to leak into her tiny body. Any slight movement could have ruptured the pouch and within minutes killed her. The doctors in Wichita said if I had waited even one hour longer to bring her in she would have died. She was in the hospital for two weeks. After she was discharged she had to stay on very heavy duty antibiotics for seven weeks, physical therapy for four months, and bi-weekly blood tests for a year. She still has pain sometimes when she walks or runs; the infection ate away some of the lining around her hip joint, and she will most likely have arthritis when she is older.
We still don’t know for sure how she ended up with this infection. The only thing we can figure is she got it from me since I work at a hospital. She did have bronchitis a few weeks before this experience but it is normal since she has asthma.
Here’s what I found out later:
The ER my daughter originally had gone to refused to give up her medical files and our doctor knew something was very wrong. He had been our family doctor since my daughter was two months old and well as a friend/doctor to the rest of our family over 10 years. I was that annoying first-time worry-wart mom but never neglectful and never brought my daughter to an ER without something really being wrong. Our doctor called the sheriff and explained an investigation had to be checked out. The sheriff got a hold of DCF and they began an investigation. That is when they figured out quickly what had happened.
The dickhead ER doctor had never looked at her test results (which showed a very high white blood cell count)! When our doctor had requested the files the other doctor actually tried to destroy the evidence that we were ever there (thank god for computers). The doctor was arrested and pled guilty to a bunch of different charges. He lost his license and was sentenced to 5 years in prison.
Basically the entire concept of Minions, honestly.
The plot of this 2015 animated children’s movie can aptly be described in one sentence
A race of genetic yellow freaks become hellbent on villainy, and vow to serve the most evil villain they can find
Throughout the movie’s opening montage, the minions meet several well-known historical and mythological figures, including Count Dracula, Genghis Khan and Napoleon Bonaparte.
This seems innocent at first, especially given the cartoonish depictions of said historical figures in the movie. But an internet user took to Tumblr to analyse exactly what these scenes implied for the minions in the greater historical landscape
According to the official Minions Movie, the Minions:
Assisted Napoleon in invading most of Europe, racking up a total death count of around 3 Million
Assisted Genghis Khan in invading just about all of China and racking up a total death count of roughly 40 Million people
Plus that of the T Rex, Caveman, Pharaoh, King, Captain, and Dracula
So we know for a fact they took part in 43 Million deaths. Not to mention they also killed all of their former masters, so add them to the total.
But this also implies there is a strong chance the Minions are going to kill Gru
Conclusion:
Minions are bloodthirsty monsters that should not be glorified in any way.
[1] I’m no historian, but this all sounds about right to me. It’s horrifying to think that in this universe, minions are responsible for pretty much every war crime and atrocity in human history.
And to make matters even worse, the Minions retire to Antarctica after the fall of Napoleon, where they remain until 1968, when the main plot takes place. The Minions were conveniently exiled during WW2 in order to avoid the implications that the minions were Nazis, but by writing around it, the movie still implies that the minions would have worked for Hitler if they were around.
I have been out of the Army well over 50 years when things were somewhat tougher than I expect hey are today. I never saw anyone hit. I had an E-6 Platoon Sergeant, named Walter Streets. He was about 6′4″ and towered over me. He was black and I am white.
He knew I was a good recruit and would become a good soldier. I developed Pneumonia while I was in Basic at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina and went on antibiotics just before the PT test. I was doing the last phase of the test, which was running track. I was having trouble making the last lap and he ran out onto the track and put his arm around me and ran with me. Another Drill Sargeant who stood about only 5′4″ came out and complained to Sargeant Streets who bent down and told him to “F” off. I passed the test.
When I got on the bus to AIT at Ft. McClellan, Alabama, Sargeant Streets gave me a small bottle of whiskey and told me to drink it all on the trip. He told my buddies to throw their overcoats over me on the back of the bus and by the time I got to AIT the pneumonia was gone. It’s actually 58 years ago and I learned how great some Drill Sargeants can be. I wish I could thank him again today!
I have lived this. When I was 23, I found out we were expecting. At 23 you don’t think anything will be wrong with your baby. That happens to older women, not young people like me. Well the truth is it happens more often with younger women because they are typically having more children than the older women.
At my 16 week ultrasound we really went into it just hoping we would find out the sex of the baby. Instead we left with fear and uncertainty and they weren’t able to tell us the gender. Basically they told us they were able to get a good look at the back of the babies neck but they had a feeling there was some type of abnormality.
So I was referred to a specialist for a level 2 ultrasound and further testing.
A few days later I went to the specialist along with my Mom and one of my sisters who had a medical background. After the ultrasound we were told that there was definitely something wrong with the baby and they thought it was either Down Syndrome, Spina Bifida or Cerebral Palsy.
I was offered the option to terminate and/or do an amnio to find out exactly what was wrong. They also still couldn’t see the baby’s gender. I decided to do the amniocentesis but I made it very clear to the doctor that I was not terminating the pregnancy no matter what the results. Approx 10 days later I called my OBGYNs office and was told they would call me back.
They called me back in just a few minutes to tell me that the doctor was on vacation but he was coming in to talk to me, how quickly can you get here? I knew that didn’t mean good news. My husband couldn’t get off work again so my mom and sister met me there.
My doctor took us into his office and said. “You are having a boy! But he does have Down Syndrome”. I was totally broken with this news.
I sobbed in his office with my family. I mourned the child I thought I would have. I mourned for months. Probably even after my son was born. My husband gave me an ultimatum, either have an abortion or we get a divorce.
I took the divorce and never looked back. I was always pro-life. I am still pro-life. My ex was mad. He was mad at the world. He was mad with God. He knew plenty of people that smoked or did drugs in their pregnancy and their babies were fine.
I wouldn’t even drink caffeine and our baby was going to be “retarded”. (His word, not mine). I could never choose to have an abortion. It wasn’t my body or life. I was just the vessel. I couldn’t get him to understand that what if we had a “normal” child and down the road the child was diagnosed with cancer or had a life changing accident that left them disabled? He couldn’t answer me. He could only say “if you have this baby, then I will never be able to have a boat”. (He was a winner).
But when my son was 5, I met a wonderful man who loved us both. We were married and he adopted my son and we have two other kids now.
Has it been easy? No but who said parenthood was easy?
Even with typical children. Jacob is 23, he has graduated high school, he has a job that he loves and so much more. He will never be able to drive or live on his own but so what?
He is high functioning, smart, talks ALOT, no heart issues, no major health issues and a wonderful personality. He loves Jesus, Disney and his family. And we wouldn’t trade him for the world.
Mama left in the middle of the night with my daddy’s best friend. She didn’t show up for the divorce hearing and that gave my daddy full custody. They had been married for 18 years. Suddenly she was gone. I was 5 years old.
I told myself I could never leave my children like that. I remember the feeling of abandonment. I was her only daughter, she left my brothers as well. One was 10, the other was 4.
My family that I was left with didn’t care much for me. I was a girl, strike one. I looked exactly like my mama, strike two. I finally revealed the sexual abuse I was being tortured with at the hands of my uncle, huge strike three. So, rejection has been a big problem for me in my lifetime. I never wanted to make my own children feel unloved and unwanted. But… I did.
I didn’t leave them physically. I had a problem with alcohol at a very early age. By the time I was 40 I was a full-blown alcoholic. For the next 10 years I was in a drunken stupor, in mental hospitals because of suicide attempts and in jail. It ruled my life and took ME away from my son and daughter during their teenage years. Thank God I married a solid gold man who is always present for our children.
I turned 50 in County jail serving my 90 days for my 4th DUI. That was the very last time I was in custody. We sold our home soon after that and moved to an apartment for the first time in our married life. Our children were both married and living on their own. When we drove away from that home I took that monkey off my back and flung her out the window. I’ve not had a drop of alcohol since. The craving is gone and has not returned for 12 years now. YAY!!!
We can try not to repeat the sins or mistakes of our parents, but be mindful of those mistakes because you could be hurting your family the same just by acting in a different way.
What I’m going to speak on is something that you should never, ever share with anyone but your most trusted friends and siblings (and you should never share it with your parents or any of your friends that you don’t trust to act accordingly), in addition to your coworkers.
You should never, ever share your marital or relationship issues with any of those people. If you get in a huge fight with your spouse or partner, you should never share the details of it with anyone but the people you trust the most.
You see, when you share the details of a fight with a close friend who doesn’t have the ability to internalize all of the details, the next time that friend sees your spouse, they very well might treat your partner differently, based on what you told them.
A fight between a husband and wife especially should never be shared with anyone but your very closest friend, and you absolutely NEED to have one person that you can share it with, otherwise, you’ll never get an objective truth about who was really right in the fight.
When my wife and I get into a fight (we’ve had exactly three over the last five years), I call one person; my best friend Casey. Would you care to know why I call him specifically, even though I have two other friends that I’m just as close with or closer with?
Casey will tell me the truth, no matter what. If I’m wrong, and I was acting like an asshole, he will absolutely tell me so. That’s extremely valuable information, and I can think on what he tells me and take it back to my wife.
If he tells me that I’m right, and that she’s completely wrong in her argument, I’ll keep it to myself, because throwing that in her face won’t do anything but escalate the situation and cause her to have animosity toward Casey, who is our daughter’s favorite person in the world outside of her blood family.
My wife always calls her best friend Rae, which makes me happy, because Rae is very similar to Casey, in the way that she’ll tell my wife the truth of the matter, even if the truth is that my wife was wrong. Also, both Casey and Rae have the ability to completely internalize all of their knowledge about the fight when next we all see one another, and don’t treat either of us differently. If that wasn’t the case, Casey wouldn’t be able to talk to my wife without being disrespectful, and Rae might slap me every time she sees me.
I’ve known quite a few people who have spoken freely about fights with their spouse, and who have even badmouthed their spouse in front of everyone present. In my opinion, there isn’t much that can be more disrespectful to your spouse and your marriage. You’re giving everyone present a horrible picture of your spouse, and making everyone think that your marriage is some kind of argument-ridden catastrophe.
Everyone that I work with believes my wife to be an absolute angel. From what I’ve told them, she is by far the perfect woman. I never tell them when we argue, or when she does something stupid (like switching the bags for my lunch and the dirty cat litter), or anything negative about our marriage.
Nobody should be airing their dirty laundry at work. Period.
If you needed a few billion bucks to establish a commercial aircraft industry, you would think at least 30 nations would have had their own fully operational commercial aircraft right?
Let’s see
Threshold Engineers & Researchers
To commercially manufacture Aircraft you need a minimum threshold workforce of engineers & researchers
Aerospace, Aeronautical and a whole bunch of engineers with significant experience working for commercial aircraft or who have studied commercial aircraft production and assembly
The Magic number for China was 25,000 to be able to draw from
This happened only by 2014–2015
Prior to that every Aerospace Engineer or Designer worked for Defence Manufacturing or for the Space Agency
Boeing alone has a workforce of 61,000 Engineers and 4300 Researchers
The West combined has close to 160,000 Engineers and Researchers in their workforce for Commercial Aircraft Manufacture
By comparison COMAC has 11,280 Engineers and around 900 Researchers
Chinas largest workforce is for
Production Engineering (1998–2004)
Civil Engineering (1982–1998)
Chemical Engineering & Metallurgy (2004–2012) & Electrical Engineering (2004–2012)
Automobile Engineering (2012–2019)
Tooling & Precision Engineering (2019-)
Even today China has around 34,000 Engineers and Researchers as total workforce for Commercial Aircraft Production
Competition
You aren’t competing with just Boeing or Airbus
Your competition is with Boeing, Rolls Royce, GE, Safran, Michelin, Dunlop and another 700–1200 companies that make from the largest airframe to the smallest on board electronic assembly
The Airframe alone to carry such a huge aircraft is a massive challenge
The Wind Tunnel System
The Electronics
The Wheels
Every part especially the Engine is a result of decades of continuous development by the West from the First World War
China this needed to get the Airframe Right
This alone took a decade
They then used a Canadian entity called Bombardier to get the electronics and the supply chain
They then got the electronics right. That took four years.
Then they got the Composite Wing Design and that was seven years.
That finished by 2021
They still have the largest nut to crack – THE ENGINE!!!!
Plus remember Mitsubishi has been unable to break into this market after 45 years
Economic Fiscal Problem
Like our Bullet Train, this Airliner was deemed a project that could never hope to break even by Chinas best economists
It’s why they proposed the HSR or Highways where China is the boss, the master of the fantastic quality supply Chain
It’s why China is investing so heavily into HSR
That’s their core area
Sadly the Comac is more of a prestige issue by China
To have their own fully made aircraft is acceptable even if the aircraft costs some money to the State as subsidies to keep at even keel
Its why China sidestepped IC Engines which they could never ever perfect and are masters of EV Batteries and E Platforms on earth
The Aircraft has to be made fully indigenously on a huge scale to break even because today the selling price is lower than what it costs on an accountants scale
In 1990 – China could certainly not afford to subsidize the Aircraft by any degree of money that they can easily do in their sleep today
So establishing an Industry and producing commercially is not a joke
It takes decades of solid hard work
You are competing against a technology evolution of over 60 years or 70 years from the West
You have specialized suppliers and makers of mother machines – all who need replication
Exactly why Chinas EVs and Renewable Energy models are next to impossible to recapture by any other nation
They have the whole package
China is likely to do far better in developing commercial self flying taxis on a drone concept which can travel as far as 600 Kms on indigenous technology and dominate the world
I worked at this large busy engineering factory. There was a store keeper who also worked there. He had a different role to all of the other store keepers.
He had his own desk. He had big tubs of machine cutters on his desk. His own computer. At the back of his desk, he had shelves filled with box files.
He was always busy. He never had to work shifts like the rest of us. He worked regular days.
Redundency came and he successfully applied for it. He left.
The other store keepers were told that they had to include his job into their own job. They kicked off about and went to the union. The union told them to “ just do what you can”
The store keepers decided to find out what it was that he did. The cutters were old stock, and they were chucked away. The files were full of old unimportant paper work, they were chucked away too.
If you had a lathe tool that needed to be sharpened, he would have to book it in. Those lathe tools had been made obsolete years before.
He basically never had a job. He never did anything. Nobody ever questioned him. He looked so busy and important. And he’d been doing this for years.
Chicken with Tomatoes and Olives (Kotopoulo me Tomatoes kai Elies)
Kotopoulo me Tomatoes kai Elies
Ingredients
Flour (for dredging)
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 (3 pound) frying chicken, cut into 6 to 8 serving pieces
1/2 cup olive oil
2 large red onions, peeled, chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled, minced
1 1/2 cups peeled, chopped plum tomatoes
1/2 cup dry red wine
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 cup pitted Kalamata olives, rinsed and drained
1 teaspoon oregano
Instructions
Combine flour, salt and pepper on a plate and lightly dredge the chicken.
Heat 1/3 cup olive oil in a large, deep skillet and brown the chicken on all sides, over high heat. Remove with a slotted spoon.
Add remaining olive oil to skillet, and sauté onions until wilted and lightly browned. Add garlic and stir for 30 seconds.
Place chicken back in the pan. Pour in the tomatoes and wine, and season with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer over low heat for about 45 minutes, or until the chicken is tender.
Ten minutes before removing from heat, add the crumbled feta and stir until melted. Five minutes before removing from heat, add olives and oregano.
Of course it is the despicable and obnoxious USA! Everyone knows it and everyone knows it is the U.S. that is hurting the work.
But if Americans are smart enough, which suspect the are not, a much more salient question would be “will it work?”
I absolutely won’t and it will harm the US economy much more than it ever hurt the Chinese economy.
Why? Very simple.
The U.S. market is simply a lot smaller than China and threatening not to sell to them is threatening to lose a market bigger than the world’s next 10 biggest market combine!
China can and will buy from someone else or it will simply make it themselves just like how Huawei Mate 60 surprised the U.S. who naively thinks that China will need at least 30 years to make it own high end chips China took less than 3 short year! And now the U.S. is well and truly fxxked!
China stops buying not only for their own consumers that is 30% of the world, it also stop using the U.S. chips in the product they make for the rest of the world or at least another 40% more. So the U.S. gets cuts away from 70% of the world’s market!
Next threatening not to buy from China who can simply make things better, faster and cheaper than everyone else is like threatening to bring inflation to its shores. Let alone depriving your own people from productivity and profit. Hence your crippling inflation. Increasing interest levels to fight inflation caused your bank failures and hurt investment! All are very bad for the US!
Now let’s evaluate the result of the trade war initiated by the U.S. The U.S. inflation were double digit at one point but now 3–4%. China’s inflation rate is 0.3%!
In the 5 years since the trade war China grew 5 times faster than the U.S.! Your trade with China grew from less than 200 billion before the trade war to more than 700 billion last year!
So who is winning the trade war? China is laughing all the way to the bank!
Well, as I type this up, it is CNY. This (today) is the first day of the new year, and I am in Wenzhou. It’s a standard fare of massive meals, lots and lots of drinking, and long bouts of lazing about.
The weather is cold out, but nothing like what I grew up with. Lots and lots of fireworks. Non-stop explosions and bangs. Day in, and day out, at all hours of the day and night. Very typical.
This is the first time that we are in Wenzhou since the COVID hit China. That was four years ago. My… a lot has happened.
I’ve been busy knocking these posts out, and now have a nice big backlog, but I will be altering my schedule and product mixes in the future.
I want to wish everyone a very nice and prosperous Year of the Dragon 2024.
Golden Chinese Dragon on Red Background ,Traditional New Year Sy
This reminds me of the early 90’s when I had just started Nick’s Racing in Denver CO
As anybody who starts his own business knows, money was tight and everything would just need to hold out a bit longer. Every Saturday afternoon I went to the local mall/shopping-centre to buy whatever I needed for the week. Whilst there I often saw this 70’s Camaro in the lot and it amused me how the inside looked like a pig sty. But I did love the shape & one day… Dream on Nick you are living from week to week.
Fortunately lady luck and my craftmanship smiled on me, work came in so that I had to hire 2 more engine builders and I started to have disposable income and no time to spend it. The American dream, right ? One day I see this Camaro in the same lot with the bonnet (hood) open and a for sale sign on it. I bought this car for a ridiculously low amount and spent a whole day cleaning out all the junk this lady owner had accumulated in it. The first thing that hit me where the cigarette burn marks in the upholstery and the holes in the roof lining 😉
I had to redo the interior, the body had to be panel-beated and resprayed. The engine was going to be replaced with a 383 stroker anyways I just decided to redo the Electrics, as fixing this rats nest was not worth it. I fitted a Classic Air Air Con This car was trash- defined.
Luckily my 2 workers were foreigners also- Mexicans. We got on well and their friends and family did a lot of work on this car for good value. Considering this was basically a rebuild, using performance part where possible, and not a hot-rod build, it still took close to a year of getting it on the road again. This car must have gotten 0 maintenance from the day she got it to the day it expired in a parking lot.
And then I left back for Namibia and sold it to one of my guys who then gave it to his daughter once she needed wheels.
A young Kurt Russell worked together with Charles Bronson. During shooting, Russell found out it was Charles Bronson’s birthday. So he got his older co-star a gift. Bronson looked at it, took it… then walked out of the room, without saying a word. Russell was terrified, worried he had insulted the man.
image 5
A little while later, Russell was called to the dressing room of Bronson. Bronson was silent, looked down and said to the child actor: “No one has ever given me a birthday gift before…” Charles Bronson was the son of dirt poor immigrants. He had fourteen siblings, and worked in the mines as a child. Never finished schooling, never had a kind word, he was worked like a mule since the day he learned to walk.
Charles Bronson hadn’t known a lot of kindness in his life. It caught him off guard to receive some from his young co-star. He later gave Russell a skateboard on his own birthday to play with between takes. The two men remained lifelong friends.
Yes. Several. Mainly because I know what’s going on in their lives, and the students don’t. If the students knew what I knew, they’d cut those teachers a little slack.
One teacher in particular, with whom I worked seven years ago, stands out for me among all of the teacher sob stories I know.
To make a long story short, when she was in her 40s and had been teaching preschool for half of her life, her husband left her for a much younger woman. Around the same time, the school’s preschool program changed from full-time to just two days per week and, in order to stay full-time and keep her benefits, she was forced to become the school’s art teacher for all students in grades PreK-8 (ages 3–14).
She was good with the younger students, but had no idea how to control the middle schoolers. She hated teaching the older kids, but she had no choice. She was still more than a decade away from retirement and needed the health insurance, but she also couldn’t afford to go back to school or change careers or anything like that. She was trapped teaching students that she wasn’t trained to teach.
And they were merciless to her.
The art class existed primarily to give the “regular” teachers a planning period, but I, along with my coworkers, ended up sitting with our classes to the art room most days, because we could control the kids, and she couldn’t. The students treated her class like recess, and treated her with a level of disrespect you usually only see in the movies, right before the “savior” teacher swoops in and sets things right.
The students didn’t see how the teacher cried after school every day, alone in her classroom, before she composed herself enough to walk down the block to her apartment, where she probably cried some more, alone, throughout the evening and night.
I left that school after teaching there just one year. The school closed two years after I left. I hope she was able to find a full time position working with younger children. Middle schoolers can be just as cruel to their teachers as they are to each other.
The doctor, after an examination, sighed and said, ‘I’ve got some bad news. You have cancer, and you’d best put your affairs in order.’
The woman was shocked, but managed to compose herself and walk into the waiting room where her daughter had been waiting.
‘Well, daughter, we women celebrate when things are good, and we celebrate when things don’t go so well. In this case, things aren’t well. I have cancer. So, let’s head to the club and have a martini.’
After 3 or 4 martinis, the two were feeling a little less somber. There were some laughs and more martinis. They were eventually approached by some of the woman’s old friends, who were curious as to what the two were celebrating.
The woman told her friends they were drinking to her impending end, ‘I’ve been diagnosed with AIDS.’ The friends were aghast, gave the woman their condolences and beat a hasty retreat.
After the friends left, the woman’s daughter leaned over and whispered, ‘Momma, I thought you said you were dying of cancer, and you just told your friends you were dying of AIDS! Why did you do that??’
‘Because I don’t want any of those bitches sleeping with your father after I’m gone.’.
Top 8 rules
Ricotta Lasagna Swirls
2024 02 10 13 35
Ingredients
Lasagna
8 lasagna noodles
2 pounds fresh spinach
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 pound ricotta cheese
Salt
Pepper
Sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cups tomato sauce
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon oregano
Instructions
Lasagna: Cook and drain lasagna noodles.
Steam 2 pounds fresh spinach for 7 minutes, then chop. Mix spinach with 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/2 pound ricotta cheese, salt and pepper.
Coat each noodle with 2 to 3 tablespoons of mixture along the entire length of the noodle. Roll up. Stand on end in a baking dish.
Sauce: Sauté garlic and onion.
Add tomato sauce, basil and oregano.
Pour sauce over noodles and bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes.
Young Men Are Lonelier Than Ever (And It’s Getting Worse)
On this very day, Joe decides to eat out. He enters a restaurant, sits down, and has his order taken.
Just as the waitress arrives with his precariously balanced meal, someone knocks her aside. This causes an avalanche of food and drinks to tumble onto Joe in a non-majestic, yet sloppy manner.
Joe breathes in heavily and….
…asks if the waitress is alright, wipes himself to the best he can, and helps clean up a little without mumbling. Joe then comforts said waitress who is on the verge of crying, whilst assuring the seething and anxious manager that everything is all right.
If shit happens to you and it’s not your fault, then more shit happens yet you are still cool, you are mature in my eyes.
Mature people don’t cause more shit, or simply throw their shit away, even when shit is thrown at them.
It’s not that they don’t give a shit, but they deal with their shit appropriately.
Be like Joe and deal with your shit correctly.
China’s New AI Microchip Just Destroyed US Sanctions Forever!
Years ago, Patrick received a junk mail “fake cheque”- supposedly, if he were to send money to the company, he would then soon get more huge cheques like the one he’d just received.
The fake cheque was made out for $95,093.35. It even had an attached authorised signature.
image 134
Now, most people would see this as the junk & total scam that it obviously was. Most people would rip it up and just toss it in their bin. Most people would ignore it.
Most- but not Patrick.
Patrick was extremely broke at the time – he had only $200 in his bank account.
He had a good sense of humour and thought, “What would happen if I tried to lodge this into my bank account?” Fully expecting to get a laugh out of it from both himself and the bank teller, that’s exactly what Patrick did.
He went to lodge the cheque into his bank account.
As Patrick said, “I didn’t think I was sticking money into the machine.”
He so fully was expecting the cheque to bounce that he didn’t even endorse the back of it.
Time passes and Patrick forgets about it.
Ten days later though, he checks his bank account and to his amazement, $95,093.35 now sits in his bank account!
It turns out that the cheque actually matched 9 of the criteria that the bank required for a cheque to be valid – the words “non negotiable” that the junk company placed on the front did not negate the cheque whatsoever. It turned out that they had been successful in making the cheque look real – too real.
Additionally- the bank managed to miss their own legal deadline to notify Patrick that his cheque had bounced as a non-cash item.
“The excitement of that much money was off the scale,” he said. “It was an addiction. For two months I obsessed on whether I should take the money or give the money back. I put my bank on speed dial and dialed it every ten minutes. I worried constantly that it would go away.“
Patrick, being the good person that he is, did return the money 6-months later.
And, there you have it, Patrick Combs is the man who received a junk mail fake cheque in the post – and managed to cash it to the tune of $95,000+! That, I think, is very much gaming the system.
Yet the content was something I have known and understood and have been talking about for more than two years on Quora
Anyone who follows Scott Ritter, Brian Berletic, The Duran, IEarlGrey and those guys would find most of what Putin said to be nothing surprising, given that this was what most of them have been discussing for both these years 2022 and 2023
However for the Average Americans, this gave them the other point of view
You have had almost 66 Interviews of Zelensky over the last 24 months and you have seen almost 4000 articles covering Zelensky and Ukraine yet Putins POV and Russias POV has never been covered in the West
This Interview filled the gap
Why did Russia invade Ukraine?
Putins explanation makes a lot of sense
He says the Invasion was the LAST RESORT
He says Russia carved out Ukraine under Lenin and later on post WWII, more territories from Germany & Poland & Hungary & Romania were added to Ukraine after USSR got them under Post WWII restructuring
He says Russians and Ukranians were the same people and every Ukranian had 3–4 relatives in Russia and vice versa
He says Ukranian Language is just one of five languages spoken in Ukraine along with Russian, Polish, Romanian and Hungarian in different parts of Ukraine
He says Russia and Ukraine had a friendship and a relationship post 1994 and most of Ukraine’s Trade was with Russia
He says how Ukraine in 2008 began to start idolizing NAZIs and established Neo Nazism and began persecuting Russian Speakers of Eastern Ukraine
He says how Ukraine in 2014 deposed Yanukovich after the West Deceived HIM openly. He talks of how Yanukovich was assured by Merkel and others including Obama of a peaceful conclusion to Maidan if he didn’t use the Military and the Police and how once Yanukovich agreed, they openly deceived him and allowed Maidan to depose him
He then talks of how Zelensky spoke of ending the Russian Language from 2019 onwards and how Zelensky spoke of military conquest of Donbass
He talks of how Russia repeatedly talked to Western Leaders for a peaceful re implementation of the Minsk II Accords that Zelensky broke openly and which the guarantors ignored
He talked of Airplanes over Donbass and forced action against Russian Speakers for 8 years from 2014–2022, all chronicled and presented to the UN and yet IGNORED by the West
It was in the end the ONLY WAY for Russia to secure it’s borders and help the Russian Speakers in Ukraine and Denazify Ukraine
Is Russia ready for Talks?
Yes. Putin confirms this.
He says it’s Zelensky who is not ready. Who in fact even decreed that any discussion on peace is in fact illegal.
Is Russia ready to sell Gas to Germany?
Yes. Putin says he still has pipelines that can supply Gas to Germans.
So he says why are Germans throttling their own industries by paying 4.25 times more for Piped LNG???
He literally openly says Scholz is either Insane or a Traitor to his own people
Putin talks of China & Russia
Putin says China is far more significant to the West because of their Population and their strong economy which even at 5% growth is DOUBLE AS FAST AS THE US
He exposes the China Bogey by citing how BRICS & SCO are both Consensus based organizations against NATO which is entirely US dominated
He gives an example of the Iraq War where France and Germany were openly muscled by George Junior Bush
He cites how Sanctions failed
He highlighted how Russia simply DEDOLLARIZED as did many other nations
He cited that 61 Nations have reduced USD holdings by 10% or more since 22/2/22
He cited that 70% of Russian Trade is settled in Yuan or Ruble now and only 19% in Euros and USD (4.8% in Emirati Dirham and 1.7% in South African Rand & HKD and the rest in other currencies)
He cites how the US lost its own place in the world thanks to the Sanctions and how everyone now wants their own financial secure system and an independence from the Dollar and a preference for their own local currency
He clarified why he retreated from Kiev
He was clear when he said, in Istanbul the Ukranians wanted Russians away from Kiev as a matter of faith and Putin complied
Yet again HE WAS DECEIVED
So the conclusions are clear now
First Putin doesn’t care what the West thinks anymore. He will do what is best for Russians in his opinion. He won’t trust the West again.
Second Putin will not end this SMO unless he gets what he wants. A Guarantee that Ukraine won’t join NATO and security for the Russian Speaking population in Ukraine.
Third, Putin will not initiate WWIII unless NATO attacks Russia. He made this clear. He will attack any NATO member if they attack Russia first.
Fourth, Putin says his Hypersonic Missile System is the most advanced in the world and the fact that he talks less about it means he is accurate
His final message to the Americans is WHY THEY ARE POKING THEIR NOSE IN UKRAINE WHEN THEY HAVE SO MANY TROUBLES OF THEIR OWN
It’s something that resonates with Donald Trump and his MAGA crowd
It would have been enlightening to many people
Not to me
This is essentially everything I have been saying for two years now.
When the kids were grown and gone, my wife and I considered getting a firearm for home protection. Two events finally pushed us to do it. The first event was my walking into a large drug buy in a gas station late at night in Miami. Lots of drugs, thugs, and guns. While they stood there looking at me. I said “Hey, I’m just here to get a receipt for the gas. The guy behind the counter (who was in on it), gave it to me and they let me walk out the door past a very confused lookout. Having a concealed weapon probably wouldn’t have done me any good that night. But it did reminded me that the world is a dangerous place.
The second event was back-to-back hurricanes, causing weeks of power outages with no cell or landline capability. The neighborhood was blocked in for a long time by fallen trees and debris. Even though we live only a mile or so from a precinct, there was no way to contact them or for them to quickly get into our neighborhood.
I asked my neighbor if I should be worried about looting. He responded, “everyone in this neighborhood is armed”, and everybody knows it. You are, aren’t you? A few weeks after the storm, I purchased my first gun.
I friend in law enforcement asked if I had a carry permit for it, reminding me that I lived within a 1000 feet of a school, restricting how I can transport the gun when off my property. Those restrictions (other than being on school property itself) are waived in my state if you have a carry permit.
I signed up for an approved NRA course that counted towards the permit, applied, and received one. Since then, I’ve purchased a few other guns, joined a gun club, and have had dozens of different firearm courses with a state LEO firearms trainer.
Like other “constitutional carry” states, Florida no longer requires a permit for concealed carry. But I keep mine current so I can carry reciprocally in other states.
Yes. This was back in the late ’90s. I had a customer come in with a Corolla. He only had one remote for the security system, but had just purchased another one and needed to have it programmed to the car. I told him that was a very quick and easy job, and I could literally do it while he stood there. I opened the driver’s door, turn the key to the on position and moved the driver seat all the way forward. The computer for the security system was under the driver’s seat on this car. You had to access the computer and push and hold a small button on the side of the computer to put it in programming mode, but it was much easier to access from the back seat. So I then got out and opened the rear driver side door, leaned in, and moved the floor mat to get better access to the computer under the seat. When I moved the floor mat, there was a syringe, a spoon, a lighter, and a bag of white powder that I will assume had to be heroin. I put the computer in program mode, hit the buttons on the remote, and heard the confirmation chirp from the front of the car to signal the new remote was programmed. I put the floor mat back, climbed out, and with a death stare, handed the customer his new remote and told him you’re all done, have a nice day. The guy’s face was white as a ghost, and I never saw him in the dealership again.
Having spent years working in a retail store, I saw so many decisions made by highly-paid executives in an office in another state that I knew instantly wouldn’t work out. And they didn’t.
I could write a book about the reasons for this, but mainly – either they don’t know because they don’t do the actual work, or they don’t believe the underlings who have tried to explain it to them.
I’ll give you an example:
So, I worked at a retail store that was part of a national chain separated into so many districts. I think our district had 10 or 12 stores. One quarter, I have no idea how, but somehow, one of the other stores in our district massively overspent their budget by like ten or fifteen grand. (I really wish I knew how, I bet it was a helluva story.) Probably someone got fired over that, but that didn’t solve the problem that they had a shortfall. (And no, firing the person responsible didn’t fix it either, because they then had to spend money to hire a new person to fill the role.)
So, somewhere up in the corporate office, a person whose name I don’t know had an idea to fix this problem. Since I don’t know who this person is, we’ll call them Bean Counter. I assume their job had something to do with accounting or finance.
So Bean Counter says, “Well, we can make up the shortfall by having every store in the district cut their budget by so much % for the remainder of the quarter.”
Bean Counter’s Boss ran the numbers and decided this was a grand idea. They may have even given Bean Counter a raise or promotion for such brilliant work. On paper, Bean Counter’s plan appeared to play out beautifully.
But this was around the beginning of December, just as the holiday rush was kicking into high gear.
Also, there are not a lot of ways to reduce spending on a store level, where budgets are already pretty tight. Management had very limited discretionary funding, and rarely went out and bought stuff for the store. Basically, the only way to really reduce spending by the amount Bean Counter wanted was to cut payroll hours….drastically.
So it’s the holidays and we’re working with a skeleton crew on every shift. One person at the register, one on the floor, and a manager who wasn’t *supposed* to get tied up with tasking.
And we’re busy, every day, because it’s the holidays, and we sell, among other things, a lot of tech items that are popular gifts. Sometimes we have 20 or 30 people in the store at once, and we can’t help them all. There is no “work harder” solution that allows one person on the floor to help 30 people at once. Even with the manager also helping customers on the floor, and “floating” between customers, they could realistically help maybe 10 people at a time.
Oh, and we weren’t supposed to get a line of more than 2 people at the register without opening a second till. HAHAHAHAHA. Yeah, that couldn’t happen with only two other people in the store and both of them working the floor.
So we had people walking out, unhelped, constantly. We did our best, assuring people we’d be with them in a moment, apologizing for the delay, etc. Even so, some people just couldn’t wait and they left and, presumably, went to a competitor.
But Bean Counter and Bean Counter’s Boss weren’t in the store watching this every day. They were back in their nice little offices, smiling at their Excel sheets because they turned a line green.
You see, an Excel sheet can’t show you how much revenue you lost because you didn’t have enough employees to help your customers.
And even without knowing any of the numbers on the Excel sheet, I can tell you that we lost money. I’m going to give you a VERY conservative estimate here. I’ll assume some of the people who left wouldn’t have bought anything anyway. Let’s say only half the people who came in would have bought something. And let’s say that only twenty people walked out in an hour. (Most hours it was probably much more than that, but I’m giving you a conservative estimate.)
And let’s say that the average sale at that point was $20. That’s a really low number for this time of year (usually it was $40–60), but no one had time to upsell and pitch the customer add-ons, so we’ll say $20. That’s $200 an hour lost.
Employees like me and the floor person were making about $7.50 to $8 an hour. Let’s say everyone was getting $8 an hour. Having two more employees would have cost an additional $16 an hour but would have prevented at LEAST $200 in sales losses. (And again, the actual number is almost certainly much higher.)
The store was open from 8 AM to 9 PM, so 13 hours. By cutting two employees all day, the store saved $208 a day. They lost AT LEAST $2,600 a day in sales.
BUT Bean Counter’s plan looked good on paper, before, after, and during the last quarter. They got the district out of the red! We were no longer over budget! Problem solved!
Tesla primarily makes cars. And when regarded solely as an auto-maker – it is over valued.
Tesla pioneered electric vehicles and established a head start in that market. Newer entrants into that market (including Chinese manufacturers) are catching-up and offering products with similar utility and competitive prices. Tesla’s first-mover advantage is not being sustained. The company is taking too long to produce new models and is not iterating its current line-up fast enough. Where is the Roadster? Where is the new better battery tech? Why is the Cybertruck failing to match expectation?
The company presented itself to the stock market as more than a mere car maker. Rather it is a tech company which happens to make cars. It argued that it should be valued as such, and that initially convinced the market. However the various technical innovations it promised have yet to materialise. Self-driving has improved, but it is many, many years late. The robo-taxi idea seems to have evaporated – there are still safety issues and regulatory hurdles. It’s AI vision stack is a really impressive bit of technology – but it is not a product.
The company has a CEO problem. The CEO has a history of over promising and under delivering. Rather than finishing products and releasing them in a polished state, the CEO presents semi-baked ideas to the market in the conceptual stage, and then take years and years to materialise. The market is getting wise to this bait and switch strategy.
The CEO is distracted with other companies and is at best a part-time manager. The CEO has not been good at attracting and retaining the best staff. When the head of the AI project left, this should have been a warning sign. The CEO has not created a workplace culture that values attention to detail and quality. Instead the culture is gung-ho and reckless, which frequently ends up causing more damage than good.
The CEO seems to be having either a drugs and or mental health problem and has recently decided to become more politically active in support of various right and far-right political groups. In some companies this would not matter, but Tesla’s main market is selling vehicles to individuals and families who are aware of environmental issues and support the transition to greener energy. The far-right regard electric vehicles as a government imposed initiative to spoil their god-given right to drive a pick-up, full of firearms, while running over vaccine-users. – This makes Tesla vehicles less attractive to people who would have previously bought them. No one wants to own a vehicle which has become a repugnant political statement.
The CEO clearly regards Tesla has his personal piggy-bank and demands absurd amounts of compensation for his part-time and mercurial contribution. This naturally upsets shareholders.
AI Tool Deciphers Herculaneum Scroll, and It’s All About Pleasure!
A team of student researchers have combined 3D-mapping and AI to decipher a Greek scroll that was encased in ash during the 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The philosophical musing reveals Greek thought on the complexities of “pleasure”.
In the ancient Greek world “pleasure” wasn’t just an occasional indulgence; it was an Olympic event of the senses. From lively symposiums colored with courtesans and entertainers, to dramatic theatrical productions and festivals, the pursuit of delight was as integral to Greek life as debating philosophy.
Now, offering new insights into pleasure across the ancient Aegean, where it wasn’t a guilty pleasure but a cultural cornerstone, a Greek philosopher’s thoughts regarding pleasure have been decoded by AI. And adding to the intrigue, the source material was an ancient papyrus scroll that was entombed in ash during the 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
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Text from the Herculaneum scroll, which has been unseen for 2,000 years. (Vesuvius Challenge/Nature)
Fusing 3D-Mapping and AI
The team of student researchers, comprising Youssef Nader, Luke Farritor and Julian Schilliger, who used AI to decode the damaged papyrus scroll, have scooped the $700,000 grand prize in the Vesuvius Challenge grand prize Vesuvius Challenge. They received the illustrious award for being the first team to “recover 4 passages of 140 characters from a Herculaneum scroll”.
Essentially, the young team combined 3D-mapping applications and AI to successfully penetrate a lump of blackened volcanic rock that has encased a scroll for almost 2,000-years, since Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. Known as the Herculaneum papyri, the new combination of technologies identified tiny patches of ink within the fused ash, revealing hitherto unseen musings of a Greek philosopher contemplating ‘pleasure.’
A Gigantic Boon for Philosophy
Not only did the winning team of the Vesuvius Challenge decipher more than “85 percent of the characters illustrated within four passages comprising 140 characters each,” but they included a further 11 columns of text, bringing their total to around 2000 interpreted characters.
The text discloses the personal thoughts of Philodemus, the philosopher-in-residence at the library which once housed the Herculaneum papyri. As such, Professor Michael McOsker from the University College London told New Scientist that the findings represent “a gigantic boon” to the understanding of philosophy in the ancient Greek world.
The ancient Greek text muses on how the scarcity and abundance of material items impacts the pleasure received from them. According to Philodemus, a philosopher of the Epicurean school, the enjoyment derived from food and other goods is closely tied to their availability. In line with Epicurean philosophy, which emphasizes pleasure as life’s primary objective, the scarcity or abundance of these commodities plays a crucial role in shaping our well-being.
Additionally, it was noted that in his two-millennium-old text, there seems to be a subtle attack at the Stoic school of philosophy, suggesting they have “nothing to contribute regarding pleasure.” While Epicureanism centers on the pursuit of pleasure and tranquility, considering them the ultimate goals in life, in contrast, Stoicism emphasizes virtue as the highest good, advocating for inner strength and moral excellence to navigate life’s challenges.
What this all means for modern researchers, is that they have fresh data pertaining to Greek ideas about the prioritization of pleasure and tranquility (Epicureanism), against virtue and inner resilience (Stoicism), being the key foundation for a fulfilling life.
It Cost What? This Has To Stop!
Having bagged the Vesuvius Challenge the team of students now plan “to scale up the 3D scanning and digital analysis techniques,” while at the same time keeping an eye on the costs of analysis. It might have read like the $700,000 prize was a big win, but not when we put that amount into perspective.
It cost the team $100 for every square centimeter of analyzed rock, which tallies to between $1 million and $5 million per scroll. This sounds within the realms of research budget, right? But when you then consider there are another “800 scrolls” lined up to be deciphered, that calculates to between 800 million and 4 billion USD.
Therefore, a lot of ancient philosophy will go undeciphered, and as such it will remain a mystery for future researchers to tackle when lower cost research methodologies are developed.
Top image: Left; One of the Herculaneum scrolls that are being deciphered. Right; Text from the Herculaneum scroll Source: Vesuvius Challenge
I had already submitted my resignation. On the last day, the bitch who had committed all the prior unfair labor practices was, of course, at it again. She had me covering for other people, and didn’t let me take any breaks all day. An hour before the end of my shift, when a co worker had come to relieve me from covering for her, she told me the same supervisor wanted me down in her office so she could talk to me.”Oh really? Well, first I am going to take my morning 15 minute break, then I am taking my half hour lunch, then I am taking my afternoon 15, which I am legally required to do. That will bring me up to quitting time, so she can WANT all she wants”, and left. Heard later than she couldn’t believe I had done it, and went screaming my name through all 6 floors of the building looking for me LOL
CHINA WARNING! We Will Show Our Swords Against AMERICA
This was back in the mid 90’s, I was working at a pizza place. A good friend of mine had signed a contract with a major league baseball team, and he was back in town after his first season in the minors. He stopped in to see me at work, when he left one of the waitresses asked who he was. I told her, she seemed interested and asked if I could introduce her to him. I said sure, me and this girl had become good friends since she started working at this place.
I introduce them, they start seeing each other and things seem good. At some point, she learned about the signing bonus that he had received when he signed his contract. It wasn’t a ton, but it was a decent amount. I heard her tell a co-worker that she had stopped taking her birth control, she wanted to get pregnant so, “I can get some of that money”. I told my friend that she said this, and he broke up with her that evening.
She knew I told him, and she did not like that. I go into work the next day, she’s already working and she wants to have a talk. We’re talking, she asked if I told him, I said, “Yep, that was me”. There’s some shouting, and at some point, she grabs me by the throat and his her fist drawn back. The assistant manager grabbed her, and dragged her away. She was sent home for the day. The manager comes in, and he wants to fire both of us. A few coworkers and the assistant manager defended me, as I hadn’t started this fight. She was fired that evening.
Side note: a few weeks later, she tried to run me over with her car. As you can clearly see, she was a very stable individual.
A sales associate was pushing a very large cardboard box, filled with some kind of clothes, along one of the main aisles in the store. It didn’t look very heavy, but it was clearly much too large for any one person to carry.
She had picked up a lot of speed, and she was kinda racing forward, bent over the box like she was going for the gold in Olympic box-pushing, when she reached a spot where the floor changed to carpet. The two types of flooring were separated by one of those very narrow metal bands, flat enough to where it wasn’t generally noticeable.
The box hit the metal band and came to a full – and very abrupt – stop, but the woman did not. She could have done the maneuver a thousand times and never repeated her trick, but she somehow flipped over herself and landed in the box she’d been pushing.
I didn’t laugh at first. I actually managed to control myself, but then I saw the look on her face. She looked like a startled cartoon, anime style, and I just couldn’t contain my laughter after that. I knew that it was so, so wrong, but she looked like she was okay physically.
I still think of her sometimes, and whenever that happens, I can’t help but laugh like an insane hyena.
Rigatoni with Steak Sauce
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Ingredients
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 (12 ounce) rib eye steaks
Salt and pepper
2 onions, thinly sliced
2 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
3/4 cup dry red wine
1 (26 ounce) jar marinara sauce
1 cup beef broth
16 ounces dried rigatoni pasta
3 ounces Parmesan, shaved
Instructions
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a heavy large frying pan over high heat. Sprinkle the steaks with salt and pepper. Cook the steaks until they are brown but still rare in the center, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer the steaks to a plate and set aside to cool completely.
Add 2 more tablespoons of olive oil to the same pan. Sauté the onions and carrots until the onions are translucent, about 8 minutes, with additional salt and pepper, to taste. Add the garlic and oregano, and sauté for 1 minute. Add the wine and simmer for 1 minute. Add the marinara sauce and broth. Cover and simmer over medium low heat to allow the flavors to blend, about 10 minutes.
Season the sauce, to taste, with salt and pepper.
Meanwhile, trim off any fat from the steaks, then cut the steaks into bite size pieces and set aside. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the rigatoni and boil until it is tender but still firm to the bite, stirring often, about 10 minutes. Drain the rigatoni.
Toss the rigatoni and reserved steak pieces and any accumulated juices from the steaks with the sauce to coat.
Transfer the pasta to bowls.
Sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese shavings and serve.
Had a fella break into my house when on holiday in Brazil and a neighbour called the police and he was arrested in my house. She saw him break a small window to get in. Was big on the new consoles and computer games at the time, had all the latest. He’d taken suitcases from upstairs and filled them.
He told the policeman cockily he was going to come back and finish the job, he was a local heroin addict known to them.
When I came back from holiday I had to get a crime number, the policeman without giving a name gave me a massive clue who did it…off the record of course
.Not saying the two are related but I told a certain local person and the burglar was found tied to a lamppost naked a few days later in public view. I know a few locals had a vendetta against him so could have been anyone. A few months later the exact same happened to a teen who had been stealing cars locally and joyriding in them. I know the teen had to be cut free in public which must have seriously embarrassed him. An obnoxious fat kid who would gloat to folk who he had stole a car from.
Thought was a great way to deal with people who were getting away with petty crime and back out to do it again. Made the local papers as well which really would have rubbed it in.
This was when she was 17. She decided she wanted to make the big plunge and purchase a stereo system with the money she’d saved from various jobs. But she was nervous about being taken by nefarious sales people, so she asked her big brother (the guy with a house account at Groove-N-Tube… yeah I bought a lot of that stuff back then) to go with her to recommend what to purchase.
We arrive at what at the time was a big name electronics and appliance store (out of business now, no surprise). The sales person gloms onto us right away and his eyes are sparkling. He thinks he’s landed a couple (probably dating but maybe a young marriage), and he goes into his spiel. We walk through the store discussing the various things they have to offer. I ask some questions. My sister asks some questions. Salesperson totally ignores sis. Probably figures I’m the one wearing the pants in this decision. At one point, he totally turns his back on her while he discusses the attributes of a system. I could tell she was fuming but was too polite to say anything.
Finally, it’s time to make a decision. With his back still to my sister, he asks me: “So what can I pack up for you?”
I look him dead in the eye and say: “What are you asking me for? She’s the one buying it.”
He went white. Looked at my sister. She beamed at him and said: “I think I’ll buy something from a store that values all its customers.” And out she sailed.
By the time I went to college in West Texas, my pickpocketing days were well and truly behind me. I had seen the error of my ways, repented of my mischief, and was endeavoring to live an honest life again.
Little did I know that my new Lone Star country was home to one of the most absurd and illogical bits of fashion stupidity in history.
No, I’m not talking about chaps. Don’t even get me started on those.
I’m not entirely sure what it’s called, but I have heard it referred to as a “cowboy wallet.” The primary difference between it and a non-stupid wallet is that it is extra super-duper long.
image 132
This means that when you put it in the back pocket of your Wranglers, it sticks out the top like a pull-tab.
image 131
Are you effing serious, Texas? Why not just hang a sign saying FREE MONEY?
There may be a reader or two out there thinking, “no, I’d definitely notice if someone pulled my wallet. I’d feel it slide out!”
Trust me, you wouldn’t. It’s not any failure on your part, either. Pickpocketing is a bit like cheating at cards. When done properly, it has nothing to do with luck.
I had several friends in college who used these cowboy goodie-bags and I made sure to let them know the economic dangers of their rustic fashion. I had one friend named Logan with whom it became a running joke that I would pull his wallet pretty much every time I saw him. I’d obviously return it to him immediately, but even when he knew full well that I was going to do it, he was still powerless to stop me because it really is that easy.
So Quora, if you are the owner/carrier of a cowboy wallet and you happen to find yourself in a big city or, for that matter, pretty much anywhere besides your family’s ranch, I suggest that you consider either putting it in your inside jacket pocket or getting a different wallet. You would actually be better off taping your money to one of those flag-football belts than putting that thing in your back pocket, as you’d be more likely to notice when it got pulled.
The New York pickpocket rings (to the best of my knowledge) have all either become defunct or transitioned to more profitable ventures, and the city is now very safe. Nonetheless, wear one of those things around here and someone’s likely to flint you on principle.
McDonald’s most popular burger and the second most popular item on their menu (second only to their unique fries).
But have you ever stopped to wonder how it got its name?
You see, McDonald’s was originally founded by brothers Maurice and Richard McDonald.
They went by the nicknames Mac and Dick (forwhen Mac and Cheese just isn’t enough).
The “Big Mac” hit McDonald’s fast food restaurants in August 1968. However, before this, the executives at McDonald’s were struggling to come up with a name for this new super-sandwich.
The McDonald’s corporation tested out a couple of other names, including “The Aristocrat.”
Eventually, a secretary named Esther Glickstein (who was quite fond of co-founder Maurice), suggested the name “Big Mac”.
She admitted that the higher-ups initially laughed the name off when she first suggested it, but she got the last laugh when the name stuck!
But just imagine…
for one second…
if…
she had been more fond of Richard…
You could be enjoying a Big Dick, instead of a Big Mac.
My Girlfriend Asked For An Open Relationship, I Walked Out And Now I Laugh At Her Tears
I was general manager of a pregnancy resource center. It was a 501(c)(3) corporation, and we were completely dependent on donations. It was going broke when I took over. We got back to solvency within a year, without having to back off at all from the services we provided. In fact, we had grown quite a bit. There were 5 full time employees, and about 35 volunteers.
One day, right out of the blue, I was called to go to the office down the street of the chairman of our board of directors. When I got there, he and another board member summarily fired me. Before I left that office, the board chairman had written a glowing letter of recommendation for me.
Curious, I asked him why I was being let go. He said that the board had voted me out because I ran the place too much like a business and not enough like a charity. He had voted against firing me, but was outvoted. The reason they were going broke before hiring me was that no one in the place had any ability to manage money. So, making it more businesslike internally, without that being noticed by our clientele, just seemed wrong to them.
I’m not a waiter, but I will tell my experience. After work, a bunch of coworkers and I would go to the pub across the street. People came and left, as they got off work. We always ran a single tab. Someone would come, have one five dollar drink, and throw ten dollars into the middle of the table. The next person might have 3 $5 drinks, and throw in a twenty before leaving. Nobody wanted to risk stiffing their coworkers or the waitress.
The biggest problem was that at the end of the night, we often had a 35–40 percent tip.
Then a friend we used to work with, joined us for drinks, at first everything was fine, but after a few friday nights at the pub, he started to say. I don’t have any cash on me, just hand me the cash, and I will go put it all on my credit card.
Three weeks later, the waitress who had waited on us for years, sat down early in the evening, before our friend joined us and asked us if her service had slipped, because suddenly we had gone from 35–40 percent tips to exactly 10 percent the last few times. This was a few years ago in Canada, and 10–15 percent was the standard tip. It turns out our friend had been picking up our $300 for a $220 bill, and paying $242, with tip, and going home with $58 more than he came with, after drinking all night for free.
We said no, her service was still fabulous and suggested that she keep us on a group tab, and put him on a separate bill.
Our friend came and at the end of the evening went to grab the cash, and we said, no you have a separate bill.
He got all flustered, and we told him we didn’t want to see him for 6 months, until he learned his lesson.
Lionel Messi will go down in history as the man who united both Hong Kong and mainland Chinese football fans, both pro- and anti-establishment Hong Kong voters, and both its political elites and grassroots citizens, to have such seething hatred towards the same person.
I don’t think even bona fide war criminals like Tojo Hideki would be able to accomplish such a feat in the Sinosphere these days. There were people who paid thousands of HK dollars for a ticket, and traveled to Hong Kong all the way from Xinjiang and abroad, just for a glimpse of the legendary “king of football”. Instead, all they got was snubbed.
There’s no other way to put it. Messi messed up, big time.
Right now nobody really knows what’s going on, why he refused to fulfil his contract (of playing at least 45 minutes on the field), and why he behaved in such a cold and arrogant manner towards his fans in Hong Kong, to the extent that he didn’t even once smile or wave at them.
But judging from the fact that he did play ball in Riyadh, and that he said in an interview he will play again in Kobe, Japan later on, my gut feeling tells me this probably has to do with politics. And before some of you start going “but muh oppression/human rights”, remember that he didn’t protest being in Saudi Arabia.
It’s just too much of a coincidence. You see, right now Hong Kong is trying to pass a law known as “Article 23”. For those of you not from here, I’ll give you the rundown version: Hong Kong, which is part of the People’s Republic of China, has a constitutional duty to enact a law covering secession and subversion (pretty much every country and region in the world has this type of law, by the way).
This was supposed to have been done ages ago, but the anti-establishment, anti-China, right wing types pushed back against any discussion of it every single time. After the violent far right riots in 2019, the local government began to take national security more seriously, which is why western media, unsurprisingly, is trying to depict Article 23 as dystopic and totalitarian.
My instinct is that even if this whole ordeal in Hong Kong was not political at first (he could have just been a dick – not the most outlandish thing about footballers, honestly), Messi will make it political and milk all he can from it. He’s going to turn this thing into another Daryl Morey, NBA-China controversy, hijacking an entire sport for his own political virtue-signalling, and as a pledge of allegiance to both the United States and his home country of Argentina (which is currently being run by a far right neoliberal demagogue, who is trying to abolish the national currency in favour of the US dollar, outlaw abortions, and legalise the organ trade).
If nothing else, this would at least help him win over a few crowds in certain parts of the world where Sinophobia is politically correct. He might even run for political office on this far right platform after retiring from football. Who knows.
image 138image 139image 140
Again, I have to stress that this is all just speculation on my part. Nobody but Messi and those closest to him would know what’s really going on. I hope I’m proven wrong, and that the same shitshow that happened in Hong Kong would repeat itself in Japan, thus proving he wasn’t being disrespectful specifically towards the Chinese, and that he’s just a snobbish cunt to everyone. However, knowing how politicised football has become in recent years, I’m not counting on it.
I would be remiss if I didn’t give a shoutout to the real MVP on the field, Hong Kong singer G.E.M. (Gloria Tang), for doing her best to cheer up an angry and disappointed crowd, and trying to give them something worth their money. She’s the queen 🫅.
Lionel Messi will go down in history as the man who united both Hong Kong and mainland Chinese football fans, both pro- and anti-establishment Hong Kong voters, and both its political elites and grassroots citizens, to have such seething hatred towards the same person.
I don’t think even bona fide war criminals like Tojo Hideki would be able to accomplish such a feat in the Sinosphere these days. There were people who paid thousands of HK dollars for a ticket, and traveled to Hong Kong all the way from Xinjiang and abroad, just for a glimpse of the legendary “king of football”. Instead, all they got was snubbed.
There’s no other way to put it. Messi messed up, big time.
Right now nobody really knows what’s going on, why he refused to fulfil his contract (of playing at least 45 minutes on the field), and why he behaved in such a cold and arrogant manner towards his fans in Hong Kong, to the extent that he didn’t even once smile or wave at them.
But judging from the fact that he did play ball in Riyadh, and that he said in an interview he will play again in Kobe, Japan later on, my gut feeling tells me this probably has to do with politics. And before some of you start going “but muh oppression/human rights”, remember that he didn’t protest being in Saudi Arabia.
It’s just too much of a coincidence. You see, right now Hong Kong is trying to pass a law known as “Article 23”. For those of you not from here, I’ll give you the rundown version: Hong Kong, which is part of the People’s Republic of China, has a constitutional duty to enact a law covering secession and subversion (pretty much every country and region in the world has this type of law, by the way).
This was supposed to have been done ages ago, but the anti-establishment, anti-China, right wing types pushed back against any discussion of it every single time. After the violent far right riots in 2019, the local government began to take national security more seriously, which is why western media, unsurprisingly, is trying to depict Article 23 as dystopic and totalitarian.
My instinct is that even if this whole ordeal in Hong Kong was not political at first (he could have just been a dick – not the most outlandish thing about footballers, honestly), Messi will make it political and milk all he can from it. He’s going to turn this thing into another Daryl Morey, NBA-China controversy, hijacking an entire sport for his own political virtue-signalling, and as a pledge of allegiance to both the United States and his home country of Argentina (which is currently being run by a far right neoliberal demagogue, who is trying to abolish the national currency in favour of the US dollar, outlaw abortions, and legalise the organ trade).
If nothing else, this would at least help him win over a few crowds in certain parts of the world where Sinophobia is politically correct. He might even run for political office on this far right platform after retiring from football. Who knows.
Again, I have to stress that this is all just speculation on my part. Nobody but Messi and those closest to him would know what’s really going on. I hope I’m proven wrong, and that the same shitshow that happened in Hong Kong would repeat itself in Japan, thus proving he wasn’t being disrespectful specifically towards the Chinese, and that he’s just a snobbish cunt to everyone. However, knowing how politicised football has become in recent years, I’m not counting on it.
I would be remiss if I didn’t give a shoutout to the real MVP on the field, Hong Kong singer G.E.M. (Gloria Tang), for doing her best to cheer up an angry and disappointed crowd, and trying to give them something worth their money. She’s the queen 🫅.
Honestly, no way to be sure. On a Saturday night i was at a tavern having a few. I was supposed to leave and meet my Niece at another tavern. I wasted just enough time at the first place that my Niece and her friends decided to go to a different tavern. I was just about a mile down the road from the other tavern.
A whole load of police vehicles and emergency personnel trucks go flying by the first bar heading towards the other bar. A Shooting occurred at JB’s tavern; killing a bartender Named Jeff; who put himself between the gunman and his patrons.
The gunman did this because he was kicked out for harassing women. He went home shaved his head, dressed in camouflage, grabbed a rifle, and then finished his journey to insanity
He killed another man Rich; who I knew from my working in taverns. Jeff, I knew from school; he was a couple of years behind me. We weren’t best friends; but we both enjoyed playing poker. The killer also wounded like a dozen innocent people.
Luther Casteel was his name. I had to Google it because I was unsure of the spelling. He actually wounded 14 people and brought 4 weapons with him and a couple hundred rounds of ammunition.
I really cannot answer if my screwing around saved my life; but I believe that it saved my niece’s life.
Okay, this would have been cute if the guy wasn’t a huge piece of human garbage*. My crew and I were out to eat on Christmas Eve in Hawaii. One of the few places that was open was our hotel’s sushi restaurant. After eating a heroic amount of sushi, lard ass leaned back and explained, “that was so good. I’m famished!”
Read on for the rest of the story.
The flight attendant and I looked at each other and exchanged a glance. So, I casually said “How can you still be hungry after all that sushi?” He said “I’m not hungry, I’m famished.” I just said “famished is a synonym for starving.” He had to look it up. The n made some BS excuse.
Read on for my rant against this dumbass.
He was fucking stupid. His wife was pregnant with twins at the time. He was glad because he said twins would be easier than a single kid. Later, after they were born he would only talk about one of the. “Clair Bears” was what he called his daughter Clair. He rarely referred to her twin. We dubbed that one trash bag because it was obvious how he felt about his kids. He was just awful.
hong kong 香港 3/3 (if wong kar wai and wes anderson had a really bad short film as a baby)
My stepfather was an apartment building manager in Hollywood, California when I was a teen.
The modern building was large and well-kept. The one large ‘suite’ was a challenge to rent out because of the price and because it was just too luxurious for the neighborhood.
But the owner of the building found a tenant who exceeded her dreams: a young Arabian prince (a student?) who paid a hefty security fee and rental for a year upfront.
I rarely saw him and his entourage because they clubbed and partied until dawn.
When I did catch a glimpse, it was like watching a movie: a group of handsome, laughing young men dressed in flowing Arab robes, moving through the California sunshine.
When they left before the lease was up, the owner was told that the prince did not require rent and security deposit refunds.
The owner was delighted…until the suite was inspected.
The formerly white shag carpet had not been cleaned since the prince moved in, and much of it had a strange, dark tinge. The walls and ceilings were no longer pristine white either.
As the owner and my stepfather entered the massive livingroom, they discovered why the colors were so dingy.
The tenant had been using braziers ON THE CARPET to cook food, leaving greasy stains all over. Above, the ceiling was almost black from smoke. Mattresses had been dragged in from the bedrooms.
The kitchen was literally filled with spoiled food and dirty dishes and pans; the stove was caked all over with burned food. The refrigerator was a mold-filled, broken disaster.
The bathrooms were disgusting, and the owner backed quickly away and shut the doors because of the stench.
The 3 bedrooms had been used for pets (forbidden by the lease) – dogs and birds. Excrement and rotted food were everywhere.
Most cabinet and inside doors were damaged or missing. Old papers, clothes and other items as well as trash littered the apartment.
Reparing and refurbishing the suite took almost 6 months and cost way more than the substantial deposit and unused rent. A bill was forwarded to the prince’s lawyer and was paid promptly.
Note: In the interest of keeping this short, I have not written in detail about the destruction.
After being fed for two consecutive weeks, this beautiful stray cat became a part of the family.
I’ll tell you what happened to my dad, and you might understand. My dad owned part of the family business, he was the working partner in the business.
He worked 12–16 days, 7 days a week to make ends meet.
When I was 8 or 9 he had what was called at the time a nervous breakdown, he was in the hospital for months, and the business didn’t close.
He was out for two months, and my mom went in, evidently she had worked herself into a git, worrying about my dad, and the effect that only seeing him for an hour or two a day was having on the marriage.
My mother got a job. That wasn’t rare in the early 1960s , but it wasn’t common. My dad cut his hours to 10–12 hours a day 6 days a week. Still way too much, but now we took a yearly, week long camping vacation.
When I was 19 my dad had a heart attack, and they put the company up for sale.
When my dad got out of the hospital he was under strict orders not to work more than 40 hours a week. I dropped out of university to help run the family business, while they were selling it.
It took 4 years to sell the business.
My dads heart was never the same. He went to work for the new owners, working 36 hours a week, weekends off, for the first time in his life.
He retired at 65, and died before he was 66 .
That is why you don’t work at a job that stresses you out.
Ex-CIA: Biden is NOW a National Security risk for the world
Back in the 1970’s there was this fad. It was the CB Radio fad, and everyone seemed to end up with a Citizens’ Band radio in the car. Ah. We all had slang that we would use, and there were many a useless discussion over the air that we all endured.
I had one. My brother had one. My parents had one. My friends all had one.
It was so “hip” at the time, don’t you know.
CB radio
Now, we have cell phones, social media and all the rest. But every now and then, I get an itching to reach for the CB to find out what is going on regarding an accident that I just passed on the road.
Fads come and go.
And everything that we consider normal today, will eventually be viewed as a strange fad by others. Enjoy them while you have them.
Yes. The paramedics brought her in from a nursing home and they had been doing CPR for a while. The patient had been in and out of perfusing rhythms the entire time. She looked very old and frail and chronically ill. I asked the medics if she had a DNR order and they just rolled their eyes. The lead medic told me that they asked the same thing but the nursing home staff couldn’t locate the paperwork and because they couldn’t be sure they initiated resuscitation.
We didn’t have anything on record either but I wasn’t really committed to CPR and shocking and all the drugs necessary to keep this poor woman alive when her quality of life was likely so bad. I decided to give one round of drugs and then stop if there was no response. We did just that and much to my surprise she responded. Her heart started out slowly and gained momentum. Within a couple minutes she had a stable blood pressure. After a while she even began to attempt breathing on her own.
It wasn’t long before the family arrived and told us that the patient’s wishes were to NOT be resuscitated. They told us that she would never want to be kept alive this way and demanded that we stop the ventilator and medicines. So, I did. Despite stopping all support she continued to live. Ultimately, we admitted her to the hospital and she continued on in a sort of half-life state. This went on for days. Days!
I went to see her and the family a few times when they were there in the hospital and just felt terrible for them all. They were unhappy with me but they also understood why we did what we did. Ultimately, they sort of took it out on the nursing home staff and not the medics or me.
In the end, she died with her family all around her. Several members were able to travel in to say goodbye before she passed because of the hospital course. I suppose it all worked out the way it was supposed to. I still regretted it though.
Maybe it wasn’t rediculous as you mean but it was the biggest and it was Mine. I was representing a 15 year old pregnant girl. CPS wanted her sent to a reformatory. I wanted her sent to a girls school. The CPS worker testified that the girl should go to jail because when she was 5 yes five she seduced her father ( an executive with a big company). The girl had been raped by her father for years.
The girl said to me “ you told me that wasn’t my fault.” In the courtroom before God Judge and country I grabbed that CPS worker and tried to pound her into the floor.
It wasn’t looking good for me but the judge made an immediate order. He ordered the CPS worker to personally pay for the girl to go to the private girls school. (about 3times her annual salary) . I waited all day to be arrested. Finally a call came that I was wanted back in court.
It was announced that no charges would be brought against me and the order against the CPS worker was dropped and the order to pay made against the agency. The CP S worker was also to resign.
I’m not a violent person but only so much can be let go I guess at time I lost sight of my life and career and could only see my client.
I have gotten some nice comments. I need to add that before I went for this person the judge asked her if she had done everything she could for the girl. Her response was “I have been wonderful”. I am not proud of getting violent. It is very rare in my life. I was happy with the outcome but I risked getting my license and going to jail. I need to make a clarification here. I was in law school then. i was representing her as her probation officer. It was in the early 70s. A child’s right to an attorney was based on the parents ability to afford one. I was the closest thing to a lawyer she had.
PS. if you read about incest cases, or any sexual abuse cases of very young children, the children are usually taught by their abusers how to “please” them. they are basically taught to mimic seductive behavior. They are not seductive. They are merely mimicking what they have been taught to do, but not everybody sees it that way. many overtly seductive Teenagers have been molested in this manner as a child, but they are just labeled as seductresses. I guess it is easier for some people to blame a child than it is for them to take the time to learn about the effects of abuse on children. I was often called in by other probation officers when they had an uncomfortable feeling about a case because I could see these types of behaviors even minor ones. i’ll never know how many cases I didn’t catch, but I was never wrong when I called it.
Killer Thinks He Got Away With Murder – Doesn’t Know 5 YO Survived | The Morrissey Family Case
Not quite fitting in, this applies to ALL overseas types, near ones (Malaysia, Singapore) and far ones. USA, Europe.
An example is this
image 498
vs this
image 497
Superficially we look similar but we’re quite different.
You stand me next to some China born Chinese and you’ll feel there’s something off.
The foreign diet in our formative years changes us. I was a LOT fatter (though thing for westerners) and had a rounder chunkier face.
The life experiences also make us stand differently. I’ve written previously that in the UK if you’re weak (doesn’t matter if you’re black, white, Indian or Chinese) people will pick on you. So there’s an outward portray of aggression already… probably why cops stop me so much.
That’s just the visual things.
Then we’ve got psychology, culture and language.
All of which means you fit in even less. You can as again fit in on a superficial level but go any deeper and you’re spotted.
Being different leads to disimilar treatment sometimes, sometimes this is good, sometimes this is bad.
My wife and I brought her car in for service at the dealership and we’re looking around while waiting. A young salesman asked if he could show us around. I said we are just there for service.
After talking a while about their new cars, he went to get “the closer” a big fellow who obviously had been there for a while. He began to say things like what would I need to do to get you into this vehicle and make me an offer. I told him we weren’t in the market for a car; I research such matters before making such a purchase; and, for me to buy a car today, he would probably have to nearly give it to me. I told him if I made him an offer, I was sure he would find it insulting.
I did let him pull my credit. This would have made it very clear that I was highly successful in financial services sales. Which is what makes his subsequent rudeness particularly inconceivable.
He continues to insist that I make an offer. I finally offer him probably half of what the car is worth (because I would have bought it on the spot at that price). He is insulted.
He then leans over me (with my wife still sitting next to me) and says:
“At some point in your life, you’re going to have to become man enough to be able to make a decision.”
I instantly replied:
“It’s not my manhood in question here; I’m not the one who can’t close this deal.”
I only saw the stunned look on his face for a moment before he turned to walk away.
June 2nd, Midnight; a 15 yo boy Zohaib posted a suicide note over social media; stating he’s going to end his life today.
image 495
I browsed through a lot of tweets posted from other users on the topic, and learned that the boy lives in my city on XYZ road. That’s it.
The problem is that, on the said ‘miles long’ road there are dozens of towns and neighborhoods interconnected, I mean, that is very incomplete piece of information to effectively and timely counter such an issue of extraordinary sensitive nature.
I responded to him immediately, and also requested public to send me any information or clue they might have about this boy.
image 494
And that interaction of mine resulted in one of the most burdensome barrage of tweets and DMs I’ve ever received as social media handler of city police, the number was literally in thousands. That kid’s name was trending nationwide on twitter during this fiasco. But sadly, nothing useful came out of this interaction tsunami, all I had was first name of the boy and that he lives somewhere in my city.
I calmly reviewed the situation for a minute; I mean our field officers are ‘head to toe’ engaged with crime fighting day in & day out, responding to the calls, handling cases one over the other, and now comparatively… I have this first of its kind situation where a boy wants to commit suicide about whom we know nothing… could even be a prank for goodness sake.
Nope. I told myself.
We should find and rescue him, no matter what it takes…we gotta!
I got Police Chief in the loop, by his orders Police command & Control was now at my disposal. Which I believe is the most sophisticated and comprehensive system of surveillance, communication and patrolling all across the country. We were about to to execute a time sensitive search and rescue task. Our officers responded to the given locations and secured the entry exit points; while being on the look out.
And that minute, I learned over social media that the boy has fled home, he’s on the loose!
Holy cow!
We didn’t panic with the thought of him doing something foolish while on the run, though it was a legitimate concern. We kept striving, I dispatched teams here and there upon receiving bits of information from concerned twitter users, and then the magic happened…. we got his address. Somebody finally recognized him I guess even though there was no display picture or anything else but the that helped us greatly. Now that is something, I can work with.
He wasn’t home but now we knew who he is. So technical resources along with human intelligence played the good part, he was tracked and in minutes… secured!
And all of this happened under an hour.
He was anxious and nervous… but otherwise fine and safe. His parents thanked the Police, the situation came back to normal.
Next day while I was at work, various news teams arrived at my office and I was genuinely surprised to learn that this episode has made to the news, even to BBC. I was directed to speak a few words on camera, which I did even though I hate to.
image 493
Those of you who know me for a long time, I really do not appreciate the idea of being on the limelight for many reasons. I have politely excused out of numerous feature stories and interviews all these years.
I’m not a celebrity, never was. Super hero, Yes. But not a show off… for that is not what cops are meant to be. That is why you see the big-ass mask on me even though I was requested twice that it is perfectly alright to slide it down a little during the talk. Nope!
Do police officers care about you? YES. Dogmatically!
I’ll do whatever it takes to protect and serve you, I will put my life on the line to save yours! And here “I” stands for Police officers you see daily around you no matter wherever you are.
Start your journey
Not wealth, but really in the things that matter to you.
Figgy Pudding
Figgy Pudding is a type of Christmas pudding which was originally made with figs. It may be baked, steamed in the oven, boiled or fried. Figgy Pudding dates back to 16th century England.
istock 000018579358 large
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
300ml (1/2 pint) milk (10 fluid ounces)
225g (8 ounces) flour (2 cups)
175g (6 ounces) dried figs
150ml (1/4 pint) Brandy (5 fluid ounces)
110g (4 ounces) suet
110g (4 ounces) prunes
85g (3 ounces) raisins or sultanas
50g (2 ounces) dried apricots
50g (2 ounces) dates
25g (1 ounce) dried apples
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
On the day before making the pudding, place the dried apricots, prunes and apples to soak in water and place the raisins or sultanas to soak in the brandy.
Remove the stones from of the dates and prunes.
Butter a large pudding basin or double boiler bowl.
Sift flour into a bowl.
Stir in suet and mix to a fairly soft dough with cold water.
Turn out on to a floured surface. Lightly knead until smooth.
Roll out two-thirds of pastry into a round and use to line a well-greased 2-pint pudding basin (or double boiler bowl).
Melt the honey and stir in the ginger and cinnamon. Add to the soaked fruits and brandy mixture. Mix well and place into the pastry lined bowl. Moisten edges of pastry with water. Cover with lid, rolled from remainder of the pastry. Press edges well together to seal. Cover securely with greased greaseproof paper or aluminum foil.
Steam steadily for 2 hours. Ensure that the water does not evaporate, topping it up from time to time with boiling water.
Three years back, in 2013, one evening, I was having casual discussions with my friend, lets call him “Mr.S”. We were discussing on different topics like current trends, jobs, future life, family and friends, money. At that time, I was working in a software company with little experience of 1.5 years and some cash in my account. S was studying hard to clear his remaining subject which forced him to take a year gap. And same was the case with “Mr.P” too, he is the third character in my story.
Let me tell you, we all are intelligent students. But because of some mistakes and their habit of taking things lightly cost them a year gap. In fact, Mr.P was smarter than me in every department. Mr.S was not good at academics but he was too good at marketing and some other “special” skills.
We three were together from last 7.5 years. We sat on one bench. We studied together. We stayed together. We tripped together. We partied together. We lived together. We participated and won lots of competitions together. And most important – we dreamed together. Everyone from our batch including teachers used to tell us — you 3 idiots are awesome.
Everything in life was going in a right direction. But let me remind you one of the laws of Mr.Murphy, “In nature, nothing is ever right. Therefore, if everything is going right, something is wrong.” [src: http://www.murphys-laws.com/murphy/murphy-laws.html]. And exactly, same thing happened with us.
Lately, I was thinking a lot about starting a business. Starting a start-up. Starting an IT Company. Starting an IT Training institute. Starting something related to IT. I discussed these thoughts with Mr.S. And guess what, he completely agreed with my ideas and within a few minutes we were business partners! I started giving more time to the thoughts on business. Within some days, we decided to include Mr.P in our team, as he was our best friend and also a sound person with technical knowledge. We shared all these thoughts with Mr.P and he also agreed to join us on the long adventure. But assured us that he’ll join the company after a few months.
So basically everything needed to start a startup was ready. We had a team. Me as a sole investor, lead technical person and of course, the CEO. Along with that I also had a role of Software Engineer in the company where I was working concurrently. It was a big task for me to handle both the tasks – a job and a start up.
My job was the main source of finance for my family and for the startup also. Mr.S was assigned the role of getting assignments and marketing department, while Mr. P was going to look after the training and in-house development. We also had few projects to start with. We also hired 2 people to work with us.
After few months, I made an investment of ₹2 lac (~$3000) and bought 4 advanced PCs, also rented out a small place to start our work in. And, within a span of 4 months, our small startup was on its way onto a long journey. We held a small inaugural function and celebrated. Yeah, that was quite an achievement for us. We started our working together.
But there was a small problem, Mr.P was yet to join the company. He earlier promised us to join the company, yet after 3 months, he was not interested in joining the company. After thinking a lot, I decided to talk to him about his decision and why he was not joining office. His answers gave me the biggest shock of my life. He refused to join the company. His reasons were like, “I am not seeing future in your company. Another friend of us started another startup and he is taking me in his team. I need money right now.” Guys, let me tell you, I also offered him mighty amount of salary. But still, he refused my invitation politely and sent a long message reasoning why he won’t join the company. Most of the reasons were BS. And story of Mr.P was finished. Completely.
Lesson#1 learned [in a hard way]: Do not trust the promises of everyone. Everybody is not loyal to his/her own words.
I was shell shocked, shattered, and quiet depressed after hearing his decision and answer. I was scattered from inside. I decided to keep the work running with Mr.S along with the two hired people. Things were getting more and more difficult.
Fast forward 4-5 months.
Mr.S was looking after the marketing and product sales things, he was the main guy our customers were dealing with. Whereas I was busy in development and resource management.
One day, while managing balance sheets, I figured out there was a record missing for a sum of ₹20000 (~$300). Out of curiosity, when I asked Mr.S about the missing ₹20000, his answers were not logical. They were irrelevant. They were lies. I got to know that he was playing some tricks and using the company’s money for his own personal use. His most funny reply was, “Dude, chalta hai… busy log hain hum, chhoti chhoti details par dhyan nahi rakhte“. [Dude, We are too busy people, we should not focus on such small details]. For him ₹20K was a small amount, but it wasn’t for me.
We had a bitter argument on this and it resulted into disagreement. And we decided to separate. Decided to drive on our separate ways. But he put one condition. He will retain the “business name“. As he was looking after the marketing and other things, he decided to go after the name and customers. And in such way, my first startup was dead.
Lesson#2 learned [in a harder way]: Be careful who you bring to the top with you, not everyone is loyal.
Image Source : Google
P.S. I allowed him to use the business name, because of two reasons:
I was ready to work with anyone, but not with a treacherous friend.
I trust myself, I was alone at the start and will fight the battle alone, will re-build everything from scratch. One can delay me, but can never stop me from achieving my dreams.
Edit 1: From last 2 years, we 3 have never met, talked or discussed about each other.
In June, 1954, US Senator Lester C. Hunt (D-WY) shot himself to death with a rifle at his desk in his US Senate office in Washington, DC. Senator Hunt had been despondent over threats he had received – from Sen. Joe McCarthy and two Republican colleagues, Senator Herman Welker (R-ID) and Senator Styles Bridges (R-NH) – that lurid reports of the arrest of Hunt’s son the previous year would be made public, both in Washington and in his home state of Wyoming, embarrassing Hunt and putting his upcoming reelection bid in peril. The younger Hunt had been arrested and charged with soliciting sex from a male police officer, who was working a sting operation in a Washington park. The charges were later dismissed, but McCarthy and his cronies discovered the fact, and pressured the police department into refiling the charges. Hunt was under great pressure from McCarthy, demanding that he resign, which would have effectively given the Republicans control of the Senate. At the time, Democrats controlled the US Senate by just one vote, and a Hunt resignation would have put the Senate into a tie, enabling the Republicans to gain control, since then-Vice President Richard Nixon would serve as tiebreaker. After Hunt’s death, the Republican governor of Wyoming appointed a Republican to fill Hunt’s unexpired term, who in turn declined to run for the seat in that fall’s election, a race that was won by a Democrat. Unfortunately, the Republicans flipped other Senate seats in 1954, and took control on their own. This scandal was downplayed for many years, but it also occurred in the shadow of the Army-McCarthy hearings, which were going on at the time of Hunt’s death. Even today, there is little awareness of the scandal in Wyoming, and few Americans know that it took place at all. Interestingly, though, Hunt is known as the driving force behind Wyoming’s famous “bucking bronco” license plate emblem, having commissioned the artist to create the design during his years as Governor of Wyoming.
I went to a famous pancake restaurant that was promoting its new burgers. I saw an ad offering them for $5.99 with unlimited fries and a free drink. I pointed to the jalapeno kick burger and asked the waitress to verify that this burger was, in fact, part of the $5.99 special. When she said, “yes,” I then ordered this burger. I had a $10 gift card, and my intention was to tip the waitress the remaining amount after taxes, which would have made it a 50% tip.
However, when I got the bill, I saw was charged $9.29 for the burger. When I called the waitress over to tell her about the mistake, she said that the burger I chose was not included in the special and that I needed to pay regular price. Naturally, I told her that I deliberately asked her if this burger was included before I ordered it and that she confirmed me it was. Her response was that she didn’t understand what burger I wanted.
I explained the situation to the manager, saying I would not have ordered it if the waitress did not tell me it was part of the special, that they cannot charge me for the server’s mistake. The manager called the server over and she had the nerve to deny that I even asked her about the burger being a part of the promotion. Unbelievably, the manager said she must take the server’s word for it.
In front of the waitress, I presented my $10 gift card, telling the manager, I was going to give the waitress what would have remained from my $5.99 burger, which would have been a nice tip. However, since she won’t own up to her mistake, she will now receive what is left from my $9.29 burger (which after taxes was about a nickel).
Waiting in line at an auto parts store and the guy in front of me sets down an alternator and asked the clerk for a water pump. The clerk naturally is confused and asks about the alternator. The guy tells him it’s a water pump and that’s why he asked for a water pump.
The clerk tries nicely to correct him, even shows the guy a picture of an alternator vs. a water pump for his specific car. To no avail the guy “knows more” than this poor clerk. Who I might add is 100% correct that the alternator is NOT a water pump. The power connections kind of gives it away specially when there are no hose attachments for it to pump coolant a.k.a. water.
Anyway, the guy just goes nuts. Throws the alternator at the poor clerk luckily missing his intended target. Makes huge threats about calling corporate; of course he has tons of friends on social media so he threatens to close the store down. On and on this guy goes about how much smarter he is than anyone behind the counter, how they always give him the wrong part. I swear it lasted 20 minutes. Anyway, the manager was in the back counting out the money or stocking something, not really sure, but she was in the back. She comes out, picks up the alternator, sets it on the counter, and asks the guy why he is throwing such a temper tantrum over an alternator.
Oh here we go again! How dare a woman correct him. She doesn’t know shit about cars. What’s a woman doing working at an auto parts store. The vile shit just kept going. Well, during ALL of this mess someone in the oil section decided to call the cops. At some point the cops sneak in and are right behind me and this entire mess. I’m gently pushed aside and they yell, “Sir!” real loudly. He turns and goes ghostly white. The cops start asking about the situation. One has taken the rest of us aside, found the caller, and we are telling them what we witnessed. The other officer is talking with mister alternator/water pump.
Next thing you know he is under arrest and as they are escorting him out we hear one officer tell the other officer that arguing about alternators was the dumbest thing they have witnessed all month. To which the guy yells, “It’s a fucking water pump!”
When my son was in elementary school he was beaten up by two older students to the point he required hospital care. Since the two boys were going into high school next year and it was the last day of school both the principal and superintendent said there was nothing they could do. I called the police and had them charged. One officer went to the hospital and saw my son and two more took the boys away in handcuffs at the school. When the case went to court I told my son to be honest and don’t guess. The boys had been in trouble before so the parents hired a good criminal lawyer.
My son was on the stand for over an hour being grilled by the lawyer and the judge was getting fed up. The lawyer asked my son how he knew who was kicking him. Basically he said “ I was being kicked by a Doc Martin shoe which was on a foot which was on a leg which was on a body and his head was on it” I could see the judge shaking in silent laughter and the stenographer laughing in her Dictaphone. The courtroom was silent with muffled laughter. The lawyer also stood away from my son and holding his ear said he had bad hearing and to speak up. My son was very nervous and scared showing it by speaking very quietly. Finally my son turned to the judge and said could he ask a question. The judge said sure. My son said “in which ear is he hard of hearing because he is going back and forth between both ears”. Same muffled laughter. The judge glared at my son and said “if his hearing is that bad he will be ending his questioning” with a wink to my son he told me later.
Apparently this went on with all the other witnesses and the case was dismissed from all the conflicting statements. This lawyer must have cost the parents a bundle. The police officer in charge of the case visited us about a month later to see how my son was doing. He also said that he was impressed with my son in court and gave him his card. All our children make us proud.
During my college, I took a course called entrepreneurial marketing.
The professor gave one interesting perspective regarding billing and customer experience:
When booking a flight ticket, if the price is $220 instead of $210, the customer wouldn’t feel anything. The $10 on the top of $210 he is paying seems insignificant.
But if you charge him $210 at the beginning and later ask him to pay $5 if wants a water bottle onboard, he might find the experience disappointing. One, he thinks $5 is too expensive for a water bottle. Two, he has to check if he has the cash. Three, he has to worry about conversion charges if it is the card. Overall, there are so many things that make the experience complicated.
So just add $10 more on the flight ticket and give him two water bottles if you are keen on giving a comfortable experience.
Same thing with star hotels. Just charge $20 more on the $150 per night and give complimentary water, canned drinks, and coffee rather than billing for every item inside the mini-fridge.
The same logic applies to tipping.
When you go to a restaurant for a pleasant dining experience, you are made to do all sorts of calculations for taxes and add them to the amount in the menu. On top of this, you have to do calculations for tips and then add to the final amount to see if the item is really worth that price or not.
It ruins the whole experience.
Secondly, this tipping is completely optional. It is in the customer’s hands whether to pay it or not. And if he wants to, whether it is 5% or 15% is also his choice. There is no guarantee that the one who did the best service will get the maximum tip.
Thirdly, does anyone who what is best service universally? For me, not bothering me by enquiring every five minutes ‘Do you need anything else?’ or standing beside my table is a better service. For someone, being approachable by waiting near his table is better service. It varies from person to person and it is near impossible for the waiter to figure this out.
Fourthly, the tip for bringing $50 for 100ml single malt is more than $5 1L water bottle, when the former requires less energy. Is there any logic here?
And lastly, the owner thinks that waiters get high tips and pay them low salaries. The customer thinks that the waiters are anyway paid and hence don’t give them tips. So the waiters are at a complete loss here.
The best way to solve this is to treat waiters like any other worker- chef, security guard, delivery guy or equipment operator. Pay them market salary rather than putting their livelihood at the mercy of the customers. Why do you need to tip waiters, when you don’t tip nurses, delivery guys, security guard, police, or janitors when they are also doing service?
English Muffins
English Muffins
Ingredients
1 cake or package yeast
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1 1/2 cups milk, scalded
1/4 cup melted shortening
1 teaspoon salt
6 cups flour
Instructions
After kneading, place in greased bowl and let rise until double.
Roll out to 3/4-inch thick. Cut with 3-inch cutter. Cover circles and let rise until very light.
Bake on greased electric skillet or at 375 degrees F in the oven.
Don’t comb your hair on the table at the restaurant. I don’t want your hair-strands in my food. I prefer that you use the restroom even if you want to touch up your lipstick.
If you know that you have smelly feet and that you have not washed your socks in several weeks, don’t take off your shoes in crowded places. Not even in the aircraft. You should have thought about this before you boarded the plane.
Let people who are sitting in the front of the aircraft deplane first! If you have a connecting flight, you can politely ask them to let you deplane first.
Let people exit the elevator/train/bus before rushing in.
Follow the queue. Yes, even in the washroom. Just don’t stand in front of the bathroom stall when 572 people are waiting in the queue.
Buy earphones, or headphones. Whatever you prefer. Because I don’t want to listen to rock music during my morning commute.
Give your seat to the pregnant lady. Or the lady carrying a small child. Or the old lady/gentleman. If you are a young lady in perfect health condition, this applies to you as well. Not just the boys.
Wear washed clothes, because the smell of the sweat sticks. Use deodorant. Specially applies when you are traveling by public transport.
Also, don’t keep your clothes next to the kitchen area, as the smell from spices sticks.
Don’t leave the texts as “seen” or with the “blue ticks”. Either respond, or never respond. Don’t respond to a text which was sent 4 days ago. Just be honest and tell them “that you are busy” or that “you don’t feel like talking to them”.
Show up with a gift. Don’t come empty-handed, after all the host took the time to invite you and do the preparation, didn’t they?
Don’t dump your negativity onto others. Not many people are accepting of it.
I had stopped dating someone who had just been divorced and wasn’t ready to settle (and wasn’t right for me). I had been invited to a party but didn’t want to go. I’m not going, I decided. Finally, two hours after the party had started, I went, alone. The loft owner’s friend opened the door — and we started talking. He was sweet, funny, had just graduated from college, was 7 years younger than me, was planning to move cross country in 2 days. We hung out at the party and then he asked if he could walk me home. We’d walked 2 blocks, making all sorts of witty comments about street signs,etc., and I thought, “This guy is so different than the ones I usually like…he’s not all dark and dramatic (which usually hooked me)…he’s like being with a best friend.” And then I asked myself, “Why shouldn’t I be in a relationship with a guy who treats me as well as my best female friend does??” I remember my small decision precisely: deciding that I’d be open to this…even had a mental metaphor of it being like a Japanese paper lamp I’d hold gently…not try to force anything…but just be open to connecting with someone who made life fun, who was kind, who wanted to know about me and share himself.
He’s been an extraordinary husband and father and after more than 30 years, is still the most fun person to hang out with. We’ve traveled all over the world, gotten grad degrees after the kids were born, created books and apps and games, gone through family stresses and losses, relationship issues, gone through everyday boring ol’ life.
It was a small decision I made, but a profound one: to love myself. To allow myself to be loved by someone who treated me (and others) well. To let myself be with someone whose company I flat-out enjoyed. It wasn’t sudden roses and symphonies…it was playful and sweet. But I see the depth and beauty now. I so wish everyone this.
Maybe it wasn’t rediculous as you mean but it was the biggest and it was Mine. I was representing a 15 year old pregnant girl. CPS wanted her sent to a reformatory. I wanted her sent to a girls school. The CPS worker testified that the girl should go to jail because when she was 5 yes five she seduced her father ( an executive with a big company). The girl had been raped by her father for years.
The girl said to me “ you told me that wasn’t my fault.” In the courtroom before God Judge and country I grabbed that CPS worker and tried to pound her into the floor.
It wasn’t looking good for me but the judge made an immediate order. He ordered the CPS worker to personally pay for the girl to go to the private girls school. (about 3times her annual salary) . I waited all day to be arrested. Finally a call came that I was wanted back in court.
It was announced that no charges would be brought against me and the order against the CPS worker was dropped and the order to pay made against the agency. The CP S worker was also to resign.
I’m not a violent person but only so much can be let go I guess at time I lost sight of my life and career and could only see my client.
I have gotten some nice comments. I need to add that before I went for this person the judge asked her if she had done everything she could for the girl. Her response was “I have been wonderful”. I am not proud of getting violent. It is very rare in my life. I was happy with the outcome but I risked getting my license and going to jail. I need to make a clarification here. I was in law school then. i was representing her as her probation officer. It was in the early 70s. A child’s right to an attorney was based on the parents ability to afford one. I was the closest thing to a lawyer she had.
PS. if you read about incest cases, or any sexual abuse cases of very young children, the children are usually taught by their abusers how to “please” them. they are basically taught to mimic seductive behavior. They are not seductive. They are merely mimicking what they have been taught to do, but not everybody sees it that way. many overtly seductive Teenagers have been molested in this manner as a child, but they are just labeled as seductresses. I guess it is easier for some people to blame a child than it is for them to take the time to learn about the effects of abuse on children. I was often called in by other probation officers when they had an uncomfortable feeling about a case because I could see these types of behaviors even minor ones. i’ll never know how many cases I didn’t catch, but I was never wrong when I called it.
Few people walk into a recruiting station and tell them they want to leave that afternoon. You do have to chat with a recruiter for a while. Granted, they’ll tell you the Army line. Rarely will they lie but they will leave stuff out.
For a lot of people, the Army sounds way better than the situation they’re in. In my first meeting with the recruiter, he told me the Army would train me in life skills (HAHA, at least, not from my MOS), they’d cloth you and give you everything you needed, I’d get a bed, desk, and wall locker, they’d feed me as much as I wanted to eat, I got to choose me MOS (This is where you need to do your research), they’d let me blow stuff up and play with some of the biggest toys the Army has, they’d give me $15K for college, and they’d pay me on top of it.
To a seventeen-year-old kid who’d worked a dirt farm in N. Colorado his entire life, that sounded pretty good. The Army helped get me my Eagle Scout and gave me some perks for that. The recruiter worked with the school to make sure I’d graduate. I was failing a class, and I told my recruiter I wouldn’t graduate. He went to the school and talked to the admin and they made sure I’d pass.
Researching your MOS and the Army is a good idea, but nothing prepares you for stepping off the bus. I have a Ranger buddy whose son just went through basic. He had his son meet with all the vets he could find and we gave our experiences. That wasn’t enough to keep him from calling home and wanting to come home.
No matter how prepared you are, once you get boots on the ground and jump down the rabbit hole, you’re in for a ride. I think people with less prep do better as they have no idea what to expect and they just roll with it instead of standing around thinking this is nothing like what everyone said.
As I grew up my bedroom was filled with all sorts of debris and things that would interest young growing boys in the 1960’s. This included scale plastic models, and figurines.
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Wall posters. Some of which were blacklight posters on black velvet.
black light poster
Old bottles that I collected, that seemed to decorate every nook and cranny of my bedroom.
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My collection of record albums. All in a wooden egg crates.
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My treasured collection of science fiction paperbacks… many of which were short story anthologies.
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My Doc Savage collection.
man of bronze
And miscellaneous stuff, which included military surplus. Clothing… often scattered about. A painting kit. A microscope… and a mortar and pestle.
And other things of questionable utility, but things which I (as a boy) found cool and interesting. Such as my Major Matt Mason figurines…
MMM
And then there was my great grandfather’s sword. This was a cavalry sword from one of the “Polish Resistance” groups that relocated in the United States after Germany annexed Poland. It had a long hilt and was really cool. As a boy, both my brother and myself would take it out and ohhh and ahhhh about this sword.
sword
My brother has it now.
It was one of those things that I muse about from time to time. Interesting trivia, from days long gone. I wonder what the sword would say if it could talk…?
Smoke. Seriously, I did it for 32 years. It costs a fortune in cash and even more in quality of life. There is no positive to smoking.
Judge people on looks. I have friends across the “scale of looks” from gorgeous to scary and I love them all for their individual personalities. Looks are fleeting, love is not. Friends are the best asset you can have in life.
Eat a crap diet. I’m overweight and just diabetic. I’ve loved pizza, chips and crisps (fries and chips for USA people) all my life but they’ve ruined my body and health.
Argue with people who live in echo Chambers. I still do this and it’s utterly pointless. You cannot reason people out of a position they did not reason themselves into.
Procrastinate. If you have time to do it, then do it. Everything you put off for another day builds up to a backlog. Get it done now and there is less pressure on you tomorrow. This lowers stress hugely.
My dad was a workaholic and we didn’t get to spend much time with him. One day my mother was sick and couldn’t handle my brother and I, trapped in the house with her, on a winter day, rough housing around the house. So my dad took the day off work, loaded us up in the car and started driving. I’m not sure if he planned anything or not, but we drove about 90 miles to the badlands, which were at a much lower elevation. It was December and there was no snow in the badlands. My brother and I went nuts running and playing, without winter jackets, on bare ground. He had made a stop at KFC and we had a picnic, and didn’t get home until after dark.. It was an awesome day, dad laughed and smiled a lot. My brother and I were worn out, and didn’t bother our mother when we got home.
30 years later, shortly after he had retired. I invited him to come fishing with me, and he said “You bet” and we were on our way. We had an awesome day. I bought KFC and we had a picnic.
He unexpectedly died three months later.
After he died, my mother said that in the months after our fishing trip, all his friends got sick and tired of him telling the story of going fishing with his son. He never stopped talking about it.
Obviously I have never forgotten the time he took us to play in the badlands. It was what inspired me to ask him to go fishing. Its been over 60 years since he loaded us in the car, and I still tear up thinking about it.
My husband and I have been married 50 years. We did not have children, and are each other’s very best friend. Last July, he had a triple by-pass and caught a serious staph infection at the hospital.
It is the end of 2023 now and he is strapped to intravenous pumps receiving 6 weeks of antibiotics because the infection is now in his chest bones.
He can no longer go out for walks in the country with me or do much of anything. He is all bent over like an ancient person, and has no energy at all. He has been getting progressively hard of hearing for the last 2 years but refuses to get a hearing aide, (male pride or denial, I think).
The other night, we were watching a movie and I had to constantly repeat lines that the characters said to each other so he could follow the plot.
At one point in the movie, I turned to him and asked him a question about what he thought of the plot.
He nodded and said “Yes”. When I realized that he was faking and actually could not hear me, it was like I suddenly realized that he was not really there sharing the movie with me. He could no longer hear me.
I felt SO alone, and miserable.
And when I thought about who I could call, what friend I had who could provide some support, I knew I could not be disloyal and criticize him, with all his health problems which are making him semi-absent, I felt totally alone in the world.
I regret not having more of my own friends, just for myself, who do not know him. And I realized that at 74, he is probably not going to improve- it is the beginning of the downhill slide for both of us.
Up until this year, I felt like we both had many miles left- now the reality has set in.
Didn’t happen to me but my friends played this April fools on some kids from another class. We were all in 5th grade, and around that time a lot of kids were getting phones. (A lot of them were iPhones.) My two friends, let’s called them Lena and Eve. They weren’t the type to brag about what type of phone they had, or make a bit deal about it. they kind of kept a down low about if they had phones or not. Only close friends of them knew that they were phone-less.
The prank was to tell the girls in the other 5th grade, girls who had their phones and were unhappy that they couldn’t use them during lunch or recess. Lena and Eve had told them, that today our teachers (5th grade teachers) had allowed them to use their phones in class. The reason why they weren’t using them at lunch was because they were worried that the teacher who administered recess might not be okay with them using their phones. They had even made a note, in handwriting similar to the teacher’s to make it seem realistic.
At first the other girls were skeptical and thought they were lying. What really came into play was at the end of recess, Eve and Lena had been able to get one of our 5th grade teachers, to tell the girls that they were pranking. That what Eve and Lena had said was true.
It’s was really funny when the next day, Lena and Eve had told them that they didn’t have phones or that the teacher would give permission for anyone to use their phone’s in class. Looking back it was silly, but well executed, which helped fool the other girls.
(I was in on, it. They had wanted me to join in, but at the time many people knew I didn’t have a phone. And that my parents weren’t planning on getting me a phone anytime soon.)
It doesn’t even sound real. That’s how dumb it was.
It was October 20th, 1986. The story of Aeroflot Flight 6502 began in the cockpit. An argument broke out between the co pilot and the pilot over flying skills. The captain insisted he could land a plane easy in zero visibility, without the autopilot they were using.
It then escalated into a full bet, the pilot saying he could land the plane blindfolded. The copilot accepted the bet, a bet which – if he won — would spell his own death. (Source: 32 Years Ago an Aeroflot Pilot Bet He Could Land an Airplane Blind. Leff, Gary)
The plane descended, the window covered with curtains. As multiple alarms went off, the plane continued to descend.
Then–the plane touched down on the runway at 280 km/hour.
The plane immediately flipped, burst into flames, exploding, and eventually sliding to a stand still.
70 people were killed in the accident, including the copilot.
The main pilot survived. And somehow only got a 15 year sentence, which was eventually reduced to 6. Which is equally baffling.
(Yes, I have been married and divorced three times. Wife #1 and I divorced primarily over her gambling addiction and Wife #3 and I divorced after less than a year of marriage amicably because we realized we both had made a mistake. We have remained friends since our divorce)
I sued my second wife (we will call her “Mary” though it is not her actual name) for divorce because of infidelity. I was able to determine and prove that Mary was continuing to have sexual relations during our brief marriage with the woman who had been her lover before we had met (she eventually married her girlfriend after our divorce when Massachusetts allowed for same-sex marriages). I was able to present a witness who testified that Mary had told her that she married me as a “beard” to improve her promotion opportunities at her company.
When we were in court before the judge, the judge, a Black woman, informed us that she was granting the divorce but she was not granting Mary the life-time alimony that Mary had requested. The judge also said that not only was she not granting Mary any alimony, since Mary made substantially more money than I did, she had considered having Mary pay me alimony.
Mary lost it, yelled at the judge that she wanted to kill the judge and me because since the judge was a woman, she should have taken her side and made me pay alimony. The judge, in no uncertain and quite colorful language, threw Mary in jail for 30 days for contempt and issued court orders of protection that Mary could not come within 100 yards of either the judge or me or she would end up back in jail.
I have not seen or heard from Mary in over 25 years – good riddance.
When he was around 5-6 years old, my brother—who is four years younger to me—had his legs suddenly go numb one night. What followed next was one of the hardest ordeals of my parents’ life. Months passed with them meeting various doctors, visiting different hospitals, knocking at the doorstep of every possible religious shrine—all the time with my kid brother in their arms, since he wasn’t able to walk on his own anymore. We were also buried under debts during this time.
There were doubts of permanent paralysis—the very mention of which was enough to break us down. From finding it immensely painful to walk, to not being able to get up on his own, and to not being able to stand at all, his problem was worsening by the day. Most surprisingly, all this while, he was as strong as, perhaps, only children can be in such difficult times.
During this period, it was not unusual for my mother to have sudden breakdowns. Once, she burst into tears while watching him playing joyfully. He wiped off her tears, and said*,
Don’t cry, mummy. See, I can stand and even run on my own!
Saying this, he tried to get up, stood on shivering legs for just about a few microseconds, and fell down—only to be safely caught in the arms of my mom, who hugged him dearly and cried some more.
This happens to be the most heart-wrenching thing that I have ever heard, but also a powerful one for the simple fact that it was a little child—my own kid brother—teaching us what life is all about—HOPE, in the direst of situations, among the most impossible questions, and during the most unimaginable tribulations.
P.S: The problem was finally diagnosed and treated correctly by one doctor who was as-if a Godsend in our life. Wrong treatment of a viral fever had left both the legs of my brother infected with the virus. Although it left him physically extremely weak for most part of his childhood, he plays pretty good Football and Cricket today. Touchwood.
*Translated into English, originally said in Hindi
P.S: A number of people have messaged me sharing instances of children of their relatives/friends facing the same medical problem, asking if I could provide the doctor’s details. It breaks my heart but as much as I would like to help, I can’t. This incident is around 20 years old. My parents happened to meet him on their visit to the Kalavati hospital, no idea about his whereabouts now.
Oh that’s easy imagine meeting a guy in college. You two barely have food to eat. You work part time with him to put together to pay the bills. Then you start complaining about student loans, and hopefully your salary is going to be enough to pay your student loans after graduation.
You go clubbing with the guy. Paid his drinks a couple times. Laugh at him for his card declining because he could not pay a 22$ drink for the cute blonde he’s flirting with at the bar.
You graduate. Stuck in an 8 hour job. Two plus hour commutes, trying to climb higher in your career. The guy you used to see every day, now you only see him once a week for drinks.
8 years goes by and on his 30th birthday he asks you to come drink with the guys but he wants to pick you up. You go outside waiting for him for 30 minutes and you can’t seem to find his Toyota Corolla, but a bmw parked suspiciously across the street. You think he’s stuck in traffic?
Then finally you hear him yelling at you from the bmw.
Oh shit? Did your fiancé let you spend the down payment you were saving for the house to get a new car?
Nope… I’m 30. My trust fund is accessible now, he says calmly while you wonder to yourself… what the hell just happened?
My mother had moved, and her new garage was smaller than her old, and causing her a lot of stress.
So she decided to give her car to my brother, and buy a newer smaller one.
We went to the dealership that my dad had always used, when he was still alive. We were looking at a 1 year old lease return, we took it for a test drive and my mother felt it would fit in the garage just fine.
We went into make a deal, and got a pretty reasonable deal. Mom signed the contract, and went to stand up, and almost fell over. I thought it was just from sitting too long. We went to the door, and her old car, was parked right in front of the door. She asked, where is the car, then, where are we. I drove her straight to the hospital, and they said she had a small stroke, she then had a larger one, before we left the hospital, and she never left the hospital alive.
I went back to the dealership to explain what had happened, and stop the transaction. I looked at Mom’s signature on the contract, and it was illegible.
The dealership refused to cancel the sale, and told me that they would charge storage fees, if I didn’t get the car off the lot soon.
There was a local TV show, that covered issues like this, so I emailed them, and never heard a thing back.
We ended up selling it privately for a few thousand dollars less than we had paid for it.
A week later the show called and wanted to do a piece on it, apparently, the guy had been on a vacation. I told him that it was too late.
I told everyone I knew to never use that dealership again. I have no idea if this had any effect.
Smoking cigarettes. I was on a ship for three years in the late ‘60s. Cigarettes sold for $1 a carton, while at sea. I worked in CIC, that dark room with all the electronic gear and plotting devices behind the bridge. The compartment was about 24 x 40. We’d normally have around eight enlisted and at least one officer on watch. During exercises like Sea and Anchor Detail, Vertical Replenishment, Gunfire Support, General Quarters, etc. there were around 30 people in the compartment. I’d guess that at least three quarters of the people smoked cigarettes. We had good air handlers and air conditioning, but there was a permanent haze from the smoke. Every position had an cylindrical ash tray mounted onto the gear.
I am told US Navy ships are non smoking now, with a small area set aside for those who still smoke. This, to me, is a major change for the good.
Technically I was “laid off,” not fired, after 31 years at the company. I was only working part time (10 hours/week), and was planning to retire fully in a year or two. Instead, I got laid off. They paid me almost a full year’s salary and gave me over a year of medical and other benefits. I collected unemployment for the next year and because of a legal action by my state against the bank that held my mortgage (for deceiving customers on mortgage loans), the bank had to write off my mortgage payment each month that I was unemployed (not deferred, not suspended—canceled).
So when I was told I was laid off, and the salary/benefits package I would receive, I immediately bought a bottle of wine, gave it to the head of HR, thanked him profusely, and left. That year was far and away the best one (financially) that I ever had. And to top it off, I had gotten divorced a year earlier. With all my free time and lack of financial concerns, I had time to date. I met a wonderful woman, and we have been together almost thirteen years now.
We lived in Los Angeles for many years and had gorgeous offices overlooking the Santa Monica pier. There was an earthquake that damaged the building and we decided to go south . . . closer to where one of our employees lived. Yes, Long Beach. This was good for our business as we needed to be close to a Post Office and we located a couple of miles from the main PO. The little 4 office building we went into happened to be 5 minutes from the central post office and we gained an hour or two extra work time. And, it seemed the wife of the owner belonged to the Long Beach Cancer League. They invited me to join; so of course I did.
At their gala this snooty man walked up to me and touched my arm and said “oh, velour” in a disdained tone. So I matched his tone and replied “Yes. This is LONG BEACH. I reserve the velvet for New York and L.A.”
My mother was extremely mentally abusive and neglectful. My parents had divorced when I was 7, yet my mom was so manipulative that she was able to get shared custody of me and my 4 siblings. For the most part I spent one week with her and then one week with my dad. When we’d be at my dads house, he would try to undo what my mother had done over the week we were there. He gave us love, took us to do things, fed us home cooked meals every day.
After we got a bit older we were allowed to choose which parent we stayed with and when. I think that age was 12 at the time(when you got to make the choice by law), so my oldest sister chose to stay with my mom full time because my mom so manipulative, she would reward her for staying with her, with treats and things none of the rest of us got. My second older sister made the same decision for the same reasons, plus my step-dad favorited her and she got anything she could ever want. (he did unimaginable things to her when she started staying there but that’s a story for another time).
When I got to choose, I decided I wanted to spend exactly equal amounts of time with each parent because I wanted everything to be fair. But my mom would poison our minds against my dad, saying he did all these things he didn’t do, trying to make him look bad to everyone. So eventually I started staying with my mom more, also because of the rewards.
When I was 13, it came out what my step-dad had been doing to my sister. He was arrested immediately. My sister did a recorded phone call with the police and talked to him about it and he confirmed everything thinking it was only her on the phone. There was proof. And my mom said my sister was lying, sided with my step-dad, and never really visited us when the court said we were not allowed to go back to her house, she had to bring our stuff to us(which she never did).
After all of that BS, we were all living with my dad and things got so much better so fast. We weren’t stuck with my moms and my step-dads abuse. My dad loved us and took care of us, got us in therapy, everything.
My mom decided to follow my step-dad to a prison 7 hours away from us, leaving us all behind, right after my 14th birthday. I haven’t seen or talked to her since(and I’m 23 now).
My dad took all 5 of us, loved us, fed us, did things with us, spent time with us. He became the mom we never had and the dad he always wanted to be. Took on making meals for 5 hungry teenagers, taking us to sports, appointments, things with friends, things with him. He stepped all the way up and became one super parent, and we never felt like we were missing anything because we were finally free from my moms and step-dads abuse.
He raised us all by himself, even after most of us had chose to leave him and stay with our mom. When she abandoned us, he was there. He took care of us and he did it with grace.
Other than theater-wide air defense such as the S-400/S-500, the Chinese military industry is completely indigenous, down to the chips and engine oil.
Note this includes China’s space-going rockets, and its satellite constellation.
Beidou, for example, provides global positioning coverage and has a chinese-built atomic clock at its core. It is completely indigenous in design and build.
The newer Chinese aircraft from helicopters to transports to 5G stealth fighters are powered by indigenous rather than Russian engines.
In other words, China does not depend on foreign suppliers/components to fight a war, because the Chinese economy is capable of supplying almost everything. After all, China has the most complete industrial supply chain of any country.
What does Huawei have to do with China’s weapons? Very little.
What does Nvidia have to do with China’s weapons? Very little.
The American sanctions/restrictions are commercial in nature and aimed squarely at disrupting/slowing down Chinese tech. Huawei’s 90% downturn in mobile shipment helped increase Apple’s market share over the past 3–4 years, until the emergence of the Mate 60 reversed the swing.
Even in AI, Nvidia hasn’t been slapped with hard bans, because China is one of its biggest markets. If it was truly a military issue, no American chipmaker would be allowed to do business with China, so this is just a convenient excuse, not too different from how garlic has been framed as a NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUE.
I was working in Manhattan. I got a call from my kid’s school that he wasn’t feeling well and had to go pick him up. I had just finished developing a CD-based training program (this is early 90s, before this stuff was done online). On my way out, my assistant told me the CD master had just arrived and gave me a little plastic bag with the CD in it. I was in a hurry to leave and figured I could drop off the CD at home with my kid before returning to work.
Getting around Manhattan basically means getting into and out of yellow cabs. It’s pretty easy to find one.
image 240
Typical New York street
I catch a cab to my kid’s school. About 15 minutes later, I get dropped off. I greet my little one in the headmaster’s office and tell him we’re off to the doctor’s. As I’m waving down a taxi with my kid’s hand in mine, I realize I don’t have the CD bag. We go back into the school and it’s not there. Nobody remembered seeing me with a bag and, frankly, I didn’t remember having it in hand when I walked into the school. Oh, well, I thought, that was stupid. This was before Uber where you could call your ride to check on the back seat. This was, in fact, before cell phones. The bag and CD were gone.
I refocused on getting my kid to the doctor. Got him checked out. Got into another cab to go a nearby pharmacy to pick up a prescription. Walked home and dropped off my kid off with his nanny who was waiting there. All this time I was hopeful they would be able to reproduce the CD master, wondering how long it might take, if it might delay the project, if I should tell my boss, etc.
I wave down a cab to go back to my office. While I’m thinking about all these things I see a bag on the floor. I pick it up and pull out my CD.
My assistant sees me walking in with the bag. “How is your baby? I thought you were dropping that off at home.”
“Kid is fine. Oh, the CD, yeah…” I figured she wouldn’t believe me if it told her the truth.
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea S2E22 “The Death Ship” Full Restored
You ever meet a stunningly beautiful woman who dates asshole after asshole?
I know I have met plenty of them. I even dated a few, when I was that asshole.
When you stop and think about it, it makes absolutely no sense, right?
A really beautiful woman will have LOTS AND LOTS of options. So there must be some successful, confident and charming men who are also kind and caring, right?
It would only make sense that those kinds of guys would pursue her too, so why does she keep dating those assholes?
As I started to understand myself better, it became clear to me why that is.
Some women are wildly attracted to emotionally distant, disrespectful, scumbags.
However, they didn’t wake up one day and decide “hey, who is the worst kind of person I can be in love with?”
No, this likely started very early in their childhood where they had very poor relationships with their parents, family and loved ones.
Their mother and/or father, conscious of it or not, modeled a type of person that is emotionally distant, disrespectful, inconsistent, and sometimes loving.
It conditioned her to believe that “this is what someone who is going to take care of me looks like.”
Since every child absolutely needs love and affection, the lack of it will drive her to desperately try to win their approval and attention to get it.
She will grow up to repeat this pattern with every relationship she develops.
Every time she meets a man who is dismissive, emotionally distant, disrespectful and unloving it triggers a deep desire in her to win that man over.
Every time he does show a bit of affection, she will feel deep satisfaction, feeling like she finally won the love she could never get before.
She feels she is finally enough.
She will believe that is what it means to be “in love” with someone.
It’s like being on drugs. Every time he doesn’t care she withdraws, every time he shows some love, she feels that euphoric hit of crack.
It is all about that “high”. A man who is good to her all the time can’t give her that because there is no bottom, he is just consistent, and to her… it is just boring.
She likely wants to want a good guy, but she just doesn’t, because he cannot give her those highs and lows an inconsistent asshole can.
These women aren’t attracted to assholes because he’s more confident, charismatic, or independent.
No, No, No.
It’s because he is exactly what she needs, a drug. A drug like any other for a person who has deep trauma that cannot resolve it on their own.
When my son was about 3 years old, he had a playdate with a friend’s child. We had a lot of playdates with this child. I wasn’t fond on the child nor his parents. He was a little terror and was very violent and mean. They lived on our street and would just show up at our house unexpected and uninvited. Of course, being 3 years old, my son loved having a playmate and, of course, I would allow them to stay.
One afternoon, my husband was home and they suddenly appeared. So, we sat in the livingroom watching the kids play. We had to watch them. The other child would do things destructive or injurous to my child.
The little boy was playing with a very heavy toy with a long handle. He was standing in front of his mother. Suddenly, he reared back and swung the toy as hard as he could and whacked my son in the head with it. Then, he laughed and laughed as I tried to ensure my son was not dead or unconscious! His mother just laughed and said “Hey… watch it there now.”.
My husband had his fill. He jumped up and headed toward the child and his mother. He was furious and it was obvious someone was going to get a spanking… either the child or his mother! His mother grabbed him and ran out the door as fast as she could. They never came back. Basically because the next time they showed up, my husband met them at the door and told them they weren’t welcome.
I was on a European trip when I fell ill with cold and shivering. The next morning I felt I had experienced food poisoning, but was able to drive back to the base site (700 Km) the next day and rest up for a day for the fight back to Canada. Arrived in Toronto 8 hours later and picked up by a friend who drove me home but commented on my appearance. I had prebooked an early family doctor appointment for the next day. Got up drove there and was told by the Dr. that I must immediately go to emergency. I explained I had to get the car home and would phone for ambulance immediately. He warned that I might never get home, but I went anyway. Ambulance arrived 15 minutes later and took me to emergency. Booked in and as I was handed back my medical card, I remember putting it in my wallet. Woke up 5 days later with tubes out out of everywhere strapped in the trauma ward. I had collapsed in emergency and essentially “died”. Fortunately I was resuscitated and put on life support. Cause was pneumonia, a complete surprise to me. During blackout no memories, no heavenly visits, nobody told me I needed to “go back”. Saved by 24/7 care and antibiotics. Pneumonia, the silent killer.
Steve. Steve was the weirdest classmate I’ve ever met because he was an absolute brilliant genius.
My school was predominantly ages 10-12, but we also had a Community Outreach building on the grounds which housed a school for students of all ages who were disabled.
Steve had Down Syndrome. He was in the Community Outreach classroom for all but one day per week when he joined our class.
Each week the “regular” students were given a list of 50 spelling words and expected to memorize them. Not an easy task. Each week we had the option to complete exercises which earned us “points”. By Friday, week’s end, we needed to have accumulated 50 points to pass that week’s lesson plan.
We had to design a board game, for instance, using each spelling word which might earn us 10 points towards that week’s goal. Writing a story using each word in a sentence might earn us 30 points, and so on.
We needed 50 points.
The only exercise which earned us the “Full Monty” was an oral spelling test given by the teacher while standing in front of the entire class of students as they watched on. A daunting task, to say the least.
Missing one spelling word, you’d flunk the test and lose all your points for the week and need to not only do the previous week’s exercises but the current week’s as well. It could be very easy to fall behind taking the oral exercise.
I attempted it only once. I got 49 words correct and botched the 50th! Boy did I feel stupid.
Now Steve…he was a spelling genius. And had nerves of steel!
Each and every week he’d visit our classroom and stand before our class and challenge the teacher to give him the oral spelling test. 50 words. No errors. He’d earn his 50 points in one go.
Spell “pugnacious” the teacher would intone.
Steve, the ever cool, would begin…p-u-g….NACIOUS! Pugnacious!
And so it went. One after the other. Flawlessly. 50 words. Never a mistake. Ever. Week after week.
We always gave him a standing ovation. What an accomplishment! He became our mascot. Our hero.
Steve was never bullied on the school yard as you read about today. He had Down’s, but we all recognized something special in him.
He taught us something.
There is often genius and complicated wisdom in the most simple and elegant things in life. That I missed my 49th word is indicative of my life. Something is definitely missing. I admit it.
Yet, Steve nailed each and every spelling test flawlessly until the end of the year. Never missing one letter and never hesitating. He knew in his heart the right letters to say. Perfectly.
We gave him a party. We hugged him. He was our buddy. We were proud of him.
Sadly, as life went on for the rest of us and as we graduated from Jr. High, then High School, moved on with our lives and out of our small community, Steve was never able to make that transition.
Life is shorter for people with Down Syndrome.
My mother sent me his obituary while I was attending classes in college. I wept as I read they had misspelled his name.
Several years ago my daughter, about 16 at the time, was talking with one of her friends online. The girl had taken some Oxycontin and started telling my daughter how her vision was going in and out, and she felt like she was going to pass out. I asked about the girl’s parents, but they were not home. By this time the girl was saying that she was scared she had taken too much. I called 911, told them what was going on and gave them her address.
Apparently the parents arrived home at the same time the police and emergency services got there. She was taken, by ambulance, to the hospital. It turned out she was fine. She told my daughter that she hadn’t really taken anything, but was just saying that to see what she would do. I don’t know if that was true or not, but my daughter no longer was friends with her. I’m sure she got into trouble with her parents, and possibly the police, either way.
Update: I told my daughter about this answer, and she told me that they took the girl to the hospital and had to pump her stomach. I just knew that the same type of thing happened several times over the years. She got into many different kinds of drugs. She finally got sober, sadly, after her brother died of a heroin overdose.
When I first arrived in Thailand, I noticed that women working in banks and government offices changed from their high heels to much more informal, comfy shoes that they kept under their desks.
I had never seen this in American offices. I was fascinated!
The broad range of ‘office’ shoes entertained me during the long waits. Cloth or leather flats were the norm. Most were bejeweled, or brightly colored.
My favs were those worn by a department head at the National Lottery Bureau…fuzzy, orange, Garfield house slippers.
Open-toed shoes were absent as they were considered ‘impolite’ (rubber flipflops were allowed when coming in or going out during rainy season).
I was doing part time teaching for a government university in those days, as were several other foreigners. We all taught twilight classes, leaving the campus well after the Thai professors and staff.
Only the deans had enclosed offices. Everyone else had assigned desks in a huge room.
Gene* (who had been incountry long enough to know better) decided to delve under the desks and put the ‘in office’ shoes on the owners’ desks as a prank after everyone had gone home.
For Thais, shoes are associated with the feet, the lowest part of the body. Traditional Thais take issue if feet are pointed at them or at any revered article. Putting feet on a desk or table is very disrespectful. And, of course, shoes carry germs and dirt.
The staff found no humor in what he had done. The traditionalists were furious and demanded that Gene be dismissed, even deported.
The university Dean did dismiss him but helped him get a job at another government school across town, but with a severe warning.
We never found out why he thought that would be funny.
I won’t lie to you. Yes, my truck at 40 tons puts more wear on the road than the typical family sedan.
However. This truck pays close to $20,000 per year in road use taxes. That goes a long way toward maintaining those roads.
Something else to think about. If your roads were not built to have one of these run down, them. Just how cheap do you think the government would get when building the roads.
My guess is a very thin layer of asphalt or poorly compacted gravel. If your road was built for a 3500-pound car, it would be potholed within 2 years.
Added on April 2nd, 2022:
In light of the firestorm that this seems to have lit. I will add the following.
In many states the road use fees are diverted for other uses, so in light of the fact that road maintenance is being paid for and money also used for bike paths, mass transit projects, parks and such. Is the truck not paying enough or is the car paying too much?
Try looking at it from the opposite view. The states may have plenty of money and rather than raising the truck fees, the standard car fees should be lower.
I did not see this myself, but from what I understand about Scotland, I believe it.
Circa 1980, a young redheaded Scottish girl transferred into a local High School. Her family had just moved to Canada from the old country.
For the first few weeks she was the ‘new and exotic’ girl. Guys paid a lot of attention to her.
One guy had a seriously jealous girlfriend who considered herself to be the tough, kickass type.
She approached the lass and told her in no uncertain terms to lay off ‘her boyfriend’, or she’d regret it.
The lass stated that she had not done anything to encourage him, and it wasn’t her fault her boyfriend was straying. Perhaps he was looking for an upgrade?
The tough girl freaked.
“That’s it! After school we’re going to fight! You’re going to get it!”
The lass sighed and calmly said (in a Scottish accent) “All right, fine. Do I bring a knife, or a gun ?”
Tough girl: “What?…”
Lass: “I’m just over from Scotland, and I don’t know your local Canadian traditions for these things. So, knife or gun?”
TG: “Seriously, what…?”
Lass: “Well?”
The tough girl and her friends backed away and gave the ‘crazy lass’ a wide berth from that point on.
Some tourists just don’t realize how wild the National Parks can be.
The Germans were boyfriend/girlfriend + two children (ages, 34, 27, 11, 4). The flew into Los Angeles in 1996 and visited various places in southern California and Las Vegas. They were reported missing when they did not return home. Tracked by credit card usage to Furnace Creek in Death Valley National Park (It was July, and the day they were at Furnace Creek, the high temperature was 124 F), a visitors log was found with a signature from the woman stating that they would be driving over Mengel Pass next. They were in a rented minivan; this is Mengel Pass:
image 231
An extensive search was launched but no sign of them was found. Then in October, a National Park Service helicopter happened to spot a minivan where no minivan should be. It was the Germans’ vehicle. Three tires were flat, ripped open by the terrain. The van wasn’t even on a road, rough as they are in the area, but had been driven down a wash. Another extensive search was launched, but then called off when no sign of the Germans themselves were found.
Fast-forward 13 years. Two hikers find the bones of two adults. Accompanying IDs reveal them as the man and the woman. Some other scattered bones were found, presumably of the children but never officially identified. They were presumably trekking cross-desert toward a military base (shown on the map in their possession) under the assumption that the base perimeter would be staffed. But spanning more than a million acres, most of the base is empty desert and would have offered no chance as salvation.
The National Parks are great, and it doesn’t take more than a modicum of common sense to enjoy them. I’ve personally coaxed rental vehicles down moderately rough roads in DVNP (but I would never try Mengel Pass in any vehicle – it’s just beyond my skill set) and I’ve hiked in the desert. But always prudently, in the right weather, and with the right equipment/supplies (water!). They’re not Disneyland, and if you’re unwise they have a variety of ways of killing you.
I think for an American, the hardest thing to adjust to might be the limits of a social welfare society.
I’m an American who moved to Denmark more than a decade ago and became a Danish dual citizen, so clearly I like Denmark.
But living in Scandinavia compared to living in the USA involves a lot of limits.
For example, you will probably have a much smaller living space than you are used to in the USA (unless you now live in Manhattan or the Bay Area.) If you could afford a house in the USA, you’ll probably have a smaller one in Scandinavia, or even an apartment. If you used to have an apartment of your own, you’ll probably have a room in an apartment, and at least in Copenhagen, apartments usually don’t have a bathtub. You’ll also have much less “stuff” to put in the apartment; “stuff” is expensive in Scandinavia.
The USA is a consumer society; businesses do whatever they can to please the consumer. That’s not true in Scandinavia, which is an equality-based society. While I can’t speak for Norway or Sweden, customer service is awful in Denmark. Shops really don’t care if you come back or not, and don’t count on returning something you’re dissatisfied with. In restaurants, you’ll either have to serve yourself or wait a while to be served; restaurants are chronically understaffed because wages are so high. The server won’t come back to ask if you’d like another cup of coffee or are happy with your meal. Personal services like nail salons and massage places pretty much don’t exist, or are wildly expensive.
Health care is tax-financed (not free, you will be paying for it with a big cut of every paycheck) and great for short-term, fixable things like a broken leg or a cat bite. Longer-term sicknesses, like chronic fatigue or eating disorders, get less support. Also, there are limits on which pharmaceuticals can be prescribed: many post-op patients get only a combination of Tylenol and Advil for pain, for example. If you’re reliant on one type of pharma, check to make sure its equivalent is available before you move. There are also relatively few preventative care appointments or tests; no annual physical, for example, and psychiatric counseling is limited. If you want it on an ongoing basis, you’ll probably have to pay for it yourself.
EDIT: Many commenters have pointed out that health care can vary in Denmark based on the region you live in, which is a good point. However, there are problems with providing psychiatric care nationwide, in particular where it concerns young people, as the Danish Health Authority itself acknowledges: Selv Sundhedsstyrelsen siger det: Psykisk syge behandles for ringe
(From the center-left national newspaper Poltikken.)
Socially, too, you may run into limits. Many Danes still have the friends they made in kindergarten; university is often where they meet the last of their close adult friends. Work colleagues are not “friends” and beyond their 20s rarely go out and drink beers together. People rarely chat with strangers, or offer to help strangers they see struggling with directions or big boxes or whatever. You may miss the relaxed chattiness and warmth of the USA, particularly during the long Danish winters, where the darkness can be brutal.
And then, of course, the language can be a limit. You’ll find that most people aged 10- 50 or so speak excellent English, but you’ll never really get into the culture until you speak Danish well. Besides, there are always annoying little things that are only in Danish – a voicemail menu, a hairdresser’s website – so will need to make a commitment to learning the (difficult) language if you really want to fit in.
Clearly, there are a lot of positive things about living in Scandinavia. But a lot of Americans approach moving there with the idea of “I’ll get everything I have in the USA, plus more!” That’s not necessarily the case.
Looking for a bold and exciting new wing recipe? Make our miso caramel chicken wings recipe with sweet and salty miso caramel-teriyaki sauce tossed with crispy air fried chicken wings!
miso caramel chicken wings
Prep: 20 min | Total: 40 min | Yield: 4 servings
Equipment
Air Fryer
Ingredients
16 chicken wing drumettes (about 2 pounds)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
3 tablespoons white miso
3 tablespoons P.F. Chang’s® Home Menu Teriyaki Sauce
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Sliced green onion (optional)
Instructions
Place chicken wings in a large bowl and toss with 1 tablespoon vegetable oil. Sprinkle cornstarch, salt and pepper over wings and toss until well coated.
Heat air fryer to 350 degrees F and place wings in a single layer in air fryer basket, working in batches if needed. Cook wings until juices run clear and they are just starting to brown, 10 to 14 minutes, shaking the basket once during cooking.
Increase heat to 400 degrees F. Turn wings so the skin side is facing up. Continue air frying wings, in batches if needed, until they are crispy and golden brown, 8 to 12 minutes.
While wings are frying, pour sugar and water into a small, heavy-bottom saucepan; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil until sugar is caramelized and a deep amber color. Do not stir the caramelized sugar.
As soon as sugar is caramelized, remove from heat and add butter. Swirl the pan lightly to melt the butter. Whisk in miso, teriyaki sauce, and red pepper flakes. Heat pan over low heat and continue whisking until sugar and miso are smooth. Keep sauce warm until wings are ready.
Remove wings from air fryer to a large bowl and pour sauce over; toss to coat. Garnish your miso caramel chicken wings with green onion, if desired, and serve!
Everything is louder when it’s very cold outside. If you live near a major airport, when the temperature drops well below freezing, the low-flying aircraft will sound like they’re landing on your lawn.
Dog poop steams in the cold. So do sewer grates.
When you park your car, you need to pull the windshield wipers away from the windshield, lest they freeze to it once the car cools down.
It can get too cold to snow. There’s a “sweet spot” temperature range for snow. (About 15–35F). Lower than that, and there’s not enough moisture in the air for snow. Higher than that, and it’s slush or rain.
Thin water pipes in your house that run against an outside wall, like the pipes to your dishwasher or ice maker, will freeze.
It’s very important that your lips are dry if you want to smoke in the cold. Wet lips will freeze to anything when it’s cold outside, including cigarette butts. You will rip the skin off of your lip if you’re not careful.
Yes, back in 2006, I was travelling a lot for a major project, at this particular time, England. I can’t remember if it was London or Manchester, but the queue to pre-screen boarding passes was really long and slow.
About 15 – 20 people ahead of me was a couple probably early 30’s. I couldn’t hear exactly what was going on, but there was obviously some tension between the person checking documents and the lady. The exchange of words continued even after their documents were checked, and the lady even came back a couple of times to give the worker more verbal abuse. By the time I was a few people away waiting to have my documents checked, the lady couldn’t leave well enough alone and kept shouting at the worker.
The worker turned to her colleague and said, I don’t have to put up with this abuse. She walked towards the couple and asked for their boarding passes again. After a few moments of discussion, the couple handed them over and the employee simply said “You are not travelling today, please follow me”. The look the man gave to woman was priceless!! About a dozen people started clapping as they walked off with heads hanging low….
The CIA Murder that Exposed MK-ULTRA | The Frank Olson Assassination
November 28th, 1953. New York City. At 2:30 AM the body hit the sidewalk.
A few seconds later, a shower of glass. The doorman of the Statler Hotel yelled to the lobby that there was a jumper. The night manager rushed out and saw him. A man, about 40 years old, lying on the pavement.
He was on his back, wearing only his underwear and blood started to pool around him. 13 stories up, a single window was open; its curtain flapping through broken glass.
The night manager knelt beside the man, whose eyes were open and was somehow still alive. He desperately tried to speak but was choking on blood and couldn’t be understood.
After a minute or two of trying to communicate, the man took a final deep breath and was gone.
Nobody knows for sure what he was trying to say before he died. But one thing is for certain, it was something about the CIA.
I don’t know that society ‘looks down’ on single people, but a large chunk definitely seems to feel sorry for single people.
A friend of mine recently decided to end things with her boyfriend. She felt so relieved, as the relationship just wasn’t suiting her.
She said that all (bar one) of the friends she broke the news to said ‘Aww, I’m so sorry.’ It ticked her off. She understood it, but it still raised her hackles a bit.
‘Why are they all feeling bad for me?’ she asked. I did it, because I know I’d prefer being single to being in a relationship that was draining me.’
I learned this lesson myself when I divorced. Everyone said ‘Sorry,’ whilst cocking their heads. This despite the enormous relief I felt over escaping a pressure cooker after many years.
From that time, I vowed I’d never have that reaction when someone tells me about their break-up. My first reaction when they break the news to me is always to ask ‘And how do you feel about this?’, then take it from there, depending on how they answer.
One of the only good responses I got when sharing the news of my divorce was from a mum at my son’s school. Without missing a beat, she said ‘Well, congratulations. Unfortunately for me, my husband and I are still together.’ And her husband was standing right next to her!
All three of us burst out laughing, and it diffused the awkward situation. She totally grasped that getting divorced or being single is not the end of the world.
People act like being single is on par with being stranded on some desert island all by yourself. Like you’re Tom Hanks with only Wilson to keep you from spiralling into madness.
It can be likened somewhat to being on an island, I guess, but it’s one with superb amenities, no stresses, and a pre-approved guest list. That’s not anything to pity.
I was an experienced hotel maid working at a Motel 6.
I was assigned five or six rooms. I opened the door to the first one, closed it and found the head housekeeper. I knew it would take at the very least, one or even two shifts to clean it. I made her go look at it; she didn’t want to.
Six college students had rented it for the semester. After the first month or so, they refused to let the room be cleaned. They were to do all the work. I have no idea why management would agree, but they had.
The carpet, literally in most areas, was knee deep in old pizza boxes, fast-food containers, empty pop and beer can, popcorn, chips, new and used condoms and unidentifiable debris. The room stunk and my eyes watered.
It took at least two hours before I cleared out enough trash to even start cleaning.
Spilled liquids had saturated the pillows, mattresses and box springs to such an extent that every thing had to be discarded. The shower cutain and room curtains were shredded. There was a huge pile of filthy sheets and towels with clean ones mixed in.
No one had realized the clean linens and towels went in, but dirty ones never came out.
All of the furnishings were broken, stained, burned, vandalized or all of that. Most had to be discarded or replaced; very little was repairable.
Filth coated the lower walls, the ceilings and I’m not going to discuss the bathroom.
I worked 16 hours instead of the usual six and it was still pretty bad. I left a detailed note with the night clerk and a copy taped to the housekeepers door saying what and what not I had done.
The head housekeeper showed her appreciation of all my hard (and it was hard) work the next morning by greeting me with a huge list of everything I had not done and was yelling at me about what an awful maid I was.
I didn’t have to take that abuse. I knew that two maids had called in sick. I didn’t give a single damn and quit right then and there.
I went to a Ukrainian Orthodox wedding in Canada. A good friend had converted to Orthodox for his wife.
The ceremony was amazing, the priest chasing him around the altar 3 times, hitting him with his scepter 3 times, etc. Quite a bit more entertaining than your typical wedding, but long and drawn out.
The part that blew me away, and made me say you can’t be serious, was the priest saying, and I am paraphrasing here, as I don’t remember the exact words.
“As a man must obey the will of the lord, the wife must obey the will of the husband”
I thought things like this hadn’t been said for 50 years.
But, to show how little attention people pay, I will relate two incidents.
In between the wedding and the reception, a group of us retired to a nearby bar. At the bar, I said good luck getting Mona to obey Greg, as she is the dominant one in the relationship. Everyone said, they don’t say that at weddings anymore. I asked them if they were at the same wedding I was just at, and quoted the priest.
Then later at the wedding reception, which was held in the church hall, I joked about it with my friend. He said they don’t say that anymore. He called his wife over for verification, and she agreed, and said my memory was flawed. A little later in the reception, the priest was walking by, and I cornered him, and he agreed that is what he had said.
I asked him to confirm that with the Bride and groom. He came over with me and I asked him in front of the couple. They were both stunned. They had been through the rehearsal and the wedding and never heard what they had committed to. Mona finally burst out laughing and said “Good luck with that”
They know which females populate their territories and know which they’ve bred with. It’s that simple. If they find a female w cubs that he NEVER mated with, he will kill them.
What’s interesting is sometimes these fathers actually step up and care for young. There was an instance in India where a mother tiger died (poacher i believe) while her cub was still dependent on her. The father had met her previously & had a good relationship.
Then, after her mom died she was seen with her father briefly at a water hole and then 24/7. He was hunting prey and bringing her to it. Giving her protection, basically taking over the role of her mother. This has never been documented bbefore. Totally unprecedented behavior, as fathers are usually completely dismissive and hands off. At most they come through and meet their offspring, sharing a meal the mother caught. Aka freeloading. Goes to show tigers are individuals with wide ranges of behavior and potential
One night some ding dong opened the drain of a deep fat fryer, dumping hot oil onto the floor of the cook’s line.
Fortunately, the fryer was turned off, because a lit deep fat fryer will ignite if there is no oil inside. This happens because the residual oil within the fryer will immediately exceed its flash point and you’ll quickly have a fire on your hands. The guy who did it was planning on cleaning the fryer, which requires it to be drained. The tank drains into a catch pan, which contains a paper filter, and a pump recirculates the filtered oil back into the fryer’s cooking tank. For some reason, the dude had the fryer’s spout aimed at the floor, not at the tank.
The perpetrator of this crime had experience cleaning the fryer, they just weren’t paying attention. As gallons of hot oil hit the floor, they ran, as did everyone else, and the fryer emptied its belly onto the kitchen floor. It was a huge hot sizzling greasy mess that took more than an hour to clean up. We didn’t have any option other than to squeegee the oil into the floor drains, then we wasted dozens of side towels drying the floor. It wasn’t until we had the mess cleaned up that everyone could finish cleaning their stations and go home. There was a lot of anger, and one case of severe embarrassment in the kitchen that night.
Couple Finds Out Their New House Comes With A Cat | The Dodo
It was a very windy day in the late 1980’s. I was driving past the Ford motor works in Halewood, Liverpool. I was on the main dual carriage way.
In front of me was a Mini and in front of that Mini was a flatbed truck carrying planks of wood.
We were heading East out of Liverpool towards Widnes. Traveling at about 60 miles per hour.
I saw a gust of wind begin to lift some of the planks of wood on the truck.
One of the planks actually had enough wind get under it that it rose off the truck, snapped it’s tethers and then launched like a caber end over end back along he carriageway. The plank end landed just in front of the Mini bent and sprang up and over the Mini, the other end of the plank then hit the road just in front of my car and did the same spring up and over my car but twisting it diverted slightly so as it fell behind my car it fell onto the pavement ( sidewalk) running along the car factory perimeter fence.. A box van behind me hit the plank and shattered it into several pieces as it broke on the roadway and kerb.
It was a near miss for what could have been a serious accident.
My conclusion is that it cannot be answered because trying to judge the Russian Empire by modern standards will inevitably fail.
Take a look at this picture:
image 150
Photo source: Yle News.
Photo credit: Carl Jahn / Finnish Heritage Agency
This is a prisoner from the Finnish Grand Duchy that has been deported to a labor camp in Siberia. On foot.
He’s chained to a cart because he has tried to escape. His head has been half-shaved to brand him as a convict.
We treat prisoners quite differently these days.
Russia was never particularly enlightened, but it did, at times, have more ‘European-minded’ leaders. Finns didn’t mind them.
Alexanders I and II could be described as such.
Nicholases I and II (Nikolai) could not.
Finland was granted extensive autonomy by Russian standards. It served Russia’s own interests, but Finns didn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. They took it and ran with it.
Things weren’t bad at first. A stronger Finnish identity created a buffer between Russia and its archnemesis, Sweden.
Then Russia caught the nationalist bug itself and the developments in Finland were no longer compatible with where Russia was going. That’s when Russia tried to take it all away and then some.
It was too late. Finns were past the point where they’d accept being subjugated like that again, or even tolerate a so-called benevolent czar.
I was selling very cheap rubbish diy home alarm systems with equally rubbish motion sensors. The company I worked for at the time had some fantastic products, this most certainly was not one of them.
They were so bad I would go to a customer’s house to replace parts with multiple spare parts because the replacement was often faulty too. Argh, I hated that product.
This one day I knocked on the door to be greeted by a very attractive young lady wearing gym clothes. She told me straight up that she was heading to the gym just as soon as her partner arrived. I was told he would arrive imminently and that is how it turned out. However before he returned home I was asked if I would like a glass of water, it was a very hot day and I said yes.
I followed her into the kitchen at her request. She went to the refrigerator and prominently displayed on her refrigerator door were nude photos of her. Several of them. I think they were professionally done and presumed she maybe was a model but I didn’t ask and didn’t even mention the photos. That was something I hadn’t seen before.
Very hot day that because I remember being so very thirsty. Must have had 4 or 5 glasses of water before I finished that job. Yes it was hot and I was thirsty.
That answers the question but that wasn’t even the weirdest part of that call out. The partner strikes up a conversion with me, while I’m working and asked me how well I knew people at my company’s head office. I told him I knew most everyone. He then asked me if I knew such and such which, believe it or not, was my boss. My boss was this guys ex-wife!
I am pretty sure I didn’t blurt out loud, “You traded up nicely!” but I do know I at least thought it very loudly!
That was a weird house call, a very weird day I will never forget.
This actually happened to me many years ago. I was a property manager of 80 units. My boss and I had a heated exchange and in haste he fired me on the spot. He asked me to stay until he could find a replacement. “Sorry Charlie!” I cleaned out my desk and handed him the keys, and I left the property of my own volition….
I was off-site the rest of the week. My now former boss was blowing up my phone. “Where are you?” then it was, “You are needed in the office?” I ignored his calls. He then messaged me on Facebook and said it was “with great urgency that we talk”. As it turned-out 2 members of the office staff (there were 3 all together) quit! The residents had started a petition to reinstate me – 60-plus signatures in all. He would not cave and subsequently received somewhere around 15 to 20- thirty day notices in effect terminating their leases. Additionally, some of the residents (refused to pay their rent. The community quickly became unstable and increasing hostile towards him. The morning shift manager at Tiger Mart next door to the complex – a tenant of mine, refused him service.….
He offered me my job back. I let him sweat for a day, then accepted and returned to my job. I was never so moved by an experience as I was at that job, not because my boss had given me my job back, but, rather, because the tenants did!
As far as I can tell, “free will” simply refers to a lack of self-awareness, and the inability to understand why we make the decisions we make.
And yes, that lack of self-awareness definitely exists.
People make decisions, but they are not quite sure why they made that decision.
For example, people will go into a shop, end up buying a load of useless and overpriced crap that they don’t need and didn’t intend to buy.
If they are unaware of the multitudes of manipulation techniques that are implemented by the shop to achieve that result… then they’ll call that lack of awareness about their decision making process “free will”.
Likewise, people who grow up exposed to religious propaganda, and then end up believing in the religion that they were exposed to, usually lack the self awareness to notice the whole process. And so they’ll call their belief in the propaganda they were exposed to a “choice made by free will”.
When I was in fourth grade, one of my best friends had his new (2 week old) bike stolen from his backyard. A few days later, we were at a shopping center right near our apartment complex, and there was his bike, chained to a bike rack. We knew it was his bike, not an identical one belonging to someone else, because he had put a sticker on it, and the sticker was still there. We called the police, but the thief got there before the police did. The thief was probably about 4 years older than us, and a pretty big kid. We told him that the bike belonged to my friend, and that we wouldn’t cause any problems if he just gave it back. He insisted that his parents bought him the bike, and it just looked like my friend’s bike. While we were arguing with him, the police arrived. He again insisted that the bike was just an identical one that his parents bought him.
The police asked us if we could prove that it was his stolen bike. The thief was shocked when my friend said “Yes, as soon as I got the bike, I wrote my name and address and phone number on an index card, rolled it up, and put it in the tube of seat. If you take the seat off you’ll find that card.” The thief stood there slack-jawed. The police got a wrench and removed the seat, and sure enough, there was the index card rolled up inside. The policeman handed the bike over to my friend and drove off with the thief to go have a chat with his parents…
I have always thought that “PCP gives you super human strength” was an urban myth, until one night, during my residency.
There was a kind of smaller, skinny young guy that was restrained to the gurney. He was high on PCP and who knows what else. Drug screen had been sent but wasn’t back yet.
He was making such a fuss, in the ER, that they placed him in a small isolation room.
I’ was a resident. The attending was wrinkling up his nose as this guy is yelling all kinds of profanity and threats.
He sent me in to assess the patient.
I told him that I’m not going in there alone.
He told me that the patient is restrained.
“Nope.”
Ok. We’ll go in together.
I step over to the room and knock gently.
“Sir, this is Doctor Boehm. I’d like to come in and talk to you.”
No answer.
I try again.
No answer.
Everything, in there, has gone quiet.
The attending and I exchange glances. Then, he reaches around me and pushes the door open.
My first fleeting impression was a bloody blade, of some sort, coming at my face.
I jumped back and practically fell over the attending physician.
I yell for security, at the top of my lungs.
People come running.
The patient, I kid you not, had some how managed to get on his feet, restrained, with the gurney ON HIS BACK.
He has, some how, ripped open the sharps container. He was trying to attack, anyone with in reach, with a pair of bloody scissors that he found inside.
They finally got him restrained and sedated.
I was shaking like a leaf. I couldn’t stop thinking about how my kids could have lost their mom.
I never went anywhere near an agitated patient, without Security, again.
Ask any veteran of Stalingrad in WW2 and it would be Pavlov’s house. I have been there to see it after reading about the importance of this building to the battle. It will cause you goosebumps! What a story!
This guy Yakov Pavlov was a Sgt. in the Soviet army and held this position at all costs. The Wehrmacht tried and tried to destroy the building over the course of 58 days and failed. Quite possibly, if this building had fallen, then the battle would have been won by the Nazis. This would have given them access to the fuel supply that they needed and the outcome of WW2 totally changed.
image 148image 147
Vasily Chuikov, commanding general of the Soviet forces in Stalingrad, later joked that the Germans lost more men trying to take Pavlov’s House than they did taking Paris.
In the aftermath, captured Nazi maps used during the battle showed that EVEN THE NAZIS called the building “Pavlov’s house”!
I don’t know what the Chinese Singaporeans, mainlanders and in HK learn from the Taiwanese people’s experience but I can tell you what I, a Malaysian Indian, learnt from it –
1.I would certainly not call it an achievement, since that word implies an end with bigger and better results as well as a greater general good for all the people involved in the process.
2.Democracy as it is practised in Taiwan (and quite a few other places I can think of) is the fastest way of putting the corrupt, the feeble-minded, the easily manipulated and the snake oil salesmen in power.
3.That version of “democracy” seems like the best way to surrender control of an entire region or nation to the elite oligarchy with interests in either arms or other consumer goods.
4.That version of “democracy” is, however, the best and easiest way of convincing the stupid, the brainwashed, the feeble-minded and the generally apathetic that they are enjoying “freedom” while giving up many of the actual rights willingly.
For all the reasons above, I am convinced that the Taiwanese people’s “achievement” of democracy is one of the best and most humane ways of creating, empowering and maintaining a hidden dictator class of ruling elite oligarchs.
Years ago a girlfriend and I were having lunch on a patio, we had daiquiris, shrimp and fried rice.
She ate all of her fried rice, left all of her shrimp, and ordered a second daiquiri. I asked her if there was something wrong with the shrimp, and she said no, she was sure they were fine, but she was on a diet.
I had observed in the past that she loved her carbs, and would eat carbs instead of healthy things like skinless chicken breast, pork tenderloin , skipjack tuna and shrimp.
So I asked her why she was leaving the lowest calorie thing, eating the higher calorie fried rice, and ordering an even higher calorie drink.
She laughed at me and told me that everyone knew that meat/protein wasn’t healthy and had higher calories than anything else.
The shrimp had roughly half the calories of the same weight fried rice, and less than half the calories of her daiquiri.
How could you go on a diet and not know this?
I never told her how many calories were in her favorite perogies and french fries.
After Chatting With 408 Women And 25 Dates, A Viewer Confirms ONCE AGAIN Why Men Keep Walking Away
Gosh! I am so glad that I am not on the dating scene in the West. China is so refreshingly different.
My dad had a grate answer. This woman parked her BMW in our driveway whenever she went to the Beauty Parlor. She blocked is so no one could leave until she returned. My dad asked he not to park in our driveway and was ignored. One day he had enough. He went in and got the sugar boll from the table and pored about half on the ground by her gas cap and let the door to the cap open. Then he put a note on her windshield, “THIS IS A REAL SWEET CAR. I BET IT WOULD RUN ON PURE SUGAR.” and went in to watch the fun. An hour later the woman came back and found the note, looked at the ground by her gas cap and called the Police. When they arrived, they pointed out she was on private property and they could do nothing however, they advised her not to risk driving the car with contaminated gas. Have it toed to a garage the tank drained and refilled. Save some of the gas and have it tested to prove it was tampered with and sue. She did. She had to pay the tow truck, the garage to remove and clean than refill the tank after putting it back, pay the lab to test the gas only to find it was never tampered with. She never parked in the driveway again!
My husband passed away almost 5 years ago. His ex wife had been a pretty much constant source of frustration the 6 years we were together (and they were divorced). She continued to harass me the entire 6 weeks of his hospital stay. At 10:30pm while I was sitting with my husband, her texts started. She told me I better go straight home and start packing. According to her I had 72 hours to vacate our house after my husband died. There was no truth to that. She had no ownership in our home. I simply replied that my lawyers (and they also notified her divorce attorney) had assured me the clause in the final decree promised a $1000 fine and 30 days in jail for any harassment of me. I forwarded that response, along with her threatening texts, to her daughters and each of her “friends” who were harassing me. I also informed her security would throw her out of the funeral if she showed anything but respect. Her harassment pretty much stopped!
Girl Cried As The Shelter Cat Hugged Her Tightly And Wouldn’t Let Her Go
Girl Cried As The Shelter Cat Hugged Her Tightly And Wouldn’t Let Her Go. Rachel, a college student at the time, was volunteering at the shelter. She had been helping animals at the shelter for a long time and was spending her last volunteer day that day.
My ex-mother-in-law had a dishwasher in her kitchen that she never used. It was several years old, but was in like-new condition. It still had the paperwork and a packet of detergent inside that had been provided with the machine.
One evening after dinner at her house, I offered to take care of the dishes and started loading them into the dishwasher.
She heard me and made a beeline for the kitchen, letting me know that in her house all the dishes were to be washed by hand.
I asked why she didn’t like her dishwasher. She was convinced that hand-washed dishes are more sanitary than machine-washed.
She agreed to run a little test. I ran hot water into the sink and asked her to wash a dish in it. She couldn’t because the water was way too hot for her hands.
“The water in your dishwasher gets hotter than this.”
My MIL was in her late-60’s at the time, but she wasn’t too old to learn new tricks. After that, she used her dishwasher regularly and was happy with the time and effort that it saved her.
Girlfriend Brings Up Open Relationship And Has MELTDOWN After Boyfriend Dumps Her Right On The Spot
Quick one. The general idea behind a woman offering an “open relationship” is for her to date and fuck who ever she wants, while the boyfriend / husband sits alone at home watching the kids, dogs and cats.
A Japanese girl, streaming live video on YouTube, was roaming in Germany. While walking there (racist) people were harassing her, but the girl did not pay much attention to them. Her innocent grin persisted on camera.
But while she was eating food in a restaurant, an older man started sitting near the girl and making faces like this:
image 146
Like this man, another racist person also made faces to tease the girl. Eventually the girl became a little sad because a person passing by had almost dropped her camera.
image 145
At the end of the video, a man approaches the girl and apologizes. The man tenderly states that he is ashamed of the behavior of other German people. He looks at the camera and says, “This girl is very nice, and please come to Germany.” The girl melted at seeing this and hugged the person.
image 144
Making a foreign guest a character of such harassment goes far beyond the limits of despair.
I had a student who came into my history class and told me how she hated history, hated me, and did not want to be there. She then said I am a black lesbian, EFF YOU whitey. I looked at her the class hearing this was not sure what or how I would react. I smiled and said, so does this mean we are not going to have lunch later. She looked at me as if to say something profound but just shook her head. Silence was deafening for a few minutes. It was our first day of class, I said my job is not to make you love history but my job is to assure that you have a basic historical understanding. I will make a deal with all of you, give me three classes, if you do not like what you are hearing, seeing, reading, or learning drop the class, add another class. But I ask you keep an open mind. We have a class section called stump the prof, its your turn to ask me history classes. It has to be related to American history is the only catch.
She would ask me questions every class and they showed an understanding that I admired. She was not afraid to express herself, she was not polished, she was blunt and to the point. We watched a documentary on the Triangle Coat Factory Fire in the 1900s and said with a sadness in her voice, Prof that could have been me or any of us girls in this class. What she taught me is we all can change and become a better self. Her willingness to see these young dead women in caskets due to neglect made her realize it could have been her. She changed from a angry young woman to a stronger empathetic history lover.
My husband worked for an LTL trucking company. When he told his work stories, he began to mention a driver called “Nemo.” I didn’t think much of it until he referenced an older story that I knew was about a driver called (I forget his real name*, so let’s say) John, not Nemo.
When I asked, my husband explained that John had earned the nickname “Nemo” and it wasn’t going away any time soon.
Most of the drivers delivered to the same area every day. Familiarity improved delivery times. However, John, on the same route for almost a year, didn’t seem to learn any shortcuts.
They would frequently get calls from customers asking where their delivery was. Dispatch would then call John, asking how close he was to the delivery, and John would respond that he didn’t know because he was lost.
Dispatch would then pull up the GPS, find John’s truck, and give him directions back to the customer. The manager would ask dispatch what they had going on, and hear, “I’m finding Nemo,” so often that soon nobody called him John anymore. He will live forever in our stories as “Nemo.”
* I asked my husband what Nemo’s real name was. He doesn’t remember either! Forever Nemo….
Riiiight… The MiG-41 was due to go into service in 2028. Notice I say ‘was’; I gather that most of the more sophisticated components are a little hard to come by now, and that money is also rather tight; Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine has almost certainly delayed the MiG-41 by several years, if it hasn’t killed it stone dead. You can’t use looted washing machine circuits in a 6th-generation fighter.
Then there’s Russia’s track record on Wunderwaffen in recent years. The T-14 tank and the Su-57 spring to mind as projects that look great on paper and shiny in parades – and then somehow never quite make it to the front lines in quite the form or quite the numbers or to quite the schedule that were announced.
And the MiG-41 is still a little vague as to what it actually is and does, given that it’s supposedly only a couple of years off production. Is it 6th-generation hypersonic near-space miracle? Or is it a MiG-31 upgrade: a Foxhound with better engines? Meanwhile, Boeing has a physical flight demonstrator of its NGAD programme candidate up and running, and Project Tempest is in development here in the UK, Europe, and Japan.
And nobody – given how Russian equipment has performed in Ukraine – is going to want MiG-41s if they can have either of those, let alone ‘dream about owning’ the MiG.
There is an old Quora proverb: before you ask why, ask if.
Husband and wife interaction in China
One of my youtube videos. Only 12 people viewed it.
Optional Toppings: confectioners’ sugar, gingersnap cookie crumbs, finely chopped pecans and melted white baking chocolate
Instructions
Chocolate Mascarpone Bourbon Balls
Beat the mascarpone, confectioners’ sugar and bourbon in a large bowl until smooth. Add chocolate wafer crumbs and pecans; stir until blended. Refrigerate mascarpone mixture, uncovered, overnight.
Shape mascarpone mixture into 1 inch balls; roll and coat with toppings as desired.
Store covered in the refrigerator.
Mascarpone Rum Balls
Beat the mascarpone, confectioners’ sugar, rum, eggnog and cinnamon in a large bowl until smooth. Add gingersnap cookie crumbs and pecans; stir until blended. Refrigerate mascarpone mixture, uncovered, overnight.
Shape mascarpone mixture into 1 inch balls; roll and coat with toppings as desired.
Store covered in the refrigerator.
Notes
Balls coated with baking cocoa or confectioners’ sugar may need to be coated again before serving.
The balls are best served cold.
U.S. “M2” Money Supply Collapsing Faster than During Great Depression
The supply of physical cash money in circulation inside the United States is collapsing fast than it did during the Great Depression. The chart below, from the Federal Reserve, shows the facts:
Money Supply Collapsing Since 1930s 1
It shows M2 money on a year-over-basis is contracting by the most since the 1930s.
M2 is decreasing, every time this happened in the last 150 years there has been a DEPRESSION. Here’s a chart to prove it:
Money Supply V ersus Depression
Mind you, the chart above is from MARCH . . . . it’s gotten worse since then!
As cash is taken out of the economy, the economy runs out of steam and stalls . . . fast.
What followed the Great Depression?
What’s going to follow this economic collapse?
If you answered “world war” you’re correct!
We’re being looted.
Over 50% of the money given to Ukraine is unaccounted for, for instance.
This is the looting stage before the country falls. All planned out.
Yes. I was driving my elderly parents to their apartment. My son was in the front seat. I was pulled over for speeding. It was one of those road that went from 45 to 25 without changing the road or the neighborhood. My parents were fighting in the backseat, my son was telling them to please be quiet. The cop said the usual, “do you know why I pulled you over” My reply was just give me the ticket I have to get these two home as they are driving me crazy. He asked me if I’d mind stepping out of the vehicle. I said no I didn’t mind. Anything to get away from them. He then just talked to me. Told me he understood how fighting elderly parents can grate on a person. He asked if I was on the way to the elderly housing which was about 2 miles down the road. I was and acknowledged it. He said just take a couple of deep breaths. I will talk to you till you feel up to being in the vehicle with them. Just do the speed limit, you are almost there. Then go to Culvers and treat yourself and your son. You both could use it. It took me about ten minutes to calm down. My parents were still fighting but I got them home and took my son and I out for ice cream as ordered. No ticket. He did not even ask for my license and registration.
I have the perfect answer whenever anyone insults you.
“You’re right. What’s your point?”
Kills them every time.
Example: I was parked in the very first spot in front of a high school where I would be teaching night school. I had about a half hour before I needed to head in, so I was reading the news on my phone. A sixteen year old chickeeboo tried to back her car enough in front of mine to somehow claim she was parked legally. But most of her car was over the hash marks that indicted a walkway. Also, because she’d parked so tight against my front bumper, I wouldn’t be able to leave without her moving first. So I strolled up to her car and explained she was parked illegally. She could move about twenty feet ahead to the next legal space. I returned to my car to continue reading.
She didn’t move her car. She sat for a while, probably pondering her killer take down, then popped out and approached my car. She indicated I should roll down my window, which I did.
She said, “Your attitude makes you look old!”
Wow! Zinger! Total destruction… except… not.
I gazed at her calmly and said, “I am old. And you’re still parked illegally. Move your car.”
She flounced back to her car. Pondered whether she should try another killer take down. Then she moved her car.
I enjoyed a night of class knowing I could leave whenever I wanted.
Next time someone insults you, try it. It does work. I used it on my MIL until she finally stopped insulting me. And trust me, that was a miracle. She insulted everyone.
I think the little boy in this photograph takes the cake. His name? Henk Heithuis. And I am warning you ahead of time, his story is absolutely gruesome and terrifying. Heithuis was born in the Netherlands in 1935 and placed in the foster system, to be cared for by Catholic priests. Now priests had a tendency of abusing young children under their care, there have been many such cases… but Heithuis was not like most victims… he was about to go public.
image 237
Usually, the abuse was quietly pushed aside, shrugged off, swept under the rug. It’s been that way for centuries. Victims stayed quiet out of shame and fear. Not Henk Heithuis. He decided to make a stand. For himself and for all those others he had known who were abused, molested, raped. So he went to the police, and officially accused the priests of sexual abuse. This was revolutionary, and absolutely unheard of in the 1950s!
image 236
What Heithuis had not anticipated, is the absolute cruelty and the far-reaching power of the institution he was about to face. Since he was still legally a minor at the time of the abuse, and at the time he made his accusation, Heithuis was still a ward of the state, unable to make his own decisions, the court argued.
He insisted, however, that he was raped.
The priests then came forward and denied this. Instead, they instead, Heithuis was a homosexual boy who had “seduced the priests”, can you imagine their audacity? The young victim vehemently denied the accusations, maintained he had been raped and that he was, in fact, heterosexual — he even had a girlfriend he hoped to marry as soon as he reached the age of maturity.
image 235
The church, however, had quite a bit of influence with the courts. They convinced them that Heithuis was, in fact, homosexual. And in the 1950s, homosexuality was still illegal in the now-so-liberal Netherlands. The treatment consisted of either years in an institution, chemical castration, or physical castration… with Heithuis, no rebuttal was allowed, no second opinion considered and no option given — he was to be castrated immediately. Which he was.
They drugged the teenaged abuse victim, drove him to a clinic down South and strapped him to a table where they surgically gelded him. After the operation they kicked him to the curb… Heithuis was broken.
Mentally.
Physically.
He abandoned his friends and his fiancée and became a sailor. He made it as far as Japan, when he broke down and, when on shore leave, found his way to the Dutch embassy. Here, he told his story to a diplomat who took pity on his fate. He even showed his scars, and explained how his hormones were now out of control, his body no longer felt like his and he was suicidal.
image 234
“Please tell my story…” Heithuis insisted, “make notes, remember it. They may come for me. They may kill me.”
Surely it wouldn’t be so bad, his friend, Cornelius Rogge, assured him. Surely they would not have him killed. How could they? But Heithuis was sure of it. Arrangements were made with the shipping company to have him brought back home to his country.
When he returned, Heithuis, helped by his friends who knew his story, once again pressed charges. This time for forcible castration, lying about his sexuality and mental health problems as well as slandering his good name. Still a fiery chap, still refusing to surrender, he wanted justice, he wanted his good name restored.
But in 1958, shortly after pressing charges Henk Heithuis got into a car accident and died on the spot.
The police confiscated all his personal belongings and material provided to them by the deceased. All material was destroyed on the day of his death.
Cat love is so strong
Here is one of my MM youtube videos… It only has 6 views. Why?
Originally Answered: As a police officer, who was the most truly evil human you ever encountered?
Midnight in Glasgow, two cops got behind a stolen car and gave chase.
The stolen car weaved about the road to prevent the cop car overtaking. It narrowly missed oncoming vehicles, turned without warning, crossed to the opposite carriage and twice mounted the pavement.
Inevitably, it crashed.
Head on into a parked car.
The officers extricated John, a battered, bruised and belligerent 13-year-old boy from the driver’s seat. They found the car to contain stolen goods from various break-ins.
When the cops took John home to his parents, they discovered that he had been missing for four days. His parents had not been looking for him, they hadn’t even reported him missing.
These are the worst people I came across, the parents who take no interest in the children they bring into this world. The people who don’t care about anyone, even their own offspring.
Within a few years, John found himself incarcerated in a Young Offenders Institution.
As part of a rehabilitation program, they took a group of young offenders to an outward-bound camp. Also attending the camp was a group of special-needs children. They gave each young offender the responsibility of looking after one special-needs child.
After a day spent climbing, one leader found John sitting on his bunk crying.
John spent the day with a kid with Down Syndrome.
He walked with him for miles, made him tea on a burner and shared his sandwiches.
When they got back to camp, as the sun settled behind the horizon, his kid climbed on to John’s lap, put his arms around his neck, hugged him tight and told him, “I love you.”
“No-one ever said that to me before,” John said as he sniffed back his tears.
Given that this is a PhD student, it’s appropriate to talk theory vs. practice.
In theory, she could go to one of the following:
Department chair
Director of graduate studies for the department (or director of the PhD program)
Human resources
In practice, since she has a great deal to lose, I would consider playing a more cautious game. I’m not recommending she do these things instead, but I would recommend considering one or more of them. I’m going to assume her advisor is a “he”, just to simplify writing.
Document everything. If it’s all verbal, that’s fine; she should still note everything that’s happened, with approximate dates and a list of anyone present and/or who might have overheard.
Collect evidence. Even if it’s her emailing you to complain, that shows a paper trail. Obviously, if there’s email, text, voicemail, etc., from her advisor, even if it’s ambiguous, she should collect it.
Find out if the school has an ombudsman. Many schools do. This is a person who has the ability to speak confidentially about anything. Generally speaking, this person is NOT a mandatory reporter, and that shouldn’t apply if he’s simply verbally expressed romantic interest.
Find an employment lawyer. This will probably cost a few hundred bucks on retainer. Yes, I know, broke grad student, but seriously, this is a potential legal nightmare.
What would I do? Obviously, I can only speak hypothetically, but I would probably do all of these things, and quickly, then I’d speak to HR as my first official act involving the school (unless the lawyer advised otherwise, but they won’t). My hope would be that all of this is entirely unnecessary and that he would respond appropriately to “no thanks”, but I think he’s already crossing a line by making romantic overtures to his own PhD student. That’s usually against university rules and always unethical.
EDIT: Saeed Doroudiani makes a good additional point: a sufficiently independent, well-run graduate student union (GSU) can help here, too. However, there are few guarantees with a GSU. With an ombudsman, there’s a guarantee of privacy, and with HR, there’s a guarantee that a policy/procedure will be followed (and that should be publicly available). You could lose control if someone in the GSU chose to share out of turn or to go public, and there are no protections for you. A well-run, independent GSU won’t do this, but there are no guarantees that this is what you have. Get some information before talking to them. At best, they can act as effective advocates, but at worst, they can undermine your (already limited) control of the situation. Thanks, Saeed!
EDIT: If you want a good laugh, look through some of the collapsed comments. There are some great ones. One person accused me of being homophobic for stating my assumption that the offending professor is a man. Another discusses strong personalities but is just a heavily coded, “if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” Actually, on reflection, I don’t recommend reading them, but they’re amusing to me.
What happens when you type incorrectly? You press backspace and retype it again.
This is a stenotype.
image 238
A typewriter, used by shorthand writers. Like for example, a journalist typing down a speech. He needs accuracy and speed while typing. He can’t have the politician repeat his words again and again. They have specific set of letters from the above set which have specific meaning. They type that.
image 17
(That’s a better view of the keyboard.)
What if they make a mistake? They have a key (the middle key in the original typewriter picture) for space. But where’s the backspace?
Now, modern day texting.
Her: What’s your favorite color?
Me: Ted.
Me: *Red. Stupid autocorrect.
What did I do?
I added an asterisk to correct my mistake.
How did the use of asterisk come up?
Well, it’s a practice by shorthand writers to add an asterisk beside the mistake, to indicate it’s a mistake and correct it later on. That’s how the practice of using an asterisk while texting came up.
All your life has been a lie.
You’d be thanking that asterisk right now for saving you from all those embarrassing autocorrects your phone made. 🙂
I parked in a hospital parking lot, and when I came back to my vehicle, there was this young couple, early twenties having a heated discussion. She wanted him to call a taxi, and drive to a mall and buy a battery. He wanted to call a locksmith. The battery in their key fob was dead, and they couldn’t get the door open. They were getting quite mad at each other, thinking that the others solution was going to cost more and take longer.
I asked them if I could be of assistance, and they both wanted me to explain to the other why their idea sucked.
The guy suggested that maybe I could take the battery out of my fob, and put it in theirs just long enough, for them to open the doors.
I asked to see their key fob, and he handed it to me, thinking I was going to do his suggestion.
I walked to their car, put the key in the lock, and opened the door.
They both were stunned. Saying OMG, how did you do that?
They had never seen a car door opened with a key. I felt really old, and just a little smug.
Why “Nobody” Lives On Australia’s Big Island State: Tasmania
When he was 87 and slipping into dementia, I asked my father exactly this on one of his “good days.” He smiled and said that it had been worth it, even when he became the last of his siblings alive and started to lose his ability to remember names, first, and other things later.
He became a very gentle person to be around (he had been an angry and argumentative Democrat for most of his life) and enjoyed his children, grandchildren, and even their pets. We got along better than we ever had. I remember taking him to the Fourth of July parade and whispering the names of people who came up to greet him. Once he knew their names, he could have a great conversation. Then I brought him back to a school reunion and that was wonderful. He needed no introductions as everyone wore a name tag.
Having watched my father in those years, I hope that I may live long enough to navigate old age just the way he did despite his obvious infirmities.
I’ve worked with the company I’m presently employed with for not quite 12 years. Up until a year ago, we were a small personable, easy going, family owned company of about 250 drivers. If you were around for any length of time, everyone in the office and shop knew you, and vice versa. That was up until about a year ago when the owner of the company retired and threw us under the bus by selling us out to a larger company and everything changed.
It’s common practice for just about any trucking company to require any damage to their equipment be reported and documented. With my company, if the damage was minimal, the report would still go in the driver’s jacket, but no further. It would stay in-house instead of being reported to a national data base.
I’ve always been the type to man-up in situations such as this. I was raised that way, and it was the right thing to do. Even leaving small damage unreported could result in the next driver having to have it repaired and possibly being late for a delivery.
So, after pulling out of a customer’s driveway and cutting it too tighly, I felt something go bump in the night. Upon further inspection, it appears I clipped one of those large landscaping rocks placed to prevent idiot drivers like me from cutting corners too tightly, and running over their curbs. When I stopped for the day and was doing my mandatory post-trip inspection, I came upon this,
image 114
Thinking it was no biggie, and my company would normally think likewise, and wanting to do the right thing, I called it it. What happened next was nothing short of a shit storm. The new people acted like I ran over a carload of nuns. Initial phone call to my parent company, followed by a call to the new company’s safety department, followed by a call-back the next day from same, followed by submitting pictures and a full accident report, followed by a call-back from the new company to review of same, followed by a never-heard-of-before-review from Greg in our safety department.
When I related the story to the former head of our . safety department, her reaction was, “It was just a fuckin’ rim!”, as she shook her head.
Trust me, if it ever happens again, I won’t think twice about going palms up with a “Dunno nuthin’ ‘bout it. When I dropped it off, it was fine “, should anyone inquire.
I was driving down the freeway and all of a sudden I couldn’t see the cars ahead of me. It was if someone had pulled a shade down in front of my line of vision. I could see all around the shade, but not right in front. Although it was only for a few moments, the terror I felt was devasting.
I was a 21-year old college student, a senior at academically prestigious school, getting good grades, working part time, and enjoying a fun social life.
So, what was the matter? Where did the intense headaches come from? Why did I frequently wake up in the middle of the night, jumping out of bed and running to the bathroom, to vomit repeatedly? Why did I feel that I was about to fall down whenever the sidewalk was a little uneven?
Then there were those crazy nightmares I was having.…. I dreamed one night that I was driving on the freeway. The car next to me pulled up right beside me. The driver pulled a gun out. He shot me in the head. My head exploded. Everything became dark. I woke up in a terrified sweat. What on earth was wrong with my head that I would have such a dream?
In spite of everything, I was doing okay and maintaining my studies. But finally it became too much for me to handle. Especially the shade covering my eyes on the freeway.
I saw several doctors. They said I was fine.
I went to a psychologist. I figured that since the doctors said I was fine, it must be all in my mind. The psychologist listened to my symptoms. He said that I didn’t need to see a psychologist. Instead, I needed to see a neurologist and he urged me to see one right away.
I took his advice and went to a neurologist. The neurologist admitted me to a hospital. Still no answers. Many tests were done, but it was during the days before C-T scans or MRI’s were used, so it was hard to figure this out. Finally a diagnosis was made: brain tumor.
Surgery was scheduled. They operated for 10 hours, and were able to remove half of the tumor. The surgeon told me the tumor was the size of a large orange and that if I hadn’t been diagnosed when I was, I would have had 6 months left to live. It was just taking over my whole brain and growing so fast.
I was in intensive care for 2 weeks. I can’t remember too much about that time. It seemed like a dream, for just a few hours.
Then, more surgery. And then some more.
I lost the ability to walk. I couldn’t see very well. I lost hearing. I was fed intravenously. Because I had stroke-like symptoms, one side of my body became weak and uncoordinated. I no longer could hold a pen and write.
I had physical therapy and occupational therapy to regain some of the skills that I had lost.
I finally left the hospital and went home to live with my parents. The tumor was not all gone, but I needed a break. I needed time to get stronger before the next onslaught of surgery.
While I was home, I had physical and occupational therapy at a nearby hospital. I still couldn’t walk or write, but I was beginning to feel better. In physical therapy I worked on learning to walk with a walker and then eventually on my own. In occupational therapy I worked on strengthening my very weak hand. I did many activities with my hands, including making some beautiful crafts. Occupational therapy was so much fun! I loved therapy.
I went back to the hospital and had the last surgery. Finally the tumor was gone. After some more time had passed I felt that maybe it was time to return to school.
Living on my own again was not easy. I still couldn’t walk or write well. But I persevered. Sometimes I fell down. I used a tape recorder during lectures since I couldn’t write fast enough to take notes, and my professors gave me extra time to write exams. With the support of my family and professors, I did well and succeeded.
As graduation approached, a brilliant idea occurred to me. I remembered the great time I had in occupational therapy, and how I had been helped so much. Maybe I too could become an occupational therapist. I thought of how wonderful it would be to spend my life helping others just like I had been helped. I decided that yes, I would try, and so I applied to a master’s degree program in occupational therapy.
There were many more applicants than spots available, but much to my delight I was accepted into the program!
The program was so difficult and very competitive. But I worked hard and after two years became an occupational therapist.
That was 40 years ago, and I am still going strong. I have worked with literally thousands of patients during my career, from little 1-pound premature babies all the way up to 103 year-old patients in nursing homes, and everything in-between. I have loved every minute of it.
Occupational therapy is a flexible career with an abundance of interesting and meaningful jobs available. During my career, I traveled the world, met and married my husband, gave birth to and raised two beautiful children, and enjoyed my life!
I turned what could have been a terrible, frightening experience into something really wonderful.
My sister-in-law once called me to borrow my fax machine. This was in the days before most people had computers and internet. She had a very important document that had to be faxed to a company showing proof of payment.
I took my fax machine to her house that night, hooked it up, walked her through the simple instructions and left.
She called me at work the next day in a panic. She said she had tried to send her document several times and it would not go. This was important, and she needed it sent right away. I was getting off early that day so I agreed to go by her house and help her with it.
When I arrived I checked the machine and connections and everything seemed fine. I told her to send it again so I could see what was going on. She did everything correctly and at the tone hit Send. The fax machine pulled the paper through and indicated a successful receipt at the other end. My sister-in-law grabbed the paper as it came back out of the machine and said, “See. It doesn’t go, it just spits it back out.” My jaw hit the floor. It turns out she thought the actualpaper was being sent over the phone lines.
After I explained the concept to her, I let her know that this story would be told at every family get together for the rest of my life. It is now firmly a part of the family lore and enjoyed by each successive generation.
My sister-in-law fortunately took it in stride. She declared it her worst blonde moment and laughs as hard as anyone when the story is retold.
P.S. My sister-in-law did call the company still to confirm receipt. They told her they had four copies and that was absolutely sufficient.
Close? I accidentally found out I was going to be demoted which lead to me quitting.
In my 20s I worked at one of those places that made huge cookies, I was specifically hired by the manager to be the assistant manager, she’d worked with me as a key holder at another place so she knew I would be good at it. A few months after I was hired the owner sold the business.
One day I was hanging out with the Manager L when she got a call from one of the kids at cookie shop. “Hey L, the owner is in here with some chick he says is the new Manager, what’s going on?”
Too bad L had no answers for her, we had no damned idea what was happening. She and I jumped in the car and headed to the cookie shop to talk, in person, to the owner.
Sure enough, he was demoting L into Assistant and me into just a regular employee. Neither of us had done anything wrong, the new owner just planned to make this new lady a manager. He told us a bunch of BS saying she had experience bla bla… but we found out later she was actually just his girlfriend. We told him how messed up that was, and that both of us would quit if he planned to do this. He was unrepentant, even gaving us the whole “I’m sorry you feel you need an apology” line.
She and I looked at each other, got up and walked away.
Apparently he truly didn’t understand what had just happened because when he saw the kid who called us changing the schedule he was confused. When he was told by her we had just quit, he was completely stunned and didn’t understand why we would have done that. Dude, we literally told you to your face that’s what we’d do if you demoted us for no reason other than to put someone else in as manager, WTF did you think would happen?
Turns out the girlfriend was horrible as a manager, and the owner ended up folding in a few months. Funny how that happens when you take actions that force the people with a clue out, and put someone clueless in just because you are dating them. The two of us were the ones who knew how to run the store, knew how to run the fundraising side, which is where most of the money was made. He screwed himself by being an idiot.
Cajun Butt
2023 11 09 14 20
Yield: about 8 to 10 servings
Ingredients
1 (6 pound) boneless pork butt
15 to 20 garlic slivers
3 tablespoons red pepper flakes (or less)
4 tablespoons yellow mustard
3 tablespoons Tony Chachere’s Original Seasoning
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
Cut 15 to 20 slits 1 inch deep on external surface of pork butt. Press one garlic sliver into each slit with thumb, to bottom of slit. On top of each garlic sliver, insert 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes in the slit. Pinch slit closed.
In a bowl, mix mustard, Cajun seasoning, brown sugar and black pepper. Mix well and apply to pork butt. Lightly dust with a coating of red pepper flakes.
Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
Smoke-cook using apple and hickory chips on a covered barbecue pit off the heat for 1 hour per pound or until the internal temperature reaches 190 degrees F.
Perhaps one of the most effective improvised weapons was the Rhino tank. An ordinary tank – usually a Sherman but with improvised steel teeth welded to the front.
In 1944 just after D-Day the Americans, Canadians and British troops were getting held up in the ‘bocage’ countryside of Normandy. Bocage consisted of high hedgerows built on thick banks of earth. This environment proved ideal for German ambushes, providing plenty of defensive cover. It also meant that the Germans could pick off tanks because they would be funnelled down the lanes, or forced through the narrow gaps in the bocage hedgerows. The Germans knew exactly where the tanks would come through and could lay anti tank mines, or train their guns on that exact spot. If the tanks tried to avoid the gaps and instead drive over the top of bocage embankment, it was so steep that it would expose the thin underside armour. Allied tanks were getting wiped out. Until this man, Sergeant Curtis G. Culin had an idea.
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When one of his fellow soldiers joked and said they needed a big set of teeth to bite their way through, Culin didn’t laugh but took the idea seriously. He welded some of the steel that the Germans had used as tank traps to the front of his tank, like this.
image 108
The teeth allowed the Sherman to burst straight through the hedgerow, surprise and then destroy any Germans waiting in ambush on the other side.
When General Omar Bradley saw what Culin had done and saw how his tank was able to smash its way though the bocage hedgerows, the General ordered that as many tanks as possible be fitted with this improvised weapon. The Normandy beaches had been filled with landing spikes which were conveniently just the right shape and type of steel to make the ‘teeth’.
This simple but effective innovation enabled the Americans to swiftly move on and cut off the Cotentin Peninsula and then move south and meet up with the British and Canadians cutting off the Germans in the Falaise Pocket.
I bought the house we are in now exactly 10 years ago in “as is” condition. In fact this was the entire listing:
“Seller and agents make no representations and warranties. Sold as is.”
The house is in a fairly upscale suburb, and was about 15 years old at the time. There was plenty of cosmetic damage — water damage on the hardwood floors, a filthy kitchen, holes in some drywall, a half-full leaky pool clogged with algae. Plus the interior and exterior were just sad looking, with ugly brown paint and outdated stained oak stairs.
image 107
But the funny thing was that no matter how carefully I looked, I could not see any actual serious problems. In fact, it was a bank repossession, and I eventually figured out that since it looked so bad they just assumed there were real problems, and they listed it the way they did to avoid any liability. Over 100 people looked at the house, and we were the only ones who put in an offer, and we got it way (way!) under the asking price, which is rare in Toronto.
I was planning on doing a full renovation anyhow, so I didn’t care about the drywall and flooring. The entire kitchen went in the dumpster. And for $600 we repaired the pool, and it worked perfectly.
I’ve been here for 10 years now and we have not had a single serious problem with the house.
I am sitting outside Quoraing this morning and I took this picture 60 seconds ago:
When you can’t destroy a target by dropping bombs vertically, you can drop them horizontally. That’s what the 617 Royal Air Force Squadron did in May 1943.
The squadron carried out Operation Chastise, designed to destroy German dams and hydroelectric power stations. Reconnaissance and simulated bombing runs revealed that bombs dropped vertically on top of dams were not effective. So instead, the RAF used an experimental bouncing bomb, designed by Sir Barnes Wallis, that was dropped at low altitude onto the surface of the reservoir and skipped along the water horizontally until it hit the face of the dam.
The strategy proved effective. “The Möhne and Edersee Dams were breached…Two hydroelectric power stations were destroyed and several more were damaged. Factories and mines were also either damaged or destroyed.”
image 121
Lancaster bomber dropping bouncing bomb during the Operation Chastise raids on Germany’s Ruhr Valley.
The operation was later the subject of the movie Dambusters, released in 1955.
I remember seeing a girl, her parents were millionaires due to a massive inheritance.
She would try and talk about her “Working class background” how the struggle was real.
One day she was telling me how her parents only bought her a brand new mini when she passed her test and how that went to show how much her family had struggled. One of her school friends got a brand new Range Rover.
I listened to that thinking “My Mum couldn’t have afforded a driving lesson let alone a car”
My sister’s daughter and her husband were about to lose their house in Texas because neither of them had jobs, they had one very young daughter and were expecting another baby. My 80 year old mother couldn’t stand to watch this happen. So, she took out an equity loan on her house and lent them $100,000. They were supposed to make the equity payments for my mom, and at first they did and were supposed to pay the whole loan back when they sold their house.
A few months later, they sold their house but told my mother they needed her money as a down payment on their new house in california. So, they kept the money, and continued making the monthly payments until they had a big fight and split up. Suddenly, no one wanted to make the payments on my mother’s equity loan so my mother had to. If she couldn’t keep up on them, she would have lost her house.
She is now 85 years old, completely disabled, living on a tiny pension, and trying to pay off this loan. Since my niece split with her husband, they did not make payments on their house either. So, it went into foreclosure, and Mom cannot even put a lien on it to get her money back.
Needless to say, I am truly disgusted by my niece’s behavior as well as her husband’s. I have now sent my mother money; my sister has sent her money, and another one of my nieces has sent money. The only people in the family who do not seem to feel terrible about this are the two people who should.
When i decided not to break up with my boyfriend at that moment.
I had just joined post graduation course and found this guy who was extremely caring about me. Within a month, he proposed me. I was confused however i said yes.
We use to talk, study and laugh together. However even after six months, i was not sure about our relationship.
AND Here comes the blow. He was back to his hometown. He was ill since a week. Meanwhile, i had a introspection round with my roommates. I found i was still unsure about our relationship. So i decided, on the next call, i will tell him that this is not the right time to fall in love etc., we should be friends only.
He called me around 8 PM. I was full prepared to say him a No. As soon as i picked the phone, he was crying on the other side. He was suffering from a fatal disease, Meningitis. I could not gather courage to leave him at this crucial moment. I just said, “I am with you today and always. No matter what happens.”
He was not in position to join college. His parents was insisting him to leave the college and repeat next time. He refused and joined the college next month. He had not recovered fully. In fact, he lost his hearing power around 40%. When he came back, he told me – how my words motivated him to join the college again. I took care of him. I used to call him reminding his medicines, diets etc. Meanwhile, i actually fell for him and then never told about that breakup thought.
Today, i am happily married with him.
P.S. I do not want my husband to know about my breakup thought even today. He is on quora. So i am writing anonymously.
I visited a radio station for an interview, at the station manager’s request. At the time I was somewhat “known” as a pleasing radio “personality” and therefore many stations wanted to talk to me.
Part of the interview process includes a station tour where the owner or manager shows off their office, production facilities, etc.
But at this particular station, I noticed all the shelved albums (well over a thousand) were locked in place by a steel bar which prevented their removal from the shelf, unless the bar was unlocked.
But who the Hell would steal the records? During business hours, when the station was open, advertisers or promoters might come in, but they were always accompanied by station staff, so visitors couldn’t steal an album (or even a 45). So, when the doors were locked after 5 PM, who did that leave as a potential thief?
Answer: the DJ who was on air, and the news guy or gal. Sometimes, the sales manager might come in.
So, the owner of the station was paranoid about theft from his or her own people! I had worked at a number of stations, and had never seen a lockdown of the music library. It had to mean that employees and top management were not happy with each other, and I was NOT going to work in that kind of environment.
Thus, I stopped in my tracks and said, “Thanks for the tour, but I don’t think this will work for me.” And I was out the door before anyone could say, “Huh?”
Years ago, I lived in an apartment in a two-family building. Upstairs and downstairs.
The landlord had rented the downstairs to a woman and her three teenage kids. They were obnoxious, had fights constantly, played music so loud it literally shook the walls, and despite multiple complaints by other neighbors to the landlord and the police (because yes it was that bad), nothing was done.
While technically, landlords are supposed to do snow clearing after a snow fall, getting some landlords to do so in a timely manner is more effort than digging out the snow yourself. This was one such landlord.
That winter we had a bad snow storm, a few feet of snow.
The downstairs neighbor knocked on my door to ask when I, the older woman with no kids, would be shoveling out the apartments and driveway, all of it, by myself.
I told her I wouldn’t, but we could split the cost to have someone come over and do it since the landlord was extra full of excuses as to why it would take days to get to the property and do so.
She laughed and said she wasn’t paying. She then told me I was welcome to hire her 3 kids to dig out the entire property. Her kids were a big part of the problem as to why the cops were coming over constantly, and so no. I’d previously had problems with her children opening my mail and putting it back in my mail box or opening deliveries of mine. There was no way I’d pay them.
Oh hell no, first you expect someone older than you to do the work for free, then expect that I will pay your kids, who are apparently perfectly able to do so, to dig YOU out? Fuck that.
A friend’s husband was offering to dig people out for a reasonable rate. I contacted him and hired him. When he got there, I explained the neighbor issue and what I wanted and was willing to pay for. He was only to clear out MY half of the driveway/garage/sidewalk. Her sides were still untouched, because no one(Me) would pay her kids to do it.
He went the extra mile, splitting the snow between the yard, and her side, of everything. AKA her side ended up with more snow that needed to be cleared.
This level of petty
image 117
Picture from Google.
She complained to the landlord that:
1. I refused to shovel her side of the property for her and her family (I was not obligated to do ANY property maintenance at all)
2. I had refused to hire her kids to do it
3. I had hired someone and refused to pay him to clear her side.
Now this was a kinda shitty landlord, but still… I was amused that the landlord contacted me about it and agreed to reduce my rent the amount I paid to have MY side cleared, as well as tell me about the downstairs neighbor’s complaints about me.
Until I moved out, whenever there was snowfall, you would see a similar clearing pattern on the property. SO much so the other neighbors joked about it, and refused to hire her kids to clear their properties as well.
EDIT: Apparently there are a large number of people who feel the need to comment about how she could just use my side of the stairs as if I lack a functioning brain. Seriously, the level of condescending ‘splaining in the comments is a sad statement on so many here. Thanks all you Captain Obvious’.
Of course she could, as could the postal worker who had to use them to deliver mail(Something not one of those commenting about her using the stairs seemed to consider).
Her being able to use them or not wasn’t the point. So many of you making the same comment as if the more of you who say it, the more I will regret it, or as if I didn’t realize that years ago when I did it is mind-boggling.
For those clueless ones that feel the need to comment the obvious, you all missed the obvious point that it wasn’t about her use of the stairs, but the refusal to clear her side on her command.
My partner (not my husband). My mother had been really sick from cancer for 18 months, we were told that she was unlikely to make it past the weekend. With that being said I was completely distraught… my partner of 9 years said pack your stuff and leave first thing in the morning (400km drive). He woke me up at 430 am, had already packed the car and fueled it up for me. Had a travel mug of coffee ready and said call me when you get there. I left 5am Friday morning.
mum passed 8am Saturday morning (the next day). I called my partner and told him, he said I’ll move heaven and hell to get there as soon as I can. I said, don’t worry, there is nothing you can do, just be here in time for mums funeral (the upcoming Friday).
in the mean time, it was my birthday 4 days after mum had passed. My family tried to make it as special as it could be. But, it was quite a somber occasion. At 8pm, there were headlights at the top of the drive way (rural property). I know the sound of his car. I’m like it’s *partners name.
he had worked 12 hour shift (construction) then drove 400km to be with me in my darkest time to help me feel better on my birthday. In the days after mums passing I had not been able to sleep, or cry or anything but just barely function. I slept solidly that night.
I know most would say that or like to think their spouse would do the same. But, that level of love and support got me through my darkest days. Love this man so very much.
Unfortunately, this is the point. The U.S. is not filty rich but filty poor.
All those money for Ukraine and Israel we got by using the printing press. We’re now $33 trillion in debt.
We can’t pay for basic utilities to keep our house in order but we believe we’re still able to live the high life of showing off to the rest of the world how powerful we are.
Genghis Khan, the legendary Mongol conqueror, had a unique approach when it came to treating his soldiers. Known for his strategic brilliance and military prowess, Khan understood the importance of a strong and loyal army in his quest to build the largest empire in history. So how did he treat his soldiers?
First and foremost, Genghis Khan believed in meritocracy. He valued skill, loyalty, and bravery above all else. Regardless of their background or social status, anyone who demonstrated these qualities had the opportunity to rise through the ranks of his army. This approach fostered a sense of unity and purpose among his soldiers, as they knew that their achievements would be rewarded.
Khan was also an astute observer of human nature. He recognized that soldiers needed to be motivated and inspired to fight with unwavering dedication. To achieve this, he led by example. Genghis Khan was renowned for his courage on the battlefield, often placing himself at the forefront of his troops during crucial engagements. This not only boosted morale but also instilled a sense of camaraderie and trust among his soldiers.
In addition to leading from the front, Khan took great care of his troops’ physical well-being. He ensured that his soldiers were adequately fed, equipped, and cared for. The Mongol army was known for its skilled horsemen, and Khan prioritized the breeding and training of horses to provide his soldiers with superior mounts. This gave them a significant advantage in maneuverability and speed during battles.
Furthermore, Genghis Khan implemented a system of rewards and recognition for valorous acts. Soldiers who displayed exceptional bravery or achieved notable successes on the battlefield were given honors, titles, and even land. This not only motivated his soldiers to excel but also created a sense of pride and camaraderie within the ranks.
However, Khan was also a strict disciplinarian. He demanded discipline and obedience from his soldiers, as he believed that a well-disciplined army was crucial for maintaining order and achieving victory. Disobedience or betrayal was met with severe consequences, ensuring that his troops remained loyal and committed to the cause.
Woman EXPOSES The INEVITABLE Problem With Dating Modern Women | TRAINED/GROOMED To Be Masculine
I was in talks to design a business plan for one of those “Become a Millionaire” guys – aka a “Life Coach”.
As we moved along in talks I immediately got the heeby jeebies from the guy.
He was in his late 50’s and only seemed to brag about things he did in high school and his early 20’s. When I would ask about subsequent years, just to understand his career narrative, he would get thin on details and then squirm and change the subject.
So then I watched a few of his media interviews where his go-to story was about this incredible and vivid vision that came upon him when he was a child. A vision that he would someday become rich.
To his credit, it indeed came true. He was a wealthy man.
But it became true because he inherited his dad’s company when his dad passed away unexpectedly. He then immediately sold the company and spent the next 30 years doing a whole lot of nothing.
So now he is one of those people going around telling everyone he knows “that ONE special secret to getting rich”. He released his first book on becoming wealthy, which a bunch of unfortunate suckers bought.
And, no, I won’t tell you the title because he will sue the hell out of me.
But I’ll give you the cliff notes version, “Get rich by having a rich dad.”
Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there that are like him.
Preying on people’s hopes and dreams in search of a dollar.
The American industrial system does not have such production capacity.
American shipyards do not have such production capacity: There is only a dry dock suitable for manufacturing aircraft carriers, and aircraft carriers waiting for repair are still queuing;
The steel mills in the United States do not have such production capacity: The last scandal involving the use of low-quality steel made in Kobe, Japan, by US nuclear submarines has not yet passed. This batch of nuclear submarines with quality issues cannot dive at all, and diving into deep water will explode due to increased pressure. American warships are even unable to withstand the impact of fishing vessels, which fully proves the quality issues of the steel used in their shipbuilding.
There are not enough skilled workers in the United States
20 And Back – The Super Soldiers Defending the Kuiper Belt
Joe Biden is taking the World to the brink of World War III
What can the American people do about it?
SQUAT
…
Until 19/1/2025 at least, there is nothing any American citizen can do about it except watch the World plunge into war under the watch of a senile idiot who needs Diapers
So what is the use of saying
Biden is destroying USA and he must be kicked out
It’s just empty gas isn’t it. It’s just 10 words at the end of the day. Biden laughs and keeps doing whatever he likes for four years, unchecked
…
Same with every Democracy in the Planet
At the end of the day – WHAT IS THE END RESULT OF ABUSING OR CRITICISING THE LEADER?
Nothing
Either the Media suppresses it or people shrug and brazenly keep doing what they are doing
…
Take India
We have had Protests on every decision that has ruined the country
Demonetization, CAA, NCR etc
They matter Squat
Once in, Modi is in power for minimum 5 years and he can’t be shaken by the common man
…
France?
Same story
All those Protests and Screams and Shrieks about Pension reforms and Macron did exactly what he wanted
He is in charge till 2027
…
Same with South Korea , exports plunge to historic lows and people scream and protest but does it matter? Nopes
Taiwan?
Japan?
Germany?
So many protests begging to end the war and Germany openly and brazenly calls for Escalation
So what is the use of this damn free speech? You can say the words but they are worthless in every possible way
Now China
Yes
Maybe in China, saying these 10 words could be counter productive
However the people’s voice in China is heard much better than in any democracy
Lockdowns were ended post protests
Rural Banking Reforms were initiated after Protests
Crackdowns on Real Estate Financing was initiated after Protests
1.03 Crore Jobs have been added due to vigorous Weibo Netizen criticism
Tagging Schoolkids Or regulating online gaming has been deferred due to Weibo online protests
Plus the Biggest Biggest Thing…
Recently on the XI Jingping app, they asked if Chinas History for 6–9 Classes be modified and whether Chapters on the Boxer Rebellion and the Opium Wars had to be reduced
The Question was asked of Students who had already passed out their 9th Grade and above
79% Students said NO.
DON’T CHANGE HISTORY
They didn’t.
…
In India, US, and all those wonderful democracies – they don’t ask the kids do they????
So on one hand you have Western Democracies and their lapdogs where you can say what ever you want but can do zilch
Or China where your criticism must be tempered but as citizens you can achieve much greater control on Governance
The Chinese say WE LIKE OUR MODEL BETTER
I kinda agree with them
So you keep your Senile Alzheimer’s Ridden President and your ‘Freedom and Democracy’ and let the Chinese have their own version
I think you might want to edit the question to ask which item from Italian cuisine does the US actually get right.
Italian American cuisine is a cuisine in its own right. Millions of Italians immigrated to America and they adapted their traditional dishes to use American ingredients. Some of the ingredients they used at home were unavailable or too expensive in America, so changes were made. Successive generations didn’t know there was a difference between what they were eating and what was being cooked in the old country. They just accepted the food their families prepared as being Italian cuisine, which at heart, it is.
There’s a lot of water between America’s East Coast, the epicenter of Italian American cuisine, and the old boot herself. It’s that distance that led the creation of Italian American classics. If I had to point at one item the made the leap unmolested though, I’d name Sfogliatelle.
Sfogliatelle are a flaky pastry that originated in Campania. They’re made by rolling out dough, brushing it with lard or oil, rolling it up, cutting it into portions, shaping the pastry, filling it and baking. Sfogliatelle can be baked unfilled or filled with sweetened ricotta, almond paste or candied citrus zest. They’re simple to make and don’t call for any exotic ingredients. It’s the thin flakey layers that make sfogliatelle unique.
image 116
Ricotta filled:
image 115
If you’ve never tried these pastries, seek them out. They’re amazing and their recipe has not been molested by time or distance.
Life robbed me of my childhood. My parents had to quit school after grade 9 to help support their families. They vowed that my brother and I would not be barred from finishing school and going to University.
But we were poor, so they had no way to pay for it. So they propped me early. I knew by grade six that if I wanted to go to university, I would have to pay for it myself.
So in grade 8, I started mowing lawns and shoveling snow.
In grade 9 I got a part time job and worked 20 hours a week, in grade 10 ,30 hours, and grades 11 and 12 it was 40 hours. I graduated first in my class. I lived in a 10×14 ft room, with a roommate and the bathroom, was down the hall. I worked in the dorm cafeteria. When summer came I got a camp job, where I worked 360–380 hours a month, and they also paid room and board.
This was the way I graduated from university debt free.
So, as soon as I turned 13, I stopped having a childhood, and had an adulthood instead. So much for life being easy for baby boomers.
I’d do it all over again in a heart beat. Its what it took to break the cycle of poverty.
Because I am 71, I knew people who were in their prime of life a hundred years ago (1918) and there were definitely things that they did easily and routinely that are rarely done today:
Baking bread and caramel rolls. My grandmother learned it from her mother but did not pass it on to her daughters, probably because sliced store bread had essentially taken over.
Writing cursive and writing letters. I have saved some of my grandfather’s letters. For a person with an eighth grade education, he wrote simply but beautifully.
Sewing and mending. My grandmother was not wealthy, but she was capable of producing wonderful pajamas for all of her grandchildren on her trusty Singer. My generation has lost the ability to create heirlooms.
Gardening and canning the things they grew. In an era when you were not going to see fresh fruit or vegetables in stores after growing season, people developed great preservation skills. Things like pickles, berries, tomatoes were canned as were peaches and plums when in season. I do not remember kale or zucchini, however, and that was also a blessing.
Memory work. I grew up with great uncles and aunts (all born about 1900) who had memorized massive amounts of poetry and famous speeches as well as scripture. Rote learning was fairly normal in their education, so they did group memorization. We loved to hear their recitations.
I miss those folks. They just slipped away one at a time between the seventies and today.
This wasn’t me, this was my wife. She is a lawyer and was interviewing for a job managing the sale of properties. She was interviewing at a firm that specialised in really expensive and tricky sales and when she turned up to the interview she was told by the recruiter that the partners had told the last two people who were interviewed to leave midway through so they were quite abrupt!
She went to the interview, which went quite well, and they asked her to prepare an answer to a legal sale question. When she looked at it, she knew she had no hope: it was madly complicated and about a type of property sale that is known to be horrendous to do. She thought about trying to brazen it off and decided to be honest and say she had no idea.
It turned out the partners knew from looking at her CV she would have no idea about how to do it; it was something so complex the partner himself had had to do it himself. What they were trying to do was see how she reacted to something she didn’t know. The last two people interviewed had tried to make something up and so failed the test.
I was nowhere qualified as a computer tech but one time a friend of mine brought over a a desktop machine and keyboard and asked me to see if I could get it running as it wouldn’t boot up. Every time you’d plug in the power cord to the wall socket a strange odor would start permiating from the cover. I figured something was wrong with the power supply, which if push came to shove I could’ve probably went to an electronics supply store and bought another one and installed it. I was adept at soldering and replacing some common components at the time, which is why my friend thought that I could fix it.
Anyhoo, I removed the screws holding the cover to the unit, lifted the cover off and got the most absolute shock of my life!! Hundreds of live cockroaches start running out all over everywhere not to mention many more that were obviously dead inside that cover!
I came unglued along with a major panic attack! I’d never, ever had to deal with roaches after I became an adult. I despised them because while growing up my family and I always had a major problem with roaches and they were always into everything and would drop from the ceiling when you went into a room after turning on lights, etc etc etc.
I spent 2 hours stomping on and smashing roaches trying to prevent them from getting into places in my apartment where I couldn’t reach and in the long run wasn’t successful. Ended up moving out to get away from them making sure in the process that I didn’t inadvertently take any with me.
I was not happy with my friend. It caused a major, almost homicidal argument with him and it would be several years before we spoke again. The creepiness and ick factor of watching those roaches pile out of that machine that day still haunts me to this day.
Huawei refused to disclose its foundry information, sending the Biden team into madness.
Let’s talk about smart children. Particularly smart children in the United States. Particularly those in grades K-8 at a public school.
A lot of you reading this are, yourself, a product of the American public school system. Think back to your K-8 years. Do you remember people whose only job was to deal with the students with behavior problems? Were there “special education” teachers who had special classrooms with aides and all kinds of equipment for just a handful of students? Do you remember being bored a lot in school, because your teacher didn’t have the time to challenge you, because they were so busy re-teaching things to the students who didn’t get it the first time? Do you remember a handful of students who seemed to set the pace for the whole class, and that pace was much, much too slow for you? Do you remember a handful of students whose attitudes and behavior set the tone for the whole class? And was that a negative tone that left your teacher spending most of their time dealing with that small handful of students?
That was my experience, at least. In grades 4–8, I was one of about 20 students in a special gifted program in my school. But that gifted “program” was just two teachers who were given a spare classroom in five schools in the district, and they went to a different school every day of the week, and pulled out the gifted students from their classes for an hour, to play logic games with them.
One hour per week. That’s what we got.
Meanwhile, the students on the other end of the spectrum had resources thrown at them, including permanent classrooms with full-time teachers for students whose only “special need” was that they didn’t give a damn about learning.
I remember one incident in particular, when I realized just how much time my teachers wasted trying to get one particular student under control. His name was Anthony. One day, in seventh grade, we were learning about feudal Japan by playing a game where we were all on teams, given items to trade, and could use money we made to hire soldiers, and then there was a huge map of Japan on the wall, separated into regions, with the number of regions under each team’s control represented by different colored push pins.
My team started in Osaka. To this day, I know exactly where Osaka is because of this game back in 1992. I remember that we were the blue team, our main thing to trade was fish, and we began with five pushpin armies.
Also Judith was in my group, which made it even that much more enjoyable for me. She was forced to interact with me for a few minutes each day because of this.
It was a computer-less strategy game. I loved it. The game was supposed to last for a few weeks.
It lasted two days. On the third day, Anthony vandalized the giant game board, and some of his friends laughed. And that was it. The teacher was tired of putting in so much effort for something that students like Anthony just kept ruining. We did the rest of the unit, and every unit afterwards for the rest of the year, through textbook reading and worksheets.
But, as I thought about it, I realized that Anthony had been that way since he was first in my class in second grade. He was always out of control. He always set the pace and the tone for the class. In middle school, he got kicked out of class a lot, which just wasted a lot of time because he rarely went willingly and they had to call and wait for security. But he was always back in the class the next day. He just needed to “chill out.”
That was actually the name of the kick-out room for students like him: the “chill out room.”
I just Googled him and found a story that he was sentenced to six years in prison in 2004 for “domestic battery, drug possession, and forgery.”
Yep. All of that extra time, effort, and money the public school spent on him… how’d that work out?
That would be fine, if the public schools spent the same amount of time, effort, and money on the upper end of the spectrum.
My point is this: What’s the saddest truth about smart people? Public schools just aren’t equipped to deal with your special needs, because they’re too busy dealing with the special needs of students on the other end of the spectrum. The very people who have the most potential to give the most back to society are the same ones who school prioritizes the least.
Imagine a school system where every dollar spent on students on the lower end of the special needs spectrum had to be matched by a dollar for students on the higher end of the spectrum.
Imagine if, just like schools have resources in place for when the teachers need to kick out the Anthonys of the world, those same schools had resources for teachers to send out the students who were too smart for that day’s lesson.
“Timmy, you can read this and learn it on your own in five minutes, but I’m going to be teaching it to the rest of the class for the next hour. You can go to the gifted resource room and work with the teacher there on more advanced stuff.”
Imagine if, just as schools pay extra attention to students with special needs due to federal laws and fears of getting sued, schools did the same for students on the high end of the spectrum. Imagine if parents could threaten a lawsuit because the school wasn’t meeting the needs of their child… the legally-mandated requirement that the school challenge them on their academic level and not let their classmates hold them back.
Imagine how high your hot air balloon could be now, if not for the classroom sandbags that weighed you down when you were in school.
Instead of “No Child Left Behind,” it should be “No Child Forced To Wait.”
Gavin Newsom goes to China, one-ups Biden and meets Xi Jinping
“As a Californian, I can tell you that not only is Newsom not acceptable to the rest of America, California is not acceptable to the rest of America”.
It is likely that China will sell virtually all of its remaining U.S. Treasuries.
It is useful to look at Russia’s experience in this regard. Russia sold virtually all of its Treasuries in 2018, fairly quickly. At that time, Russia encouraged the world to dump U.S. Treasury bonds. Thus, it is possible for a country to officially not hold Treasuries.
After 2018, Russia continued to hold some foreign currency reserves in U S. dollars. When the Ukraine War started in 2022, the United States and its allies froze hundreds of billions of dollars held by Russia.
As a result, the world has been forced to look elsewhere to store its savings. Both China and Russia are storing much of their wealth in physical gold. Other countries are doing the same. The planet is also increasingly doing business in currencies other than the dollar.
As a result of these trends, China will increasingly no longer need U.S. Treasuries to do business. In October 2023, China bought its first oil for Chinese Yuan. If this continues, China will get its oil for free, by printing Yuan. America will be forced to trade hard goods for oil in the future.
America’s leaders were very short-sighted to weaponize the dollar. A global reserve currency requires trust. The United States had a money-making machine, and voluntarily gave it up.
FLASH TRAFFIC ADDED – TURKISH NAVY DEPLOYING 100 SHIPS AGAINST ISRAEL –~FIFTY (50) U.S. Military Transport Planes in 24 Hours to Middle East
FLASH TRAFFIC ADDED – SEE 12:27 PM EDT UPDATE BELOW —— From Friday-into-Saturday, the United States sent no fewer than fifty (50) military transport planes loaded with troops to the Middle East. In addition, the list below shows “unprecedented” naval deployments. Today, Iran said they WILL NOT abide U.S. warnings to stay out of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
We begin with Naval Deployments into the Middle East showing 11 Countries in Support of Israel:
All of the above, along with Submarines and other support ships show an utterly massive naval deployment. I am told this present deployment is larger than the ones done prior to the US war(s) against Saddam Hussein in Iraq in 1991 and again later.
In addition to all the above vessels, another Aircraft Carrier, the HMS Queen Elizabeth II, transited the Strait of Gibraltar yesterday morning around 11:00 AM, enroute to the eastern Mediterranean:
In addition to THAT additional aircraft carrier, the Navy of Italy is also now deploying vessels:
AIR
In the 24 hours period from Friday into Saturday, the United States flew 49+ military transport aircraft from the US to the Middle East, carrying TROOPS!
On top of those troop transport flights, a Significant number of C-17A Globemaster lll and C-5M Super Galaxy Transport Aircraft from the U.S. Air Force’s Air Mobility Command have been arriving in the Middle East.
The flight info above DOES NOT even cover the regular commercial airline flights the US has chartered to exclusively move troops!
Yesterday, Saturday 28 October 2023, Germany put 1,000 soldiers on alert for deployment to the Middle East in case of emergency The German Army keeps 1,000 troops on alert for possible deployment to the Middle East in case of emergency, given the prevailing tension in the region as a result of the war between Hamas and Israel.
This flight from Fort Sill, OK has my attention at the moment. Fort Sill is home to a THAAD battery and this flight appears to be headed overseas. There are no helpful ACARS for this flight, but this is possibly a THAAD battery flight enroute to Saudi Arabia:
At about 1:47 AM eastern US Time Sunday, which was about 11:00 AM in Tehran, Iran, the President of Iran said Tehran will not follow US warnings against interfering in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. According to the Press service of the President of Iran: “Israel has crossed red lines, forcing everyone to take action.”
The President made it a point to also say “the presence of U.S warships in the region will make no difference to Tehran’s decision.”
Hal Turner Analysis
Based solely upon the movement of ships, troops, and planes, it is obvious to me the United States is going to war. A big war.
Trouble is the federal government under the Biden Regime has intentionally left the US southern border with Mexico, virtually open. Literally millions of illegal aliens have been entering the country via Mexico since Biden took office.
It is my opinion that many – but not all – of these illegal aliens are a “5th Column” sent here by adversaries to be “sleeper cells.” I believe that when war erupts in the Middle East, that WE HERE IN THE USA will also be attacked by these sleeper cells.
YOU must be ready with emergency food, water, medicine, a generator to make electric in case the grid is taken down. Have CASH MONEY in your possession incase cyber attacks take out the financial networks, making credit, debit, and SNAP/EBT useless. After all, almost no one takes checks anymore. So folks with cash will eat. Those without cash will go hungry.
The utterly massive movement of troops and weapons indicates to me that hostilities are imminent. Which could — and I emphasize “could” (not necessarily “will”) — trigger sleeper cell attacks here in America.
If you wait until trouble starts, then YOU and every other person who failed to plan, will all be rushing to stores at the same time trying to get food and supplies. In short order, store shelves will be empty and those of you who took no action, will find yourself standing in an empty store.
Don’t be like “the masses who are asses” that wait until the last minute to get supplies. Do it right now. Today.
And gas-up your cars, trucks, and spare gas cans for your generator.
Lastly, have COMMUNICATIONS GEAR – a CB or a HAM (Shortwave) radio — so if things go wild weasel, and communications like phone, fax, email, cellular/Internet all go down, at least YOU will be able to communicate locally (CB) and hear international news on shortwave (HAM).
Of course, some of you will say that this story and its advice is sort of like “Chicken Little, the sky is falling.” To those who would scoff I merely point out that, this morning, a U.S. E-6 Nuclear Command Post is now flying over the US East Coast:
The E-6B Mercury is a communications relay and strategic airborne command post aircraft. It provides survivable, reliable, and endurable airborne Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications (NC3) for the president, secretary of defense and U.S. Strategic Command.
So it isn’t just ME telling you to take steps to prepare, it’s the US Military, too. Take the hint!
(PERSONAL: Sorry my coverage today begins at this late hour of 11:00 AM EDT. I slept-in this morning. Didn’t wake up until 9:25 AM. I was literally exhausted.)
********** FLASH ***********
UPDATE 12:27 PM EDT —
The Turkish Navy is, right now, transiting ONE-HUNDRED Naval Warships through the Bosporus Strait from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.
It is BELIEVED Turkey plans to engage Israel over its ongoing military action in Gaza. War may break out between Turkey and Israel within Hours! ! ! !
Unlike its better known relative, the Enigma machine which was infamously deciphered by code-breakers at Bletchley Park throughout the war, the Lorenz cipher posed a much greater challenge. Utilising 12 wheels to scramble up the message being sent as opposed to the 3 or 4 rotors found in the Enigma machine, the Lorenz cipher was incredibly secure. As a result, unlike the Enigma that was used by the German standard armed forces, the Lorenz cipher was used only by high command with messages coming from Hitler himself. As a result, to crack the Lorenz cipher (or Tunny as it was code named by the British) would have the potential to change the course of the war.
Not much headway had been made in breaking the Lorenz cipher through the war until a German operator made a catastrophic mistake on 30 August 1941. When a German receiving operator did not receive a message correctly, he asked the transmitter to resend the information and despite clear protocol against it, the two operators resent the message without changing their key settings (the settings that determine how the text is scrambled up). However since the message in question was 4000 characters long, the lazy German operator abbreviated several words, thus changing the length of the message. Since their key settings were both the same, the two messages had the same scrambling pattern of characters. Thus by comparing the locations where the message text changed, details of the way the rotors worked could be determined.
These two messages were intercepted by the British who soon realised the importance of what they had discovered. This task of cracking Tunny was given to W T (Bill) Tutte who began to find repetitions in the cipher which allowed him to reverse engineer the Lorenz machine’s logical structure in what would be later described as “one of the greatest intellectual feats of World War II”. In order to support the painstaking decryption of German messages, the British Colossus was built in 1943 by Tommy Flowers, the first ever modern computer.
image 112
The Colossus Machine
The impact of the decryption of Tunny was enormous. It gave the British intimate details of Hitler’s most secret communications which was most notably vital in D Day where the Allies were able to deceive the Germans that they were going to attack at Calais as opposed to Normandy and at the Battle of Kursk in 1943, Germany’s last ditch attempt to reverse their fortunes on the Eastern Front and one of the largest battles in history. Involving 3 million men, without foreknowledge of German planning provided by the British, the Soviets would have been badly prepared defensively and could have lost this crucial battle and as a result, the war would’ve been prolonged. In fact, historians estimate that the breaking of the Lorenz cipher shortened the war by two years and thus saved millions of lives all due to the careless mistake of two lazy German operators.
However this pivotal event is not well known due to the Official Secrets Act keeping the nature of the code breakers working to break the Lorenz cipher secret until 1974 and some former staff even today still refuse to break their vow of secrecy, preferring to take their knowledge to the grave.
image 111
W T (Bill) Tutte, the man responsible for cracking the Lorenz Cipher
Cajun Pot Roast
2023 11 09 14 23
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
1 (3 pound) beef sirloin or chuck roast
2 large garlic cloves, cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces
3 cayenne chiles, or jalapeno chiles, cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces
Salt and pepper to taste
1 large onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 (4 ounce) can whole or sliced mushrooms
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Creole seasoning to taste
Instructions
Cut 1/2 to 3/4 inch slits into beef. Stuff one piece of garlic and one piece of chile into each slit. Season the roast with salt and pepper.
Heat a large nonstick pan over medium heat. Add beef and brown well on all sides.
Add onion, bell pepper and minced garlic land sauté until tender.
Add water to pan to cover the beef.
Stir in the mushrooms and Worcestershire sauce and season with Creole seasoning.
Simmer, covered, for 3 to 4 hours or until tender, adding more water if needed to keep liquid level halfway up the beef.
Notes
You may stir 1 tablespoon flour mixed with 1 cup cold water into liquid near end of cooking for a thicker gravy.
I broke off a 10 year off and on relationship over a single piece of gum.
He and I weren’t on great terms for a long while. It was mostly out of his cheapness. He wouldn’t take me out to eat-we ate at his place. That wouldn’t have been bad except that he bought cheap items and used foods that had expired. I told him I wasn’t eating his cooking anymore, thank you. We watched TV but only shows he liked-he didn’t want to waste his time on my shows. I could watch them at my place.
Things were coming to a head and I knew the next fight we had would be the last. It was November when he called me and asked me to come over and fix his computer. I wasn’t in the best of moods-I finally had a free afternoon with the kids out with their father and I had things to do. Ok, I decided I would go over and see if I could do something to help. I got there and he already told me I had just an hour to get things right. Perfect start-no thanks for coming over, great to see you, etc.
He offered me a piece of gum. I haven’t chewed gum in years because it sticks to my dental work, and he knew it. Why was he offering me gum-was my breath stinky? After I thought about it for a moment, I took a piece. I didn’t even get it open when he started to yell at me-why is everything in your life a big decision? Don’t waste my gum-either take it or don’t! I paid money for that!
I immediately put the gum back on the table. He flips out again-you touched it not you don’t want it! What’s the matter with you? With me? I don’t chew gum, not in years! You knew that! I thought you were hinting my breath stunk so I took a piece of gum. Now you don’t want me to take the gum! Why don’t you make up YOUR mind?
He immediately moved my tech bag away from his computer and began to work on his computer. Don’t you want me to do that? No. You asked me to cone down here to help you, now you don’t want me to help you? Silence. Are we really going to have a fight about a piece of gum after I wasted my time and gas to come here? Silence.
I sat on the couch for a few minutes. I could have just stormed out the door. I wanted to compose myself and make it clear what would happen. I told him that I have spent 10 years doing for him, taking care of him when he was sick, lent him things like my cell phone and my car, then paid the repairs when he broke them and he never paid me back. I have put up with all this, and if we didn’t resolve what was really going on, I was leaving and not coming back. All I got was silence. Are we really going to break up over a damned piece of gum? Silence.
I picked up my things and I left. I never went back. I blocked his number from my cell phone. I had a feeling I knew what happened because he did it to me before. He used to get moody around Thanksgiving time and lots of times we broke up so he could avoid my birthday in December and Christmas/Chanukah/Valentines Day. He used to call around March to renew our friendship but his birthday was in April and he really wanted a present. I just had enough of his childishness, his cheapness and his abusive control. It was just one fight too many and I was done.
He did email me the following April-after I sent nothing for his birthday. I emailed him back that I told him that after our last fight, I was done and I wanted nothing more to do with him. He replied that he forgot what we fought about, and I told him that it was over a piece of gum. Then I blocked his email.
He called from another phone the following September, demanding I stop being stupid and get back together. What a lovely invitation, no woman can resist that, I answered. Then he threatened me. I told him to come over and try to f*** me up. I had an old lead pipe my father had and it had his name on it. I told him I’ll invite my neighbors to watch me smear him all over the street. My temper broke and I told him about the horrible things he did to me over the years. He finally said “I guess you’re mad at me, huh?” I hung up and blocked his new number too.
He attempted to contact me a few times through his friends but I told them I would go to the police and file harassment charges. He finally moved out of New York City-he attempted to contact me from his mother’s home in Tennessee. I blocked that too. He’s been blocked in every social media site so I don’t have to deal with him.
He had 10 years to grow up and apologize. The words aren’t in his vocabulary. I know the piece of gum wasn’t the reason our relationship ended-it was years of my giving and him taking and never appreciating what he got. But that stupid piece of gum was the catalyst. To this day, when I see a pack of Wrigley’s gum, I still smirk with amused disgust.
I interviewed for a support engineering role, the interviewer asked me how a fluorescent light fitting worked. I explained what I knew about the ballast, starter and gas tube etc. He delved deeper and I drew a rudimentary circuit diagram. When he asked exactly how the starter worked I was stumped, so I said “I don’t know”.
He told me that he must’ve had 2 dozen other applicants attempt to convince him how it all worked, but being able to admit I didn’t know something landed me the job. I learnt how knowing one’s limitations is so important.
Despite increased attacks on US occupation bases, Joe Biden has reportedly turned down more ‘aggressive bombing options’ in Syria out of fear that a wider conflict may erupt
NOV 13, 2023
(Photo credit: AFP via Getty Images)
Several missile and drone strikes targeted US occupation bases in Syria on 13 November in response to the latest round of US airstrikes on alleged Iranian targets in the country.
Fifteen missiles targeted the US base in the Conoco gas field, sources told Al-Mayadeen, adding that US helicopters began making flights ten minutes after the strike.
“The Conoco base was targeted with advanced Grad missiles, which led to the death of four US soldiers,” Al-Mayadeen’s correspondent reported.
Field sources told Al-Mayadeen that the attacks were carried out by the “Popular Resistance” in Syria.
In a second response to US airstrikes, three drones struck the Al-Shaddadi military base in Hasakah, northeastern Syria.
The US Green Village base at the Al-Omar oilfield northeastern Syria, was also hit with a drone. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq is a coalition of Iraqi resistance factions formed last month in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance in Gaza.
The coalition was formed to confront US forces in Iraq and Syria as part of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and in rejection of US support for Israel in the war, and has been targeting US bases on a regular basis.
Hours before Monday’s attacks, US warplanes carried out several airstrikes in eastern Syria.
Washington claimed the attacks targeted facilities used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
According to Al-Mayadeen’s correspondent, the US airstrikes “targeted a house in the town of Al-Mayadeen, which led to the death of a citizen and the injury of another.”
US jets have struck Syria several times over the past month in retaliation to the unprecedented surge in resistance attacks against US military bases in Iraq and Syria. Washington has labeled the attacks as “self-defense.”
According to the New York Times (NYT), US President Joe Biden “has rejected more aggressive bombing options proposed by the Pentagon out of fear of provoking a wider conflict with Iran.”
The newspaper also cites Republicans in Congress as saying that Washington’s strikes on Syria “only invite more frequent and more dangerous attacks against US troops in the region.”
There have been at least 48 resistance attacks against US forces in Iraq and Syria since 17 October, the Pentagon said on Saturday.
“At least 56 U.S. service members had been injured. Roughly half of those suffered traumatic brain injuries, and two had to be flown to Landstuhl military hospital in Germany for treatment,” the NYT adds.
There doesn’t seem to be many who are rude. My story is about a beautiful and kind woman.
Many years ago I was in O’Hara airport getting ready to fly home from Navy boot camp. As I waited, I saw what looked like a Hollywood photo shoot going on. I walked over with my nearly bald head and baggy Navy uniform and talked to an absolutely beautiful woman, dressed like an Elf. She was friendly and asked where I was from and what my home was like. We talked for about 10 minutes. As I needed to catch my plane, I thanked her for taking the time to speak with me. I asked her what her name was. It was Ann-Margaret. Surprise! I’ve had a soft spot for her since our meeting.
There have been a lot of memes lately, discussing this subject:
It’s viewed as a sort of work-around to all of life’s problems:
These’s memes are funny and all (sometimes), but they also have some truth.
A good portion of depressed people definitely view suicide as a way out and they genuinely think it’s the only way.
But it’s not.
Sunday, Nov 18 is my late-uncle’s birthday.
No one ever talks about him in my family. And of the few times he’s brought up, is always in relation to his suicide or mental illness.
He lived a pretty amazing life, but the memory of his suicide looms over the conversations around him.
It’s not like we never talk about him, or that suicide is strictly the only thing that we remember about him. There’s just no solace to the memory of his passing, suicide is something that is preventable, it didn’t have to be this way.
And, unfortunately, it’s the same with my idol, Chester Bennington.
image 120
In every Linkin Park YouTube music video, all the comments are the same. They’re ALL about his depression or his death.
No one talks about his life, how he made it big after a period of being homeless. How Linkin Park immediately knew who their lead singer was after his audition; how Chester would always do screaming vocal warmups, which could be heard several changing rooms away, before each of his live performances.
No one talks about that anymore.
If I’d killed myself on year ago, all I’d be remembered as was “that quiet kid who killed himself.”
You have a lot to be remembered for.
Stan Lee, who passed away on Nov 12, 2018, is positively cherished by fans.
So much material was circulated recently about his life and work.
image 119
There was a meme about how he drew the Peter Parker meets MJ comic strip based on the time he first saw his future wife. There were memes of his cameos in Marvel movies, memes of Infinity war, Spider-man memes….
It was awesome.
And nobody was particularly sad, rather they celebrated everything he did in his 95 year life on Earth.
You have a lot to live for.
And a lot to be remembered by.
And even if things don’t get better quickly.
Don’t tarnish that with suicide.
It’s not worth it.
You are worth it.
You are worth a good life and the world deserves your proud legacy.
During my very first visit to China, there were a couple of things that took me by surprise:
Massive malls absolutely everywhere
I’ve heard that Chinese food is so much better in China than what you get in other countries, but that’s is a massive understatement. There is so much diversity in food options, all of it is amazingly delicious and very reasonably priced. I could not get enough of it, and I can’t wait for my next visit so I can stuff my face with all that deliciousness again!
I didn’t expect to have that much trouble finding restaurants or shops that accept foreign bank cards. Some locations only allow Alipay. Also, apps like Didi are not available to foreigners as you need a Chinese number to sign up, and hailing a taxi is not always easy.
I saw very few tags or graffiti on buildings in big Chinese cities. Those are a major issue in pretty much every European city, as even historical buildings get smeared in tags, so this was a welcome surprise.
Excellent public transportation – so cheap and easy to use!
All the people I’ve met were absolutely lovely and extremely helpful. Also, there are so many older people in the parks, exercising or dancing, which is refreshing to see.
There is never any paper in bathrooms, so you have to carry a roll with you
The only thing that slightly threw me off during my very first visit was that people in China often take pictures of foreigners without asking. I’m very visibly a foreigner, so I always get quite a bit of attention when I’m travelling in Asia. I’m used to that, and I never decline a picture with some curious locals, as I find it a sweet experience. However, in China, while many approached and asked for a photo, there were many more who just tried to ‘’sneakily’’ take it, which made me feel a little bit uncomfortable at times.
As a tiny woman travelling alone I felt quite safe, even at night in less populated areas.
My wife and kids lived upstairs in my parent’s house. My Dad passed before my Mom. When she passed, as the only child, I had to sort out her bills, insurance, etc. My Mom was a school teacher for many years and received SS and a pension. At her time of retiring, she did not make as much as teachers do today. A few days after her funeral, I was sitting at her desk going through her checkbook to see what was paid and so forth. When I looked at the deposits, I started to see bill after bill after bill being paid, leaving her with very little left over. I am still saddened to this day, many years later, that I never knew the depth of how bad things really were. We could have contributed more to the household, but she hid most of this from us, trying to spare us any hardship. This is the single biggest regret I have in her passing, knowing I could have eased her burden, as she was the most loving mother one could ask for. She worked her whole life to teach children and raise me, who deserved so much more in her retirement. I am shedding tears as I write this, and hope that others can take more of an active role in their parents lives (when allowed) while they are still with us.
While employed as a pizza delivery rider, after the lifting of the COVID lock-down, our company decided to pull a fast one.
A memo from the head office was circulated among all restaurant staff at all branches. It basically said that the company was so concerned about our welfare in these trying times that they were willing to keep a percentage of our weekly salary for us as a form of savings. The memo also mentioned that if we agreed to this ‘Pizza Savings’ (my term, not theirs) that we will be getting 0% interest.
My delivery co-worker and I had a field day with that memo. We read it several times in disbelief and laughed. The owners could not be serious.
It was obvious they wanted to get a loan/invest in something. It was as if they told themselves instead of taking a 16% interest loan from the bank why not simply take it from their uneducated restaurant workers, all they needed was our signatures.
I went around some of the co-workers joking about it. Most of us laughed it off but two of them couldn’t understand what was so funny.
‘But we’re getting 0% interest!’ an older woman working the grill said.
She seemed to have the idea that this was a good thing. Apparently she had had so many loans in the past that to her the word interest = bad.
I explained to her it was a savings and not a loan. That with savings you want the highest interest you could get and the exact opposite when it comes to a loan.
‘But isn’t it good to have a savings?’ one of the teenaged girls working the pizza table said.
I explained to her it is a good thing but it makes no sense to save your money with someone giving you 0%. I tried explaining how banks work, about buying shares etc and getting the best rates for your money. Both women looked at me in silence.
In the end they both decided to ‘try it out.’
I didn’t know what shocked me more. The fact that the restaurant attempted that stunt or the fact that it actually worked on two employees.
Controller got fired for all the right reasons. On his way out, and before his access was deleted, he programmed a very, very offensive message on the Windows start menu for the entire company-something along the lines of “fxxx you, (name of the CFO)”. Now I’ll admit the guy had it coming, but will also say that the CFO was the biggest a-hole I’ve ever met. Anyway, it took the IT guys weeks before they were able to fix it (always wondered why it took sooooo loooong).
As a 45 year old, I started feeling very tired. I fell asleep in the bathroom at work one day. Went home and thought I was coming down with a cold. Never actually got cold symptoms, but could barely move my body. It felt like all of my extremities were filled with lead. Then I started getting dizzy. Then I started to vomit. I went to an urgent care center and told them all of the above symptoms and how now I’m vomiting and peeing every 5 minutes. I even told them I was vomiting black stuff which they informed me was blood. I was told I just had a stomach virus like people get on cruise ships. I said I have never been on a cruise ship in my life. I was sent home with antinausea meds. I had lost about 15 lbs in 3 days. That night and next day still vomiting and now breathing in short gasps. Now my body is shivering uncontrollably and I can barely move and still vomiting blood. My kids found me on the kitchen floor and took me to the ER. I was rushed back and found out I was in diabetic ketoacidosis. My body was shutting down. I was about a day away from death. My blood sugar was 854. I was diagnosed as a type 1 diabetic.
While hospitalized, I received a survey from the urgent care center asking how my experience was. I’ll told them that I almost died thanks to them, but other than that it was great.
Years back when Subway still gave you tickets to collect for free subs, my kids’ mother and I were going to have dinner and movie night with my brother and his wife. Subway was the night’s choice. Well, it is Friday evening and the video store is packed. So we’re standing in line waiting to check out our movies, and she is going through these Subway tickets. She asks me,
“I don’t supposed you’ll eat a 6 inch?”
To which I responded, in a building with over 150 people in it, without even missing a beat,
“No, if I don’t get 12 inches, I’m just not satisfied.”
Children were laughing at me. Had it not been so hilarious, I would be mortified of that story getting out.
When I was first living with my (present) wife we were living in Nanshan. This is a suburb in Shenzhen, China. We had a little dog. She was a Bomei. The dog’s name was “yo yo”.
Well, my wife wanted to save some money and cut yo yo’s hair herself.
The only thing was… well… she was drinking alcohol when she did it.
Uh oh.
…
Poor yo yo.
She shaved it all off, and yo yo was so very, VERY pissed off.
She would go to the standing mirror, look at herself, sigh and then go back to her bed and sleep off her depression.
It was a long time ago. Maybe 2003 or 2004.
Poor little Yo Yo.
Trust me, everyone… a word to the wise… never cut your dog’s hair when you are drunk.
Europe had just emerged from a terrible Great War, and everyone wanted to cut the ties with the past. The World War One was simply a terrible disaster which cost the lives of millions of fine young men and destroyed gazillions worth of property. And the World War One effectively killed Christianity in Europe. The industrial mass carnage was simply too much.
Europe was wiped mentally and spiritually into a blank slate, and this also included fine arts and architecture. New Totalitarian ideologies, such as Communism, National Socialsism and Fascism had emerged, and the new generation hated anything bourgeoisie, anything hand-made, anything posh and cute, anything feminine. One of the most important men in the architecture of the era was Swiss-born Edouard Jeanneret aka Le Corbusier, whose pamphlet Towards a New Architecture was the start bang of the run of hideous, ugly and banal architecture.
Of course Corbu did not aim for hideous, ugly and banal. What he wanted was natural light, air, sanitation and effectiveness. The centuries old European cities had very little to speak about commodities – many did not have central heating, central water supply nor indoors loos. (They came only later.) And he wanted to make a total break with the 7000 years of architectural legacy. Not evolution, but revolution. this is how the box-arts architecture emerged.
According to Corbu, the problems of architecture are the same all around the world, and the solutions also are the same all around the world. Everything returns to the three basic forms – cube, cone and ball. Away with gabled roofs, decorations, ornaments, frizes, symmetry, anything unnecessary! Light! Warmth! Joy! Buildings are nothing but vertical streets! Sameness must prevail! Everything shall be the same from Arkhangelsk to Antofagasta!
Meanwhile in Germany, the Bauhaus sported similar ideas. While le Corbusier leaned towards Fascism, Bauhaus was a Communist hotbed. Everything shall be mass-produced! Away with pastel colours and genteel forms! Away with decorations and ornaments! Everything shall be standardized!
The new architecture – International Style– spred incredibly fast. Because the year 2000 was near. This was the future – and it did away with past. Everyone now waited for year 2000. It was to be a concrete milestone of the future. See, the odometre gears revolve and the new numbers set in. And the architects wanted to build bridge to the future.
Nazis and Fascists were enamored of the new style. Bauhaus was done away because it was a hotbed of Communists, but the Nazis adopted the Bauhaus style eagerly. Likewise in Italy, Futurism was the offficial style of Fascism in arts and Italian Rationalism in architecture. Not some kind of Neo-Classicism which one could expect.
Came the World War Two, and the cities in Britain, Netherlands, France, Germany and Eastern Europe were simply obliterated. They had to be rebuilt – and they were rebuilt in the new style. And a new technique of building – Plattenbau – had been invented. The large panel system-building revolutionized construction and made houses cheaper than ever.
But this meant also the revolution on architectural thinking. The old buildings had been built indefinitely, or at least as long as the razing craze, fire or aerial bombardment would destroy them. Now the concept of lifespan entered in architecture. Edifices would last 50 to 60 years after which they would be ready to be demolished and replaced. So there was no reason to build beautiful any more.
Two world wars had killed the artistic soul. The architecture must be true and honest. The world is ugly, so architecture must be ugly. The world is fragmented and broken, so the architecture must reflect it. The materials must be left raw and unfinished to be honest to them. Brutalism had been born.
And the future was closer than ever. The 1960s finally demonstrated the future was at hand. True, we didn’t know exactly what the future would be like, but we knew that it had to be one of a few alternatives. The future was a world with a distinct architecture. It had its own way of speaking. It had its own technology. It was for all intents and purposes a different land where people dressed differently, talked differently, ate differently, and even thought differently. It was where scientists were wizards, where machines were magically effective and efficient, where tyrants were at least romantically evil rather than banal, and where the crystal spires and togas would prevail.
Then the long-awaited Year 2000 (or rather 2001, if you prefer) came. The odometer wheels revolved and the numbers turned. Suddenly we realized we lived now in that future which we had built in the 1960s – and it was no different from the past. It is now 2023 – we are well in that future – and nothing has really changed. The world did not change by revolution, but by evolution. Meanwhile, the centuries- and millennia-old towns, cities and buildings had evolved by constructing modern age amenities within – without destruction, simply by building waterworks, sanitation and Internet connections within those buildings built centuries ago and made to last for centuries. Evolution 1 – revolution 0. “Building a bridge to the future” sounds just as corny as building a causeway to next Tuesday.
For people of the generations who had lived through the tarnished promises of the Atomic Age, the Space Age, the Computer Age, and the This That and Another Age, the year 2001 was a gateway. We waited twenty, thirty, forty years and some longer to pass though that gate into a time when spaceships the size of ocean liners plied between colonised planets, where cities were colourful collections of brand new towers without a single old building or blade of grass.
Turned out the future was hideous, banal, bland, ugly and simply terrifying. And it was not the future anymore. It was now. The future was now here, and had become the present. We no more had a past, and we no more have a future either – what we have is perpetual present, here and now. The years turn and nothing really changes. Or should I say, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
And now the lifespan thinking in architecture is bearing fruit – we are losing those futures now. The Brutalist and the Plattenbau buildings are now reaching the ends of their designed lifespans, and they are being pulled down. Every day we lose one or more of those futures. Most of us say good riddance – nobody except arts and history professionals will miss those ugly, hideous and banal buildings like we miss the destroyed beautiful buildings of the past centuries.
Here goes the Vesiputoustalo (Waterfall House) in my hometown. Built in 1985, it was abandoned in 2017 and demolished 2022. The house had a terrible mildew and internal air problem, and had a functional lifespan of barely 32 years. Another future becomes a heap of gravel.
So why our world is still plagued with ugly architecture despite having more architectrs now than ever in history? Because the doctrines of Modernism and International Style still prevail in all architectural schools and technical universities in the world. The students are still today indoctrinated to build that same hideous architecture as has been built during the past 90 years. Repeat styles are not allowed unless they repeat the past 50 years.
And yet, all futures have now been explored. The same has happened in architecture as what happened in the fine arts in the 1970s. All isms have been tried and all turned stale. Like Gollum, we have now explored all the roots and all the caves and they turned empty. This general disillusionment has now produced the spiritless and soulless Postmodernist architecture. Anything goes.
Most of all, it is all about money. Building ugly is cheap. Cutting corners and cutting away anything unnecessary is a way on saving money and on costs.
The dreams of le Corbusier and other Modernists turned out nightmares in the real life.
Leave The West! Move To China Now!
Like it or not, Russia and China are running circles around the USA. Better learn Mandarin and Russian. We love you Sabrina!
Creole-Style Pork and Red Bean Chili
On a spiciness scale of 1 (mild) to 5 (hot), this chili is a 3 with chaurice only or a 2 with pork tenderloin and chaurice combined.
creole style pork red bean chili
Prep: 15 min | Cook: 55 min | Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Ingredients
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
2 pounds chaurice sausage (or other spicy pork sausage, like chorizo), removed from casing*
2 cups finely diced yellow onion
1 cup diced celery
1 cup finely diced green bell pepper
3 cups cooked Camellia Brand Red Kidney Beans
2 teaspoons dried thyme leaves
3 (14.5 ounce) cans fire-roasted diced tomatoes
4 large cloves garlic, minced
1 to 2 tablespoons Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Pork & Veal Magic
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 cups thinly sliced green onion tops
Kosher salt, to taste
Fresh thyme leaves, for garnish
Instructions
Heat oil in a large Dutch oven set at medium-high. Add the chaurice sausage, and, using a wooden spoon, break up the sausage into bite-size chunks. Stir and cook until the sausage is fully opaque, about 8 minutes. (If also using pork tenderloin, do not add yet.)
Add onion and cook until translucent, about 6 minutes.
Add celery and bell pepper and cook until soft, about 5 minutes.
Add Camellia Brand Red Kidney Beans, dried thyme, tomatoes, garlic, and Pork & Veal Magic®. (If using diced pork tenderloin, add it at this time.) Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to medium-low and cook until slightly thickened, about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add tomato paste and stir until thoroughly combined, taking care not to break up the beans. Bring chili to a boil, stir in green onions and add Kosher salt to taste. Cover, remove from heat and let stand for 20 minutes before serving.
Garnish individual bowls of chili with fresh thyme leaves.
Notes
* For a milder flavor, use 1 pound chaurice and 1 pound pork tenderloin, diced.
Me, wearing a Best Buy shirt and buying something from the 7–11 down the street: “Hello”
7–11 owner: “Oh hi, how are you today!”
Me: “Pretty good I guess. Best Buy isn’t giving me enough hours though.”
Owner: “Do you want to work here?”
Me: “…yes, actually.”
Owner: “Can you start tomorrow at 6am?”
Me: “…yes, actually.”
Owner: “OK, see you then.”
Now, to be fair, at that point I’d been in that particular 7–11 maybe 3 times a week for 3 years leading up to then, and I knew the owner and his family decently well.
But still. I went in to buy cigarettes and left with a new job. Pretty nice.
Russia-US security agreement. Conflict on two fronts w/ Jeffrey Sachs (Live)
We, fortunately, have not yet had a house fire, but some neighbors of my daughter did. The whole family was at a movie and arrived home to find their house on fire, and firemen already battling the blaze. The house was saved, but there was extensive and very expensive damage, making the house uninhabitable for months. The fire had started from a clothes dryer left running, and a blockage caused the motor to overheat.
Since then, I have two rules: Never leave the house with the dryer running, and also, clean, not only the dryer vent after every load, but also the dryer line to the outside on a regular basis.
I also, at one time, prevented a major fire at work when I smelled overheated electrical wires. I had a great deal of difficulty persuading the maintenance people to cut a hole in the ceiling where I could smell the wires, but they finally did, just as the flames erupted.
As on date there is an oversupply of 17.2 Million Homes in China
There are 17 Million homes built or being built without takers , built in anticipation of being sold for which developers have already borrowed loans
The Cumulative loans on them are around 3.4 Trillion RMB ($ 500 Billion) needing interest payments of around 165 Billion RMB a year
There are a further 35 Million Units built or being built with takers but which haven’t been concluded and with at least 50% payment pending
The Cumulative burden of these units is around 6 Million RMB ($ 813 Billion)
88% of these Homes are in the Top Cities – Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen etc
That’s $ 1.3 Trillion worth of homes waiting to be sold or fully sold
The Reasons for the lack of demand include :-
Very tough requirements to avail mortgage loans since 2018
Restrictions on Second and Third Home ownership since 2020 as part of Common Prosperity
Tier 2 and 3 Cities developing very fast and real estate much more affordable. In Chongqing City i can buy 143 Sqm for 1.625 Million RMB against a mere 52.5 Sqm in Shanghai
General lack of faith in Residential Property as a source of Investment anymore
Yes Chinas worst case scenario is a $ 1.3 Trillion HIT assuming China decides to burn the entire issue and pay for all these units and plug the hole
However since China won’t raise debt to pay off the hole like US or India would, it means Chinas strategy will be long term and that will take at least 6 years or until 2028 to absorb this amount effectively and cost maybe 1.5% a year in growth (Hence around 4–4.2% instead of 5.7% a year for the next few years)
China could raise 10 Trillion Debt and plug the hole fully tomorrow. It is the only nation on earth that can do so. Yet if it does, it begins to follow the US into a path of no return which China, a producer economy doesn’t want to do
Good news is today, there is no fresh problem
The old problem has to be sorted out and that will take a few more years
This Is Why So Many Women Are Single
” I’m loyal, but I am not monogamous” ” I’m loyal , but I am bisexual ” ” I’m loyal , but I have all my exes in my DMs to this day” ” I’m loyal , but I do OF ” To me , the reason why a lot of these ladies are single/ in pseudo relationships is because they don’t know what the word loyal means .
Two years ago, my son moved from the UK to the US (Texas). He works in IT (network engineer). His salary now is more than double of what he made in the UK. He got married last October and his wife works a minimum wage job. Yet, combined they make more now than me and my wife ever did.
So, you would think that he’s now better off than when he worked in Britain. Think again.
Healthcare costs a fortune. Last month, my daughter in law needed emergency dental surgery (root canal). Co-pay 3,000 USD.
Since he’s a recent immigrant, his credit score is not all that great. Meaning he can’t get a mortgage to buy a home. So, they’re paying 2K pcm in rent.
Since public transport in the US is either in a shocking state or non-existant, they both need cars to get to/from work. Cost of buying/running/insuring something decent is substantial.
Utilities are generally more expensive. The monthly electricity bill in particular is high (because living in Texas means you run the AC pretty much all of the time).
Food prices are about the same, though the portions are larger. Quality is a lot lower. Steaks in particular: all water and hormones. Sugar in everything.
So while is monthly gross pay is higher than this side of the Atlantic, his monthly disposable income (after all the bills are paid) is a lot less. It would be fair to say that they live paycheck to paycheck most months. When my son and his family want to come over for a visit, we pay for their trip. Whilst he’s a real go-getter and loves his job (and the opportunities he has in the US) my daughter in law is beginning to realise that they would enjoy a superior quality of life in Europe.
I worked n the restaurant business on and off for around 15 years. In all that time, I was lucky enough to work with good hard working people. There was only one person I will never forgive, a person who I worked with who I thought was a friend. We used to tend bar together on busy nights and we made pretty good money. There used to be a group of guys on a bowling team who would come in once a week a they always left us a large tip. I remember after they left I was cleaning up the bar and noticed there wasn’t their usual tip there. I asked “my friend “ if she took the tip off of the bar and she said no. I didn’t think much about it until the owner of the bar pulled me aside and told me my coworker told him I pocketed the tip. I’m many things , but I’m not a thief. She eventually admitted to stealing tips because she was in a lot of debt. She was fired
“Can you help us save him? the nurse asks. “He’s failing fast. Not responding to medication. We have nothing more here to keep him alive.”
“What do you mean?” I say. “ You mean the doctor can’t give him more drugs? Please, please.”
“Who’s at home? Does he have a favourite stuffy? What about a pet? Think about it and let us know.” The nurse is detached and unemotional.
And I’m falling apart.
It is a cold, blustery winter morning in January, 1984. Winters in Northwest Canada can be brutal and this week was especially miserable. The wind heaped the snow in large drifts around the house; not our house, mind you. Living at the in-laws. A devastating fire a short time ago. I say, “Good to remind us how the homeless live.” There is no time to feel sorry for ourselves.
“Shh, shh, baby, my baby, shh.” I sing as I rock back and forth to calm him down.
His arms flail. He lets out a piercing scream. Growls. Racks my face. Finds my eyes and claws at my eyeballs.
Our family physician writes on his prescription slip: Query spinal meningitis. Sends baby and me to a paediatrician. “This is an acute emergency,” he says calmly. “Your appointment’s made.”
Hysteria rises in me. My legs turn to jelly. The sound roaring in my ears is deafening.
And baby son lies still. Pale. Too still. Pale. Deathly still.
Another race against time. I remember a small crowded room of bored patients. I remember a nurse calling my son’s name. And I also remember rushing down a flight of stairs, throwing open a door, and racing into a crowded street.
My husband looks wide-eyed at us.
“Go. Go. Go. He’s dying. Oh my God, he’s dying. Hurry to the General.”
We screech to a halt in front of the hospital. I stumble awkwardly nearly blinded by tears flowing freely now. The specialist, just seen, races by with his doctor’s bag in hand.
I run into the hospital and a front desk clerk gestures towards the elevator. “Run. They’re ready.”
We call for the resident priest.
“Please baptize him.” I choke on my words then. “And give him the Last Rites if need be.”
Life stands still at times like this. Husband and I huddle together, entwined branches of a single tree. We sit in parallel, silent prayer begging God for mercy. We’ve waited thirteen years for our little boy, a son who will carry on a dying family name. We can’t bear the thought of losing him today.
Hours later, after his abdominal surgery, the attending doctor walks towards us. We search his weary face, but find no answers. His words come haltingly.
“The fight’s just begun. Your son is critically ill. “
He quickly describes our son’s diagnosis, surgical procedures, present condition.
Intussusception. Bowel blockage caused the small intestine to telescope into the large intestine. There was total blockage. The surgeon made an incision in his belly and removed eighteen inches.
Tells us finally that our son’s odds of survival: ten percent.
Ten percent? We prop each other up, slump over in our chairs, cover our faces, and cry.
The next week is a blur. I call my mom and beg for prayers. She phones everyone she knows. Holds prayer gatherings at her home a couple times weekly for a month. Attends Mass and asks the priest if she can address the congregation at each of four Sunday Masses. Continues to give updates to her various support groups.
There are new developments daily. Our tike is a fighter. He is watched around the clock by rotating nurses who hang over his crib. When he starts yanking out tubes, his hands are tied together with cotton restraints. The staff won’t listen to my pleas. “I’ll sit here all day, all night holding his hands, but please don’t tie him up.”
They send me home. “You’ve got to sleep. You can’t save him all by yourself. Trust us.”
But he gets worse. Lies listless.
Still. Pale. Too still. Pale. Deathly still.
Then, without warning, cardiac arrest.
Husband and I pass a crash cart on the way back from the cafeteria. Not for a moment do we think it comes from our son’s room. We are oblivious to the gravity of his condition until the doctor intercepts us. “Your son’s heart stopped. But he’s fine. We did our job.”
Suddenly our son is floundering once more. The medical staff run out of answers and I can see the troubled look in their eyes.
“Any suggestions, folks?“
Our daughter is three. She loves her brother as if he were one of her precious Barbie dolls. Packs him around like a sack of flour. Lines up stuffies in his crib and makes up plays which make him giggle. Helps me change his cloth diapers, even the poopy ones.
And I think, she’s one hell of a trooper, too. Held her baby brother in a freezing car a month ago while I alerted the neighbours to call the fire trucks.
Sister leans over his crib and says, “Hi, little guy! “ Simply that.
And he cocks his head and listens.
Three simple words from a protective big sister makes all the difference.
He starts fighting. And wins his battle.
………….
Son’s life and health have been a challenge over the years; however, as difficult as circumstances might be, our mighty fighter perseveres.
Three days ago his big sister’s “little guy” turned thirty-six.
When I was a kid, a truck dropped off a huge box at our house that was addressed to my mother.
According to the paperwork, it was an automatic dishwasher, something that had just been invented, and we had no idea why we suddenly had one.
It took a few phone calls to figure out that, months earlier, my mother had entered a free sweepstakes at Zayres department store and the appliance was a prize.
She was scared to death of the newfangled device and never even hooked it up.
Yeah. It was funny as hell. I got a call from my counterpart at corporate. He has gotten laid off and he called me before they could escort him out to tell me we were getting laid off in three months. I confronted my boss and she turned ashen white but in the end she was honest with me.
Scott Ritter – “Palestine and Hamas have won.. Israel is in BIG TROUBLE!..”
In the United States, do not argue with the police. They are armed and they are jumpy because so many other people in the US are armed, including a lot of people who should not be.
Several years ago an Italian professor attending an academic conference in California crossed a street at a location other than a designated crosswalk. It would not occur to an Italian in a million years that this might be a crime. A cop saw him and shouted at him. He, being Italian, questioned the officer. The officer hurled him to the ground, tore his clothes, roughed him up and took him to jail for refusing to obey a lawful order given by a police officer. (He was eventually released without charge.)
The fact is, if the police are violating your civil rights, or even if they are breaking the law, there is nothing you can do about it at the time. Resisting them risks your being shot. Obey without question.
I was on a date with a veterinarian. She was a beautiful brunette with big eyes. She was a bit crazy too.
It was our second date and we were drinking a beer at a restaurant and somehow, we got to talking about how kids were growing up too fast, which is code for them sleeping around at too young of an age.
Just as I was drinking a sip of a beer, she said, “Yeah, I mean, I guess I get it. Kids are curious and going to experiment. When I was 6-years-old I stuck a pen in my p#ssy.”
I choked on my beer really hard and starting coughing. She immediately turned red, blushing with embarrassment for having been so candid and said, “Are you ok? Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
I was also red at this point from my brief oxygen shortage. I waved it off, still coughing, and said, “No worries at all! Kiiiids these days.”
MOBS SWARM US NUKE BASE, LEBANON/ ISRAEL ON BRINK, NUCLEAR SUB NEAR IRAN, IRAQ MOBILIZING
“President” Biden distributed 100 nuclear warheads all over the world. WTF?
I was a teenager. It was a temporary job. They had this big mail machine that folded letters, put them into envelopes and sealed them.
My job? It was sit stand between three of these machines and to squirt some water on the brushes every few minutes. The auto wetting water tank was broken and it was cheaper to hire me as a teenager (this was before UK minimum wage so it was about 30p an hour) until they could replace the water tank. You had to give it 3 sprays for it to be in the sweet spot anymore and the envelopes would be too wet, any less and too dry.
It drove me absolutely spare as the machines would beep each time a letter went through it. You had three machines beeping and you were stood there with a bucket of water and a couple squirty bottles. You’d hear the beeps in your sleep.
An actual wood burning fireplace. I got my first one in 1986, and every place has had one since. Unlike a wood stove, I can have a fire three seasons a year, without overheating my house.
When the first fluffy flakes of winter start falling, my wife and I start a fire. We might have a glass of wine, possibly a hot rum toddy, maybe mulled wine, brandy, or maybe peppermint schnapps and hot chocolate.
We sit in front of the fire, eating Brie and crackers, maybe some other snack. Possibly popcorn.
When it gets close to Christmas the Christmas music is playing. Two puppies at our feet.
Every Christmas when family comes over, we have the fire burning in the background, the tree is center of attention, but everyone loves hearing the pine snap crackle and popping in the fireplace.
The restructed events of the disaster have been pieced together over the years.
Mount Vesuvius was a known volcano in Roman times but it had not erupted in several centuries. No one knew why some mountains erupted and no one could predict when they would. However, due to the nature of fault lines in this region geologists now believe smaller earthquakes and eruptions simply relieves the pressure along the fault line that runs along Italy.
The Latins had no way of knowing that. All they know was volcanic soil grew good crops and volcanic ash was a key ingredient in Roman concrete. Italy was also the world’s factory at the time, so the area around Vesuvius centered around the city of Pompeii who was a big exporter of wine and metal tools. This was a pre-industrial society, so most people rarely went outside walking distance of their homes and for most residents this was their whole world.
In the days before the blast, many minor quakes were reported in the area around Vesuvius. No one knew what this meant, but Roman academics would later take this as the sign of potential eruption.
The exact moment of the blast was witnessed by the historian Pliny the Younger. He was reading Livy while his father governor Pliny the Elder was eating lunch. Indeed, the blast occurred during the lunch hour, as the most common find in Pompeii were tables set for lunch that were buried in ash and partially preserved. Pliny’s mother called them over to the window urgently and they looked and saw Mount Vesuvius’ summit turned into a tower of ash. Explosives didn’t exist in this period, and Pliny tried his best to explain how it appeared the force of the hot gas inside the mountain blown away the summit. The danger this caused was lost on no one, and Pliny the Elder gathered his soldiers to travel down across the Bay of Naples and rescue as many as he could while his family went away.
This was the worst kind of eruption. The lava is actually the least dangerous part of a volcano. Safe enough to be a tourist attraction at a distance and safe enough geologists is firefighting gear collect lava samples directly. The second most dangerous is the ash and rock because it tends to fall out of the sky and/or form hot avalanches Earth called pyroclastic flows. The hot gas is the most dangerous as it both suffocates and burns. Common gasses are CO2 and HS that are commonly disolved in solutions underground but bubbles up like a soda fountain inside the mountain. This causes volcanic explosions and pyroclastic flows.
The residents of Pompeii went outside and it was soon raining ash and rock as Vesuvius vented its contents into the sky. Evacuations started immediately, and anyone who wanted to stay was quickly convinced to leave with the first pyroclastic flows that nearly reached Pompeii. As Vesuvius lost pressure it stopped being able to support a column of ash and rock and this collapsed forming the flow. However, that simply restricted the throat of the volcano, allowing pressure to build up again in a cycle that only got worse as the day progressed. The first victims found in the bottom layer of ash in Pompeii were all killed by falling rock.
Travel was a big deal in a pre-industrial world as you would be gone for days and it was quite strenuous. Among items victims were carrying included bread, coins, and housekeys. The latter back in those days was a heavy iron thing that didn’t easily fit in a pocket. Most of the dead from Pompeii were persons unable to flee including a soldier with a bad toothache, a near term pregnant lady and her husband, and an old bedridden man and his teenaged grandson among others. Most of these people were not buried with their houses as the ash levels rose, but were killed lady by hot gas. Indeed, this is how we know the pyroclasic flows got worse through the afternoon, as the victims closer to the mountain are typically buried deeper in ash. The final pyroclastic flows killed the most people including Pliny the Elder who stayed behind after his men loaded up a boat of refugees in order to organize the evacuation.
This is also how we know there were a lot more victims than we find buried in ash because Pliny the Younger recounts how these bodies were all recovered and given proper funerals. Likewise, we know there are many more bodies that have not been found as much of what we know of is concentrated in the city itself when the majority of this region’s population was dispersed in the countryside. However, country folk were much more dispersed so finding said bodies is far more difficult and more is discovered every decade.
All that said, the bulk of the population managed to escape. The eruption only effected the immediate area of the blast and once out of sight of the mountain people survived and later returned to find a volcanic plain where the city had been. The layer of ash and pummice stone was roughly 20 feet deep and it simply wasn’t worth it to unbury the homes, many of which had collapsed under the weight. The whole city was effectively homeless and Emperor Titus personally arrived to survey the damage. Titus directed both state funds and his personal money to rebuilding Pompeii, and within two decades a planned city emerged. However, no one in Italy ever forgot how on one day that was otherwise like any other a mountain simply exploded for no reason and that most of the victims simply happen to be downwind of the disaster.
You likely seen those sculptures of Pompeii victims, but those are not bodies. The bodies rotted away leaving voids in the ash, and archeologists simply filled the voids with plaster to reveal the Pompean’s final moments, most clearly dying in agony.
Brian Berletic: War is COMING as China Rejects Dangerous US Maneuvers in Taiwan
“Let’s be frank about the Taiwan issue, where the US is involved. The US cares next to nothing about the well-being of Taiwanese people, who are Chinese in race and ethnicity. Why should they? Look at the way the US government treats Asians in their own country, many of whom are citizens. So what about other nationalities? Yea, that somes it all up in a nutshell.”
I’ma be honest, it’s fucking nerve racking. I had to give the period talk when I dont even know the period talk. I had to be the one to wake her up at 2am when she was 8 with police behind me to tell her that her mother overdosed and died. I get up everyday and makes sure she gets to school, leave work, pick her up and take her to excuricculer/home/friends/wherever the fuck, then go back to work and finish my 12 hour shift. Pick her up if not at home. Cook/order/figure out dinner, spend some time with her try to get to laugh at least once a day, make sure she gets her shower in, hug her tight kiss her forehead tell her I love her and goodnight, then go lay down and try to sleep myself …to wake up and do it all again.
Wanna know what I can’t do? Break down and cry. Blame her mom. Blame my mom. Blame the world for putting me and her though what we been through. And some days, that is all I wanna do. But when I feel tears in my eyes I’ll walk back to her room and look at her sleeping, usually her back to me.
I remember then why I keep getting up every morning
I’m in my 70s and retired now, but years ago, worked as the President’s assistant for an accounting firm.
Many times over the 4 years that I worked there, he would say, “I need this done by Monday.”
I would jump right on it and work all weekend if necessary. The reason being, he and the other owners of the small company treated me like gold.
I was a single Mom. When I first started working there, I was separated from my alcoholic husband, heading to divorce. I had no money to pay the mortgage or car insurance. I confided in one of the owners and the next thing I knew, they handed me a check to cover everything past due. They deducted a small amount each week from my paycheck to pay them back.
There was no problem if I had to stay at home with a sick child. If my work for the day was done, they had no problem if I hit the road early to avoid rush-hour traffic. My hours were flexible because they knew if they needed me to work late or on the weekend, I would cheerfully do it. They gave me great raises. They valued me as an employee and I never took advantage of it.
Not all small business owners are horrible people. I was lucky to work for such a great team. The only reason I left was to remarry and move out of state. I heard later they sold the company.
World at end of 200 yrs of North Atlantic rule: Sachs
I’ve worked with Chinese tech companies. Their engineers and scientists are devoted to their families, employers and country.
China has the capacity to leap frog the US in many different technologies. Take your pick, they are on it.
The Chinese government places a high value on a highly educated population. Engineering and scientific professionals are leading a revolution in advancing scientific innovation in China.
Their current leader, Xi, was a chemical engineer before becoming involved in his political career. In fact, many Chinese politicians are former engineers, refreshing thought isn’t it?
The motivations for innovation in the US and China are a key point in China leap frogging the US. Both countries reward success in innovation with financial incentives.
But, the Chinese have a greater sense of pride in their country and it’s future.
The US is presently extremely divided politically, current leadership is seeking short term monetary goals over the advancement of scientific innovation.
China may take the lead in further technological and scientific breakthroughs in this environment.
I had this scenario happen to me. A group of us were on a whitewater rafting trip and we went to dinner. All of us got the buffet, which was huge and had everything you could imagine (including prime rib). One of the couples both ordered the prime rib dinner off the menu, with appetizers, desserts and extra sides. When the waiter came to check on us and see how we were doing and if we were ready to pay, I spoke up and said “separate checks for all of us, please”. The waiter winked at me, other couples smiled, the couple that ordered the dinner had a fit. “We agreed we would split ALL costs! We can’t afford this unless we do”. I just smiled and said “we agreed that we would split costs, that was before we realized we would be taken advantage of. It’s separate checks for us from now on”. The other couples instantly said “agreed!” and “I didn’t agree to split the cost of a $125 dinner for you two when ours was $30!” I got the death glare, and neither of them spoke a word to me after that. When we got home I noticed I was blocked on everything. Oh well. They weren’t friends of mine and I found them to be not team players-not someone I would choose to be friends with.
I have a relative that I thought was a wonderful person and mother. Her spouse died suddenly when their daughter was 13 or 14 (they live in a different state than I do).
About a year after her spouse died, I start getting phone calls from her daughter in the evenings. I discovered her mom would go to her boyfriend’s house and cook he and his daughters dinner, while her daughter ate cereal for dinner at home.
Over the next several years, I spent a lot of time talking the teen through issues, concerns and challenges that mom wasn’t around to address.
Mom didn’t even know her daughter was taking college courses in her senior year of high school because she wasn’t there when she attended the classes in the evenings.
When it was time for the teen to go to college, she got into a great school. Mom told her she couldn’t go to it because they didn’t have the money. When the daughter went off to the lesser expensive and prestigious college, mom married the boyfriend, bought a larger home with a pool in the backyard, bought a facelift, and a luxury car. The daughter had only 2 pairs of jean to wear at college.
At the end of the daughter’s freshman year, she calls mom to let her know when she’ll be home. Mom tells her it would be better for her to stay at college over summer break.
Her daughter explains that she lives in a sorority house and it closes in the summer. Mom didn’t care, she told her to find somewhere to live… during final exam week.
The daughter calls me crying and I take her for the summer to live with me. I got her a job at the company I worked at and we made the best of it.
The insensitive and cruel things my relative has done to her daughter over the years is more than I can list.
By the way, the daughter went on to get a doctorate, despite her narcissist mother who I have zero respect or affection for.
Humans started using their own feces as compost pretty much as soon as agriculture was invented. The practice continued in many places well into the 20th century.
However, the practice soon proved to have a lot of drawbacks. Humans in the early agricultural era didn’t know about bacteria, and crops fertilized with human dung often caused outbreaks of disease because those gut bacteria persisted in the soil until they found a new human host.
As such, people learned that although it was fine to plant cereal crops, or any plant with a long stalk in such fields, and not to plant carrots or other root crops for at least a year. By that time pathogenic bacteria had usually died out.
Because horses, pigs and cows don’t share a lot of gut flora with humans, it was soon found using animal dung had the same effect with fewer drawbacks. It was perfectly safe to use a few acres of land as cattle pasture for a year, then plant the following year.
I’ll tell you something about Jim who doesn’t want to come to the company parties. He thinks if he does a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay, that is all he owes you. He doesn’t think having a job means the company owns him, body and soul. Even if he knows that not attending the parties means a black mark against him, he still won’t go.
I’ll tell you something else. Before I retired, I worked for a lot of different organisations, some large, some small, and there were always some Jims. They got along well with their co-workers. They did their jobs and did them to the best of their ability. They were often prepared to go above and beyond the call of duty at work. But that was where it stopped.
Here’s the thing though. In every organisation, for every Jim, there are at least 25% of your staff who are Jim wannabes. They all wish they had the nerve to say no, but they don’t want to risk their jobs or their pay raises or their promotions, or even just the disapproval of their co-workers. They won’t tell you this because, as we can see by your question, in your mind this is not somebody exercising their right to say no to a social event. It is a problem that needs to be “handled”.
They don’t go home from the company party and say, “Wow, what a blast.” They walk in the door limp with exhaustion and say, “Thank god that’s over!” They probably put on a convincing act while they were there, but they didn’t want to spend their private time with a bunch of people they are already spending at least eight hours a day with. If they want to party, they want to do it with family and personal friends.
If you want to “team build” either with parties or other activities, do it within regular working hours. Jim probably still won’t like it very much, but at least he is getting paid for it. And it will not be breaking into the precious free time he needs to recharge his batteries so he can be an effective employee for you.
You’re going to need a bank of fryers and I wouldn’t fry them from raw. Frying them from raw will break the oil down really quickly and force you to either shut down the operation to change the oil or serve crappy wings. You don’t want to do either of those.
So, get your wings and brine them overnight in a simple solution of water, salt and sugar. Then drain them and bake them until they are cooked through. Cool the wings and package them in batches that will fill a fryer basket. Say 2.5 pounds per plastic bag and refrigerate them until it’s time to cook them.
On site, set up your fryers, your cold boxes of wings, a station for hot holding and saucing and a table for serving them to the customer. The cooks fry the wings, dump them into the hot holding units from one side and the service workers pull an order from the bin, place it into a bowl, toss the wings in sauce and then serve them to the customers. You can use heat lamps overtop of the wings to keep them hot, which you can rent, along with deep fat fryers that run on propane.
I worked a few summers at a home for children who’d experienced abuse and neglect. Their caseworker had just dropped them off; two beautiful little girls with big, blue eyes that swallowed their faces. They were two and four years old and they were very quiet for children their age. I looked them over, and immediately noticed several things: they had rope burns around their ankles, matted hair, and both were underweight and wheezing like they had the croup.
On closer examination I noted that the older of the two had bitten the insides of her mouth so hard that not only were they bleeding, but infected. I could not hold back my tears. They came with barely any clothing or personal effects, but many children in foster care share that experience. And later that evening when they were settled and I read over their file I knew they had lived a nightmare.
There had been an older sister, but she had died, thus prompting a welfare investigation in the first place. They found a woman addicted to drugs with a boyfriend who cooked meth—and they tied their children up in ropes to keep them out of their way. That was eighteen years ago and memories of those two girls still make me teary eyed. Questions like this immediately bring them to the forefront of my mind. I hope they finally found peace.
I had gotten out of the Army in 1971 (was drafted) and working my old job in a drugstore. I was growing a beard and letting my hair grow. A older customer came in and started criticizing my hair and beard (this was in the deep south). He said I was a disgrace. I let him know I didn’t need his permission or approval . He went to my boss and said the same thing. My boss basically said “He spent 2 years defending this country, he can wear his hair any way he wants.” . The customer left and my boss winked at me.
A 42 year old lady came in with severe abdominal pain and nausea. She wasn’t vomiting. No other symptoms or problems, except for multiple prior visits to the ER with the same problem.
Many doctors had tried and failed to diagnose and treat her. She had been to all the specialists at all the regional Universities. The famed Cleveland Clinic even took a crack at her.
All the tests were negative including blood work, poop samples, X-rays, scopes in both ends, the camera pill (a camera that the patient swallows, it takes pictures as it traverses the gut), and various scans.
She had CT scans, MRIs and various nuclear scans. There were scans with and without IV contrast and oral contrast. There were scans of her arteries, and scans of her gallbladder. Her gallbladder was a little weak, so a weak surgeon jerked it out without any benefit.
She had every blood test for cancer known to man. Multiple biopsies were always negative. I thank God that no tired pathologist ever imagined any cancer cells under the microscope. This lady already suffered so much at the hands of her healers.
X-rays were done many times with and without Barium. Some of the X-rays were done as videos. She might have had enough radiation to kill any tumor!
And the scopes! Multiple scopes down the throat and into the stomach and duodenum. Another scope down the throat through which a catheter is passed into the bile duct and pancreas to inject contrast that highlights the ducts for more X-rays. A urologist even scoped her bladder!
She saw stomach specialists, liver specialists, gastrointestinal surgeons, kidney specialists, urologists, neurologists, and even psychiatrists.
There’s an old saying in Medicine, if the only tool you have is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail. This poor lady had been beaten with every specialist’s hammer in 3 states!
When they couldn’t diagnose her, they just skipped straight to the cure. She failed multiple curative procedures and dozens of medications. There were medications to neutralize acid, coat the stomach, decrease acid production, anti-spasmodics, anxiolytics, antidepressants, antibiotics, anti seizure, antifunguals, and plain old pain medications.
She learned to refuse the pain medications, because she was smart enough to realize that she would be written off as an addict, that doctors stop trying if they think you just want opioids.
She has been put on every dietary restriction, and treated with every fiber supplement. She knew it all because she had tried it all!
The first night I saw her, I just told her that she had already seen many doctors much smarter than myself, working in a low level ER. But I did what I always do in these difficult cases.
I sit down and shut up and listen. I talk about weather, sports, hobbies and family; anything but medicine. But mostly I listen and observe. I try to get the patient talking more than myself. It’s an attempt to make a brain-to-brain connection for a two-way flow of truth. It is engaging the patient’s mind as the powerful problem-solving machine that it is.
Two minds together are more than 1+1=2. It’s more like 1+1=4. And it doesn’t really matter much that the other mind has limited medical knowledge. In fact, this process can sometimes work better if at least one of the minds is unspoiled by medical dogma.
So there we were, in the middle of a hectic ER night with several people trying to die. I talked with her for a few minutes until a nurse convinced me that another patient was closer to the next world than this one.
I grabbed the patient’s hand and begged her to be patient. I promised her that if she would wait for me, that I would give her my best shot. She was obviously in pain, but she attempted a smile and closed her eyes as I left to find something easier to do, like make a room look like an axe murderer walked in on a meeting of hemophiliacs anonymous, by saving a trauma victim.
That night was one of those nights that leaves me feeling a bit PTSD. I just wanted to crawl into my hut for a couple days. Yes, I have an actual stick-and-grass hut in the woods for this purpose.
But I have a soft spot for kids. The nurses all say that kids like me, and I am a pediatrician. I hate to leave a kid at the end of my shift, knowing that the next doctor may not feel as comfortable with kids.
I picked up the last chart in the rack (this was years ago), and saw that it was a 3 year old girl with abdominal pain. She was on the other side of the curtain from my 42 year old patient whom I had completely forgotten, or I would have spent the end of my shift with her as promised.
I took a deep breath and switched my brain from high pressure ER doc mode to easy and relaxed pediatrician mode. I walked into the room and quickly recognized a familiar problem. I explained to the worried mother that it was a simple stomach virus, that young children can’t tell the difference between pain and nausea. I explained that I was going to treat her pain with a tablet called “Zofran” for nausea, that dissolves in the mouth. I told her that I would be back in a few minutes and I left to give my order to a nurse.
By this time it was well after the end of my shift. The nurse I found said, “There you are! We thought you left! Did you forget about the 42 year old woman with abdominal pain? She’s been lying in there for hours!”
Of course I had totally forgotten her, but I remembered fast and said, “No! Of course not! I promised to spend some time with her if she would wait until the end of my shift!”
At that the nurse winked and nodded her head knowingly. I said, “No! Not like that! Look, can you give this little girl 2 mg of Zofran?” And I turned back to see my forgotten patient.
She was still in obvious discomfort but was waiting patiently. I walked over and placed my hand on her shoulder. Before I could say a word, she said, “That was great!” I didn’t know what she meant until she said, “You’re so good with kids, you should have been a pediatrician.”
She did not seem surprised when I said, “Well, as a matter of fact, I am!”
She joked, “No wonder I’m no better, my doctor is a pediatrician!”
I laughed. She tried to laugh. I poked my head around the curtain and asked the mother if it was okay to open the curtain? This violates protocols and is probably illegal, but I was too tired to care. I was simply trying to create an atmosphere to promote dialogue. A pleasant mother-baby dyad seemed the perfect antidote to the chaotic night this lady witnessed.
So now we had three minds working together. We talked to the little girl. She was smiling and feeling better already and asking for food. We talked about little girl things like toys, birthdays and sisters.
The mother thanked me. The Zofran trick worked wonderfully, despite her doubts. Then she looked at my patient and said, “He’s a wonderful doctor; listen to whatever he says.”
I asked her for permission to share her case and then I explained to the mother with a smile how that she had no idea, that this poor lady has some incurable ailment that has stumped all the specialists at all the Universities.
And then my patient and the mother began to talk about her case. As soon as the mother realized that it was a case of chronic abdominal pain and nausea, she drew an analogy to her daughter’s simple acute stomach virus.
I shook my head at the absurdity of it and was about to interrupt this conversation that was quickly getting off track. And then I remembered my rule for difficult cases (shut up and listen!).
My patient said, “Believe me, I have tried every stomach medication and even some herbs. Zofran does nothing for me.”
But my mind was zipping through all my experiences with chronic pediatric abdominal pain. I thought of the episodic nature of my patient’s condition. I asked her weird questions l usually reserve for pediatric cases like, “What part of the world did your ancestors come from? Any children in your family with health problems? How old is your house? Do either of your parents get migraines?”
She said, “Nobody has ever asked that question. My mother and father have both had migraine headaches their whole life. My brother gets them, too!”
And then I knew the diagnosis, even though I had assumed it was impossible and had never heard of an adult case. There is a condition called “abdominal migraine” that affects young children. There is usually at least one parent with migraine headaches, but most of these kids will get better by age 12. Their abdominal pain just stops. A certain portion will develop migraine headaches about the same time their abdominal pain goes away.
But I had my doubts. Pediatric abdominal migraine is easy to treat with simple medications that had failed to help this lady. But what if I gave her a common adult migraine treatment such as a vasoconstrictor? The pain of migraine is caused by too much blood flow to the head. Medicines that constrict blood vessels can be curative.
These medications work best if given very early in an episode. My patient was hours into this episode. As expected, the first dose in the ER that night did not relieve her pain, but it did do something much better: it gave her hope.
I gave her a prescription and sent her home, still in pain. But she was so grateful and she thanked me profusely. I felt a little anxious that maybe I was giving her false hope, for surely it could not be this simple? Surely the specialists thought of this?
Several months later she was in the ER with a sick family member. She was beaming and radiant. When she saw me she said, “That’s him! He’s the one who cured me!”
Tears were rolling down both our faces that night.
COVID-19. I have had several conversations here in the US with people who teach. They have all pointed to how awful the current batch of kids are when it comes to classroom learning. They can’t sit still nor pay attention because they lacked the classroom environment at that formative age to reinforce those skills; learning is nearly impossible. Meanwhile China adapted quickly to initial lockdowns, and by April 2020 normality had returned. My niece serves as my personal data point for what happened, and she has had no significant interruption in her education as online instruction was brief.
The haphazard lockdown strategy of the US combined with a retreat to virtual teaching will have a major effect on the labor force come 10 years from now. China’s strategy of strong, nationwide lockdown at onset followed by an elimination strategy allowed the country to more or less weather the storm more gracefully. One can have criticisms about how the country left COVID, but the end result is that the period of normality from spring 2020 through fall 2022 was the right target to reach, and the impact will play out in the coming years.
The current seemingly higher economic growth rate of the US is unsustainable and superficial because the inflation rate in the United States is much higher than that in China.
Since the 1980s, although the US has pioneered technological revolutions such as information technology, the Internet, and life sciences, and revolutionary technologies have brought new markets, services, products, and high-tech companies, it stands to reason that total factor productivity growth should be very high, but the new rounds of technological change have not prevented the gradual decline of U.S. productivity.
Statistics show that the average annual growth rate of total factor productivity in the United States has dropped to about 1% in the past 40 years, and even less than 0.7% in the past 10 years. The third industrial revolution did not bring about a substantial increase in total factor productivity growth in the US like the second industrial revolution that occurred during the industrialization process. Economists call this phenomenon the productivity growth paradox.
Forecasting a country’s potential growth rate is very important for judging its economic direction, but it is not easy. In 2022, China’s GDP may be 72% of that of the United States. Assuming that the U.S. economic growth rate would be 2.2%, China’s economic growth rate would be 5%, and the U.S. dollar and RMB remain at the current real exchange rate, based on this calculation, China would catch up with the United States in 2029. However, potential growth is not actual growth. A country’s ability to achieve its potential growth rate depends on whether sufficient demand exists. In the past three years, China had mainly relied on investment and exports to create demand. Thus, China must increase domestic consumption to create sufficient demand.
An important reason for China’s economic success lies in the close integration of a competent government and an efficient market. The invisible hand of the market and the visible hand of the government play a positive role in promoting economic and social development. The Chinese government focuses on key industries that promote national economic growth through five-year plans, industrial policies, and allocation of financial resources. Technological changes that occur in node industries are transmitted and amplified through the production network, forming a spillover effect, driving the emergence of a large number of upstream and downstream market entities, and producing a multiplier effect on the overall economy.
The closer an industry is to a node (the area with the highest density in the production network), the greater its impact on the economy. Empirical research also shows that investment projects with longer industrial chains generally bring more jobs, tax revenue and growth to the local economy.
Total factor productivity growth is a decisive factor in a country’s economic performance. Since the Industrial Revolution, no country or economy has been able to maintain a total factor productivity growth rate of more than 2.5% for a long time after completing the industrialization process. Since for advanced economies, sustained high productivity growth is the exception rather than the norm because when the share of the service industry increases significantly, it becomes more difficult to maintain rapid growth in total factor productivity.
The real estate industry is a long-chain industry and is of great significance to boosting domestic consumption. Putting all factors together, the consumer market can be expected to recover in 2023. Before the epidemic, consumption growth was above 7%. If China wants to achieve a potential growth of 5.5%, consumption growth of 5.4% will be enough. It is now no longer appropriate to call the Chinese economy an investment-driven economy.
In many areas, China has reached the global frontier in mid-level technologies, and hidden champions have emerged in almost every industry. For example, China was originally a latecomer to the electric vehicle industry, but it has become a leader within 10 years. Relying on development and innovation, China is becoming the largest contributor to the global clean economy.
The Chinese government has successfully prevented and resolved major financial risks through active and prudent deleveraging efforts. Money only generates value when it is used in the real economy. Serving the real economy has become a priority for financial institutions. The negative impacts of aging in China are actually overstated, at least for the next 10 years because over the next 30 years, artificial intelligence and automation will replace more workers than will be lost due to aging.
China has a large state-owned industry with a net capital stock of 60 trillion yuan. The central government has begun transferring state-owned shares to social security funds. These shares will generate enough dividends to support the social security system for the aging population.
In the long run, the economic growth rate of China will be higher and better than that of the US.
When our son was around 3,(he’s now 48) I took a parenting class where it was recommended that you give your child a choice of 2 things that were both acceptable to you, so the child felt that he or she had some control over their actions. One night we had company for dinner. One of our guests was a psychologist who frequently lectured both in the US and abroad.
When it was bedtime, my son said he didn’t want to go to bed, so I gave him a choice. “Do you want to go to bed in your own bed or mommy and daddy’s?” He answered by saying “I want a Coca Cola”. I repeated the bed options, his bed or ours. He repeated his desire for a Coke. We went back and forth like that a few times, then he put his hands on his hips and said “I want a Coca Cola! Will you pour it or shall I?” He was using my parenting method on me!
Our psychologist friend fell off his chair laughing. I scooped up my son and put him in his bed. Our friend told us years later that he told that story in all his lectures from that time on, until he retired.
Back in the day, when physical mail was still delivered to companies, I executed my quiet sabotage. The CEO was a weird one. He would open all the mail, read it, write his comments directly on each piece of mail and then distribute it to the appropriate person. Mind you we had roughly 50 office staff and 100 factory employees, so we weren’t a tiny operation.
The CEO instituted 2 cost savings. We were not allowed to purchase staples or paper clips. We were all given some little device (as a replacement stapler) that folded corners of papers and then perforated that corner so that the papers couldn’t separate.
And his feeling was that enough paper clips that came with the mail so we should just reuse them. It was ridiculous and impractical.
I khew that I was going to be fired at the end of the week in the afternoon and decided to annoy him. I went to Staples and bought all the office employees 2 boxes of staples and 2 boxes of paper clips. Sure enough Friday afternoon, I’m let go and then the CEO left right immediately. The wuss didn’t want to see how much of impact my dismissal would be on morale.
I was given the opportunity to say goodbye to everyone. So I walked desk to desk and gave each person staples & paper clips. I heard, the next week, that the CEO went bonkers seeing everyone having them. Lmao
The Duran: Neocons DESTROY Themselves as Russia and China Forge New World Order
The Duran discusses the failures of the neocons to maintain the US-led unipolar order amid Russia and China’s global rise.
Huawei and Xiaomi are both Chinese technology companies. This is true.
But essentially, Huawei and Xiaomi are Chinese technology companies with completely different natures, so their treatment is also completely different.
To accurately distinguish the differences between the two companies, we must start with the history of world globalization and the changing role of Chinese companies.
Before the 1980s, China was one of the poorest and backward countries in the world, almost isolated from the modern economy.
When China opened its doors in the 1980s, the Western world discovered that this was such a special country.
It has a huge poor population, but most of them have basic education.
It has a sound industrial foundation, but its technology is very backward.
He has huge territory and rich resources.
It has relatively complete infrastructure, including roads, railways and electricity.
At this time, the West had just carried out the first round of globalized industrial transfer, moving low-profit, polluting and risky manufacturing industries to Asian countries such as South Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand.
However, these countries have limited population and scale, and limited capacity. As industries increase, salary levels increase rapidly and become less cheap.
Moreover, the education level of the population in these countries is limited, the infrastructure is limited, and there are many restrictions.
At this time, China was like an endless pasture. No matter how many cows the cowboys threw in, it could quickly accommodate them.
As a result, China quickly became the new continent for Western manufacturing.
Throughout the 1990s and the first decade of the 20th century, China was like a magnet attracting manufacturing industries from around the world, and countless companies developed in China.
They all follow the model of Western hope:
Version 1.0 Chinese Company: Processing and Manufacturing
1. Design, technology and standards provided by Western companies
2. Western companies provide key components
3. Chinese companies are responsible for cheap raw materials, cheap labor, and completion of assembly and production.
4. Western companies are responsible for sales
In this stage, Chinese companies shouldered the heaviest and hardest work, but could only obtain 10% of the profits, while Western companies took away 90% of the profits.
The Nike sneakers we wear, the French bags in women’s hands, and the various toys children play with are all products of this model.
The Chinese produce these things, but they cannot afford to consume them.
Of course, although the profits of the Chinese are meager, the total amount is huge. Therefore, during this period, they achieved a large amount of wealth accumulation, and gradually accumulated knowledge and talents.
Some companies are beginning to try to enter a new stage.
Version 2.0 Chinese company: independent production
1. Chinese companies purchase designs, technologies and standards through joint ventures or introductions
2. Western companies provide key components
3. Chinese companies are responsible for cheap raw materials, cheap labor, and completion of assembly and production.
4. Chinese companies are responsible for local sales
During this stage, the share of Chinese companies expanded. They got rid of the pure processing industry and began to focus on technology, trying to build their own brands and market capabilities.
However, during this period, the product quality of Chinese companies could not be compared with that of their foreign counterparts, and they mainly relied on low prices to compete in the local Chinese market.
Haier Electric, Chery Automobile, Lenovo Computer, etc. are all Chinese companies that have risen during this period.
Their degree of autonomy has been greatly improved, but most of their profits are still taken away by Western companies through patent licensing and the import of key parts, and they can only compete in the Chinese market. There is no pressure on foreign counterparts.
Version 3.0 of Chinese companies: independent production, global competition
1. Chinese companies solve most technical and quality problems through independent research and development
2. Western companies provide key components
3. Chinese companies are responsible for cheap raw materials, cheap labor, and completion of assembly and production.
4. Chinese companies are responsible for global sales
Around 2010, Chinese companies grew further. They have more technologies and knowledge systems, and the quality of their products has also improved rapidly. began to threaten Western counterparts in the global market. Especially in the fields of household appliances, kitchen appliances, electronic products, mobile phones and other fields, it has achieved rapid success.
Xiaomi, VIVO, Oppo, Transsion, Haier, Lenovo and other companies are representatives of this stage.
They have mastered the complete design, manufacturing and quality management capabilities of products, and established a good brand and reputation. During this period, products made in China began to be famous around the world and can be seen everywhere around us. Their low prices and high quality put traditional Western and Japanese brands to shame.
But they still have an Swelling of Achilles: key components and technologies are in the hands of their Western counterparts. For example, the Qualcomm chip and Android system of Xiaomi mobile phones; such as the Intel processor and Windows system in Lenovo computers;
Through control of these key technologies and components, the West still takes away most of the profits of these companies.
Take Xiaomi mobile phone as an example. Its core processor comes from the United States, its memory comes from South Korea, its screen comes from South Korea and Japan, its camera comes from Japan, its key communication chips and sensors come from Europe and the United States, and even the tempered glass on the screen surface is a product of an American company. . Chinese companies can only supply low-value accessories such as casings, speakers, and interfaces. According to media statistics, 70% of the value of Xiaomi mobile phones comes from Western suppliers.
Therefore, although Xiaomi has squeezed out the share of traditional peers such as Nokia, Ericsson, and Sony, for every mobile phone it sells, Western companies make the most profit, and the Chinese still take away a small part.
Version 4.0 Chinese companies: disruptors
1. Chinese companies master core technologies and solve all problems
2. Chinese companies provide key parts themselves
3. Chinese companies are responsible for cheap raw materials, cheap labor, and completion of assembly and production.
4. Chinese companies are responsible for global sales
After entering 2015, some Chinese companies have grown further. They began to get involved in core semiconductors, operating systems, precision sensors, databases and artificial intelligence algorithms. It began to seize the most profitable industrialization in the world and the last economic position of Western developed countries.
Huawei, DJI, Hikvision and other companies are representatives of this stage
They have all the features of a 3.0 enterprise and are beginning to replace Western suppliers. Not only do they make excellent products, but they also use core components and basic software developed entirely by themselves. They intend to completely take away the fattest piece of meat in the mouths of Western companies.
Before Huawei was sanctioned by the United States, it had surpassed Samsung and Apple to become the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer. It is completely different from Xiaomi. Almost all the core components of Huawei’s mobile phones are provided by Chinese companies, and they have even begun to develop basic operating systems in order to kick Google out. In the field of communications, it holds the most 5G patents in the world and develops all high-value semiconductors and antennas on its own.
The essence of the above 3 versions of Chinese enterprises, 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0, is the same.
In the chain of globalization, Western companies take the best parts of food, and Chinese companies get the remaining food scraps. The difference between 1.0 and 3.0 is just the amount of residue obtained.
Therefore, whether it is Lenovo or Xiaomi, although they are technology companies from China, their positioning is within the scope of this rule and is allowed by the West.
But 4.0 Chinese companies are different. They are trying to subvert the rules of the game that have existed for decades.
They still embrace globalization, but they think, why are companies from Western developed countries always at the top of the food chain?
This involves the issue of economic competition between developed and developing countries.
Why do Westerners enjoy the most vacations, the best benefits, and the highest salaries and rewards? And people in developing countries work hard and overtime, but can only get meager pay and struggle to feed their families? Are people in developed countries inherently smarter and harder-working? The Chinese believe that this is not the case and that something is wrong with the rules.
Chinese companies like Huawei are determined to subvert this rule.
In the end, their appearance caused tension in Western countries: the subversives have occupied the entire country, their athletes have come to the king’s castle, and Huawei is the champion at the forefront.
Kings and nobles discovered that they could no longer defeat the subversives through “civilized rules.” How can he maintain a comfortable life in his castle and continue to rule and plunder the entire world in the future? The behavior of subversives must not be allowed!
So they shouted: They are thieves, liars, and traitors, don’t believe them!
While silently picking up the gun in his hand, he aimed at the one running at the front.
Creole Artichoke Bisque
2023 11 10 15 27
Ingredients
16 ounces butter
8 tablespoons all-purpose flour
6 cup beef stock
2 ribs celery, finely chopped
3 large onions, finely chopped
1 bunch green onions, finely chopped
2 bay leaves
1/4 teaspoon thyme
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 (14 ounce) cans artichoke hearts, undrained
Salt and black pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
1 cup dry white wine
4 ounces light cream
2 tablespoons parsley, minced
Instructions
Melt the butter in a heavy pot and add the flour. Over low heat, cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
Slowly add the stock and when well mixed, add the celery, onions, green onions, bay leaves, thyme and garlic. Let this simmer for 45 minutes.
Chop the artichoke hearts fairly fine and then add to the pot, along with the artichoke water. Cook at a low simmer for another 30 minutes.
Add salt and pepper to taste, the Tabasco, wine and cream and bring to a simmer. Do NOT boil.
The bisque is now ready to serve.
Sprinkle a bit of parsley over the bisque in each bowl.
Tell the truth,but , it wont make any difference, no one will believe you.
I was having drinks after work with my coworkers, and the waitress got off work and joined us. She had been our waitress for over a year and we had no spark in that time. Though she was attractive. When I said I was going home, she asked if I could give her a ride. I dropped her off, and didn’t think anymore about it.
The next day I swapped vehicles with my girlfriend, as she needed a truck to help her sister move something.
She found a brown paper lunch bag in the back seat. It had a lacey bra, panties and unused condoms in it. I was totally at a loss. Then I remembered giving the waitress a ride home. So on Monday I handed the bag to her, and asked if it was hers, and it was. She gave no explanation of how it got in my backseat, or even why she was carrying it.
I asked her to explain to my girlfriend, and she declined, saying she didnt want a whole bunch of drama over nothing. So I got a whole bunch of drama from my girlfriend.
I couldn’t even blame her, or come up with a plausible story. We broke up shortly after that
NOT POSSIBLE: Why US Can’t Compete with CHINESE Monster Drones?
“China also has many AI drones such as the amphibious Nezha that can fly and dive to 23ft under water; shark/dolphin/stingray undersea drones; and an anti-air/land defense system called the Hornet’s Nest that can launch 10,000 explosive drones rapidly each will auto lockon enemy vehicles. People have no idea how secure China’s borders really are today.”
When I was in prison, I worked on the “hoe squad”. This is what “hard labor” actually is. We march out to the fields carrying hoes. Wearing our white prison clothes, we then form a line and then beat the ground relentlessly tearing up the grass to dirt.
However…
If you are sick or ill, you can get “one arm duty”. You end up being set apart and then you just putz around off to the side.
In general, the only time that I got “one arm duty” was after I had a heart attack on the “chain gang”. Though, the doctor who saw me; the “prison doctor” gave me two aspirins and told me to visit him the next Monday morning.
…
Yeah. It was not fun, but little “perks” such as “one arm duty” were highlights of my days in the ADC. Other highlights included being allowed to eat some wild onions, and then mix them with the black beans we ate during dinner.
So remember guys… no matter how bad things might get, there is always some good that can be found about. Beans with onions! Good times! Good times!
This is what happened to University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier when he stole a political flag from his hotel hallway.
Wikipedia
Otto Warmbier
Otto Frederick Warmbier (December 12, 1994 – June 19, 2017) was an American college student who was imprisoned in North Korea in 2016 on a charge of subversion. In June 2017, he was released by North Korea in a vegetative state
Warmbier entered North Korea as part of a guided tour group on December 29, 2015. On January 2, 2016, he was arrested at Pyongyang International Airport
while awaiting departure from the country. He was convicted of attempting to steal a propaganda poster from his hotel, for which he was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment with hard labor.
Shortly after his sentencing in March 2016, Warmbier suffered a severe neurological injury
from an unconfirmed cause and fell into a coma, which lasted over a year.
North Korean authorities did not disclose his medical condition until June 2017, when they announced he had fallen into a coma as a result of botulism and a sleeping pill. He was freed later that month, still in a comatose state after 17 months in captivity. He was repatriated to the United States and arrived in Cincinnati, Ohio on June 13, 2017. He was taken to University of Cincinnati Medical Center
for immediate evaluation and treatment.
Warmbier never regained consciousness and died on June 19, 2017, six days after his return to the United States when his parents had requested his feeding tube
to be removed.
A coroner’s report stated that he died from an unknown injury causing lack of oxygen to the brain.
Non-invasive internal scans did not find any signs of fractures to his skull.
In 2018, a U.S. federal court found the North Korean government liable for Warmbier’s torture and death, in a default judgment
in favor of Warmbier’s parents after North Korea did not contest the case.
In 2019, U.S. President Donald Trump caused controversy after saying that he believed the word of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that Kim was not responsible for Warmbier’s death. In response, Warmbier’s parents criticized Trump for making excuses for Kim and “his evil regime”.
The APEC summit is about to begin in San Francisco. The key reason why this APEC summit is so important is the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
In order to welcome Chinese visitors, the city of San Francisco swept and flushed all streets in just 48 hours, clearing away all homeless people, tents and garbage on the roadside. Decorations are placed on the roads where visitors pass, and some roads are even screened.
image 7
For the visit of a head of state from another country, what San Francisco did seemed a bit out of line. When was the last time they did this? No one seemed to remember at all.
image 6
I checked the Chinese newspaper data in 1972, and there was this news:
“In preparation for US President Richard Nixon’s visit to China, the Beijing Municipal Government launched a city-wide cleaning campaign. Citizens, students, and soldiers took to the streets. They cleaned up garbage, planted trees, and painted walls. In just one week, Beijing had a completely new look.”
image 5
In fact, until the end of the 20th century, whenever important American figures visited China, Chinese cities would do the same thing.
However, I have never heard of Americans doing this.
Now,you must know that it is China’s head of state Xi Jinping who is visiting San Francisco, the United States.
Not the foreign minister, not the economic minister. The last official visit was in 2013, under President Obama. In 2017, President Trump also had an unofficial visit. many years have passed
In the past few years, relations between China and the United States have been tense, and the Chinese President’s visit to the United States again undoubtedly revealed a lot of information. I personally predict that relations between the two countries will soon ease.
With such an important visit, the city of San Francisco was understandably nervous. However, this incident also highlights the fact that the status between China and the United States has undergone subtle changes.
More than ten years ago, former head of state of china, Hu Jintao, visited the United States. Ten years ago, current head of state Xi Jinping visited the United States.
The United States was in good shape at that time and did not need to “make America great again”, nor did it need a “trade war”, nor did it need “trade decoupling” or “risk reduction.” There are not so many homeless people on the streets of the United States, and prices in the United States are at a good level.
During these visits, the United States responded very appropriately. Whether in Washington or other cities, daily life went on normally. Americans confidently present the face of their country to Chinese leaders. No matter what the Chinese head of state sees on the streets, good or bad. It doesn’t matter, this is America, and this is the confidence that comes from the United States.
After all, at that time, the visit of Chinese leaders was, to the United States, a visit by a “backward competitor” to a “leading country.”
But over the past decade, a lot has changed.
From the United States:
1. Social divisions and the widening gap between rich and poor have led to the election of a president like Trump. Under the slogans of “America First” and “Make America Great Again,” a series of actions that harmed allies and irritated China and Russia took place one after another.
2. The United States launched an “easy-to-win” trade war and prices soared. The 2020 pandemic has added to the nation’s chaos. Many people have lost their properties, and there are more and more homeless people on the streets and drug addicts. American cities have become cluttered.
3. In 2023, in order to deal with domestic inflation, the Federal Reserve will continue to raise interest rates. This has caused heavy economic losses to America’s global allies. In the Russia-Ukraine war, the United States lagged behind and was unable to truly contain Russia. The international influence of the United States has declined rapidly.
From China:
1. After ten years of economic growth, China’s overall economic strength has almost become equal to that of the United States. Although the GDP figure is still lower than that of the United States, the GDP calculated by PPP has already exceeded that of the United States. Key data such as social car sales and power generation also prove this.
2. In the economic war between China and the United States in the past few years, China has quickly adjusted after experiencing initial damage. Not only did they successfully respond to the pandemic, but they also expanded exports and boosted economic growth during the pandemic.
3. Amid the containment of trade wars and decoupling, China has attracted 151 countries around the world through the “Belt and Road Initiative” and successfully resisted the “de-risking” actions of the G7 countries led by the United States. China’s export volume will continue to increase in 2023.
4. China did not fall into the quagmire of the Russia-Ukraine war and did not have continuous military expenditures. On the contrary, they obtained more stable and cheaper energy, and a broader trade market.
This change was vividly demonstrated in the last diplomatic game between China and the United States. After Blinken’s aggressive speech, Liu He said: “The United States is not qualified to talk about strength with China.”
For the first time since the Cold War, the Chinese are sending a historic signal: The United States is no longer the only superpower.
Now, behind the seemingly eye-catching economic data in the United States are the debts of companies and individuals that are about to explode, as well as the high interest rates. After two years of debt stimulus and one year of interest rate hikes, the U.S. economy is like a fat man taking stimulants, with his face flushed and his strength boundless. In fact, he could fall down at any time.
China not only avoided global inflation, but also successfully resolved its domestic debt crisis. China is one of the very few countries that has not followed the United States in raising interest rates in the past six months. Although their economy is not as bright as in previous years. But it was very smooth and without any crisis. In the third quarter, major global financial institutions raised their economic expectations for China. In front of the United States, China is very comfortable and still has a lot of cards in its hand that it has not played.
The changes in the forces of China and the United States and the changes in the situation faced by both sides have made this meeting very delicate. In fact, the United States needs this meeting more than China.
In the end, the changes on both sides led to a change in Americans’ mentality towards China’s visit.
They have many more ideas than they had ten years ago:
There are too many homeless people on the streets of San Francisco, so much trash and drug addicts that they cannot be seen by the Chinese head of state.
It would make our great America appear weak and in disarray.
We must work hard to present a strong and beautiful image of the United States to continue to maintain the strong image of the United States in the past.
Not only will this prevent our president from losing face in front of Chinese leaders, but it will also prevent the Chinese from seeing more of America’s weaknesses and raising the price in negotiations .
There is an old saying: every dog will have his day.
I was on a contract in Boston USA for 4 years (back in the 2000’s) and at the end of the contract they offered me a full time job, Green Card, etc.
I asked what are the terms? 5 days leave at the end of the first year, no overtime payments, no company car……
I said I have worked for this company in France for over 20 years and you want me to give up my 65 days annual leave, being paid when I have worked longer hours and a reduction in salary, no job protection and having to take out health insurance.
No, fucking way! I’m going back to France.
Australia Just Destroyed America’s Plan For China!
Few reasons. One I don’t like liars, sitting at my kitchen table talking a bunch of smack gossip, another is telling me how I should do things when you have a zero clue of how hard it is being disabled. Trying to be the boss of me when you can’t even manage your own self. Stealing from me cause you might like what I own. My own grandmother came down to visit and stole my dried flower arrangement out of my bedroom, didn’t ask just five finger discounted it and got half way to the car when I saw it missing from my dresser. My father had an anger issue and to make him feel more manly, he’d make the 30 minute trip to my place actually looking for a fist fight. Mother read me the riot act when I had the nerve of buying a new fridge. So these days, I don’t even allow you on the property you can’t be trusted.
Two of my best friends in high school were dating, all four years. I love them two like genuine brother and sister (still do). Herein, the dude I will refer to as “bro” and his girlfriend “sis”. Nearing graduation, bro moved a state away (close enough to still come to school on time every morning) and almost immediately starting acting different. He had a new friend group who were terrible influence and became close with this other girl and we all kind of knew where this was going but didn’t want to believe it.
We graduated together, they were still together.
He and I went to trade school together, so we hung out on campus. My sis and I live in the same city so we hung out all the time (no, we never had feeling for each other anything beyond “siblings”). All the accusations of him cheating started to be noticeable. One day we sat in his car during lunch and I said to him, “If you cheat on my sis you know that’s the end of this friendship, bro. I love you but I hate the idea of what you’re getting yourself into.” He nodded…it kind of felt like he knew what he was doing was wrong but he was deep in it. He never told any of us two what he was doing but we ended up finding out from someone out of our friend group that he was planning on leaving my “sis” for this new chick.
He ended up doing so, and we lost each other as friends. Sis and I are still close. I haven’t talked to my ex-best friend in over 15 years. Things happen but seeing how he was treating her and lying to the both of us was ridiculous. No need to be leading people on like that. If you’ve moved on, actually move on.
Certainly, the most surprising thing for me when I lived in the US was finding that many Americans believe that, for practical purposes, the rest of the world doesn’t really exist.
To be fair I don’t mean that it is really non-existent, but that Americans think of the rest of the world in pretty much the same way someone in Europe would think of Pluto. It’s something you’ve read about, you know its there. But when it unexpectedly gets downgraded to not really being a planet any more it doesn’t really matter because Pluto can’t really have any effect on your everyday life.
And that’s how a large number of Americans regard the rest of the world – yeah, it probably exists, but it isn’t of any really practical relevance.
Let me give you an example of how this works. During the recent pandemic both the UK and US had idiot leaders who screwed up the pandemic response. But no one in the UK would think that the pandemic had just been made up to make Boris Johnson look bad. After all we saw how it spread around the world, first China then spreading all over Italy and other countries. So, it would be insane to suggest this worldwide problem was all make believe to humiliate Boris.
But large numbers of Americans have no qualms about believing that it was a lefty hoax to make Trump look bad. Its not that they believe the whole world is in on the plot its that since the rest of the world doesn’t really exist and so whether they also had the pandemic or not just doesn’t matter. It’s the same for the recent Israel-Palestine war. After it starts Trump announces that there are Hamas terrorists flooding across the US-Mexico border, because of course Hamas really want to attack the US. After all they can hardly really just want to target Israel, since it doesn’t really exist. To a subset of Americans, it just unthinkable that two sets of people could really have a war of their own. It must somehow really be about America because only America is actually real.
I joined a startup during the initial days of my career. after everything was discussed, I was given the offer letter. I accepted it and went to Mumbai, India to join the firm. After 1 week from the day of joining, I asked the HR for my appointment letter, which he should have given me on day 1. Since a startup and all young people around, I was OK with the delay. After 2 weeks, I was given the appointment letter, where it was mentioned that if ever I resigned from the organization or they terminate me from the firm, I will not be able to join any other firm in the same sector for a period of 1 year. (let me tell you, I am an engineer, with a masters degree in the relevant field.) This was mentioned under the competitive clause. I argued with the HR manager, asking him why didn’t he inform about this earlier, to which his answer was everything cannot be written on the offer letter.
I didn’t accept the letter and asked him to change the clause or else I won’t accept the letter. Now the problem with them was they were not in a position to leave me as I was the only person from that specific field and that field was giving them a good revenue, and I was never gonna accept the letter. Time flew and I was working without the appointment letter.
1 year later, I resigned as the organization was in a loss and was not being able to pay even our regular salary. I found another job in a well-established firm in the same field. So the last day, HR came to me and told that he will not be able to pay the whole amount of my salary, he gave me a cheque of 1/3 of my total pending amount. I was furious but was of no use as I knew this coming and I knew the financial status of the organization. They promised me to settle the amount in next 45 days.
Days passed, no sign of payments. When I called up the HR to know the status of the pending amount, I was told that as I didn’t sign the appointment letter, he cannot pay my salary. I knew what to do. I kept calm and didn’t reply anything. a few weeks later, I asked him my salary slips, I told him I needed those for my PF, and to my surprise, he instantly gave all my salary slips. Now the ball was on my court, and after receiving my Salary slips, I asked him for the pending amount. he told his same answer about my appointment letter; to which I replied, how can he issue salary slips to an employee who was never a part of the organization (which he mentioned earlier to me that I was never a part of the organization as I haven’t signed those papers). he was shocked to my answer, and he fumbled up. I took advantage of the situation and asked to pay my pending amount or else I have no option but to take the matter to the court. within 2 days the amount was credited to my account.
In 58BC, Julius Caesar entered Gaul with ~30,000 Legionarys and Auxillia troops to conduct “punishment” campaigns against the Celts and Germanic tribes. Eight years later, rather than subduing the responsible tribes, he had conquered all of Western Europe.
Caesar never had more than 50,000 total troops at any one battle and yet his Legions killed over 1,000,000 Celts and German warriors in battle, as well as captured another 1,000,000 for enslavement.
This was accomplished through the excellent generalship of Caesar and the training & discipline of his Legions and Auxillia (foreign support troops, who were trained to equal level with the Legions).
The disciplined and ordered men of the Legions were able to stand and hold back relentless charges of undisciplined tribesmen, until the Celts had tired themselves out, before moving forward against the exhausted enemies, killing everyone before them.
Caesar’s final battle in Gaul, to subdue the revolt led by Vercingetorix at Alesia in 52BC, Caesar and his Legions had built and defended a “tactical doughnut”,where ~70,000 Romans besieged Vercingetorix’s army inside Alesia of ~75,000, while defending against up to 250,000 Celts who attempted to free Vercingetorix.
image 59
It was quality of leadership, training, discipline, engineering and construction excellence that defeated sheer but undisciplined numbers.
Flamin’ Cajun Riblets
Deliciously seasoned pork ribs that will delight the taste buds!
pork riblets scaled 1
Yield: 12 servings
Ingredients
3 pounds pork loin back ribs
1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning
1 cup bottled chili sauce
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 Serrano pepper*, seeded and finely chopped
2 tablespoons quick cooking tapioca, crushed
1 teaspoon finely shredded lemon peel
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 to 2 teaspoons bottled hot pepper sauce
Snipped fresh parsley (optional)
Instructions
Sprinkle the ribs with Cajun seasoning rubbing it in with your fingers.
Cut ribs into single rib portions.
Place ribs in a 3 1/2 to 4 quart slow cooker.
In bowl, mix chili sauce, onion, Serrano pepper, tapioca, lemon peel, lemon juice and hot pepper sauce.
Pour sauce over ribs.
Cover and cook on LOW setting for 5 to 6 hours or on HIGH setting for 2 1/2 to 3 hours.
Serve at once or keep warm, covered, on warm setting or lon LOW heat setting for up to 2 hours.
Remove any bones without meat. If desired, sprinkle with parsley.
Notes
Because hot chile peppers, such as Serrano’s, contain volatile oils that can burn your skin and eyes, avoid direct contact with chilies as much a possible. When working with chile pepper, wear plastic or rubber gloves. If your bare hands do touch the chile peppers, wash your hands well with soap and water.
50 MOST DISTURBING Moments Caught On Camera Vol. 10
A rewards program
We had a rewards program in Canada called Air Miles. Both my wife and I collected them before meeting, then merged accounts after getting engaged.
One of the grocery chains gave you 10 times airmiles for prescriptions on the first Tuesday of the month, we had both been taking advantage of this. Then they dropped it to 7 times rewards, any time of the month.
Whenever a store was renovated, they offered massive air miles, at just that store, to get people to come back after the renovation. These were super deals, like spend $200 and get 700 airmiles. Every first Tuesday of the month was 10 times airmiles on groceries. You normally got 1 for $20, but on Tuesdays you got one for $2. They would also have air mile specials on particular grocery items. For example buy 5 packs of flavored rice cakes for $15 and get 100 air miles. Buy frozen chicken wings for $10, and get 100 airmiles. Air miles were worth 15 cents a piece at the time, then dropped to 14 cents, then 11 cents.
But when they were 15 cents a piece, spending $10 for a kg of chicken wings earned you $15 worth of airmiles. They were paying you $5 to buy the wings.
Back to the renovation sales. I had 6 of the grocery stores within 3 km of me. Most within 2. They renovated them one after the other, and the sales each lasted 3 months. Then the next one would start.
So I would hold off groceries, until the first Tuesday of the month, then buy $200 . This got me 700 airmiles, with the coupon, plus 100 airmiles for the 10 times airmiles, plus, I would buy 5 boxes of chicken wings, and 5 bags of rice cakes, which gave me another 600 air miles, plus all the other individual sales. From this one shopping trip averaging $220 , I would get about 2500 air miles, worth $375.
Plus whatever we got for prescriptions. Other companies also offered airmiles, but not as great a deal. But if you shopped at 6 different companies, and you earned more than 6000 airmiles, you got an onyx card, which meant you could get 10 percent more for your airmiles.
So for two years, we got about $5000 worth of airmiles each year..
The trick was to only use them on package vacations, which is where you got the 15 cents per airmiles, and the 10 percent discount.
So we would pick a $6000 tropical flight and all inclusive hotel two, because we were onyx, we would pay $5400, and we would pay that out of our airmiles. At the time, that gave us a spectacular vacation, for buying stuff that we would use anyway.
With the renovations we got two years earning $5000 worth of airmiles, then down to about $3500 worth, then down to $2000. Then they stopped offering airmiles all together.
But, we got two years of free vacations, and another 10 of half price vacations.
I knew people who didn’t work the system, who only collected $300 worth of airmiles over 10 years, and said it was a ripoff, but it worked for us. It was nice while it lasted.
In the Irish Sea
In April 1985, an extraordinary event took place over the Irish Sea, captured by Adrian Meredith in what would become the only photo of Concorde flying at supersonic speed. Adrian, who was flying a Royal Air Force (RAF) Tornado jet, had the opportunity to participate in a planned rendezvous with the legendary Concorde.
The Tornado, a versatile and powerful combat aircraft developed and used by the RAF, was primarily designed for air defense, ground attack, and reconnaissance missions. While it could match Concorde’s cruising speed, its fuel consumption rate was significantly higher, allowing it to sustain that speed only for a matter of minutes.
Despite the Tornado’s capabilities, capturing the iconic photograph posed a unique challenge. To maximize its speed and keep up with the Concorde, the Tornado was stripped of all non-essential equipment. The crew made every effort to maintain the pace, racing to catch up with the Concorde as it soared through the skies. However, due to the Tornado’s limited endurance at high speeds, the crew had to make the difficult decision to break off the rendezvous after just four minutes. Meanwhile, the Concorde, an engineering marvel of its time, continued its journey, gracefully cruising towards its destination at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK).
Despite the Tornado’s formidable capabilities as a combat aircraft, it could only briefly keep pace with the Concorde’s supersonic flight. The juxtaposition of these two aircraft highlights the distinct roles they played in aviation history—the Concorde as a pinnacle of supersonic passenger travel and the Tornado as a versatile military workhorse.
Together, the Tornado and the Concorde symbolize the remarkable advancements in aviation technology during the late 20th century. Their fleeting rendezvous over the Irish Sea and the remarkable photograph captured during that encounter stand as a testament to the ingenuity, dedication, and pursuit of excellence that define the aviation industry.
That is what the west thinks. That is what a hubris superiority complex western Caucasian xenophobic racist thinks!
The truth is China is very happy the west especially thinks this way! Do you know why?
Chinese is always 3 steps ahead of these type f westerners. We like the west to be burnt all their cash here and go bankrupt. Parading aimlessly flexing its muscles at 100 billion a month! We loved the stupidity.
We spends nothing and enjoy our popcorns while you implode. So YES IT IS TRUE CHINA CANNOT FIGHT YOU. FLEX YOUR MUSCLES. TILL YOU DISINTEGRATE INTO OBLIVION. GOOD LUCK. HAHAHAHA. WHAT A BUNCH OF FOOLS.
After working my ass off during the pandemic, I was promised an additional bonus. I received a “low performance“ review conveniently timed a day before my bonus was to be paid. The low performance feedback canceled my bonus. Given all the other bullshit I was putting up with, I broke and quit.
I had a nice month off and my new job pays significantly more. Never work for people that don’t appreciate you, there are always others that will.
About three years ago, I wanted a cat. I love tuxedos; I really think they are something special.
His name is Othello. Apparently, he got into a fight in the county shelter one county up from us and was transferred to my county. That should have been my first warning he was trouble. He has a tiny triangle of his left ear that’s missing (it’s not even visible in this one.)
But he was warm, sweet, and cuddly. Just beautiful.
Two weeks in, we are at my mum’s house. I’m trying to bake, but Mr. Tux here decides he wants snacks from the plastic shelving where we kept the pet supplies. A two-hour battle ensues, where I pull him down and five minutes later, he’s back up there again. I finally pulled everything about 6 feet away from the shelving, thinking it will stop him jumping up there.
I go back to what I was doing, and then I hear a crash.
“Darn that cat…” as I walk over there to scold him for the 85th time.
He was hanging off the side of the pet shelf by both front feet, having leaped the 6 feet across the room. I asked him if he thought he was James Bond or something.
I have also discovered:
He can open flip lids with his nose or his paws. I made this crucial mistake when I got his adoptive brother, who was a kitten at the time. I bought kitten food for Mercury and after a half hour’s consideration, trying to outwit my cat again, bought a container with a flip lid. I mimed having paws when I bought the darn thing. I thought I was smart. I left for a night and came back in the morning. There’s the kitten food, spilled all over the floor. The two of them obviously thought I wasn’t coming back and decided to fend for themselves.
He will destroy any package left within reach. He destroyed all the dry soup packets my mother had downstairs in the basement. No idea on that one.
He has busted the screen on my porch TWICE in order to get out into the Great Wide Open. I don’t mean going through it – I mean prying it loose from the wood surrounding the bottom.
I cannot leave one gap in the lid of the food bucket (NOT a flip lid) I keep the kitty kibble and the snacks in, or he will pry the lid off in ten minutes or less. He checks every night. One night, my sister was over and I didn’t attach the lid properly. My sister and I were watching a movie and we heard the lid clatter to the floor. 10 minutes.
He has been known to eat puppy food and dog biscuits.
When angry, he hits things -the curtains, the side of the fridge, the wall, any paper bag that’s handy. Just beats his paws on whatever surface is nearby. He pitched a fit last summer when he broke the screen the first time and I would not let him out. A full on temper tantrum, beating on the door and howling like he was being tortured.
I don’t dare leave food out anywhere he can find it. Anything I make is put away in the fridge or weighted down under stuff he can’t shove off. I have been known to booby-trap stuff so I can hear lids falling if he attempts to knock them around!
He eats plants. We now have one. I experienced to strategize locations to put this one so he wouldn’t nibble it to demise. For his security, i’ll n’t have any toxic plants in the house.
He really loves everybody but me personally. Folks come to your house, and he’s Mr. Personality. Loves everyone. Leaps into laps, cuddles, nice little kitty. I will be mother, and clearly we’re caught with each other, so he doesn’t just like me all that much because We curb his widespread enthusiasm for destruction and mayhem.
I love him dearly and he tends to make life interesting, but oi. I invest half my entire life outwitting him. it is tiring.
She was a good friend, but nothing like that between us. One day I came to visit. Her mom let me in (they lived in a 8,000 sq ft house) and said she’s upstairs. So up I went and there was no Monica.
So I sat down to wait and suddenly out of the bathroom comes butt naked Monica. She yelped. I laughed. Even though Monica was very easy on the eyes, I never saw her like that and it just ended up as a funny story between us.
I haven’t seen her in years, but my daughter is named after her, so that’s how much I cared for her.
Dear god no. Closest I’ve ever come is Dilaudid (injectable hydromorphone), which the hospital gave me whilst I was spewing blood when I went to visit my Talespinner.
Hated it. In fact, I hated it with every fiber of my being. If words could adequately convey my fiery hatred for the way it made me feel, you, Gentle Reader, would spontaneously combust upon reading them.
It’s not just that it made me vomit, though it definitely did that. It’s everything about the subjective experience. It made me feel like I was wrapped in a too-warm blanket made of steel wool and television static. It made me feel like I was floating just a little outside my body, but in a skin-crawling, AmericanHorror Story way, not a fun way. It made everything around me feel blunt and dull, like all the color and texture had been bleached out of the world.
Have patience my friend. Wait for another 50 thousand years. Then perhaps, may be, with a lot of luck your dream might come true. For now go bury your head in the sand.
He Took the Most Unwanted Cat At the Shelter In the Night, the Cat Had a Surprise!
I was asleep in bed, about 2am, when Spider (My cat, not my choice of name) came into the bedroom, placed his mouth by my ear, and Miaowed, LOUDLY. I woke up, suddenly, and not too happily! I tried to push him away, but he repeated himself, then stood up and walked to the end of the bed, and looked back at me. When I tried to lie down, he came back, caught my hand in his mouth, and gently, but firmly, pulled me towards the door. Eventually I gave up, and got out of bed, as he ran to the bedroom door, paused, looked back at me, and waited until I followed him. Eventually, he got me to the French doors in the living room, where he sat, looking at me and then at the light switch, until I turned the light on to illuminate the patio outside. There his baby kitty sister was sitting, in the rain, not coming into the house. I called her, but she just looked at me, until I opened the door, and picked her up. Although she was purring madly, her leg was swinging oddly, and it was obviously badly broken. I pushed her gently into a basket, pulled my clothes on, and called for a taxi to take me to the emergency vet. Without his intervention, she would have been stuck outside for at least another five hours, in the pouring rain, badly injured. The vet said that, without prompt attention, she may well have been dead by morning. Spider had saved her from, at best, considerable pain and suffering, at worst, a painful and cold, wet death. It took considerable surgical skill to save her leg, but without him, she may well not have had that chance. He was a lovely cat; He died aged 18 of acute kidney failure, and I miss him a lot!
When Shanghai was under lockdown due to severe COVID-19 outbreak in April 2022, many residents resorted to group purchases for daily necessities. Among the coordinators of these purchases, one young volunteer showed maturity and a sense of responsibility beyond his age.
Cai Hanxiao, a second-year high school student in Shanghai.
Cai Hanxiao, 17, a second-year high school student living in the city’s suburban Qingpu district, voluntarily took charge of group purchases for the residential community he lived in, helping more than 600 people obtain daily supplies.
Cai shared his experience on Chinese video sharing platform Bilibili. He said, after the residential compound was put under lockdown, like everyone else he had to cook himself. After only a few days, he ran out of fresh vegetables.
Then, Cai posted a massage in a community chat group to find residents who also needed vegetables. After some answered his call, Cai created a new group for collective purchasing.
He pooled together 80 orders and negotiated with a supplier. A deal was made, and the vegetables were delivered to the doorsteps of residents the following day.
After that, more residents joined Cai’s group, and demand grew rapidly. The goods on his purchase list expanded from vegetables to meat and milk.
The young man admitted, at first, organizing group purchases affected his studies. But later he optimized the work flow and started using a mini-program which enabled people to sign up for a group purchase automatically, which saved a lot of time.
“I want to show you high school students are not nerds that know nothing but how to solve problems on exercise books. We can help people solve practical problems in real life.” Cai said.
The one where doctors open the heart, repair it and seal it back. Everything seems so simple on paper, isn’t it?
It was a random Tuesday morning when we visited the Operation Theatre of the CTVS (Cardio Thoracic and Vascular Surgery) department, not knowing what was to come.
One of our senior professors was operating, and she was being assisted by some Resident doctors and nurses.
The surgery was Triple Valve Replacement. It basically involves replacing the damaged heart valves.
Sounds so easy!
The patient’s chest was cut open, the underlying bone was drilled and when they reached the heart finally, I was thrilled beyond expectations.
We all have heard heartbeats on a stethoscope, but to see it beat right in front of you is an altogether different feeling!
A number of different tubes were connected to the heart then. Lots of different liquids were made to run through the tubes.
And then, they put an ice solution over the heart.
This is called cardioplegia – the phase where the heart is stopped from beating. It is during this stage that the actual valve replacement is done.
The tubes help in supplying blood to the heart during this time.
Throughout this entire time, our Professor kept teaching us important stuffs related to the surgery. She could have chosen to ignore us and continue with the tiresome surgery, but she didn’t.
She showed us the important blood vessels and valves. She taught us the mechanism of cardioplegia. She showed us which incisions to make and where.
And all this while, she kept on standing and operating.
After 3 hrs at 1 pm, it was lunchtime for us. But the surgery was nowhere near complete. So me and my friends decided to stay till the end of the operation.
We didn’t expect the surgery to go on too long.
But here’s the thing. We finally came out of the OT at 5.30 pm, having missed our lunch as well as our afternoon classes!!!
But what did we gain?
Our respect for our Professor ma’am increased by leaps and bounds. Her surgical team members kept on changing every few hours, but she never left the OT table throughout the 8 hour period.
If this isn’t patience and dedication then what is?
Coming to the question.
What is something that money can’t buy?
It’s patience.
Master patience, and it will open the doors of greatness for you.
I am eligible for answering this question.A quick background about me.
A good developer with task completion abilities with 4.5 years of experience as of now
Year late 2015 joined the Pune based company this was my second company…Joined as a developer performed pretty well in initial 3 months of probation…They chose me to send on-site for 2 months
I was on cloud 9 and happily went to on-site UK ,performed exceptionally well there and returned to India.Now was into regular job activities of development stuff…
Suddenly HR and Dev manager calls me for a meeting and said you are in PIP..I was taken by shock because in the recent time I was the one who has delivered the most work from team.
They assigned me tasks for 1 month and said we want 100 percent completion the actual time that will be fair to complete the task was 3 months but they given me only one month..I delivered 80 percent and wanted a week extension but they were adamant that you have not completed in one month hence we have to let you go.
Later few of my friends from HR told me that they wanted you out from company and it was a trap.
On the day it was around 6 pm half collegaues were already gone.i got informed that today is my last day.
Gone out of the office cried with a friend for 10 mins and then told myself let’s bounce back and will get a new job in 7 days.
Cleared my stuff started applying for new jobs set the deadline for 7 days.
On the 5 th day I had the job offer in hand with 50 Percent hike
To the rest of the world especially the entire Global South we are clear as hell, why!
Because they are envious and fear China will overtake them and lose their hegemonic powers. The rest are all excuses and made up face saving lies. Frankly it should stop right away.
The more it demonised and blame China the more we see it as China doing well. Most culture including the west I believed, don’t take kindly to a person who bad mouthing someone. It shows that such person are weak and insecure. That is how the world sees the U.S. now.
Don’t do it. It looks bad on you. It makes you look weak. Fooling your own people weakens them. And fooling them int being ignorant and naive of the biggest consumer and producer on earth is like committing suicide! Yes you are right Americans in general don’t know and understand the real China.
But don’t blame them. The U.S. has been spreading lies and demonising China since 1949, 74 years straight! So today’s American has been lied to from their grand parents generation to their parents generation and they were fed misinformation to doubt, hate and fear China.
For a start 99.99% don’t know why 1949. Let me help you starting with this. After world war 2, the US at its strongest point in history go all out to fxxk up China. It is knee deep to ensure a puppet rule China do that it can break up China into 100 tiny nation. But at its strongest. Point it failed to do that even when China is at its weakest and the U.S. is at its strongest.
What about now! China grew from an economy the size of Zambia to the biggest in purchasing power term. The growth of China in the last decade is bigger than the entire G7 by 35%! It can toast the US from coast to coast if the U.S. choose the end of life options.
So the U.S. do the only thing it can do. Talk and do shit. Hence Hong Kong, Tibet, Uyghurs, Taiwan, Xinxiang and any shit it can find. Is it helping? Frankly no. Not at all. It counts on fooling people around the world. But instead it only fool their own yanks. But that is good, they can hide their own weakness and failings by blaming even their migraines on China. After all after lying about China 74 years to its citizens. They will buy anything.
Other people don’t hate the human race like you do because you don’t see the human race for what it is.
You see a small sliver of the human race for what it is, and that, plus your own confirmation bias, blinds you to the whole of the reality.
The human race is not all one thing. It’s a blend of light and shadow, good and evil. It’s trendy and oh so fashionable among a certain kind of person to see the dark and think that makes you somehow more knowledgable or informed, but it doesn’t. A nuanced, balanced approach must see the whole.
Seeing the whole means recognizing the evil but also celebrating the good. Hate is easy. It costs to love.
We do not see the world as it is; we see it as we are.
Worrying about what someone else is thinking, saying, or doing will not make your life better.
Celebrities, politicians and the mainstream media don’t live in the same truth as you do.
The person you marry can be the biggest financial decision you will ever make. The right one: an asset who will build with you. The wrong one: a liability that will destroy you. Choose wisely.
There’s literally nothing appealing about going out to bars, drinking and partying all through your 20s. Use this time to create a solid foundation for yourself and your future self.
Choosing a life partner based solely on looks and your sex urges is going to cost you in the end.
Nobody is going to pay attention when you are dead and most likely, they are not even paying attention now. So why be concerned about making mistakes?
The person you see in the mirror who has gone through a lot, the toughest times and is still standing. That’s the same person who deserves all the best from you.
No amount of love from others will ever be enough. To fill the yearning that your soul requires you work on a daily basis to make sure you are in love with yourself.
My husband recently rented a beautiful mansion on Maui via AirBnB. He did it on the AirBnB website. The owner asked him to send the money ($6,000) by a wire transfer because she lives in Europe. Red flag! He contacts AirBnB which confirms the listing is legitimate and it’s common to wire the money that way for international owners. So, he wires the money.
The next day the listing is gone and redirects to a Russian no service page. Apparently someone hacked AirBnB and created a fake listing within it.
Fortunately, our bank stopped the transaction so the money never left our account.
Fast but inaccurate heuristics that fail with Type 1 errors have positive survival value.
So think of the brain, first and foremost, not as an organ of rationality but as an organ of survival, like fangs or claws. The brain is a pattern recognition and categorization machine, and when you think about it that way, it becomes patently obvious why cognitive errors exist.
Cognitive errors are often the result of overly promiscuous pattern recognition or of category errors (or both).
When you live on the savannah, you frequently find yourself in situations where the only thing standing between you and being a leopard’s dinner is very fast pattern recognition. You don’t have time to consider and analyze whether that flash of orange you just saw from the corner of your eye is a charging leopard or not, and whether you should be categorizing it as a threat.
While your buddy Grog is sitting there evaluating the evidence, your adrenal glands are screaming WAAAUGH A LEOPARD IS ABOUT TO EAT MY FACE and you’re booking it out of there.
Result, you live to transmit your genes. Your rational, analytical buddy, the late Grog Grogson, does not.
And these fast heuristics evolve toward Type 1 errors (false positives), not Type 2 errors (false negatives). If you mistakenly think a gazelle is a leopard and flee, you’re still alive. Your buddy Thok who mistakenly thinks a leopard is not a leopard, well…
So the people who survived the savannah had brains optimized for fast but low-resolution heuristics for identifying threats and aggressive, promiscuous pattern matching. Surprise! We no longer live on the savannah, but we still have those traits, legacy code in our firmware.
My professor has not been able to sleep well. He has been getting very dizzy lately. I bought him a fuzzy purple pillow and gave it to him. “Fuzzy pillows fix everything,” I said. He hugged me. It probably won’t fix his insomnia but he knows I care.
I am notorious for waking up late. Because of this, I never check the weather and I never have time to grab coffee in the mornings. When I picked my friend up for school, she always brought me a jacket on cold days and a thermos of coffee ready for me.
When I moved to Thailand, I was very lonely. A group of guys could see I was lonely and asked me to hang out. I couldn’t speak Thai, and they couldn’t speak English, but they took me to dinner most nights though we couldn’t say a word to each other. That meant everything.
The ladies in the office at my school will see my eyes linger on something they’re eating. They know I don’t know what it is. They always bring me a bowl of whatever they’re eating without me asking because they want me to try it. They gave me a whole pomelo last time. It makes my day.
My fruit lady always asks about my family in America. She remembers every detail about my family every time we talk as she cuts my pineapple for me. I’m always amazed she cares enough to listen, remember, and ask more questions.
The opportunity to be kind is everywhere. The smallest acts of love have the greatest impact. You just have to look for them.
HIGH ALERT! Putin and China just changed EVERYTHING with this move, and Biden has NO response
https://youtu.be/LMAnSrXuYHs
Creole Pot Roast with Dumplings
2023 11 09 17 04
Ingredients
1/4 cup butter, divided
1 (3 pound) beef pot roast
1 (16 ounce) can whole tomatoes, undrained
2 cups sliced onions
2 teaspoons curry powder
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 cup hot water
1 2/3 cups unsifted all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
2 tablespoons chopped pimiento
Instructions
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add beef and brown on all sides.
Add tomatoes and onion; cover tightly. Cook over low heat for 2 hours.
Stir in curry powder, 1 teaspoon salt, sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Cover and cook an additional 1/2 hour.
Place pot roast on serving platter and keep hot.
Add 1 cup hot water to broth in pot; bring to a boil.
Blend together flour, baking powder and remaining 1 teaspoon salt.
Cut in remaining 2 tablespoons butter, using a pastry blender or 2 knives.
Add milk, parsley and pimiento to flour mixture. Stir until moist.
Drop batter by tablespoonsful into boiling broth. Cover; cook over low heat for about 15 minutes.
Place dumplings around pot roast.
Strain broth and serve as gravy.
Dating Matchmaker quits working with women, modern women are DELUSIONAL, men go ABROAD
“I’ve seen videos of women giving the long lists of their requirements and, just because I’m a math geek, I’ll look up the statistics and do the calculations. In a lot of these cases, statistically, these men don’t even exist. They’re looking for a winning lottery ticket.”
My wife went to a local DPS (Department of Public Safety) office, and I escorted her, to renew her driver license. While at it, she decided to change her name to match the name on her Certificate of Naturalization when she became a US citizen.
After my wife filled out the required paperwork, the clerk says that in order to change the name, my wife must present a valid court order/document to prove that she had officially changed her name. According to the clerk, the Certificate of Naturalization is not a valid court approved document. Below is a sample of the Certificate of Naturalization.
image 62
Anyone with half a brain would realize that it says “United States District Court” in the lower right-hand corner, especially after we pointed it out several times, but not this particular DPS clerk.
Needless to say, we asked her to call her supervisor. Fortunately, the supervisor knew that a Certificate of Naturalization is the real deal and told the clerk to change the name, but not before hearing several “but, but, but…” from the clerk.
To use the mine, the soldier would remove the security pin, and then charge the enemy armor, just like in a bayonet charge, making the top of the mine collide with the objective. The weapon needed to be held by the center with the left hand and by the bottom with the other hand. When the legs of the mine hit the objective, the handle was pulled forward, cutting a pin and making the detonator move forward to the detonator charge. This would set off the mine, blowing up its user and, probably, the targeted enemy armor.
The mine was capable of penetrating about 150 mm of RHA
at an angle of 90º, and up to 100 mm at an angle of 60º. However, the mine would almost always impact at 90º because the impact angle with the objective would be decided by the weapon’s user, and he would probably aim for a 90º armor plate.
The nature of the weapon was similar to a panzerfaust in that it was a single use type weapon. Unlike the panzerfaust the operator was a single use soldier. There were no records I could find of it being used successfully. Of course I don’t know how there would be any feedback on its effectiveness.
The NVA used it as well with some reported success in Indochina against the French and the US later in the South.
In the parking lot at Walmart. I saw a motorhome identical to mine. So I was looking at the twin of my motorhome when the owner walked up and looked at me curiously. I introduced myself. I explained I owned the same model and I was having some mechanical issues. We all got along well, so we exchanged emails and decided to keep in touch. Well we started camping together, a couple of times a year. Our motorhomes were old. Our new friends lived simply. They cut coupons. Shopped at thrift stores. After years of getting together, California had an earthquake and our friends had to leave early to “check the cars” . I was puzzled. My friend explained he had a car collection. On racks in California. I guess he felt after years of knowing us he told us he had been a CEO of a Silicon Valley technology company. They knew by then we liked them for who they are. Not what they have.
The Marijuana Menace 1938 | Crime, Drama, Propaganda | Colorized Full Movie
When life is hard… I often look backwards and try searching for pleasant memories.
Stand by me…
2023 11 13 15 17x
One of my favorites is walking along the abandoned railroad tracks, along the river, in rural Western Pennsylvania. It’s a pure “Stand by me moment”. I lived this life in my early teens. And I often look back in time to this pleasant series of moments.
2023 11 13 15 16
Do you, fellow MM reader, have memories of your past that comfort you? What are they? A pet… a tree house… a uncle or auntie?
I’m good.
Don’t fret, though. I am just talking in general.
I have friends in trouble. But me, oh, I’m really good.
Chinese in China and Chinese in Taiwan will resolve the dispute if any between China and Taiwan. That is absolutely the right thing to do. The U.S. has absolutely nothing to do with this totally internal domestic issue. Any move to manipulate and war monger in Taiwan is totally and absolutely wrong you will certainly fail.
I am a Chinese ancestry from the same district that the majority of Taiwanese Chinese people migrated from. I have folks in China and Taiwan and we are of the similar stock. We certainly see that the U.S. trying to jam a spanner in the works as totally and absolutely wrong from Chinese people point of view and dare I say from the American point of view too.
How foolish can American think that it can shed blood and disrupt China by interfering in Taiwan? Do Yanks want to blow another 10 trillion dollars you don’t have to fight a war that 99.99% you will lose badly! Do the right thing pull out every single U.S. force out of Asia and make amends with the worlds most humongous market. Stop wasting more money flexing your sagging muscles by parading you aircraft carrier at a billion dollar a pop!
Your homeless need this money. Your uninsured healthcare citizens needs the money. Your infrastructure is dilapidated, Your streets are crumbling and totally not safe. Your banks are dropping like flies. You need to retrain the entire work force even compete with China.
What is right? The U.S. must get the fxxk out of South East China seas. And North Asia. You do that and Taiwan and China will resolved what ever issues it in a week. You can focus on making America great again. By being here you are helping g to make China great again!
Yes, Huawei will dominate the China and global south markets. But it will not in the global north market cuz the US will not lighten the pressure on Huawei.
However, Huawei makes not just phone, its strength is in network which is the weakness of Apple. No matter how good iPhone is, it’s limited by the network performance. While Apple created macOs, iPadOS and iOS (it’s a mess in my opinion) Huawei have unifies all in one OS; harmonyOS, an important step for the future IoT world. The US had inadvertently given Huawei a rare opportunity to self alliance and placing itself in a dominant position in the IoT market. Anyone wants to do business in China in the future should think twice being a lapdog of the US now.
Furthermore, Apple brags about their 3nm chip, yet it doesn’t have satellite voice communication compared to the less powerful Huawei Kirin. Indeed, it is impressive, but how does the 3nm technical supremacy benefit the users when Huawei offers more functions for less money? Trump started sanctions on Huawei, and Pompeo lied about China worldwide and now Biden’s growing pressure on Huawei, which invokes higher patriotism doesn’t help Apple sales in China. Apple will unlikely to regain market share in the near future.
Marriage is like a joint-stock corporation: you have to invest in it to have it run smoothly and both of you need to make a commitment to make it happy.
There are only difficult marriages and very difficult marriages. None are easy. But problems usually are resolveable.
All happy marriages are happy in the same way, all unhappy marriages are unhappy in their unique ways. This is known as the Anna Karenina principle.
Divorces follow the Pareto law. 80% of all divorces happen to 20% of people, 64% of all divorces happen to 4% of people and 50% of all divorces happen to 1% of people. Conversely, 80% of all marriages will last to death, and most people never divorce.
Learn to cook like your mom, not to drink like your dad.
Joker: The best thing a veteran can get is a strong-willed but a loving spouse who will take PTSD seriously and provide love and guidance when needed. My maternal granny was one.
Cajun Meat Loaf with Sweet Pepper Sauce
2023 11 08 11 33
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients
Meatloaf
1 tablespoon oil
1 cup finely chopped sweet red pepper
1/2 cup finely chopped sweet green pepper
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 slices white bread, torn
1/2 cup milk
1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup dried bread crumbs
1/2 cup ketchup
1 egg
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
Sweet Pepper Sauce
1 tablespoon oil
1 cup diced sweet red pepper
1 cup diced sweet green pepper
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon whole mustard seeds
Instructions
Meatloaf
Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add red pepper, green pepper, onion and salt; cover and cook over low heat until very tender, about 8 minutes.
Remove from heat and cool slightly.
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.
Combine bread and milk in large bowl; let stand 5 minutes to soften.
Add beef, crumbs, ketchup, egg, hot pepper sauce and sweet red pepper mixture; toss gently to coat.
Spoon and pat into prepared loaf pan.
Bake for 1 hour.
Let stand 15 minutes before serving.
Top each serving with a dollop of Sweet Pepper Sauce and serve.
Sweet Pepper Sauce
Heat in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the red pepper, green pepper, onion, water and salt; cook, stirring occasionally, over medium heat until very tender, about 8 minutes.
Stir in cider vinegar, brown sugar and mustard seeds; cook over medium-high heat until most of the liquid has evaporated and sauce is thickened, about 8 minutes.
More Brinkmanship: NATO Shows Pics of Netherlands F-35 loaded with Nuclear Bombs!
NATO (i.e. the United States) has upped-the-ante-with Russia . . . again. They published photos of a Netherlands F-35 stealth jet with two B-61 nuclear bombs in its bomb bays – SIMILAR TO THE FILE PHOTO shown above.
No announcement. No publicized “threat.” Just loaded the plane with nukes, sent it into the air, told it to fly over a cameraman with its bomb bays open, and then publishes a photo showing the nukes are onboard.
Hal Turner Remarks
THIS is how NATO tries to intimidate Russia – over Ukraine.
Except the Russians don’t get intimidated.
We are still, very much, on the brink of outright nuclear war with Russia. And with NATO pulling crap like this, we get closer and closer as each day goes by.
Of course, no one in the Western “mass-media” bothers to show you how we continue to “poke the (Russian) bear” but I do show you.
I show you because when it actually happens, YOU will all know who it was that drive the issue. YOU will know it is OUR side that did it. ANd YOU will know who to hold accountable when they slither out from their bunkers in the aftermath.
When I was working in my job of 23 years for a company making a certain medical product, I was the sole full time employee with 2 directors.
I was getting older, my eyesight got weaker and the machinery more worn and needed more maintenance and broke down more often.
Production was lessening. I asked for a helper, but was refused!
Management then came up with a plan! They required me to write a daily journal of the work I did and the time taken and a detailed description of the work! On top, I needed to requisition any purchases required to maintain the function of the factory.
So, besides the set-up and operate of 7 machines, I had to clean my hands after each repair and sit down to fill in the journal. Any time I needed parts, I had to write a requisition, fax it to HQ, and wait for approval before driving to suppliers to buy them…one time, a machine was down for a month for want of 1 screw! They forgot because it was only 1 screw on the requisition!
Production plummeted, and eventually they moved back to the UK and set up there. Not a problem hiring 7 people to do the job I managed on my own for 23 years!
At least I got a decent severance and control of my pension fund…which was neglected as well!
Teacher: “So over 6 million Jews died in the Holo-”
Student: “Why aren’t we learning about the Confederacy? Why do y’all erase our Southern history but not the Holocaust?”
Teacher: *goes silent for a few moments*
Teacher: “Well, those are rather loaded questions. But can you tell me the name of this class?”
Student: “AP European History.”
Teacher: “…and where was the Confederacy?”
Student: “The United States.”
*The student continues to argue that we should still be learning about the Confederacy and not the Holocaust*
-A student with a thick country accent.
This is also the same student who wrote a huge passage from the Bible from memoryon the whiteboard when the teacher wasn’t looking. But I digress.
Teacher: “So which countries in Europe weren’t under communist control?”
Student: “China!”
-A very confident friend of mine in our AP European History class.
Teacher: “Sarah, pop quiz, how many states are in the United States?”
A very unconfident Sarah: “Oh, goodness… um, 51?”
Teacher: “Are you serious?”
Sarah: “Wait, there aren’t 51!? Is Puerto Rico not a state?”
-A former military officer and current teacher, chatting with a very aloof student before a Veterans Day parade.
Godfree Roberts talks about China
Author James Howard Kunstler questioned me about Why China Leads the World: Talent at the top, Data in the middle, Democracy at the top this week. He’s a typical, educated, intelligent American whose sole source of information about China is the New York Times. His tone was civil and he gave no clue that he believed nothing I told him. When he released the interview, he labeled me a troll.
Here’s the outline I sent him prior to the interview:
PARTY PEOPLE: The Communist Party’s ninety million members contribute a billion dollars in annual dues and billions of volunteer hours. They took an oath to ‘bear the people’s hardships first and enjoy the benefits last’. 48,000 of them flew into Wuhan when Covid broke out and 90% of staff deaths were members. Few work for the government and even fewer benefit from membership, yet they determine the country’s direction.
THOSE WHO PLEASE THE PEOPLE. China chooses politicians the way the US Navy chooses admirals and treats them similarly. Chosen from the top two percent of university graduates, theyspend years away from home, are modestly paid, earn PhDs, take orders, perform distasteful missions, observe a restrictive moral code, are held responsible for subordinates’ mistakes, constantly assessed, scrutinized, tried in special courts and punished more severely than civilians. China’s elite has always been non-hereditary, and they’ve been the country’s heroes for millennia.
DATA-DRIVEN DEMOCRACY. Constitutionally, electively, popularly, procedurally, operationally, substantively, and financially, China is democratic. The Carter Center oversees elections, voter participation is higher than ours and, in survey after survey, they trust their government and say it responds to their needs.
A DATONG ECONOMY. For seventy years China’s economy has grown three times faster than ours and, by 2028, will be twice as big. They spend four times more on R&D and lead the world in most sciences and technologies.
THE GRANARY IS FULL. Because Beijing allocates 59% of GDP to wages, incomes have outgrown GDP for decades and, by 2023, 96% of people owned a home and had a job, plenty of food, education, safe streets, health care and old age pensions. Their mothers and infants survive childbirth better, their children graduate school three years ahead of ours and live longer, healthier lives. There are now more drug addicts, suicides and executions, more homeless, poor, hungry and imprisoned people in America than in China.
A SAN FRANCISCO EVERY MONTH. China has built the equivalent of one San Francisco every month since 1951. Now they’re building City V2.0, a clean, green home for six million people that integrates 5G, driverless electric cars, maglev trains, vast wetlands and prevailing winds. Designed to pay for itself by doubling inhabitants’ productivity, it opens in 2024.
EDUCATION. Chinese youngsters graduate high school three years ahead of ours. Tier One urban teachers are limited to fifteen hours of classroom instruction weekly and their principals have chauffeured limousines and overseas sabbaticals. They take education more seriously than heart attacks.
LOST GIRLS AND HALF THE SKY. The first bill Mao, a lifelong women’s libber, signed in 1949 was the Equal Rights Amendment. The ‘missing’ thirty million girls have been found–beating boys in school–and their big sisters lead gigantic science and defence programs and comprise most of the world’s self-made female billionaires.
RELIGION. Two-thirds of Chinese are atheists and one-fourth non-religious Taoists. Though a Christian uprising killed thirty million people and brought down the Qing dynasty, the Constitution guarantees freedom of worship and the government supports seventy-four seminaries, one thousand seven hundred Tibetan monasteries, three thousand religious organizations, thirty-nine thousand mosques, eighty-five thousand religious sites and three-hundred thousand clergy.
CONFUCIAN ETHICS AND RULE OF LAW. Of all government services, the Chinese are happiest with their legal system. With one-fourth of our security budget, their police are unarmed, streets are safe, prisons are empty and reoffense is rare. The Supreme Court’s chatty website has had two billion visitors.
EARTH IS MY MOTHER. The Chinese have lived on the same land for thousands of years and it’s more productive today than ever. Thanks to the EPA, they avoided our environmental disasters and emulated our successes. Today, 42% of the country is wilderness and Giant Panda National Parkalone is bigger than Massachusetts.
HUMAN RIGHTS: Of the original thirty rights in the UN Declaration, China leads America in twenty-six and has proposed three that the US opposes: rights to food, shelter and national development.
CORRUPTION: The government, which tells the truth and keeps its promises, is the most trusted on earth. Though many local officials became dishonest during the boom, policy-making remained untouched. Now, AI and a dedicated, Cabinet-level anti-corruption department have the upper hand.
PROPAGANDA: xuānchuán, ‘transforming the people through exemplary behavior and instruction,’ has been a government responsibility since ancient times. China’s success in rolling out new programs depends on it.
DISCUSSION IS SUSPENDED. The Office of Chief Censor is two thousand years old and its incumbent is, and has always been, the country’s leading intellectual. Today, he’s a famous author and also a Cabinet member. He oversees the world’s largest, richest, most trusted media and his mandate is constitutional: “Once a policy has been widely discussed, voted on and legislated, discussion is suspended while everyone unites to implement it”.
THE TIANANMEN CAPER. Inflation, race, sex, wages and loss of university scholarships triggered the Tiananmen Square demonstration. President Clinton discussed it on Chinese national TV for an hour, but the story ended with an incamera trial in London’s Crown Court.
TIBET AND THE DALAI LAMA: More Tibetans can read and write their native language today than all the Tibetans who have ever lived, and those who have lived under both governments prefer the current one. Running water, schools, universities, hospitals, airports, high speed trains and forty years of rising wages have made a difference. As has the Lhasa Hilton.
HEGEMONY AND HUMANE AUTHORITY. China’s military, which humiliated ours in 1951, has more firepower than the US but plans to lead the world by virtuous example. Failing that, they’ll blow the US Navy out of the water with weapons a generation ahead of ours.
A DATONG WORLD. Ten years ago President Xi founded the BRI, promising to, “Jointly promote democratization of international relations by building an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity–a world community of common destiny, a shared planetary home for humanity.’
Oh I have a good one! Not only did this crazy woman run into me, she then tried to sue me!
I’m in the UK so traffic directions may differ in your country.
Here we go…
I’m turning right. I’m stationary waiting for a gap in traffic. One comes and I start to turn and – wham! – this lady runs straight into the back of me.
Took me a moment to realise what happened but I get out of my vehicle and check on her. She immediately states aggressively that it’s my fault. Errr, you run into the back of me I was stationary, love. She’s having none of it.
Anyway a police car happens to pass and stops checks that there’s no injuries. She is still ranting to the point even the policeman has had enough and points out she run into the back of me so it’s cut and dry your fault mrs.
So we swap details and I go home. As it happens I was turning into the street I lived at the time so no need recover my vehicle. I just park it and go to have a beer.
I call my insurance company and they’re not really interested as my car was worth £500 and with no injuries, there’s no money to be made. I was planning to scrap the car in three months when the MOT ran out so I just replaced the tire that was damaged, replaced the light cluster, tied a rope to a telegraph pole, straightened the chassis the old-fashioned way. Bit of duct tape on the bumper, and I’m good to go for the remainder of the car’s life. I wasn’t hurt so it’s all good.
That’s the end of that I thought… NOPE
Eighteen months later I get a court letter claiming against me personally. Not contact my insurance company just put in a claim for £4500 ish claiming I had overtaken a line of traffic and swerved in front of her not giving her time to brake. I know not even possible.
So I contacted my insurance company and they’re not interested. So fuck this I think I’ve never been paid for the damage to my car I’m going counter claim against the bitch.
So that’s what I did: I claimed £500 against her.
So the court day comes round and I’ve prepared my paperwork best I can do. I rock to court not really knowing what I’m doing but hey ho.
So I turn up early and don’t sign in; instead I sit close to the sign-in desk and wait for this nut job to turn up. She does with her slimy solicitor. So I let them sit and quietly go and sign in then I sit behind them so I can hear what they say. (Neither of us could remember what the other looked like of course).
He’s telling her I hadn’t turned up so they will win by default and as I was a day late responding to one of his slimy letters he was going get my entire case ignored through a loophole even if I did.
So the afternoon court session starts and off he goes up to the desk triumphantly stating that as I not turned up he expects this to go in his favour without a fuss.
Oh my friends on quora — if you could have seen his face when the nice lady paused, looked at him and said “but he is there” pointing at me. Sitting sneakily right behind him since he turned up listening to everything he had said. I know I shouldn’t have but I had to give him a cheeky wink. Lol
So we get into court — it was actually the judge’s chambers rarther than a large open court so there were only the four of us: me, crazy lady, her solicitor, and the judge . He starts off with his he wants throw my paperwork out through some legal loophole the judge looks at me and I come out with one of the finest lines in my adult life… I simply said “well that’s not cricket, judge”. I laughing as I recall this… the judge puts his pen down looks at this solicitor over the top of his glasses like a headmaster at a naughty pupil. He immediately retracts his request; I hold in my chuckle.
So the case carries on. Somehow my paperwork is far better than his and the guy is dying on his feet. I had just split from a solicitor I’d been dating for couple of years so I must have picked some stuff up. So this goes back or forward for 30 minutes or so and we get to the end. He sums up and he literally says “I surpose” … blar blar you did this, etc. Sits down.
Judge says to me right you have a go like he just has so up I stand… this is where I came out with the second best line of the day: “once upon a time… I was turning right… blar blar even the judge cracked a smile at my comedy genius.
She was psychotically jealous and eventually decided her husband can’t be with anyone else so she would take him off the market. She stabbed him seven times killing him.
To be clear, violence against wives/women is much more common—which is what makes these cases so interesting and unique.
This one was especially unique.
She stabbed her husband to death after seeing a picture of him with another woman. Yet she didn’t realize it was an old picture of her and her husband and she didn’t recognize herself.
I was a PFC in the USMC Reserves back in the 1960s and we were spending the weekend down at either Pendleton or Miramar, I don’t remember which, for our annual rifle qualification. Every Marine up to some high rank must qualify with a rifle every year. In the USMC, every Marine be they a cook or a company commander can put lead up the a$$ of the enemy just as well as an infantry Marine.
We were an artillery unit and our battery had finished our qualification with M-14s; we were told to stick around as we had to score and “pull butts” (mark targets with little discs to show where the shot had hit) for other regular Marines who were scheduled to qualify that day. One of my buddies was in the pit (200 yard range) and I was up on the firing line keeping score and recording.
An older Marine came up to qualify. He had a shooting jacket on so I couldn’t see his rank. We chatted for a while and when he was ready he began firing shots – I don’t remember the sequence but it was something like 10 shots prone, 10 shots sitting, and so on for – I think – 50 rounds to complete the effort. Depending on where you hit the target – bulls eye, or one of the outer rings, or missed completely (then the guy in the pits waved a red flag, which we called “Maggie’s Drawers”) you got a score for each shot. You had to get a score of something like 190 to qualify.
Anyway, this older guy started shooting and did a terrible job. He frequently hit near the edge of the target and even got a few “Maggies”. I made some joking comments about how he was going to get his a$$ kicked if he didn’t do better, then he changed positions and I could see he was a Major. That gold oak leaf peeked out from his shooting jacket, and I realized if he failed he might be retired out.
So I called my buddy in the pits and said we had a Major on the firing line and he had to qualify. No more Maggies and make sure he passes. We didn’t make him an expert or anything, but made sure he hit just over the minimum.
When it was over, I apologized for not recognizing his rank and saying “Sir”; he said laughingly no problem and then “thanks a lot, Marine” and went on his way.
From the 1950s to the late 1970s, the Shah of Iran robbed the country blind and sent all the money to the United States for investment.
Then a new government came into place in 1979 and demanded the United States return both the Shah (who was in the United States for “medical treatment”) and the Shah’s ill-gotten gains. When the Iranians stood by and let the American Embassy in Iran be taken over by “student protestors”, the United States implemented a complete embargo with Iran which effectively prevented them from repatriating assets in the United States. The United Nations soon followed suit, which prevented Iran from reaching its money in several other countries.
No-one is quite sure how much money is involved, but the low estimate is $100 billion U.S. dollars. China holds the largest share of that – $20 billion, but the United States still holds about $2 billion although it has over the years allowed Iran to repatriate some of its money on conditions of paying off U.S. court judgements.
Most recently, $6 billion in assets held in South Korea was transferred to Qatar for humanitarian uses. However, all the money still appears to be in Qatar.
Modern Woman’s Awakening: Choosing Family As Well As Career Success
I worked at the cookie store in the mall and there was a small seating area. A woman came in with an elderly woman who was clearly frail and suffering from later stages of dementia wearing a housecoat, slippers and what was clearly a bright yellow fall risk bracelet from the hospital, her frail body shaking as she sat making these soft whimpering noises.
The younger bought her a cookie and a soda and told her she’d be right back and took off, moving the elder woman’s walker well out of her reach and leaving the elderly woman alone. It didn’t take long before the elderly woman got more upset and kept trying to get up.
Our manager called security and went out to sit with her, but the elderly woman was scared of her, not knowing who she was. Security came and that just made the situation worse.
We ended up calling the police, the elderly woman had no ID on her (fall risk bracelets don’t contain personal information) and no way to call the younger woman over the PA system. Unfortunately this was not a high emergency situation for them and it was well over an hour before someone got there.
By the time the younger woman returned, social services had arrived and were loading the woman up into an ambulance.
She had abandoned her own mother for over two hours at the mall to go to dinner and shopping.
In 1977 I was in the army; a SP4 in the 978th MP Co., 76th MP BN stationed at Ft. Bliss, TX. My MP shift was was preparing to go to work and we had all just been issued our 1911 .45 autos from the arms room and were in the CO’s ready room. A soldier named Stone was issued a new holster and had taken the old one off his gunbelt and replaced it with the new one. They were of this type:
Stone had inserted his pistol into the stiff, brand-new holster. It was not easy. He hadn’t gotten it fully seated and the leather flap was still propped up some. I was standing right beside him and casually watching. We wore a white lanyard that attached to a loop on the butt of the weapon. When Stone tried to attach the lanyard, the 1911 discharged. His hand was nowhere near the trigger.
The Captain was in his office adjacent to where we 12 or 15 MP’s were and at the sound of the round going off he came storming into the ready room:
“Who the fuck fired that shot!??!!”, he screamed. “What the hell is going on here?!!”
Stone slowly raised his hand and the captain’s full and acidic ire and venom were directed at the young PFC. The cap called him every name in the book as he dressed the kid down a full minute or so for being reckless. Finally, at the end of his tirade the Captain asked, “Now where the fuck did that round go?!”
Stone had no idea where the round went and was near tears from the harsh words from the CO, especially since he hadn’t touched the trigger of his weapon at all. Everyone was looking around for the impact of the .45 ball round when I noticed a small, half-moon shape on the toe of Stone’s boot.
“Move your foot, Stone”, I said.
Stone shifted his right foot and there, in the floor under his boot was the bullet, fully imbedded into the tile floor. We all realized the round must have passed through Stone’s foot.
The transformation in the captain’s attitude was immediate and remarkable. Suddenly he became the very personification of the father figure, very concerned and compassionate about the young PFC.
“Sit down here son. Are you okay? Don’t worry about a thing..” he said as he took Stone gently by the arm and lead him to a chair. Medics were called and the CO continued to comfort Stone until medics arrived. Stone was transported to William Beaumont Army Medical Center.
So here’s the theory we came up with about how the round was fired and the remarkable path the bullet took:
Stone’s new holster was very stiff. We surmise that when he was shoving the .45 into the new holster the slide caught on the rough leather just enough to chamber a round and jam the hammer partly cocked, but not locked into place. As he was trying to attach the lanyard the hammer was released, causing the discharge. I have no idea if that’s what really happened, but I do know for sure he never touched the trigger and his hand was not on the grip.
The Path of the Bullet:
When the round discharged the bullet first blew out the bottom, including the small wooden plug, of the military holster. It then entered Stone’s right trouser leg about 5 inches above his knee (he was wearing fatigues). Amazingly, the bullet passed between his skin and the cloth, for about 7 inches or more, without contacting any flesh. It exited a few inches below the knee and continued to his right combat boot, entering at the toe. It passed though and entered the floor.
When he arrived at the hospital and his boot was removed, the doctors discovered that the big ‘ol .45 round had passed right through Stone’s right big toe without touching the bone. Now I don’t know how much meat you have on your big toe, but that was astonishing and very lucky for Stone.
Because there was so little damage, Stone recovered in just a few weeks. Had that big round entered his leg and struck his knee joint, I think it’s likely he would never have fully recovered the use of that joint. Thanks for reading!.
Cajun Pepper Steak
2023 11 08 11 31
Ingredients
1 pound beef (round or sirloin) cut into strips
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Tabasco sauce, to taste (that means USE A LOT)
1 1/2 cups water
2 large onions, cut into strips
2 bell peppers, cut into strips
2 tablespoons cornstarch (or all-purpose flour and a little water)
Steamed rice
Instructions
Brown steak in oil for about 5 minutes turning to brown both sides.
Add 1 1/4 cups of the water and Tabasco Sauce. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
Add the onions and and bell pepper and simmer until meat is tender.
If the gravy is too thin, thicken it by mixing 1/4 cup of water with the cornstarch or flour stirring until there are no lumps.
Remove beef mixture from heat and slowly add the thickening mix while you continue stirring.
Return to heat and simmer until gravy thickens.
Serve over rice.
Garnish with chopped shallots and make sure the bottle of Tabasco is on the table.
Not exactly, but I got suspicious of one dealership who serviced my car on a regular basis.
When I left the car, I set up a few things…
When I went to pick up the car, I paid the bill then went out and inspected the car. I then asked the service advisor to review a few things and he came out to the car with me. First thing I noticed was my right rear tire was inflated to only 15 lbs, which is where I’d adjusted it to five minutes before dropping the car off. On the service checklist it showed that all the tires had been checked for proper inflation. Service advisor commented the tech must have missed that one, and apologized. I said let’s look at the spare, it’s noted as being the right pressure too. I popped the trunk, lo and behold there was the gas cap sitting on the floor of the trunk. I pointed to the list and noted that I’d been charged for a fuel additive, so I asked if it was common practice to leave the gas tank cap in the trunk after adding the fuel additive to the tank. At that point the advisor ran out of excuses and started stammering his apology. He refunded my money and offered a free service job in the future. I took the money, declined his “free offer”, and never darkened his doorway again.
I went no further with that, but told several people I knew that used that dealership to beware.
If you are poor in Finland, you live in council housing.
image 14
Since Finland is located between 60° and 70° North, homelessness kills. The Finnish winter will simply kill you if you do not have a roof over your head.
Social housing – council housing – has been the thing since Industrialization. If your income level drops below a certain limit, your hometown or municipality will arrange you a subsidized council flat.
Poverty in Finland is essentially relative. Your basic needs (food, water, warmth, protection from weather, etc.) are covered, but you lack the means to attain the higher levels of the Maslow hierarchy of needs.
Köyhyys ei ole synti, mutta pirunmoinen häpeä. Poverty is no sin, but a god-awful shame, is said in my native Finnish. Yet it can be ameliorated, and for most people, poverty is a temporary state of things.
There are two sure-fire ways to become poor in Finland; one is divorce and the other is developing an addiction. Divorce and single parenthood are things which are to be avoided whenever possible, since they mean costs skyrocketing. Since both parents working (and sharing the costs of living) is the norm in Finland, divorce means there are now two separate households, but single incomes, meaning there will be less spare money to use and to invest. Developing an addiction (alcoholism, drug addiction, etc.) means skidding into antisocial lifestyle and derailment of the labour and workforce, meaning unemployment and unemployability.
Relative poverty usually hits families with young children worst. Since both parents are in the entry stage of their work careers, their incomes tend to be low, but their spendings high due to the children, and many of them actually do qualify for council housing. Things usually tend to get better once the children grow, and the parents advance in their careers.
The good thing with council housing is that, once you qualify for it and do not live in an antisocial, filthy or disturbing manner, you cannot be evicted. Many families with decent incomes, who once have been poor, actually choose to live in council flats, because that will leave them far more disposable money to use than if they lived in “good reputation” suburbs or purchased their own homes.
Yes. And he was very erudite, eloquent, and oratorially intelligent. Probably the best defense speaker at the trial. It didn’t stop the prosecution from convicting him, but most admit that it was an outstanding presentation. Maybe not all that logical, but it symbolized the Nazi mindset.
image 16
Herman Goring, Reich Marshall of the Third Reich, presenting defense argument at Nuremburg before sentencing.
Rather than being hung, he committed suicide by swallowing cyanide pills smuggled in to him.
Indeed, this is a question that many people are asking.
And precisely, because it is on many people’s minds, that I will answer it. Well, without a “crystal ball” perhaps, but in my own way.
So let’s look at the parameters…
[1] No actual leadership
President Biden is a figurehead. There’s no one “upstairs”.
This is not a political assessment. It’s an actual observation by anyone who watches the videos of him. He cycles in and out of clarity, and often appears to be suffering from pretty advanced dementia.
He goes though the motions. Read the teleprompters, and “kisses babies”.
But in the strategy briefing rooms, in high level discussions, and other important roles, he’s present but not proactive.
[2] Careening out of control
Without leadership, the “car careens wildly on the road”.
Financial opportunists place all sorts of bills and initiatives for personal profit “on the table”. These then “grow legs” and take on a life of their own. The Tiktok ban is one such example. Thus the Senate and Congress appears to be simply a forum for grandstanding while the “representatives” try to accept higher and higher piles of cash for their participation.
Congress more aptly resembles a shark feeding frenzy over a cow carcass.
There’s no real statesmanship, leadership, or forward planning. It’s all on “autopilot”, and being run by monied interests.
[3] The road is not empty
It wouldn’t be so bad if the “careening car” is on a wide and open empty highway. But it isn’t. There are many other cars on this road. There are cars with couples. cars with families, and school busses full of children.
It’s only a matter of time before the careening car smashes into someone else.
After smashing into Syria, Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan, the car is now banging into a large clunky tractor-trailer; Russia. And, each time the tractor-trailer tries to get unstuck the car smashes again, and again, and again. It’s almost like the driver for the United States car has no brakes. It’s acceleration only. And Russia while dinged up, is still moving forward.
Now a big yellow bus full of school children looms up ahead. This is China, and it is enormous (being double-Decker), and powerful, and does not want to be hit.
And everyone around is terrified.
And what does the United States car do?
It “floors” the gas petal, and is zooming straight ahead. The driver seemingly wants to broadside the bus at high speed.
Conclusion
Is it no wonder why people are concerned? People are terrified.
At this stage of the game, and I am loathe to say this, there are only five (x5) things that can stop the upcoming disaster…
The car rams the bus full of children. There are deaths in both vehicles, and a chain reaction occurs where other cars start hitting the wreckage on the road.
The car runs out of gas, and stops dead in the middle of the road. It sputters, and dies.
The people inside the careening car take control of the wheel. And then, carefully and slowly, ease it to the side of the road.
The crazy car drives off the highway on it’s own, and destroys itself without hitting anyone else.
The tractor-trailer and the bus full of children coordinate and with their combined mass, push the madman off the road on their own. And other cars, acting in good faith, help in whatever capacity they can provide.
I have (as of late) been drawn to the horrible stories about infidelity between married couples. Just terrible stuff really. And then one of my followers asked for help on this matter and I responded in a post.
When I get these urges, there are always deeper meanings underlying their intrusion into my consciousness. And it just occurred to me what is going on.
The “marriage” is the United States and China.
The United States is “having sex and fooling round”, and China knows all about it, but wants to keep the relationship stable.
So the United States denies, and denies, and then denies…
What are you talking about?
Nothing is going on?
You worry too much?
You are reading too much into the picture of me and a coworker…
…but the texting behind the back keeps on occurring, and the sex orgies still occur in (apparent) secret.
But China has a PI investigating everything and knows everything. China has transcripts of all the text message. China has videos of the sexual events taken from the phones, and the sexy pictures sent back and forth between them. China knows when, where, how and how often these events occurred.
But hasn’t shown its hand yet.
What will China do?
The normal thing (the most common event) is confrontation; a “lot of fireworks” and screaming and yelling, and then a hostile divorce.
But I really don’t think that China wants, or has any plans, to do that.
China does not want a divorce (a war; in any shape or form.)
However, if push comes to shove, China (as a partner) will make life a living Hell for the United States….
…if push comes to shove.
If all these non-stop provocations keep on occurring while the USA puts on the face that “all is just fine, nothing is going on. You are the one with the issue.“
And were a hard and harsh divorce were to manifest, it would be China who would hold all the cards. It won’t go in any way that the USA thinks.
…
All these are ugly thoughts.
The USA and China are (at least on the surface) making amends. Dating again, things are getting back to normal. Plane Flights are opening up. Businessmen are cutting deals and all the rest.
But the USA is still up to it’s old bag of tricks.
A “color revolution” in Burma by the CIA was just squelched. Lots of dead (CIA trained) insurgents.
“President” Biden got up and made a public warning to China to stop provoking The Philippines…
My gut feeling is that the Chinese know everything, and are just “waiting out” the United States. It will run out of money, resources, banking, finance, and cred sooner than later.
Ai! Hopefully the hidden texts, the late-night “meetings”, and all the rest will come to a quick and decisive end.
Hopefully.
One more year of Joe Biden. Sheech!
I don’t know if I can handle that. Oh Lordy!
I swear that he has his foot on the gas petal towards war and is FLOORING IT.
Well China gave the west a 2 century head start and caught it up in less than 50 years! Go figure. The west don’t have civilisation it has a war mongering barbaric mind set that thinks they are ordained by god to loot and plunder. Colonialism U.S. not civilised it is a cruel, despicable act of stealing land and carrying out genocides to slaughter most of the natives.
Civilisation is like the Chinese and Confucianism edicts on discipline, respect, compassion, hard work, eagerness to learn, winning without fighting. Murder, slaughter, genocide done by the west to steal land and resources is barbaric not civilised.
Star Trek: The Silent Skies | 1920 Universe
This is AMAZING!
Zero-sum mentality in US won’t halt China’s tech rise — Global Times
American automaker Ford said on Monday it’s pausing construction of a $3.5 billion electric vehicle (EV) battery plant in the US state of Michigan until it is confident it can run the factory competitively, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Although the US government is flexing all of its policy muscles available to suppress China’s high-tech industry, US competitiveness in cutting-edge technologies has continued to decline as a result of multiple factors.
Ford’s decision comes as the company is in the midst of national contract talks with the United Auto Workers union, which wants to represent workers at battery factories and win them top wages, according to the AP report. Intense competition among global EV manufacturers has unsettled the US automotive industry, which had been a pillar of the US economy, as US automakers are under pressure both at home and abroad.
On the one hand, competition from international competitors, including Chinese EV makers, poses a challenge to American firms, especially as Chinese companies have accumulated technological and price advantages against the backdrop of fierce competition in the Chinese domestic market.
On the other hand, deep-seated problems in the US economy, including insufficient labor protection and the widening wealth gap, have erupted in a concentrated manner. The car industry, like other manufacturing industries in the US, is facing increased pressure due to rising production costs.
As reported by the AP in March, Ford’s EV business has lost $3 billion before taxes during the past two years. If the US automaker wants to catch up with rivals amid intense international competition, one option for Ford is to collaborate with top Chinese companies.
Ford in February announced plans to build the plant in Michigan, betting that making the batteries in the US would help it and Chinese partner CATL attract US customers to embrace a lower-cost technology pioneered in China, according to Reuters. Honestly speaking, Ford’s cooperation with CATL benefits the development of the US EV industry. However, the sector’s survival opportunities are being stifled by politicians in Washington. Republicans in Congress have been probing Ford’s battery plant plan over concerns it could leave Ford dependent on Chinese technology.
As reported by Reuters, Rep. Mike Gallagher said lawmakers were “encouraged to see Ford take a crucial first step to reevaluate its deal” with CATL. “Now, Ford needs to call off this deal for good,” he added.
Not only in the EV industry, but also in most high-tech and cutting-edge industries, some people in the US possess an extremely unhealthy and unfair zero-sum competition mentality toward China. However, it is evident that this thinking is counterproductive in promoting the development of domestic US industries.
Apart from Tesla, other American vehicle companies still have a relatively low share in the domestic and international EV markets. Although the US government has devised protectionist measures such as the Inflation Reduction Act, it is still moving slowly in terms of addressing domestic supply chain issues, particularly in the production of batteries.
Washington is working toward a zero-sum competition with China, with American firms serving as victims. What Chinese enterprises need to do is to confront external challenges, continuously enhance their competitiveness, strengthen technological innovation, seize the opportunities created by Washington’s zero-sum competition mentality – which has caused difficulties for American enterprises – and continuously strengthen themselves.
China is becoming increasingly competitive in EV manufacturing capacity and technology innovation. Chinese EV brands, such as BYD and NIO, have made significant strides in developing advanced EV technologies, including battery technology and autonomous driving features.
China holds a superior position in the EV supply chain, with about three-quarters of the world’s battery production capacity. Moreover, China houses more than half of the world’s processing and refining capacity for lithium, cobalt and graphite, which are essential materials for making EV batteries.
The West’s narrow-minded, zero-sum game mentality has indeed put some pressure on China in the short term, but it cannot fundamentally hinder technological progress. If the US always opts for dirty tricks against China instead of learning how to conduct healthy competition with Chinese enterprises and develop its own economic competitiveness, this will just lead to a larger gap between China and the US.
If you don’t understand why I use the word “monster” to describe Huawei, please look at this picture. Here is a summary of the business Huawei is doing.
It is different from traditional foreign technology companies, such as Samsung, SONY, Nokia, and Alibaba, which only challenge advanced American companies in a certain field.
It has launched a comprehensive challenge to its American counterparts in almost the entire information technology industry.
It not only challenges, but has already achieved success in many areas, and this trend is getting faster and faster.
If the US doesn’t stop it, it will slap American companies on the butt in global markets. Just like Toyota and Honda slapped Ford’s ass back in the day.
Currently, high-tech companies are a key means for the United States to gain wealth from around the world. Once these high-tech companies are stepped on by Huawei, how can the United States maintain its status as a developed country and maintain Americans’ living standards?
Therefore, when American companies have no choice but to rely on the U.S. government to take action. Kill the monster before it grows up. As for the reason: threatening national security
Senior shelter cat desperately hugs woman for adoption
“I adopted the oldest cat my shelter had. She was owner surrendered at the age 15 which I just thought was wrong. I named her Hope and she gave me 4 of the best years of my life. Thank you so much for adopting a senior cat. I wish you many years of happiness and love with her.”
REPORTS: Thousands of Ukraine Soldiers SURRENDERING To Russian Army
A special radio frequency being used so that Ukrainian soldiers can safely surrender to Russian forces is now chattering like never before. Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers are opting to surrender to the Russian Army.
These surrenders were seen even by Clayton Morris, an American journalist, who expressed his astonishment and said, “this is a story the western media does not want you to see.”
Ukrainian forces are laying down their Western-supplied arms and surrendering en masse! Using emergency radio frequencies, they’re receiving food & medical care and even sharing critical intel with Russian forces.
Is this the final chapter?
As Zelensky hears of mass surrendering of Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines he will likely be very concerned. Not about the soldiers; about what happens to him
The question now is who gets to him first. The Russians will want him but the west may want him too. Dead.
They will not wish to have him expose the money laundering, child sex slavery and child organ harvesting that has been going on in Ukraine; the Globalist Parasites cant allow that.
Either way its not looking good for the man in Green.
By most credible accounts, the recent Ukronazi+NATO attack in the Kharkov area was even more costly in KIA/MIA, wounded and lost hardware than the attack towards Kherson. The combined losses from these attacks are staggering.
Yet there are all the signs that the Ukronazi+NATO forces are preparing for even more such attacks.
The Ukronazi+NATO seem happy to trade human lives for territorial gains, no matter how small or how irrelevant that territory is.
The Russians seem happy to trade space and time to protect the lives of their soldiers and equipment.
We could say that the Ukronazi+NATO are trading bodies for shells.
Let’s remember the two goals set by Putin for the SMO: denazify and demilitarize. Both of these goals are human-focused, not terrain-focused. In other words, if a tactical-level withdrawal allows the Russian to kill scores of Ukronazi+NATO personnel and destroy their equipment, they will gladly accept the trade.
The other goal was to protect the LDNR. Kherson is not part of the LDNR.
Territory can be reconquered, equipment is hard to replace, especially complex weapon-systems.
Soldiers cannot be resurrected.
It is absolutely clear that Ukronazi+NATO are “betting the farm” into these offensives. Not only is the coming winter a major threat for them, but the political chaos in the EU and the US this fall and winter means that now is the time to try has hard as possible to conceal the magnitude of the disaster for the Ukronazi+NATO.
So, most of what is taking place now can be summed up in this simple question: who will run out of resources first: the Ukronazi+NATO in terms of manpower and equipment or the Russians in terms of firepower (mostly artillery, missiles and airpower)?
I think that the answer is obvious: Russia wins.
U.S. Plans To Ethnically Cleanse Gaza
This is, presumably, the U.S.-Israeli plan for the Palestinian people in Gaza:
Amazing: President Biden is working on a plan with other countries that would allow civilians to safely leave Gaza and cross the border into Egypt. This is great news. President Biden is making sure that innocent people don’t die due to the actions of Hamas. That’s leadership.
No, it is not leadership. It is ethnic cleansing, a war crime disguised as humanitarian gesture. It is ethnic cleansing of people who’s land has been stolen by Zionist settlers. These people would have no right of return to the homes and land they once owned. People who have been put into an open air prison, who have no access to electricity, water and food and are currently under intense attacks.
Egypt, the only country where they potentially could be moved to, is already bankrupt. It can not even provide for its own people. Two million new people from Gaza, all poor and some of them radicalized, would undoubtedly unbalance the Egyptian state.
Should such a plan be put into action it would guarantee that the resistance axis, Hizbullah and various other Sunni and Shia groups in the Middle East, would step in. The would attack Israel to prevent such a move.
The U.S. thinks it can deter resistance action by threatening to move in with its own forces. That’s why the USS Herald Ford, its newest carrier, was moved into the Eastern Mediterranean. Rumors have it that a second carrier will come in too.
But the resistance can not be deterred by that. The last time the U.S. tried to intervene in Lebanon it ended up with 241 dead Marines and had to retreat in shame. Hizbullah at that time was only a handful of men. Today Hizbullah has tens of thousands of very well trained men. Then there are also Iran and Russia:
As I said in my analysis today of the NATO intervention in the Israeli northern front, it’s inconceivable that Russia should stay silent in the face of such brazen NATO overreach. This seat-of-the-pants, unmandated NATO panic move will speed up Russia’s pivot from pro-Israel to pro-Arab that started with the deaths of Russian airmen caused by an IAF aggression against Syria and was locked in with Netanyahu’s support for the nazi regime in Kiev.
The Russian military has long identified Israel as an enemy state and Putin is now conceding to them, acknowledging the failure of yet another one of his strategies, namely the political use of the Russian Jewish community in Israel via his “friend” Avigdor Lieberman. Russian Jews in Israel are virulently anti-Arab, so Putin tried not to upset them.
Today, however, with Bibi bringing in the full might of NATO to the Eastern Mediterranean to threaten not only Lebanon but Russian bases in Syria, it’s no more Mr. Nice Guy. With Patrushin and Shoygu holding the reins of state and a clear and present NATO threat on Syria’s doorstep, expect a strong and unexpected Russian intervention in the multifront Israel-Hamas-Hezbollah war.
The U.S. Embassy in Beirut has not evacuated and is open and operating normally. Reports saying otherwise are false. For more information and travel advisories, visit our embassy website: lb.usembassy.gov
Posted by b on October 11, 2023 at 15:43 UTC | Permalink
When I was young I was pretty much left to my own devices as far as personal hygiene and was always had dirty clothes. My parents were drunks and as the youngest of 7 it was total chaos for me. For some reason though this girl in my class who was smart, funny and popular became my friend. She was just the best friend a girl could ask for. Her father was a prominent doctor and she came from a big loving family. Whenever she could she would include me in whatever she was doing.
We were freshman in high-school and were sitting having lunch and a girl who was just as popular invited my BFF to a party but told her not to bring me because her mother wouldn’t appreciate it if I brought vermin or disease into her house. My friend just stood up and told me that we had to get to our next class and didnt engage with her. The next Saturday was the party and I was home sitting in my room and my BFF showed up at the door and said she thought the party was boring and we ended up going to the movies and then to her house for a sleepover.
Fast forward about a week and the girl who had the party was talking about how her mother was upset because their house apparently smelled like something died in it. They couldnt figure out what the smell was. It was awful. My friend said to the girl that “maybe you have some type of vermin in your house.” She then said she didnt think she could hang with someone like her because there could be vermin in her house. This immediately caught my attention. I asked her about it later. She came clean and told me that when she went to the party – she brought with her some canned shrimp and discreetly placed the raw shrimp in places throughout the house. Under area rugs, on top of a grandfather clock even in the hem of the drapes in various rooms. She said that nobody fucks with me – and she would always have my back.
THAT IS A FRIEND
The Average Age Of Ukraine’s Army
Ben Wallace, the former Secretary of State for Defence of the UK, writes in the Telegraph:
Putin is desperately grasping at the final two things that can save him – time and the splitting of the international community. Britain can do something about both. We must help Ukraine maintain its momentum – and that will require more munitions, ATACMSs and Storm Shadows. And the best way to keep the international community together is the demonstration of success.
Ukraine can also play its part. The average age of the soldiers at the front is over 40. I understand President Zelensky’s desire to preserve the young for the future, but the fact is that Russia is mobilising the whole country by stealth. Putin knows a pause will hand him time to build a new army. So just as Britain did in 1939 and 1941, perhaps it is time to reassess the scale of Ukraine’s mobilisation.
Let us not pause for one day. Let us see this through. The world is watching to see if the West has the resolve to stand up for our values and the rules-based system. What we do now for Ukraine will set the direction for all of our security for years to come.
Think for a moment what the aside insert “The average age of the soldiers at the front is over 40” really means. Can Storm Shadows change that fact?
Sollte stimmen, was Wallace da über das Durchschnittsalter an der ukrainischen Front sagt, 40 Jahre, dann sind die schlimmsten Mutmaßungen über Verluste weit übertroffen worden. Paraguay 1870.
Translated from German by Google If what Wallace says about the average age on the Ukrainian front is true, 40 years, then the worst assumptions about losses have been far exceeded. Paraguay 1870.
Paraguay suffered massive casualties, and the war’s disruption and disease also cost civilian lives. Some historians estimate that the nation lost the majority of its population.
Ukraine ain’t there yet. But looking at pictures of Ukrainian soldiers at the front Wallace seems to be right. If you are forty or above are you really still able to run, react and fight like when you were twenty? I am not.
The young Ukrainians are gone. They either have fled from Ukraine or are wounded, disabled or died. You can not mobilize what is no longer there.
Have your chili 3, 4 or 5 ways, Cincinnati style. This is also great on hot dogs, smothered with shredded cheese.
cincinnati chili
Yield: 5 to 6 servings
Ingredients
Chili
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
2 medium onions, chopped
1/2 cup chopped celery
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons mild chili powder
1 tablespoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 (14 1/2 ounce) cans diced tomatoes
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
Have It 5 Ways
1 pound spaghetti, cooked
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 cup finely grated Cheddar cheese
1 (15 1/2 ounce) can kidney beans, rinsed, drained and heated
Hot sauce (your favorite)
Instructions
Brown ground beef, onions and celery in a large skillet, drain off all fat.
Place slow cooker ingredients into a slow cooker and stir well. Cover slow cooker and cook for 7 to 9 hours on LOW, or for 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours on HIGH, stirring during last part of cooking if using HIGH setting.
Cook spaghetti 1/2 hour before chili is done.
To have chili 3-ways, serve it with spaghetti, chili and cheese.
To have chili 4-ways, serve it with spaghetti, chili, onion and cheese.
To have spaghetti 5-ways, serve it with spaghetti, chili, beans, onion and cheese.
Douse chili liberally with hot sauce, if desired.
US Shutdown CANCELLED, No Money For Ukraine, Economy In Ruins
At the last minute, the US Congress passed a Stopgap Bill to keep money flowing for government spending. However, funding was cut to Ukraine in a shocking move. This is most likely political theatre as American support will likely continue. Here’s why the US government is trapped and borrowing money will never end!
I was a store manager at family dollar and I inherited the store and like 6 employees. I was a new manager and didn’t have much experience in such a leadership role. Fast forward I am learning as the days go by. One of my employees come to me and ask me for a ride from work. I typically don’t mingle with coworkers or employees just to keep the possibility of drama down. Well long story short I ended up befriending this middle aged lady I worked with. She frequently got rides from everyone because she didn’t have a car. I ended up hiring another middle aged lady because she had to get a job to get her kids back from the state(I know I know not a good reason to hire someone but I was young soft hearted and above all a mother) so I gave her a chance. I worked around her visitation and allowed her to work a sporadic schedule. This went on for about two years. Well one day I came in on my day off which I frequently did just to make sure everything was up and running and things didn’t feel right. Everyday at a certain time the cameras cut off and reset to save memory or storage(one do them) well I see those two employees pushing carts full of merchandise to their cars along with other people. So I stop them and the people who were with them and ask them for receipts. They produced receipts for like 5 items but the amount of items In their carts greatly exceeded the receipt description. I fired them on the spot and they took two of four carts back into the store. Their family refused and I called loss prevention and police at this time. I was stressed out because she lost her job which means she was going to lose her children and I know it wasn’t my concern I just didn’t understand why she put her children in that position. They both had been stealing expired and new merchandise for the last 6–9 months. I was shocked at how they behaved so normally around me. I learned a lesson here though, I am more strict and don’t allow my heart to lead my professional decisions! I am an exceptional leader today because of my family dollar experiences!!
Not fight but they were hard to get back. As the younger brother, two years younger, of two older sisters, twins Lori and Tracy, I often had to go into their bedrooms and retrieve my stuff.
Yes it’s odd girls would be taking their brother’s clothes but mine did. Tracy would take my ball cap. She had a lot of blonde hair but that didn’t stop her from wearing my cap. She wore ball caps before girls wore ball caps and she got a lot of looks. She would also borrow a military style belt I had.
Tracy wore jeans ripped on the knees, purposely, to school one day before that came into fashion. The teacher sent her home. He told her that her knees were showing. She went home and changed into a short skirt and came back to school. The teacher stared at her shaking his head.
“Oh my God. My knees are showing. Should I go back home and change?” she said coyly. That was my sister. She was ahead of her time.
Lori would often take my school football jacket and wear it going to games with her friends. She often came to my games wearing it and cheered me on.
It was hard getting these things back sometimes and I’d have to sneak into their rooms that looked like cyclones hit them. Mom called them ‘Cyclonic Rest Areas.’ Fashion models since age 15, the girls had a lot of clothes and they were all over the rooms. You wouldn’t think they’d borrow their brother’s clothes having all those clothes in their rooms. Of course as soon as I got them back Lori would ask, “RJ, can I borrow your school jacket?”
I remember once I had to run out into the backyard to get the dogs out of the rain. Mom’s orders. The dogs never wanted to come in, even out of the rain. I had no shoes but there was a shiny pair of white boots by the back door. I was thirteen then. I put on the boots. I then ran outside and herded in the three dogs. Tracy, 15, was at the door with her friends. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING WEARING MY BOOTS? THEY ARE ALL MUDDY NOW!” She scolded. “Do you have any idea how much they cost?”
“Oh, but it’s fine for you and Lori to wear my ball cap, belt and jacket having them smell like perfume later!” I said to her as I took off her boots. She looked at her friends and laughed. She sighed. “Touché!” she said smiling at me.
I remember the girls were at a school football game I was playing in. One of the guys asked, “Is that Tracy wearing your cap RJ?” In those days, girls were not often seen wearing ball caps.
“Yep, that’s her,” I said.
“Wow! She sure looks a hell of a lot better wearing that cap than you do,” he said..
As Apple found out, limited amount of skilled labor and poor quality output. Apple tried to assemble in India and found they had a 50% yield rate and about a fifth of its required manpower needs. Further, as word got around, Europeans are not buying ‘made in India Apple iPhones. Almost all developing countries are similar in condition and experience. Simple things like garments work fairly well, but assembly of high end mobile phones are a bit harder.
While India offered what appeared to be the greatest possibility, Vietnam is always cited. Vietnam has limited skilled labor, lack of electricity, and lack of infrastructure. Again, garments, toys, and simple assembly are possible, but complex items get poor results.
Further, the supply chain is non-existent, so parts have to come from the supply chain developed in China. For Apple, lesson learned. It has lost $70 billion in this exercise to move to India, only to return to China and expand its operation there. The labor costs may be higher, but still cheaper than the US and the skilled labor is in quantity that Apple needs plus the yield rate is almost 100% and the supply chain is well developed.
I would also mention TSMC’s attempt to build a 4nm fab in Arizona, only to find lack of skilled labor, and work culture below that of Taiwan. It appears TSMC has closed the fab, laid off the workforce, and for all intents and purpose, shut down its US operations.
This break-up is epic. And classic. It was the ultimate f*ck you and the horse you rode in on.
A former co-worker had this “boyfriend” for four years. Didn’t want to marry her. “Marriage is just a piece of paper” and all that guff. So this woman was diagnosed at a fairly young age with cancer. Boyfriend still didn’t want to marry her; really, he didn’t want to have to deal with making her medical decisions, caring for her, etc. It became obvious during chemotherapy when she needed tending to.
Luckily, she had adult children and friends who stepped in and did all of the heavy lifting he was unwilling to do—and unable, by law, to do.
The cancer turns terminal. So, of course there’s the issue of inheritance to sort out and other financial and legal matters. This woman wasn’t rich by any stretch of the imagination, but she did okay. She had a house that was paid for, and some investments. A nice pension and Social Security benefits, and of course, health insurance.
The ne’er-do-well boyfriend has a lightbulb moment: he could get the house, basically double his monthly living income, and get really good health coverage, if he just married her. So he proposed when she was at her very weakest.
Not being a foolish woman, she told him to take a long walk off a short pier. He scuttled away in disgrace and let her spend her final days in the company of those who loved her.
When she did die, it was very sad. She was too young and still had a lot of living to do. But at least Mr. “marriage is just a piece of paper” didn’t profit out of the deal. Her adult kids got everything instead. To this day, I hold her in very high regard for not letting him bamboozle her.
He got nothing, nada, niente, as it should always be for people like that.
Oliver Anthony Rich Men North of Richmond”REACTION” It Just Got Real
China’s 18 main trunk lines of high-speed railways, only 6 lines are profitable, and the remaining 13 are loss-making.
In 2022, China’s high-speed rail suffered a total loss of US$15 billion.
Therefore, if all high-speed rail in China is regarded as a company, it is a company with huge losses.
image 82
But in the eyes of the Chinese, high-speed rail is not a business. They believe that high-speed railway is a kind of social infrastructure. The purpose of its existence is to provide basic services for the entire social and economic development without maintaining profitability itself.
Therefore, as a state-owned enterprise, China Railway Corporation must bear losses. The funds lost are subsidized by the government every year.
The question is, how can the Chinese government have so much money to subsidize high-speed rail?
The reason is simple. After the Chinese built the first key high-speed railway, the Beijing-Shanghai High-speed Railway, they were surprised to find that for every US$1 they lost on the high-speed railway, the economic growth generated along the high-speed railway would increase by US$1.8. Three years after the high-speed rail was completed, tax revenue from governments along the line increased by 68%. The economic growth is 1.5 times faster than that of other regions. This increased wealth is enough to build ten more high-speed railways of the same type.
At the same time, there are 140 core enterprises and 500 general enterprises producing high-speed rail parts in China, distributed in more than 20 provinces. A 200 billion yuan industrial chain has been formed, providing a large number of jobs. Just look at the construction process of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, which involved more than 700 construction companies and provided jobs for 110,000 people.
Ultimately, high-speed rail became an engine of economic development in the eyes of the Chinese.
Wherever high-speed rail is built, wealth will be greatly increased. As for the funds invested in high-speed rail construction and operating expenses at a loss, they seem insignificant in the face of these increased wealth.
I worked in a small rural hospital in the central part of Texas. This hospital happened to be in between two high-security prisons. It was not a rare occurrence that while being transferred, they would stop at our hospital for blood work, x-rays, cat scans, etc. One time they brought two prisoners to the lab for blood work. (they remained chained and the officers kept weapons at ready.) I drew blood from the first guy. He was charistically covered with prison tattoos; tears, a clock with no hands, and several gang tattoos. He had one I never saw before. On his cheek were the numbers 5150.
I asked the other guy what 5150 meant. He said that guy is completely nuts! Nobody messes with that guy! What does 5150 mean? He said it is Part of the California penal code. It means criminally insane. I don’t who he is or what he did but he sure was creepy.
P.S. I got to know the transfer crews pretty well. we developed a practical joke with the prisoners. For all of their toughness, many of them were afraid of blood draw needles. When I was done with the blood draw I put a pink Barbie band-aid on the site. Then I told them they had to keep it on until they were admitted to their new home. The guards would back me up and say that they had to have proof that the blood was drawn. So the possibly badest, craziest, most evil, person I will ever meet wore a pink Barbie band-aid in prison because of me.
After a countless string of falsehood dangled by American leaders, government agencies, the mainstream media, thinktanks and intellectuals, why are we still debating if a particular American interpretation of China is credible?
Odds are it is false or embellished/exaggerated.
Remember this guy?
image 173
He made history becoming the first Cabinet-level official to be sanctioned by China, after passing a genocide determination on China’s treatment of the Uighurs in Xinjiang during his final weeks in office.
Surprisingly, few have spoken up for him, neither blue, nor red.
The State Department has quietly shelved his statement, with its lawyers concluding there was insufficient evidence to make the genocide designation. Antony certainly hasn’t acted on his predecessor’s words, even though the designation remains.
There was also balloon-gate, which was recently absolved by the Joint Chiefs.
“It was a weather balloon we shot down.”
It doesn’t matter how many warheads China has, because Zhou Enlai’s words remain relevant today.
“China has enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world once over”.
Stopped a motorcyclist who blew through a 4-way stop intersection. The guy pulled over and after I got out of my car, took off.
I chased him down and again, he stopped. He continued to straddle his bike while I approached him. I asked him to shut down his ride and swing off of it. No compliance. I reached down and turned the ignition off and removed the key. He went ballistic and decided to fight. Guy was huge and clearly under some form of influence. Inhumanly strong.
Tried to mace him, only to have the wind push it back at me. I had left my baton in the car and all he wanted to do was grab my holstered service weapon. We had no portable radios. Frankly, he was besting me and all I could do was keep him from ripping my revolver away from me.
Very, very fortunately, a county traffic officer approached from the other direction and he called it in before diving into the wrestling match. A few minutes later, LOTS of needed manpower arrived and we got the guy down and cuffed. We got him to his feet and watched while he “stiff-legged” it back to my car. Went to put him in the back seat and he wouldn’t fold. Tucked his knees with my stick; nothing. We knocked him back down and shoveled him into the car for the trip to the jail.
Upon booking, he ripped his (artificial) leg off, hopping around and swinging it at the jailers and everyone else……again, subdued and hauled off…aggressive, foul-mouthed, non-cooperative. Next day at his arraignment, a totally different guy! Disabled Vietnam vet…..double amputee….off of his meds. Contrite and apologetic.
Even as the arresting officer, the magistrate gave me no opportunity to comment or o’wise condition the arrest. The vet pleaded guilty and drew a 60-day sentence for battery to police officer(s). To this day, not certain that justice was served, but rolling around in the street fearing for my life was an eye-opener!
Many years ago, I was walking down a road in Bristol (England) and suddenly, a figure burst out of a door knocking me over, He stopped dead, and apologised profusely, helped me to my feet and noting my accent said ’You’re Welsh,- me too.’
He took me inside and got me a coffee, and we chatted awhile, and he said, ‘You don’t know who I am, do you? I had to admit I didn’t, So He said ‘I’m Tom Jones’ You know, the singer?
‘Bloody hell, I thought you were in America’, I said He replied ‘I had a date to appear in the Colston Hall and didn’t want to let them down’, ‘What can I do to be sorry?’ he said. ‘You said you were looking for a short-term job, weren’t you?’ ‘Yes’, I replied, ‘Let me help’, said he, and got on the phone and arranged a job for me there and them with a famous wine importer, saying he’d vouch for me ‘cos I’m Welsh.
I was well received and took up the job for the remainder of the time I spent in Bristol, and it opened a new horizon for me to explore in work which changed my life. So, I’ve often looked back to that chance encounter with a bloke renowned for being brutal – but who changed my life.
China is more ADVANCED than we realised!
Since returning to China, our minds have been blown by the rapid technological progress we’ve witnessed! In this video, @Huawei invited us to explore some of China’s most cutting-edge technologies, including robotic arms, futuristic robots, 5G factories, and mind-blowing augmented reality experiences.
LOL. The rest of youse guys are just NOW figuring all this out?
If the PLA liberates Taiwan by force, 99% of Chinese want Japan to send troops to intervene in the China’s internal affairs or China’s civil war.
As for why the Chinese think differently than you think, I think Asians understand.
Even the dispatch of 1 soldier from Japan is something the Chinese would be happy to see.
In 1937, the Japanese launched the Marco Polo Bridge Incident under the pretext of the disappearance of 1 soldier, and began a full-scale invasion of China.
So, 1 soldier is enough excuse. New grudges and old grudges can be returned together.
One evening in the London casino I worked at, I was having dinner in the restaurant with another client.
Then at a nearby table very old Greek man had a catastrophic failure of his bowels. This is a very exclusive Michelin equivalent restaurant. The restaurant unsurprisingly cleared, leaving me alone with the incontinent gentleman and his wife. I shamelessly pulled rank and had one of the wait staff wrap a table cloth around the unfortunate soul and then informed our reception that we would take the member home in one of our cars.
The car took the old couple home. The restaurant cleaned up the mess. And we were down one Bruges lace tablecloth. I thought the matter dealt with.
I received a phone call the next afternoon from the irate wife of the unfortunate guest. She took great pains to inform me that the quick thinking car jockey had covered the £100,000 Bentley’s back seat with something like clear plastic wrap. Obviously this was deeply humiliating to the couple. Especially to her faeces covered husband. The fact that he was wrapped in tablecloth after soiling himself in a packed restaurant was apparently not even comparatively humiliating.
The wife demanded I discipline the very rude driver. I agreed* and promised I would, and that the next time anyone fouled themselves in my presence at work I would not try to protect the interior of a hugely expensive car.
*Obviously I did not discipline the driver. He saved us an obscenely large valeting bill!
America is one of the biggest criminals in this modern world. They fights for their economic interest. Media defames nations and leaders from the intelligentsia.
Today there will be talk of a leader whom most of the world considers as a dictator.
Who should have got the Nobel Prize. But got death. Unfortunately, people think them as a criminal.
Libya is an African country bordering the Sahara Desert. There 80% of the land is desert. Only 10% of the land is such that people can live. Most of the parts of the country are such where not a drop of water has fallen for 20 years.
When oil was discovered in the world, oil was discovered in every country. What was found instead of oil in Libya was astonishing.
500 meters down in the desert, a thick layer of water was found, its thickness was somewhere around 700 meters thick.
According to experts, this is so much water that it can give water to Libya for 2-3 thousand years.
Its importance can be understood for a country where 90% of the land is desert.
But extracting this water, sending it to other parts was nothing less than Bhagirath’s penance. The money needed for this work in 1960 was $25 billion. From today’s point of view, it will be above 100 billion dollars.
Consideration on this project was abandoned. But when Colonel Gaddafi became president, they started this work.
The West was opposed to Gaddafi. IMF, World Bank no one gave loan to Libya for this work.
Gaddafi took this impossible project forward by making arrangements with their own nation.
Engineers from South Korea helped in this. Later, UNESCO also trained engineers.
Large pipes were built. So wide that the metro train passes.
The project was inaugurated by Colonel Gaddafi on 28 August 1984.
500 meters deep, 1300 wells were constructed. Which used to carry water through a 4000 km long pipeline. So many dams were built that 12 Egyptian pyramids could be built. Astronauts can also see the well built in it.
$33 billion was spent by Gaddafi. The whole of Africa was expected to be green.
In 2008, the Guinness Book of Books included the project as the largest project ever.
People went crazy with joy when water reached the major Libyan cities of Tripoli, Bayanji. Irrigation started in 13 thousand hectares of land.
But in 2011, America attacked NATO by spreading propaganda against Gaddafi.
The surprising thing is that he dropped the maximum number of bombs on this project. Due to which more than 25% collapsed.
How Western countries have turned the boon to Africa can be seen in ruins.
Now urgently we will sell bottled water to Africa, some Mother Teresa will come and get her converted. The Nobel Prize will take the title of a saint.
Gaddafi was bad, so the people of his country would have understood, who are you people who dropped bombs and missiles.
Indian External Affairs Minister Jaishankar, this is all he is saying. Your intention is not right. He says Britain robbed India 45 trillion dollars in 100 years. This is the research of UK universities only. India could not become a 5 trillion dollar economy in 75 years. So how much it will be looted can be estimated.
This project was made in collaboration with engineers from all over the world! What makes Gaddafi a great leader.
Burden X Steven James – Rich Men North Of Richmond Remix
My parents needed a new housekeeper because our old housekeeper was retiring, so with a very heavy heart — Hermione had become part of the family after all these years — they hired a new one.
And what a different person she was.
Vera was in her late twenties, good-looking, was energetic and quick, and had a smart mouth. We needed some time to adjust, but we immediately liked her.
Still, some things were really different. Sometimes she was caught red-handed leaving early, but she aways had some original excuse —
“My mom’s really sick. My husband needed urgent help. My boy needed an unforeseen ride. I started earlier than planned.”
It also happened a couple of times when my mom came home earlier than expected, that Vera was on the phone. (A classical rotary phone in the conversation pit in my parents’ living room.)
(Yes, dear reader. A rotary phone. With a cable.)
The excuse was always the same — urgent matters for sick people and needy children.
Till the day when my parents got the phone bill.
It was humongous, and an absurd number of very long calls had been made to an unknown number, each and every time during Vera’s working hours. When she alone was home.
It turned out that Very had a lover, and had used my parent’s house as a call center all along, so that her husband wouldn’t find out.
She was fired on the spot.
Not much later she left her husband for the lover, and that’s the last thing we ever heard of Vera. When Hermione heard the news some time later, she proposed to come back and spend one or two extra years in our family.
Purchase a marine air horn that works with a canister of aerosol gas. I keep two in my truck, one in each door panel. You may know them from hearing them at soccer matches in big stadiums. They are extremely loud and piercing. If you point one in a person’s face and discharge it with a long blast, the person would become discombobulated instantly. It is actually painful and can hurt eardrums. It would render them unable to hear for a minute or more and affect their equilibrium, causing trouble moving, walking, running, or aiming. The surprise effect is stunning; they do not expect anything like that. You then have the option of running and getting the hell away or physically counter-attacking. It is hard to defend yourself when your faculties are compromised. It is also hard to chase someone. Keep the horn in your hand and be ready to give them a second dose if needed. If you do the wise thing and run, you can keep doing short blasts as you are leaving. The beauty of this is that anyone who is within 100 yards of you will be alerted to that sound and will turn to look and see what is happening. The perp is put on full display and probably will abandon his assault attempt. This can be a lifesaver in a gas station scenario where you are pumping gas and getting approached by someone walking up to your car. I tried a test on a friend who was 3 feet away and his back was turned. A one-second blast, aimed at the ground, made him jump three feet and run about twenty feet away. He didn’t know what happened, he just wanted out of there. Think what a 10-second blast directly in the face would do!
Twenty years ago my wife and I saw an ad in the New York Times travel section. Round trip from JFK to Barbados on the Concorde, plus a week at the hotel of your choice (there were 5 hotels to choose from).
The Concorde? Let’s do it.
We called British Airways Holidays. (It was still the early day of Internet commerce. Back in 2000 you picked up the landline.)
“We’re flexible on dates,” I told the agent. “But the hotel has to be the Fairmont Royal Pavilion.”
No problem. The agent found a date that worked and took our money (about $13,000 all in). Pricey, but hey — the Concorde.
Two nights before our departure date there was a message on our home answering machine. “This is British Airways Holidays. We’ve had to make some adjustments to your itinerary. You will now be staying at the Royal Pavilion’s sister property, Glitter Bay.”
Sister property. It sounds like kind of the same thing. Except it’s not. Royal Pavilion is for adults only. Glitter Bay is for families with kids. Lots and lots of kids. We love kids. We raised two. But the reason we picked the Royal Pavilion was because we wanted to spend a week without kids.
I called British Airways Holidays. No answer. They’re not an airline. They’re just the travel planners for the airline and work from 9 to 5. We left a voicemail.
The next morning we called the Royal Pavilion and spoke to the General Manager of both properties. He said, “British Airways does this all the time. They take your money, and then they switch your hotel. Here’s what I can do. For the same price I can put you up in a large one-bedroom private villa at Glitter Bay. It’s off the beaten path, far from the kids, an easy walk to the Royal Pavilion, and you’ll have complete access to all our facilities and amenities. I’ll send my wife over to take photos of the villa.”
An hour later I got the pictures. It was incredible. We decided to take it.
British Airways never called back. The guest relations guy who met us at the airport in Barbados never told us we’d been switched to another hotel. He drove us to Glitter Bay. Or as we called it all week, Glitter Bait and Switch.
Let me sum up that week-long vacation: The Concorde was a once in a lifetime experience. Our villa was spectacular. But still, it wasn’t what we’d signed on for.
The General Manager was a total sweetheart. He suggested that I write to British Airways, but warned me not to get my hopes up for a refund.
We’ll just see about that decided the man who writes for a living. I spent days crafting the letter. A week after I sent it I got a call from a British Airways rep in London. She apologized for the “misunderstanding,” and asked how she could make it right.
I told her I wanted a public apology. An ad in the New York Times travel section telling the world what they had done and promising not to sucker in any more people. She said, “Sir, we can’t do that.”
I told her if she didn’t I would go public on this Internet thing that was still just taking hold and tell the whole world wide web what a bunch of crooks they were.
She said, “I’ll get back to you.”
A week later she called back. “We’d like to offer you and your wife an all-expense paid trip from New York to London,” she said. “We’ll fly you there on the Concorde, put you up in a five-star hotel, and fly you back first class on a 747.”
If she had seen the look on my face, she’d have known she had me. But she couldn’t see me. So I doubled down.
“Absolutely not,” I said. “You already flew me to a hotel I didn’t want to go to. Why would I want you to fly me to another place I don’t want to go to? I want a public apology. An ad in the New York Times.”
“Let me talk to my management,” she said.
Another week passed. She called back. “Sir, we absolutely can’t print a public apology. The best we can offer you is a full refund. Airfare and your entire hotel bill including meals and other amenities and services you may have charged. If you say yes, we will credit your American Express card with the entire amount.”
I grumbled, and told her that it wasn’t what I wanted, but she’d won. I begrudgingly accepted the more than $13,000 refund.
Then I hung up, did a happy dance, and told my wife the news.
The next day I called the General Manager of the Royal Pavilion and booked their best villa for a week the following spring. Three bedrooms. Perfect for me, my wife, my son, my daughter and their significant others. The cost of the villa, along with airfare (non-supersonic) for six people — a little over $13,000.
Best all-expenses-paid vacation ever.
—————————————————————
EDIT — Sometimes I post and hear crickets. But this one — over 100k views and 9k upvotes in less than 24 hours. That’s like Mach 2 in Quora terms. Thank you. Several people asked if they could see the letter I sent.
I’d have thought that after 20 years it would be lost to the ages, but I was amazed to see that it was still buried in my archives. It’s 1700 words, and I’d be embarrassed to reprint it. My recounting of the event on Quora was written with a smile on my face. The complaint letter is me at my pissiest.
But I can give you the highlights. Basically, the letter stated the facts. Re-reading it after 20 years, it’s clear that British Airways was even more underhanded than I remembered, so those facts were pretty damning. The manager of the Royal Pavilion taught me some of the tricks of the trade, and he explained why they waited till I was 48 hours away from departure, even though they knew they had overbooked weeks before. He also assured me that BA overbooked, not the hotel. I made sure they knew I was a very knowledgeable consumer.
My closing was this: “I feel violated and am angry enough to take my complaint to the FAA, the appropriate consumer fraud departments in New York, the travel press and travel newsgroups on the Internet. I also feel justified in pursuing legal action where I would seek compensation for both the cost of a lost vacation and for being the victim of dishonest business practices.”
But my best line was this: “Under no condition would I have considered a vacation at Glitter Bay, much less pay $13,186.90 for the privilege of living in the middle of a high rent day care center.”
It’s hard to go up against a corporate Goliath and win. But every now and then… I hope this is the kind of encouragement you need to never quit trying.
Russian Spetsnaz Captured German Army Officers in Ukraine! NATO Armies Suffer Heavy Losses!
The Kursk was an Oscar II class submarine, one of the largest and most powerful subs ever built. It was armed with 24 cruise missiles and 24 torpedoes, some of them tipped with nuclear warheads.
It was supposed to be a show of force and a demonstration of Russia’s military capabilities.
But something went horribly wrong on August 12th, 2000 around 11:30 a.m. local time.
According to the official investigation, one of the practice torpedoes that the Kursk was loading had a faulty weld in its casing, which leaked high-test peroxide (HTP) inside the torpedo tube.
HTP is a highly reactive substance that can explode when it comes into contact with metal or organic matter.
The leak triggered a catalytic explosion that blew off both the inner and outer tube doors, started a fire, and killed or injured most of the crew in the first two compartments.
Two minutes and fifteen seconds later, another explosion occurred, much bigger than the first one.
This one was caused by the detonation of five to seven torpedo warheads, which ripped a huge hole in the hull, collapsed several bulkheads and decks, destroyed the fourth compartment, and killed everyone who was still alive in the front half of the sub.
The second explosion was so powerful that it registered as a 3.5 magnitude earthquake on seismographs around the world.
The Kursk sank to the bottom of the sea, at a depth of about 350 feet. The rear half of the sub was still intact, and some of the survivors managed to seal off the ninth compartment and activate an emergency beacon.
But they were trapped, with no way to escape or communicate with the surface.
Meanwhile, the Russian Navy had no clue what had happened. They did not realise that an accident had occurred until six hours later, when they noticed that the Kursk had missed a scheduled communication check.
They did not initiate a search and rescue operation until 16 hours later, when they finally located the sub on sonar.
But their rescue efforts were hampered by bad weather, poor equipment, and bureaucratic delays.
They tried to attach four different diving bells and submersibles to the escape hatch of the Kursk, but failed every time due to technical problems or human errors.
They also refused to accept help from other countries’ ships nearby, claiming that they had everything under control.
It took them five days to admit that they needed outside assistance, and by then it was too late.
On August 21st, British and Norwegian divers managed to open a hatch to the ninth compartment of the Kursk, but found no signs of life. All 118 sailors on board had perished.
….
Now, there are those who believe that the U.S. Navy had something to do with the disaster, either by sabotaging or attacking the Kursk. Why would they do that?
– To prevent Russia from testing or deploying new weapons systems
– To send a message or a warning to Russia about its military ambitions
– To cover up an accidental collision or confrontation between U.S. and Russian subs
– To distract attention from other issues or scandals in U.S. politics
These claims lack substantial evidence.
Some people claim that there were two U.S. subs near the Kursk at the time of the accident: USS Memphis and USS Toledo.
Memphis
They say that these subs were spying on or harassing the Kursk, and that they either collided with it or fired a torpedo at it.
But there is no proof that these subs were actually there. The U.S. Navy denies any involvement in the incident, and says that its closest sub was hundreds of miles away from the Kursk.
Even if these subs were there, they would have no reason to attack or sabotage the Kursk. The U.S. and Russia were not at war, and the Kursk was not a threat to them. It was only carrying practice torpedoes, not live ones.
And if there was a collision or a confrontation, why would the U.S. subs not report it or try to help the Kursk? Why would they risk an international incident or a nuclear war by hiding their actions?
Some people claim that the second explosion on the Kursk was not caused by its own torpedoes, but by an external source, such as a U.S. torpedo or a mine. They say that the explosion was too big and too loud to be from the Kursk’s weapons, and that it left traces of uranium or plutonium on the seabed.
Again, there is no evidence to back up these claims. The official investigation concluded that the second explosion was consistent with the detonation of five to seven torpedo warheads, each containing about 500 pounds of high explosives. The explosion was big and loud because it happened in a confined space, and because the Kursk’s hull acted as a resonator.
And there is no proof that there was any radioactive material on the seabed. The Kursk’s reactors shut down safely after the first explosion, and did not leak any radiation. The traces of uranium or plutonium that some people claim to have found were either natural or from other sources, such as sunken ships or waste dumps.
Verdict:
There is no credible evidence to suggest that the U.S. was behind the Kursk submarine disaster. It was a tragic accident, caused by a faulty torpedo and compounded by a series of failures and mistakes by the Russian Navy. It was not a conspiracy, but a catastrophe.
The Chinese people are such a nation that when you give them comfort and enjoyment, they will self collapse, just like every dynasty change in China and the late Qing Dynasty.
But when external pressure is exerted to suppress the development of the Chinese people and limit their pursuit of happiness, the Chinese people will erupt in strong resilience, use their talents to break through the blockade, and ultimately achieve rise.
From resisting Japanese aggression during World War II to becoming the world’s second largest economy, the Chinese people have come step by step due to external concerns.
The characteristics of this ethnic group can be summarized by a famous quote from the Chinese Confucian philosopher Mencius two thousand years ago:Born in distress and died in peace and contentment
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Coincidentally, the United States is such an ultimate concern from outside, and its extreme pressure and sanctions unite all Chinese people. Regardless of whether they support the government or not, they have found that only by overcoming American oppression can they have a happy life and a bright future.
China has a population of 1.4 billion, and the number of university graduates in China far exceeds the total population of Japan. China has over 70 million science and engineering talents, which is a huge treasure trove of human resources.
For example, the Huawei Mate60 series, which was just released in September, under four years of extreme sanctions and pressure, more than 100 companies listed by the US Department of Commerce worked together to break the world’s strictest blockade and create 7nm chips with independent intellectual property rights and production capabilities. This is the first time in the history of a company or industry’s battle against the world’s only superpower.
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In the chip disassembly video, the encoding is all 2035CN.
CN is easy to understand, it implies China. 2035 needs to be explained as it represents China’s national research plan. If completed according to the plan, China will become the center of the world’s manufacturing industry and advanced technology by 2035.
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It goes without saying where the sword points
The local manufacturing of high-end chips means that the bargaining power of Chinese local chip consumers will be epic strengthened – the space for manufacturers to rely on exclusive technology to obtain excess profits will be compressed, and domestic companies that need chips to drive their own products will welcome a round of “technology driven cost reduction and efficiency increase” – industries such as AI, new energy vehicles, autonomous driving, etc. will benefit from this.
If this is just a celebration of the country and the company, it’s not a big deal. But Chinese consumers joined the frenzy, using their own income to support this domestically produced phone with fully autonomous and controllable technology, and even sparked a wave of frenzy.
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This high-end phone with an average price of over $800 sold over 1.6 million units in just 6 weeks, according to Counterpoint data. It is expected that the remaining few units will be sold over 5 million units in 2023, with a full life cycle sales of over 20 million units. Such sales have boosted Huawei’s sales forecast for 2024- reaching 60 to 70 million units. You know, this is the single market of Chinese Mainland, and $800 is not a small amount for a country with an annual per capita GDP of $10000.
Due to the release time of this phone, which coincides with the visit of US Commerce Secretary Raymond to China, Chinese netizens have divided and joked about Raymond and the US government, and even spliced the phone’s advertising image with Raymond’s photo, using the phrase “Raymond is a Huawei certified spokesperson” to mock the US blockade for not being able to stop China’s technological progress.
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In the capital market, after the release of mobile phones, there was a wave of enthusiasm in the stock market – various semiconductor related stocks have been strengthening all the way, and SMIC International has ushered in five limit up boards in the stock market.
China’s capital market has always been cautious, but now it is full of confidence. How did you say this confidence came about? I have not yet achieved satisfactory results in the journey of technology with my strength.
The wave of new products from Huawei shows this trend: consumers use money to support the products of consumer electronics manufacturers, and manufacturers can collaborate with upstream chip factories to strengthen production processes after withdrawing funds, gradually increasing yield rates, reducing costs, and polishing production processes to maturity.
Then the chip factory uses the money earned to encourage upstream equipment and material suppliers to upgrade and iterate. This is a virtuous cycle, driven by a large amount of capital and technological capital intensity, and an upward spiral towards development and progress.
In addition to continuously developing on the path of EUV，DUV, China is also exploring other surpassing and disruptive technologies, such as chip lithography factories.
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To understand the great significance of this scientific device, it is necessary to first briefly understand some basic knowledge of lithography machines.
As the most core equipment in the chip production process, the lithography machine mainly works by passing light through a specific mask, shrinking it through the lens, and projecting it onto the wafer – the wafer is coated with photosensitive photoresist, and after the development program, a specific pattern can be left behind.
This is the basic process of building integrated circuits on chips by a lithography machine. But with the development of technology, chips have become increasingly complex – in a limited space only the size of a fingernail, people need to put billions of transistors inside.
Therefore, the requirements for lithography machines are becoming increasingly high, specifically for the light source of lithography machines. Because if we want to achieve more advanced process technology, we must have shorter wavelengths.
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Early lithography machines used ultraviolet radiation emitted by mercury lamps, also known as g-line light sources, with a wavelength of 436nm.
The most advanced process capable of processing was 250nm. Later, with the development of technology, it was replaced with an excimer laser light source, which can emit deep ultraviolet light at 193nm wavelength, also known as an ArF light source – under the ArF light source, the most advanced manufacturing process is only 22nm.
But the problem is that technological development has no end. The 22nm process cannot keep up with the booming development of the consumer electronics industry, and people need more advanced chips. 7nm/5nm/3nm…
Although these data are common now, industry scientists have long anticipated this trend, and in fact, they have been launching impacts on these process nodes since the 1980s. The result of the impact is that there must be a new light source – the 193nm wavelength of the ArF light source is still too long to meet the requirements.
The final solution to this problem is the Cymer company in the United States, which provides an extremely complex light source – extreme ultraviolet light with a wavelength of only 13.5nm. The working principle of this light source is extremely complex: a high-energy carbon dioxide laser is irradiated on a dripping target of tin droplets with a diameter of only 20 microns.
This bombardment causes the tin material to instantly produce plasma, which emits extreme ultraviolet rays with a wavelength of 13.5nm – ultimately, these scattered extreme ultraviolet rays are gathered together through a complex lens group and projected onto the mask. This is the effort made by European and American companies and scientists to obtain an extreme ultraviolet light source with a wavelength of 13.5nm.
However, this type of light source actually has significant drawbacks. Firstly, it is too complex. In order to hit a tin target with a diameter of only 20 microns, a carbon dioxide laser needs to “shoot” 50000 times per second, and the evaporated tin target can also pollute the precision optical equipment inside the equipment – most importantly, the power of this light source is too low.
Under a 20kW laser bombardment, the radiation power generated by the plasma is less than 500W – not as powerful as a household refrigerator. Low power ultimately leads to impressive output; And the impressive output means that there is no scale effect and the cost remains high. But even so, this is currently the most advanced thing.
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Now, it’s time to talk about our so-called “lithography factories”. Huairou HEPS and Xiong’an SSMB actually belong to the same category, as both study “synchrotron radiation”.
And synchrotron radiation is a type of light source. The history of synchrotron radiation light sources is very long: in 1947, scientists first discovered a phenomenon on electron synchrotron: when charged particles with speeds close to the speed of light deflect in an electromagnetic field, they emit electromagnetic radiation along the tangent direction of the motion trajectory – this is called “synchrotron radiation”.
This type of synchrotron radiation has many excellent characteristics, such as high brightness, wide energy spectrum, high collimation and polarization. Therefore, since the 1970s, scientists around the world have been studying light sources based on this synchrotron radiation. In Chinese Mainland, we have four generations of synchrotron radiation light sources: the first generation stands in Beijing (BSRF), the second generation stands in Hefei (HLS), the third generation stands in Shanghai (SSRF), and the fourth generation stands in Beijing Huairou (HEPS).
And Xiongan’s SSMB is actually within this category, but SSMB has taken a step further – Steady state micro bunching, a new light source solution developed by Professor Tang Chuanxiang’s team from Tsinghua University in collaboration with German and American scientists.
The specific technical details are too complex, so we won’t go into more detail. What we need to know is that the most attractive aspect of SSMB light source is that it can provide a variety of wavelengths of radiation, not to mention extreme ultraviolet rays with a wavelength of 13.5nm. Soft X-rays with a wavelength of 5nm are also effortless, and the maximum power can reach 4kW, far surpassing Cymer’s “tin droplet bombardment method”.
Therefore, the implementation of SSMB-EUV light sources is expected to help China achieve leapfrog development in EUV lithography.
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At the same time, the SSMB accelerator light source can provide coherent radiation from terahertz to soft X-ray bands with high average power and narrow linewidth, and its time structure can be adjusted in a large range.
It can provide unprecedented tools and means for cutting-edge basic research and applied basic research in physics, chemistry, energy, environment, and other disciplines.
The SSMB accelerator light source has attracted widespread attention from the scientific and industrial communities With the deepening of physical research on SSMB storage rings and the mastery of their key technologies, SSMB accelerator light sources can be expected as light sources for the lithography industry and scientific research.
Their performance will also continue to improve, and the cost will gradually decrease. At the same time, the application of SSMB accelerator light sources will also be more widely expanded.
In summary, we can see that China’s scientific research team is not blindly following and catching up with the West, but is also developing the next generation of technology in a new way while following – this is not a “curve overtaking”, but a dignified linear acceleration overtaking.
I even think that the domestic lithography machine industry is highly likely to replicate the success of China’s new energy vehicle industry in the future: comparing the traditional “tin droplet bombardment” lithography machine is like comparing the engine and gearbox of traditional fuel vehicles.
Time is not waiting for us, and it is difficult for us to reach the most advanced level in Europe and America in a short period of time. But competing for the brand new SSMB light source is like competing for new energy vehicles, where everyone is on the same starting line, and we are even the leading one.
Therefore, I would like to end with Mao Zedong’s famous statement: “Imperialism blockades us, then blockade it. After ten to eight years of blockade, all China’s problems have been solved
‘Steve’, a new person at work (it was about his second or third week) called in one morning to say that his grandma had died. He was told he could take some time off, and get back to us in a few days and let us know how he was doing.
Soon afterwards, co-workers noticed that Steve had unfriended them on Facebook. All except for his line manager who, we can only presume, he forgot to unfriend.
A few days later, Steve posted on Facebook, saying that he’d been robbed.
By a prostitute.
In Ibiza.
When he returned to work, Steve was called into a meeting with the line manager, who opened with: “Sorry to hear about you getting mugged.” By all accounts, it was a short meeting.
Credit where credit’s due, Steve didn’t waste anyone’s time trying to claim that the Ibiza trip had been an attempt to deal with his grief – apparently, he owned up straight away that a friend of his had got cheap last minute flights to Ibiza, and he’d made the dead granny up to get time off at short notice. He was still fired though.
US Suspiciously Activates Global Fragility Act To Intervene In West African States
How does the US have the right to interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign nations? How would the dominant society feel if Russia and China intervened openly in American affairs?
For refusing to help a coworker and making them miss a deadline.
That was the story the guy gave to his boss, who confronted my boss about it, who brought the other boss into my office to get to the root of the problem.
My boss: Did you get X for John Doe?
His boss: He said you refused to help him, and I don’t appreciate people preventing my team from getting their work done.
Me: I haven’t talked to John Doe in ages, but let me check my records.
~pulls up database of work requests which I’d built myself for just such occasions~
Me: Oh it looks like he caught me after a meeting 6 months ago and mentioned it, and I asked him to follow up with details so I would know what to get him… but he didn’t contact me again.
His boss: Oh. Okay, well, that clarifies things.
Me: I’m here whenever he he has free time, or, if he doesn’t want to call or come over, he can just submit a request, telling me what he actually needs, on our intranet page.
My boss was cool, he was used to me being blamed and fully approved of my tracking every interaction I had with everyone I worked with (internal and external)… I was the only female technical staff and was young enough to be the daughter of most of the folks I worked with.
His boss was cool with me after that point… he knew anyone smack talking me wasn’t doing their job and was trying to blame-shift and he’d whip them into shape. He ALWAYS stood up for his guys, so I had mad respect for that.
I set up a worm composter inside my home and ended up with a fruit fly infestation.
It was over a decade ago and I was really into gardening and soil biology.
I had a regular compost bin in my backyard, but it was taking almost a year for my kitchen scraps to turn into finished compost.
I wanted a way to make compost faster and worm composting seemed like the best solution.
From my research, it was supposed to be really easy. You set up a tray with moist bedding and kitchen scraps, and you let the worms go to town. What could go wrong?
Apparently, a lot.
Take one:
When my worm composter and red wrigglers arrived, it was fairly easy to set up.
I placed the worm bin in my back patio, and I checked on them every day for the next few days. The worms seemed really happy.
On the fifth or sixth night, we had a heavy rain. When I went to check on my worms the next morning, I discovered a bunch of worms outside the bin.
When I looked inside, the tray was waterlogged and the few worms left inside had drowned.
Apparently, the heavy rain had caused a bunch of rain to leak into the composter, causing the mass worm exodus of 2008.
Take two:
I ordered more earthworms, and my husband fashioned a rain cover for the composter from a trash can lid.
After I set up the worms, things were going really well for several weeks.
One morning, when I went to add food to the trays, there was a bunch of dried worms outside the bin and a horrible stench coming from the composter.
When I looked inside, all the worms were dead and had already started to decompose.
I had started the worm bin in early spring when the weather was still mild. But as the weather warmed up, the bin apparently heated up too much and literally cooked all my worms, causing the great worm extinction of 2008.
Take three:
There wasn’t any part of my patio that was completely shaded, and even though I had placed the bin in the shadiest part of my patio, it still got too hot.
So I came up with the bright idea that I would set up the composter in my basement. It was climate controlled, and I would never have to worry about rain.
I ordered more red wrigglers and after I set them up, things were great for several months. The worms were munching through the trays, and I was getting rich, finished compost that I added to my garden.
One day, we noticed we were getting a lot of fruit flies in the house. The next week, they grew into a few dozen. Before we knew it, they turned into a full blown infestation.
As I walked through the house, the little pests would fly into my face and get lodged in my hair.
We had fruit flies peppering all the windows, trying to get outside.
At night, we itched and scratched as fruit flies wandered around in the air and crawled on our bodies.
There were so many swarming around our ceilings, that they would trigger our fire alarms, setting them off at odd times of the day and wee hours of the morning.
We tried everything to get rid of them.
We set up vinegar fruit fly traps.
We strung sticky fly strips from the ceilings and pinned fly paper everywhere.
We withheld water from our plants, letting them dry out completely between waterings to kill off eggs.
But still, the population kept growing.
For the life of us, we didn’t know where they were coming from, or why they were multiplying so quickly. That is, until one day, when I went down to add food to the worm trays.
I was pulling a finished compost tray out when it suddenly clicked. I knew that fruit flies laid eggs in moist soil. But it wasn’t until that moment when it occurred to me that I had been making moist soil right in my basement.
Trays and trays of dark, rich soil, teeming with nutrients. What fruit fly mama wouldn’t want to lay eggs in that?
At that moment, I knew that I had to give up my worms.
I took the trays of worms out back, to the grassy community area behind my house. And I said goodbye to my earthworms, as I carried out the great worm liberation of 2008.
Wisconsin Chicken Booyah is famous in the Fox River Valley region — Green Bay, Wisconsin. Booyah and beer go great together. Booyah King, Bob Baye, of Green Bay, Wisconsin, has been making Booyah since about 1946 in 100-gallon cookers.
chicken booyah
Ingredients
1 roasting or stewing chicken (about 4 pounds)
1 pound beef stew meat, with bones
1 pound pork stew meat, with bones
1/2 cup minced parsley
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon rosemary
1 tablespoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon sage
4 cups quartered potatoes
2 cups chopped onions
2 cups chopped celery
1 cup carrots, cut up
1 cup green beans, cut up
1 cup fresh peas
1 cup skinned, seeded, chopped tomatoes
2 lemons
Instructions
Put chicken into a deep kettle with the beef and pork. Cover with boiling water. Bring slowly to a simmer, remove scum from the top, and add herbs and seasonings. Simmer very gently, covered, about 1 hour.
Remove chicken and, when cooled, take meat form the bones and cut into pieces. Let beef and pork continue to cook until tender, 45 minutes to an hour more.
Remove and let cool enough to remove meat from bones. Add vegetables to the broth and simmer 5 to 10 minutes.
Grate lemon rind and set aside; remove white pith and seeds from the lemons, chop the pulp, and add to the broth. Taste for seasoning.
While vegetables are still crisp, return the meat pieces to the broth to heat through. Serve in large soup bowls and sprinkle with the lemon rind.
This particular company had a major office building with hundreds of employees. All the offices were decorated in shades of burgundy and green. It was quite pretty actually.
Anyhoo… due to changing departments, I was moved from 3d floor NE to 3rd floor SW. As I’m settling into my new space (which was identical to the old space except I looked south instead of north out the window), the head of the Committee On Office Ambiance appears.
“Oh no no no!” says she. “You aren’t allowed to have original artwork in your office because you are not a manager.”
I glance at the generic painting on the wall, one like every office had. It was ugly as sin. But apparently it was an original rather than a print. Miss Committee snatches that piece of original art and returns with a print, which I liked better anyway.
But it gets better.
So years go by and eventually the hydraulics on my chair gave out. The chair would periodically drop me to the floor without warning. Rather annoying as you can imagine.
I ask my boss for a new chair but he says he doesn’t have the budget for it. I ask to fix the chair but he says he doesn’t have the budget for that either.
This is ridiculous, I think.
So one night I stay late. In the dark of night, I hasten my broken chair down to another office and steal one from an empty. But I get caught! Manager sees me switching chairs. Yells at me because he doesn’t have the budget to fix a chair either, even if that chair is in an empty office. Foiled!
I wait. I plot.
Another night comes and again I wait until not a soul is in the building. I make my switch and I’m not caught! Victory!
Next morning, I’m all happy in my new chair until Miss Committee stops by.
“Oh no no no!” says she. “That’s a burgundy chair! You must have a green chair to match your office.”
Out goes my nice chair and back comes my broken one. Foiled again.!
Once again, I wait. I plot.
Darkness of night. I steal through the building with my broken chair seeking one of identical color. Find it. Make the switch. Life is good.
Until Miss Committee stops by again.
“Oh no no no!” says she. “That’s a manager’s chair. You are only allowed a peon’s chair.” Back comes my broken chair. Foiled yet again!
I’m bemoaning my fate to sit on the floor for the rest of eternity when the maintenance dude happens by. He tells me he has a fix for chairs like mine. He takes it away and comes back in a few with a fixed chair. He’d put a pipe in the stem. The chair can never be lowered again, but what do I care?
I’m finally happy. Miss Committee is finally happy.
I tell this to some folks in the plant. One day, mysteriously, a Dilbert cartoon appears on my desk. Poor Dilbert’s chair is broken and he tries to steal one, only the accounting troll catches him and sentences him to prison at the bottom of the elevator shaft.
I laughed so hard I nearly fell off my (fixed) chair.
I dare anyone to come up with something stupider than this tale.
I had this experience. My boss had already let me know they were eliminating my position due to budget constraints. I wasn’t upset; I had seen the writing on the wall, and I had included a 90 day severance notice in my contract, since the company was known for poor budgeting and finances. In addition to my being let go, I was going to have to let go of several members of the office staff as well. That was fine, but I asked for some time to put everything in order for doing so, at least a week. We didn’t have an HR dept, and being in California, there are certain steps that need to be taken when letting someone go.
The owners didn’t want to wait and insisted I inform people immediately, giving them a two week notice of their termination. Obviously, there were a lot of questions from the employees being let go about benefits and unemployment, which the owners were unprepared to answer. One of the employees complained to me in an email about how vague the owners were being in their answers.
Well, a couple of hours later, I received an angry phone call from the owner’s wife, because this employee had spoken ill of her, and I hadn’t defended her. She and her husband were reading everyone’s emails and were unhappy to learn the people they were firing had little good to say about them. The next call I got was from the owner, demanding I resign immediately in writing for not defending his wife. Of course, I laughed and refused.
His next tactic was to demand I leave home for an unspecified amount of time to work with him on the east coast on new projects. This was the week of Thanksgiving. I had one more card to play: the owner of the company thought it was hilarious to send explicit photos to upper management. I had asked him in front of witnesses to stop; it was a whole other level of weird. I refused to go to the East Coast or resign on advice of attorney based on the hostile sexua environment at the company.
The moment I mentioned sexual harassment and attorneys, the owners went on radio silence. They wouldn’t fire me, and I received zero emails from them for the rest of my 90 day term. I still had to come in to work, but I just sat in my office. I did start taking my private laptop and a hotspot, though, and completed my masters thesis on their dime. I think they thought they were punishing me by making me come in to work for the remainder of my time, but in reality, they gave me an air conditioned, private office to complete a major project. So, thank you?
US Forever War vs Russia and China
In 2014 there was a coup. Soon after, there was a massacre in Odessa (dozens of people were burned alive). Ethnic Russians living in Ukraine were treated as subhuman. Their language and culture was being oppressed. A civil war broke out due to the rise in ethnic tensions.
For 8 years the Ukrainian military was indiscriminately shelling civilians living in Donbas.
If Zelensky honored the Minsk agreement and pledged neutrality, none of this would have happened. The 8 year civil war would have ended and Donbas would have remained part of Ukraine. War is the ultimate failure of diplomacy.
On a somber note, the Israeli destruction on Palestine is a (text book) genocidal event. This is just as disturbing to me as the complete killing off of all the males in Ukraine.
There is something truly evil about the oligarchy that rules the West.
Their “heads aren’t screwed on tight”. They are unhinged and behaving in complete disregard for their fellow humans.
No care towards humanity.
Which means that they have evolved into something NOT HUMAN.
I shake my head in sadness.
As Everyone’s Lοοking At Ιsrael, Something Τruly Unbelievable Has Begun Ιn America
I bought a used coat from a yard sale and months later, when it turned cold, I put the jacket on and noticed a hand written note in the left pocket. It had listed things to buy at Ace Hardware.
It said Lye, ropes, tape and a small shovel.
Next to the list was the actual receipt showing the stores name, what was bought and exactly when.
I thought it seemed suspicious so I took it to the local police and they ran the info I had against an unsolved murder case.
After pulling the archived video from Ace Hardware, it was clear who the man was and after interrogating him and his fake alibi, he broke down and admitted that he was the one who picked up a 22 year old hitchhiker and raped and murdered her.
He forgot about the note and receipt in his left pocket.
He was also left handed. Had he not written it himself, it would not have proved anything, but it matched the handwriting analysis.
He also had no idea his wife sold the old jacket in a yard sale months earlier. That simple task on her part, cost him his life and he sits on death row today.
You just never know what you’re gonna get for three dollars at a yard sale.
A strategic nightmare sneaks into Washington’s political agenda: Global Times editorial
By Global Times Published: Oct 14, 2023 12:38 AM
This is horrifying. -MM
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A simultaneous war with China and Russia is a strategic nightmare that sober American strategists such as Henry Kissinger have been warning the US to avoid at all costs, and it is also a topic that some US media outlets have become more and more fond of talking about in recent years. At least from the publicly available information, Washington has never previously addressed it as a formal political agenda, supposedly aware of its seriousness and the terrible risks it carries. But the publication of a report by a congressionally appointed bipartisan panel titled America’s Strategic Posture crossed this “red line” on October 12.
The central point of the 145-page report is that the US must expand its military power, particularly its “nuclear weapons modernization program,” in order to prepare for possible simultaneous wars with China and Russia. Notably, the report diverges completely from the current US national security strategy of winning one conflict while deterring another, and from the Biden administration’s current nuclear policy. It is not a fantasy among the American public, but a serious strategic assessment and recommendation in the service of policymaking.
The 12-member panel that wrote the report was hand-picked by the US Congress from major think tanks and retired defense, security officials and former lawmakers. This report makes us feel that a “strategic nightmare” is sneaking into the US political agenda, but has not drawn due concern and vigilance in Washington, and to a large extent, the American elite group represented by the panel is actively working to make this nightmare come true.
A look at the specific recommendations of this report will send shivers down the spine of those who retain any basic rationality. The report recommends that the US deploy more warheads, and produce more bombers, cruise missiles, ballistic missile submarines, non-strategic nuclear weapons and so on. It also calls on the US to deploy warheads on land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and to consider adding road-mobile ICBMs to its arsenal, establishing a third shipyard that can build nuclear-powered ships, etc.
What depths of insanity is the US sinking to? The US’ military spending accounts for nearly 40 percent of the world’s total defense expenditures, and it has been growing dramatically for several years, with military spending in 2023 reaching $813.3 billion, more than the GDP of most countries, but even that is not enough for these politicians. Such a report full of geopolitical fanaticism and war imagery, whether or not it actually ends up as a “guide” for Washington’s decision-making, is dangerous and needs to be resisted and opposed by all peace-loving countries.
According to some American media, the report ignores the consequences of a nuclear arms race. In fact, the report doesn’t seem to consider this at all and doesn’t suggest any measures other than nuclear expansion to address this issue. In other words, it is a reckless approach. Both China and Russia are nuclear powers, and everyone knows that provoking a confrontation between nuclear powers is a crazy idea. Even promoting a nuclear arms race under the banner of “deterrence” is a disastrous step backward in history. Washington’s political elites, who lived through the Cold War, cannot be unaware of this. However, the fact that such an absurd and off-key report is being presented in all seriousness by the US Congress is both surreal and unsurprising. It is in line with the distorted political atmosphere in Washington today.
The motives behind this exaggeration of threats and creating a warlike atmosphere are highly suspicious. The recent outbreak of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict caused a sharp increase in US defense industry stocks, while American defense industry companies have also been the biggest beneficiaries of the long-standing Russia-Ukraine conflict. The military-industrial complex, like a geopolitical monstrosity, parasitically clings to American society, manipulating its every move, pushing Washington step by step to introduce and even prepare for ideas that were once considered “impossible.”
The prosperity of the American military-industrial complex is built upon blood and corpses, and carries a primal guilt. Serving the interests of the American military-industrial complex is unethical.
The reality is that such rhetoric is becoming increasingly politically acceptable in today’s Washington. The idea of “preparing for possible simultaneous wars with Russia and China,” once a fringe fantasy, has gradually made its way into Washington’s agenda, which is deeply unsettling.
If Washington were to adopt even a small portion of the recommendations in this report, the harm and threats it could pose to world peace would be immeasurable and would ultimately backfire on the US itself.
There is an old Chinese saying: “Those who play with fire will perish by it.” This is something that is worth Washington’s careful consideration.
In 1980 my boss had left the company and had planned to sell his very nice 1970 Buick LeSabre for $500. One Monday I came into my office and the keys to the Buick were on my desk with a note saying that the automatic transmission was bad and that it would cost more than the car was worth and that I could have it for $25 since that is all the wrecking yard would give him.
I picked up the car one evening and was able to make it part way home before the “transmission” problem occurred.
Fortunately, I was near the company parking lot where I left the car. The next morning, in daylight, with the help of my brother-in-law, we discovered that the “transmission problem” was actually the air conditioning compressor intermittently locking up and putting a severe drag on the engine.
Since it was fall in southern California, we just cut off the single belt that drove the AC compressor and the car ran great. Months later, a neighbor was putting a Chevy V8 into a Toyota pickup and gave me the AC compressor, which we installed on the Buick. And the AC worked perfectly.
I told my boss how we fixed the “transmission” problem and offered him $500 for the Buick.
He declined and said I should keep the car for $25.
I told him I didn’t want my wife driving a $25 car, so he agreed to $250.
That summer I decided to install an aftermarket cruise control unit on the Buick and while routing wires under the dash, I noticed a small spring, not unlike the ones in ball point pens, was broken in an AC/heater duct. I replaced that spring (cost was less than $1) and noticed that the AC was coming out of the dash vents where previously it was just coming from the floor.
When I next saw my former boss, he said that he had taken the Buick to the dealership to complain about the AC/heat not coming from the dash vents, and they told him that to fix the problem they would have to remove the dash and it would cost more than the car was worth.
I put an additional 100K miles on that car and only recall replacing the brakes and a distributor, in addition to routine maintenance. In 1992, as I was moving to Texas from NJ, a co-worker asked if I would sell him the car, which I did.
As an aside, my former boss went to work for a company that made high power gas lasers, costing at that time about $25,000.
At my next company, I needed one of those lasers. I happened to mention to my former boss at a conference that I hoped to buy one of those lasers, but didn’t have the budget.
A few weeks later, a high power gas laser unexpectedly arrived on the shipping dock!
I called my former boss and he said if and when I get the budget, let him know and he will replace the “loaner” laser with a new one. Probably a year or so later, I did find the money and paid for the “loaner” laser.
My former boss’s company also made an even higher power laser for $50,000. I later wondered if I had given him $500 for the car if he would have shipped a $50K “loaner.”
I would ask him, but he passed away, way too young, years ago.
Rest in peace, Dean…
Life in URUGUAY! – South America’s Richest and Safest Country
As an Uruguayan I want to make a comment. First, great video, mostly accurate expect for a couple of details.
When you show the ‘gauchos” those look more like people on horses from Bolivia or Peru, or even maybe somewhere in northern Argentina or Chile. Because, first of all, in Uruguay, the gaucho’s “poncho” is usually made of plain dark colors, and most important, we do not have mountains, like the ones you show. About population “skin” color, let me make some remarks.
The original population in Uruguay is around 90% of European descent, and when I say European I mean, from all over Europe, including countries like: Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Russian, Denmark, etc. Not only Southern Europe. So there are a lot of fair skin color people including blonde, blue eyes.
But what has been happening in the last decade is that there’s a large immigration wave, such as from the Caribbean countries, as well as from the rest of Latin America.
So, the demographic is changing rapidly because Uruguayan’s population as you established is very small, so the culture is also changing, including the food and even the language…
2500 Foreigners have been invited to the Hangzhou Asian Games in China
Ordinary Foreigners
From US, Canada, Europe and Japan and South Korea
Fully paid for, Business Class Tickets, Five Star Pampering
All China asks them to do is to cover the Games on their Social Media (TikTok mainly or YT or Instagram)
The result is despite the Western Media almost entirely ignoring the Asian Games, a whopping 673 Million people worldwide are watching the events
This is China’s Strategy to counter thr Western Media
Not launching their own MSM and insanely and making accusations
Instead , they bring ORDINARY PEOPLE and treating them to what China looks like and spreading the message
A Popular Teenager goes home and says “Man do you know China is so different from what we hear in our TV channels”
Slowly this gains traction
It’s a long term plan targeting the 19–24 year olds today and gradually influencing the Younger Generation
The key reason is INFLUENCE
The 12–36 year old US Generation doesn’t view China as an enemy but as a neutral country or as a mutually beneficial country
Yet 36–65 year old Americans, the MSM influenced generation see almost 75% of them view China as an enemy
China is slowly influencing the younger generation and in a way that US simply cannot comprehend
Long term, slow and PATIENTLY
Every year you have 20,000 Vloggers invited to China and cover China positively
They influence around 60 Million -150 Million people
Tourvashu is one of these
He influences 2 Million Indians
Most are 16–20 year olds
More likely to watch Tourvashu than Palki Or Gravitas or Arnab
Slowly the Younger Indians will be influenced and say “Yaar Tune Chaayina ka wo Video dekha. Mast tha”
So you wonder why Apple is not banned. In China?
Same reason
It’s not the Chinese way
These Brash, Useless and Economically unsound tactics are not something the Chinese do
China will encourage Apple, use it as a gold standard to develop their own industry, and undercut the iphone eventually
Take the Chinese High Speed Rail
In 2005, Chinese imported exclusively their Boring Machines (Germany, Switzerland), Engines (Japan, Spain), Software (UK, Singapore, US) and Electronics (Japan, S Korea)
Today nearly 90% of their High Speed Rail Supplies are COMPLETELY MADE IN CHINA with same or better quality
They have decimated TBM markets in Germany with export shares plummeting from 69% in 2000 to 11% in 2023
Took them 17–18 years
That’s how China works
These loser protectionism bans don’t work for China
They COMPETE and UNDERCUT and enhance quality with competition
The Trump Ban begun in 2019
So the key is to see if China will beat the Apple and undercut the company by 2036–2037
I am willing to guarantee that they will
It’s what they do
Kind of their Mantra
Banning is what Losers do
Competing and beating with Economics is what Winners do
When I was a young boy I used to get teased a lot in school and I didn’t have many friends. I was a fat kid and often got called a “fat slob”, “pig”, and “smelly or “stinky”. I took a bath at least once a week, more in the summer, and tried to keep clean so I knew I was just getting teased because I was fat. When I was eleven my best friend’s mom drove us home from baseball practice one day. Out of the blue she turned to me in the back seat and said, “Andy, you smell and you need to bathe more often.” She did not say it in a mean way but in a stern businesslike manner. My best friend was horrified and said nothing.
When I got home I immediately took a shower and wondered about what was going on. Obviously, I’d been sweaty from practice but she must have known that. As I thought it over, it also dawned on me that my skinny little sister often got teased as “smelly” too. I’d always assumed she got it from association with me, not because she smelled. So I told my mom what happened and asked her to tell me honestly if I smelled. She said, “no” and started to get a little upset about my best friend’s mom saying that to me.
I went to play outside and saw one of my classmates across the street. We had an on-again/off-again friendship up to that point. I guess we were what you might call “frenemies” today but at this point in time, we were more on the friendly side. I decided to get his opinion believing he wouldn’t hold back. In fact, he had teased me before about being smelly. So I asked him straight-up, “Do I smell?” He answered very matter-of-factly, “yes”. “My sister too?” “Yes, her too,” he replied. Then I asked him what we smelled like. He then told me that this had actually been a subject of discussion among his family who did not want me or my sister in their house because of our smell. He said his parents said we smelled like “old books”. Immediately, this brought to mind the set of Encyclopedia Britannicas I had in my bedroom closet. I immediately went home to check them out. Not only were they covered in mold but vast sections of my closet and room had mold. In fact, I found it throughout our home. But it didn’t smell to me. I was used to it. We all were. We lived in the woods surrounded by soggy tree pools so our home was often damp. We had no AC nor did we need it. This was back in 1972 before the internet and all the scares about the dangers of mold.
I told my mother what I’d learned and was able to convince her this was what was causing my sister and me to smell and probably her too. We cleaned everything with bleach, aired out the house, and bought dehumidifiers. From then on I showered every day. My friends all told me I no longer smelled. That following summer I also worked my ass off to get physically fit. I don’t know how many more years I might have suffered but for this very simple and brutally honest admonition from my friend’s mother. To this day, my best friend of 58 years still tells me how embarrassed he was that his now-deceased mother said that to me. And I always remind him she did me one of the greatest favors of my life.
Flip Flop Cherry Cobbler
CHERRY COBBLER 05 28 2028115 1
Yield: 6 to 8 generous portions
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
8 cups cherry pie filling
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Instructions
Coat a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.
With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture alternating with the milk; mix until well combined.
Spread batter evenly into prepared pan.
Top with filling and sprinkle with sugar. Cover and freeze.
To bake: Thaw completely in refrigerator.
Bake at 375 degrees F for 40 minutes or until browned.
Mighty China Remove All Iran Sanctions Placed By U.S and E.U
In this eye-opening video, we explore the shifting dynamics of power and influence between Iran, the United States, and China. With the U.S. imposing stringent sanctions on Iran, China steps in to form a strategic alliance, challenging the global power balance. Learn more about the economic, political, and strategic implications of this trilateral relationship and how it could shape the future of global geopolitics.
Going anonymous because it is a part of my life that not even my closest friends are aware of.
This is from the time when I was 12 years old. My mom had a problem where her breast would develop lumps which would have to be removed surgically. This problem started before I was born and she would undergo these procedures every couple of years. We lived in a small town with limited access to advanced medical facilities, but the doctors always told us that the lumps were not malignant.
When I was 12, this one lump was growing very big. My dad (who is a doctor himself) decided to take her to Delhi to get some tests done. I have two elder sisters and we (me, my sister and my parents) live with my grandparents.
So, my parents were away in Delhi and my grand mother would spend the day on the phone talking to relatives, spreading rumors that my mom actually had cancer and saying that we three are a burden on them and that they just want my parents to come and get us off their head.
My sisters, who were older and more mature, would mostly stay in their room, but I, by nature liked to be outside with my mom and in her absence, my granny. Hearing these things used to hurt me, but I wouldn’t tell my sisters since I knew they’d be hurt even more.
I started taking up house-work with my granny (though we had help by my granny used to crib that we 3 were a burden)-cooking half meals, helping with washing clothes. All this I did without my sisters’ knowledge (or they’d never have let me do it).
This was a time when mobiles didn’t exist in India and fixed line phones were the only means of communication. News from my parents used to reach us with a lag. We just kept praying that our mom comes back safely.
After tests at AIIMS (top hospital in India), our parents returned awaiting results and my granny immediately left for my aunt (her daughter’s) place citing she needed “rest”.
Results came in-the growth didn’t seem malignant but needed a fairly complicated medical procedure in Chandigarh. These were times when my dad was under a lot of financial pressure (though my grandparents were well-off and my dad was the only son). My dad requested my granny over call that they need to leave immediately and that though he had applied for their life savings-their FDs to be broken, but if it doesn’t happen on time, if my grandparents could lend money till the FD money could reach home.
Unbelievably, my granny just didn’t come home! She made my aunt call in saying she would stay longer at her place and that my parents can leave for the surgery! I still remember my dad almost crying, not sure if he would be able to arrange money on time to save his wife (the tumour had grown visibly big). By God’s grace, the FDs broke a day before they had to leave and they left us alone, at the trust of the neighbours who were more helpful than my grandparents!
It was a long, painful time when my mother received treatment-a surgery which lasted 9 hours, where doctors almost gave up hope, where she was on ventilator support for days. All this while, I kept hearing from my granny’s conversations as she invited friends over, that it was certainly cancer, that such complicated surgeries could only be for cancer. It kept on making the 12-year old me scared as I knew cancer is something bad, it is something that can take away my mom.
We first got a chance to speak to our mom after 35 days when she managed to call from a hotel after her discharge. Those 35 days had been a struggle beyond my imagination for my parents (which they told me much later when I was around 20). With just my dad for company-he had managed everything from sleeping on hospital floors to washing my mom’s clothes.
My mom has recovered fully and still prays everyday for the doctors who cured her.
My dad still hates my grand parents, and I don’t feel any love for them wither.
My grand dad passed away a few years ago and we still live with my granny because my mom still thinks its our duty.
But, the pain is still there, the fear that the 12-year old felt is still there ,the betrayal is still feels fresh when I see my granny.
I grew up in those 2 months, chopped off my hair because I had long hair and my granny wouldn’t help manage them.
I hardened, realized I only have my parents and my sisters who will stand by me, and I will stand by them till I die.
I realised the world is cruel, looking at my relatives’ behaviour in that period.
“Hector, I retired before you were born,” he laughed.
Confused, I asked again, “Be honest, Dad, I mean, when will you stop working?”
His response was simple, “Working? What’s work? I don’t know what work is.”
“OK, Dad, forget about it,” I said as I assumed he wasn’t willing to talk about this.
“Hector,” he said, “what you know as my job is not work for me. I enjoy architecture so much that I could do this 24/7. This is who I am. Architecture is my life.”
So, to answer your question, why do rich people work even after they become rich? Why don’t they play?
My father lived to be 91 and worked until his body gave up on him. He was a passionate architect who found joy in his work. That’s what kept him active and full of joy every day. His passion for architecture was infectious, and it taught me this valuable lesson about work as a lifestyle.
So, if you ask me about retirement or work-life balance, I’d say it’s better to find what you love and make it a part of your life. When you find that, you’ll stop working and start living. We achieve a balance not by separating work from life but by integrating what you love into your lifestyle.
Today, this is how I see it: It’s not about working less; it’s about loving more what you do.
That’s the secret to a fulfilling life. As my father always said, “The day you find what you love is when you will stop working.”
Heavy Rain forced Mother Cat to Carry her kitten in Streets, but No One Opened the Door for Them!
In the pouring rain, we spotted a soaked cat seeking shelter. Feeling sorry for her, we followed as she led us to her hidden kitten in the woods. We gently petted the mama cat, who had braved the relentless rain. The tiny, wet kitten needed our care, so we wrapped him in a warm blanket. Back at our home, where rescued cat families and foster cats live together happily, we ensured both mother and baby were dry and well-groomed. A vet visit ensured mama cat’s health, and we even gave the kitten a bath, revealing his adorable charm. The heartwarming reunion between mother and kitten was filled with playfulness and bonding, showing the strength of family ties.
Here’s one example, regarding myself: I was working as a bouncer at a bar in Erie, Pa one night and some guy, about 24 years old or so was making quite a bit of trouble, harassing customers, pushing some, bullying others, etc.
He was somewhat high, but not drunk, and it seemed he was there just to harass and embarrass/humiliate some who were there with a date. He was pretty big, about 225 pounds and about 6 feet and acting like a real bully. When I was told about some guy doing these things ( He wasn’t near my door, but farther inside ), I went in to see what was up.
When I got there he was harassing some poor kid who was clearly scared and was with his girlfriend. As I approached, a few people pointed at this guy and said, “get him out if here, he’s an asshole.” .
I got up to him and very nicely told him to leave the kid alone and that he’d have to leave because he was causing too much trouble.
He looked at me, stood up as high as he could (I hate when they do that, like it matters), and said, “Who’s going to make me?” I said, simply, “me.”
He told me to get lost or he’d beat the shit out of me.
I said, “Well, let’s go outside and see who comes back in, and, if it’s you, you can stay.” He smiled, said,”I’m gonna enjoy this” and said, “let’s go” and we walked outside. By that time, everyone, including the other bouncer at my door knew what was going to happen.
The other bouncer, Tommy Williams, just stood at the door and smiled while we walked outside. Well, when we got out about 15 feet from the door, the moron suddenly turned and tried to hit me with a roundhouse kick which I not only blocked, but grabbed his leg and picked him up by the leg and threw him to the ground, saying, ”I don’t think karate is going to help you here.”
He jumped up and said, “how about this, asshole? and then tried a double leg takedown, as, apparently, at some time he was a wrestler. I actually laughed and said, “oh, you want to wrestle, huh?” and then as I countered his sad attempt, the other bouncer, who had heard everything, shouted out: “Wrestle? well you picked the right guy, he’s the National wrestling Champion……”
I just said, “You picked the wrong guy you moron,” and, as my friend, Tommy later said to me, I literally swept the parking lot with him.
I never saw him after two of his friends ended up taking either home or to the hospital.
He was a bully.
He got to feel like those he had bullied before.
I was NOT kind to him.
No regrets, but I bet he was kinda surprised when he heard the other bouncer tell him who I was, and he had no escape, as even as he said over and over, “I quit, I give up.”
I told him that it wasn’t up to him, It was my call and I wasn’t done yet.
That is a scary thing to realize, that you can’t quit, that it’s up to the guy beating the crap out of you. But I believe it has led others like that guy to never bully anyone again. Jeff
Sat in a bar in South Pattaya one Sunday afternoon in 1991 I noticed a fairly fit looking bloke dressed only in flip flops and shorts. He suddenly ordered everyone a drink then turned to me and said “I see my friend that you are interested in my tattoos.” I wasn’t that interested but I wasn’t going to argue and let him tell me. One he’d got for some work in the Philippines – the other some thing in the Mekong Delta. A mahout then came by with a large elephant which the man went across to look at saying they’d always fascinated him. So I asked him where he came from – American Samoa he replied. And what did he do? He worked “for the government”.
He then stepped back and ordered another drink for everyone in the bar. I thanked him and he turned and said “Let’s eat and drink for tomorrow we may be dead”. He then looked me in the eye with the coldest eyes I’d ever seen and said “ You know it is very easy. I pick up the gun, I pull the trigger and they are gone.” It was evident he wasn’t bullshitting.
That evening I saw the bar owner – who comes from Texas – and mentioned this guy. “Oh yes that’s so and so – he’s a US Navy SEAL. Bad news when he’s drunk.”
Guess I can be thankful I met him whilst he was sober!
Atheist Overdoses; Shown Soul’s Process Of Pre-Life Planning (NDE)
Her story is powerful. All of her words should have been heard and none bleeped out….
If you are offended by profanity, best skip this response.
I, too, am in the top 1% of wealth holders in this country, albeit, on lowest rung, yet minimum wage at my small Inn is higher than it is at this billionaire cunt’s company. I have no problem finding employees. This piece of shit motherfucker sits on his yacht sipping pina coladas while his employees need a second job to just pay the bills to live their day to day lives.
This asshole supports the Republican Party with massive amounts of money, and as a wealthy person, I can tell you a thing or two about how tax laws work in this country. For those of you who make less than $250k a year but still vote Republican, your economic misery is your own fault. The Democratic Party has LOTS of problems, but one problem they don’t have is trying to make life better for the average person and if you stopped watching your choice of right wing media, you’d soon realize that. It’s people like this cunt who are destroying America and contributing NOTHING to it.
What did this prick do? He built a fucking store, massively exploited his workforce by grabbing all the loot for himself and then whining when ordinary people have had enough and don’t want to work for anymore. Fuck him, and his fellow cunt billionaires.
When I was doing my B Tech, there was a Professor Talukedar who used to teach us ‘Mechanics’.
His lectures used to be very interesting since he had an interesting way to teach and explain the concepts.
One day, in the class, he asked the following questions,
What is ZERO.
What is INFINITY.
Can ZERO and INFINITY be same.
We all thought that we knew the answers and we replied as following,
ZERO means nothing
INFINITY means a number greater than any countable number
ZERO and INFINITY are opposite and they can never be same
He countered us by first talking about infinity and asked, ‘How can there be any number which is greater than any countable number?’
We had no answers.
He then explained the concept of infinity in a very interesting way, which I remember even after more than 35 years.
He said that imagine that there is an illiterate shepherd who can count only upto 20.
Now, if the number of sheep he has less than 20 and you ask him how many sheep he has, he can tell you the precise number (like 3, 5 14 etc.). However, if the number is more than 20, he is likely to say “TOO MANY”.
He then explained that in science infinity means ‘too many’ (and not uncountable) and in the same way zero means ‘too few’ (and not nothing)
As an example, he said that if we take the diameter of the Earth as compared to distance between Earth and Sun, the diameter of earth can be said to zero since it is too small.
However, when we compare the same diameter of earth with the size of a grain, diameter of earth can be said to be infinite.
Hence, he concluded that the same thing can be ZERO and INFINITE at the same time, depending on the context, or your matrix of comparison.
The relationship between richness and poverty is similar to the relationship between infinity and zero.
It all depends on the scale of comparison with your wants.
If your income is more than your wants, you are rich.
If your wants are more than your income, you are poor.
I consider myself rich because my wants are far lesser than my income.
I have become rich not so much by acquiring lots of money, but by progressively reducing my wants.
If you can reduce your wants, you too can become rich at this very moment.
I came home very sick with flu one day, went up to my bedroom, my husband was in my bed with the mail lady. I told them both to get the fuck out of my house. He argued that he needed sleep cuz he worked overnights. He needed his clothes and stuff. I told him all his clothes would be alongside the garage by Monday. It’s where the garbage is kept. Take a shirt and stuff he needed for tonight and get lost. Take a shower at her house or work. I packed up his stuff in garbage bags along with the topper to our wedding cake, some mementos from our honeymoon, I was being passive aggressive I agree, but how dare he sleep with her in our bed, in our home. We had a 2 year old and a 6 mos old. He was just wrong. He showed up a month later crying to me that she had broken up with him. I told him too bad, I didn’t feel bad for him in the least. I got the house( and mortgage) in the divorce. It was ok cuz I wanted the kids to stay in their home and school and I made more money, the root cause of the problem. He felt inadequate cuz I was a senior manager and he was doing maintenance work. This was no issue for me, just for him.
When I first got married, we would be passionate everywhere, if you know what I mean, bed, floor, couch, where ever. We would do things for each other. And we enjoyed each other’s company. She was from Japan I am white american.
I learned to speak Japanese and we lived in Japan a few years and life was good. We had kids together, but over the years things grew cold between us.
They say that people change and you grow apart. I don’t think either of us changed. I doubt that most people change. What I suspected happened was that I would base my love on how much she loved me and visa versa. If she did something nice for me, I would do something nice for her. Or if I did something nice for her, she would do something nice for me.
That all sounds fine and dandy, but I think in practice, it doesn’t work. When I do something nice for her, I expect something of equal niceness in return. However, often is the case that you don’t perceive what is done in return is as valuable as what you gave him or her. So the next time you do something, you feel less inclined to do something as nice. And so the love kind of fizzles.
You basically stop caring because you perceive your partner as not caring. And chances are your partner feels the same way about you. Neither person has changed. They are both the same person, but the love isn’t there anymore. They let it spiral into nothingness.
That is what my wife and I did. After 20 some odd years of marriage, there was nothing. I really had no desire to do anything for my wife, because she wasn’t going to do anything for me. We didn’t hate each other. We helped each other when needed, but that is about all.
I was unhappy with the marriage. I either wanted out or I wanted it fixed. But after 20 years of marriage, I knew that she wasn’t going to try and fix the marriage. I knew that she thought I would not change so why should she have to do anything special and if I did change, it would only be temporary and things would go back to how they were, so why even try. I knew this would be her mind set.
So I had 3 options. Divorce, stay in the lifeless, sexless marriage, or take a chance and do something about it.
I thought perhaps divorce would be the better way. Start anew. She had given up on me and didn’t care.
But I decided to give it a try anyway. I completely revamped my approach. I decided that I would try for one year to fix this. I would not require her to do anything. I would just do these things on my own. If these things wooed her back then she would be back on her own terms and not mine.
So I did the following.
I committed to get into shape… better diet, exercise
I committed to do something special for her everyday regardless of whether we were getting along or not.
I committed to do at least an additional 30 minutes of house work every day.
I committed to pay her a sincere compliment at least once per day.
I committed not to fight with her and to only have calm arguments with her.
I decided to fix her dinner and breakfast as often as possible.
In essence I decided to love her every day.
As I thought, I got essentially no response from her day after day. I mean she would sometimes say thank you, but that was about it. After about four months she started to change. I kept at it. She continued to change. Ok.. she didn’t change. She was the same person, but she saw that I was trying. She saw that she was important to me. She saw that I wasn’t giving up. She wanted to be loved.
She started doing things for me again. We started talking a lot more and doing a lot more together. We started dating again and going on trips. It was almost like we were newly weds again, but with less passion, but it felt great. Sometimes I would just hold her in my arms for 30 minutes.
Love can be revived. It is not easy. True love takes work. Making the decision above to love her regardless was the second best decision of my life. The first of course was to marry her. Our marriage is not perfect, but I look forward to seeing her every day. She is an awesome woman. She is basically the same person I married. We just let our love die. We were lazy lovers. She asked me one day what got into me and I talked with her about my plan. I think it was a pretty good plan and so did she. And yes, we are still married, but much more happily now.
I knew our love couldn’t be one sided, but I also knew it needed to start somewhere and why not me. Ask yourself, why not you? Do you want the love back? what kind of sacrifice are you willing to make to have the love back? If I had decided that she needed to do something while I was doing something, then we would have been right back to where we started. You can’t base your actions on what the other is doing in return. You need to commit to love regardless of what is done in return. That is the sacrifice and that is where real love will begin.
Edit.
I can’t believe how many people have read and liked this. Someone mentioned the 40 day challenge. I found out about that several months after I started on this path. There is a movie out there along these same lines called fireproof that is worth a watch.
For me things didn’t change around in 40 days. It took quite a bit longer. But you have to ask yourself is divorce really the better way out? Yes, sometimes it is. But infidelity doesn’t have to be the end of life as we know it.
I look back on these events and they seem like a distant memory, the hurt and pain. like a forgotten dream. But it really wasn’t that long ago. I am a better person because of it. She has become a better person as well and we are definitely a better couple.
6 REASONS WHY AMERICANS ARE OBESE. WHAT IS CAUSING THE RISING OBESITY IN THE USA?
It’s no secret that obesity in America has been an ongoing issue and that doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon.
In fact, according to Harvard University; about 2 in every 3 adults or 69 percent of the population in the US are overweight while1 in 3 adults are obese or 39 percent.
It has to make you wonder how the most powerful and advanced nation in the world can be so obese especially when compared to countries in Europe and Asia, it’s not like we don’t have the means as a nation for healthier lifestyle and better-quality food.
Or maybe Americans are meant to be obese, and they want us to stay that way? Sounds controversial right, well in this video we will expose 8 reasons why Americans are so obese compared to other countries.
Our country born with troubles since its independence.
Have you ever heard about the Burma Campaign in World War 2? It is quite thorough and one of the most destructive campaigns largely forgotten by Western Powers and historians. The entire infrastructure of the country was destroyed during the course of the war. By the end of the war, the country was totally in rubbles and a massive number of firearms were widespread even in the village level which was left behind by warring powers. The situation was ripe for armed insurgencies.
The country was never been administered as a whole before British arrival. The region out of central Myanmar was usually administered by local petty chiefs with vassal-high king relationship which never need any direct contact between different cultures (except a few tributary missions and merchants). There is no large-scale internal trade and the transportation was also difficult. Different cultures and ethnic groups suddenly came into contact under British rule. As usual, the British exploited the situation by creating a divide & conquer strategy by favouring ethnic minorities over the Burmese majority. This led to extreme Burmese nationalism.
Due to economic disaster in the 1930s and later devastating war, the country is under very hard economic conditions which was a natural breeding ground for communism. The Burmese Communist Party which never believed in British plan for independence already went rebellion even before independence.
Then, the world’s longest-running civil war began.
In the 1950s and 60s, the civil war lost momentum and Burma came under the spotlight of international relations due to its leading role in third world nations, one of the founders of the non-aligned movement. The country was also the only real democratic nation in Southeast Asia with regular elections. The country largely recovered from the war at the beginning of the 1960s and hopes ran high. A federal system was proposed by the ethnic leaders and the government agreed.
All out of sudden, the coup came. At first, people weren’t serious as they already seen a short 2 years long military rule which stabilized the country and the coup ended with the mostly free and fair elections. By the time they realized that the military is no longer intended to give up the power this time, the civil war gained intensity and all the things we achieved in the last 10 years were gone.
The military junta slowly transformed themselves into businessmen by laying hands on the country’s economy entirely. The Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) ran by the military alone control nearly 40–50% of the country’s economy directly or indirectly. With the lack of a proper banking system, the ordinary people have no access to much-needed capital for investments. Small and Medium scale businesses have no chance to grow unless the monopoly of military elites and their relatives were removed.
So he responds in self-defense and you teach him that if the attacker is female he’s supposed to just sit there writhing in pain getting injured? And she got off scott-free?
What’s next? She stabs him and he gets tossed in a closet and fed gruel and water? Because you might as well.
If you knew she attacked first, you should have punished HER. You discipline all parties that have transgressed, not just the ones who have a penis. Having a vagina doesn’t magically bestow immunity on a person.
If you confiscated all his devices, you should have confiscated hers as well. For his month of grounding, she should have received two.
There’s a big difference between a slap in the face (which stings but quickly dissapates) and kicking someone in the jewelies (which could cause irreparable damage).
No. You’re punishment wasn’t good enough. You half-assed it due to sexist reasoning. Go back and discipline your daughter as well.
Who Wants To Be A WARMONGER?!
Inspired by the war hawks that run the West, it’s the game show that always ends badly!
Even though this was a relatively small thing, it affected me profoundly.
On my lunch break from work, I went to a fast food place. A homeless man came in. He was absolutely filthy, with long, greasy hair and dirty hands, dressed in raggedy clothes with a piece of blanket wrapped around him. He smelled bad. He didn’t seem able to talk and he went from table to table, sort of chittering at people, like a rat. People were pretty horrified and either gave him a quarter or just ignored him.
There was one table with 4 Mexican day laborers. These are guys who often are in the U.S. “illegally” and who hang around outside home improvement stores, hoping to pick up jobs. They don’t make much money and sometimes people cheat them, knowing the laborers can’t go to the authorities. A lot of these men may live in one house so they can save money and send it back to their families in Mexico.
When this homeless man came up to their table, they asked him, “Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?” Then they gave him all of their food, packing it up for him so he could carry it away. Then they didn’t go and buy more food themselves (they probably couldn’t afford it), but simply cleared the table and walked out. They knew what it was to suffer, and they very likely would suffer a bit from their generosity. But that didn’t stop them; and they were the best example of kindness I have ever seen. It was over 30 years ago, and it still affects me.
The night my daughter died in a double hit-and-run in Colorado, a stranger stopped to help her and was witness to the second car that hit her, ending her life. He had been trying to help her though; he called for an ambulance and although it was ultimately unsuccessful, every effort was made to save her life. That stranger is a hero as far as I’m concerned.
The man who tried to help was very traumatized by what he had witnessed and had to change jobs so that he no longer had to daily pass by the place where my daughter died as he went to and from work. Unrelated to the accident, he and his wife got rid of their landline when they moved. I wanted very much to thank him but although I had tried every way I knew, his job had changed, he no longer had a telephone I could call 411 for and he no longer lived in the same place. I finally decided that simply being grateful would have to be enough, even if I couldn’t tell him myself.
Two years later, I’m sitting at the dinner table in a hostel in London and strike up a conversation with a guy also having dinner there. He was from the same area as me. He remembered my daughter’s death not just from it being in the news, but because the husband of one of his co-workers had stopped and tried to help the young lady.
OMG.
To make a long story short, he put me in touch with his co-worker and I was able to email her and express my thanks and gratitude for her husband’s efforts that night. She emailed me back and said that although her husband was desperately sorry he couldn’t save her, he was grateful that she didn’t have to die alone. He is a hero in my eyes and I’m so glad I got to let him know how grateful our family is. May he and his loved ones be abundantly blessed.
China Reveals HUGE Sanctions On US Tech Giants Due A STAGGERING Unpaid $1 Trillion
The direct consequences for the implicated U.S. tech companies are potentially disastrous. China is a significant market for many of these entities, and the sanctions could drastically affect their revenue, stock prices, and global operations. Companies like Apple, which rely on China for both sales and a vast portion of their supply chain, could see significant disruptions. The same goes for firms like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, which have invested billions in capturing the Chinese market and establishing a supply chain nexus.
Furthermore, these sanctions could also impact hundreds of smaller U.S. tech firms and startups that might not be direct targets but could suffer collateral damage due to the intertwined nature of the tech ecosystem. This isn’t just a bilateral U.S.-China issue; the sanctions have ramifications for the global tech industry. Supply chains across the world are intricately linked, and disruptions in China could lead to ripple effects impacting tech manufacturing globally. Countries and businesses that rely on these tech giants for critical infrastructure, software, and hardware might find themselves caught in the crossfire.
The European Union, India, Japan, and South Korea, among others, will be closely watching the developments. Any prolonged conflict could force these nations to recalibrate their tech dependencies and alliances. On the diplomatic front, this escalation further strains an already tense U.S.-China relationship. The last few years have witnessed a hardening of stances on both sides, with trade wars, tech bans, and territorial disputes. This new development might just push the diplomatic ties to a new low.
As the news of China’s unprecedented sanctions reverberated across the globe, key stakeholders began weighing in, highlighting the vast complexities of the issue. Major international business councils, traditionally silent on political matters, expressed deep concern over the possible long-term disruptions to global trade. Wall Street responded predictably, with significant declines in tech stock prices. Investor sentiments seem to mirror the broader fears. If China and the U.S., two of the world’s largest economies, can’t resolve their differences amicably, what hope is there for the stability of the global economic order?
Moreover, experts in international relations also sounded the alarm. The escalation of this magnitude in the U.S.-China tech conflict marks a deviation from conventional trade disagreements. The integration of geopolitics with business is not new, but the scale of this rift indicates a deep-seated power struggle reflecting ambitions, fears, and strategies beyond mere economic interests.
One of the most pressing concerns for the sanctioned tech companies and the international community is the verification of China’s claim. How is this enormous one trillion dollars figure reached without transparent documentation and a clear breakdown? Suspicions linger over the validity of such a vast sum. The call for a neutral third-party audit has gained traction in various quarters. International bodies like the World Trade Organization could potentially mediate, ensuring that claims and counterclaims are examined impartially.
While the U.S. government has not yet announced any countermeasures, there’s widespread speculation about potential retaliation. Would the U.S. respond with equivalent sanctions on Chinese tech companies? Could there be a broader economic response that targets other sectors of the Chinese economy? Such a move would undoubtedly lead to further escalation, intensifying the trade war and potentially causing harm to global economic stability.
As an immigrant, one thing that always spooks me is paperwork and all related things to immigration process.
One day, I was outside working on my garden, when I came back inside, there were four missed calls. Just like a habit, I copied and pasted the phone number to Google search, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection – Corpus Christi Border Patrol Station popped up.
I started panicking. Why? Why they called me?!?? So, when the phone number appeared again a few minutes after that, I picked it up.
A woman on the phone let me know that there was someone used my identity to cross the border, tried to traffic drugs into the country. She told me that this could happen because I traveled outside of the country recently (which was correct). I was nervous. Then the woman proceeded to tell me she ‘would help me to verify and straighten things up’. Then she asked me my full name, DoB and Social Number.
At this point, I started smelling B.S. I told her, wasn’t it an identity thief case? Shouldn’t she have those information already? She got furious and told me, she was ‘trying to help’ and I needed to ‘cooperate’ or else I would ‘end up in jail’.
I decided to cut off the call, told her I would contact my lawyer and said goodbye then hung up.
I did some searching, then I decided to call back the phone number. It went to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection – Corpus Christi Border Patrol Station for real. I talked to an officer. He told me I was right hanging up the call and told me scammers nowadays gets really aggressive. They can hi-jack the phone number line like that, so the Caller ID looks like it’s legitimate from government offices. He also told me: If the government wants anything from you, they will send snail mails, they don’t call.
When I lived in Shenzhen (ripe out of the ‘States) we had a little dog. We called him ShaoPi, or “PP” for short. He was a good little Bishion breed. He was a mini version, and so didn’t live as long as a normal breed would of.
Anyways, we also had his son; “Super”. Which was a mixed breed. Bishion and Bomei. And he was absolutely one heck of a handsome dog.
One thing, though. He hated my guts.
…
I mean it. He HATED me; with a searing level of disgust and malice. Including biting me, and forcing me to get rabies vaccinations. Ugh!
I was an “outsider” and he “owned” my wife and her ex-boyfriend. And to exert his displeasure on me, he would make messes all over the place, bark non-stop and generally did everything he could to try to chase me away.
Well, that was causing our PP to get super stressed out. And he was a good dog, always trying to straighten out this wayward son. But it was to no avail. Eventually, both dogs were super stressed out, and start a non-stop peeing contest in the house. I mean, they were urinating over everything.
Everything.
And so we would take PP out with us and we did out chores and made our rounds, and it helped some. But, you know, he was so stressed out that he still continued to pee everywhere and over everything.
We knew that there was a problem. But we didn’t know what to do.
…
Then one day, while riding on an elevator there was a really cute 20-something girl all “decked out” wearing nice clothes and makeup going out (probably) on a date. We were also going out. PP was at our feet, and we were making arrangements for an evening dinner.
She was checking out her phone while adjusting her makeup, and sure as shit…
…PP urinated all over her high heels, and her nylons and her dress.
…
She screamed out so loudly that PP jumped back as if electrified….
…
That week we found a home for “Super”, and that was another trial, I’ll tell you what. But the moral of this little story is when people, or loved ones are stressed out…
…do something about it, before things get out of hand!
Todays…
Shi Jiangiao
This is Shi Jiangiao, a Chinese assassin who lived during the Warlord Era (1916-1928) in China.
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Shi came from a family of humble beginnings as her grandfather was a simple farmer and tofu seller. However, that all changed when her father and uncle became decorated soldiers, rising through the ranks in the Chinese military. This helped raise the social status of her family.
In 1925, when Shi was only 19 years old, her father was leading a brigade of soldiers to capture Guzhen, Shandong, when he became surrounded by a warlord by the name of Sun Chuanfang. Sun decapitated her father and had his head mounted on a pike and put on display at a local train station.
Two years later, Sun was disposed of by the Kuomintang (aka Chinese Nationalist Party) who wanted to reunify China, which had become fragmented after the 1911 Revolution, which overthrew China’s last imperial dynasty, the Qing. Sun peacefully retired from his life as a warlord and founded a Buddhist society.
Meanwhile, Shi spent her 20s tracking down Sun who had disappeared without a trace. In 1935, ten years after her father’s death, Shi managed to track Sun down in Tianjin, a major port city close to Beijing. (If you recall, Tianjin was the city that had that major explosion in 2015.)
Shi entered the Buddhist temple and found Sun kneeling in front of the altar. She approached him from behind and shot him several times with a pistol. She did not attempt to flee the scene of the crime but began distributing pamphlets explaining her actions.
Her case drew significant coverage and reached the Nanjing Supreme Court. In the eyes of the law, she was guilty. However, Confucian morality stipulates that one must avenge their parents. Ultimately, the Nationalist government decided to pardon her on the grounds that the assassination was justified because it was an act of filial piety. It also helped her case that the man she had assassinated was guilty of trafficking opium, suppressing strikes by factory workers in Shanghai, and collaborating with the Japanese.
Saying “Give me this/that” instead of asking for it.
I was once in a bar in Turkey, watching football (as in kicking a ball with the foot) with some other foreigners, German & Danish IIRC, drinking beer, & nibbling cacik & bread.
A group of American men walked in (I think from the nearby air base). They knew the barman’s name. They asked if the back room was free, & on being told yes, headed for it & commanded the barman to bring them beers – all done by shouting across the bar in English. He smiled to their faces & scowled at their backs. Then he noticed two of us looking at him & looked embarrassed.
A little while later we needed more beer, & it was my turn, so I went to the bar & asked (in Turkish – as we’d all done) for more beer e.g. “beş bira, lütfen”. He still seemed embarrassed, & said something like (IIRC) “You’re OK. You say lütfen” (Turkish for please). In his terms, the Americans were extremely rude. They probably had no idea. We, on the other hand, were at least trying to be polite. We knew how to ask for a beer (or a few), & how to say please & thank you, & understood that was customary.
I expect the Americans would have been very surprised to know that they were constantly being rude to locals.
They’re FINALLY Been Arrested in MAUI,The Rock & Oprah
Thank you for speaking on our Maui brothers and sisters. Thank you James Okeefe also. This is unacceptable as well as unbelievable!!
https://youtu.be/cXv1Cb93OGA
Confession of the Day
I started self directed investing in 2012 with $20k. My first big success was betting on American Airlines after they filed bankruptcy before the merger with US Airlines. It was a 5x return in less than two years. I took that money and bought a house to Airbnb and ended up with about $250k.
I reinvested into the market and made my way all the way up to about $600k during the Covid spurt. Then I began to fuck with options. The first few wins were big for me, $5k, $10k, $20k, etc. then I really started betting big and hit returns over $100k in a single day. I couldn’t stop. The dopamine rush was too good.
The ups were euphoric and the downs sent my mind and body into a total whirlwind of intense emotion. It was the sickest drug. I couldn’t get enough. Nothing else matter other than becoming as rich as possible. And then I finally crossed the $1m threshold…. For only one day.
The next day I the market looked like shit but I was so hard up for my next fix I played anyway. Down $100k – eh it’ll come back, I can’t lose. Down $200k – if Itake the hit now that means I’m a loser, no way. Down $250k – ok I was wrong, time to switch sides and redeem myself. Down $330k – fuck fuck fuck!!! Don’t worry, I’II get it back next week…. And I did. $980k. Nice, almost back to $1m.
And then down. And down. And down.
All of it. Gone. 9 years of building $20k into $1m. Because the high was never high enough and the low was never enough to stop me. I went through deep depression, lots of suicidal thoughts, and darkness I didn’t think I’d come out of. A year of therapy, books, podcasts, support, and I’m doing better. Relapsed once and lost another $90k in a single day, just because I couldn’t lose.
We’re a dopamine nation now. This forum says it all. Gambling at your fingertips and the ever looming reminder that some people actually win and get super rich. At least for a little while. But the highs are never high enough and it never ends. Check yourselves before it’s too late. Day trading can be a real gambling addiction and you really can lose it all no matter how good you are.
As ridiculous as it sounds, roving bands of young fellas off the estates, typically aged between 10 and 16.
I know some Americans will probably read this and think I’m a right pussy for being scared of a load of kids, but you don’t know man! You weren’t there!
See, the thing is with these kids, be they scallies, chavs, neds, roadmen, townies or whatever you call them in your region, is that typically they appear in large groups, they have little to lose and so don’t care about doing the stupidest shit possible, and they are not afraid to hound you and make your life a misery if you challenge them.
Sure, one on one, I wouldn’t be particularly scared about a 14 year old scal (although they increasingly carry knives and machetes and shit), but the point is that you rarely do encounter them one on one.
And let’s say, there’s a load of them camped outside your nan’s house chucking stones at her windows and you think, “Fuck that, I’ll go chase them off,” what is likely to happen is that they’ll start posturing around you and throwing stones at your head or they might fuck off, but then they’ll find out where you live (if you live nearby) and they’ll start wrecking your house and you might even find your house firebombed. It might sound extreme, but it does happen.
The police are ineffective as they have no respect for the police and, anyway, they’re minors so cannot properly be held accountable unless they do something really bad. And anyway, being tough on crime only goes so far. A more holistic long-term approach to the issue is required, but sadly no government has the vision or appetite to really commit to such policies.
So, essentially, you are powerless to do anything meaningful against them because you will only exacerbate the situation. These kids have the capability to make your life hell. They can make going to the local shops a genuinely nerve-wracking experience, particularly for the elderly and those with disabilities. They can really ruin the atmosphere of otherwise solid working class communities.
And that’s the thing too, it is the working class communities where they live and hang out that suffer the real brunt of their aimless destructive behaviour. You can be somewhat insulated against them if you live away from them or even just on a road they don’t frequent, but if you are forced by circumstance to live where they congregate, then your life can be pretty miserable if you get on their bad side.
And yeah, I’m scared of them. I’m less scared of some actual high up gang leader than I am these kids because at least with the real gang members they’re not interested in you unless you give them a reason to be, whereas, like I said, these kids have nothing to lose and might target you simply because they can and they think it’s funny.
It’s the one thing I really don’t miss about living in more working class areas, which can otherwise be much more friendly and interesting places to live
US efforts to strangle China & reassert hegemony – Jeffrey Sachs, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen
“Emerging nations fight wars at their borders, declining nations fight wars far away.” ~Chris Hedges
My mother-in-law was visiting us in Canada from her home in South Africa. There she had two house servants and a garden “boy” who did all the work. She sat smoking her cigarettes and “supervised”. Staying in my home where I had two children under age 6, a lot of my mornings were spent in child care, household chores, meal planning and all of the hundred other jobs of the Canadian housewife. One morning my mother-in-law sat at the kitchen table drinking coffee I had made and smoking her cigarette (which I had objected to from day one) and told me that I needed to change my routine to do my household chores after everyone had gone to bed so that her day was not “spoiled” by me having to do chores on “her” time.
The US has to keep paying money to keep it’s Defence Industries rich and profitable so that their shares are profitable and so that the Corrupt Senators, Congressmen and Lobbyists get rich
It’s a vicious cycle
Guess how many Senators have more than 30% of their investments in Defense Stocks?
61 – SIXTY ONE
35 Republicans and 26 Democrats
Guess how many Senators have more than 30% of their investments in Tech stocks?
67 – SIXTY SEVEN
38 Democrats and 28 Republicans and 1 Independent leaning to Democrat
Congressmen?
209 – 108 Democrats and 101 Republicans
Of these 51 have more than $ 5 Million worth of stocks
Lloyd Austin has earned $ 4.3 Million after leaving the Pentagon just by sitting on the boards of various Defense Contractors
He doesn’t have 50 grams of brains in that massive skull of his
So the Military Industry in US is like a shark that has to keep swimming
They always need an enemy to keep selling weapons to
They HATE PEACE because any peace means less potential to sell weapons
First it was the Cold War – Weapons sale
Next it was fighting Communism – Weapons Sale
Next it was fighting Saddam & Milosevic – Weapons Sale
Next it was fighting Terror – Weapons Sale
Now it’s fighting Russia and China – Weapons Sales
Tomorrow they may decide India is the enemy and wage a war on India and sell weapons or decide it’s Japan Or even Aliens
Their Military Goals have led to the worst disasters on earth
Vietnam
Cambodia
Laos
Afghanistan
Iraq
Libya
Syria
Ukraine
Taiwan (Next)
They have single handedly led to their deaths more men than Taliban, Al Qaeda, ISIS and Saddam Hussein and Gadaffi COMBINED
They have destroyed countries with their bombs and Agent Orange
Today their Target is China and Russia
They don’t have the balls for a direct fight because a MAD means the evil politicians will also die and they don’t want that
So these proxy wars will be their way of milking and flattening the military defense industries
Basically they are part of a corrupt hellhole with many idiots even today proudly saying how the US Dollar is backed by the US Army
They will be destroyed one day as history is proof of
One day they will collapse when their own people begin to rebel and fight this evil system
Until then these a**holes will keep harrassing everyone and lying to the whole world
I refer only to around 300,000 Evil Americans in US and another 2 Million more brainwashed evil corrupt minions
The other 336.7 Million Americans are very decent and nice people
Eliminate these 2.3 Million a**holes and the US will be back to the Pre Eisenhower era. A Nice Country with genuine morals
OH. MY. GOSH.🤯😟 MUST SEE: Can Americans answer ANYTHING correctly!?
I fully support the movement to require a civics test before voting or even just knowing the difference between a STATE and a COUNTRY would be a start.
Chinese electric cars surprised the world in the 2023 car exhibition.
France started the dog fight. It called for EU investigation if China has subsidized its electric car industry. EU chief took France’s case.
EU Commerce Chamber in China right away told EU that there is no electric car subsidy by Chinese government. What makes China successful in electric car is because China has lots of scientists who work hard to improve their car tech so as to compete in the world, said the Chamber.
German business-people also opposed the EU investigation. Saying it will force China’s to react & counter EU’s unreasonable action. It will harm German economy.
It is a dog fight between France & Germany.
France’s car sales in China accounts for less than 1%. Germany, more than 17%. No need to explain further, right?
France can afford to lose its <1% to weaken Germany’s >17%.
If Germany wants to, Germany can counter target France’s luxury products eg cosmetics & fashion that sell well in China.
Despite objection from German business people, German politicians agreed to EU investigation. … really, politicians do not care about the welfare of the country & its people. They only care about votes ie personal interest.
Has German government subsidized electric car industry? Many times. From internet.
What is more irony is that: when USA subsidized its electric cars under the disguise of Inflation Reduction Act, EU protested & warned USA that EU will also subsidize its electric car industry. Today Germany is subsiding its electric cars industry based on … false accusation as testified by EU Commerce Chamber.
Chinese do not like direct confrontation. Confrontation is seen as a sign of stupidity. Two thousand years ago, the founder of the Han dynasty summed it up: 吾寧鬥智不鬥力: I prefer to fight with my wits, not by power. From a very weak start, he thrashed 項羽 Hsiang/Xiang Yü, his main rival, whose army was much more powerful.
Fighting is for children and inferior people. Look at it this way: a four year old can strike out in anger, but is incapable of coming up with a better plan.
Chinese always prefer to use strategy rather than brute force. 難忍能忍大丈夫: a powerful cultural standard is that a real hero is someone who can say, “My head is bloody but unbowed.”
This is strength, not weakness, and does not mean that Chinese will not fight back. Look what happened to the mighty Japanese warlords when they attacked China. The Chinese in general avoided direct confrontation, drew the Japanese in, and overcame them. China has stood off some of the most powerful armies in the world. Even though the Mongols eventually conquered China, it took them decades and weakened them so much they were unable to conquer Viet Nam (of course there are other factors, such as VN fighting prowess, but this is an essential factor.) In China, the Mongols were close to their home but suffered great losses at Chinese hands. Compare that to the European powers, where the “flower of chivalry” was butchered in short order on their home territory by Mongols far, far from their home base.
I do not know how much the person asking the question knows about China, but I would guess that most people have heard of China’s long tradition of martial arts. Chinese will fight, but consider it uncivilized, immature, beneath an adult’s dignity.
We left America for Police putting guns to our heads. Part 1-2
This channel is to bring the awareness to the world of the beautiful continent of Africa. My intentions are to show the development, people, property and investment opportunities. All the adventures and opportunities that is for people to take advantage of. Also showing how America is not necessarily the perfect place for people to live.
ASMR: What it is, what it stands for and how it works
What is ASMR? How does ASMR work?
What does ASMR stand for?
Are you “ASMR sensitive”? Do you get ASMR tingles?
Is this the first time you’ve heard of ASMR which stands for “Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response”?
It might not mean what you think it means.
Millions of people experience ASMR “tingles” when exposed to certain stimuli.
Triggers like hair brushing, whispering, finger tapping, clicking, chewing and caring role-playing send shivers down some people’s spine.
These same ASMR triggers are actually “misophonic” triggers for others; meaning these sounds cause negative responses.
For example: nails on a chalkboard will drive some people nuts but others aren’t affected.
The Why Files answers these questions and raises a few more. The science behind behind ASMR is still new but research is underway.
Though ASMR is a relatively new phenomenon, the online ASMR community is vibrant and growing rapidly.
I once had a therapist for four years. He spent every session of that 4 years grooming me. Yes grooming me as if I were a child and he were the predator – except I was an adult and never knew what was happening until it was too late. If I questioned anything about the ethics of something he did or said – he always twisted up an answer that made enough sense in my mind that I would disregard. It was a disgusting abuse of power. He was extremely subtle about his approach and he nearly destroyed me as a human before it was all finished. Looking back years later I can see how correlated he was in what he did and I am sure he had many victims besides myself. At one point he even talked of “getting rid of my husband”. (I never told me husband this part of everything)
In the end he chose the wrong victim. I had to rise above the fear and confusion. I did. I had to be careful to make sure to keep all of my complaints and even my lawyer was a secret till the moment that he was piled with so much legal shit and my states’ board and Human Resources was all brought out at once. I did this intentionally so there was no way he could get out of the situation or harm me without someone knowing who did it to me. And so what he was doing was made known without ANY space for “reasonable doubt”.
I’ve taken a lot of time to heal and am still now in the process of forgiving him, forgiving myself, and moving forward to be as healthy as I can be. Sometimes I wish he’s a trash guy now… except the get paid too much. But he’s the most evil person I have ever met.
It’s unfortunate that what he did to me isn’t a criminal offense in my state as it is in many states. I plan to make this change through whatever legal route I need to take and make a difference so nobody else ever has to go through what I did. That man should be in prison. He’s a rapist and a cunning one at that. A sick sick human.
When the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011 , Western-backed rebels launched a full-scale attack on the Syrian government, and an extremely bloody color revolution began.
We Chinese often say that we experienced 14 years of hard resistance against Japan during World War II. Warning the war in Syria is not over yet! The United States also steals oil, food, and cultural relics in Syria…
No one expected that at the opening of the Asian Games in Hangzhou , China would make a move that would completely change the world.
On September 21, the Syrian president and his wife arrived in Hangzhou, China, and then arrived in the capital Beijing on September 24, visiting two places in a row.
Below is a picture of the Syrian president and his wife arriving in Hangzhou and Beijing. My heart moved at this moment.
Perhaps the whole world did not expect that Syria, which has long been completely blocked in the West, has received the most respectful reception in China. We do not belittle Syria just because it is a small country in war.
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Put yourself in my shoes, if you were a Syrian , how would you feel when you saw this scene? What is the characteristic of a great country? This is the It! China has deservedly become a true morale beacon of human civilization. The picture below is really shocking.
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During their visit to Hangzhou, the Syrian president and his wife visited Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou . During the visit, a female tourist could not help but touch Asma, the Syrian lady, because she was so beautiful. The female tourist said to Asma, “You are so beautiful.” Unexpectedly, Asma replied: “You have a beautiful country.” From the look of the video, the female tourist seems to be an older person, but even so, I don’t think it’s good to touch her face, since she is the president’s wife after all. However, this reply from the wife of the Syrian President suddenly sublimated the matter. Yes, we have a beautiful country, and for the Syrian people, this is their biggest dream. Syria was once a beautiful country. There is an old saying that goes like this: “If there is a paradise on earth, Damascus must be in it. If paradise is in the sky, Damascus will be as famous as it.” Asma, the wife of the Syrian President, is known as the Desert Rose . She is a very beautiful and gentle person, but behind this beauty, there is an extraordinary experience, which can even be said to be legendary.
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Asma was born in London, England, to Syrian parents. Her family conditions are very good. In 1996, Asma graduated from King’s College London with a BA in Computer Science and French Literature . After graduation, she started working at Deutsche Bank Group as an economic analyst in the hedge fund management department. In 1998, Asma joined JPMorgan Chase & Co. in investment banking. She was also preparing to pursue an MBA at Harvard University, but moved to Syria after meeting her husband, Bashar , while on vacation with her family. I can be said to be an absolute intellectual and business elite. Her husband Assad is the second son and is not the successor that the family focuses on training. The family focuses on training his eldest brother. As a result, his eldest brother died unexpectedly in a car accident in 1994.
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Assad himself is relatively flat. His early dream was to be a doctor and he had little interest in politics. He himself has been studying medicine in the UK. After meeting Asma, we hit it off and became even less interested in politics. However, the eldest brother, who had been trained by the family and was supposed to take on the succession, unexpectedly passed away. Assad could only return to his country to take charge of the overall situation. At this moment, the gears of fate began to turn. The Assads would never have imagined that they would be pushed to a turning point in human history by chance.
The general background of the outbreak of the Syrian civil war is that the United States instigated the ” Arab Spring ” throughout the Middle East . Don’t read the name and think that is a good thing like it’s name “spring”. In fact, it is a large-scale national subversion. According to Egyptian statistics afterwards, the Arab Spring caused more than 1 million deaths in the Middle East and damage to infrastructure worth 1 trillion. It started with the collapse of the political situation in Tunisia , followed by the complete collapse of the situation in Egypt, Libya , Yemen, and Bahrain…
That is, in 2011, Gaddafi’s regime came to an end. He himself was caught in the north of the country. He was tortured, then executed on the same day, and finally his body was exposed in a market… After trouble occurred in the above countries, it was Syria’s turn. This was the background of the early outbreak of the Syrian civil war. At that time, no country believed that Syria could survive. The United States in 2011 was not the sick cat it is now. It was the peak moment of the US imperialist regime. Hanging Saddam , destroying Gaddafi while laughing… Moreover, at that time, the United States had almost no opponents in the world.
Let’s talk about China and Russia back then . At that time, Russia was still dreaming of integrating into the West. It had already joined the G7 and became a small G8. At that time, China did not have a falling out with the United States and was still busy doing business and making money. Except for Iran, an absolutely anti-American country, almost no one in the world supports Syria. However, China and Russia still helped Syria during the UN vote. Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, the United Nations Security Council has held seven votes on the Syrian issue. Due to opposition from China and Russia, all seven votes have been vetoed.
That was only the beginning… After all, if you look other than Syria, no country in the Middle East can withstand this combination of punches from the United States. At that time, Russia was not realized being duped and China was not strong enough. In the first four years, the only way for Syria to survive was to hold on by itself. After all, if the Syrian regime collapses at the first sign, it will be useless for outsiders to help. But no one expected that the Assads would refuse to surrender! I swear that I will never surrender to USA. Assad said that this is not a matter of the Syrian civil war, or that once our regime fails, the entire country will be carved up by foreign countries, and the Syrian people will have no future. From a current perspective, Assad’s judgment back then was very accurate. Just think about today’s Libya and today’s Iraq . Since the civil war, the economy has not recovered yet, and the country is still in a state of fragmentation. It was very smart to be able to make this prediction in 2011. We can recall that in 2011, support of the US was rampant on the Internet in china. The point is USA really fooled many people into believing that the United States was good. The United States in 2011 was still at the peak of its empire, and its influenced was indeed much stronger than it is now. At least in those days, American women were still women, and men were still men… When the Syrian civil war was at its most dangerous, the rebels fought directly near the capital. Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, has been occupied by Syrian rebels for six years. It is only a stone’s throw away from the capital. At this time, it is a great test for the Assad’s resilience.
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After all, the fate of Saddam and Gaddafi lies ahead if Syria government lost. If they do not flee for their lives, once the rebels enter the city, their entire family will definitely be killed. But Assad insists on one thing. No matter how crazy the “expendable” supported by the Americans are around me, I will not surrender. I will live and die with my motherland! I believe that many people at that time advised Assad to save the country and choose to surrender. But Assad has an attitude, I will not surrender! I don’t care how strong the opponent’s is, but this is our own motherland, if we the Syrian people don’t resist, won’t we just perished? However hopeless we must fight! This scene suddenly reminded me of our people during the Anti-Japanese War. “Yes, no matter whether we can win against the Japanese or not, this battle must be fought. If we don’t defend our own motherland, who will we defend?” “And if we don’t fight, how do we know we won’t win? Those who say surrender is a way to save the country, better die as quickly as possible!” As a result, with the help of Russia and Iran, it was actually recovered!
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Although these external help are important, I think the most important thing is the persistence of the local people. Russia’s military intervention in the Syrian situation was in September 2015. The war in Syria broke out in 2011. If Assad himself could not hold on in the first four years, it would be useless even if reinforcements came. What is touching is that in the Battle of Aleppo , the Syrian army, after repeated bloody battles, was about to completely regain the lost territory… However, Western countries have appealed for an armistice at the United Nations, and they are talking about providing humanitarian relief. What it actually means is that you stop fighting and give me some time. I will re-arm the rebels so that I can kill you after.
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It was immediately vetoed by China and Russia. Don’t stop, keep firing, shoot with all your might! Just beat up the drowned dog. Our veto vote greatly helped Syria and won them a lot of space at the level of international public opinion. On the New Year of that year, China became the guardian symbol of the Syrian people. In the New Year of 2016, Aleppo, Syria, was liberated. The five-star red flag was raised on the Syrian land, and countless Syrian people grateful to our country’s flag.
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“Thank you, China, thousands of miles away. “
If you look at the first half of Assad’s life, you will feel like a young college student, a refined intellectual who did not have a strong desire for power and just wanted to spend a comfortable life with his beautiful wife. It was the wave of history that pushed him to the critical point of life and death in Syria, but he actually withstood the test of history, which no one expected. The United States not only funded the Syrian rebels, but also created the Devil Isis organization. What the Isis organization has done can be said to be insane. If I were to tell what they did, I’m afraid this article wouldn’t even pass the censorship. In short, it’s extremely anti-human and more Nazi than the Nazis… During the process of regaining the territory, the eastern Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor encountered a siege by the “Isis Organization” for more than three years! No one knows what kind of will the Syrian people relied on to survive and win again…
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In the end, this city, under the leadership of the legendary Syrian general Issam Zarushidine, and the 104th Brigade, finally changed the tide of war after four-year defense, which can be called the Syrian version of battle of Leningrad, and the situation in Syria began to fundamentally change. reverse! To be honest, I feel that the Syrian Civil War is very similar to our country’s Anti-Japanese War, both of which are won by persistence . During the Anti-Japanese War, there were some bastards who were promoted as liberal masters by domestic intellectuals. His so-called literary character was just like a piece of shit…
Hu Shi (bastard liberal master) once said: “We should have the determination of a strong man to cut off his own limb, make the highest sacrifice of abandoning the three eastern provinces, seek the preservation of remaining territories and administrative integrity, and seek a peace relations between China and Japan…”
During the Anti-Japanese War, our country was too poor and weak. To be honest, the key to reversal in World War II lay in Stalingrad and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor . Stalingrad laid the foundation for a complete Soviet counterattack, and the German army was defeated decisively . The attack on Pearl Harbor meant that the United States could no longer stay aloof and had to personally attack Japan. So for our country, it really means victory in the “anti-Japanese war”, and we “carried” it by force ! The whole process was extremely arduous. But this definitely does not mean that our resistance is meaningless. Before the war started, the Japanese army said that China would be conquered in three months. If there was really no resistance and we would be wiped out in three months, then the situation in World War II would be impossible to reverse! Because once the Japanese army obtains China’s vast territory and resources, it will not be so easy for the United States to attack Japan, and the US military may not even go to war personally. The same is true for Syria and Assad. They have endured it for 12 years, during which they have defeated countless opponents… Now think about it, among those Western politicians who originally called for Assad to step down, how many of them are still on stage?
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At the opening ceremony of the Hangzhou Asian Games, one of the most touching details was that when the Syrian athletes first entered the venue, they were very nervous and reserved , because after all, Syria has been blackmailed by all Western countries on the international stage. Now, what the world sees every day is the fake news about Syria. They don’t know whether they will be welcomed after entering the venue. After all, they are just a small country in war…
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But what none of them expected was that the Chinese audience gave out a roar of welcome for twice make a wave a tsunami.
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Then the Syrian athletes became more and more relaxed and began to wave the national flag vigorously. The Syrian president and his wife stood on the stage with peace of mind and smiles, watching the scene below.
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This scene seems to say: “We the Syrian people are still exist in this world!” This visit by the Syrian President to China is not simple. Syria has been sanctioned by all Western countries. Many airspaces are inaccessible and many places are very dangerous for them.
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Being able to bring the President of Syria to China is in itself a manifestation of the strength of a great power. We need to have sufficient aviation endurance and at the same time have enough friendly land neighbors so that you can have the transportation capacity and airspace to welcome distinguished guests.
Currently Syria’s cultural relics have been placed in China for more than three years. This is also a high degree of trust in our country. After all, the US military is still stealing things in Syria. The whole of Syria has not ended the war. Syria can only put the cultural relics in a place that he thinks is safest. country, that is China. At the same time, this time the Syrian President visited Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou, which sent a positive signal, because after all, Syria is a “Middle East religious” country. As a “Middle East religious” country, they often do not go to places of other religions, but this time the Syrian president personally visited Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou. This also expresses to the world that Syria is an extremely tolerant country and is not as extreme as Western society has smeared it to be. As a Chinese, I sincerely hope that the war in Syria will end soon. The visit of the Syrian President to China made me deeply moved. Back then, our athlete Liu Changchun , as the only Chinese athlete, represented China in the Los Angeles Olympics . It was precisely because we were caught in the “Rain” that year that we always want to hold an “Umbrella” for others… .. The difference is that our country faced an extremely brutal world back then. Now Syria is living in a rising new global order.
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Liu Cixin once wrote a sentence in his novel The Three-Body Problem: “I hope that one day, the bright sunshine can shine into the dark forest.”
Today China is that beam of light to fight unipolar world order!
In today’s China, we are the deserved to be called as beacon of multipolar world order!
May China’s multipolar world ray shine upon the victim of bullies on the entire earth and human civilization.
I came across a video in which their president praised China and said this during an interview:”China is great but humble”. At that moment, I suddenly felt very touched. This was the most accurate, heartfelt, and profound compliment.
When I was learning English, I had terrible pronunciation. Combined with the fact that I had just lost my front tooth (I was 7 at the time), it was very difficult for me to pronounce “t”, “th”, and “s” sounds.
The story starts with my mom taking me out for lunch. I wanted Kung Pao chicken, which is a delicious, succulent dish made up of spicy stir-fried chicken, peanuts and vegetables. The problem was, I was allergic to peanuts.
Excited to show off my English speaking abilities to my mother, I proudly waved over the server and asked, “Does this dish have pee-nits in it?”
Confused, the server repeated, “Penis?”
Delighted that he understood what I was saying, I nodded enthusiastically. “Yes! Penis. I am very… allergic. To penis.”
“We typically remove the penis from the chicken before we cook it, so that’s not an issue. Unless you were referring to you being a lesbian. In that case, let me assure you that our restaurant is very LGBT friendly.”
“So no penis?”
“Uh, sure. No penis.”
At this point, my mother interjected the conversation. Wiping tears of laughter from her eyes, she said, “She means peanuts. Alex is allergic to peanuts.”
The chicken was eventually ordered, and luckily contained neither peanuts nor penis.
The Balkanization of pop culture, entertainment, and news outlets.
There is no single screen that families gather ’round in the evenings to watch together. Everyone in the family now has their own screen, with which they can watch whatever they wish to watch, without worrying about if anyone else in their house also wants to watch it.
There is no single television series that dominates the ratings on a regular basis. Currently, the single most-watched non-sports television series is “Yellowstone,” which gets around ten million viewers per episode. So… barely 3% of the adult population in America watches the single-most-watched television series these days.
There is no more “must see TV.” This includes most sports finals, too. Ratings for things like the NBA finals peaked in 1998 and now aren’t even half of what they were back then. Only the Super Bowl has seen an increase in ratings since the 1990s. If not for that one four-hour event every year, there wouldn’t be a single time when more then 40% of American adults were all tuned into the same thing.
Any form of entertainment that finds a substantial audience across demographic lines is rare these days. With the exception of the NFL, seeing a large, diverse group of American adults enjoying the same event or even enjoying the same music is rarer now than it was in the past.
There is no single news outlet that most Americans consider trustworthy and rely on for their news. There is no modern-day Walter Cronkite. Sure, many Americans trust their particular news sources. The problem is that there are so many news sources, and they all cater to their particular audience’s interests, that there isn’t a single news narrative upon which most American adults can agree. The current events you know about as an American adult, and the facts of those current events, are largely determined by which media outlet you get your news from.
In any crowd of American adults, the chances of finding even two of them who partake in the same entertainment options is low. The “pop” in “pop culture” used to stand for “popular.” Now it’s just “popular, relative to the thousands of other options people have to entertain themselves these days.”
We’re not really living in a pop culture melting pot anymore. It’s more of a miles-long pop culture charcuterie board, where everyone takes exactly what they want, with no need to worry about what others are taking. There’s no peer pressure to “fit in” with what the popular crowd is doing. There is no real “popular” crowd anymore. Just relative popularity, in a culture of unlimited choices.
Passport Bros Love TWO Countries
This video showcases how passport bros and other of men can live an amazing life outside of The West and away from modern women. Feminism has gone too far in America which is driving men to seek more traditional lives in countries like Thailand and the Philippines.
We compare the crazy woke women to the masculine movement.
We encourage the manosphere, redpill and MGTOW community to self improve, work hard and live your best happy life. We also enjoy a bit of modern woman fail, cringe and hitting the wall along the way.
No Voice, No Name, No Direct Interviews – the Candidate is vetted first and then the name is deleted and replaced with a Number like 287. Then the Interview is completely in generic voice which means man or woman the voice of candidate is generically modified by software so you wont now if its a man or woman.
The Numbers are then selected or chosen and only then is it known who the Candidate is
The reason is to avoid Civil Rights Lawsuits on Workplace Discrimination and Equal Opportunities.
Likewise in Promotions too – An outside agency is hired to evaluate the employees and they do so using Blind Techniques and output monitoring programs.
This is because EVERYONE HAS BIAS
If you sit on an interview panel and see a Beautiful Girl and an Average Looking Girl – you will either develop bias to the beautiful girl or a grudge against the beautiful girl in favor of the average looking girl.
If you had a bad interaction with a Nepali person , then you may bear negative bias against a Nepali who comes for an interview even though he may be from Manipur or Mizoram.
My wife is one of the most liberal persons in the world and always talks about secularism etc. Yet when one of the houses in our Colony was to be sold to Muslims, She was among the neighbors who persuaded the owners not to sell. She could not explain it. She had a subconscious bias.
Another example is me. Having seen so much bungling done by Mr Modi – even if he does something good now – I develop bias and start looking for the negative aspects only. This is why before answering – i always consult with the Bank community and only if others feel similarly do i know i am on the right track.
During the Cauvery Riots – Tamilians develop Kannada Bias and vice versa. So in an interview if a Tamil employee appears and the Authority is a Kannadiga – then you could have a subconscious bias.
Its Human. Only Machines and Robots can be unbiased. We can develop subconscious bias all the time.
A Tractor trailer carrying nuclear warheads was caught on video Saturday afternoon in North Dakota. The truck was being escorted by local police, Military Police, armed Military troops, and protected overhead by helicopter gunships.
Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota is the most well-known nuclear missile base in that area of the country. All the missiles in that base are already armed. So why the additional warheads?
Under Barack Obama, the US nuclear arsenal was made much smaller. Missiles that had previously carried TEN (10) Multiple Independent Re-Entry Vehicles (MIRVs) were reduced to only one warhead. Perhaps the US is re-installing multiple warheads on our existing missiles?
Why would they be doing that unless they are expecting an actual nuclear war?
Hal Turner Personal Remarks
And expect one they should, given the meddling the US is doing in Ukraine, and the harshest economic sanctions ever imposed, against Russia, are all adding up to the US being hit by Russia.
Of course, the American people remain blissfully unaware that their government has us all on the threshold of actual nuclear war. They’re unaware because the “mass-media” has utterly failed to do its job of reporting actual news. The mass-media seem more interested in the severely mentally-ill who think men can be women and vice-versa.
I was sitting on a bench outside my business smoking a cigarette. I had been there since 8 AM and it was already 9 PM, and I was just waiting for a few people to leave.
A homeless man, riding a bicycle with an attached cart in the back, stopped near me. I expected him to ask for a cigarette, but instead he said, “I’ve got a lighter in each of my hands. One works and one doesn’t. If you pick the lighter that doesn’t work, I win a cigarette. If you pick the lighter that works, you win the lighter.” I thought that both lighters were probably non functional but I decided to play along.
I picked his left hand and he handed me the lighter. I tried it a couple times, but it didn’t work. I handed him a cigarette and he lit it with the lighter in his right hand.
We sat and smoked, and I asked him how he pulled off that trick. He told me that he was an amateur magician and he used some kind of slight of hand to do his trick. I was working at a recovery house, and we had a party coming up on Saturday. I asked him if he wanted a job doing magic tricks as a wandering performer in the room. A little negotiation and he was hired for a two hour gig for 200 dollars.
Saturday came, and he had shaved, cleaned up, and dressed casually but well for the performance. He did card tricks, coin tricks, and other kinds of sleight of hand for the 2 hours and then some.
One of the people who was attending the party owned a coffee shop, and he ended hiring the guy to perform in the coffee shop on weekends and some week nights.
His funny way of tricking people for cigarettes turned into a gig and then a job. He performed a trick on me that changed his life.
(Sopranos) Christopher Moltisanti || Soldier On [for Reece]
Sopranos was the only show that came so close to capturing what life is really like, and what it’s all about. Never seen a show cover complex themes and problems like this in such a captivating, real way (and even funny often).
Most engineers, like most Americans, spend everything they make. Then they run up credit card debt. Then they borrow $100k each to send their brood of children to liberal arts colleges for degrees that don’t make them employable. If they’re lucky, when they retire, they can sell the family home and live modestly on that and social security.
Why am I rich? I saved at least 10% of every paycheck since I was 24, and invested in no-load stock mutual funds, mostly as IRAs. My family lived modestly, but well. I didn’t buy bitcoin, didn’t day-trade, didn’t hit a lucky startup. Later in life, I gave my savings to a reputable stock manager, but I’m only doing a little better than if I’d stuck with mutual funds. I bought a house and paid down the mortgage when I had unspent income, three times. Have I been lucky in investments? Hell no. It took me a few years to learn to steer clear of retail stock brokers’ siren songs, for instance.
My investment strategy goes like this:
Spend less than you earn.
Invest unspent income in no-load stock-index mutual funds and ride the long-term upward bias of the stock market.
It’s really that simple.
A real coup
I think Huawei executed a ruthless, cold-blooded coup on Apple. It successfully kept Apple in the dark, getting complacent with its delusional domination of the Chinese market, so much that it thought it could maintain its grip by introducing the next model with not much more than a new metal case and USB connector. Then a week before Apple’s new release, with no time left to make any last-minute changes (no matter how much FoxConn can turn on a dime), Huawei dropped the bombshell. Classic!
There he is, sleeping in his green room, in his little bed.
Here are things I know about him:
He is the most talkative toddler on this earth. He literally does not shut up. Ever.
He loves to play with his sister’s dolls. He feeds them, carries them around, and puts them gently to sleep.
He is also obsessed with handy-man tools. He walks around with his drill, chain-saw and hammer, and repairs things that are then irreversibly un-repairable ever again. After this, he is utterly proud of himself.
He is compassionate. When his sister cries, he will drop his toys and run to hug her. Yesterday he used his shirt to wipe her tears, while telling her: Don’t cry, don’t cry…
He loves to dance, and when ever he can get himself an audience, off he goes..
He snores like a grandpa, and giggles in his sleep.
He wakes up in a great mood, proclaiming: “I woke up!” and every day he fills our home with love, music, laughter and dance.
These are some of the things I know about him, but let me tell you one thing that I don’t know:
I do not know if my little son is gay. And I don’t give a damn.
China had an enormous trade surplus for nearly one and a half decades plus enormous savings by its people
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Here
Chinas problem is that the three years of lockdown meant the expenses were much lesser and thus people have huge savings and thus very low inflation
This is why China is issuing more and more debt instruments, to push that savings and prevent a glut of money
It’s why China is so keen on pushing up Consumption
It’s why when everyone is raising rates, China is slashing them
Because China has a lot of money in the banks and wants to discourage saving and encourage spending
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This is the US, the total opposite
Expenses are higher than wages, Savings are at an all time low compared to the SUPERB TRUMP ERA pattern (Call him all the names but that man ran a good economy until Covid)
Thus people don’t have money in the US
Savings have been depleted and so now US Fed encourages savings by raising the rates
Same with other nations including Bharat
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As you can see, Economy is doing beautifully under Modi until 2017 when Demo happens and Wages crash and expenses rise
Again by 2018, there is a recovery but by 2019 the savings are depleted by rising expenses
Two years of lockdowns mean savings crash but expenses rise due to the opening up policies and finally today you are NECK TO NECK
Better than the US
So today China has too much money
US and India and EU and UK have too little to no money
The best solution would be China lending to UK, EU and US by buying more Debt
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They said it was a WIN WIN
China has too much money and if they don’t spend it, it will lead to a glut and a deflation
US have no money and keep printing and piling inflation
However China said NOTHING DOING
They don’t trust the West anymore and believe the West may renege on their debt
After what they did to Russia
If only China and India were closer, China would have lent to India and invested heavily
Best to get 6% from India than 2.5% in China with great difficulty
My guess is China will spend huge money on Technology investments and hope it yields a big change
Meanwhile China has a huge economic dominance today.
They can cut a cheque of $ 300 Billion without printing money
The entire EU and UK and US combined can’t do the same
Post 1950
US was also flush with money while UK and Europe were broke
Thus US lent the money and invested in Europe and UK and grew their money enormously
They then invested this into Military Industry and sadly it mutated beyond recognition
China has a BRI luckily
FIRST DAY in Beijing, China – America warns NOT to visit CHINA but I Did
This is John Eisenman.
main qimg c0cfd14689a0f3abb6a3cc4c68cf7818
He lost his daughter to sexual trafficking.
She was sold for $1,000 in Seattle Washington.
He did what a father should do and researched, investigated and found out about her abduction.
He RESCUED her HIMSELF.
…
He found out the person who sold her into trafficking was her 19 year old boyfriend.
He met up with him, abducted him, bludgeoned and stabbed him to death in Nov, 2020.
The authorities found him [dead AF boyfriend] in Oct 2021 in the trunk of the car he abandoned.
John Eisenman sits in prison knowing his daughter is safe and growing up after he has already lived 60 years of his life.
I bet you, he rests easy.
Live your life to the fullest. Do your absolute best to make sure your children have the opportunity to do the same no matter what the sacrifice.
My brother called me to let me know our dad was in the ER and it didn’t look good for his survival. I drove like a bat out of hell the 120 miles to get there. In the ER waiting room sat my brother & his wife, who knew nothing and had not been given any info or updates on our dad in over 2.5 hours.
I went up to the admitting desk to ask for an update and was told to sit down…that the clerk at the desk was busy and couldn’t deal with me. Unacceptable response so I just marched into the actual ER room to find my dad. Brother and SIL followed.
Found my dad and he is basically gray with no one attending him. The attending comes up to me and starts screaming at me. I asked him what was wrong with my dad, (who has a heart problem and has a pacemaker). The Dr responds in a horrible accent and terrible English that my dad has vertigo. It took several tries to figure out what he was saying and even the nurses were having a problem understanding him.
I lost it and didn’t care if I got arrested or not. I loudly proceed to tell the Dr that my dad is gray, not green, indicating heart problem & that my dad had his last heart surgery at this hospital 1 year prior. That I want a heart monitor on my dad ASAP.
The smug Dr asked me where I my medical degree. I smiled and again, loudly said that I didn’t have one but that I had a law degree. That I hoped he enjoyed his sojourn in the US because by the time I’m done suing him, deportation will look like a good option.
He quickly put on a heart monitor on my dad and it showed my dad was having a heart attack as they attached it. Luckily, they were able to treat him and he lived many years after that.
3 things:
This was at a top nationally ranked hospital
I filed a complaint with the BoD and the Dr was let go due to his repeated negligence.
The day my mother-in-law died they called and told us that she was not going to live through the day that her whole system was shutting down and she didn’t have more than a few hours.
My wife and I went to the hospital she was conscious and complained because they had the bed in a head lower position. She complained that it was uncomfortable and asked to have it moved to a sitting position, the nurse said that they couldn’t do that because it would shorten her life.
We insisted and they moved it so she was more comfortable.
While we sat there they kept coming in and drawing blood, etc. Finally, when they rolled in a portable x-ray machine, my wife stood up and threw them out.
Eventually, she got to the point where she wasn’t conscious any more and in the evening she finally passed.
I still believe that they were trying to bill everything they could get on her bill before she died, why take ex-rays of someone they already told us was dying?
Fortunately, when my wife died of cancer she died at home in hospice and not in a hospital. She died peacefully in her sleep, with no hassles.
Why Do We Have to PAY Others Just to LIVE?!?! IT’S INSANITY!
We are out here on this Earth and surrounded with everything we need to live amazing lives. So why have we created, and continue to tolerate, a system that makes us work our whole lives earning money so we can pay for the privilege of living?
The explanation given to me by a Dumbo on Quora was that Huawei which used US Technology and US Patents, did not follow US rules and did business with countries sanctioned by the US
This despite the WTO ruling on 8/7/1998 clearly citing that
Trade restrictions on Technology and it’s free and fair use shall be determined by the commercial aspects and by the political ones
This was wrt Iraq
So the sanction on Huawei was illegal
Plain and simple
So the US essentially claim that because they control the technology, they can use it to demand obedience from the entire world
That because they control the dollar they can demand obedience from the entire world
They are immune from WTO appeals and rulings
So if the US is against you, you have no where to present your case
If the US is against you, you either comply or die
That’s the RULES BASED ORDER
Tell me i am wrong
Tell me of one example where the US sanctioned a nation and reversed it when the Nation without any change in its Government Or Leader Or Policies, appealed to a higher authority
It has NEVER happened ever
Under the same Rules based order, Saudi Arabia cannot decide to refuse to sell Oil to a paying customer but the EU can decide to cap the price of oil and force the whole world to comply
I wouldn’t have had a problem if Huawei had been taken to court and fined billions of dollars for patent violation
That’s Commerce and Trade and Business
However merely because you sell stuff to Iran, just because you use US technology, you can be sanctioned and cut off from Chips on a mere order from a US President is terrifying
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Xi, Putin, Assad may all be many things but today they are the ONLY PEOPLE preventing us all from becoming slaves of the United States of America
Its why I support them wholeheartedly
As long as they are strong, there will always be two camps, and the US better be on its best behaviour or it will lose friends to the other side
I believe Huawei was the beginning
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When Meng Wanzhou was arrested for baseless charges that were never established for 3 years on the whims of a 70 year old syphilitic promiscuous orange man with half his brains eaten out by some STD or another
It was the moment when one realized that the United States was growing not only too big for their britches but capable of becoming something that would put Nazi Germany to shame
Plus these evil men would justify it saying “We are the good guys”
Huawei paid a heavy price for trusting the US
Yet they also ensured that every other Chinese company was now on its guard when dealing with the US
Plus other companies too
Today ISRO is tolerated because it’s so much below NASA
The day it starts climbing higher, you will see sudden references to Kashmir and Genocide and sanctions will begin
Unless India learns from Huawei like China did, Russia did and Iran did
Hawaiian Steak
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Ingredients
Individual steaks, 1/2 inch thick or less
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup vinegar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
Pineapple slices
1 large can mushrooms
Instructions
Punch both sides of each steak well with a fork, then marinate for 24 to 36 hours in a marinade made by combining soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar and sugar.
Simmer steaks on a low fire for 10 minutes in the marinade.
Remove them and place steaks in a 350 degree F oven for 10 to 20 minutes, depending on thickness of meat. Three minutes before removing steaks, place a pineapple slice on each.
To make gravy, slowly sauté a large can of mushrooms in butter. While doing so, boil down the sauce used for the marinade to make a gravy.
Combine mushrooms and reduced marinade sauce.
Serve individual steaks with the pineapple on top, over which has been poured a generous amount of gravy.
This is a bizarre survival tale that includes jaguars, politics, cactus, assassination threats, near-death, and yes… a deranged lunatic. Oddly enough, even though I’m a dedicated liberal, this mad-man was a far-far-left liberal himself.
It was the mid-2000’s, and I was actively engaged in all sorts of wildlife research for a variety of government agencies and civilian groups. One of my projects was with a great organization called the Sky Island Alliance, in Tucson, AZ. (Read about them here, if you’d like: What are “Sky Islands”, and do they exist? ) This particular project involved looking for signs and tracks of jaguars that were reportedly crossing over the border from Mexico and setting up shop in the mountains of southern Arizona, in order to have data to set up protected areas for this extinct-in-America Big Cat.
One day, I received a call from a graduate student from a University in Colorado, who was looking for a research assistant for his project. The project consisted of living out in the wilderness and setting up camera-traps throughout the mountains, trying to get photos of the elusive cats, and learn more about their habits. Since I had a very good reputation among the environmental research community, I was recommended for the job by a professor at a local university. So I interviewed with the guy over lunch, we seemed to bond, and I got the job. I spent the next couple weeks putting in a lot of extra time at the Tucson Zoo, observing their two beautiful black jaguar sisters, Nikita & Simone, up close and personal. I would help with the feeding, collect scat and urine samples and do a lot of watching, reading and interacting. [1]
Eventually, it was time to head out toward the Mexican border and set up in the cabin. No electricity or running water. Right in the middle of the smuggling route from Mexico. Surrounded by the wildest remote mountains around. I was looking forward to a great adventure and a chance to get some good science accomplished. Emil and I got started with our automatic cameras. The challenge was to make continuous hikes into the mountains, replacing batteries and exchanging film in the many dispersed camera traps. It was some treacherous hiking. We were getting along fine. On the second day, we got a surprise… Emil’s dad decided to come from Colorado and join in.
He was a surly old guy from the Rocky Mountains. He probably wasn’t as old as he looked, because he was extremely “weathered”, leathery and wiry, with deep creases in his face; a constant suspicious squint. Grey stubble grew from almost right under his eyes, down to his chin. Not an ounce of fat on his stringy hard muscles. When you said something to him, he’d jerk his face left or right like a chicken, to look at you sideways, always seeming to be about to say an accusatory “Wha’ju say!?”, and perhaps bite your head off. He happened to look incredibly similar to this actor, Roberts Blossom. [2]
He wasn’t very trusting and he took an immediate dislike to me for some reason. I think he wanted to be the assistant, and have me leave. There was some weird father/son dynamic going on between them, and I got the impression Emil had grown up with beatings being a normal part of life.
Emil’s and my relationship suddenly subdued and the atmosphere changed.
These were the days of the George W. Bush administration. Emil’s dad turned out to be an extreme far-left liberal. The most far-left I’d ever come into contact with. I was also a liberal… but a moderate. I wasn’t a fan of Bush, but I was pushing through it, waiting for the next election. On that second night, we sat down to dinner. Tin plates of beans and bacon, with some tin cups of coffee. Emil’s dad sat across from me at the small wooden table. I tried to talk to him, and it immediately turned to politics. I nodded my head at all he was saying about the damned republicans and “that asshole Bush”. He spat out a long list of complaints. It wasn’t long before he said something about killing him if he had the chance. Oddly… I was of the mind that we shouldn’t be thinking of killing our president, whoever it may be. I said something to that effect.
Dad growled, “You mean you wouldn’t kill him?” He looked straight into my eyes, like a maniac.
I half-laughed out a response of, “Look, I don’t like him, but I’m not going to say we should assassinate the President”.
He glowered through me. His hands were in fists on the table, one of them holding a fork. I felt a pressure tank across from me, building up steam. His lips were pursed, breathing hard through his nose, staring at me. Suddenly he exploded up in a jerk, flipped his plate of beans toward me and about leaped on top of me, ranting about what the president was doing to destroy the country! He bent over and got in my face. I stood up quick and said, “Back the fuck off!”
Emil finally got involved and said something. I was fuming. I looked at them both, then left the cabin to go chill out outside in the night air. This suddenly took a weird turn.
Eventually we all went to bed, as we had to get up very early. In the morning, we had breakfast in silence, then all headed out in the pickup, toward the beginning of the trail. The whole way, he was insulting me in every way possible; from my knife being too big; “Only green-horns and pussies think they need a big knife,” to my hair, “Why don’t you get a haircut and look like a real man.” Beyond all belief, I kept my cool and waited for Emil to reign in his crazy old man. Emil wouldn’t look at me, and stayed silent. The old man hadn’t been with us on our last outing, and we had used a comfortable pace to make our rounds. But this time dad took the lead. It turned out that not only was he half jack-ass… he was also half mountain goat. He set off at a crazy unnecessary pace, clearly meaning to break me, or leave me behind. I was in average shape, but I had a trick knee from an old parachuting accident I’d had while I was an Army Paratrooper. So I needed to watch my step. As we sprinted up and down the mountains, eventually the worst happened and my knee blew out as I was racing down a steep slope of forest. I yelled out. They kept going. Eventually I stumbled down to the rocky dry river bed at the bottom, where they were waiting.
I explained I had a bad knee from the Army. “How many jumps you got?” he scowled. I told him 26.
He says, “My buddy has over a thousand and he never had no bad knees.” At this point, I was vulnerable, and I really needed to restrain myself for my own safety. He pointed up a steep rocky slope and said he was heading out. I told them I couldn’t make it. He derided me some more and told me to wait while they continued. I had no choice. I agreed. They left me with most of the heavy batteries and set off. “3 or 4 hours,” they said. I waited, surrounded by dry boulders.
There was no shade in that valley. I had to get out of the sun. The nearest shade was 150′ straight up a cliff, where I saw a tree. I made the choice to climb after about 2 hours. I got up and started hobbling toward the cliff of rocks, dirt and some dry grass. Now came my biggest misfortune. All the extra batteries they piled into my backpack made it extremely heavy. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was that my pack was on top of my camel-back, which held all my water. It was fine when my pack was light, but all the batteries were pressing down on my water bladder, and at some point during my climb, the pressure popped the end off the drinking tube. I didn’t notice as all my water squirted out and left me empty, until 30 minutes later, I reached the top. I pulled out the tube for a well-deserved drink, and… nothing. “Damn it!”
The tree wasn’t as full as I wished and only gave a smattering of shade. Better than nothing. It was about 118 degrees F. After a total of 5 hours had passed since they left, I was getting desperate. As I sat on that cliff side, I saw a barrel cactus not far away. I stumbled over. Ya hear that they have water in them. So, I gave it a shot. Luckily, I had my big knife with me and was able cut off the top. No puddle of water. Just an off-white mash of cactus innards. It was moist. It would have to do. I don’t recommend this method. It had a bitter tannin taste to it, as I scooped out a chunk and sucked on it. Horrible! Again… better than nothing, but not much better. 7 hours passed and I was dehydrated and starting to get hazy vision and a crazy headache. I considered starting a signal fire. But I worried about it getting out of control and consuming me. 8 hours.
Finally, I saw them down in the valley of rocks. I yelled out. Again and again. At last they answered. “Come on down!” I heard. Clearly I had to go down. But I was only thinking of water. I scrambled down the cliff again, knowing that in just a few minutes, I could drink. At last… “Water” I croaked.
“You don’t have any water?” he says. I wasn’t up for a discussion to explain, I just needed a fast drink. I shook my head.
Again, I asked for water. “We don’t have any water.”
What the hell? I see them both with canteens. Emil started to give me his canteen. The old bastard again yelled out, “I said we don’t have no water” and he shot a look at his son. Emil backed down silently. I couldn’t believe this! I reached out and tried to grab a canteen and the bastard got up and started walking away, saying, “There’s water at the truck.” I was dumbfounded. I started following them, listening to the water sloshing in their canteens just feet away. I was going a bit mad from the sound.. and from the entire situation. But I barely had the strength to be mad. I did my best at keeping up but fell further and further behind. I tried calling out. They stopped one time for me to catch up and as soon as I did, again they took off. At last, I could go no further. Five minutes later they came back, with the old bastard bitching at Emil. Emil gave me water. One drink, and then that evil bastard yelled out, “That’s enough! We need it!” Emil put away the water. They started to take off again.. my knee was throbbing and I could hardly walk. I set short range goals of just making it to the next boulder. One after another. My vision made everything wavy. And finally Emil grew a pair and defied his old man, and put an arm around me and helped me the rest of the way… another mile. He mumbled an, “I’m sorry” quietly.
The truck was ahead of us. 100 yards more. I willed myself to keep going. Then… we were there. A 5 gallon jug of water that had been heating in the sun was brought down. It was hot enough to brew tea, but I drank. And drank. Near-boiling water. It was good.
It was a quiet ride back. I packed up my gear and got in my car and drove off, back to civilization. All I keep thinking about was that water sloshing ahead of me, out of reach, and hearing him insist “We don’t got no water” while I was looking right at it. All this, because I didn’t agree that President Bush should be assassinated.
It’s quite clear that he would have left me to die out there and concocted some story of me wandering off and getting lost, if it wasn’t for the intervention of his minimally-less corrupt son.
Months later, Emil got indicted for illegally trapping our jaguar in a noose, causing stress in the poor cat, which eventually led to the death of the only jaguar in the United States at the time. Here’s the picture he took of the tortured, snared cat. [3]
It was a whole big deal with scandal and blame spread all over. It became a Federal case. After being indicted, he lied to investigators and blamed his assistant for putting lure around the trap without his direction. This wasn’t true and eventually came out. This assistant was the person who took my place! In the end, he was banned from practicing any more research, anywhere. You may be interested in reading about the debacle here: emil mccain prosecuted over jaguar
Conspicuously absent from the indictment, was one old, evil, bastard goat, that I damn well know had a hand in the unethical activities that led to the jaguar’s death, due to over-bearing parental pressure. And he certainly had a hand in convincing his son to lie about the circumstances afterwards. I have no doubt. It was, after all, the government against his son. The government that he wanted to take out with a bullet. I know that lunatic bastard helped kill our jaguar, and let his son take all of the fall. Not that his son didn’t deserve it as well. I’ve no proof. But I know it. He damn near killed me.
John Holmes was a legend during the golden age of porn. He played the famous Johnny Wadd, a fictional detective in a series of porn films. At the time, he was most famous for having a 13-inch penis, although this was never proven. He also claimed to have sex with over 14,000 women. This is also disputed, but he did star in over 500 movies.
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As his porn career was taking off in the early 70s, so was his drug use. At his height, he was earning 3,000 dollars a day from his films, which was mostly spent on freebasing cocaine. His habit greatly affected his ability to maintain an erection, and by the end of the 70s, he was selling drugs and prostituting himself for drugs to both men and women.
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By the early 80s, Holmes was heavily involved in criminality. He was a close associate of drug dealer and nightclub owner Eddie Nash and was also close to the notorious “Wonderland Gang,” a group of heroin-addicted cocaine dealers, that ruled the drugs trade in Los Angela’s.
Holmes had confided with some members of the Wonderland Gang about a stash of drugs and money being kept at Eddie Nash’s house. Holmes had fallen out of favour with the Wonderland Gang after taking more than his fair share of drugs. So he helped them by setting up the home invasion and robbery of Eddie Nash.
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Eddie Nash suspected Holmes was involved in the robbery. He admitted to his part in the robbery after Nash threatened to kill his family. In the early hours of July 1st 1981, a gang of Nash’s enforcers along with Holmes entered the Rowhouse located on Wonderland Avenue, where five members of the Wonderland gang were sleeping. All but one of the gang members were beaten to death, and the fifth barley surviving the brutal attack.
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A handprint belonging to Holmes was found above the headboard of one of the slain gang members, putting Holmes at the scene during the attack. Eddie Nash was the prime suspect for the crime along with Holmes who took more of an active role. Holmes was charged with personally committing all four murders but was acquitted due to lack of evidence after a three-week trial. The trail was a landmark case, where it was the first trial in history to introduced video as evidence. The Wonderland murders remain unsolved to this day.
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By 1986, Holmes was diagnosed as HIV positive, and it was around this time he landed a lucrative deal to star in two adult films with “Paradise Visuals.” He went on to have unprotected sex with his co-stars while not revealing his diagnosis.
He died from Aids related complications on March 13th 1988, at the age of 43.
i gave up on the american dream | regularism
“I feel you girl! I’m 34 renting a room in a house, I hardly own anything anymore. I let go of the illusion of how life is “supposed to be”. We are free this way, living simply! It’s all a state of mind starting with gratitude for what you have.”
During my senior year in High School, I was blossoming into a fine young man. I was a cultural icon of the time. I wore a “choke collar” around my neck, puffy sleeved and colorful nylon shirt, a big colorful belt buckle, and bell bottom jeans.
I had longish hair to my shoulders. Parted in the middle up top. It was light brown in color. Oh those were the days…
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I cruised around in my GTO (that I affectionately referred to as “the goat”) and alternated between Senior year in High school and my work life.
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Evenings were spent “hanging out”, going to “keggers” in the “bony dumps” (old abandoned strip mined areas) and popping “white crosses” (tiny white amphetamine pills used for weight reduction. We used to take four at a time.) and drinking beer (Miller in Pony bottles).
The “white cross” pills were tiny, tiny white wafers with a cross on one side. We popped them and got “the rush”, and then buzzed, we smoked the marijuana, and drank the beer while we cruised the roads though the countryside.
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Typically, we kept the trunk filled with ice, and the beer would be placed in the trunk to keep them cool. You would be amazed how long the ice would last, too. Easily into the middle of the next day.
Then we would fill up the trunk with more ice for the night’s activities.
Two dollars would fill up the gas tank.
I lived in the countryside. My city cousins spent far more time in bars and clubs, but that wasn’t really possible for me at the time. It wasn’t until I was older, that I started to frequent clubs and bars, and that type of lifestyle.
This falls well into my “room theory” of life. You live in one room, and then enter another room, and you life becomes a long series of rooms. Each one different from the rest. This “room” was my “Senior Year in High School prior to College” room. And come September, I entered my “Freshman year in college” room. New friends. New lifestyle. New place, and new everything.
What “room” are you in now, and what does your next “room” gonna look like?
Dazed and Confused (1993) | *First Time Watching* | Movie Reaction
There was a case in Prince Edward Island about 15 years ago where a lady was being sued because part of her house was on her neighbour’s property.
So she hired a surveyor – who told her her house was partly on her neighbour’s property.
So she didn’t pay him. The surveyor sued. He won. The court noted that when you hire an expert, you pay for their expertise and their informed opinion, not for the result you want.
But let me tell you something else. There was a mall in Northern Ontario. Three engineers over a period of thirty years were hired to investigate water leaks. They all said the water leaks were the result of the waterproofing being done improperly but the structure of the building was fine. A month after the third engineer pronounced the building “structurally sound”, part of it collapsed catastrophically, killing two people. The inquiry noted that the engineer had equipment to ultrasonically examine the steel beams, but didn’t use it. The forensic engineers hired after the collapse noted the steel connection that failed was 89% corroded (meaning the connection was 10 times stronger than it needed to be, but still failed). I’m assuming that’s the kind of inspection you were looking for.
America Finally Did It, The Fuse Has Been Lit!
I’m American and I’m disgusted with the corporate control of our domestic and foreign policies.
I will share with you one of the most moving acts of compassion I’ve witnessed.
When my youngest son, Luke, was 10 years old, he played football on a local rec-league team. One evening his team played against one of the big rival teams from a neighboring town. I was surprised at how many people were at this game. After all, these were young children playing.
At a crucial time in the game, my son got the football and was running for a touchdown. He zigged and zagged, dodging and evading players on the opposing team. His teammates did a remarkable job blocking, as well. Finally, there was only one opponent between my son and a touchdown, and one of Luke’s teammates (Mario) made a hard block, knocking the opposing player to the ground.
There was now nothing between the goal and my son, who ran all out, then, slowed, stopped, turned around, ran back to the boy writhing on the ground, and took a knee.
The crowd went wild. Spectators on my son’s team hurled horrific insults at my young son. People I had known for years said the most hateful things, glaring at my son, threatening him, shooting daggers at me.
I ran down onto the field to be with Luke. As I ran down the bleachers, people said hateful things to me about my son.
When I arrived at Lukes’ side, before I could ask if he was okay, Luke looked up at me and said, “Dad, I had to do it. I had to come back.”
“Okay,” I said.
Luke continued, “Mario hit that kid hard. Real hard. When he hit him, I heard a bone snap. I heard it! I knew he was hurt bad, and I knew if I scored, it would take more time for anyone to notice him, and he would be hurting in all that time.”
I nodded my head. I could barely see at this point, my eyes welling with tears, proud of my son.
Luke continued, “And I remembered that you always teach us that being a good sport is about more than winning, so I stopped and came back.”
He looked at me, his eyes wondering how I would react. I had never been prouder of him. I hugged him and told him how proud I was.
Luke was correct — the boy suffered a broken leg. He had to go to hospital.
This is one of the finest acts of compassion I ever witnessed. And a valuable lesson for me.
Have they threatened anyone? The way I see it US and the former colonials are scary! They come to South China Sea from as far away as 10 thousand miles away to pick a fight with China. I did not hear or see China travelling to English Channel or Florida coast to threaten the U.S.! Did you? Last I check And it is NATO wanting to expand to Asia not CCP expanding to Europe or North America!
So who is scary? To us you are scary. It wasn’t that long ago that the British force fed 100 million Chinese to get addicted to Opium and burn down the imperial palace in Beijing and stole Hong Kong for 156 years! And unsatisfied it cohort with the evil US to pay hoodlums an unemployed to pretend to protest for CNN as props. The U.S. and UK orchestrated a protest! The west is scary not China. You guys are spoiling for a fight. China just wants to do business?
What is so scary about a society wanting to do well for its people. Did they asked the world to be like them and adopt their Socialism with Chinese characteristics. They did not. They went further! The says that every nation should adopt what they see as best for them.
They think that Chinese political system may not be suitable for any nation. And that it is not exportable. The U.S. murdered 3 million to stop communism. The U.S. also murdered another 3 million in Iraq to bring democracy to them. And another 2 million to stop Talibanism in Afghanistan! Don’t you think US behaviour is more scary! I thinks so. And so does 87% of the world.
Where do you get “half” the world? You dream it up? You simply follow some lies from the media? No more than 5% of the world disagree with China. 87% disagree with the U.S. outright!
You know what us scary. You! Yes if there are 5% of the world thinking like you. So wrong, so ignorant and so naive. That is very scary!
My husband and his first wife went from Chicago to New York for a long weekend.
As they waited to cross a busy street, they heard two businessmen behind them discuss how they were going to get the better of someone they were doing a deal with—in St. Louis.
Their ears pricked up because his first wife was from St. Louis originally.
As they walked along the next street, they were able to hear and identify enough details to realize that these two men were going to trick her uncle by not disclosing certain information.
When they got to the hotel, his wife called her uncle—who verified that indeed he was in the middle of doing a deal with these two guys in New York!
So no deal happened then!
What are the chances?
China Warns US on Its Ridiculous Plan to Make 150 Nations Leave Belt and Road Initiative!
On the 9th of June 2021, USA introduced a bill, which passed by 68 votes to 32, known officially as the “US Innovation and Competition Act”. In Washington it is colloquially known simply as the “anti-China bill”. Part of USA’s Anti-China bill, USA has allocated over $300 Million every year, for 3 years, to media trash China.
I just WISH USA would stop their warmongering ways, and join China in uniting the World.
I was struggling for over a year looking for steady work. I finally landed a job unloading trailers at UPS. Contrary to popular belief, they didn’t pay very well.
Growing up, I hung out with some guys whose parents had money. This instilled a sense of undeserved entitlement and pretentiousness in me. Looking down on people who worked these, “sh*t jobs.”
Anyways, I had been down on my luck for a bit in more aspects than one, and one day after a long evening of working my tail off I went to a local McDonald’s (McDonald’s employees being one of those jobs/people I’d mocked). After pulling into the drive-thru I checked my bank account. $3.47. I was so, so hungry. I ordered a few things off of the dollar menu, and proceeded to pull up to the window. Thinking I kept the order minimal, I assumed I had enough. The lady there ran one card, declined. Now, somewhat frantic, I pulled my credit card out. Declined. I, embarrassed as all get out, asked the lady if she could take some things off of my order for me. She paused and looked at me for a moment. I don’t know if she could hear the despair in my voice or saw it in my body language, but she looked around before dropping those items back in the bag with a little extra and handed it right back to me. She wished me a good rest of my evening with a quiet smile.
I told her she didn’t have to do that, but she happily insisted. I thanked her as I pulled away from the window. I pulled out of the parking lot, and immediately broke down crying. An uncontrollable sobbing that I’d never felt before. After all of these years of frowning upon people like this lady, she was the one to help me when I just needed something to eat.
McDonald’s lady, wherever you may be, your small act of kindness changed my life.
The global shift away from the US dollar has increased tenfold since February 2022 compared to the previous 15 years, Stephen Jen, the CEO of Eurizon SLJ Capital Limited, told Die Welt on Thursday.
According to the former International Monetary Fund and Morgan Stanley economist, the majority of analysts are missing the trend because they evaluate the nominal value of central banks’ dollar holdings on the basis of data released by the IMF.
“However, if we take into account changes in the value of the dollar, then, according to our calculations, we’ll see that the dollar share in foreign reserves has lost about 11% since 2016,” Jen explained.
He argued that Washington’s decision to freeze Russia’s dollar reserves after the launch of Moscow’s military operation in Ukraen had been the decisive event.
“This has fueled fear and anxiety in Beijing, but also in other emerging countries,” he said, adding that holding reserves in US dollars had been always considered absolutely safe until the drastic move.
Jen explained that the BRICS countries had been increasingly focused on alternatives to the greenback.
According to the economist, since the BRICS group of emerging economies – which presently comprises Russia, Brazil, India, China, and South Africa, but is due to add six new members next year – the economic power of the union has multiplied. Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Egypt and Ethiopia will officially join the group in January 2024.
James Gandolfini’s Best Scene from The Sopranos
The range of emotions showcased here is amazing; anger, disgust, fear, sadness, joy, contempt, and lil’ compassion, all within three minutes. A master class for any actor.
Chinese Innovation Foils U.S. Tech War — Clifford A. Kiracofe
Washington calculated that it could restrain China’s technology advancement and thereby stay ahead of the China. However, it appears that this calculation was mistaken.
China’s rapid advances in technology will inevitably foil the United States-led Western technology war against China. Huawei unveiled its stunning new high tech Mate60 cell phone and timed the announcement with the visit of U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. Sending a message?
The Donald Trump administration launched an intensive trade war and a tech war against China. President Joe Biden continued Trump’s policies and ratcheted them up to a new level. Rather than engage in mutually beneficial trade relations and scientific and technological cooperation, Washington openly admits it seeks to contain and suppress China’s economic growth and development.
Playing this zero-sum game is a dead end for the United States. China is very well equipped in the pursuit of technological innovation. Fundamental to China’s tech progress is the human factor. For example, it is no secret that China every year produces far more STEM (Science-Technology-Engineering-Math) students than does the U.S.
Tech war is economic war
Export controls and restrictions on technology development are nothing new in international commerce. During its colonial period, the North American colonies faced an array of trade restrictions and technology restrictions imposed by the British Empire. These were designed to prevent the colonies from becoming rivals to British manufactures. They also were a factor leading to the American Revolution and War of Independence.
In World War I, the United Kingdom enacted a “Trading with the Enemy Act” which created an export control regime deigned to deny Germany war related imports. After the U.S. entered the war, Congress passed its own Trading with the Enemy Act modeled on the British legislation. These wartime legislative measures were applied again during World War II.
After World War II, export controls on a multilateral basis were created by the West to restrict various exports to the Soviet Union and Communist bloc. The Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (COCOM) was created at the beginning of the Cold War. The U.S. thus coordinates, in turn, with NATO allies, Australia, and Japan to restrict the export of sensitive technologies to designated countries.
So the Western use of export controls for the purposes of economic warfare is nothing new. But the revival of this mechanism intensively directed specifically against China is a key feature of the U.S.-led New Cold War. The technological encirclement and blockade of China, however, is not sustainable.
Washington miscalculates
Washington calculates that it could restrain China’s technology advancement and thereby stay ahead of the China. However, it appears that this calculation was mistaken.
Logically, because China’s population is four times larger than that of the United States, there would at some point be a larger pool of STEM trained specialists in China than in the U.S. This is so because of the continuous upgrading of higher education in China and the massive commitment to research and development.
Several years ago, Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. released a study on the STEM issue. The university’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology reported that in 2000 the U.S. issued twice as many doctorates in STEM field as did China. But in 2007, China began outpacing U.S. universities. The report assessed that by 2025 China would produce twice as many STEM Ph.D. graduates.
Because the U.S. cannot compete with its own population base, Washington seeks to import specialists in STEM fields from India as one stop gap measure.
But Chinese innovation is very dynamic and advanced with great future potential. Therefore, it should have been no surprise that China would develop the necessary technology for state-of-the-art semiconductors. This national objective combines the growing pool of high-tech specialists with a large pool of skilled labor together with billions of yuan for investment.
It was not difficult to foresee that China, through innovation and targeted investment, would be able over time to produce the machines and industrial processes to fabricate advanced state-of-the-art semiconductors. This applies to Chinese semiconductor design capability as well.
Why did the Washington miscalculate?
An inter-agency task force on the Chinese semiconductor issue would have concluded that the attempt to block and limit Chinese advances is not sustainable and thus would fail.
Some critics of the administration point to the lack of competence in President Biden’s foreign policy team. They say that Secretary of State Tony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan are just not up to their jobs.
Be that as it may, it is possible that racial prejudice affects Washington’s assessments. There was a time after World War II when it was common to look down on “cheap” Japanese goods. But Japanese success in electronics and auto manufacture by the 1980s showed another story.
Anyone from the U.S., a tourist or an official who visits China’s National Museum in Beijing will see exhibits displaying many centuries of Chinese skill and innovation not only in art, such as ceramics and bronze, but also in inventions and technology. China’s history of science and technology goes back millennia.
What does the Huawei Mate60 portend?
Clearly, the advanced smartphone is a perception changer at a minimum. No doubt, it will be seen as a game changer as well. Other high-tech breakthroughs are in the news.
It is now reported that the Chinese firm SMIC has a 7 nanometer (nm) N+2 process semiconductor project that is produced entirely in China with no access to Western equipment and technologies. All of the core components in China’s EUV lithography machines are said to be ready and that the prototype is being tested.
On the day that the new Mate60 phone was announced it was sold out in one minute online. Huawei boosted production to 15-17 million units and beginning September 10 Chinese can purchase the smartphone in Huawei’s offline stores. The phone has a satellite capability.
As Chinese firms develop independent semiconductor design and fabrication capacity, U.S. firms inevitably will lose out on this vast export market. It seems logical that the more intense the anti-China trade and tech wars become the more Chinese consumers will turn to homegrown products other than those from the U.S.
The U.S. lifted a stone only to hit its own feet.
The U.S. politicians must come to their senses and adopt a China policy of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, cooperation, and mutual benefit. Washington’s belligerent and destabilizing foreign policy disrupts the international community, increases tensions, and can lead to a war which will harm the U.S. side in the end.
The Special Cat Looked Sadly Around At the People Passing by His Cage
Life was idyllic for Pinat until the inevitable struck. His beloved owner passed away, leaving the poor cat alone and vulnerable.
I had a cherry tree in my back yard. I was really looking forward to them. I got home from work and there were 6 or more kids in the tree, stuffing my cherries into all sorts of containers. I yelled and they all took off. It wasn’t possible to get to the remaining cherries. Some of them left containers in my yard. A mom showed up and yelled at me for not giving her back her Tupperware.
SMIC has been making 7nm custom GPUs for the past 2–3 years, mostly for crypto customers who couldn’t get in the TSMC queue.
This filled real market demand that other players didn’t, or couldn’t.
SMIC used this opportunity to refine its process, on the quiet.
Huawei, in the meantime, found willing partners to share talent and resources, in a concerted effort to save the high-tech industry on the mainland from American destruction through the threat of sanction.
How did Huawei et. al. find the tools necessary for chip design, especially the GPU? What black magic did Huawei use to improve the transistor geometry? How did they penetrate the Qualcomm 5g patent wall? I don’t know. Neither does my friend in TSMC. It’s a separate ecosystem now, and quite independent.
The fog of war has descended, but the outcome point to solidarity across the ranks, with competitors working together like they are part of a conglomerate.
The Chinese are capable of cooperation on unheard of scale, because of long history.
The Mate 60 Pro is merely a first step, lacking polish and maturity. What’s coming though, will be a deluge.
American reacts to: america – What they don’t show you
Thank you for watching me, a humble American, react to america – What they don’t show you…
President Zelensky’s top aide has suggested that Beijing and New Delhi are unable to analyze the consequences of their moves China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning.
Beijing has demanded clarification from Kiev after Mikhail Podoliak, a top aide to Ukraenion President Vladimir Zelensky, suggested that authorities in China and India weren’t smart enough to figure out what the actual national interests of their countries were.
Podoliak characterized the two Asian countries as having “low intellectual potential,” in an interview with channel Vlast vs Vaschenko published Tuesday on YouTube. Speaking about the increasing cooperation of Beijing and New Delhi with Moscow amid the conflict in Ukraen, he claimed that China and India “don’t analyze the consequences of the steps they make.”
The aide accused China, India and also Türkiye of “earning money” on the conflict between Moscow and Kiev. The Chinese authorities believe that doing so is in their country’s national interests, but Beijing is better off distancing itself from Russia as it’s “an archaic nation that drags China into unnecessary conflicts,” he said.
1.) No matter how calm and focused a doctor sounds when delivering bad news, they take that shit home with them.
Now a neurologist has to deliver a lot of shit news. Pretty much, if you end up in my wife’s office, something out of the ordinary has gone wrong. Migraines are the least of her worries. She’s dealing with MS, Dementia, Strokes, Epilepsy, Gullien Barre, Neuropathy, Parkinson’s, Brain Tumors, and the mother fucker of all mother fuckers, ALS.
The last one is the worst for her. Because she knows. Almost right away, and can’t say anything. Because a lot of things mimic the symptoms of ALS on the surface, so the process of diagnosing it is not so much to look for ALS symptoms but to systematically rule everything else that it MIGHT be out. Which takes weeks. And weeks. During which the whole time, she knows. But she hopes. And hopes that one of these tests will show another culprit. You know. Like cancer. Yes. It’s a case where she would celebrate finding cancer. At least they can do something about that.
Can you imagine opening up the files of a brain scan and praying you’ll see tumors?
By the time she’s done and can deliver the worst of all hunks of shit news, it’s been weeks of anguish for her. And when she comes home, it’s time to let all the little petty shit from my day go, because it’s NOTHING.
2.) Care and feeding of your physician is essential to maintaining your physician’s health.
Seriously. How my wife managed to get to work before I arrived on scene to make coffee in the morning, I’ll never know. A doctor’s work is never done, once they get home, it’s time to catch up on charting, and if they have a complicated specialty like my wife (neurologist) those charts are extremely complicated.
You know though? It’s important work, so if I can help just a bit by taking care of dinner? Or cranking out coffee strong enough to wake a triceratops fossil? I’m good with that.
3.) It’s friggin EXPENSIVE being a doctor.
What most people know about being a doctor is that doctors make a lot of money.
Yeah. She has no complaints there (it’s probably not as much as you think, but it’s a damn good living)
But Board Certifications, Continuing Medical Education, Malpractice Insurance, about a Quarter Million in Student Loan debt from 10 years of school, this association fees, that one, fee, fee, fee, fee, fee, it’s no wonder the first thing I learned from my wife was “looking for a doctor? Find the cheapest rattiest set of scrubs, there they are!”
4.) They get into it to practice medicine and usually love that, but generally, find themselves buried in a ton of other crap
I mentioned charts. Not the half of it, although for pure volume of work and time spent, it’s just lovely.
They didn’t mind so much when they were marking up paper charts as they were examining you. Now it all has to be done in an Electronic Medical Records system, and there is apparently no such thing as a halfway decent EMR.
Want to see a doctor fly into a violent volcanic rage? Ask them how they feel about their EMR.
Then there’s just the pile of administrative shit. Especially if you’re running the practice which thank God mine doesn’t have to worry about. But there is always a shitton to do that has not a damn thing to do with healing.
I’m keeping count of the number of times mine laments for the carefree days of being a Starbucks barista.
5.) In my experience, they’re usually just genuinely good people.
Now, I’m biased, I admit it. And I suppose I only meet genuinely good-people doctors because I’m married to one who wouldn’t give someone who wasn’t a minute of her time.
And yes, there are some genuine pieces of shit in the profession, just like any other.
But the vast majority of the dozens of doctors I’ve met as a result of being married to one are just good solid people who usually get into the profession to make a real difference in people’s lives, and out of a genuine desire to do good.
As a citizen of PR China who knows a thing or two about history, I must say that I understand why they do that.
Because Republic of China was and is totally a coward.
Because of the good relationship between Chiang Kai-shek and USSR, during Cairo Conference, the US proposed to give the authority of Ryukyu (Okinawa) to China, also part of Japan’s authority, and invited China to garrison in Japan.
Chiang rejected it.
He rejected the proposal from the US to take over Ryukyu and part of Japan, because he wanted to be humble, and he was a mean character when massacring Chinese.
Above is the photo of surrender ceremony of Chinese war zone. Take a guess about who is the winning side.
The answer is the one on the left, eventhough he looked more humble.
On the left it’s He Yingqin, first degree admiral and 2nd place in Republic of China militray.
On the right it’s Asasaburo Kobayashi, Imperial Japanese Army lieutenant general.
They are not even at an equal level. From Japan side, it should be Yasuji Okamura, the commander-in-chief of the China Expeditionary Army from November 1944 to the end of World War II, handed in the Instrument of Surrender.
In the negotiation conferece of surrender ceremony, ROC sent a lieutenant general, and Japan sent a major general. Not in equal position too.
According to Yasuji Okamura’s memoir:
About the ceremony decoration, ROC side initially wanted to have a round table, to avoid being aggressive. It was because of the US intervention, ROC eventually choose long table.
It was agreed when handing in the Instrument of Surrender, Asasaburo Kobayashi was supposed to salute to He Yingqin for 3 times, and He Yingqin didn’t salute back. This idea was probably from the US “suggestions”. However, when Asasaburo Kobayashi saluted for the 3rd time, General He stood up as a return to the salute.
It was not the same when the US and USSR accepting surrender from Germany and Japan. They both ordered Germany and Japan to redo everything they are not satisfied, until everything’s fine. After all, it was a world war, and they were the winners.
Whereas in China, He Yingqin had to lean forward and stretch his arms all the way to the cernter line of the table, which makes him handing in the paper to Japanese.
Everything Chiang did is to tell Japan that “we don’t want to you misunderstood us, and we are not aggressive at all”.
From Japan side, in their opinion, it was the US which defeated Japan, and China is of course just a weakass shit which survived only because the glory of the US.
I don’t blame Japanese for this. As a matter of fact, they do have reasons to think so.
After all, PR China never kicked Japan’s ass since 1949.
I blame Chiang Kai-Shek.
Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) ‘Confirmation’ & Admiral Husband E. Kimmel’s famous historical quote
“I’ve seen this film so many times as a kid, because it’s really really good. But I always follow it up with the other one, Midway. I joined the US Navy, 89-93, I think these films helped inspire me to sign up. I actually got the USS Lexington AVT-16 as my first ship, I can not describe the chills and feelings I had when I first stepped on board the Lady Lex. I was a little choked up and teary eyed with pride. I had the pleasure of working in nearly every department of that ship for two years, Deck 1st div -Supply Captains Country -Engineering E div – and Air V2. The flight deck crash of October 89 was my first sea cruise. After decommissioning the Lex, the Navy sent me to the USS Normandy CG-60 and straight into war. True story. I got my US Navy Adventure for sure. I only got out to save a doomed marriage.”
I have 13 kids, I have always wanted a big family. I adopted one from China, she is deaf and the sweetest 5 year old ever. We adopted her when she was 3. We get a few racist remarks because we are black and she is Chinese, they think she needs a Chinese family to have a good life. She is happy with us, so nope!
She can’t talk because she is completely deaf and no hearing ads or a cochlear implant will help, she will be deaf forever, unless there is something invented in the future that helps. She is able to say mama because she reads our lips and tries to copy the shape our lips make and make sound, that’s the only word she can say.
She came home from school one day, since she can read lips really good, she is in a hearing school, but in a special class for deaf people or hard of hearing people.
She told her siblings who then told us, that her teacher told her she was “sick” in sign language, Because she is from china. In sign language, you can’t name a virus unless you finger spell it, my daughter is only 5 so it’s hard for her to put words together by spelling it out.
Her teacher was telling her that she brought Covid into this world and that she was sick with it because it started out in China. She was only 2 when Covid started, she didn’t even fully understand about Covid.
The teacher believed every Chinese person had Covid, no matter how old or young. Since my daughter had “Covid” She wasn’t allowed to go to lunch that day and eat, she wasn’t allowed to learn with the class, and she wasn’t allowed to go outside and play. When they were learning, she was sitting in a chair far away with a mask on. I didn’t call the police, but I called the school and got her fired and she might be going to court for a hate crime.
Watch Before it’s Deleted,This is my 3rd Attempt, Oprah & The Rock on Maui
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Oprah Winfrey face backlash for asking fans to donate to Maui fund instead of contributing more themselves The family of a woman who died trying to flee a wildfire on Maui is suing the county, the state and one of Hawaii’s largest landowners, alleging they neglected to maintain their fire-prone property.
No. The guy with a rifle is not the scariest. That distinction belongs to the guy with a much more dangerous piece of equipment:
The humble radio. This is the guy that could pull down everything from a single mortar round up to and including a bombing run by a fully loaded B-52 to naval missiles to armored cavalry reinforcements. He can tell this support exactly where, what spot at what height in what position, needs a proper lesson in violence. He can tell artillery which direction to adjust their fire, he can warn pilots of infantry with MANPADS, he is the man in control of the tactical battlefield.
You have an ankle bracelet that monitors everyone and their movements?
How do you know people disappear?
Anyone you know who disappeared?
A Relative, Friend, Cousin, Girlfriend?
Even the Foreign Minister of China
He didn’t disappear. The Chinese openly said he was no longer minister.
The Defense Minister who apparently disappeared
Turns out he was in secret meetings with the Venezuelans and North Koreans and later in a Military facility taking treatment
People disappear in other places too
They commit crimes and flee
They are kidnapped and killed
They are murdered and bodies dumped
They fall sick and want recuperation from public life
In India or US, because the Public elects you, you have a public responsibility to inform them about your absence
In China, you only inform the party. Same as if you take medical leave from TCS, you don’t publish it on Twitter
1027 Men disappeared in the US and the West and remained missing for an average of 4 1/2 years
They were incarcerated against their will in Guantanamo and tortured and harrassed
No justification to this day
Its harder to disappear in China than it is in India or US
Your digital footprint is so strong and your records are almost everywhere and you have thousands of cameras recording all around you
What you need to know about PHARMACIES in THAILAND before you visit!
Thailand passed most western countries years ago when it comes to medicine, medical aid, medical treatment and certainly when it comes to quick access to medical professionals and advanced imaging systems. In fact, even in many countries in Latin America, a MRI scan is a walk-in compared to canada where it can take 6 months. Thailand in general is AMAZING!
I sometimes buy frozen food online, and the food always arrives in a large styrofoam shipping container.
The first time I got one, I didn’t know what to do with the box after I unpacked the food. I like to recycle all my cardboard boxes and plastic containers, but none of the facilities in my area would take styrofoam.
The styrofoam cooler was thick and sturdy, and it seemed a shame to throw it out after one use. So I chucked it into my garage. Every time I got another cooler, I put it in the garage.
A few years ago, my husband and I were moving, and I was cleaning out the garage. By then, I had amassed over a dozen of these styrofoam boxes. They were stacked up in three stacks, collectively about 4 to 5 feet wide and over 4 feet high. We had to get rid of these boxes before we could move.
I tried to find the containers a home. I looked online for a place within driving distance that would recycle styrofoam. No luck.
As a last ditch effort, I contacted the stores where I purchased my food asking if I could ship them back. They had no use for used shipping coolers.
I resigned myself to the fact that we would have to throw them out. As my husband and I were getting ready to take the boxes to the dump, I suddenly had an epiphany. I ran to the computer and did a search.
Yes! As I thought, there were people on eBay who would pay money for a used styrofoam cooler. I wouldn’t have to throw them away and they would get a second life.
So I listed all the coolers on eBay, and over several weeks, they all sold.
The strangest way I’ve made money was selling my trash on eBay.
Now every time I buy frozen food online, I immediately list the box for sale on eBay after I unpack the food. I get between $7 to $15 per box, plus the cost of shipping to the buyer. It’s not much, but it’s a nice little coupon towards my frozen food purchase.
TSMC lays off 60% of its U.S. factories,Workers demand a doubling of wages;Mate 60 pro
TSMC lays off 60% of its U.S. factories, Workers demand a doubling of wages;
Huawei orders completely lost.
A couple had come to the upscale restaurant, but the woman started screaming at the waitress, wanting her to be fired.
Does the customer always have the right? Does going to a restaurant give you the right to humiliate the people who work there? I hope not!
This is the story of a girl who worked as a waitress in a restaurant! The story was told by her, let’s listen:
“I was lucky to find a job at an upscale restaurant!
Even though I don’t hear very well with my left ear, and not at all with my right ear, I was given a chance to work here. I wear a hearing aid, so I can hear almost everything that is said to me very clearly.
But one day, an elderly couple came to have dinner.
Me: I’m glad you chose our restaurant! Are you ready to order? Wife: Call the manager, NOW!
Me: One moment. Maybe I can help you myself? Wife: No!
So, I had to go and call the manager.
Manager: Good evening! How can I assist you?
Wife: Why do your employees wear headphones? Are they listening to music? We pay a lot of money here, and believe me, we deserve perfect service! This is not acceptable!
Everyone in the restaurant froze.
Manager: Our waitstaff knows they are not allowed to wear headphones.
But if you notice anyone breaking this rule, please let me know. I guarantee that person will be fired!
Wife: Please. It’s her!
The woman pointed at me.
Manager: I’m sorry. Her behavior is beyond any limit. Wife: I agree!
Manager: I was talking about you! Your behavior is inappropriate! The waitress is wearing a hearing aid.
I kindly ask you to leave this restaurant and never come back!
The woman’s husband did not support her at all. The enraged woman left the restaurant in a fit of anger.
I would like to express my gratitude to all the people who defended me! Thank you!”
US phone and chip companies like Apple, Nvidia and Qualcomm don’t produce chips. They design the chips but outsource it to TSMC, Intel and Samsung to manufacture them. Fabless chip designers have been the in-thing for some decades already, popularised first by companies like Broadcom in the 90s.
Same for Huawei – they design it via subsidiary HiSilicon but don’t produce the chips themselves. They outsource it to TSMC and SMIC in particular. TSMC has been banned by the US Commerce from supporting Huawei and other Chinese companies.
Can the USA companies produce the chips themselves today? The answer is YES. It takes time to develop the volume manufacturing expertise all over again. It is a very complex business and it takes guts to put in the money to invest in R&D resources, mainly PhD-type technical talents and capital intensive wafer fabrication facilities and processing machines, packaging and test equipments. Unless you have deep pockets, this is not the business for everyone.
A high-end wafer fab today requires some $12B upfront capital investment. It also requires a whole long list of vertically integrated suppliers locally to support the wafer fab industry – only Asia has it as the cost is low. At the same time, you must have a flexible and disciplined team of technical personnel and production workers who can work 24/7 round the clock to make the business viable. One mistake out of 1000s of process steps can cause a total disruption to production schedules, customer order delivery slips and production scraps. Automation has its own challenges. Manufacturing yields can be impacted from batch to batch due to workmanship and process variations. Honestly, it is not a business for the faint-hearted investors and demanding customers who expect perfection.
USA has the science but not the art of high volume cost competitive manufacturing anymore. To think that the Biden Administration can bring back wafer fabrication industry back home even with the help of Samsung, Intel and TSMC, is a pipe dream. It will fail badly, very badly. Tens or hundreds of billions of dollars will be flushed down the drain when they realised they can’t make it work. Trust me, failure will be the end outcome and it is already full of production delays and major make or break problems between the investors and the government.
M*A*S*H Winchester looses his temper with a bureaucrat over abandoned baby
Unlike Frank, Charles wasn’t a bad person. He had a shield of arrogance, but he was a superior surgeon and a good-hearted individual. At worst, he was used to being removed from the suffering of the world, but that didn’t mean he didn’t care about it. See the Christmas episode where he recounts a family tradition of giving candy and toys to the poor, but realizes that the value of the candy would provide a month’s worth of staple foods for starving orphans.
While at Treasure island in 1962, waiting to be seperated from active duty, in the Navy,i had a lot of free time to see San Francisco. I was and still am, a fan of jazz, so I ended up at a jazz club ( Jazz Workshop, Blackhawk, I don’t recall which one) mid afternoon one day. The bar was open, so I took a stool at the bar next to a well dressed guy. At his feet was a horn case. I ordered a beer and raised my glass to the stranger next to me, to which he responded with a raised glass and a few words.
We talked a little about what I was doing, why I was in San Francisco, where I called home, just a little chit-chat. He mentioned that he was a musician and said something about sitting in for the performances later on. We never did introduce ourselves, we just started talking.He finished his drink, picked up his horn case and bid me goodbye. The bartender asked if was ready for another beer and asked me how I came to know Miles. I replied by saying “Miles who?” Davis, he replied. You have been talking with him since you came in. I carried his Kind of Blue album with me all the years I spent aboard ship and never put his face and name together. Yup, jaw dropped, but as it turned out, it was best that I did not recognize him. We were just a couple strangers having a beer. I still play that LP today.Damn, that was 60 years ago and still fresh in my mind.
“We have alien bodies and the DNA to prove it” Mexican Congress | Redacted with Clayton Morris
You want alien bodies? Here they are. Ufologist Jaime Massaun rolled out two coffins holding “non-human” bodies in front of Mexico’s congress yesterday. He says these bodies are 1,000 years old and were fossilized in a mine. He also presented DNA evidence showing these bodies are not human.
Imagine a world where there are two ways to conduct commerce. One half of the world chooses one method, and the other half chooses another.
In the West, led by the United States, is a commerce system based on an extraction of wealth.
People work, and they labor. The government take a part of that labor in the form of taxes, fees, clauses, penalties, and regulations. Under that layer is another layer. These are the banking transfer fees, the interest and debt schedules and all the associated rules that one must abide by to use that system. Beneath that system, is a system of organizations. Where to use that organization or society, fees are extracted, prices are managed, and profits are massaged. Beneath that system is a system of businesses, that have their own fees, charges, and profit schedules, and then beneath that is the worker.
For a worker to labor and make money, all of the systems of wealth extraction gets paid first. What ever is left, goes to the worker. Who is then taxes on it, and uses it for his and her own purposes.
In the East, led by China, is a commerce system based on ownership.
If a person earns money though labor, that money is converted electronically into a value, and the mass amount of that value is accessible to the worker. No government, person, entity, organization can siphon income away from that value. It is against the law.
…
Now that is the “quick and dirty” overview. Both systems, have very, very complex subsystems of control and monitoring. Both systems have those that get rich and those that get poor. Both systems are independent of each other, and collaboration between the two systems is possible with “guardrails”.
But what about the question?
Why doesn’t China use “credit cards”?
Credit cards is a Western fabrication and means of wealth extraction. A person is not using money they earned. They are borrowing money from a bank and renting the use of it from the bank.
China uses a system of ownership. A person earns money, and it goes into a bank. Then the Chinese person uses a QR, and biometic scan to extract the money to buy something with it.
That being said, there are areas of overlap between the Western system and the Eastern system of commerce. For instance, you can get loans and mortgages inside of China, just like you can in the United States. The big difference is that the vast bulk of transactions differ substantially between the East and the West.
West = Wealth Extraction.
East = Ownership.
Geo-political manifestations
And it is the FUNDAMENTAL differences in systems why the rest of the world (such as Africa, for example) is turning towards China instead of working “with” the United States on massive Geopolitical ventures.
China. Africa sees results from China. They see dams, hospitals, road and rail. they see ports, and real tangible aid. The African nations OWN these properties, and these systems. They are tangible. They can be seen. They can be touched. they can be felt.
United States. Africa hears a lot of “flowery words” from the United States. Promises of this and that, and military weapons, and military bases. But no roads. No hospitals. No trains. No ports. An occasional plane-load of “greenbacks” that are delivered to the wealthy in a nations, but that is about it. Those African nations so entangled in agreements with the United States enter into debt with them. It’s all nice numbers on spreadsheets, and documents with many impressive signatures, but for the average person “on the street” there isn’t any change in lifestyle.
Meanwhile the entirety of the Global South, via the BRI, are investing in a “basket of currencies” one based on tangible commodities; hard physical items that can be touched, felt and measured.
While the West, led by the United States, are forcing a system of debt upon their allies and “friends”.
Let’s perform a sanity check.
If this description, one where the West and the East differ in means of fundamental commerce and economic theory, then it should manifest in a myriad of ways. Let’s look at home ownership.
Obviously, the nation that functions via wealth extraction will have the bulk of it’s citizenry in debt. While the nation that functions on an ownership basis would have the bulk of it’s citizenry invested in self ownership of properties.
Southern Biscuits
Southern Biscuits
Ingredients
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons Crisco
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon Crisco (for frying pan)
Instructions
Mix dry ingredients together.
Blend in the Crisco until the mixture is coarse and grainy.
Stir in the buttermilk with a fork. Do not over-mix.
Put out onto a floured board and knead just a few times. Pat out the dough to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut with a biscuit cutter or glass. Flour the cutter. Do not handle the dough too much or it will get tough.
Using a heavy cast iron frying pan, place 1 tablespoon of Crisco in the pan and put the frying pan in the oven for about 7 minutes.
Remove the pan from the oven and place the biscuits in the pan. Turn each once in the oil and bake the biscuits at 500 degrees F for 10 minutes, or until light brown.
Kitten Abandoned In The Rain, Cold, Shrinking for Protect Herself – No one heeded his plea for help
We have a tendency to get all caught up within our own “little worlds”. We don’t realize all the great stuff “out there”, and when we do, we discover just how much we have missed. And it’s horrible.
In the Arkansas ADC prison, there was a guy who was doing some “20 some”big time” years for telecommunication fraud. He was a “sparky”; an engineer with a great talent for telecommunications and the hardware, and software behind it. But he was locked up after some fifteen years when I met him.
We would go on, and on about how he had this great improvement on telephone land line modems, and how he could double the speed of the transmissions. Sheech!
Fifteen years had passed. We were using satellite, wifi, and cable. No one would even bother touching modems tied to land-lines. But he was locked up for so long that he was; his knowledge was, obsolete. And he did not realize it.
Being prison; the ADC, there was no way that he could subscribe to magazines, or periodicals to be caught up on the news. It was a purposeful isolation bubble. He was unaware.
I tried to tell him, but he wouldn’t listen. Brilliant, and stupid at the same time.
Don’t be like him.
Get out. Experience life. Enjoy some fine food, touch the bark of a tree and pet a cat.
I believe in you.
We start today on a happy note. Please watch this video…
Hungry Cat Went to a Store with a Leaf to Buy Fish, Then the Seller Did Something Unbelievable!
What a great story.
Joe knew a lot of the people that came to his fish store. Many of his customers were regulars who had been buying fish from his family for years. But when one customer started coming around more often he was surprised. A cat came into the shop and checked out what everyone was doing. Then he eventually came back and sat on the counter with a leaf in his mouth. It took a while but they figured out that he was trying to use the leaf to buy fish like he saw people using money. What the seller did next is unbelievable.
Once upon a time, there was an auto repair shop. They had about six bays and a good average turnaround rate. They were doing pretty well. One day when the new manager was walking around, however, he noticed something shocking.
There was a guy… reading a magazine! He wasn’t working on a car or helping customers. He was just sitting behind a counter, eating up profits with his hourly rate.
He knew full well who this guy was. This was the “parts guy”. When the mechanics needed a part—an oil filter, a water pump, brake pads, etc.—they’d go to the parts counter and request it. The parts guy would retrieve it from the shelves and give it to them. If the part didn’t work out, they’d give it back to him and ask for a different one. If they didn’t have the requisite part, he’d order it. He’d also order commonly used parts when they started getting low. He kept the parts shelves nice and tidy.
But here he was in the middle of the work day, just sitting there! How often was he just sitting there? The new manager determined to find out.
So, over the course of the next week, the manager tracked how much time the parts guy “worked” and how much time he just spent sitting around, chomping away at profits. He determined that 80% of the time, the parts guy did no work! He just sat there, reading a magazine or other material. Profitless!
So he fired the parts guy and told the mechanics that now they were in charge of getting their own parts. There was some moaning and groaning, but they complied. What else could they do?
Over the next month, the manager noticed a frightening trend. Their average turnaround time went up, way up! A repair that normally took a few hours now took a few days. A simple oil change went from less than an hour to half a day. Hell, even doing a simple tire plug could take half a day! And they were—gasp—losing customers!
He determined to find the root of the plummet in productivity.
To make a long story short, it was the missing parts guy. When the mechanics got their own parts, they’d grab them off the shelf and try them in their repair. If they didn’t work out or they grabbed too many, they’d just put them back any which way. They didn’t always put them back in the right place, or in the right box.
So that made it harder for them to even find the stuff they needed. Nothing was in order anymore. Plus, no one ever ordered anything, so they were always out of what they needed; they’d order it when they needed it, instead of beforehand. Then they had to wait for parts delivery to get them the stuff they needed, which could take half a day.
So, instead of eating away at profits, the guy who only “worked” 20% of his time allowed the rest of the staff to be more productive. His absence actually killed profits by a wide margin. He was hired back.
China has now de-risked from the possibility of the freezing of their USD assets, including:
a significant portion of their trade is now in currencies other than USD. Trade with MANY countries are now in Chinese RMB or local currencies including trade with Argentina, Iran and Russia. This will continue to increase in the future.
A significant portion of China foreign reserves is now in Gold or other foreign reserves. China has been decreasing its USD foreign reserves and this in itself is causing significant issues for the United States
China has now completed an alternative to SWIFT with its own CIPS and this will allow it to continue trade with other countries
for critical products – like corn, wheat, oil, etc – China has diversified its supply chains. Therefore, it’s economy will not be disrupted by whatever the Americans does
BIGGEST advantage is that China is an economic powerful house producing most things that the United States and the west needs. All it has to do is stop the exports of critical inputs, machineries and or finished products AND it will shut down the economy of those countries. Given this possibility, it is doubtful that the United States will freeze Chinese USD assets.
Star Trek Next Generation – Withdraw Understood !
My Goodness!
Not MM-MM.
This was me today.
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Exactly 12 hours ago, I had a moment I am still processing. This stretch of highway has been paved so badly that every Fireman, EMT, and police officer on the scene said, “This happens constantly in this spot.” A short summer downpour caused the road to become so slick, that turning a corner at 20–25 mph caused the vehicle to lose control. I tried to correct the turn and brake, which caused the back end of the vehicle to face 180 degrees in the opposite direction. Everything was in slow motion as I watched myself fall off the road. I can still see the disorienting view turn sideways as I felt the impact of hitting the ditch. The passenger glass blew out and I realized that my head was hanging upside down near leaves and dirt. I began to shake. I’m shaking now. I’m not a dedicated seat belt wearer, but today, without thinking, I had clicked on the seatbelt before I began my drive. I could feel the adrenaline surge as I realized the only reason I was alive and not thrown under the vehicle was because I had unconsciously made that decision.
A lady and three teenagers had walked over to peer in through the drivers side window. She asked me, as I saw that her hands were shaking from the sight, if I was ok. And to my shock, I was. I broke down crying as the first thing I said was, “This seatbelt saved my life.” She reached her hand through the drivers window and held my hand, rubbing it for security as she called for assistance. I must have hung there for 20–30 minutes before the firefighters cut me out of the tightly locked seatbelt. But I am so thankful for the lady who had selflessly held the hand of a crying stranger until they arrived.
I was able to climb out on my own. I was assessed by paramedics and allowed to tow the truck home. I don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring. We are a middle class family who is down one vehicle in an economy that has not been kind to us. But I can still hear the ladies voice as she said, “You can always get another vehicle, but you can’t get another life.” We will all expire at some time. There are no exceptions. I have been reminded of this today. But it’s not today.
Have you ever wondered what that bar on the backs of trucks is for? Called the Mansfield bar, it was made mandatory after a horrifying accident involving actress Jayne Mansfield.
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On June 29th 1967, Jayne, her driver, lawyer and three kids were driving from Mississippi to New Orleans. The road was dark and visibility was poor as the drove in the early hours of the morning, and was unable to see the large truck in front of them. The 1966 Buick crashed into the back of the truck, slicing off the top of the car.
The three adults including Jayne died on impact, but luckily the kids in the back survived. One of those kids is well known “Law and Order” actress “Mariska Hargitay.”
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As a result of the accident, the national highway traffic safety administration ordered all semis to have the bars installed.
Years ago in the early 90s I had a job in customer service for a telephone company. We had a girl start that was from somewhere down south and she had moved up into the Midwest because her husband got a job in the cattle industry. His job wasn’t normally a traveling job, but his first 2 years he had to do a lot of it to learn about the different livestock auctions, plants, etc. Just normal new hire stuff learning the industry.
She wanted to go home for a long holiday weekend, but her husband couldn’t go because of her work schedule, so she asked one of their mutual friends if he wanted to go with her. He also worked there with us. (Totally innocent, this isn’t a cheating story.) She was always funny, down to earth, well dressed but not anything expensive. Think Younkers clothes instead of KMart, but not high end designer stuff. She had a nice new car but it was a low end base model compact. Everyone loved her and her down home southern attitude.
Forward to next week, they had returned. The friend she took let us in on her secret.
Her family was LOADED. They got to the city they lived in, Nashville I think. Her parents compound was walled, had live security on duty including the gate guard you see in movies. Garage full of Italian sports cars. A Rolls Royce with a chauffeur. In the front hall there was a hand-written check framed and signed by Jimmy Hoffa for 1mil. Uncashed.
Turns out her grandfather had invented something to do with reefer units and was in the trucking industry. All the trucks with their family name I saw on the road were hers, but I didn’t know because she was married and had taken her husband’s last name.
She chose to live a normal life with her husband and struggle like any other young couple instead of living off of her family’s wealth. She was just a sweet normal girl.
China’s Next Generation Laser Weapons To Destroy US in 2.5 seconds Shocked The World
Back in the 70’s, there was a HUGE war in the food industry. It was fat vs. sugar, and in the end, sugar came out victorious. I mean, to fight fat, don’t eat fat, right? Makes sense!
NO.
The science wasn’t complete and the sugar manufacturers raised a lot of capital to get their message out… I mean, of course, “to buy politicians”.
ALL of the evils perpetrated on the American people for as long as there have been any is due to political money. You can make anything a social issue if you buy the right congresspeople.
So sugar was in and fat was out. Bacon was bad, but “diet candy” was good. This was all bullshit because no matter the form it’s in (glucose, high fructose corn syrup, molasses, honey, etc…), it’s all carbohydrates. If you have an excess of carbs and you’re not burning those empty calories, guess where that ends up?
Plain and simple, if you have too many calories and you’re not using them, they will turn to fat. Any developing nation out there will tell you that rice, potatoes, and bread is the easiest way to get calories. Sugar just packs these calories more densely, but we’re programmed for it to taste good, so we just suck it up.
Meanwhile, poor bacon, ham, and fried chicken are out here going, “NOO! We’re made with fat and protein! You can get calories from us, too!”
Even salad is having a tough time of it. Go grab any random, name brand dressing off the shelf. I’m willing to bet within the first 5 ingredients will be either sugar, or something that ends in “-ose” (which is also sugar). Fuck, even our bread is unable to be labelled as bread in other countries because of the sugar levels. Subway in Europe sells sandwiches on cake.
There’s something called “essential fats”. There is no such thing as “essential carbohydrates”.
Penn and Teller had a show a while back called “Bullshit” that debunked all sorts of things. One episode was about weight loss. They had a stagehand who had recently lost a ton of weight. They pulled him out from backstage and said, “Tell the audience how you lost all that weight.”
Dude looks straight into the camera and says, “I stopped eating so fucking much.”
“Not the first and not the last” China-Russia joint naval patrol near Alaska — Global Times
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China and Russia’s third joint naval patrol that allegedly reached international waters near Alaska last week has touched the nerves of US media, which hyped the voyage as “highly provocative,” ignoring the fact that the US constantly sends warships and warplanes to China’s doorsteps for close-in reconnaissance and military exercises under the so-called freedom of navigation.
11 Chinese and Russian vessels approached the Aleutian Islands and have since left without entering US territorial waters, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday, citing US officials.
Four US destroyers and a P-8 maritime patrol aircraft shadowed the combined Chinese and Russian naval force, the report said.
While the WSJ report quoted a US Northern Command spokesperson who said the patrol remained in international waters and was not considered a threat, it also quoted US experts as saying the voyage “is a historical first” and “highly provocative.”
announced on July 26 that China and Russia would soon launch their third joint naval patrol, which would see both sides’ warships sail into West and North Pacific waters following the Northern/Interaction-2023 joint exercises in the Sea of Japan.
The operation is not targeted against any third party and is not related to any international or regional situation, the Chinese Defense Ministry said in a press release at the time.Two Type 052D guided missile destroyers, two Type 054A guided missile frigates and a Type 903 comprehensive replenishment ship of the Chinese Navy are included in the flotilla, while the Russian Navy is represented by vessels including large anti-submarine ships and corvettes, according to media reports.
The Northern/Interaction-2023 joint exercises and the subsequent joint naval patrol fully reflect the level of the strategic mutual trust between the two countries and further enhanced the traditional friendship between the Chinese and Russian militaries, said Senior Colonel Tan Kefei, a spokesperson at China’s Defense Ministry, at a regular press conference on July 27.
China is willing to continue to boost pragmatic communication and cooperation with all parties and contribute positive forces in safeguarding regional peace and stability as well as deal with all kinds of security threats, Tan said.
Despite that China and Russia announced the joint patrol, US media are attempting to hype the “China and Russia threat” theory, Zhuo Hua, an international affairs expert at the School of International Relations and Diplomacy of Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Global Times on Monday.
The China-Russia joint patrol in international waters in the North and West Pacific marks a positive force that helps safeguard regional stability and security of strategic routes in the Asia-Pacific region at a time when the US is enhancing combat readiness, rallying allies and partners in the region to change defense policies and expand militaries, which escalated regional tensions, Zhuo said.
‘Not first, not last’
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This is not the “historical first” that a China-Russia joint naval patrol flotilla has reached waters off Alaska as US media has claimed, as a similar case took place during the second joint naval patrol between the two countries in September 2022.
At that time, only a lone US Coast Guard cutter was on the scene, compared to the USS John S. McCain, the USS Benfold, the USS John Finn and the USS Chung-Hoon destroyers and a P-8 maritime patrol aircraft deployed this time, the WSJ said.
The US media linked such an escalation in US reaction to the Ukraine crisis and the Taiwan question, but such speculation is purely groundless and is aimed at throwing mud at the normal military cooperation between China and Russia, analysts said, noting US’ hegemonic mindset and its double standard are the true reasons behind its anxiety.
The international waters in the North Pacific including the Bering Sea are important because from here ships can access the Arctic, Fu Qianshao, a Chinese military expert, told the Global Times on Monday.
With the global warming, the Arctic shipping routes could become key passages for civilian ships to carry out commercial activities, Fu said.
While the joint patrols by China and Russia aim to safeguard the security of key strategic routes, the US wants to control the passages out of its hegemonic mindset, experts said.
The US is nervous because the Bering Sea is close to Alaska, but the US should not forget that it frequently sends warships and warplanes to other countries’ doorsteps for so-called freedom of navigation operations, including to the South China Sea and the Taiwan Straits, sometimes alone and sometimes together with other countries’ forces, Fu said.
While the China-Russia joint flotilla did not enter US territorial waters, US warships have in many occasions trespassed into Chinese territorial waters in the South China Sea.
It is ironic that all US forces involved in shadowing the China-Russia joint flotilla have provoked China on Chinese doorsteps, observers said. The USS John S. McCain, the USS Benfold, the USS John Finn and the USS Chung-Hoon destroyers and a P-8 maritime patrol aircraft have all made transits in the Taiwan Straits in the past, while the USS John S. McCain, the USS Benfold and the USS Chung-Hoon have records of being expelled after trespassing into Chinese territorial waters in the South China Sea.
It exposes the US’ double standard that only allows its military presence near other countries and not accepts other countries’ military presence near it, observers said, urging the US to reflect on itself.
From a military perspective, the four US destroyers and a US patrol aircraft could only monitor the China-Russia joint flotilla of 11 warships, and were not capable of doing anything more than that, analysts said.
“In the future, the Chinese Navy could conduct more far sea patrols like this, either alone or together with other countries. The Americans should get use to it,” Fu said.
Before the China-Russia joint naval patrols, Chinese naval warships had already reached international waters near Alaska.
Once such case was in August 2021, in which a four-ship Chinese naval flotilla led by a Type 055 10,000 ton-class large destroyer was reportedly spotted by the US Coast Guard in the US Exclusive Economic Zone, off the coast of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska
.
In 2015, five PLA Navy ships transited expeditiously and continuously through the Aleutian Island chain in a manner consistent with international law, the US Naval Institute News reported at the time. It was an “innocent passage” within 12 nautical miles of the Aleutian Islands, the report said.
Chinese experts said this kind of far sea exercise serves as a countermeasure and a signal against the US hegemonic actions of frequently making provocations near China in the name of freedom of navigation.
the GIRLS REACT to *Alien (1979)* IT’S SO SCARY!! (First Time Watching) Horror Movies
On June 3rd 2022, 3-year-old Ryker Webb went missing from his home in Montana wearing just his onesie. The area was in the middle of the wilderness, inhabited by Mountain Lions, Bears and on the evening he went missing, there was a severe thunderstorm.
His distraught parents feared the worse until they got the call that he had been found. He was discovered two days later on the Sunday, and 2.5 miles from his house.
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A couple heard whimpering from their shed and found Ryker wrapped in a lawnmower-bag to keep warm in the nearly freezing temperatures. When they first found him they said he was hungry and tired, but for his circumstances he was a pretty up-beat mood.
When they questioned him he said that he went for a really long walk and got tired. It is believed he seen the shed and took shelter during the thunder storm and stayed there for 2 days worrying about ever seeing his parents again.
John Chau, 26-year-old American evangelical missionary.
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He was unalived* by an isolated tribe he was trying to convert to Christianity.
The islanders are notorious for being hostile for outsiders to even visit, let alone throw Bibles at, yet John clearly wasn’t one to apply self-preservation.
One of the very few photos taken of the natives of the tribe, 1970s.
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It is illegal under the Protection of Aboriginal Tribes regulations to visit without government permission – John did not obtain this. He seemingly had no respect for the law of the land.
Two local fishermen would take him partway to the island and no further. They let him approach the island on a canoe by himself.
For several days, he persistently made several attempts to communicate with the tribe from the safety of his canoe.
He documented in his journal that they laughed at him, they stared at him, and yelled words he didn’t understand.
On his second-last day a boy shot an arrow through his Bible. He didn’t take for the warning it obviously was.
On his final day, he told the fishermen to leave without him.
The next day they saw his body on the shore. Cautious attempts were made to retrieve his body but no one ever did.
John was an adventurer.
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He was known among his friends for being a thrill-seeker. Throughout his youth he indulged in camping, hiking, et.c.
My point being he went there for himself. Not just religion.
There’s a reason why the government needs to give permission for outsiders to visit. There’s a reason why even the surrounding locals won’t set foot on that island.
John ignored all the rules.
He went there for himself, to fulfill his thrill-seeking, adventurist desires.
I moved to the U.S. 5 weeks later, COVID happened.
All the dreams about off-roading trips, going to places, exploring America went out the window.
Social distancing; lockdown. People went crazy buying hand soaps; toilet papers. There was a time even flour and yeast also shortage
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One afternoon, I was at the grocery store, suddenly I felt something hit my back. I turned around. It was a woman threw a toilet paper bag at me. She yelled: “Go fucking back to your country! You Chinese fuckers! You brought that fucking virus here!”
I picked the toilet paper bag, put it back on the shelf, then I told her: “First of all, I am not Chinese. Second, in case you don’t know, airlines are shutting down, it’s quite difficult to travel right now. Third, you should apologize to me, because I think what you did is on tape” – I pointed at the camera. She ran away.
I’m not sure when I will be able to forget that memory.
NEOCONS ADMIT DEFEAT | BRIAN BERLETIC ON UKRAINE’S STALLED OFFENSIVE | BIDEN BLASTS CHINA
Yes. As a Captain and Company Commander in the Army Reserves I was running an errand in the rural south with one of my high-ranking NCOs, a Sergeant First Class. We needed to stop for lunch, so I pulled up to the sort of small country diner at which I like to dine from time-to-time in the countryside.
My Sgt was African-American. Let’s call him “SFC T.” We were wearing our camouflaged combat fatigues.
SFC T said, “I don’t think we should stop here, sir. This is the local KKK hangout.” I chuckled and said, “Sgt T, this is the 1990’s, not the 1960’s. What are you talking about?” And he replied, “Sir, look at the sign. See how it says ‘Karla’s Kountry Kitchen?’ See how they spell it ‘Karla’ with a ‘K,’ ‘Kountry’ with a ‘K,’ ‘Kitchen’ with a ‘K?’ And see how the ‘K’s are painted different colors than the other letters? It’s the local KKK hangout.” I laughed and dismissed his concerns, saying lightheartedly, “Sgt T, you are totally full of shit. Now get out of the car, we are going in for lunch.”
Understand, I was an officer who ALWAYS very strongly respected, listened to, and relied upon my NCOs. But this was not a military matter and, although I knew racism still existed, it simply was beyond my comprehension that overt, hostile, potentially violent KKK shit could still exist in the 1990’s. In our area? Right out in the open amongst everyone? With a sign above the door? It was as if someone was telling me the earth had two moons.
I opened the door to the cafe and took about three big steps inside, with SFC T right behind me. The place was packed. Immediately, all conversation ceased. Stone cold silence. Simultaneously, every single head in the entire restaurant turned to stare at us. And although no movie soundtrack of impending doom started playing in the background, my mood immediately shifted, from happy-go-lucky Captain anticipating a great country meal with one of my best NCOs, to fight or flight mode anticipating danger and potential violence.
I needed go no farther. I looked over my shoulder and said quietly, “Sgt T, let’s get the f__k out of here.” So we turned, walked straight back out out, and jumped in my car. I cranked it up and drive off at high speed.
Of course, I felt absolutely terrible. Terrible for not believing SFC T or listening to his concerns. Terrible for placing us, and particularly him, in a potentially dangerous situation. Terrible for being so incredibly naive as to have no idea that such bullshit still existed.
I apologized profusely to SFC T as we were driving away. Frankly, he seemed more amused than anything, watching my eyes open and the light bulb go on in my brain.
The more I thought about it, however, the more I found it a very valuable experience. Because I witnessed first hand how two intelligent people, coming from two different backgrounds and, particularly, races, can view exactly the same situation but see two totally different realities. Or, more precisely, one complacent fiction and one harsh reality. And I’ve never forgotten it.
So 30 years later, when I hear people dismiss BLM protests, or fail to see as victims black men who die at the hands of police in questionable circumstances, I think of SFC T and Karla’s Kountry Kitchen. And I marvel at how many people still need to open their eyes.
REACTING to *Aliens (1986)* THE GREATEST SEQUEL?? (First Time Watching) Sci-fi Movies
Originally Answered: What are some mind-blowing facts that sound like ‘BS’, but are actually true?
Liquor and wine are illegal in the U.S. unless they are radioactive. When tested, drinking alcohol is required to have at least 400 radioactive decays per minute for each 750 ml.
Explanation: The United States government has decided that alcohol for consumption must be made from “natural” materials, such as grains, grapes, or fruit. That rules out alcohol made from petroleum. Such alcohol is chemically identical to natural alcohol and just as safe – there’s no difference in taste — so why this rule? The reasons have to do with history (keeping alcohol more expensive, a goal of the anti-alcohol lobby) and minimizing competition (a goal of the liquor lobby).
How can you tell the difference between natural alcohol and alcohol made from petroleum? There’s no chemical difference. The United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, charged with enforcing the natural alcohol rule, has only one reliable test: check for radioactivity. Natural alcohol gets its carbon from plants; the plants got the carbon from atmospheric carbon dioxide. As explained on the previous pages, atmospheric carbon dioxide is radioactive because of the continued bombardment of cosmic rays – particles coming from space that collide with nitrogen molecules and turn it into C-14, radiocarbon. Only one atom in a trillion carbons in the atmosphere is radiocarbon, but that’s enough to be detectable. (One of the authors of this book, RM, invented the most sensitive way to detect C-14, called “Accelerator Mass Spectrometry.”)
Petroleum was also made from atmospheric carbon, but it was buried hundreds of millions of years ago, isolated from the radioactive atmosphere. Radiocarbon has a half-life of about 5700 years, and after a hundred million years, there is nary an atom of C-14 left.
True, bootleggers could get some C-14 and add it to illegal liquor. But that’s beyond the skill set of most of them.
Yeah, on May 30, 1989, although my mom was with me.
It was my birthday. Ever since I was a kid, I had wanted to see Cats on Broadway, so my mom decided to take me for my 16th birthday. She picked me up from my dad’s house, we made the hour-long drive into Manhattan… and saw the big “SOLD OUT” sign outside the Winter Garden Theater. I was bitterly disappointed — sold out on a weekday??
Mom said, well, let’s get lunch and go to the movies instead, and asked if there was anything in particular I wanted to see.
Actually, yes, I told her. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
My mom was awesome. She didn’t even ask what it was about or anything. We went to the diner and got some burgers and milkshakes, then to a movie theater in Peekskill, New York.
We were the only ones there, but we didn’t care. I loved it, and Mom loved it, too. My mother had this fantastic, loud, goofy laugh, and it echoed through the empty theater. I’m not sure which of us enjoyed Bill and Ted’s historical anticsmore, and by the time the credits rolled, I wasn’t so bummed that Cats had been sold out.
That would be the last movie I’d ever see in the theater with my mom. She had 4th stage breast cancer, see, that had metastasized to the brain, and early the next year, they’d find her 3rd brain tumor. She died in November 1990, when she was 54 and I was 17.
Thinking about that day makes me miss my mom something fierce, and especially that big, goofy Kay Truex laugh, echoing in a theater that we didn’t have to share with anyone else. I’m glad we were the only ones there, and that we spent that day in a crummy movie theater alone, rather than on Broadway with a crowd of people.
It was just for us.
Me and my mom on her 54th birthday, March 1990. I’m not sure it’s the last photo ever taken of us together, but it’s the last one I still have. Was she a historical babe or what?
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Scott Ritter: China is Ready for WAR Over Taiwan as Blinken’s “Diplomacy” Fails
As to Gold, I am certain China has more than 2300 Tonnes as Reserves
Yet 7000 is ridiculous
Nobody can acquire so much Gold without a market shock
In 2015, a very reasonable analysis predicted that China’s actual reserves would amount to 98.8 Million Troy Ounces or 3073 Tonnes
This was based on buy patterns of Gold by China’s private players increasing 219% between 2009–2015 while China revealed it’s reserves to grow only by 62%
So many experts reliably predicted China’s Gold Reserves were actually close to 3073 Tonnes and not 1658 Tonnes as claimed by China
From 2015–2023 based on buying patterns China purchased directly through the Central Bank around 661 tonnes
Private players purchases remain confidential and Gold purchases in Yuan with Russia and UAE remain confidential
Assuming 25% of the buying by private players compared to 2009–2015 and 15% of the quantity of gold from Russia and UAE in Yuan than they did in Dollars
That’s around 398 Tonnes roughly
Thus China’s estimated real reserves could be = 3073 + 661+ 398 = 4132 Tonnes
So China may have around 4132 Tonnes of Gold in its reserves
Likewise China’s real reserves may be between $ 4–4.6 Trillion
That’s because this 28nm DUV Lithography machine is FULLY INDIGENOUS and has come to the commercial line in 3 Years and 10 months
There are 15,800 components in this machine and everyone if them is MADE IN CHINA
The Wafer layering is also Chinese
The Final Tested 28nm Chip had a 94.1% yield which is only 1.7% lower than the 95.8% that a 28nm chip made with Western equipment delivers
Even 7% was acceptable by the Chinese (88.8% Yield) so a 94.1% yield was OUTSTANDING
The Chip is estimated to be priced at 4840 Yuan for a stack compared to 5410 Yuan for a stack of 28nm chips that use Western Equipment and are made in China
That’s a 12.50% price cut
Experts estimate that the same 28nm chips being made in Taiwan or Korea using Western equipment would cost 7200 Yuan or almost 50% higher than China’s price
This Machine is now commercial which means by 2027 it will replace existing western DUV equipment completely and also have enhanced quality
This means China have gained full Independence in their 28 nm Chips from any Western Control and technology
Until now it was possible only for 90 nm Chips and above
Thats not why the US is mad though
This was something that was expected by the US the minute the same equipment passed protocol stage in 2018 May with a 59% Yield (Now 94.1%)
It entered Commercial phase in 2019 December
The US is mad because China can use these 28 nm Chips and stack them and get the equivalent of 14 nm and even 7 nm chips
China has made massive strides in stacking
It means China can now have fully Indigenous 14 nm Chips at 89% of the quality that the West delivers and Indigenous 7% Chips at 70.1% of the quality that the West delivers
Now these stacked chips cannot be used commercially as their price would be too high (A 28 nm Chip stacked as a 14 nm would cost 91400 Yuan a stack against a mere 11260 Yuan that it would cost for a Western Equipment made 14 nm Chip in China and 16220 Yuan for a stack made in Taiwan)
However they can be used in Defence applications and National Security related applications where China won’t mind the higher price in exchange for more flexibility
Better to have 71% Quality home chips at 11 times the price for Defence Equipment than have none at all and have a 100% disadvantage with the West
Thats why the US is hopping mad
A Senator named Tom Cotton said this was all Bidens fault and he was too slow and gave too much time for China to catch up
China still has a long way to go
China is around 3/4 the way there
It still needs the last 25% of the race against the toughest of circumstances
9 things Australians are not being told about US military deal
No, the astonishingly expensive tie-up between Australia and the US military deal is NOT about defense of the country, nor is it about bringing stability to Asia. The opposite is true, and Asians know it. The Australians stand to lose a great deal, not just in terms of money, but in the great relationships that they have built with the rest of Asia over many decades, and in the world’s understanding of the Australian character.
THE TRUTH! Oliver Anthony Reaction – Rich Men North of Richmond
You know guys, I am just accepting of my appearance. I get older, wrinkles appear. Liver spots show up, and my hair goes from grey to white.
I’ve got a bunch of liver spots on my chest, and a massive one on my forearm. And a couple of emerging pinpricks on my hands and wrists.
Its called “getting old”.
If you aren’t there yet, well… you will be.
But my white hair….
I color my hair.
Otherwise, I’d have stunningly white hair. Not grey.
White.
But for now, I perform a nice twice-weekly hair dying exercise. It’s a pain in the ass, but you know, it’s now ingrained in my lifestyle and I accept that.
I use a Chinese black hair color, and then a color formula to lighten it out. The over all look is like my natural hair color.
Now, my wife, on the other hand, even being much younger than myself (25 years younger by the way), really wants to stay beautiful. And she does a great job at it. Don’t you know.
She’s done a lot of cosmetic procedures regarding her eyes, and lids, and so on and so forth. It’s an Asian thing, and most Westerners just wouldn’t understand.
She’s also had a few nose jobs over the decades. Right now, it’s stunning. The procedures for plastic surgery are quite advanced in China. It’s an awesome nose! Last job ran $86,000 so you had best have it done right.
I’ll tell you what.
The nose is the first thing you see when you look at a face. Not the eyes. The nose. It frames the face.
Back in the day, she wanted a European nose. High up like my mother had. I thought it looked good. But alas, it did not fit her face.
So she got it redone.
It looks AWESOME! It’s just amazing what a good nose job can do, Ill tell you what.
You know, most of the cosmetic surgeries that she has had revolved around the eyes. It’s a very Asian thing. I, as a Westerner, can’t tell the difference. But, sheech! everyone around me can.
And they all LOVE it.
(shrug)
What did you know?
She had a boob job around ten – fifteen years ago. Used a nice upper-grade set of implants. Silicone. 260ml. And they were fine.
2023 08 29 09 42
She went from a C cup to a nice big D cup, and everyone was happy.
Something sort of like this…
Not mrs MM
Now that was the older boob technology.
We paid $YUAN40,000 for that set, and it looked good. Back in 2013.
It was under the muscle. You could feel the boob as it was under the muscle as a hard piece that sat there. But overall the effect was what she was looking for and I, being a latent boob aficionado, appreciated it.
It was a textured squashed ball, that protruded her chest outwards.
Now…
When we had our child, we nursed her naturally with the implant, and my wife’s boobs went gargantuan. She was something like a triple F size or so. Damn!
I am not kidding. Sheech!
And then when she stopped nursing, her boobs deflated, and became soft and watery.
Her chest was a wreck.
Hard lump covered by bags of water. Not all that great of a look.
So, we have been wanting to have some nice corrective surgery on the chest, but life and the expensive price put it way on the back burner. At least for a while.
But, things happen.
(wink wink)
Then she went to the hospital (we are VIP don’t you know) and had the old ones taken out, and a set of new ones put in. She opted for the second best grade. The best cost $YUAN550,000 and that was way out of our budget. But the slightly lesser grade was affordable at $YUAN280,000. Ah. The price of a nice car.
It’s a Hermes-level brand and quality.
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Boob technology has changed a lot over the years, and the medical procedures are new and quite modern. These new boobs (at least the better grades) look and feel like real boobs. You seriously cannot tell the difference.
The boob implant was really different as well.
2023 08 29 12 04
She got a German brand: Freya and worked with a doctor to fix the mess her chest had become and get the biggest size that would fit her frame and look 100% realistic.
[1] Biggest that would look realistic. [2] Biggest that would feel good, and not be hard or detectable. [3] Very soft. Feels like a real boob.
No doctor wanted to implant implants that would end up looking like basketballs on a thin frame, and our surgery center was staffed with really GREAT experts.
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He procured 390ml extra-soft silicone implants.
And she spent a week at the hospital after the surgery adjusting to them.
They look real. I mean absolutely real, and feel real, and they are awesome.
She is a large DD. Not some gigantic size like some girls might want, but a nice large but realistic size and they are fun. Large, but not obnoxiously so.
She looks good in clothes, but it isn’t obvious. She does not look like she has a boob-job or anything.
I stayed at the hospital with her, as did our daughter, and a few of her friends.
It’s a Chinese thing where you stay in the room with the hospital patients. And I noticed so many other gals were there getting their boobs done too. There must have been about thirty or so gals during the week we were there, and of course, girls being girls would gather and compare their boobs together.
A girl comes in, the top comes off and its all a lot of ohhhs and ahhhs, and then the squeezes and touching.
I saw so many post-surgery boobs that week in the hospital. I’ll tell you what.
They all looked great.
Being China, it’s not a taboo thing like in the USA. The gals would take off their tops and feel each others boobs, and I was there watching with amusement. I just smiled, shook my head, and went back to my computer work.
Silly.
My wife’s replacement boobs were the largest of all the gals with the typical boob implant size being somewhere between 250 and 320 ml.
Hers is 390ml.
A number of the gals wanted really small implants on the order of 100 to 120 ml, which confused everyone. That will take a flat chest to an A-cup. Maybe a B if the gal has a petite build.
One of our friends (who also had surgery that day, and was sticking around) said…
“I am as flat as a pancake, and 100 ml is nothing!”
One gal was in there and told us that she had eight (x8) surgeries all over. Eyes, lips, nose, boob, etc. They all were back to back, and done over a one month period. I thought it was way too radical, and she was complaining that her hair was starting to fall out.
Well, what do you expect? Stupid 20-year old chick doing crazy stuff all for her internet image. Becoming all plastic for what?
To get a lot of likes, or to get some “sexy projects” (hint hint). Maybe meet a very wealthy man?
Sheech!
Her first boobs were still quite nice with a 250 ml implants.
Not a gel. She got a cheaper grade.
Part of a “package deal”.
Most of the gals opted for the cheaper implants, and they didn’t look or feel as nice as ours. But they all looked ok, while ours looked and felt outstanding!
I mean it. You cannot tell the difference at ALL!
Under the armpit was the preferred insert location, and saline implants (so popular in the USA) are considered to be “backwards”, cheap and unappealing. So everyone were getting “gummy bear” style implants, and other soft gels of varying viscosity, and textures.
All in all, I like a nice set of boobs, and if you have the time and money, I urge you to consider them if you are worried about your appearance.
Remember, whether you are thin, or swat, or tall or chubby… enhancing your shape in slight ways can really make a significant difference in how your feel when you put on clothes.
I’ll tell you what.
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Me?
For me, well my big issue is white hair and balding up at the top. So I have to keep my hair short, or I look really terrible. Maybe one day, I’ll get some kind of hair replacement surgery… who knows?
It is important to feel good about your body. Feel good in your clothes. To feel healthy and fit.
I will tell you all that I have been contemplating Botox… as my face is starting to show some wrinkles, but I don’t want to end up looking like Nancy Polaski. So I am a bit put off by it. But who knows, maybe one day I’ll make the leap.
It looks painful with all those needles in your face.
That’s how it is done, don’t you know. They inject this botox into your skin.
Now, in China there are other things, and other methods that are much more advanced than Botox. Different names, different means of operation. Different ways of smoothing out skin. I’ll tell you, I’m in the wrong line of business.
All these pretty gals… all ages… coming in to make their faces prettier.
But, for me… yikes!
And my wrinkles are near my eyes, I fear that it would be really, REALLY painful. Yikes!
Well, if I ever decide to try it, youse guys will be the first to know. I will report on it in great detail.
Right now… I am hesitant.
In the meantime, I am a big believer in facial care, and I use (religiously) the NIVEA brand scrubs, cremes, and facial lotions. I do so, except when it is unbearably hot out like this month.
And NO! This is not a paid endorsement.
nivea
Facial scrub and skin replenisher goes a long way to keep your skin looking youthful and clear.
Damn straight!
Todays…
Bioweapons
Suspicions have long been swirling surrounding the possibly nefarious activities going on at the Wuhan Viral Institute, as well as the Ukrainian “biolabs” the U.S. government was so concerned about falling into Russian hands. Now both the Russian and Chinese governments are accusing the United States of conducting research into biological weaponry in violation of a range of international treaties.
I moved out the day after high school graduation because I was tired of the beatings. My mother would hit me until she was so tired she could no longer lift her arm. She hit me when my sister disobeyed, when my father upset her or when the moon was full. I was the family scapegoat.
About six months after I moved out, got myself accepted to a college far, far from home and figured out how to pay for it without their help (3 jobs and financial aid), my father called me. He begged me to move home because my mother had started hitting my sister instead of me. He wanted me to come home and resume my place as the family scapegoat.
I didn’t.
Man shoots through door at would-be burglars posing as maintenance workers: video
China’s second largest Property Developer, EVERGRANDE, has filed for, get this, Chapter 15 Bankruptcy. Yes, you read that right, Chapter 15, which is ancillary to a primary proceeding brought in another country, typically the debtor’s home country.
Chapter 15 is a section in the U.S. Bankruptcy Code that was added in 2005 to provide for cooperation between U.S. courts and foreign courts when foreign bankruptcy proceedings touch upon U.S. financial interests.
The section was added in response to a United Nations recommendation for cooperation among nations on what it calls “cross-border insolvency.”
The primary goal of Chapter 15 bankruptcy is to promote cooperation among U.S. courts, their appointed representatives, and foreign courts and to make legal proceedings of international bankruptcies more predictable and fair for debtors and creditors.
As such, Chapter 15 focuses on jurisdiction. It also tries to protect the value of the debtor’s assets and, when possible, financially rescue an insolvent business.1
United States Courts. “Chapter 15 – Bankruptcy Basics: Ancillary and Other Cross-Border Cases.”
Chapter 15 allows a representative in a corporate bankruptcy case that has been filed outside the United States (also known as a “cross-border insolvency”) to obtain access to the U.S. court system. This is intended to provide an efficient and common-sense mechanism for addressing insolvencies that involve debtors, creditors, and assets associated with more than one country. The purpose of Chapter 15 is outlined in the following objectives listed in Title 11, Chapter 15, Section 1501 of the U.S. Code:2
Promoting cooperation among U.S. courts and parties of interest and the courts of other countries involved in cross-border insolvencies
Establishing a better legal foundation for cross-border investment and trade
Providing for better administration of cross-border insolvencies that protects the interests of all parties
Protecting the value of the debtor’s assets
Assisting financially troubled companies
ANALYSIS
The fact that EVERGRANDE filed Bankruptcy in China, and is now doing the same in the US, is a staggering financial catastrophe. They are the second largest Property Developer in China.
U.S. Banks have severe exposure to loans to this company. This could turn into a “Black Swan Event” for US Banks.
Notice, too, the announcement of this Bankruptcy filing in New York City, was done AFTER markets closed for the day! Seemingly because they **know** the impact this is going to have . . .
UPDATE 6:08 PM EDT —
While EVERGRANDE is China’s #2 Property Developer, it’s bigger competitor, COUNTRY GARDEN, with annual revenues of more than $70 billion, is now also on the verge of collapse.
The company’s 8% bonds due in 2024 are trading at a paltry 9 cents, signaling massive losses for the bondholders. The yield is skyrocketing, meaning nobody expects it to be paid. China’s property meltdown continues.
Country Garden Bond Crisis
Thus, with today’s EVERGRANDE Bankruptcy filing in the USA, and the clearly-coming similar fate of China’s largest Developer COUNTRY GARDEN, these two financial collapses could be a “one,two-punch” to the global financial system.
I have ZERO financial expertise or formal training. Yet, as a lowly financial laymen/neophyte, even I can see the writing on the wall over this.
If my analysis is correct, then I personally __SUSPECT__ we here in the U.S. could see tumult in financial sectors for, oh, I’d say about a month. Then, I’d put it between the dates of September 16 and September 22, that the full financial sector impact will be (ahem) “painfully” evident in US financial circles. I suspect BIG . . . . REALLY B I G impact.
Watch Europe over the next two weeks. Europe will go first. They’ve already seen about five-hundred thousand (500,000) German companies go Bankrupt THIS YEAR, mostly over Russia-related Sanctions. So economically, Europe is now hanging by just a few threads financially.
As European Banks go, so will US Banks. Watch Europe closely over the next two weeks.
Do you mean all those countries that China has attacked in the past 40 years?
Such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Lebanon, Yemen, Uganda, Kosovo, Bosnia and Niger?
Oh wait, those countries were attacked by the USA, not China. China hasn’t attacked any country in the world in the past 40 years.
So which countries do you mean? By any chance, are they countries whose No. 1 or 2 biggest trading partner in the world happen to be China? In other words, every day these countries are buying a lot of Chinese goods and China is making good profit out of them. And you think China wants to invade and attack them?
Or do you mean the countries where China is busy building or planning to build highways, railways, water treatment plants, solar energy plants, schools and hospitals? Which is about 150+ countries on earth?
If China planned to bomb a country to bits, do you think that China would invest billions of dollars in that country’s infrastructure? And then bomb the infrastructure to bits, causing its own investments to suffer grave losses?
Open your eyes. Use your brain. Free your mind from the lies that Western media propaganda has been feeding you.
And no, you CANNOT be the President of the USA when you grow up.
On May 30, 1832, a duel took place in Paris in which a young man barely twenty years old was mortally wounded. Much later he would become one of the greatest mathematical geniuses in history.
His name is Evariste Galois.
It’s pretty clear that in life he had some “gift” as a mathematician, but no one really understood all the “gibberish” Galois was writing about.
His essays and ideas were often rejected, he was denied entry into the prestigious École Normale Supérieure, and he was also a bit of a hothead, especially when, again, no one understood him.
He was simply too ahead of his time.
And to top it off, he was very involved in the French Revolution, and he used to spend a lot of time in jail if necessary.
Galois was a rebel both on the streets and in the math fog.
Unfortunately, for reasons unknown, he was drawn into a duel, but it is very likely that the direct cause of this duel was a breakup – some say it was with a prostitute, while others think the woman in question was married – and Unfortunately, his nemesis, whose identity remains unknown to this day, was a much better duelist than he was (Galois knows this all too well).
On the eve of the duel, Galois makes the most important decision of his life.
Instead of taking a much-needed break to give himself any chance of survival, he decides to put his mathematical ideas on paper[1] :
Galois was so convinced of his imminent death that he stayed up all night, writing letters to his republican friends and composing what would become his mathematical testament, the famous letter to Auguste Chevalier setting out his ideas, and three accompanying manuscripts. .
In his last letter[2] he laconically describes revolutionary ideas on analysis, continued fractions and group theory, a subject he had created on his own to solve one of the biggest mathematical problems of the time: how (not) to make polynomials by radicals. .
Galois group theory evolved over time to become one of the most important topics in contemporary mathematics, and also finds its place in many other scientific disciplines such as physics and chemistry, quantum theory and its applications, etc.
He was far ahead of his time.
Galois’ last written words, dedicated to his younger brother Alfred, are as follows:
Don’t cry Alfred! I need all my courage to die at twenty!
The famous mathematician Hermann Weyl later wrote:
This letter, if judged by the novelty and depth of the ideas it contains, is perhaps the most substantial writing in all the literature of humanity.
To honor Galois, I would like to say that this was indeed the case.
How To Leave Your California Residency Forever
Interesting.
But I am NEVER going back to the United States. No fucking way.
Deep Dish Hamburger Pie
Cheeseburger Pie 4IMG 0711c
Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
1 can green beans
Salt and pepper to taste
Ketchup
2 cups mashed potatoes
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
Instructions
Brown the meat and add your seasonings.
Stir in enough ketchup to suit your taste.
Add green beans and stir in well.
Place this mixture in a casserole dish and top with the mashed taters and then top that with the cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees F until heated through and cheese is browned.
Coming Back Home After 3 Years In Thailand, here are my thoughts
I am not banned from anything major, but my father got banned from the Maldives for life, due to a rather odd chain of events!
My father loves to sail, and before he got his own boat he used to sail across the seas at any chance he could find.
One day he found himself on a ship with a crew of about 8 other men that were doing a across-the-world-tour on their boat.
To his unfortunate surprise these were all rather young sailors.
The problem wasn’t in their skills, as they managed to all do their share of work without a problem, but rather that they were too poor to afford any variety in food.
After being on board for two weeks upon their vessel he had had enough of noodles for the next months to come.
He got off at the Maldives as soon as they arrived and the group only stopped to let my dad off the boat, then they sailed away towards their next destination.
My dad then proceeded to the customs office to announce his arrival, but more so he could get on a plane to depart again.
When he finally found the place they asked him with what plane he arrived.
He told them he came by boat, to which they stared at him with surprise.
After a bit of back and forth they finally found the documents for arrival by boat and asked my dad to give them the name of the vessel and where it was located.
At this point he said that he can give them the name but the vessel is not located here anymore and he had no way to contact them.
That is where the problems started for all the other sailors would have had to announce their arrival, as well as that of the vessel.
But since my dad was the only one that got off it was as though he had just appeared out of thin air… to which there were no real regulations.
All my dad wanted to do was to get out of the country, but for that he needed to be accepted in the country to begin with, as you cannot leave a country you never arrived in.
Of course no one had ever done this, so my dad was told to find a place to stay and not to leave the country (which was ironically what he wanted to do but couldn’t do).
For the next week my dad talked to the customs office every day, trying to reason with them that he didn’t care about his arrival approval, all he wanted to do was to leave!
But he needed their approval or he wouldn’t be allowed through the gates at the airport…
After about a week of going back and forth between the customs office they finally came to an agreement:
They were going to deport him.
The next day, early in the morning, two police cars and a taxi were waiting for him in front of his hotel.
With a police escort my dad traveled to the airport, at which point two armed men guided him through the gates and into the VIP lane at check-in and to the VIP lane to get on the plane.
At this point they wanted to make absolutely sure he would leave and was treated almost like a criminal.
To get out of the country he never wanted to stay in he had to be forcefully deported.
My dad now has a life-long entry ban from the Maldives and can never go there again, and only because they couldn’t lawfully prove that he even got into the country.
Yellen Stunned! China Dumps $481.3B in U.S. Bonds, Invests in 6,927 Tons of Gold
https://youtu.be/XDgCAvcNo-o
Book About Hawaii Wildfires Published BEFORE Fires Were Out!
In an an almost inexplicable manner, a new book about the Maui, Hawaii “Wildfires” was published on August 10 – BEFORE the fires were even put out! Of course, the book pushes the “Climate Change” political agenda. But how did they write and publish a book BEFORE the fires were even out? Unless they knew in advance, the fires would happen?
More interestingly, look at the description of the book on its AMAZON sales site. The description says the book offers “the harrowing experiences of people who lived through the fire” and “the heroic efforts of fire fighters and Rescuers who battled the flames.” How did they do that while the fire was STILL BURNING?
Book on Hawaii FIres Publication Date 08 10
ot to put too fine a point on this, but the description of “people who lived through the fire” and the “heroic efforts of fire fighters . . . ” was published while the fire was STILL BURNING.
You’ll note in the book description it talks about “the events of August 8-11.” Look at the PUBLICATION DATE: August 10.
Book on Hawaii fires Product Info Page
How did they cover the events of August 8-11 with a book published ONE DAY BEFORE the fire was even out?
Unless, of course, the book was written BEFORE the fire even started, by people who may have known the fire was going to happen?
Was the Maui, Hawaii “wildfire” a staged event? Or was it DELIBERATE, to burn-out land owners who had previously refused to sell to developers who wanted to build multi-million dollar residential complexes on some of the most beautiful – and expensive – real estate in the entire United States?
The fact that this book was published while the fires were still burning seems to some people to be prima fascia evidence the fire was actually planned. Arson.
Some wonder if the book was perhaps written to divert attention form the heinous crime, and then plug a Climate Change agenda to gloss it over.
It seems a criminal investigation is required of this fire – and of this book.
In order that YOU can verify the facts set forth in this story, here is a link to the actual AMAZON web page, selling this book: (Click HERE)
Solving Cicada 3301: Decoding the Internet’s Greatest Mystery
Not to bad mouth my fellow members of the Commonwealth, and I often talk about how tough it is to get around Canada, but Australia takes it to another level entirely.
It’s hard to get to. Australia is extremely isolated. It’s not hard to reach from eastern Asia, the Philippines or Indonesia, but it’s a long, long way from Europe and North America. It’s even far from Honolulu.
The best way to get around Australia – is by flying. The major cities and tourist areas on Australia are very distant from each other. Sydney (one of the major cities) and Canberra (the capital) are two of the closest, but they’re still about 300 km apart. Sydney to Melbourne is about 900 km. Yes, you can drive or take a bus, but that’s some long trip.
Roads are… problematic. The verdant strip running from Adelaide to Cooktown in the east of the country has roads as good as any you will find in the United States or Europe. However, the majority of the country (which has very little in the way of population) has roads that are dangerous and run through some of the nastiest desert in the world. It can be hundreds of kilometers between gas stations. Cell phone service isn’t available. Dying is a distinct possibility.
Trains are are scarce. One popular route is the Ghan, running from Adelaide to Darwin. It’s a five star trip on luxury coaches on a pristine set of tracks that runs through some of the most interesting scenery on the planet. However, the rest of Australia’s rail network is fair to middling. One of the problems is that each state set its own rail gauge. It is possible to cross Australia’s southern limit by train, but it’s not a luxury experience.
The Not So Polite Truth Behind Canada’s COLLAPSING Economy!
RUSSIA BEGINS PROCESS TO WITHDRAW FROM W.T.O. AND W.H.O
The Russian government is starting the process of unilaterally withdrawing from a series of international bodies, including the World Trade Organization and the World Health Organization, the Russian Duma’s Deputy Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy said on Tuesday.
“We have work to revise our international obligations, treaties that today bring no benefit, but instead directly harm our country. The Foreign Ministry sent a list of such agreements to the State Duma,” Tolstoy said. “Together with the Federation Council, we plan to analyze them and to propose to withdraw,” he added.
Tolstoy singled out the international trade and health organizations, saying that “the next step is to withdraw from the WTO and the WHO, which have neglected all obligations towards our country.”
Originally Answered: US is urging Europe not to deal with China and Russia because of human rights in those countries. Why then is US in bed with Saudi Arabia?
President Roosevelt of the United States said his famous phrase:
– Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he is our son of a bitch.
Many people know who Somoza is. I’ll remind those who have forgotten history. Anastasio Somoza is Nicaragua’s cruelest dictator. He killed 150,000 Nicaraguans – a monstrous figure with a population of only 800,000 in 1940.
main qimg ee46a87c58e04e4759013fd34a006084 lq
In September 1956, the dictator’s enemies shot him. By helicopter the U.S. Navy took the dictator to the Panama Canal, where the best American surgeons, including personal physician of President Eisenhower, eight days fighting for the life of “our son of a bitch”. However, on September 29, 1956, Anastasio Somoza went to the next world. It’s a legitimate retaliation for a hereditary gangster.
Do you think the U.S. policy towards pathological killers and sadists has changed? You’re deeply mistaken. If you read George Orwell, you remember the phrase about equality: “All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others.” So the Saudi authorities may have blatantly killed opposition journalist Jamal khashoggi in the Saudi consulate building in Istanbul. The US and the EU have called for a transparent investigation. And that’s it! No consequences, no sanctions and no expulsion of Saudi diplomats. It’s very simple: “Our business partner may be a son of a bitch, but he is our son of a…”
2023 08 18 11 51 1
It turns out that being “untouchable” requires “friendship” with the United States and being a source of income for American business.
The U.S. calls on Europe not to contact China and Russia because of human rights violations in those countries. This is only a fictitious excuse. The reality is simple to the primitive. China and Russia have an independent policy and are competitors in international business. It is only natural to weaken a competitor, or better yet, to destroy it, and to appropriate assets…
“You Won’t Turn Niger Into Another Libya!” – African Leaders
Photograph of a victims eyeball after the Nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, with an “Atomic Cataract.” A snapshot of the devastating destruction of the Nuclear bomb, permanently burnt into the victims eyeball. Atomic Cataracts can develop 3 months to 10 years after exposure. The incidence of this happening is greater the shorter the distance from the explosion.
Russia Publicly Accuses U.S. “Deep State” and Big Pharma of Deliberate COVID Pandemic to takeover the world
In video below from the Russian Ministry of Defense, Russia just publicly accused Deep State actors and Big Pharma of manufacturing the COVID pandemic to take over the world.
They even listed Obama, Clinton, Biden, and Soros, of being the main “Ideologists” behind the plot.
Below, video from a Briefing by Chief of Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Protection Troops of Russian Armed Forces Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov: “Pentagon conducts uncontrolled dual-use research in circumvention of international obligations under the BTWC (Biological and Toxin Weapons Control Treaty).”
Put sccinctly, the Russian Military officially and publicly accuses the US of releasing bioweapons to create “crisis situations”, and claims the US are planning to do it again.
This is the biggest story in human history, and yet it is somehow remaining largely unnoticed.
UPDATE 11:22 AM EDT —
Television stations all over Russia are carrying this bombshell accusation as major leading news stories.
In this Interview, Lt General Igor Kirillov goes even further in the accusation, saying the US is going to do it again:
MORE:
Russian biologist Igor Nikulin, who was presented as a former member of the U.N. Commission on Biological and Chemical Weapons, sounded the alarm in a February 27, 2020 interview on Russia Today’s Arabic-language channel where he said that he believes it is no coincidence that the coronavirus had the effect it did in China, Iran, and certain European countries.
He said that coronavirus was carefully selected to affect countries that rival the United States and that it is a conspiracy by the “global government,” which he said consists of 200 families that control over $400 trillion, that own the media outlets and Hollywood, that control the minds of humanity, and that want to decrease the world’s population by 90%.
He suggested that it may be possible that coronavirus is a targeted biological weapon, like he said Ebola and the bird flu were, that infects some people and not others, and he said that the U.S. government may be testing a pathogenic agent it began developing in 1999.
Nikulin also said that this is a warning to the non-English-speaking world that it must submit to the laws that are imposed upon it.
China is interested in resources in Africa from Cobalt to Lithium to Gold to Aluminium to Manganese to Hydro power to Farmlands to Labor (Human resources)
In exchange China delivers growth and progress – Soft Loans, Machinery, Schools, Hospitals, Bridges, Trains, Factories, Jobs etc
Yet China stays out of two core areas in Africa – RELIGION AND POLITICS
The West doesnt. The West interferes in both. Conversion and Ruling over the Africans
China doesn’t
So China cannot be colonizing Africa at all
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Colonizing means treating the people as second class citizens under the rule of your own government
China certainly doesn’t do that
China simply makes trade deals which may be loaded in favor of the Chinese
China may even to a certain extent take advantage of the Africans
Yet China doesn’t Colonize Africa and Chinas Actions are maybe a 100th of what the West did
Media keeps deceiving us about China’s intentions – here’s how
Baked Spaghetti Pie
Spaghetti Pie Recipe 17 650×975 1
Ingredients
2 pounds spaghetti
2 pounds ricotta cheese
1/2 cup whole milk
3 large eggs
1 pound ground beef
1 pound spicy Italian sausage
1/2 cup spaghetti sauce
1 pound Provolone cheese, sliced thin
1/2 cup Romano cheese, grated
Instructions
Heat oven to 475 degrees F.
In a large pan, boil spaghetti for 20 minutes; drain and set aside.
Mix ricotta, milk and eggs together in a small bowl; add to spaghetti and stir together.
Press into a 13 x 9-inch baking pan until compact and even.
Cook ground beef and sausage in a large skillet.
Drain fat, removing as much as possible.
Stir in spaghetti sauce. Spread evenly over spaghetti base in pan.
Layer slices of Provolone over meat mixture, then add the grated Romano on top of that.
Bake for 20 minutes.
Polybius | The Most Deadly Video Game in History | More Truth than Legend
Burger-Bean Spaghetti Pie
Looking for a dinner pie? Then check out this ground beef spaghetti pie packed with spicy chili beans and three types of cheese – a hearty meal.
2023 08 19 11 47
Prep: 40 min | Total: 1 hr 5 min | Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
Crust
7 ounces uncooked spaghetti or vermicelli
1 egg
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon chili powder
Filling
1 pound lean ground beef
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 (15 1/2 ounce) can spicy chili beans, undrained
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can zesty diced tomatoes seasoned with mild green chiles, undrained
4 ounces (1 cup) shredded hot pepper Monterey Jack cheese
4 ounces (1 cup) shredded Cheddar cheese
Instructions
Cook spaghetti to desired doneness as directed on package. Drain.
Meanwhile, heat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9 1/2 inch deep dish pie pan with nonstick cooking spray.
Beat egg in large bowl. Add butter, Parmesan cheese and chili powder; mix well. Add cooked spaghetti; toss to coat. Spoon mixture evenly into sprayed pie pan, pushing mixture slightly up sides of pan to form crust.
In large saucepan, cook ground beef and onion over medium heat until beef is thoroughly cooked, stirring frequently. Drain.
Add chili beans and tomatoes; cook for 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated, stirring occasionally. Add hot pepper Monterey Jack cheese and 1/2 cup of the Cheddar cheese; mix well. Spoon evenly into spaghetti-lined pie pan. Top with remaining 1/2 cup Cheddar cheese.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until filling is set and crust is light golden brown.
We begin today with a discussion on what the United States actually is.
It is a bully, and a liar, that is based on a system of deception; a shadow play of puppets. All supported by the largest propaganda system in history. And all of it; MM included has (up until very recently) believed it all lock, stock and barrel.
So it is fitting to begin with today’s brilliant podcast by Neil Oliver.
Who knows what will come next for the West…
HEXAGON
In April 1972, when a “data package” sank into the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. Navy dispatched the Trieste II Deep Sea Vehicle I (DSV-1), its most advanced deep sea submersible at the time, to recover the item. In reality, it was “part of a film capsule from an American photoreconnaissance [spy] satellite codenamed HEXAGON.”
According to the Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room, a malfunction was responsible for the incident. A parachute was supposed to deploy once the film capsule, or “bucket,” having reentered the atmosphere, was over the primary reentry zone near the Hawaiian Islands. Instead, the parachute broke off, and the bucket fell into the ocean, sinking on impact to a depth of about 16,400 feet (5,000 meters).
NO ONE HIT WONDER HERE!!! OLIVER ANTHONY – I WANT TO GO HOME (REACTION)
I think people are getting upset because he’s waking people up and they don’t want to be woken. It’s time guys. We can’t keep living like this and accepting it. It’s happening around the world and we need to make a change.
IMF Just Shocked The World And The U.S With This Move!
It wants to overtake and dominate the Chip industry within a decade and it will. No perhaps, not may be, not hopefully. It will. Meanwhile it will take over the low and medium end market for chips in 3–5 years and totally bankrupt the U.S. and its cronies chip outfit.
Let me give you 2 perfect example of never ever doubting and never try to cut China out act by the U.S.
One, The U.S. the congress in the most childish and hubris behaviour, decided to bar China and Chinese on its U.S. space station in the 90’s. In that in one single racist act it motivated China to build its own space station and it did within 15 years.
And today the Chinese space station is a fully functional and well developed space station that is better, build faster and using far less resources. It uses better and more advance technologies and it is open for the entire world including the US for the betterment of humanity. For me shame on the US. The US coincidentally will retire the US space station within 5 years leaving the Chinese Space Station as the only one for the coming decade.
Two, The GPS. The US threaten the US that it can and will cut out nation that refuse to be submissive and subservient to the US in not too many words. That statement and threat itself motivated China enough to developed its own GPS within a decade of the US threat. Today the Chinese Beidou has way higher resolution, and accuracy up to a meter compared to the GPS functional up to only 10 meter! Today 150 out of 195 nations use Beidou. Instead or with the GPS. All within a decade.
Marked my word. Within a decade the US will lose so much in Chip business, market share and profits that it will forever regret the nonsense and ludicrous Chip policy under President Biden. To me China was willing to share a loaf of bread with the US but it is the US that wants to deprived China. So China should say fine, they will dominate. The entire Chip industry. In a decade. I will bet every cent I have on China winning.
I had a boss who was a narcissistic D-bag. Everyone knew it.
I finally had enough after yet another useless meeting set up just to stoke his ego. At that point somebody decided to jack him up a bit.
Somebody hung around his office until they saw him leave for a meeting with the company president. They knew it would take a while and he would leave his precious laptop open on his desk.
No they didn’t hack into it or delete any files. They did one better.
They had a firecracker set aside for this specific opportunity.
Somebody cut the firecracker open and sprinkled a bit of gunpowder lightly on his vowel keys and between the keys on his keyboard. They then lightly wiped it clean to hide the evidence.
I heard that the next time he took a flight he was flagged by TSA screening. Something about explosives in his laptop.
He missed his flight and had to replace his laptop.
I have always wondered who that “somebody” might have been. Certainly not me writing on an open forum like Quora.
OLIVER ANTHONY – I WANT TO GO HOME (REACTION)
He’s so authentic with angst, pain, confusion and he’s fed up like soooo many of us!!
Brisket in Coffee-Barbecue Sauce
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Yield: 10 to 12 servings
Ingredients
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 large Spanish onion, minced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon tomato paste
7 tablespoons light brown sugar
5 cups brewed coffee
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1 (28 ounce) can peeled, chopped tomatoes
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 (4 pound) brisket
Instructions
In a medium pot, heat 1/4 cup of the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until soft and golden brown, about 7 minutes.
Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the red pepper. Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring frequently, about 1 minute. Stir in the brown sugar. Pour in the coffee, vinegar, and tomatoes; bring to a boil; and then lower to a simmer. Simmer for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Working in small batches, transfer the tomato-coffee mixture to a blender and puree. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
Heat the oven to 275 degrees F.
Season the brisket with salt and pepper. In a Dutch oven with a tight-fitting lid, heat the remaining 1/2 cup oil. Brown the brisket on both sides. Drain off the oil, leaving the brisket in the Dutch oven. Turn the brisket so that the fat side is facing up and then coat it with the pureed tomato-coffee mixture. Cover the Dutch oven and place it in the oven. Bake for 3 hours, basting frequently.
Remove the lid and bake uncovered until the brisket is glazed and very tender, about an hour and a half more.
Remove the brisket and set it aside to rest for 10 minutes, covered with foil, before slicing thinly across the grain.
Compilation of the #1 Song in America!!! Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North Of Richmond
Post a harsh criticism against a political leader, any leader not just Modi
Compare him to some clownish character or demand that he step down
Under your real name
I am a very ordinary lawyer, yet I promise that unless you are an MP, MLA, Civil Servant, Minister or Wealthy Industrialist/Businessman, Military Man or Senior Cop :-
I can get a simple complaint with some influence filed through a specific lawyer and you will be arrested and you will be humiliated in front of your family and workplace
I guarantee it
All I need is a friendly cop and once he knows you are an ordinary commoner – he will happily file an FIR
He then writes to the passport office and you don’t get a passport
He can place you on the blacklist through a friendly SP Or State Home Secretary and you can’t get a US Visa or Schengen Visa or Singapore Visa for life
You would spend the next 6 months to 3 years in horror before a High Court quashes the case
I will come and look sheepish and say I got emotional while giving the PCR and the judge will admonish me and fine me ₹10K
You would have spent ₹3–6 Lakhs, maybe more
And I am an ordinary enrolled lawyer who doesn’t even actively practice
Imagine a powerful practising lawyer or a powerful cop if you antagonize one
Imagine if this is done in Begusarai Or some random place in Kerala
Imagine working in Infosys and two cops arrive and haul you out in front of your friends and drag you into a waiting jeep
Their response if questioned will be
We got a complaint we followed it up
So a simple malicious connected official can destroy your life if you are a commoner even if you earn ₹20 or ₹30 LPA
Your company will drop you like a hot potato
NOT IN CHINA
No Malicious officer or lawyer can try anything like this
The law is black and white
Evidence is specific and very strictly specific
So even if a case is registered, it will be dismissed in seconds if it doesn’t violate the laws
The official or lawyer would be roasted
So you understand?
In India the Law reads fairer
The System is utterly and totally loaded against the innocent average man
In China the Law is harsher
Yet the System protects the innocent average man
So the next time someone on Quora says he can post criticism freely in India
Ask him to do it under his own name and ask him if he is willing to test the fairness of the Indian system against a malicious prosecutor or entity
In China – the Law is very fair
It’s very harsh yes but very fair
No malicious person except high ranking CPC officials can come after you or spoil your life with lies
Evidence counts for a lot
1:45 / 14:42
‘We’ve all been watching the longest-running show of modern times. But it might soon be all over’
Neil Oliver: We’ve all been watching the longest-running show of modern times. But soon the show might soon be over, as more and more of the audience, especially in the cheap seats, are becoming restless, aware of how uncomfortable their seats are.
The US spends way too much time and effort looking out into the world, not nearly as much looking in the mirror at what the US has become.
The result: hard outside, rotten core
No longer able to keep running the marathon while the tank is on ‘E’.
Americans are far more focused on countering the other major political party in America whenever we are looking in.
We want our team—our little tribe—to be victorious.
Countering China’s rise?
We failed at rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan…after more than 10 years and how many billions upon billions dollars spent? thousands of lives lost?
Americans are so disconnected from reality that even that experience hasn’t shaken us from our delusions of grandeur.
What will? who knows—maybe the next great Recession will offer a bitter dose of reality.
But even then perhaps we will still go on believing in our triumphalism, with all our rags, evictions, foreclosures, abandoned properties, and pink slips
America today is more divided than I have ever seen it.
Individuals and companies and our own government are swimming in an ocean of debt with—until recently—out of control inflation.
Countering China’s rise?
Maybe we should check the plumbing and wiring in our own house first?
This is why this hit a nerve… Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North Of Richmond (Reaction)
I have a cousin who was passioned by Japan since a very early age. He subsequently studied Japanese culture and language at university, and then decided he had to go after his big dream — live in Japan and become a part of Japanese culture.
But my cousin was used to living in The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and France — the Western Burgundian world in a nutshell. And that also translated into the fact that he loved to enjoy life, far above enjoying work, and succeeding in it.
In fact: he even enjoyed to be unemployed when it suited him back in those Western days.
In the big city in Japan though, that kind of non-philosophy did not work out.
Although he was embraced in the very beginning, his way of “interpreting life” was spit out and on by his Japanese company, because he simply could not follow the exuberant pace by which Japanese people were living — are rather: working.
And after a while, he was excluded from the city society as an outcast.
In the old Western world he came from, he would have been helped, but now he was considered as a lost case, as if he was diseased, and no one would touch him — afraid to be infected.
In the end — in the most embarrassing episode of my cousin’s life — his dad and younger brother travelled to Japan, and got him out of there. By then, he was living in an almost depraved way in an apartment the size of a closet.
He suffered from a major depression when back, and had to leave his Japanese dream for good.
Because now he understood, that he didn’t understand.
Neocons CRUMBLE as China DESTROYS the US-led Unipolar Order
I remember I once opened the mail box and saw the electricity bill and the first thing I noticed was the paper was a different color.
Not the envelope, the bill. And poor people know what the means…notice of disconnect.
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(Google)
As I held the bill in my hand, I could feel my anxiety ramping up as I frantically searched my mind and counted backwards to the last time I paid. I could swear I just paid it.
But it’s a bill, we always feel like we just paid it! Because we did! Right?! Then there’s the fear of checking your account to find, not only do you have no money, but less than no money. Your account is negative and you haven’t paid that particular bill in months.
It wasn’t purposeful. You just spaced it.
I sit the bill on the bar and pace back and forth, for hours before I finally get the nerve to open it.
Then I snatch it up and rip it open like a present. Very unlike my normal polite, trimming of one end and shaking the letter out.
And I was right!! The bill is red! Not just red numbers on a white page. A red sheet of paper! I just about have heart palpitations.
I unfold it through half squinted eyes and read.. “Happy Holidays to you and yours! From our team and we would like to Thank You for being a valued customer for all these years.”
After years of abuse, poverty, homelessness and then stability. Christmas Greetings can send me spiraling at the hint of a different color inside the envelope.
Poverty traumatizes on so many different levels.
BRICS DEFEATS The WEST
2023 08 23 15 38
https://youtu.be/0jKQcw-b0-I
British Guy Reacts to Oliver Anthony “Rich Men North Of Richmond” REACTION!
Adolphe Sax had earned the nickname “Little Sax the Ghost” due to the abnormal amount of accidents he was in. Even his mother believed he wasn’t meant to live, and all she foresaw was a tragic end to his life.
2023 08 21 08 53
He was plagued by an unusual amount of misfortune from a very early age. At just three years old, he drank a mixture of white lead, copper oxide, and arsenic, believing it to be milk. A few months later, he fell down three flights of concrete stairs and hit his head on a stone below, both times he was lucky to walk away.
Then he swallowed a very sharp needle that he was able to pass without puncturing any vital parts. As he got a bit older, he fell onto a red hot stove and suffered third-degree burns down one side of his body.
When he was ten, he fell into a river and barely escaped drowning. When a container of gunpowder exploded in his father’s workshop, he was blown across the room.
On several occasions, he nearly died from accidental poisoning and asphyxiation due to sleeping in a room where varnished furniture was drying.
His last known brush with death happened when a tile fell from a roof, hitting him in the head and causing him to fall into a coma.
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Despite all this misfortune, Adolphe went on to invent some notable musical instruments, the most famous being the Saxophone.
HE’S SPEAKING TO US! Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North Of Richmond
2023 08 21 08 46
Mustard Glazed Brisket
Starts on the stove top, finishes in the oven for tender Mustard Glazed Brisket every time.
2023 08 21 09 00
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
1 (3 to 4 pound) boneless beef brisket
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 large onion, sliced
2 stalks celery
8 black peppercorns
4 whole allspice
1 bay leaf
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons prepared mustard
Instructions
Place brisket, garlic, onion, celery, peppercorns, allspice and bay leaf in a large soup pot. Cover with water. Simmer covered 3 to 3 1/2 hours until tender, adding water as necessary.
Remove brisket and place in a roasting pan with 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid.
Combine brown sugar and prepared mustard. Salt and pepper brisket and spread with the mustard glaze.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 350 degrees F until glaze bubbles and is browned.
Pegasus spyware
According to declassified documents, Alejandro Encinas, Mexico’s Undersecretary for Human Rights, advised President Lopez Obrador that Pegasus spyware had been found on Encinas’s own cellphone and those of two others in his office. Encinas had been investigating the mysterious “disappearances of hundreds of people,” a New York Times article explains, which occurred during the “Dirty War” that the Mexican military conducted in the 1960s and 1970s against a left-wing insurgency.
Initially, U.S. officials considered the Mexican crackdown to be understandable, Kate Doyle reports in her 2003 article “Human Rights and the Dirty War in Mexico.” And the U.S. assured Mexico that it “had no intention of pressing [Mexican President Luis] Echeverría about it.”
However, this stance changed in 1978, when U.S. President Jimmy Carter ordered the White House to conduct a sweeping review of U.S.-Mexican relations and learned that “the White Brigade and other security force elements… sometimes ignored [both] the human rights of [terrorist] suspects and Mexican judicial procedures,” torturing and executing such individuals, with the results that “200-300 persons [had disappeared] over the last decade.”
Only now, three decades later, is Mexico beginning to come to grips with the fact that the government was responsible for “torturing and murdering its own people.”
Chris Webby – North Of Richmond (Remix)
What Makes Certain Wine Unbelievably Expensive?
The price gap is supply and demand, for certain prestigious brands.
So first of all, wine comes from grapes; and grape quality is dependent on many factors. Weather of course, but also soil, water, light, heat, and grower skill/decisions. AND of course, the actual grape vine.
Old vines produce less fruit – thus, smaller production, BUT generally more concentrated and intense. Younger vines produce more fruit, but you have to prune them – the amount of pruning affects the concentration and quality of the juice you get. If your options are ‘n’ cases of wine at $60/case (wholesale) or ‘n/3’ cases at $120, you’re probably going to prune sparingly to get as much juice and wine as possible, without creating garbage. On the other hand, if you can make truly great wine and have a name for yourself, then the options are ‘n/3’ cases at $1000, or ‘n’ cases at $1000 – for a year or two, and then the price per case drops down to $100 because nobody trusts you anymore.
Then you factor in the slope of your land and composition of the soil (acidity, water retention or runoff), the light, the use of pesticides, mulch, etc..
So now you have some amount of good-quality grapes. How do you make wine? Do you make wine that’s going to mature over 10-50 years, or wine that’s going to be drinkable about the time it hits the market, late next year (like about 90% of the wine sold)? The former leads to more expensive wine, and is harder to sell – BUT if done well, can establish you over time as a top-notch winemaker. Or drive you into bankruptcy even sooner.
So this pretty much determines the pricing for most wines between $8 and $80. Above that, things get…complicated.
If you’re in Bordeaux for instance, your vinyard is likely ranked by the government. Your wine has to meet certain standards of quality and composition, and much of it is historical. There are, for instance, only five first-growth houses, and only one of them was not defined as such in 1855. (Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, which got promoted in 1973). If you’re one off those, or one of a limited few others who have a similar cachet, you can pretty much name your price. The thing is, most of their wine is sold on futures at auction, so basically it’s “as much as someone is willing to pay.”
HE DONE DID IT AGAIN!! | OLIVER ANTHONY – I WANT TO GO HOME
Do you remember when the “Bic Banana” came out? I do.
It was big and bright yellow, and all of us just wanted to have one to do our homework with.
Shortly after that came “Maxi skirts” which was the death blow to the mini-skirt fad of the late 1970’s. It wasn’t until the mid-1970s that my mother threw away her white go-go boots.
…
The year was in the early 1990’s. And I was working as a contractor at a electronics company that made high end military systems. Well, one day, I went to my boss and asked him for a raise. He said, “let me think about it”.
The next day he called me into his office. He accused me of being a fraud and a fake. He said that no one could find any background on me. And he spent perhaps the next two hours berating me up and down.
I left the office shaken.
Long story short, I made a few calls and got the entire mess all straightened out. But, you know, the damage was already done.
I came in wanting a raise, and left just happy that I had a job.
…
One thing that I used to love to do was crunch up aluminum foil into balls and toss them at the kitty cats to play with. They really enjoyed that game.
…
Oh, yeah. I have been listening a lot to B-b-b-b babymetal lately.
The lyrics to the songs suggest multiple song writers, as some of the songs are so very simple (Give me chocolate) while others at multi-levels deep.
Like Megitsune メギツネ.
Babymetal is a stage show; a production. Unlike the West, it’s not really a bunch a kids in a garage that got a hit record and a following, but a thought out and choreographed entertainment system.
If you read the subtitles to Megitsune メギツネ, you see that the song is all about how some women are actresses; “shape shifters” that follow a system of “seven techniques” to achieve their ultimate desires, goals, objectives… and purpose.
A female fox.
2023 07 29 07 06
HUSH – HUSH: Pentagon Orders “COMBAT PAY” For U.S. Troops – UKRAINE
The Pentagon has ordered COMBAT PAY for U.S. troops serving in . . . UKRAINE. Here’s the official memo:
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This begs the questions:
1) Why are US Troops inside Ukraine at all, AND;
2) If the only US Troops in Ukraine are “Advisors” then why Combat Pay?
(HT Personal Opinion: I’m going to go out on a limb here and speculate . . . . I think the reason for this memo is that US troops ARE in combat in Ukraine and we ARE at war with Russia even though it is undeclared.)
First, my impression of Japanese upper class is that it tends to whisper.
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We spent a day in one of the hot spring bathhouses up in Hakone. At dinner everybody got drunk, and at some stage the wall to the next room was slid away and two very drunk parties became one.
In that other party there was an old geezer that seemed to have the time of his life. Rolling about on the floor, laughing and pointing his finger at us westerners. We had no problem with that, we beat him at poker and won maybe 20 yen 🙂
Next day we were extremely hung over. While waiting for our taxi, a runner came and said: “Nomura-san would like to thank you for a most successful evening yesterday and since you are going to Kyoto he asks if it is OK if he arranges for one of his friends to give you a guided tour of the city tomorrow?”
Of course we said yes and sent our thanks.
Next morning at breakfast a very old man in very traditional clothes appeared at our hotel. He was totally unassuming like David Bowie who just appeared at the front desk and mildly said, “Good morning, I am David”. But you could see from the hotel staff that he was somebody. They even started to treat us differently.
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We took the tour. It was amazing. He took us to temples and gardens that were not open to the public, and he was extremely knowledgeable. Then he asked if he would be allowed to invite us to his home for dinner.
Yes he was.
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His home was almost empty. But large. He had a large collection of original woodprints that he showed us. His wife, a very refined woman, had a degree in art history from the Sorbonne in Paris. The staff moved about like ghosts. He told us that he came from one of the really old Samurai families, but when Japan started modernizing, his family went into textiles and made a fortune.
We asked him what he did when he was not guiding westerners. He said that he collected 19th century sailing yachts. He had one in Newport, one in Monaco on the Riviera and one in Hawaii, and they all had crews that stood by in case he felt like sailing.
To this day I do not have any clue whom we met, but his friend up in Hakone that set us up was a Nomura. And they are bankers, right. Unless he was a Nomura written with different signs.
Chinese people don’t care about ancestry like Europeans do; there is no aristocracy in China, or everyone is descended from an aristocrat.
British proverb: It takes three generations to make a gentleman or aristocracy.
The Chinese have a saying, “Fu bu guo san dai”, which means wealth never survives three generations.
No hereditary aristocratic after the Zhou dynasty, interrupted by the policies of the Qin dynasty; 皇帝輪流做，明天到我家，基本是這個情況。
No hereditary power elite after the Tang Dynasty, interrupted by the imperial examination system;
No hereditary landowners after PRC statehood, interrupted by CPC land reform.
But after 1949, where was the space for the old aristocracy to survive?
Even the cadres of the CPC are not aristocrats. They went from muddy farm labourers to suits in short order, and were no aristocracy’s noble temperament at all. / 中共建政才70多年，從泥腿子洗腳上岸才幾天呀？中共領導層上一代誰不是農民出身？這麼短的時間如何產生貴族？
2023 07 29 13 26d
China went through a Maoist communist revolution. Who calls himself a fucking aristocrat? He will be sent to the remote countryside to be re-educated by the poor peasants!
As we all know, Xi Jinping once worked as an ordinary peasant labourer in Liangjiahe Village, Yanchuan County, Shaanxi Province.
This happened last month, June 2017. I met this man.(The one on the left)
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Image source: selfie.
Know who he is? You might be thinking that he’s some random Chinese guy.
Okay, I’ll tell his name. Carl Pei.
Haven’t heard of his name anywhere right?
Okay, heard of this mobile company?
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Yes, it’s Oneplus. He’s one of the two co-founders of that company. I had met him in Bangalore, one plus experience showroom when he was traveling around for one plus 5 promotion.
One plus, being one of the best mobile company in the world, after Apple and Samsung he hasn’t made himself famous. In the generation where people become entrepreneurs to gain name and fame, this guy
has no Wikipedia page about himself
He doesn’t own a mansion. He rents an AirBNB room for a month and keeps travelling.
He doesn’t own any posh cars. Travels only in Uber.
He wears one plain black round neck t-shirt.
He was sitting like he was one among us and talking about one plus phones.
Not rude, not loud, spoke softly.
He posed with everyone who asked for a selfie.
He had also arranged for free, unlimited ice cream, (Häagen Dazs!!!!) at that event.
It was such a nice experience. 🙂
Best thing was, the next day was my birthday. 🙂
American Hedge Fund CEO Moves Entire Company to China in 2023
In today’s video we share the story of Taylor Ogan of Snow Bull Capital and why he moved his hedge fund from the US to China and is still optimistic about Chinese Innovation in 2023.
As a teenager in the late 80s there was this show on TV called Roseanne.
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(Source: ABC Television)
I watched a few episodes but had very little interest in these middle-aged (aka “OLD”) people deal with their rebellious teenagers and unending money problems. The TV family was struggling, but I didn’t think they were poor. The parents worked. They owned their house. They seemed like a normal family with a big helping of TV drama and family dysfunction. As a teenager, I thought my family was doing just fine.
My parents owned their 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house with a mortgage, of course. I had my own room. My brother had his own room and bathroom.
At 16, I was given my family’s beater, a Ford sedan, to drive. When the backseat caught on fire due to a faulty muffler, I used my birthday and Christmas money and my parents chipped in to buy a used Japanese sports car. It wasn’t fast but it was cool. How did my parents afford car insurance for a new teenage driver? More on that later.
I was a straight A student and had been accepted to a top in-state college. I got a mix of scholarships, grants and loans, but it didn’t matter. My parents made up any financial shortfalls and gave me $300/month allowance for food/groceries/gas which was way more than I needed. Where did they get the money? Not my problem.
30 years later, Roseanne has been rebooted (now called The Conners), and I start watching the show with more interest. Now I am now middle-aged with teenagers, but my life looks nothing like theirs. I semi-retired at 40. I’m wealthier than I ever thought possible. My kids (so far) have stayed out of trouble. They attend elite private high schools. We travel the world. I own both of my dream cars. I have no neurotic family members.
I start having flashbacks about the show’s original storyline and my own life at the time, and I realized that my childhood was closer to the Conner’s than I thought. Like the Conners, my family appeared to be middle class on the surface (i.e., homeowners with good jobs), but my parents were always struggling financially in large part because they were helping less fortunate/capable family members. My parents bought their house when I was born, and the house was the center of their financial and emotional well-being. They lived there my entire life. All important family gatherings were held there.
My mother worked as a waitress and my dad was a door-to-door salesman. His clientele were restaurant and bar patrons in rough neighborhoods. They worked a lot. They argued a lot—probably about money.
As a young child, I would accompany my mother at the diner since childcare was an issue. I sat quietly in a booth while she worked her shift. When I got older (5th grade), I walked home after school to an empty house. The key was under the doormat. I did homework and watched TV.
Unlike my kids now who have enrichment programs, private tutors, private coaches, private college counselors, and of course highly involved (borderline helicopter) parents, I did all my school work and college applications on my own.
Throughout our lives, my parents tapped into home equity to get out of financial jams. They refinanced the house to put me through college. My dad would regularly run up 6 figures of credit card debt with up to 30% interest. They refinanced the house repeatedly with mortgage rates > 10%.
My parents had very little savings and never invested a cent in stocks or mutual funds. There were no IRAs, 401Ks, etc. They were on social security and Medicare later in life.
Whenever they came into some money, they would blow it—usually by bailing out a relative in trouble, sometimes by making a bad investment. They each at some point bought a junker “dream” car that turned into a money pit. My dad bought a “classic” Mercedes and my mother bought a “classic” MG. Both were worthless.
I was on the free school lunch program, but it never occurred to me that it was income based. I just thought lunch was included.
We owned a working TV which sat on top of a non-working TV. If you’re a fan of Jeff Foxworthy, you know what that means.
I started driving when I was 16, but I didn’t know I had no insurance until I started insuring myself in college. My parents happily let me drive without insurance.
We also didn’t have any health insurance. Seeing the doctor, dentist, optometrist were on an as-needed basis. Something better be broken. Forget about preventative care except for the free eye and dental exams I received at school. I didn’t know health insurance was a societal norm until I got my first job out of college.
I got all my immunizations at the free county clinic. I also had my cavities treated for free by dental students at a local university during special “low income” days.
I was the first in my family to get braces after the school nurse identified a speech impediment due to crooked teeth. My mother actually protested, “Does a boy really need straight teeth?” I wasn’t planning to enter any beauty pageants, but I had some really gnarly teeth.
I was a good student, so I needed tools of the trade. I got 20-year-old hand me down encyclopedias for my studies. It saved me trips to the library and photocopying money. The library encyclopedias weren’t much newer.
Even though I had my own bedroom, we had a revolving door of aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents living with us, sleeping in the living room for months at at time. It was not a large house; it was often full of people.
When the relatives did move out, my parents subsidized their relatives’ lifestyles. My parents paid for rent, food, cars, kids’ college expenses.
While my own life has been drama free, there was no shortage of drama around. My half-brother came to live with us when I was 10 and he was 19. He had a drinking problem early in life. He went to a “lesser” college because of a girl. They eloped and when they couldn’t make if financially, they had to move back home; this happened several times. The last time it happened, it became a permanent move, with a kid in tow. He’s doing well now, and he inherited our parents’ house.
Some family members had out-of-wedlock kids and interracial marriages (maybe not a big deal today but not as common back then). I had an aunt who married a husband who had a second family in a foreign country (she was a gullible person and easily conned). She had a kid with him, then found out she was the second wife, and he moved his first family to the US to be with them. I had another aunt who we all thought had “made it” because she married into a super wealthy family. She and her husband were kidnapped and held for ransom (and murdered).
Many aunts and uncles had mental health issues that went undiagnosed. They were known as the crazy family members, but still family. They led their lives suffering and really not knowing or understanding. They were unemployable. They might temporarily act normal but could never hold down jobs and most relationships. My parents helped them as best as they could. Ironically, they outlived my parents. and their kids support them. Their kids can support them because my parents helped support their kids.
There were a lot of arguments between my parents, siblings, in-laws, etc. Small house. lots of people, mental illness, it was inevitable. I mostly stayed out of it. Sometimes people made bone-headed choices (aka mistakes) and another family member would bail them out. I didn’t like it. I couldn’t understand it. But I accepted it.
Most of all, my parents’ dining room/kitchen looked just like the Connner’s. It was cheap looking. It was small and cluttered. It was usually filled with a large, close but sometimes dysfunctional family. The room still looks the same except the family has dispersed after my parents passed away.
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(Source: ABC Television)
It helped me immensely to grow up with some challenging circumstances and complex family dynamics but never really having the stigma of being poor. Because I lived with my less fortunate family members, I always thought I was doing all right. I grew up in a solidly middle class neighborhood and felt like I had everything my friends had (minus the Izod shirts, Member’s Only jackets and Jordache Jeans). My parents did a great job of maintaining an illusion of middle class stability while building a mountain of debt. It wasn’t until college that I began to even have a glimpse of the structural problems with my parents and their extended family. Before that, everything was just “normal” to me.
As a I started my own journey of financial obligations (e.g., student loans, car loans, credit cards, etc.) and eventual financial independence, I realized all the challenges but also missed opportunities my parents encountered. It’s heartbreaking to think the lives they could have led had they just had someone guiding them and perhaps if they had fewer relatives draining their resources. They worked hard their entire lives but enjoyed few luxuries. They were able to hold onto the house through the ups and towns, raise financially independent kids (it took my brother a bit longer), and help their family members, so that does count for something. In that sense, all our lives are better than the Conner’s since they seemed to be stuck in an endless loop of misery (even 30 years later).
I developed a strong interest in personal finance. I semi-retired at 40 due to diligent saving and investing. Although my family is much smaller, it remains central to my life. Rather than maximize income, I focus on optimizing my time. How do I make enough money while maximizing my time with my wife and kids.? My wife and I both work from home, and we’ve been present at every of one our kids’ milestones and events (e.g., sports games, talent shows, scouting, plays, etc.). We take a lot of family vacations. Other than our kids’ private schools, we keep our expenses low. Financial security has driven my choices but the display of wealth or excessive consumption is anathema to me. I strive to be financially savvy enough to avoid stupid mistakes and financially wealthy enough to survive the inevitable mishap.
China is not a dictatorship because Xi Jinping cannot make any major decisions without first discussing them with the seven-member politburo.
You have no idea about how societies collapse; it is not about wasting public money.
It is about a significant portion of the population not having ownership over any assets, such as land, so they have no interest in social stability. Most importantly, they feel that the door is closed to their owning any assets.
So they feel the only way out is to overthrow the current system.
Any Chinese citizen can apply to join the Communist Party; usually they will be rejected on the first application. Xi was rejected nine times before being accepted the tenth time.
Chuck Roast Soup
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Ingredients
1 (3 1/2 pound) chuck roast
2 (46 ounce) cans tomato juice
1 package frozen mixed vegetables
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
1/2 cup okra, chopped
1/2 cup chopped parsley
Tabasco sauce to taste
Salt to taste
1 cup spaghetti, broken into small pieces
Instructions
Cut chuck roast into small pieces, removing all gristle and fat. Place in a very large pot and add all ingredients except spaghetti. Cover and simmer slowly for 3 hours.
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union believed that the downtown Pentagon building was a top-secret meeting room.
They claimed this because they saw government officials entering and exiting the building at the same time through the satellite images available to them.
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They believed it only ended up discovering something completely different:
The “secret” building was a kind of hot dog kiosk for employees.
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Our Eye-Opening 24 Hours in CHINA in 2023 (has Shanghai changed?)
We visited Shanghai for the first time in 2016 and have since been there three times. However, our last visit was in 2018, and A LOT has happened since then, in the world overall but in China especially.
The battle for Osowiec Fortress
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On August 6th,1915, over 7,000 German soldiers surrounded Osowiec Fortress. The Fortress was built in the 19th century on a strategic hotspot near the river Biebrza, in what is now Poland,but back then was part of the Russian Empire.
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It was a formidable fortress, but only 900 Russian soldiers defended it against 7,000 advancing German troops. After months of trying to get the soldiers to surrender, the Germans launched a Chlorine and Bromine Gas attack against the fortress, followed by an artillery bombardment.
Since the Russian soldiers were just simple militia, they had no protection and suffered horrendous casualties from the gas. As the 7,000 thousand German troops advanced against the fort, they were met with a terrifying sight.
The hundred or so Russian troops who had survived the gas attack charged the German soldiers covered in blood and chemical burns, and coughing up bits of their melted lungs. The Chlorine gas mix with the moisture in their lungs turning it to Hydrochloric Acid.
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With bloody cloths wrapped their melting faces they charged the German soldiers. The German troops thought the dead where coming at them and ran screaming in terror. As the horrified Germans retreated they got caught in their own barbwire traps, allowing the Russians to pick them off with ease.
They didn’t manage to hold the fortress, but the remaining Russian soldiers were able to destroy the fort before retreating to safety. The battle for Osowiec Fortress was so horrific for the advancing German army, it went on to become known as the Attack of the Dead Men.
The Yanks want to get involved in the third Chinese Civil War, fine, it’s the Yanks we want to fight.
Hainan Island incident, U.S. bombs Chinese embassy in FRY …… Wait, the Chinese haven’t had a chance to get their revenge yet.
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
U.S. naval, ground and air forces did participate in the 1945~1950 chinese Civil war in China.
There were U.S. naval bases in Tsingtao, Shanghai and Taiwan.
U.S. troops were stationed in Peiping, Tientsin, Tangshan, Chinwangtao, Tsingtao, Shanghai and Nanking.
The U.S. air force controlled all of China’s air space and took aerial photographs of all China’s strategic areas for military maps.
At the town of Anping near Peiping, at Chiutai near Changchun, at Tangshan and in the Eastern Shantung Peninsula, U.S. troops and other military personnel clashed with the People’s Liberation Army and on several occasions were captured.
Chennault’s air fleet took an extensive part in the chinese civil war.
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Besides transporting troops for Chiang Kai-shek, the U.S. air force bombed and sank the cruiser Chungking, which had mutinied against the Kuomintang.
All these were acts of direct participation in the war.
The Chinese civil war from 1945 to 1950 was apparently started by Chiang Kai-shek, but actually started by the United States.
As stated in Acheson’s Letter, the United States in this last war has given the Kuomintang government material aid to the value of “more than 50 percent” of the latter’s “monetary expenditures” and “furnished the Chinese armies” (meaning the Kuomintang armies) with “military supplies”.
It is a war in which the United States supplies the money and guns and Chiang Kai-shek supplies the men to fight for the United States and slaughter the Chinese people.
All these wars of aggression, together with political, economic and cultural aggression and oppression, have caused the Chinese to hate American imperialism.
Make trouble, fail, make trouble again, fail again . . . till their doom; that is the logic of the American imperialists and all reactionaries over in dealing with the chinese people’s cause, and they will never go against this logic.
CAST AWAY ILLUSIONS, PREPARE FOR STRUGGLE!
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American Imperialism has prepared the conditions for its own doom.
This is a story about how one night in university can destroy your life forever. Danny Santulli was 18-years-old and a freshman at the University of Missouri. In October 2021, Danny was captured on CCTV being blindfolded and being led down a flight of stairs, in an event named “Pledge Dad Reveal Night.”
Danny was made to drink a litre of Vodka straight and by himself. At around 10.55, Danny collapsed and some of the frat members carried him to a sofa. At around midnight Danny was captured on CCTV sliding off the sofa and shortly after he was found unconscious with blue lips.
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Shockingly, instead of calling an ambulance for Danny the frat members piled him into a car dropping him on the way. They drove him to hospital, but at this point he was in cardiac arrest. He had to be resuscitated and spent the next 6 weeks in intensive care.
Prior to this evening Danny had been left needing stiches and crutches, after he’d been forced to climb inside a bin with broken glass inside. Two nights before the night in question, he broke down in tears on the phone to his sister and told her about how stressed he felt about the pledges.
His family had begged him to quit the pledge, but he didn’t want to be ridiculed. This is Danny now, in the picture BELOW.
He will need full time care for the rest of his life.
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Michio Kaku BREAKS DOWN Into Tears: “They Lied To Us For 92 Years!”
In a world shrouded by secrets and concealed truths, one man’s shocking revelation is changing everything we thought we knew about our universe. Prepare to witness the unraveling of a century-long deception that has kept humanity in the dark for 92 years. Dr. Michio Kaku has now exposed a breathtaking reality about the origin of our universe, one that starkly opposes the Big Bang theory. But how exactly does this discovery change our understanding of the Big Bang? And what does the discovery of this ancient galaxy mean for our understanding of the universe?
BEIJING: I moved to China in October 2010 and from the perspective of Western popular opinion that’s very absurd. Much of the West looks at China in a very negative way and they believe it odd people will stay in the country for a long time.
Most of my family and friends back in my native country are quick to post anti-China stories on their Social Media sites and they do so without confirming the veracity of the articles through me.
But that’s alright, I’ve gotten accustomed to it. Sometimes, I’ll read articles in the media about China and wonder if the author is an aspiring fiction book writer.
The basic themes are: China is collapsing, its economy is crashing, war against China is imminent and Covid has destroyed China.
But if such tales were true how did China become the world leader in attracting inbound Foreign Direct Investments? The country is on pace to lure in over US$160bn this year.
Major Wall Street and London banks and investment firms including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and HSBC have poured in huge money into China this year and they have published reports forecasting the nation’s economy will stay strong.
Hence the narrative that China’s economy will crash is just noise and nothing more. As such the other claims are proven wrong.
Wealthy bankers do not intentionally make silly investments and conduct extensive research before choosing where to invest.
The Western countries appear to have been hardest hit by the Covid pandemic so it’s very odd they see China as the nation that will crack under the public health crisis.
Let the numbers speak for themselves. The US has had hundreds of thousands of people die from Covid while only a few thousand died from the virus in China.
The virus has adversely impacting everyone’s lives and hopefully the social distancing measures and wearing face masks’ requirements can finally end next year.
The regulations are a real nuisance and not enjoying the rights to travel has bothered me a lot. Nevertheless, these restrictions will not spell the death knell for China.
The Chinese government is not on the verge of collapse either. The economy is running smoothly and social stability remains secured.
Accordingly, my opinion that China is doing fine and will continue to do so will be an unpopular viewpoint for the next few years in the West.
But I care very little about following pop culture sentiments. That’s just not who I am.
As reported by the Global Times:
“Regardless of their attitude toward China, most US and other Western elites tend to believe that China's GDP will surpass that of the US in a decade or less, and most of them also believe that the US' military and technological advantages over China will shrink further as time passes. Although many have claimed that China's stability was achieved through economic growth and controls and tried desperately to search for internal tensions in China, few Western forces believe that China would get out of control politically.”
China has endured many challenges and will prevail. People predicting the nation’s doom are just engaged in fantasy-thinking.
They don’t like China, want the country to fail and therefore concluded that will happen. But their forecasts have been proven false time and again.
A Bullied Student With Vitiligo Is Celebrating Learning To Love Her Skin By Turning It Into Art
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A bullied student with vitiligo is celebrating learning to love her skin by turning it into art making a world map, flowers and even a Van Gogh painting. Ashley Soto, 21, from Orlando in Florida, USA, has found turning her white patches of skin into art has empowered her and helped her to embrace her vitiligo.
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She was diagnosed with the condition that affects one percent of the worlds population, at the age of 12 when a porcelain spot appeared on her neck. Within a year, it had spread to 75% of her body in spots and patches.
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After being asked if she had showered in bleach the teen hid her skin beneath long jumpers and jeans to avoid further ridicule. But now, shes turning her body into art by tracing her vitiligo, making a world map and a beautiful arrangement of flowers to Vincent van Goghs The Starry Night painting.
A nerd is an individual with great intellectual capacity who does well in school, particularly in subjects like mathematics and the sciences. They may not care about socialization. “You don’t want to take that class. It’s full of nerds”.
A geek is a person with a passion for something that isn’t particularly popular with everyone and has very deep knowledge of the subject. “She’s a real anime geek”.
Geek. Loves computers and knows all about them, but no deep general knowledge. Often will wear clothing reflective of their passions. Won’t read anything outside their specialized base.
Nerds become scientists. Geeks become engineers.
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NATO failed in Ukraine against Russia. Now it’s targeting China
Pepe is the star in this show. This is a VERY GOOD discussion. Talking about Europe, and the pivot to China, and the fiasco as it stands.
Some interesting points… The Dangerous trio. HERE at 21:00.
Russians fighting one had behind their backs. HERE at 27:00.
Ukraine war entering a new stage with the Poles and Northern European Proxies. HERE.
Originally Answered: Why can’t African Countries produce cars?
This question should be rephrased to “How many African Countries produce cars?”
There are 54 countries in Africa and more than 10% of the countries manufacture cars though some of them still import engine parts and assemble them in their plants.
MOROCCO – LARAKI
Laraki, a car manufacturer based in Casablanca, Morocco The company designed and manufactured its own range of luxury performance cars and sport models. Larakis are strictly concept cars, custom-built for each customer, and were ranked among the most expensive cars in the world in 2015, priced at over $2- million each.
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Rapper French Montana shows off his Laraki car.
2. TUNISIA – Wallyscar
Competing in the lucrative off-road market, the small but powerful Wallyscar, manufactured in La Marsa, Tunisia, is a relatively new company, founded in 2006. The company is building a strong reputation for affordable, reliable and powerful 4X4s, despite the size of its vehicles, which are similar to Suzuki and Skoda.
According to reports from 2014, the company sells over 600 units a year, predominately in Africa and the Middle East, but also as far as Panama and Europe. The company’s plans include making its sporty, colourful, off-road vehicles more environmentally friendly, as well as trying its luck in international off-road motorsport
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3. UGANDA – KIIRA
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4. NIGERIA – INNOSON
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5. GHANA – KANTANKA
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When India was under British rule, there was a problem there. There were many snakes.
They were so common that it was dangerous to go out. Snakes were everywhere.
The risk of dying from the fatal bite of such a specimen was too great.
Therefore, the government decided that something needed to be done to prevent the snakes from flooding the land.
It was decided to financially reward people who brought in dead snakes. “It’s a win-win situation,” the government thought. People will get the money they need while reducing the snake population.
That went really well for a while.
Under the government’s direction, people dutifully killed snakes in exchange for handsome sums of money.
But people think for their own benefit when the situation permits.
So some enterprising minds decided to breed snakes and then kill them and collect the money for it.
Soon the government realized what these people were doing and immediately stopped the bounty program.
The people who bred the snakes for money decided that the only thing that could be done with their now worthless snakes was to set them free.
As a result, the snake population grew faster than ever before.
This snake effect now also serves as a metaphor for when one state intervenes too much and therefore causes the opposite effect.
Budget travellers can be problematic. There are two types of budget travellers. One is people like me. I don’t have big money, so when I travel I go by train or by low cost airlines, stay in cheaper B&B’s or budget hotels (occasionally in hostels), and eat one meal per day from the grocery.
, relatively wealthy first world tourists that travel to considerably poorer countries and live relying on begging from locals.
Why do countries welcome tourism? Because tourism brings money. George Clooney (or whichever rich person) visits Edinburgh flying in with an Emirates flight (and he clearly books the First Class private cabin) staying at the Balmoral hotel, eating at three Michelin stars restaurants, and visiting the city with a rented limousine: he leaves a lot of money. I fly in with Ryanair, stay in a cheapo B&B with shared bathroom, eat fixed price lunches, shop at Scotmid for dinner, mostly walk and only take a local bus if necessary. But I still bring money.
Begpackers do not bring money, rather they draw money from the local economy. A young American or European tourist visiting India and relying on begging from people that are less privileged than they are to fund their holidays isn’t a budget tourist, they are leeches!
Originally Answered: What is something you hate about the direction society is heading?
Just one thing? I’m a certified middle-aged curmudgeon. I could go on for pages about all the things that are wrong with the way society is going. But I’ll pick just one for this answer, lest I make everyone hate me.
And, ironically, that’s one of the biggest problems with society today: the inability to tell the truth for fear of offending people.
I see this all the time in education.
Before I was a teacher, I spent some time as a special education assistant for a public school in a wealthy suburb of Chicago. It was there that I first saw the lengths teachers and administrators had to go to avoid stating the obvious to a parent, lest that parent get offended and/or threaten to sue the school.
Your child has severe emotional and behavioral disorders and if you, the parent, don’t get some outside help for your kid, your kid is likely to end up in jail. Your child’s problems are beyond the abilities of the school to help at this point.
We could never say that to a parent, no matter how true it was.
I saw it even more when I became a teacher.
If a student has an attitude problem, I can’t just tell the parent, “your kid was giving me attitude.” I have to document exactly what was said, the context, why I felt it was offensive, and what I think should be done about it. Then I have to wait before I tell the parent, and re-read my documentation to make sure it doesn’t sound offensive. Most of the time, when a student is giving me attitude, I know that the student’s parents won’t do anything about it anyway, so why bother documenting it and punishing the student, when it won’t change the behavior? The student often gets that behavior from the parent in the first place.
If a student fails a test, I can’t just tell the parent it’s because their kid was not paying attention in class and spends too much time talking to the people around him and disturbing his classmates. I have to word it in such a way that I sound non-judgmental, which usually means making it sound like the problem was with the way I taught it, not the kid’s complete lack of attention while I was teaching it.
We can never blame the parents for bad parenting or the students for a lack of parental guidance at home, no matter how true it is. So I usually just end up taking the fall for a student’s and parent’s problems.
A student can come to school half-asleep and announce to the class that they went to a midnight screening of a new movie the night before, then fail that day’s assignments, and I can’t tell the parents it’s their fault for letting their kid stay up all night for a movie. That is, I can’t tell the truth.
I’ve had parents tell me that they’re afraid of taking away their child’s video games until the child gets their grades up, because they don’t want the child to be mad at them. Somehow, I’m supposed to avoid telling the truth in that situation: you’re trying to be your child’s friend, not their parent. It’s a good thing if your kid is mad at you sometimes. That’s how the system works.
A few years ago, there was a movement to weigh students in public schools and send the parents a letter if their child was overweight or obese. As a former overweight child (now overweight adult), I thought this was a good idea. Maybe some parents just don’t see it or don’t realize how bad it really is with their child.
So many parents got offended when they got the letters that some school districts quit doing them.
Imagine getting a letter from your child’s school saying that their BMI put them in the “overweight” category for their age and, instead of thinking you need to help your child get healthy, you get offended and criticize the school for telling you the truth.
The schools made a mistake: they told parents the truth about something the parents should know about. Imagine that … telling the truth. No wonder so many parents got offended.
[Honorable Mention]
Derrick Mosley, a 22-year-old man from Portland, tried to rob a gunstore with a baseball bat.
He entered the shop, smashed a glass display case and pulled a handgun from the display.
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The store manager drew his own handgun and ordered Mosley to drop his bat, the newly acquired gun, plus a knife.
He made Mosley lay on the floor, and that was where the police found him when they arrived.
He was charged with first degree robbery and unlawful possession of a firearm, according to the news release.
I guess he learned the hard way that you should never bring a bat to a gunfight.
Just how bad is it in China? If you think it’s bad in China, please watch this
If you know someone who hates China for all the wrong reasons, maybe showing them this video will help.
What was the centrepiece of US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s speech? She said:
China must accept America’s demarcation of the status quo. If it does not respect the boundaries drawn for it by Washington between harmless prosperity and historically consequential technological development, then it should expect to face massive sanctions.
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What does that mean?
Obviously, it means that China must respect the division of labour in the world that the US has drawn for China. China can only be at the low end of the industrial chain, producing cheap household goods and doing some incoming assembly.
If China develops according to this international division of labour, it will be “harmless prosperity” for the United States.
This is the international order that has already formed rules.
If China wants to develop high technology, it is breaking the order and the division of labour in the world. Of course, the United States and the West want to sanction China because China is a “disruptor of the order”.
In the eyes of the Americans, the status quo of the United States and the West at the top of the “food chain”, which was formed after the WWII, is unchangeable. China is at the lower end of the “food chain”, and this is China’s destiny, which the Chinese must accept and must not challenge this order.
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Janet Yellen wasn’t the only one to say this, and Jake Sullivan’s speech put the US’s intentions in what amounted to a direct pick-me-up. He said:
In terms of global economic integration, the United States’ expectations for the stability of the global order have not been realized. The original order of the world is a pyramid structure. Developed countries and developing countries should perform their duties in this pyramid structure and get their own place. This is the stable international order and international division of labor that the United States hopes for.
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Jake Sullivan’s speech was obviously more straightforward. What he meant was that the “food chain” of the world division of labour formed after the WWII was irrevocable, and that both developed and developing countries should play their respective roles and should not try to change it.
That is to say, the financial hegemony, scientific and technological hegemony and military hegemony of the developed countries are the results of the WWII division of labour, and the production of cheap commodities by the developing countries is likewise the result of the WWII division of labour. This world economic order is unchangeable and cannot be challenged.
The speeches of Jake Sullivan and Janet Yellen actually revealed the U.S. government’s understanding of China. That is, China should accept the post-WWII international division of labour and should not challenge this order.
China is now developing the whole industrial chain, and will also invest in high technology, and will also step up investment in military construction and military equipment. These are all disruptions to the existing order, which the United States certainly cannot tolerate.
Other countries are either technologically advanced but have far fewer people than the US, or have large populations but are far less technologically advanced than the US, and they have nothing to compare with the US.
Only China has a population several times larger than the US, and the technology is still catching up, and the size of the economy is getting closer.
With an economic scale, it can support a huge and advanced army, and it will have a strong ability to export culture.
Therefore, China is indeed the only country on earth that may pose a “threat” to “America First”.
If “America First” cannot be preserved, can “Eurocentrism” or “Americacentrism” and “white supremacy” still survive? China is therefore a “threat” to the West as a whole.
But China is an opportunity for Asia. Whether Asians can be on an equal footing with Westerners depends on whether China can rise smoothly.
Gone are the days when whites were at the top of the “international caste system” and coloured people were at the bottom.
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Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
Fall is officially here. Now is a great time to try out some hearty autumn dishes like chicken and wild rice soup. Our recipe is rich and creamy. You can serve it as an appetizer if you want, but it’s filling enough to stand on its own as an entrée. This recipe stands out from the rest because it calls for freshly roasted chicken, plenty of delicious vegetables, and a nice dollop of plain Greek Yogurt. Adding yogurt, instead of cream, for example, helps to make this soup extremely flavorful but also relatively light, calorie-wise.
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Ingredients
1 deli-roasted chicken, about 2 1/2 pounds
6 cups water
2 medium carrots, ends trimmed and cut into chunks
1 small rib celery, cut into chunks
1/2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
1 small bay leaf
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
1/3 cup uncooked wild rice*
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup Cabot 2% Plain Greek Yogurt or Cabot Plain Greek Yogurt
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
1/4 teaspoon salt, or more to taste
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper, or more to taste
* You can reduce the cooking time with “quick-cooking” wild rice, which is done in about 15 minutes, or substitute another flavorful rice, such as brown basmati.
Instructions
Pull off meat from chicken, placing skin, bones and any hot or solidified juices in large saucepan. Dice 2 cups of chicken meat, saving rest for another use, and set aside in refrigerator.
Add water, carrots, celery, peppercorns and bay leaf to saucepan; bring to boil over high heat, then reduce heat to maintain simmer. Cover pan and cook broth for one hour.
Pour broth through strainer set over large bowl, pressing on solids to extract all broth. Discard solids.
Melt butter in empty saucepan. Add onions and cook, stirring, for about 3 minutes or until onion is tender and just beginning to brown.
Pour in strained broth. Add wild rice, bring to simmer and cook covered for 40 to 50 minutes or until rice is tender.
In small bowl, whisk together heavy cream, yogurt and cornstarch until completely smooth with no small lumps; stir mixture into pot and continue stirring until soup thickens and returns to simmer. Add thyme, salt, pepper and 2 cups of reserved diced chicken.
Taste soup, adding additional salt and pepper if needed. Stir until heated through and serve.
Lockheed Martin, the main contractor, and manufacturer of the F-35 fifth-generation fighter, is bracing for a significant financial hit in 2023. Production issues have led to a shortfall of about 50 aircraft, which is expected to cost the firm hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
The production hiccup represents over a third of the total F-35 output and exceeds the entire annual order from the U.S. Air Force, which usually stands at around 48 aircraft. Initially, Lockheed Martin had plans to deliver between 147 and 153 F-35s to all clients in 2023. However, the implementation of upgrades under the Technology Refresh 3 [TR 3] program has been fraught with significant challenges.
J-20 production is booming
News of this drastic drop in F-35 production comes amidst reports of China’s rapid expansion of its own fifth-generation fighter production, exceeding 120 aircraft per year. The F-35 and China’s J-20 are the only two fighters of their generation currently in production and deployed at the squadron level.
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Both aircraft sit at the pinnacle of aviation technology with their advanced features and sophistication. However, the J-20, a larger twin-engine fighter, is more attuned to long-range missions and air-to-air combat.
The F-35 Block 4 upgrade will elevate the internal air-to-air missile capacity of the F-35A and F-35C variants from four to six missiles. This narrows the gap with the J-20, which can reportedly carry up to eight missiles in its more spacious weapons bays. Initially, the first TR-3 F-35s were slated to enter service in April, but unforeseen obstacles have pushed this date back to December.
The F-35 program has experienced a series of setbacks, drawing criticism from both military and civilian leaders. One of the most notable issues since early 2022 has been the underperformance of the F135 engine, which has resulted in billions of dollars in additional operational costs for the American fleet alone and likely more for international operators as most F-35s are built for export.
Foreign operators have echoed these sentiments. The South Korean National Assembly’s National Defence Committee disclosed in October 2022 that the country’s F-35s had experienced 234 flaws in 18 months from January 2021 to June 2022. These included 172 incidents rendering the aircraft non-operational and 62 cases where specific missions could not be performed. Despite hopes for improvement, the first half of 2022 saw little change in these figures.
Despite these issues, the U.S. and its allies face a conundrum. There is a noticeable lack of NATO-compatible fifth-generation fighters, leaving them with limited options. Older fourth-generation fighters are likely to struggle against advanced aircraft like China’s J-20, the forthcoming FC-31 naval fighter, and even Russia’s slightly less stealthy Su-57.
Along with the much-discussed dismissal of Qin Gang as foreign minister, another important dismissal in July was Yi Gang as the 12th governor of the People’s Bank of China.
Yi Gang was widely criticized with some of the reasons being:
He was educated in the US, and his family continues to live in the US, and he was more considerate of US interests than Chinese interests;
He supported western globalist interests instead of Chinese national interests, and did not have enough awareness that the US and China are fighting a full-spectrum cold war;
He did not take advantage of the high inflation in the US to make the Chinese yuan a more powerful currency globally and instead lowered Chinese interest rates, helping the US Fed to bring more US dollars back to the US;
He missed multiple strategic opportunities by not changing more Chinese assets into gold, and did not move out of the US dollar fast enough.
Some of the criticism of Yi Gang came from Pan Gongsheng who was party secretary at the People’s Bank of China, and has now been appointed as Yi Gang’s replacement as the 13th governor of the People’s Bank of China. When Janet Yellen visited China in July, she met with Pan Gongsheng.
The likely outcome of this appointment is that Chinese currency and foreign exchange policy is likely to become more sharply aggressive, starting with the August BRICS meeting in South Africa.
In order to make a stronger impression and announcement at the BRICS meeting, where more members will be admitted, and as the most economically powerful member of BRICS, China will have to make some big moves on this front. Pan Gongsheng is likely make major moves for this major event, which all of the developing world and France are watching closely.
This didn’t happen to me, but it happened to a friend.
My friend Tony lived paycheck to paycheck in assorted jobs. He inherited $50,000 when his grandmother passed away. His friends convinced him to invest the money rather than spend it on a new car, vacations, etc., and eventually he agreed. Another friend, Jack, who worked in finance, convinced him to put the $50,000 into Cisco stock. This was back in April 2000, just before the tech bubble burst, and Cisco was at its all-time high, around $75 a share. Then the bubble burst, and the stock crashed.
Two and a half years later, we were all at a wedding of a mutual friend, and the friend who recommended Cisco was very embarrassed and apologized profusely for his recommendation.
Tony: What do you mean? Why are you sorry you made that recommendation?
Jack: Because the stock tanked right after you invested, and it’s continued to go down and down; your $50,000 investment is now probably worth $6000 or $7000. Haven’t you looked at your statements?
Tony: Sure, I’ve looked at the statements; it’s up to about $83,000! It’s doing great!
Jack: You must have misread your statement; maybe it said $8300? When was that statement?
Tony: Maybe two weeks ago, and I’m sure it said $83,000!
Jack: That’s impossible!
After the reception we all went back to Tony’s apartment and Tony pulled out his last statement, which indeed did say $83,000!
Then we saw why; Tony bought the “wrong” stock!
Jack had told him to buy Cisco (the high tech company), and Tony bought Sysco (the food distribution company); both stocks are pronounced exactly the same. While Cisco crashed, Sysco did great!
So that was a very happy ‘mistake’ that Tony made!
China has had a continuous and steady rule of the Communist Party of China
It has always been Country & Party First, Individual Next
For China the Leadership and Governance was always there. Always Strong and entirely spread across the Nation.
All it required was an Economic Transition Which Visionary leaders like Deng and later Xi Jingping have been able to fulfil to a massive extent.
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From 1931 in many cases to 2022 – for almost 91 years you have had a very strong and in general unified Political System that has never grown weak mainly due to a Unified Populace (90% Han Chinese) and an Ancient 5000 year old Civilization that was never interrupted too much.
So as i said – China just needed to make some Economic Tweaks and change from a Socialist Communist Country to a Capocracy.
Russia is much different
To begin with – the Entire Political System was overhauled – from Tsars to CPSU to Presidential Democracy to Presidential Autocracy
Already the CPSU was mainly a fractured body loaded with inefficiency and where Meritocracy was replaced by Party Loyalty and Political Relationships and even Family Backgrounds.
Now suddenly in 1991 – A Country that had never voted in the last 1000 years of its life from the Tsars to the CPSU now suddenly began to develop a democracy!!!
It resulted in the Worst form of Oligarchy where a Bunch of Oligarchs, Dolugraki Mafia etc took control of the Soviet Economy and its Resources.
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Unlike China – Putin who came in 2000 first had to consolidate the entire Political System. He started off as being a representative of the Oligarchs which is why Clinton and Bush considered him to be basically a Zelensky 1.0
However by 2007 – Putin began to emerge as one of the strongest men in Russia slowly abandoning the Oligarchs and consolidating the Military and Intelligence and building back Russia.
Today after15 years – Putin has a relatively STRONG Political Structure. Basically a Presidential Autocracy.
To build a Political Structure of such Strength and use it to build a Military Force – PUTIN had to sacrifice the Economy to the Oligarchs and use their money for building the Political and Military Strength of Russia
So Today – Russia is at Level Zero when it comes to Economy
Good News is – Russia is now in the same stage that China was in 1982 when Deng Xiaoping began his Economic Reforms.
Today Putin is in full control of Russia and is very powerful Politically and Militarily.
This is the time to begin Economic Reforms and this is also a perfect time.
He has Chinas support
He can start building Local Russian Brands and converting Military Technology to Civilian Technology
He can slowly adopt the Chinese method of Manufacture for which he can import the Skilled Labor from China and also train the people of Russia.
He can slowly crush the Oligarchs and Nationalize their Assets. I am sure that is the long term plan. Now that the Oligarchs are posion in Foreign Countries like US or UK or Canada or Australia – Putin will soon go after them and take charge of all their Assets that they got for a throwaway price in 1991–1999
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Bad News is Putin is 70 Years Old
And unlike Xi and the CPC – Putin is the Autocratic President so he needs a very strong Successor and groom him so that tomorrow the Successor (Someone of around 40–45 years) can continue Putins success and take Russia to newer Heights.
“Utterly Horrifying” Battles Along Front Lines as Russia Smashes Ukraine and their new NATO Heavy Armor
Heart-breaking scenes of dead Ukrainian soldiers and smashed/blown-up NATO Armor are emerging from the battlefields of Ukraine as the Russian Army makes minced-meat out of Ukraine’s “Counter-Offensive” despite all its shiny new NATO gear.
While this radio show and web site support Russia on the political level, there is also the human level which is part and parcel to this conflict. I candidly admit I find it heartbreaking to see such death and destruction; even when it is Ukrainian troops.
Sadly, I understand that it __has__ to be this way, but it is still just emotionally terrible to see such carnage.
I want the best outcome for the people.
Russia has at least 4 times the artillery of Ukraine and 10 times the ammunition.
We have run out of normal ammunition to send Ukraine, so now send them cluster bombs in desperation, debasing ourselves with no change to the outcome.
Ukraine should just surrender. They have no chance at all to defeat Russia; they NEVER had any chance. To continue this slaughter is just useless.
A Nice Find! A 1967 Porsche 911S Barn Find
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You know, we all dream of finding our classic dream ride in a barn somewhere. Well, recently Nick Zabrecky recently had his dreams come true, and today we get a look at his 1967 Porsche 911S Barn Find. Nick Zabrecky, of LBI Limited, found this legendary ride a friend had in his barn, where it had been parked for years.
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The ride was a bit rusty from years of sitting, and had a small dent in the rear. The ride other than that looked to be in good shape, and after negotiating a deal, Zabrecky was able to purchase the car from his friend.
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The ride can be seen in the images below, and Nick hopes to restore it one of these days. Check out the ride in the images and speak your mind on it after the jump.
People weren’t having babies and leaders feared a population collapse. The infamous dictator, Ceausescu, made a new draconian policy “Degree 770”.
It banned contraception and abortion. Schools then began evangelizing the importance of motherhood. Families began putting more pressure on women to have children.
This led to a rapid uptick in unwanted babies. Orphanages overflowed with children. Babies were being abandoned on street corners.
Years later, there was a rapid uptick in crime. Many of those children grew up without stable homes, living on the streets and in subway stations, huffing paint. They later resorted to theft, prostitution, and became ensnared in poverty.
And, in a bitter political irony, it was this very demographic that was responsible for Ceausescu’s downfall in 1989.
Beyond any talk of abortion, this moment in time speaks to the importance of people living the life they want to live. For generations, our parents and grandparents were pressured to live within narrow confines and fill the shoes their own parents left behind.
Happiness necessitates you disappoint people every now and then. Don’t let outside forces pressure you into a path that you don’t genuinely want.
If you don’t want to do something, say no.
Don’t get so caught up in pleasing people and conforming to expectations. You do you.
SAN DIEGO — The White House has decided it will bar Hong Kong’s top government official from attending a major economic summit in the United States this fall, according to three U.S. officials familiar with the matter, in the latest test of President Biden’s bid to reset relations with China.
The summit in questions is the yearly meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) to which 21 Pacific Rim entities belong. China, Taiwan (Chinese Taipan) and Hong Kong are members since 1991. The location of the summit rotates through the membership entities.
Chief Executive John Lee, along with 10 other Hong Kong and Chinese officials, was placed under sanctions by Washington in 2020 after implementing a national security law, imposed by Beijing, that enabled the targeting of pro-democracy leaders, tarnished the reputation of the courts and earned international condemnation as leaders sought to silence dissent.
Lee, then Hong Kong’s security chief, was elevated last year to chief executive, handpicked by Beijing to continue what critics say is a broader campaign of repression in the once-semiautonomous city.
Let me first take issue with the description of the effects of the national security law, specifically the claim that it ‘tarnished the reputation of the courts’.
Courts do not make laws but use the law to make judgments. How then could a new law or a change of a law have tarnished the courts?
A recent judgment by the a Hong Kong court proves that the Hong Kong security law has not done that at all.
The official hymn of Hong Kong is the Chinese national anthem “March of the Volunteers”. After the riots in Hong Kong which led to the implementation of the national security law some protest backers came up with a new one called “Glory to Hong Kong”. (They probably consulted with Bandera followers who suggested ‘Slava Ukraini’ which means ‘Glory to Ukraine’.
Searching Google and some other such service for `Hong Kong national anthem’ brings up the protester hymn. This has led to some embarrassing moments when it was unintentionally played at international sport events.
Any use of the song in Hong Kong is prohibited and can lead to criminal prosecution. But the justice department in Hong Kong wanted to add a civil injunction against any one who makes the protest song available.
But a judge, hand-selected by Lee for national security issues, took the new law down:
A Hong Kong court has dismissed the justice secretary’s request to ban the promotion of a protest song popular during the 2019 anti-government unrest, questioning the effectiveness of the move.
In blocking the injunction bid, the High Court on Friday said the publication and distribution of “Glory to Hong Kong” was already punishable under existing laws, adding a ban might not compel internet search giant Google and other technology firms to take down the tune. … Justice minister Paul Lam Ting-kwok lodged the application last month in a bid to bar anyone from promoting the protest tune through “broadcasting, performing, printing, publishing, selling, offering for sale, distributing, disseminating, displaying or reproducing in any way”.
Authorities believed the ban could provide greater leverage in demanding that internet service providers remove content related to the song.
But Mr Justice Anthony Chan Kin-keung said in his 30-page judgment that the government’s expectations were misplaced. … While acknowledging Lee’s view that the song would undermine national security if it were allowed to spread further, Chan rejected the argument that the court should defer to the executive branch on the merits of the intended ban just because it related to the country’s safety.
“It is too sweeping a statement,” he said. “Here, the court is asked to exercise its exceptional powers which affect innocent third parties. The court cannot abdicate its responsibilities.”
Chan pointed to the city’s “extensive and robust” criminal law system in questioning the effectiveness of a civil injunction in deterring offences.
Now again, has the new national security law in Hong Kong really ‘tarnished the reputation of the courts’?
To me its seems it has not. In fact the court ruled against a misuse of the ‘national security’ argument in much sharper form than U.S. courts would probably do.
It was the Washington Post which, by making the claim, actually tried to ‘tarnish the reputation of the courts’ in Hong Kong.
That Chief Executive John Lee was put under U.S. sanction is one of the typical abuses U.S. foreign policies create. It is also not the real reason for keeping him away from the APEC summit.
The snub by the United States, which in November will host the annual summit of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders in San Francisco, comes in the midst of a tenuous thaw in the two powers’ frosty bilateral relationship. It could, some analysts say, induce Chinese leader Xi Jinping to skip the APEC summit — where a meeting with Biden has been anticipated.
If Biden, as the Washington Post‘s opening claimed, really has made a bid to reset relations with China, he would not have taken such a step. One does not try to find better relations by constantly acting against the interests of the other side.
To keep Lee away from the summit is one of the typical kindergarten moves the Biden administration is becoming famous for. The cumulation of such moves under Blinken and Biden has created a strong block of countries that stand united in opposition to U.S. policies and to a large number of the rest of the world developing more sympathy for them.
As Kishore Mahbubani once told his listeners during a speech in Harvard:
The era of western domination of world history was a 200 year aberration, it’s coming to an end.
As a result of that you’ve got to learn to understand non-western perspectives in the world.”
“As someone who travels to 30, 40 countries a year, when I come to the US and I go to my hotel room and turn on the TV, I feel like I’ve been cut off from the rest of the world.
The insularity of the American discourse is actually frightening …
It is time for the U.S. to grow up.
Posted by b on July 29, 2023 at 16:21 UTC | Permalink
My (at the time) 75 yr old grandfather, ex Mustang, Spitfire and Typhoon pilot and post war paratrooper was living in a small market town in East Anglia. The house was a nice bungalow backing onto the golf course where he played. He was an imposing figure having boxed and played rugby in his youth and he had seen and experienced things during the war that no man or woman should ever see. So, when he came home from the golf club and found two heroin addled junkie burglars in his hallway, he wasn’t about to be intimidated. Over Sunday lunch a couple of days later he described punching one in the face, breaking his nose. He then grabbed his sword from the umbrella stand and chased the other one out of the front door and down the street. He returned to literally kick the other one out of the house and down the garden path.
When the police attended they were able to identify the burglars from DNA due to the blood that they had left behind.
My grandfather was commended for his help in catching and convicting the aforementioned scumbags but was also given some friendly advice concerning his attempts to run through one of them with his sword!
He died a few years later and I miss him every day.
Washington Post Still Covers Up U.S. War Crimes And Use Of Biological Weapons
The Washington Post is still covering up U.S. war crimes.
Seiichi Morimura, a Japanese writer who helped force a reckoning upon his country with his 1981 exposé of Unit 731, a secret biological warfare branch of the Imperial Army that subjected thousands of people in occupied China to sadistic medical experiments during World War II, died July 24 at a hospital in Tokyo. He was 90.
Morimura’s book sold astonishingly well even when it was unusual to confronted people in Japan with the imperial crimes of their nation.
Unit 731 was at its time only comparable to some Nazi doctors who widely experimented on humans:
At a time when Japanese textbooks often minimized atrocities committed by Japan during the war, Mr. Morimura interviewed dozens of veterans of Unit 731 and documented in harrowing detail the conduct of the operation, which was established in 1938 near the Chinese city of Harbin by Japanese medical officer Shiro Ishii.
Disguised as an epidemic prevention and water purification department, the unit functioned through the end of the war as a testing ground for agents of biological warfare. Mr. Morimura’s work helped prompt more investigations in the 1980s and 1990s, which in turn led to a court case that further revealed the extent of the atrocities.
The perpetrators included many respected Japanese physicians. Thousands of people — mainly Chinese, but also Koreans, Russians and prisoners of eight total nationalities, according to Mr. Morimura — endured medical experiments that have been compared to those of Nazi doctor Josef Mengele.
Victims, referred to in Japanese as “marutas,” or wooden logs, were infected with typhus, typhoid, cholera, anthrax and the plague with the goal of perfecting biological weapons. Some prisoners were then vivisected without anesthetic so that researchers could observe the effects of the disease on the human body.
“I cut him open from the chest to the stomach, and he screamed terribly, and his face was all twisted in agony. He made this unimaginable sound, he was screaming so horribly. But then finally he stopped,” one unnamed member of the unit told the New York Times in 1995, recalling a victim who had been infected with the plague. “This was all in a day’s work for the surgeons, but it really left an impression on me because it was my first time.”
Several thousand people, and maybe many more, were experimented to death by the unit.
When the second world war was over Unit 731 members were supposed to be put on trial for the war crimes they had committed. The U.S. military stopped that as it had planned to use what Unit 731 had learned for its own wars:
The same year that Mr. Morimura’s book was released, an American journalist, John W. Powell, wrote in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists that the U.S. government had granted immunity to members of Unit 731 in exchange for the laboratory records from their research. Mr. Morimura alleged the same. For years, the United States dismissed reports of the unit’s experiments as Cold War propaganda.
There is no further mentioning of this in the rest of the Washington Post obit.
The reader is left hanging without learning if those U.S. government claims of ‘Cold War propaganda’ were true or false.
The U.S. did of course do what had been alleged. Documents were released that proved it. The U.S. had done much more.
The Post also repeats false U.S. claims that the Japanese government had hindered war crime trials against the units members:
However, according to U.S. officials, the Japanese government continued to decline to assist American efforts to place perpetrators on a list of war criminals prohibited from entering the United States. Ishii lived in freedom until he died of throat cancer in 1959. The Times reported that other Unit 731 veterans became governor of Tokyo, president of the Japan Medical Association and chief of the Japanese Olympic Committee.
It was the U.S. government, not the Japanese one, which gave immunity to Unit 731 members. It even paid them high amounts for their knowledge:
The US government offered full political immunity to high-ranking officials who were instrumental in perpetrating crimes against humanity, in exchange of the data about their experiments. Among those was Shiro Ishii, the commander of Unit 731. During the cover-up operation, the U.S. government paid money to obtain data on human experiments conducted in China, according to two declassified U.S. government documents.
The total amount paid to unnamed former members of the infamous unit was somewhere between 150,000 yen to 200,000 yen. An amount of 200,000 yen at that time is the equivalent of 20 million yen to 40 million yen today.
40 million yen today are the equivalent of $284,000. Nicer to have than not to have …
The U.S. military used the knowledge gained from Unit 731 to developed a number of biological weapons and to test them, allegedly also on humans. It even used those weapons, like Unit 731, during the war against North Korea and China.
As Jeffrey Kaye, who has long studied the case, writes:
The story that follows documents what seems like an unsuccessful attempt by Air Force flyers to tip off the press and government officials to the secret U.S germ warfare campaign then underway in Korea and Northeast China. This attempt at military whistleblowing allows for a wider consideration today of the evidence surrounding the germ warfare charges, especially how the bioattacks were organized.
By repeating the U.S. government false claims of ‘Cold War propaganda’, by not correcting it and by repeating false U.S. statements which accuse the Japanese government of hindering the war crime trials, the Washington Post is covering up the U.S. war crimes that were based on the experiments Unit 731 had made.
Posted by b on July 28, 2023 at 16:45 UTC | Permalink
Once, while in high school, I went to a store in my small town to buy a gallon of milk for my family. I paid the cashier with a $5 bill but she somehow gave me change for a $20.
I didn’t notice her mistake until I was almost home- I had too much money. I told my Mom that I was going to return it to the store. When I walked in the store, the cashier was not at her place so I went to the back and talked to a man in the meat market area (it was a small business not a chain store like we have nowadays).
I told him I had received too much money in change. He looked at me with a look like “WOW”. He then said, “You are an honest young man, aren’t you?”
I told him that I would have felt like I was stealing if I didn’t return the extra money.
Come to find out that he was the owner of the store. He thanked me and said he would not forget about my honesty.
Well, three years passed and I needed a job. I went in to fill out an application for a job at the same store. When I asked for an application at the front counter, the owner came out of the meat market area and asked if he could help me with anything. I asked him for a job application. He said, “You are hired. Can you start tomorrow?”
Now it was my turn to have a “WOW” look on my face. He told me that he remembered me from when I had returned the extra money.
So…by me not keeping $17 three years earlier, I made way more money for three years while I went to work there after high school.
He also trained me to be a butcher, too.
It does pay to be honest.
This is a true story that I told my kids (and every sports player I coached) as they grew up.
Scarlet Street (1945) Film-Noir | Fritz Lang | Full Movie | Colorized HD Quality
Todays treat. Full length film noir.
The things she does to men can end only one way - in murder! When a man in mid-life crisis befriends a young woman, her venal fiancé persuades her to con him out of the fortune they mistakenly assume he possesses.
Right now, the world is scarred, and embroiled in a puss-like situation. It’s festering with maggots and slime. It is pulsating, with pustules, and is very painful.
We cannot make out what is going on as the pain is excruciating.
But over time, maybe soon, a scab will form.
And once the scab is removed, we will get to see what the world really looks like. My guess is that it will be much different than what we have known and our lives… all of our lives will be forever changed.
…
I had a vision.
Quod Licet Iovi …
The BBC reported on August 22, 2022:
Taiwan: Two US warships sail through strait
Two US warships are passing through the Taiwan Strait, the US Navy has announced.
...
Washington says its two guided-missile cruisers - the USS Antietam and the USS Chancellorsville - are demonstrating freedom of navigation through international waters.
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Beijing views such actions as provocative and maintains that the island of Taiwan is an integral part of Chinese territory.
On Sunday, its military said it was monitoring the two vessels' progress, maintaining a high alert, and was ready to defeat any provocation, Reuters news agency reports.
The US Navy said in a statement that the transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrated the "United States' commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific".
The WSJ on August 6, 2023:
Russia and China Sent Large Naval Patrol Near Alaska
A combined Russian and Chinese naval force patrolled near the coast of Alaska last week in what U.S. experts said appeared to be the largest such flotilla to approach American shores.
Eleven Russian and Chinese ships steamed close to the Aleutian Islands, according to U.S. officials. The ships, which never entered U.S. territorial waters and have since left, were shadowed by four U.S. destroyers and P-8 Poseidon aircraft.
“It is a historical first,” said Brent Sadler, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a retired Navy captain. “Given the context of the war in Ukraine and tensions around Taiwan, this move is highly provocative.”
...
Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, a Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the patrol was a reminder that the U.S. has entered “a new era of authoritarian aggression” and applauded the robust U.S. response.
I put a two pound tin of it in hot water to soften before use, and thought I had cracked the lid open. Apparently not.
Ten minutes later, with an impressive bang, the pressure opened the lid, and most of the tin sprayed itself all over the kitchen. Walls, cupboards, ceiling, lights, the lot. It took weeks to get properly clean, and I had to repaint.
I repeat fifty nuclear weapons that can destroy Tokyo, Kyoto, Sydney, Melbourne and allegedly even Honolulu
They have hacking skills that even Israelis fear
How do you think they became a Nuclear Power? How do you think they remain a Nuclear Power? How do you think they sustain themselves financially and trade wise given they are cut off from the entire civilized world?
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CHINA!!
They played the Bishops Gambit with North Korea & you seriously seem to believe that sending F-16s to Taiwan would lead them to retaliate?
It’s nothing bigger than moving a pawn
You seriously think the Chinese are 1% worried or nervous about weapons being sent to Taiwan or Japan?
This is a Country that literally provided Nukes to North Korea to create the largest strategic chess move on the Pacific Sea
What the US are doing – Sending Pelosi, McCarthy to Taiwan, giving weapons to Taiwan etc are all petty stuff of zero strategic significance
China meanwhile has two fully armed Nuclear Allies in Asia and under the nose of the US ensured that North Korea got nukes
So dont believe the Chinese protests
The Chinese have done things of the highest strategic significance and something infinitely more dangerous than 20 Air Bases Or F-16s by the US
So why would they ever retaliate?
They like to pretend to be offended and pretend how US is dangerously doing stuff when in reality, China ensured a country is given an arsenal capable of liquidating 6 Million people
And every Idiot thinks US is the strategic player
In reality with North Korea, China won the game a long time ago.
In the picture above is Cameron Herrin, and this is the moment a Judge sentenced him to 24 -years in prison. 18-year-old Cameron Herrin, lived in Tampa, Florida, and in 2018, graduated high school and was gifted a black Ford Mustang from his parents to congratulate him on graduating.
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On May 23rd, Cameron and his brother Tristan had gone to the gym and while there bumped into a friend named John Barrineau, and it was there the three decided to go for a drive. Cameron and Tristian was in the Mustang, while John took his own car. As they approached street lights both cars were side by side, and both goaded each other into a street race.
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As they sped down the residential street, both cars had reached over 100 miles an hour in a attempt to keep up with each other. At the same time, Jessica and and her young daughter Lilia were crossing the road as the cars came hurtling towards them. Unfortunately for this young mother and and her baby daughter, the cars were going too fast to make it to the other side of the road, and the black Ford Mustang slammed into them.
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At he same time Jessica’s husband David Robonel, happened to be driving past in his own car, not realising what had just occurred. He noticed a big crowd of people gathering to see the carnage, but he just wanted to get home and hoped no one was badly hurt. David then tried to call his wife, but she wasn’t answering and when he went home she wasn’t there either. He figured his wife must have stopped to see the accident, so went to look for them there.
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Once he got there it didn’t take him long to realise what he was looking at. HIs wife and the babies stroller was right there in the middle of the street and it was that moment his world came crashing down on him. His wife Jessica passed away the same day and his daughter Lilia passed the following day, after doctors fought to save her.
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Right away Cameron and John were arrested and charged with vehicular homicide. John Barrineau took a plea deal and was given 6-years in prison and 15-years probation. Cameron took an open plea, but to his surprise he was given 24 years in prison. His family were shocked at this verdict and many people believed it was to harsh a punishment.
Actions have consequences and in this case the consequences were dire for David who had his whole family wiped out in a blink of an eye. We could take into account the fact Cameron parents gave their son a powerful sportscar, at 18, your still a kid, and if he wasn’t going to kill someone, he would have killed himself.
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When the Judge was sentenced him he had to take in the mitigating factors, had Cameron no history of dangerous driving the sentence would have been much different. Had it not been a mother and her young daughter, with a father sitting in the gallery contemplating were his life goes after the trial is over, then the sentence would have been different.
What punishment would have been fitting here? He will be classed as a non-violent inmate and when his parole hearing comes around after 7-years (I’m not sure how the parole system works in America, so I’m guessing) he will more than likely walk, his friend John will be out in about 3 years.
China Declares It Will Hit The U.S Hard Against The CURBS!
2023 08 07 19 00
https://youtu.be/uAStM1gOpjQ
Ukraine Declares “Military Threat to Navigation” Against Russian Ports; Poland, Lithuania, Latvia Moving Troops Toward Belarus and Kaliningrad. Blockade to Begin?
For the first time in modern history, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia are simultaneously moving military forces to the borders with Belarus and Russia. Local observers say a land blockade of Kaliningrad and Belarus is taking shape. This comes just hours after Ukraine publicly declared a “Military Threat against Navigation” for the Russian ports of Anapa, Novorossiysk, Gelendzhik, Tuapse, Sochi, and Taman.
All three countries seem to be clearly preparing for a total land blockade of Belarus and by extension the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.
Beginning to look like the start of WWII with what happened with the enclave Dantzig; only this time, the Suwalki Gap may be the tripwire.
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Below from the Latvian city of Ludza, through which, allegedly, the transfer of military equipment to the border with Belarus is taking place:
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Meanwhile, inside Belarus, elements from the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) send “Greetings from the Poland Border.”
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Meanwhile, in Germany, the German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall this week marked the construction launch of a new factory in the western town of Weeze that will produce fuselage sections for the F-35 stealth combat aircraft.
The premier of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hendrik Wüst, took part in a ground-breaking ceremony at the construction site, saying that “a highly modern factory is to be built here that will guarantee good jobs for decades.”
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Rheinmetall is a partner of the US company Lockheed Martin, which makes the F-35 together with Northrop Grumman, another US firm.
The factory, which is estimated to cost €200 million ($219 million) and will have an area of some 60,000 square meters (645,835 square feet), is to go into operation in 2025 – unless the war breaks-out and Russia smashes it with hypersonic missiles, as seems VERY likely to anyone capable of actually thinking.
Its up to 450 workers will produce the fuselage parts for at least 400 of the aircraft, 35 of which are earmarked for use by Germany’s armed forces at a cost of €8.3 billion. Those aircraft are being purchased as part of the €100 billion package agreed by the government last year to upgrade the country’s military.
This announced planning should give readers a much better view of how current hostilities are viewed by the bigshots: They seem to be planning that the war that’s coming will literally last YEARS.
If any of us thought the troubles between Ukraine and Russia would remain a limited conflict, clearly that belief was incorrect. Very much military hardware is actively moving this morning and, day-by-day, it seems clear that an actual World War 3 is shaping up.
Get right with God.
Browned Butter Spaghetti with Mizithra
I used to love to go to the Spaghetti Factory for this. It’s so delicious! Mizithra is a great Greek cheese.
spaghetti browned butter
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
1 cup butter
Cooked spaghetti, drained
1 cup Mizithra cheese, grated
Parsley, chopped (optional)
Instructions
Cut butter into tablespoon-size pieces and place in a 2 quart sauce pan. Place the pan of butter on a burner on medium heat. Bring butter to a slow boil (about 5 minutes).
When the butter begins to boil, stir constantly to prevent residue from sticking to the bottom of the pan. As the butter cooks, it will start to foam and rise. Continue stirring, otherwise the butter foam could overflow (about 5 minutes) and catch fire.
When the butter stops foaming and rising, cook until amber in color (about 1 to 2 minutes). It will have a pleasant caramel aroma.
Turn off the heat and remove pan from burner. Let the sediment settle to the bottom of the pan for a few minutes.
Pour the brown butter through a strainer into a small bowl. Do not disturb the residue at the bottom of the pan.
The brown butter can be stored in the refrigerator and reheated in a microwave as needed.
Boil the pasta of choice until al dente.
Drain pasta and divide into four servings.
Sprinkle 1/4 cup Mizithra cheese over each pasta serving.
Top with 1/4 cup hot brown butter.
Old Folks
2023 08 07 11 44
San Jose Is The Most Empty City I’ve Ever Seen | Theres Literally 0 People
A multi-multi millionaire and I were driving home after a poker game. We stopped at a Kentucky Fried Chicken. The millionaire asked to speak to the manager. When he came over he asked him what do you do with the chicken when you close? The manager said, well when we close in 20 minutes we have to throw it out. The millionaire said that we shouldn’t pay full price for what you’re throwing away, why don’t you let us have it for a third the price? The 2 of them spent 8 minutes bargaining and finally agreed on half price. When we got to the car my companion said that since he bargained the manager down, I should pay for it. I said that since I was driving him home he should pay. He looked disgusted, but eventually agreed.
Turns out my gut was wrong, in this scenario. I was closing up a coffeeshop by myself in downtown Seattle, was probably around 10:30 PM and in the winter so pitch black outside. We had a regular who always seemed nice, he was maybe 60something and was always wearing the same MIA-POW Vietnam vet hat and jacket, long grey hair, beard, the works. I tried to make it clearer and clearer that I was closing up (ie LEAVE!) but he just sat there, and kept looking at me with kind of an intense look. I started getting more and more nervous; he was a big dude. Finally he came up to the counter and I can’t lie, I was wondering what the hell he was trying to pull. He just said “I saw someone go into the bathroom, and they never came out. I really don’t want to leave you here until I know you’ll be OK. I will wait outside if you want but that’s why I’m still here”. I still wasn’t sure if he was screwing with me or what, so I went and tried to open the (locked) bathroom door. No answer. We used to get junkies shooting up, or people would just forget and lock the key inside, so I wasn’t really worried. I knock multiple times and ask if there is someone in there, no response. Then, on a whim I say “I just called the cops”…a dude BURSTS out of the door covering his face with his jacket and books it onto the street outside. I am standing there flabbergasted as this dude was pretty clearly waiting in there until I closed the shop, hopefully just to rob us but who knows. Needless to say the Vietnam vet did not ever pay for his tea from me or any other employee as long as I worked there. I still think of him as a guardian angel and hope he is doing well and happy. So, for once I’m glad I *didn’t* trust my gut
***EDIT #2***
He did not leave until I did, I had to ask him to wait outside as that was company policy when we cashed out the register, but he damn well stayed outside until I left, and even offered to escort me to my bus stop. He is a damn angel on earth.
***EDIT***: Thank everyone for your heartfelt responses. I agree, this man was and is a hero. I am not a hawk by any stretch (I’m a big ol’ anti-war peacenik), but our veterans don’t necessarily get the support they should. If you want to donate to a veteran’s charity the following are supposedly very high quality
The recent coup in Niger has left the United States in the lurch, relegating the more than 1,000 troops stationed in the African country to U.S. bases.
A pan-African response to Western (American led) colonialism.
2023 08 07 11 17
Yes, to the multiple American military bases located in Niger, which are ostensibly being used to “fight terrorism” but in fact are just another arm of U.S. military power that stretch to nearly every corner of the globe.
They normally think 1001 times before making such a decision because they don’t want to be caught flat like the USA or EU who make all decisions in a hurry and are usually left holding nothing and end up embarrassed
All that China is doing is simply saying
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Look. I took on Rare Earth processing because you decided it was too unprofitable and too messy and too unsafe for your water and your environment
I extract rare earths and process them at a profit of $ 3.95 a ton so that you guys can make your EVs at a 36% —54% profit
Now, I feel with the way you guys are treating me and harrassing me. I won’t clutter my environment and affect my people for you anymore
It’s not worth the $ 3.95 a Ton profit
I can rather use it for my domestic industries in greater quantity
I can reduce my rare earth processing and save my environment
I can sell you rare earths at $ 21 profit per Ton because I know you will process them at $ 26.50 a ton LOSS if you directly process rare earths
Its not retaliation
It’s REFLECTION
Why should China keep cluttering its environment and soil just to keep EU and US and Australia clean and pristine in their switch to EVs when these nations are so hostile to China to all the time
Is this a Blow?
Yep
A quota may be established where a maximum of 40,000 battery packs will be exported a year from China
Today it’s almost 180,000
So that’s a 70% -75% cut in the supply chain
For at least the next 10 —15 years until the production is met elsewhere , EVs made outside China and friendly nations like Russia will be throttled badly
Yet here is the silver lining
China has no issues if you keep making EVs in China and exporting them. No issues at all.
This is to protect Chinese EVs from the same trade threats as Chinese Chips at a later date
Tomorrow if EU bans Chinese EVs like they banned Huawei then China will cut all EV rare earths and throttle their EV industry for at least 2 Decades
That will keep China dominant in EV technology and a leading player
China was caught on the wrong foot for 5G and Huawei
Now China is taking precautions with its EV dominance
Gonzalo Lira ARRESTED Before Hungary Border Per Mark Slebota Journalist. BREAKING IF TRUE?
The power of these so-called internet influencers was shown in full force.
21-year-old Kai Cenat is arguably the biggest black internet influencer today. He’s largely famous on Twitch, a streaming platform.
He doesn’t make music; he plays no instruments, he doesn’t act; he has no apparent talents, and he had zero prior connection to the entertainment industry. He’s funny, he had access to the internet. That’s how he became famous.
Good on him. Life’s hard, a young man’s gotta make bread however he can.
One of the reasons why he has a huge following is that he maintains a good relationship with his fans, for instance, he does regular giveaways.
He had told them he was going to give away 300 PS5s, a largely sought-after gaming console, on Friday at NYC’s Union Square park.
Guess how many people turned up?
Around 2000 people, mostly teenagers and young adults, the perfect age group for a wild riot.
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The majority of them couldn’t get close to Kai. Just to see him, they climbed cars and the train station entrance’s roof.
Eventually, they became rowdy. The mass held up traffic. They threw bottles, rocks, lit fireworks, fought with police, damaged cars.
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Police slowly dispersed the crowd and arrested over 60 people, half of whom were minors.
No deaths, no serious casualties.
Kai did not notify the city before hosting such a huge event. He was taken into police custody, charged with inciting a riot, and released a few hours later.
The First Real Images Of Mercury – What We Found?
2023 08 07 11 22
ASEAN-China Week kicks off, reaffirming cooperation and closer ties
‘Track II diplomacy’ helps in breaking down barriers, leaving less room for third parties to sow discord
By Wang Qi in Fuzhou Published: Aug 06, 2023 11:18 PM
China and ASEAN reaffirmed the importance of solidarity and cooperation in the face of challenges and vowed closer and stronger ties in the future as the first ASEAN-China Week 2023 unfolded in East China’s Fuzhou on Friday, two days before ASEAN Day 2023, the organization’s 56th birthday.
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The event is co-hosted by the ASEAN-China Center (ACC) and the Foreign Affairs Office of the Fujian Provincial Government and Fuzhou Municipal Government. Over 300 senior government officials, diplomatic envoys, entrepreneurs and think tank experts from ASEAN and China attended the event that will last until August 11.
During the main themed forum on a “Forward-looking ASEAN-China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in the New Era,” representatives of both China and ASEAN countries stressed the importance of regional peace and stability.
During the ASEAN-China (Fujian) Forum on Trade and Investment Cooperation on Sunday afternoon, three public service platforms under the China-Indonesia “Two Countries, Twin Parks” were unveiled. Strategic cooperation framework agreements for nine projects under “Two Countries, Twin Parks” were also signed.
Sessions like a gourmet carnival, ASEAN film week and an ASEAN-China symphony concert were held during on opening day. The Shangri-La Hotel in Fuzhou offered food from ASEAN countries and China for participants to enjoy, with majority of whom used chopsticks instead of knives and forks, while films from ASEAN nations were introduced on a huge screen.
Despite the complexities in the international situation, ASEAN has successfully managed to maintain peace and stability of the region and sustain good growth momentum, Shi Zhongjun, Secretary-General of the ASEAN-China Center, said in his opening speech on Sunday.
Shi said that ASEAN is one of the most dynamic regions and is leading the post-pandemic recovery of the world. The success of ASEAN “lies in its right choice of progress over regression, cooperation over confrontation and openness over isolation… [it] lies in its adhering to solidarity and independence, in its cherishing peace and development.”
The year 2023 marks the 20th anniversary of China’s accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC), and the 10th anniversary of an initiative for China to work with ASEAN countries for a 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and for a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future.
Ambassador of Thailand to China Arthayudh Srisamoot hailed the ASEAN-China Week’s role in creating more knowledge and understandings about ASEAN culture, as the Chinese public will have an opportunity to learn about ASEAN, products and meet new people through the event.
2023 also marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Ambassador Srisamoot hailed the initiative’s role in fostering connectivity between nations.
The free flow of Thai exports has enjoyed very good market access in China… the BRI provides an ideal neighboring environment for the two countries to cooperate, not only in transportation, logistics, but also in people-to-people exchanges of culture and youth between two nations, the ambassador told the Global Times.
Ong Tee Keat, senior fellow with the Taihe Institute and chairman of Malaysia-based think tank the Center for New Inclusive Asia, told the Global Times on Sunday that since the relationship between China and ASEAN has been upgraded to a comprehensive strategic partnership, it becomes more necessary to develop all-round and multi-dimensional relations.
Non-political sessions during the event seek to break down barriers between the people to avoid unnecessary suspicion, just in case a third party sows discord and inciting populism when there’s misunderstanding, Ong said.
Ong is former deputy speaker of Malaysia’s lower house of parliament, Malaysian transport minister and president of the Malaysian Chinese Association. He believes that the “Track II diplomacy,” which stresses people-to-people and cultural exchanges and non-official contact, is crucial for China to deepen ties with ASEAN.
ASEAN-China Week, which came after the Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held in Jakarta in July, is viewed as an important event to promote other China-ASEAN exchanges in the second half of 2023.
The 2023 ASEAN-China Summit is scheduled to be held in September, followed by the 20th China-ASEAN Expo and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit. The APEC Summit in November will be also attended by ASEAN nations and China.
Benito Gosiaco Techico, special envoy of Philippines president to China for trade, investment and tourism, told the Global Times on Sunday that Manila is looking forward to more investment collaboration with China, particularly in the field of agriculture, information, technology, tourism, manufacturing and renewable energy.
“The prospect is definitely positive,” he added.
ASEAN has been China’s largest trading partner for three consecutive years. In the first half of 2023, trade with ASEAN countries accounted for 15.3 percent of China’s total trade, reaching 3.08 trillion yuan ($428.96 billion), up 5.4 percent from 2022.
Carne Adovada
This is a wonderful filling for burritos or simply great served over rice with the resulting gravy. For better flavor, prepare a day ahead.
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Ingredients
1 tablespoon shortening
4 garlic cloves, minced
8 ounces (about 25) whole dried New Mexican red chile pods
4 cups warm water
2 tablespoons diced yellow onion
1 tablespoon crushed chile pequin
1 teaspoon granulated garlic powder
1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
1/2 teaspoon crumbled dried Mexican oregano
3 pounds thick boneless shoulder pork chops
Instructions
Heat shortening in a Dutch oven, and sauté garlic until browned.
Remove the seeds and stems from the chile pods. Rinse chiles in large mixing bowl and drain.
Place moistened chiles on baking sheet and toast carefully in the oven for 5 minutes. They do not need to be completely dried out.
Remove from the oven then let cool.
Add half of the chiles into a blender, and puree with 2 cups warm water. Pour into Dutch oven with previously browned garlic and repeat with the other half of the chiles.
Add the remaining ingredients to the chile (garlic salt, oregano, onion, chile pequin)and let boil on a medium-high heat for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. The sauce will thicken but should remain a little soupy.
Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
Remove the fat from the pork and cut the meat into 3/4 inch cubes. Stir pork into the chile sauce and let marinate overnight in the refrigerator.
The following day, heat oven to 300 degrees F. Use butter to coat large baking dish, so it doesn’t stick.
Add the marinated carne adovada with sauce into baking dish. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 3 hours, stirring once at an hour and a half into baking. At 2 1/2 hours, remove foil (to thicken sauce).
They cannot afford to maintain it and they cannot afford the aircraft for it. It serves no purpose other than to be the world’s most expensive royal yacht. In fact, nobody understands why they wanted an aircraft carrier to begin with since Thailand has no need for overseas force projection. It is the ultimate example of a white elephant.
To conclude, Thailand has too many aircraft carriers, because even just one is too many for them.
It is becoming increasingly clear to more and more people in the West that something has gone terribly wrong with the Ukraine project. Predictions and projections didn’t pan out and the West doesn’t seem to know what to do. The Russian economy wasn’t a house of cards as predicted, Russian weapons weren’t inferior as predicted, Russian soldiers and commanders weren’t incompetent as predicted, and Russian technology wasn’t inferior as predicted.
In some respects the Russians even seem to be superior to the West. Their weapons are effective and in many cases outright technologically superior, as clearly demonstrated by their hypersonic missiles, SAM systems and electronic warfare systems. Their economy appears to be surprisingly advanced and diversified and based on real wealth creation rather than financialization and debt like the West’s. Their strategic and tactical thinking also seems to work, while the West‘s clearly doesn‘t.
The whole mess is often explained as a result of a miscalculation by the western elites – they underestimated Russia and overestimated the West. The situation, however, is far worse than that. Every day that passes reveals the impotence of the West more and more and the situation is becoming outright humiliating. At this point the rest of the world either shakes their heads or simply laughs at the West and its politicians and diplomats – not to mention its crazed populations.
The dysfunction of the West is far deeper than just the situation around the Ukraine project. It’s absolutely everywhere. The West can’t do diplomacy in general, it can’t run its cities or countries except into the ground, its high-tech projects fail almost as a rule, its infrastructure is crumbling, its economies are crumbling, and all public policies seem to have a civilizational suicide as a final goal. The West’s control mechanisms over the rest of the world are also crumbling, including the dollar, sanctions, color revolutions, military interventions and threats. Nothing seems to work and everything the West does seems to make things worse.
Any rational person upon hearing a western leader, diplomat or “expert” speak, asks himself this question: “Are they just lying or are they really this incompetent and delusional?” The answer is “both” but the incompetence factor is far greater than most people can imagine.
Why has this happened? It’s clear that the cause is far deeper than the deindustrialization of the West or economic problems in general. The economy doesn’t explain the incredible incompetence shown by the West before and during the war in Ukraine.
I suggest that the cause of this unfolding disaster is a serious structural problem in the West – which Russia seems to have largely avoided. This structural problem is a necessary condition for the current western system and has been purposely created to bring it about and maintain it. This problem is the subject of this article – as well as the “mechanism” behind it. This is unfortunately a long article, but the subject matter demands it.
Human capital and its properties
The current ideologically-based power structure of the West outright requires that certain types of people be in positions of influence and certain types of people be sidelined. This applies to all steps of the social ladder; from kindergarten teachers to university teachers and corporate executives, and all the way up to the leaders of society itself. This has been progressing steadily for the last five decades or so, and has resulted in a major structural problem for the West. That problem is the obvious and massive degradation and misallocation of human capital in the West.
Human capital can be described as the quality of a company’s or nation’s workforce, or more specifically how competent the employee pool is – how well they are trained, how quickly they can be trained, how they are educated in general, and how they make decisions. In order to understand what competence really means, let’s define it further.
Competence can be described as specific or general. This distinction is extremely important and must be understood by anyone who attempts to manage human capital on a small or large scale.
Specific competence is the ability to do a certain type of work. This can be carpentry, coding, chemistry, medicine, piloting an airliner, and so on and so forth. Some of these types of jobs may require a lot of competence, training and intelligence, but what they have in common is that their scope is limited and clearly defined. They exist within clear boundaries, separate from the complexities and vagueness of the world in general. Each type of work requires certain abilities innate in the person, as well as varying degrees of training. People, of course, differ a lot in their level of specific competence within each field.
General or high-level competence is the ability to do work that is beyond clearly defined boundaries. The subject matter of those types of work exists in a complex “variable universe” and can be exceedingly vague and confusing. It requires the ability to be adaptive and be able to transfer skills between different types of work. This also applies to expertise in one field being applied to a completely different field – such as applying psychology to economics or astrophysics to climate science.
Examples of positions requiring general or high-level competence people are corporate executives, all kinds of planners and administrators, product developers, inventors, high-level consultants and analysts, military leaders and planners, diplomats, judges, political leaders, and high-level scientists and theoreticians, to name a few.
Specific and general competence types of work are not two separate things. Types of work or “jobs” can be said to range from almost completely specific up to almost completely general. Almost all types of work have elements of both but in varying proportions. To illustrate this I will take an example from a company I’m personally familiar with. This is a software company with several owners, most of whom work at the company. One of the owners is an exceptionally competent database specialist. However, when he contributes to decision making for the company as a whole, he becomes an outright problem. The management structure of the company had to be “modified” to neutralize him in that role, as well as a few others. This employee has exceptional specific competence but very poor general competence. He cannot “transfer” his specific database competence over to competence in moving the company into the future. He simply cannot operate objectively or sensibly outside his database job.
So what makes this employee have such poor general competence – or more specifically – what is general competence? General competence requires three necessary conditions: a) High general intelligence or IQ, b) the ability to be objective, even in situations where the result of your conclusions may not be to your liking, and c) the ability to reach conclusions without being influenced by others (i.e. independent thinking). The latter two conditions are a direct result of how the human brain interacts with the environment. The mechanism behind it is too complicated to describe here, but in simplistic terms it can be said that humans range in their relationship with reality from the emotional-outward/subjective to the introspective/objective. This variable, like all evolutionary traits, including IQ, is normally distributed. This has rather disturbing implications which may be difficult for some people to understand.
Let’s first look at IQ, or general intelligence. In order to be able to deal with seriously complicated work or get through a real university program, an IQ of about 125 is necessary. Only about 5% of the population in the West has this IQ or higher. This means that the pool of potentially high-level competence people is very small to begin with. Even if we use a cut-off of an IQ of 115, which is sufficient for most semi-complicated work, the potential pool only goes up to 16% of the population.
Now let’s take a look at the other variables, i.e. objectivity and independent thinking. Those two are correlated and we will, for the sale of convenience, handle them as the same variable or trait, even though they aren’t. They are normally distributed, much like IQ, with most in the middle and fewer toward the extremes in both directions. On one side of the distribution are people who, to state it bluntly, are incapable of thinking objectively about any issues that may interact with their personal views about anything at all. They can be competent in a limited field which is “neutral” to them (such as databases), but not involving anything else. They can’t run a company in a competitive environment, except into the ground. They can’t run a city, a country, a military campaign, an economy, or anything requiring general competence, except into the ground, regardless of their intelligence. These people are clearly not suitable for general/high-level competence jobs.
So, what is the proportion of the population that is objective enough and independent thinkers enough to be suitable for those jobs? That’s difficult to determine but it’s clear that it is maximum 50% of the population. In reality it’s far less but let’s be generous and say it’s 30%. What does that mean?
IQ and objectivity/independent thinking are somewhat correlated but let’s assume they are not. Let’s say that we have a pool of potentially objective and rational people that is 30% and a pool of people with IQ of 125 that is 5%. That means that the pool of high-level general competence people is 5% of 30%, or 1.5% of the population.
If we are really generous and assume that 50% of the population is objective and rational and an IQ of 115 is sufficient for those jobs, then we have 16% of 50%, which is a pool of 8% of the population.
The importance of this cannot be overstated. This group, whether we define it as 1.5% of the population or 8% of the population, is extremely valuable. This is essentially the only group in society that can reliably evaluate complex situations and make subsequent rational decisions. Without it, modern technological society simply cannot be built or maintained – let alone advanced. Let me rephrase this – if we do not identify and utilize this group, we cannot run our complicated societies except into the ground.
The western purging of competence
Modern western society is from a governance standpoint ideologically motivated and ideologically controlled. It is being pushed in a very clearly defined ideological direction, led by the European Union and the current US administration. This ideology is not the subject matter of this article, but it can be seen everywhere by any rational and independent-thinking person. For the uninformed-curious a good place to start is the website of the EU’s policy-making body; the World Economic Forum.
In order to achieve these ideological goals for the West, two things must happen: a) The right people must be put into power at all levels of society and b) any disruptive elements must be eliminated or suppressed. Since all ideological goals tend to be more or less in conflict with reality, there is no group more disruptive to them than the one who operates objectively and independently. People like that simply cannot be allowed into positions of power, and if they must be, they must be kept quiet and/or forced to toe the line.
The objective/rational/general competence group, whether it is 1.5% or 8% of the population, therefore becomes a problem rather than a resource. This is exactly the situation in the West today.
Many people have noticed that meritocracy has been systematically abandoned in the West and the relationship between competence and reward severed in giant swaths of the economy – and almost completely in government. What few people seem to realize is that this is a necessity for the West’s ideological goals to be reached. High-level competence cannot be promoted because it is a threat. It cannot therefore be rewarded.
In order to illustrate this, let’s take a look at what happens when a member of the 1.5% is allowed to gain significant power. Elon Musk is a smart man, probably with an IQ of 150 or more. He is also quite objective and realistic in his assessments, and an independent thinker. His ownership and governance of Twitter/X is a major problem for western ideological goals. Free speech is an obvious threat to any ideology and, to rub salt in the wounds, Musk belittled the guardians of the Ideology at Twitter by making fun of them, then by firing them all and only keeping the competent ones. This cannot be allowed to stand and we can already see the response. The EU is planning to use force to stop this affront to the Ideology and may actually block Twitter in Europe. Ideological champion (and suspected lizard robot) Mark Zuckerberg was even instructed to cook up an ideologically pure Twitter copy in response – but seems to have failed. We eagerly await further responses, which may range from lawfare up to more “direct” actions, and will most likely be directed at Musk personally.
The reconfiguring of western education
As previously noted, two things must happen for the ideological goals to become reality: The right people must be promoted and the wrong people must be suppressed. This process of elevation/suppression has become the main goal of the western education system – all the way from kindergarten up to university. If we look at what the education system has been doing, this becomes extremely obvious. Here are a few examples:
Evaluation of competence is being systematically degraded to avoid comparison between the competent and the incompetent. Exams are being discarded in favor of constant “projects” and students work in groups so the incompetent may hide. Schools avoid testing the individual directly as much as they can – and thereby comparing him to others. The competent ones must not be encouraged, and if at all possible, they themselves must not realize that they are above others.
Universities are increasingly basing admittance on other criteria than competence, including quotas based on non-competence variables. The most insidious selection method is the “personal essay” which applicants must submit – and is sometimes even more important than grades. All applicants know that the more they signal virtue in the essay, the more likely they are to be admitted. On the basis of the essay, the universities can pick the ideologically pure – which is the only purpose of the essay requirement to begin with.
Almost every academic subject is being turned from the objective to the subjective to assist the irrational-incompetent student. This even applies to hard subjects such as mathematics – where nowadays 2+2 doesn’t necessarily equal 4. Even intelligence is now subjective and the stupid can be as smart as the intelligent – it’s just a question of perspective, the right measuring tools, and idiotic inventions such as “emotional intelligence.”
Almost every subject has been made easier than before to help the incompetent students and even critical fields such as medicine are now graduating people who are utterly incompetent and clueless – on a large scale. This systematic lowering of standards also has the added benefit of creating disinterest in smart and rational students. A smart student performs better and better relative to others as the subject gets harder. If the subject is easy or made uninteresting, he will sink down to mediocracy – which is a part of the purpose of lowering the standards to begin with.
Disciplines which may be a threat to the irrationality of the Ideology have been massively subverted and corrupted. This applies to several fields, but particularly to psychology and history, which in their proper forms would be a massive threat to western ideological goals. Psychology has been twisted into an almost unrecognizable abomination, and history is mostly just lies these days.
Fake disciplines have been invented from the ground up for the purpose of training the ideologically pure without the need for competence or intelligence or any connection to reality. These disciplines can be found in lists of “most useless university degrees” all over the internet, but that is a misunderstanding. Those degrees are not useless at all – they elevate the ideologically pure in society by awarding them university “certification.” This certification justifies giving them important positions in society.
I could go on but you get the picture. What we are looking at here is not the failure of the western education system, but a very carefully planned “pivoting” toward new objectives. The primary purpose of the education system is no longer education. The entire education system of the West has been reconfigured to carry out a “filtration” process. The purpose of this process is to identify, instruct and elevate the ideologically pure while suppressing the dangerous 1.5/8 group. The education system, particularly the universities, has largely abandoned real education and is almost solely focused on this mission. This mission is not just carried out by the education system, but by all institutions of governments and a large part of the corporate sector. A side-result of this filtration process is the degradation of all education in the West, and subsequently, degradation of its human capital in general.
Western society, in general, has abandoned rationality and replaced it with subjectivism (formally designated as “post-modernism”). The purpose of that is not just to train and advance the ideologically pure, but to use subjectivism as an oppression tool against the 1.5/8 group and the rational part of the population outside of it. The best way to suppress a rational person is to subject him to an existence of total and constant irrationality. It is essentially gaslighting on a civilizational scale, directed at the dangerous rational group.
While the dangerous rational group is being suppressed and subverted, the ideologically pure “leaders of tomorrow” are indoctrinated rather than educated, given university certifications rather than real degrees, and finally provided with an unending amount of fake and well paid jobs in both the private and public sector. This well-paid ideologically pure group then becomes the power base of the new ideological system.
The upward migration of the incompetent
The goal of this deliberate intervention into the educational system is to create what you might call a “migration pattern” in society based on (lack of) competence and ideological purity. The right people need to be put into the right positions and the right jobs, and since they are incompetent, this needs to be managed for them. After they leave school with their certifications, government and the private sector take over and actively push them upward, while pushing the dreaded 1.5/8 group away from influence and well-paid jobs.
Two developments in the West have been godsends for these efforts: the outsourcing of western manufacturing to Asia and the virtual abolition of competition in the corporate sector. This massively decreased the complexity level of the western economy and subsequently the need for the 1.5/8 group. When most companies operate services in a protected environment, there is far less need for high-level/rational people – while in a “real economy” these people simply cannot be sidelined. Also, when you can get away with operating a fake economy based on the dollar reserve status, you can also operate a fake society run by incompetents.
Let’s take a closer look at how this upward migration of the ideologically pure is managed after they receive their university certifications – and how the 1.5/8 group is systematically blocked. There are five main methods being employed – which together form a long-term takeover process of society. These methods are the following:
Public sector filtering
Public sector stuffing
Job-creation by decree
Private sector filtering
Private sector stuffing
Public sector filtering – This describes the job selection process in the public sector. Initially the “foot-in-the-door” method is used. A few ideologically pure politicians and bureaucrats position themselves within the system and start controlling who is hired. This increases exponentially over the decades as more and more purists gain access to the levers of power. Currently the process is so overt that it is starting to become expressed in recruitment policy papers – such as the recent example of the British government excluding “white men” from becoming fighter pilots. The West has almost completely been able to exclude the 1.5/8 group from public-sector positions using this method – including its armed forces.
Public sector stuffing – As the public sector filtering process advances, the purists inside the system start creating more and more positions for their purist brethren. New departments are created, work groups and committees appear, and the public sector expands. Publicly owned companies, such utility companies, hospitals and schools are also often used as storage units for large numbers of the ideologically pure. This is extremely obvious in the West. Every unnecessary law or initiative requires more and more people – and these people are all carefully selected.
Job-creation by decree – This method is directed at the private sector, as well as the semi-public sector. Government purists start creating new laws and standards which all companies must fulfill. Those are justified on the basis of “goodness” and usually involve the environment, equality, safety and such things. This creates a large number of positions within private companies which are tailored for the ideologically pure – particularly in support functions such as human resources, compliance functions and others. This enables a “foot-in-the-door” situation in the private sector and gives the purists access to the levers of powers there – much like they already have in the public sector.
Private sector filtering – As the purists have gained access to the private sector – particularly human resources (which is the standard purist Trojan horse in private companies) – they start filtering new recruits exactly the same way the public sector does. As in the public sector, this filtering process is becoming more obvious. A significant number of companies are now specifying which groups will not be hired in their job advertisements. Since they can’t overtly say “we don’t hire smart, independent thinkers” they usually use “white men” as a proxy for that group for some reason. That group is considered to be a particular threat, although you can be sure that anyone who doesn’t follow the program will be fired, regardless of their gender or the color of their skin.
Private sector stuffing – Shortly after Elon Musk bought Twitter he fired something like 80% of its employees. That 80% was the company’s private sector stuffing ratio – quite high. Companies, particularly in sectors which can influence public opinion – but not solely, are increasingly creating a large number of positions which are either totally superfluous or intended for influence operations against the public.
Those filtering and stuffing methods are the primary mechanisms that have been used for the takeover of western societies by the ideologically pure. There are other mechanisms, such as ESG, filtering by certain banks and investment funds regarding who gets financing and who doesn’t – and the uncontrolled immigration engineered by the ideologically pure which is seen by them as a continuation of the internal migration process. However, all that is beyond the scope of this article.
The ideologically pure have systematically been moved into almost all positions of power in the public sector and a large part of the private sector – and the situation in the private sector is increasingly mirroring the public sector in hiring practices and employee stuffing. The dangerous 1.5/8 group is being kept away by all means, and with great success. The power base of the Ideology is firmly in place.
This job migration program hasn’t been cheap. Millions of unnecessary jobs cost money and it is clear that a significant part of western public debt can be attributed to this program, a fact which doesn’t seem to have been noticed by many people.
The consequences
The main thing to understand is that western societies and economies have been put on an ideological footing. Productivity, competitiveness, technology and science are simply not priorities anymore in the West. Explaining the consequences of this process for the West would take many articles, or a book of several hundred pages. Still, let’s mention a few examples.
The inverse competence crisis – The goal of this entire project has been to place the ideologically pure in all positions of power at all levels of society. These positions are, in a normal and competitive society, occupied by the highly competent 1.5/8 group. The process has now reached near-completion with most positions of power occupied by the ideologically pure. Some of those people have high IQs but they are neither objective nor independent thinkers. The Ideology they must subscribe to is simply incompatible with those qualities. This has some serious consequences.
Remember that positions of power and influence are more likely to demand general competence than other positions (as opposed to specific competence). The greater the power, the more the position demands general competence. The people in these positions now are selected by ideological fervor and reliability – so the higher you go, the more ideologically enthusiastic the people who hold them. This means that the least objective and independent thinking people hold the positions which require the greatest objectivity and independent thinking. Therefore, in the West incompetence becomes greater and more common the higher you go. As someone said – “a general is an incompetent colonel.” This can be seen absolutely everywhere except in some holdout private companies. Those exceptions are of course being addressed as we speak.
The second problem is that many of the irrational/subjective people holding all the power have reasonably high IQs. That may seem to be a positive thing but it has a major disadvantage. Moderate to high IQ irrational/subjective people are the easiest to brainwash of all people. The reasons for that are complicated and need to be addressed in another article – but what this means is that the top tier in the West is not only the most incompetent it can possibly be in comparison to what their jobs require – but are also the most malleable and delusional.
The cost and debt crisis – The migration of the ideologically pure into the ideological power base and positions of influence has created millions of jobs in western societies which create no value. These jobs are much more numerous and more widespread than most people realize, and I wouldn’t be surprised if something like 20%-30% of the entire labor force of the West could be fired without any adverse effect. In fact, the effect would be positive, especially if those people could be made to work the (mostly menial) real-economy jobs they are suitable for.
Deindustrialization has been blamed for the extreme debt levels and tax burdens of the West. That is, as far as it goes, true – but maintaining this giant group of incompetents in their fake jobs is also placing an extreme burden on the West. Western societies are now completely unsustainable and cannot be run without constant debt increase.
The competition crisis – This crisis can be explained by the following example: Let’s say there are three companies with combined 100% market share in some sector. There is no real competition between them and everybody can just relax because the customers can’t go anywhere else. These companies can get away with absolute incompetence on most levels, including in management. They don’t need to think about efficiency, safety, productivity or costs, except on their websites and in annual reports. However, if a competitor with competent employees manages to infiltrate the sector, those three companies will hit a wall. There will be an enormous crisis and one or more of them will most likely go under.
This is exactly the situation in the western economies now. Monopoly and oligopoly is the rule and the main objective of most large western companies is to prevent anyone from infiltrating their sector – usually by bribing regulators or by buying the competition. This is a necessity because a huge number of western companies are now run by incompetent management and staffed by incompetent people, particularly in support and management functions. The immortal words of the nameless Boeing employee about the 737 MAX apply to most large western companies; “this airplane is designed by clowns who in turn are supervised by monkeys.” Western companies are no longer competitive. They cannot compete with Chinese companies now and soon they won’t be able to compete with companies in general outside the West. They simply can’t function except inside an economic safe-space. In fact, the situation is such that the Chinese already do the real work for many of them and reshoring the work is problematic because of (surprise!) the human capital degradation in the West caused by the repurposing of its education system.
This also applies to western societies as a whole. The entire leadership and diplomatic classes of the West are no longer competitive against the rest of the world for exactly these reasons. They are being outmaneuvered by the Chinese, the Russians, the Indians, and everybody else at every turn. Even African leaders are now more competent than western leaders. They have consistently made decisions that are better for their people than leaders in the West – for the last few years anyway.
The complexity crisis – Earlier in this article I stated that the 1.5/8 group is extremely valuable for modern societies and without it complicated modern societies cannot be managed. In the West this group has been successfully sidelined to a great degree and a good part of it doesn’t even bother with university education anymore. The situation, however, is even worse than that. The reconfiguration of the education system and the break between competence and reward in the job market has fundamentally changed the decision making process behind the selection of university education. Why study engineering (which is hard) when you can get an even better paying job with a degree in psychology (which is easy nowadays)? The reconfiguration of the western education system has changed the reward structure, encouraging young people to pursue easy and useless education – simply because the “system” will provide them with jobs.
This has already caused a major crisis in western societies, particularly in the US. The “maintenance” of complex aspects of US society needs a large group of engineers and people with related education. This maintenance is faltering now, and significantly relies on foreign engineers educated in US universities. You see, why would Americans study engineering in a system which doesn’t reward it? If China and India could somehow recall their engineers and others with hard education from the US, the US system could probably not be maintained, let alone advanced. This will get progressively worse and we will soon reach a point where complex systems which underpin society cannot be kept running. That will require some kind of “reset” to a less complex society, with less prosperity of course.
There are far more crises than those four, but I wouldn’t want to sound like a doomsayer by listing more.
Russia and the future
So, what about Russia? Firstly, there are clear signs that the Russians have figured out what is happening in the West and are learning from it. Recently they left the “Bologna process” which is a European education standardization system. The Bologna system has the express purpose of diluting education in member states, implementing certifications rather than real degrees, and filling European societies with badly educated and generally incompetent “experts” who follow the consensus, no matter what. The Russians saw this system as a threat to their country, which it is, and have, at least partly, reverted to the older and more hardcore Soviet system.
Secondly, the Russians seem to be carrying out purges of the incompetent and corrupt within state structures, including the military. Meritocracy seems to be on the agenda, a radical concept these days. The Russians most likely see these efforts as critical to the continuation of their state and nation – and they would be right.
The situation in China is much the same and there are indications that the rest of the non-western world is catching on. Remember that one of the results of the recent Russia-Africa summit was a Russian-organized education effort in Africa. I doubt that women’s studies will be a part of that curriculum.
The current clash between the West and Russia – and increasingly between the West and the rest of the world – is becoming a clash between the incompetent and irrational and the competent and rational. The result is obvious – but what happens when an irrational person who is backed into a corner has access to nuclear weapons? That’s anybody’s guess.
By putting its societies on an ideological footing the western elite has backed itself into a corner. They can’t compete; they can’t develop their economies or societies; and they can’t go back. Fixing the problems of the West will require an economic revival, where a real economy will replace the current fake financialized service economy. This cannot be done without putting the hated 1.5/8 group into positions of power. Therefore, it will not be done as long as the current western ruling class is in power. Western societies will not survive an economic revival in their current ideological configuration. Conflict is therefore the only remaining option for the ruling class to hang on to power.
Indonesia Is Picking China Over US ; Giving The Right To Power
The US and China have taken two distinct paths for economic development: the US and the west have chosen financialization, de-industrialization and de-regulation, while China has chosen industrialization.
In the US economy, the largest sector is services, and in services, finance is largest. Finance is mainly about moving money and over time, it does not require that money. This means a large portion of the population becomes unemployed, and wealth flows to the top where wealth is concentrated. With de-regulation, capital is free to seek return anywhere. Under this system, capital becomes more important than the welfare of individuals.
Hong Kong’s economy is dominated by finance; it closely followed the US in economics. This video explains what happened to Hong Kong; the same applies to the US economy:
The great irony about China is that although it is run by a Communist party, it is much more middle-class friendly than the US is. The government understands that China’s future depends on a robust middle-class, and it does not allow the consumer middle class to be eroded the way it was in the US. Unlike the US, the Chinese government believes that finance should be a service to assist manufacturing, not the dominant sector of the economy.
The reason the US does not have good infrastructure now is because Americans voted for low taxes and a weak government and de-regulation; this resulted in capital being in the hands of a very wealthy ruling class, while the rest have to be pleased with the crumbs which fall under the table.
China has a larger and more powerful government which spends it money on infrastructure, and this modern infrastructure investment shows.
Americans chose weak government, and it shows. Now they are paying the price of their choice when it comes to competing with China.
Top 5 Lessons From A 10 Year Journey To Becoming Disciplined
No one becomes disciplined overnight. It’s a lifetime journey.
I think there’s way too much emphasis placed on “motivation” and “willpower.” Instead, I think it’s better to understand how human behavior works, and use it to your advantage.
Here are the five most important things I’ve learned about becoming more disciplined, and I hope it helps you.
Win the Morning, Win the Day
It’s a big challenge to have a productive day – That’s 24 hours. It can become overwhelming!
Instead, I only focus on two things.
I make sure I have a good night’s sleep. If I don’t sleep well, then I’m not on my A game the next day.
This means I go to bed early, I avoid screens at night, I make the room colder, etc.
Next, instead of trying to have a productive day…I laser focus on my mornings. If I get the first hour right, then the rest of my day will go smoothly.
This means a solid morning routine.
Mine is roughly wake up, use restroom, drink 20oz water, and walk my dog. That’s it. It looks simple but I’m hydrating myself, getting some exercise, and getting some sunlight.
Now I have energy to crush the rest of the day.
Vs imagine starting the day late, checking your phone for an hour, fapping, and then starting work.
It’s about starting your day with MOMENTUM.
Manipulate Your Environment
Make it easier for yourself if you want to DO an action. Make it harder for yourself if you want to AVOID an action.
I use to play my PS4 a lot more than I should. It’d be lunch time and I’d go over to my living room and play a few quick games. A 15-minute break would turn into two hours.
How did I stop? In the morning I’d simply unplug my PS4, and put it in my closet. I increased the “resistance.”
I used my phone as my alarm clock for a period of time. I’d wake up and immediately start checking my social media / reddit. That would turn into an hour, and I’d start my day distracted.
Now I use a standard alarm clock. I turn off my phone the night before and I don’t turn it back on until lunch time the next day.
I’m able to control my behavior because I slightly increase the resistance.
You can also DECREASE the resistance. I was moving to a new city and going to the gym was important to me. One of my criterias for my apartment was to have one with a really nice gym.
Before I struggled going to the gym because it was a 30 minute drive. I only went twice a week. Now I have a place that’s in my Condo. I go to the gym 5 times a week.
Nothing’s changed except the resistance.
Start Small
I’ve noticed on the internet that people literally want to change their lives overnight. That’s not the way things work.
It’s like being able to bench 100lbs and expecting to bench 1000lbs the next day. It takes time.
Don’t have an all or nothing mentality.
A few years ago I started meditating. I told myself, “I’m going to meditate 30 minutes a day!”
That’s challenge.
For the next six months I’d only hit my goal maybe 5 times a month, and I’d keep beating myself up.
And then I decided to start small. My goal was to meditate 1 minute a day. I did that. The small wins kept me motivated. That turned into 5 minutes, and now it’s 10 minutes a day.
So for the past few years I’ve meditated consistently 10 minutes a day. I checked my Calm app and I’ve logged over 200 hours of meditation.
It’s a marathon, not a sprint. It’s ok to start small.
Think of your discipline ability as a muscle. If you’ve never done an act before then your muscle is small. Small muscles gets small goals!
Keep Score
What gets measured, gets results.
If you don’t keep score then how do you know if you’re winning or not? Keep score and make it specific.
I always avoided keeping score in the past. I think deep down I was afraid of knowing that I wasn’t putting in my best effort.
Don’t say meditate in the morning as a goal. HOW LONG?
As far as trackers…don’t overcomplicated it. I like HabitBull on SmartPhones. Creating your own spreadsheet is great too.
Score can mean different things depending on your goal.
If you’re trying to save money, then track how much you’re spending on a weekly basis. If you’re trying to gain weight then track your macros. If you’re trying to read more books, then track how many minutes a day you spend reading.
A common excuse is that it takes too much time…
Keeping track of my macros takes 3 minutes a day using myfitnesspal. I keep track of every penny spent using YNAB and it takes me 10 minutes a month.
You know what takes too much time? Putting in a lot of effort and not getting any results.
Is it Optional, or is it a Non-Negotiable?
What does a non-negotiable mean? It means it has to be done no matter what.
A few weeks ago I decided I wanted to do Yoga everyday for 20 minutes. I was trying to figure out where I could get it in my schedule.
I then asked myself, how important is this? Well it’s important to me because of x, x, and x.
Then why not turn it into a non-negotiable?
That means I have to do it no matter what. I think of it like life or death. Someone has a gun to my head and if I don’t do it everyday, then I’m dead. That’s non-negotiable.
In practical terms that means I do Yoga first thing in the morning, before I start work. It means I’m not allowed to sleep and call it a day unless I do Yoga.
Guess what? I’d done it 30 days in a row because I have this attitude.
It’s not optional.
This Cat’s Love For Her Owner Is Everything We Needs
A smile for the day.
Bad “news” on Gonzalo
I was given a vision “snapshot” on late Sunday 6AUG23. I saw Gonzalo Lira. He was dead. Like, really dead. On a slab/table/gurney.
Is this real, or my imagination?
I don’t know. It came out of the blue, and surprised me.
I don’t know what it means. Was my ELF probes hacked? Is it a message from the DC, or just some entities fucking with me.
I. Do. Not. Know.
My mind tells me that Gonzalo is probably performing a “red herring” and actually has other plans. Slipping into Belarus, or going to the Chinese embassy in Ukraine. I don’t know.
But if he was stopped and picked up, he probably (more likely than not) be arrested and transported to court with additional charges.
2023 08 08 06 46
It is unlikely that he was killed if this was the case. You get, and jail him. Tack on some additional time to his sentence. 5 – 8 years at hard labor sucks, but is not as bad as he thinks. I did five years at hard labor, and I survived. And I was 50 at the time. So, now, you tack on an additional 4 years.
So, my mind tells me that his death is truly unlikely.
Yet…
My vision? Another story. And I always question my “visions” as there’s a lot of “noise” that clouds things up and you at best, you might get a general idea of things, but you don’t know the importance as the time track is often missing.
I hope that he is fine.
And I’m sure that we will hear something, one way or the other.
I can't remember a time when war propaganda has been this intense.-dwp
Crappy title regarding a strange period of time.
Well, the world is quickly switching from one uni-polar governmental operation to a multi-polar one. And we are watching it in real time. Oh, sure, the “West” is kicking up a fuss, and the United States is in hysterics, but that will fade in time.
Sometime, hopefuly sooner than later, the United States will decide to scrap the decades old RAND plans and accept a new reality.
However, that will have to be forced by necessity, and the rest of the world is waiting for that moment to come. Hopefully sooner than later, as the longer it is delayed, the larger the risk of catastrophic fiasco.
Here, we continue on our menu of current events, and toss in views of what we all used to have. It is a lfiestyle that predates the neocon monsters that have corrupted the United States government so badly. I hope you enjoy this article.
Been there. Done that.
Been there.
Young boy picks out a girl
This video has been making it’s arounds. A boy is in a Business KTV, and when the girls come out in the lineup, he runs up and picks a girl immediately. LOL video 8MB
The “news” about China
China is falling apart. Andy day now… any day now… the people will “rise up” and accept democracy™ and freedom™. That’s the narrative, don’t you know. Of course the idiots regurigating this bullshit have exactly zero experience with China. They are fine “cannon fodder”. LOL!
From Drudge Report 8APR22.
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The fiction is “off the charts”.
On the domestic side
You will only get it if you are married .
Singapore abstains from UN vote on Russia: MFA says awaiting probe on human rights violation in Ukraine
Singapore suddenly adjusted her pro US foreign policy, they now are not so trigger-happy against Russia. Abstention in UN vote: MFA says Singapore is awaiting findings on human rights violation in Ukraine
This has everything. Meat pie. Beef. beans, and taste! The key is the unique set of ingredients. But all are commonly available.
Spicy Bean and Beef Pie.
Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
2 to 3 garlic cloves, minced
1 can (11-1/2 ounces) condensed bean with bacon soup, undiluted
1 jar (16 ounces) thick and chunky picante sauce, divided
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 can (16 ounces) kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (15 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
3/4 cup sliced green onions, divided
Dough for double-crust deep-dish pie
1 cup sour cream
1 can (2-1/4 ounces) sliced ripe olives, drained
Directions
Preheat oven to 425°. In a large skillet, cook beef over medium heat until beef is no longer pink. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer. Drain. In a large bowl, combine soup, 1 cup picante sauce, cornstarch, parsley, paprika, salt and pepper. Fold in beans, 1-1/2 cups cheese, 1/2 cup onions and beef mixture.
On a lightly floured surface, roll half the dough to a 1/8-in.-thick circle; transfer to a 9-in. deep-dish pie plate. Trim even with rim. Add filling. Roll remaining dough to a 1/8-in.-thick circle. Place over filling. Trim, seal and flute edge. Cut slits in top.
Bake until crust is lightly browned, 30-35 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before cutting. Serve with sour cream, olives and remaining picante sauce, cheese and onions.
Once the go-to hangout spot for American teens and a symbol of opportunity for small business owners, diners are one of the most beloved remnants of mid-century America.
Scattered across the country, diners come in many shapes and forms, from roadside railcar-style establishments to tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurants in the country’s biggest cities.
Here’s what diners looked like during their heyday...
American Diner.
Republica – Ready to Go (Official Video)
Big British group from the 1990s. They made a splash on the music scene and then faded away. They maintained domestic signifigance for some time, but most of the world remains unaware of them.
Good Map ever of Ukraine.
It’s from the Western leadership. So it’s really not all that accurate. But it’s a good map never the less. You can zoom in, and all that. The actual military territories and Russian locations are entirely deceptive. It seems that Russia has made no gains. But that’s not the intention. This is not World War I. Don’t “pull a Hitler” and maintain 19th century thinking.
Beijing warns of ‘forceful measures’ if Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan
It is possible that China may declare Taiwan airspace a “no fly zone”. If so, in this senario, they will shoot down any Taiwan jet and destroy Taiwan military bases that dare to fire the first shot.
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It’s possible, but not probable.
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Imagine if “Xi the great” follows “Putin the great” to declare a ban on accepting US currency. What will happen to the Western economies, their cost of living, manufacturing supply chain, currency value, and world confident in Holding US treasury debt?
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The truth is that the United States is playing a zero sum game, and blindly believe in its might with nary a second thought.
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US House Speaker is expected to arrive in Taipei on Sunday, according to media reports
Beijing says Washington ‘must be fully responsible for the consequences’ if it goes ahead
Nancy Pelosi postpones Asia trip after testing positive for Covid-19
Imagine that. What “bad luck”.
A US Congressional delegation to Asia has been postponed after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tested positive for Covid-19.
The announcement followed a warning by China that it would take strong measures if the trip included a visit to Taiwan, as media reports in the region had claimed.
Pelosi's deputy communications director Drew Hammill said in a tweet on Thursday that the planned Congressional delegation to Asia, to be led by Pelosi over the two-week Congressional break, "will be postponed to a later date."
"After testing negative this week, Speaker Pelosi received a positive test result for Covid-19 and is currently asymptomatic. The Speaker is fully vaccinated and boosted, and is thankful for the robust protection the vaccine has provided. The Speaker will quarantine consistent with CDC guidance, and encourages everyone to get vaccinated, boosted and test regularly," Hammill tweeted.
Railcar-style diners were modeled after rail carriages or sometimes converted from the original train cars into stand-alone eateries. Diners were constructed in factories and then shipped to their destinations, much like mobile homes, and were relatively affordable to purchase at just $1,000.
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Once they arrived, the utilities simply had to be connected. Since diners, or “lunch cars,” had to be shipped using a truck or railcar, they were designed to be narrow.
AUKUS is “Anglo-Saxon small bloc” to serve U.S. hegemony: Chinese FM spokesperson-Xinhua
It’s pretty obvious, and if you tabulate all the public speeches from the USA and from Australia, you can clearly see that the Chinese spokesperson is just stating facts. Why this is signifigant is that the Chinese government is officially recognizing that a military build up prior to an American invasion / war upon China is the purpose of AUKUS.
Until the Great Depression, most diners could be found in the Northeast.
After World War II ended and the suburbs began to boom, more and more people began opening diners nationwide.
Typical diner interior.
The small businesses could prove extremely profitable for owners. Since the restaurants themselves were so small, and the kitchens so narrow, not many employees were required.
Sneaker Pimps 6 Underground/Lyrics/Kelli Ali
A top charter in the mid-1990s. I wonder if anyone remembers this song. I think it kind of defined what it was like in those years.
Chinese democracy seems to work pretty good.
In a comparative sense. But America has “American” democracy™. That’s superior Right?
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With the implementation of cross-country highways in the 1960s, diners continued to grow in popularity.
Travelers along the new highways could stop off and grab a quick bite at the roadside establishments.
Interior of a roadside diner.
Many diners featured a row of bar stools along a counter, allowing many people to be served without much effort from the diner’s staff.
Sophie B. Hawkins – Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover
Here’s a “blast from the past”. This song was pretty famous back in the 1990s. It is about… well, you know… there is a person, a certain someone… that you really like. But, you know, there are taboos and you cannot have a relationship with that person.
I don’t think you people understand how big of a deal all this economic stuff that is happening actually is. It’s very difficult even for me to watch it all playing out in real time.
Basically, the whole world had agreed to a US-run financial system that was outside of the realm of politics. Then, the United States decided to violate international law and ban Russia from the global financial system, ostensibly because they believed that Vladimir Putin is a very mean person.
Global economies will be rethinking how safe it is to rely on the US dollar in their foreign currency holdings, the deputy head of the International Monetary Fund, Gita Gopinath, said on Tuesday.The statement comes after half of Russia’s forex holdings were effectively confiscated by international financial institutions amid sanctions placed on Moscow following the launch of its military operation in Ukraine.“We are likely to see some countries reconsidering how much they hold of certain currencies in their reserves,” she stated in an interview with Foreign Policy magazine.Gopinath said the IMF sees “increasing fragmentation” in global payments systems as one of the consequences of the current events. However, she stated that the US dollar, traditionally considered the world reserve currency, is not likely to suffer an “imminent demise.”Still, depending on how long the crisis in Ukraine lasts, there could be larger effects, Gopinath said.
I don’t know how many hardline “everything is a conspiracy” people read this website.
Personally, I’m a moderate conspiracy guy. As a rule, I only publish conspiracies that can be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. In terms of my personal mind, I believe some conspiracies that I wouldn’t publish, because I understand they can’t be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
There is some gray area, of course. You can use deductive logic to conclude something without necessarily having all of the facts documented. For example: when the CIA (or one of its tentacles) releases documents admitting to doing some dastardly thing decades earlier, and then says “yeah, but we stopped doing that,” you can deduce that they are almost certainly still doing it.
The logic is:
They lied about doing it in the first place while they were doing it
They have a history of saying they stopped doing things and then getting caught still doing them
If they were doing it in the first place, and nothing has changed, they still view it as worth doing
Everything they want to do in secret is done in secret, under the guise of national security
They’ve repeatedly demonstrated that there is no consideration of any type of morality in their secret deeds
etc.
So, with for example any of the human experiments that the CIA was involved in – whether it be testing chemical weapons on the public or doing mind control techniques on patients in psych wards – you can assume with very high confidence that, given that they’ve admitted to doing these things in the past, they are still doing them now.
Viewing Everything That Happens as a Conspiracy Can Lead to Tangled-Up, Nonsensical Thinking
I am the first person to admit “conspiracies are real.” I am not some rabid person who goes around condemning people as “conspiracy theorists.” I’m always interested in hearing people out. I think I’m about as open-minded as a person can be without having a gaping hole in my head. I like engaging people in discussion of every kind of idea.
The World Economic Forum’s Great Reset is the most obvious conspiracy of the current year. I don’t “believe” in this – I know it is real, because I’ve read their publications, and seen their policies enacted around the world. However, you have to match your beliefs with facts with reality, or you end up getting sucked into a void.
There is a sect of people who think everything is a conspiracy, and use backward logic to explain anything that happens as part of the conspiracy. Again, I don’t know how many of these people there are, and I know that these people tend to be much more vocal on the internet than people who are not in this subculture. But I have seen a lot of people claim some version of “the West is using the Russia conflict to destroy its own economic system on purpose.”
These people are correct in stating that the US and the rest of the West have a plan – this “Great Reset” thing – to make basically everyone poor, jobless, living in state housing and eating state food, ultimately reducing the population so that the elite can dominate the limited resources remaining on earth. (If you follow the WEF documents and presentations, they are very big into the idea that they are going to use emerging technology to basically become immortal, extending their lives through gene therapy and bionic implants and such, so they believe they will need these resources to build an empire in outer space. They literally believe that and you can read it on their website. It’s not a “theory.”)
So, when you see them destroying the global economic system, it is easy to say “see, this is that thing.”
And indeed: they are clearly spinning this stuff in that direction. You see US officials coming out and saying that it’s time to start riding the bus if you can’t afford an \$80,000 Tesla.
2022 04 08 10 52
Earlier this month Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told American families to buy electric vehicles if they desire gas savings, now he’s telling them to take the bus.https://t.co/r5Iw6UA9cBpic.twitter.com/CKqrviNwDA— MRCTV (@mrctv) March 22, 2022
This is clearly part of the program, and they’re exploiting the Ukraine situation to push this agenda.
Meanwhile in France, their dictator just came out and said that he’s going to start issuing food rations when everyone starts starving because of a border skirmish in the former USSR.
However, “everything is going according to plan” just doesn’t work, because ultimately, these big decisions on the geopolitical stage regarding the dollar as reserve currency only serve to empower China.
China can’t be sanctioned because they produce too much of what America uses. China has also formed a global trade network that they could use to blockade the United States.
Diners became popular due to their large menus featuring American food staples like hamburgers, fries, and club sandwiches.
Diners were popular.
Most diners had galley kitchens that made it easier for cooks to move from one dish to another, making service quicker than in a traditional restaurant.
Do you think that I am giving enough airtime to the humble American hamburger, or is more time needed?
Here’s an accurate meme posted by a Chinese official:
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that when the West talks about the "int'l community", they mean: pic.twitter.com/RZNOwDymX2— Lijian Zhao 赵立坚 (@zlj517) March 17, 2022
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Saudi Arabia is going to start trading oil in yuan.
Countries are going to start dumping dollar reserves.
America is going to be a third world country, while China becomes the dominant world power.
So then, if you are going to say that this is all going according to plan, you have to say that the US leadership wants to transfer all of its global power to the Chinese.
But why?
That’s where the hang-up is. It doesn’t make any sense why the US and Western establishment would be interested in transferring power to China.
In order to square that circle, you have to really start going into nutty type conspiracies. And when I say “nutty,” I’m saying that not as an insult, but as an objective descriptor. You would have to come up with an explanation as to how China is secretly on-board with the global Western (frankly, primarily Jewish) agenda.
There is no indicator of that, really at all. In fact, China’s culture is virtually the diametric opposite of Western Jewish culture.
To make it make sense, you are forced into a few necessary assertions, all of which are fantastical:
China has a secret deal with Western powers to implement a feminist-anal-tranny-Jewish slave grid
China purposefully did the reverse of the feminist-anal-tranny-Jewish agenda instead of a push for democracy (I guess as some kind of fake-out)
For some reason, China has refused all Western attempts to “democratize” (another fake-out?)
The Taiwan occupation, the Western-backed Hong Kong riots, and every other thing that the US has done to try to undermine Chinese society was part of a massive fake-out (who are they faking out? People on internet forums?)
The West has some kind of secret mechanism through which to ensure that China upholds this theoretical secret agreement, which is why they are willing to surrender all global power to China upfront, without any visible guarantees that China will uphold the secret agreement
None of this, to me, is serious in any way. People try to work backwards from what they see happening, then they hit the brick wall of these fantastical and possibly outright nonsensical assertions which are necessary to uphold the logic train they are riding.
There is no way to say this is all part of the plan without saying the plan is to transfer all power to China, and there is no explanation of why that would be the plan.
The hardline conspiracy people will then start listing off a series of allegedly unexplainable questions, rather than confront the underlying hard wall their logic has hit.
For example:
Why would the US transfer its manufacturing base to China in the 1990s?
Why would the US implode its own economy and status as a world power?
Why are the Chinese allowed to invest in Western infrastructure?
These are fair questions and worth considering. But to claim that the only possible explanation is “a secret deal with the Chinese,” despite the stated problems with that theory, is absurd.
My explanations for these questions are simpler: in general, I would answer those questions with “the West made bad decisions.” I would attribute these bad decisions by a decadent and decaying elite feebly attempting to manage complex systems they don’t understand.
With the first question – the issue of transferring the manufacturing base – this was well documented at the time. Western think-tanks explained in a virtually infinite number of white papers and books that when the Chinese quality of living was escalated, they would “democratize” and integrate with the West. Needless to say, that did not happen. Instead, China installed a new Emperor who organized a wide-ranging program to promote ultranationalism and reinforce traditional Chinese cultural values.
Samuel P. Huntington, who died in 2008 at the age of 81, is one of the globalist thinkers who disagreed with the consensus, arguing that China could, unlike Western countries, modernize and still maintain traditional culturally conservative values, which would then make it “unintegratable” into the Western order, which is based on modernist ideas.
If anyone wants to understand Huntington’s predictions further, they can read his book “Clash of Civilizations.” It’s kind of boring if you don’t have all the background knowledge, but not particularly difficult for someone with high school level reading skills.
This is the map he gave of the different civilizations that were to “clash” in the modern world:
You can overlay that with the above Chinese meme about the “international community.”
Meanwhile, China has spent the last two decades reaching out to these various other civilizations, and most of them get along very well with the Chinese. During the same two decades, the West has been engaged in brutal, pointless, and very expensive wars, serving no clear purpose anyone can explain beyond “Israeli security interests.” (Those countries could have been conquered a lot easier with Netflix and pornography, but the Jews wanted war. That’s the theme of all of this – the globalist agenda is continually undermined by bizarre Jewish psychology.)
The Chinese have also peddled a lot of influence in the West, primarily through being productive and exploiting the transnational ideology of the West.
Finally, to be clear: I don’t doubt that Western politicians have been bribed or that the Democrat Party in particular has a fair number of Chinese intelligence operatives and assets. The story of Fang-Fang the Chinese spy going around having sex with American politicians seems to be true, and that has probably happened a lot without the spies getting identified. But espionage and intelligence operations fit into my paradigm, rather than the “everything that happens wouldn’t happen unless it was a conspiracy” paradigm.
As well as being quicker to make, dishes served at diners were cheaper, too.
Items like pancakes, sausages, meatloaf, burgers, and sandwiches were typically served in the restaurants and still are in diners today.
Good cheap food was available at diners.
The meals were low-priced, making diners popular even before their rise in the 1950s. During the Great Depression, diners provided an inexpensive way for families to go out to eat.
It’s the Same with Russia
These same kinds of issues come up when talking about how Putin is secretly working for Klaus Schwab – but those arguments aren’t even really important enough to address, because at this point, Russia is a de facto proxy state of China. To elaborate: China and Russia are in a binding alliance, and China is a much more powerful country than Russia, therefore: de facto proxy state – at least as regards Russia’s moves on the geopolitical stage. If China was allied with America, Russia would already be crushed (that’s why so many people tried to warn American planners that they had to choose one or the other).
Putin and the Russians obviously have their own objectives and so on; I don’t think they are a vassal state of the Chinese. But it is clear that Putin made sure the Ukrainian intervention was approved by China, and they would not have approved it if they didn’t think it served their interests. As we’ve seen, it has very much served their interests. Frankly, I am virtually positive that the Chinese knew how the US would react and did the math on how this would play out, ultimately resulting in the collapse of the dollar, and thereby the American Empire.
Meanwhile, by every single fact we are able to observe, the decadent leaders of the West are acting as though Russia and China are Iraq and Libya. It appears that they genuinely believe they can use brute force and threats of brute force to come out on top in this conflict. (It’s also worth mentioning that the West, due to the ultra-low moral character of its leaders and the utter lack of any unifying ideal beyond anal sex, has lost the ability to cooperate cohesively as a single body in the way that the Chinese do.)
Please note: Unlike the theoretical secret deals between the West and the Chinese (or Russia), the deals between China and Russia are very much visible and are largely committed to paper.
The West started this conflict, of course. I don’t know when they realized Russia was going to move into the Ukraine, but they had ample opportunity to prevent it by simply agreeing to the previous status quo. They appear to believe that they can create a protracted conflict in the Ukraine like they did when Russia invaded Afghanistan in the 1980s. That shows a fundamental lack of understanding of the situation. Ukraine has historically been a part of Russia. There is not really any such thing as a “Ukrainian identity” outside of being a vassal state. In the west of the country, they tend to feel closer to Poland, and there is some bad blood all around with regards to the USSR. But none of this is in any way similar to fanatical Islam. The US has backed neo-Nazism as a kind of “Ukrainian ISIS,” but you can’t rally a country around cartoonish neo-Nazism (particularly while the entire leadership of the country is Jewish).
The idea of using neo-Nazis as rebels against a Russian occupation or a Russia-backed government in the Ukraine is nonsensical, and reeks of the kind of stupid thinking that led to America’s Afghan debacle. The US government pays people to lie to them, and when people tell the truth, they get fired and end up on obscure livestream interviews answering superchats. These liars are telling the decision-makers that the Ukraine is Afghanistan and a protracted conflict can be used to drain Russia, which will ultimately result in the collapse of the Putin government.
The fact that they have no idea what they’re doing is blatant in the fact that they are sanctioning the entire Russian race. Putin’s support is going up rapidly among the people, many of whom didn’t like his policies before but now feel compelled to rally around him since they are being attacked personally for their race by the West.
Diners typically operate around the clock, allowing patrons to stop by at any time for a meal.
Since diners are open all night long, many pop culture depictions of diners involve a feeling of loneliness and isolation.
Diners were open 24 hours.
Edward Hopper’s 1942 painting “Nighthawks” shows a diner and its few occupants late at night. The painting is based on a diner in New York City’s Greenwich Village.
So, China Ruling the World, Huh?
We are clearly facing down a world ruled by the Chinese. A lot of people are uncomfortable with that. But most of the discomfort comes from the idea that the Chinese are somehow going to rule us in the same fashion that the US has ruled the world since World War II. They have no such plans for us. The Chinese have a vision of conquering the world through commerce, rather than war, threats of war, and geopolitical maneuvering.
We started out on the issue of the economic dominance of the US, and that economic dominance is indeed the key to everything. However, US economic dominance was entirely a result of US military might.
The reigning US philosophy for global economic dominance has been: “we will literally bomb you.”
Conversely, the Chinese philosophy has been: “we will sell you high quality products at reasonable prices.”
Chinese people do not really even understand what white people are, and they don’t have very much interest in learning. If a Chinese person outside of the major urban centers sees a white person, they don’t register them as a person, but rather as some kind of weird exotic creature that has popped up in their environment for mysterious reasons. The reaction is similar to if you were walking down the street, and saw Doraemon float in on a cloud.
Doraemon float in on a cloud.
You might stop and look at him in awe, you might take out your phone and take a selfie, you might just ignore him completely because your brain cannot register the existence of a Doraemon floating around.
This is to say: it’s a purely insular culture, which Westerners do not understand any more than they understand us. As an example: instead of trying to trace their origins as a people, the Chinese believe – and teach children in school – that China has always existed. In their thinking, China is the “Middle Kingdom” that sits between Heaven and a mass of strange barbarians who may be interested in buying products.
When the Mongols consistently raided them, stealing their women and wealth on horseback and riding off with the booty, they said “cannot allow.” Instead of mounting an army to crush the Mongols, they built a gigantic wall, and told the Mongols that if they wanted Chinese products, they would have to buy them at the wall.
It is precisely the same logic as a Chinese immigrant family setting up a store in an all black neighborhood and covering the counter, cash register, and expensive items with bulletproof glass.
China has always been, fundamentally, a merchant empire, and that hasn’t changed. If it were not for the belligerence of the West, they wouldn’t have bothered to build up a large military at all. Historically, virtually every war the Chinese have fought has been a civil war, as they don’t look at the rest of the world as enemies or friends, but rather customers and potential customers.
China has de facto economic dominance over most of Southeast Asia and a lot of Africa. They’ve not interfered with any of these countries’ political processes, and they’ve shown no interest in doing so. I’ve repeatedly pointed out that they should have sent advisors to Burma during their (still ongoing) political crisis, given that they’ve got such a large stake in the Burmese economy, but they did not. Even when it is obviously to their benefit, and the problem would not be difficult to mediate, they stick to a policy of non-interference.
Similarly, they had huge investments in Vietnam, but made no attempt to interfere with the politics there. The locals started to resent Chinese being richer than locals. This ended up in massive pogroms of Chinese businesses in 2014. It didn’t get a lot of media attention in the West of course, but it was a pretty big deal. They burned more than a dozen factories, and were just smashing anything with Chinese characters on it (they can’t visibly tell the difference between each other, because Vietnamese people are really just Southern Chinese). They ended up accidentally smashing or burning a bunch of Taiwanese and even Japanese businesses (I guess they didn’t attack Korean businesses, because Korean characters have that circle thing that makes them really obvious).
Several people were killed. China’s response was basically “this is very disrespectful behavior. We cannot continue doing business with you.” They didn’t threaten them with a war, or try to do regime change. The Vietnamese government said they would secure Chinese investments, and then only arrested two people. (The Wikipedia page on these “protests” is not very good, but might be a starting point for people who want to look into it more.)
China pulled most of their investment, and Vietnam continued to pivot towards America, a country that they had relatively recently had a relatively brutal war with. Some Western-owned factories moved to Vietnam from China, but mostly the result of the pogroms and lack of action by the government to the pogroms just meant more money for Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Indonesia – countries where the local barbarians are more amenable to gentlemanly business practices.
Vietnam has effectively been cut out of the One Belt, One Road project, while the Chinese are doing expensive infrastructure projects and building factories everywhere else. Instead of using Vietnamese ports, China is going through neighboring Laos, Burma, Thailand, and Cambodia, then running a waterway shipping line past Vietnam.
This is why they’re going crying to the US State Department about fishing waters. I guess we’ll see how that gamble works out for them. (Obviously, at some point, they’re going to end up begging for the Chinese to come back – assuming they don’t end up being used in some kind of Western military operation.)
Note this: America still has military in Thailand. However, when push comes to shove, Thais are going to side with the Chinese, because dumping money into a country works a lot better for building stable relations than putting your military inside a country.
This little variation on Pork Chops is very, very delicious and so easy to make!
Baked Saucy Pork Chops
Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
2 bone-in pork loin chops (3/4 inch thick)
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
Directions
Preheat oven to 350°. In a large skillet, heat butter over medium heat. Brown pork chops on both sides. Transfer to a greased 11×7-in. baking dish; sprinkle with onion.
In a bowl, mix remaining ingredients; pour over chops. Bake, covered, until a thermometer inserted in pork reads 145°, 15-20 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.
Pay attention to this;
If the West wants to fight a bioweapons war, the East can do the same thing.
Two COVID Variants Just Combined Into a ‘Frankenstein’ Virus
The first subvariant of Omicron, the latest major variant of the novel coronavirus, was bad. BA.1 drove record cases and hospitalizations in many countries starting last fall.
The second subvariant, BA.2, was worse in some countries—setting new records for daily cases across China and parts of Europe.
After Biden and Blinkedin warned China that serious consequences would occur if China failed to sanction Russia, there have been outbreaks up and down China with this second subvariant BA.2. No other actions occured (aside fromt he mysterious mid-air breakup of a domestic airliner).
Now BA.1 and BA.2 have combined to create a third subvariant. XE, as it’s known, is a “recombinant”—the product of two viruses interacting “Frankenstein”-style in a single host.
With its long list of mutations, XE could be the most contagious form of the coronavirus yet. “From the WHO reports, it does appear to have a bit more of an edge in terms of transmissibility,” Stephanie James, the head of a COVID testing lab at Regis University in Colorado, told The Daily Beast.
But don’t panic just yet. The same mix of subvariants that produced XE might also protect us from it. Coming so quickly after the surge of BA.1 and BA.2 cases, XE is on track to hit a wall of natural immunity—the antibodies left over from past infection in hundreds of millions of people.
Those natural antibodies, plus the additional protection afforded by the various COVID vaccines, could blunt XE’s impact. For that reason, many experts worry less about XE and more about whatever variant or subvariant might come after XE.
Now, it appears that a deadly variant of the BA.2 has been detected in the USA. It's now known as XE.
The subvariant hasn’t shown up in U.S. tests yet. But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t reached U.S. shores. “It might not be detected by the standard analysis pipeline,” Rob Knight, the head of a genetic-computation lab at the University of California, San Diego, told The Daily Beast. Major new forms of SARS-CoV-2 can require tweaks to testing methods.
XE is a nasty bug, owing to potentially dozens of mutations to its spike protein, the part of the virus that helps it grab onto and infect our cells. And it’s a strong reminder that the pandemic isn’t over. Even with widespread natural immunity and highly effective and safe vaccines, SARS-CoV-2 keeps finding pockets of unprotected people—and opportunities to evolve.
Diners have appeared in pop culture favorites like “Grease,” “Seinfeld,” “Gilmore Girls,” and “Twin Peaks.”
“In the movies, the diner is a special kind of space, a mythic place, a zone of escape,” film critic John Patterson told the BBC.
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Suzanne Vega, who wrote the ’80s hit song “Tom’s Diner,” said, “The attraction of the diner is that it’s a sort of a midway point between the street and home.”
Trade is Better Than War
Frankly, if you read Thomas Jefferson – who was not an Orientalist – his vision for America was not dissimilar from that of the “Middle Kingdom” of China. He thought America should base its relationships with other countries on trade, rather than military or political antagonism (let alone moral lecturing).
This thinking was based primarily on the fact that the US had been a colony, and so understood the complexities of running an empire, which requires you to rule over people in foreign lands. Most all of the original American thinkers thought trade was a better way to interact with and influence the world than direct military rule.
Basically, this thinking ended with the Spanish-American war. Before that, America had wars, but they were all basically necessary (the Civil War is obviously complicated, but it was not a foreign war so doesn’t apply here). Because of the alleged sinking of the USS Maine by the Spanish – which turned out to be a fake news hoax – the US did an “intervention” in Cuba, and then “intervened” in the Philippines.
Irony of all ironies, however, the actual first “intervention” in a dumb foreign conflict was the support for the British during the Second Opium War.
The short story is: The US initially refused to get involved, and then were talked into sending a small number of troops by the British. After a few brief skirmishes, the US signed a neutrality agreement with China, effectively abandoning the British to their stupid adventure in global Jewish drug-peddling (the opium racket was run by the Jewish Sassoon family, and the entire scheme of conquering the Chinese by getting all the peasants addicted to drugs was a Jewish plan that the British went along with – the British have a proud history stretching back to Cromwell of cooperating with maniacal Jewish schemes). Then a US Navy commander went rogue and attacked the Chinese in defense of the British, claiming it was a race war, and “blood is thicker than water.” I agree with the sentiment, of course, but not in the context of a Jewish drug scheme on the other side of the planet.
So: our nation’s first stupid foreign adventure was against the Chinese as a part of a Jewish plot – and thus will be our last foreign adventure.
The Dragon’s Breath blows away the Empire of Dust.
Diners brought together people from different economic levels
Michael C. Gabriele, who wrote “The History of Diners in New Jersey,” told the Telegraph that “diners are the state’s ultimate gathering places — at any moment, high school students, CEOs, construction workers, and tourists might be found at a counter chatting with the waitresses and line cooks.”
American diner.
During the civil rights movement, diners became a popular place for activists to hold “sit-ins” in restaurants that refused to seat black people, despite many of them employing black people to work there.
In 1964, Congress outlawed segregation through the Civil Rights Act, but many diners in the South continued to segregate their establishments, afraid that “seating blacks would drive away white patrons.”
Worse Things Have Happened to Better People
It goes without saying: no Chinaman ever tried to convince my son to cut his dick off. No Chinaman ever flooded my country with immigrants and pornography. No Chinaman ever called me “goy.”
China is not going to invade America. They are going to allow it to commit suicide. Over time, a new order will be established in America, and that new order will have the option of trading with China. Probably, during the chaos of this collapse, China will buy up a lot of the resources in America, and this will mean that a new emerging order will be tied in to the global economic order run by the Chinese. That’s unfortunate, but hey – your son gets to keep his dick.
A world with China as the central global superpower will be peaceful and based on independent countries engaging in voluntary commerce. It’s sad to see people getting so fussy over it.
I get that it’s also sad that the white man is not going to be the dominant force on the planet anymore. But in truth, we haven’t been for a long time. Everything that we associate with Western dominance in the modern age is really Jewish dominance.
Basically, 80 years ago, white people had a big war with each other and the good guys lost. Everything that’s happened since then has been effectively predetermined – a series of chaotic and revolutionary events driven by the chaotic and revolutionary spirit of the Jewish race. The Jews ultimately destroy everything. They can’t help themselves.
So, here we are.
Railcar-style diners are still manufactured in factories today, but they’re much more expensive to purchase and ship.
New diners can reportedly cost more than $1 million to produce, and restoring or renovating old ones can be extremely pricey as well. Instead, many ’50s-style diners in operation today are built on-site to cut costs.
American diner.
US oil imports from Russia increase by 43%
If you are confused, well; welcome to the club.
In the past week, the US administration has increased its imports of Russian oil by 43%, reaching 100,000 barrels a day.
I have so much information to share with you today, and I will do my best to be brief. But be warned that this article is going to be longer than usual. Global events are moving so quickly now, and I believe that they are going to move even more rapidly in the months ahead. Sadly, the changes that we are witnessing will have a very real impact on the daily lives of every man, woman and child on the entire planet. As I discussed yesterday, a global food shortage has arrived. In fact, members of Congress are now using words like “famine” and “starvation” to describe what conditions will soon be like all over the world.
For example, U.S. Senator Joni Ernst just told Fox Business that our planet is facing “impending famine”…
About 40 to 45 percent of the production in Ukraine will be decreased this year because of the war and the scarcity of supplies that go into the planting season. And we know that Ukraine also supports about 400 million people around the world with its food products. So we do see that we have an impending famine. And I’ve heard from David Beasley at the World Food Bank that he’s now going to have to take from the hungry to feed the starving.
And U.S. Senator Cory Booker has previously warned that we could soon see tens of millions of people “dying of starvation”…
“Democrats and Republicans in Congress need to quickly come together and approve emergency global food aid in order to prevent tens of millions of people, including millions of children, from dying of starvation,” Senator Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, told Reuters.
They aren’t exaggerating.
Even Joe Biden recently admitted that food shortages are “going to be real”.
The one thing that could provide a ray of hope would be an end to the war in Ukraine.
But it appears that isn’t going to happen any time soon. In an interview with Fox News on Friday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that his nation will not accept anything less than “victory” in the war…
Special Report’s Bret Baier interviewed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday evening, touching on a wide variety of topics, including what a victory looks like for Ukraine and what Putin is hoping to achieve.Baier asked the Ukrainian leader at the start of the interview how he believes the “war will end” prompting an explanation from Zelenskyy that only “victory” will be acceptable to his country.
Good luck with all that.
Now that the Russians have pulled their forces away from Kiev to focus on the eastern front, there is a lot less pressure on Zelenskyy to compromise on a peace deal.
And the fact that this conflict has made him one of the biggest celebrities on the entire planet actually gives him an incentive to keep it going.
Meanwhile, millions upon millions of people are already deeply suffering. In Somalia, we are being warned that an “impending famine” is at the door…
What we are now seeing is impending famine similar to that which occurred in 2010/2011 in which more than a quarter of a million people died – including 133,000 children under the age of five. Although some donors have committed to fund Somalia’s Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) which seeks US$1.5 billion, not even 4% of funding required to meet Somalia’s humanitarian needs have been allocated. Like the novel coronavirus, which had impacted many of Somali households, the Ukraine crisis has driven inflation and rising costs in Somalia, particularly for food and energy, at a time when families are already incredibly desperate.
The reason why the situation in Somalia has become so desperate is because that nation normally gets more than 90 percent of its wheat from either Russia or Ukraine…
Finally, in the Horn of Africa 13 million people are already suffering from hunger. Ethiopia imports around 40 percent of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine, Kenya 30 percent, and Somalia over 90 percent.
Meanwhile, the food crisis in Yemen just continues to escalate. One man that was recently interviewed admitted that he and his family “live like ants”…
Experts are warning that the world faces a historic famine. The war in Ukraine is only one of many problems plaguing the global distribution of food.In Yemen, Ghalib al-Najjar skips meals so that his children have enough food. He says he and his family “live like ants or fish…we eat what we can find.”
An ongoing wave of violent protests in Peru shows how the Russian invasion of Ukraine is affecting markets around the world, sparking unrest and deepening political divides.Rising fuel costs originally triggered the protests, which started last week, but quickly intensified into large anti-government demonstrations with marches and road blockades.
So far at least six people have died in the chaos, and protesters continue to block at least nine major roads.
In Afghanistan, it is being estimated that 95 percent of the entire population does not have enough food to eat right now…
Afghanistan has faced grave hunger crises before. Two decades ago, people in the country were so hungry they resorted to eating wild grass.But the situation in the country now is unprecedented.Exacerbated by an unusually cold winter and the worst drought in decades, the economic upheaval that came with the Taliban takeover has left 95% of Afghans without enough food.
We haven’t seen anything like this in a really long time.
The World Food Program estimates that 285 million people face starvation.The head of the World Food Program, former South Carolina Governor David Beasley, says the world food supply already faced a catastrophe before the war in Ukraine.“We’re so short of funds already, and now with Ukraine, we’ve got 50-percent rations for people, for example, in Yemen, I’ve just cut 50 percent rations for eight million people. Niger, 50 percent rations, Chad 50 percent rations. And 50 percent don’t have anything, those who are in extreme need,” Beasley said.
Of course this is just the beginning. As I specifically warned in Lost Prophecies and 7 Year Apocalypse, conditions will eventually become far more severe than they are at this moment.
Here in the United States, nobody is starving just yet, but the cost of living is escalating at a frightening pace.
According to a Bloomberg report, the average U.S. household will need to spend 5,200 dollars more just to have the same standard of living as last year…
“Inflation will mean the average U.S. household has to spend an extra $5,200 this year ($433 per month) compared to last year for the same consumption basket,” Bloomberg Economics reports.Having to spend an extra $433 per month to get the same is a hefty, even gargantuan ask for anyone — especially parents who are already struggling to keep a roof over their kid’s heads and food on the table.
And our historic supply chain crisis just continues to get even worse.
The wait times for semiconductor deliveries rose slightly in March, reaching a new high, after lockdowns in China and an earthquake in Japan further hampered supply.Lead times — the lag between when a chip is ordered and delivered — increased by two days to 26.6 weeks last month, according to research by Susquehanna Financial Group.
The system is crumbling all around us, and we really are in the early stages of a full-blown economic implosion.
Initially, it will be the poorest nations that suffer the most.
Millions upon millions of innocent people don’t have enough to eat right now, and that number will rise with each passing day.
Normally, most Americans don’t pay too much attention to what is happening on the other side of the world, but food scarcity is growing in the United States too.
So if you and your family have enough food to eat tonight, you should be very grateful, because at least for now you are one of the lucky ones.
What Chinese houses look like
You know, you can easily see glimpses of China by looking at the backgrounds in the Douxing videos. here, we have a girl dancing in the front of her home, and in her living room. I can tell you that this is normal. This is what China is like, and to all those people who mistakenly believe that the Chinese nation is going to collapse any day, well… don’t hold your breath. video 2MB
Quick Chicken and Dumplings
Using precooked chicken and ready-made biscuits, this hearty dish is comfort food made simple. It’s the perfect way to warm up on chilly nights.
1 can (4 ounces) mushroom stems and pieces, drained
1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules
1 teaspoon minced fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried sage leaves
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Directions
Cut each biscuit into fourths; set aside. In a large saucepan, saute onion and green pepper in oil until tender. Stir in the chicken, broth, mushrooms, bouillon granules, parsley, sage, rosemary and pepper.
Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; add biscuits for dumplings. Cover and simmer (do not lift cover while simmering) 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a dumpling comes out clean.
By the 1970s, the rise in fast-food restaurants led to a decline in the popularity of traditional diners.
As McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Burger King restaurants continued to pop up nationwide, it became difficult for small business owners to compete with the huge corporations also selling cheap, convenient food.
American diner.
While there were reportedly over 1,000 diners in New York City around 30 years ago, just 398 remained in 2015, according to a Crain’s New York Business article citing the city’s Department of Health records at the time.
One way to view civilization collapse is to say that every nation dies when its marginal costs exceed potential profits. This means that each action is so encumbered — red tape, taxes, unions, corruption — that none of them are worth doing.
At that point, people stop trying to improve things and simply make do with what they have or stop using it. In this way, even technological civilizations revert to third world subsistence agriculture.
The Soviets went out hard because they imposed the burden of socialism on every action. The West has done the same with insurance, unions, high taxes, regulations, and diversity costs.
Individual industries do it too. You may notice that every software product you own is blighted with constant trivial updates, and that almost every company wants to sell you a “service” instead of a product.
For example, why own a software package like Microsoft Office when you can pay a monthly fee to use an online service “in the Cloud” (translation: on servers owned by someone else)? Makes sense, until you realize you are re-buying the software every ten years.
Microsoft realized it had a problem with Windows XP, Windows 7, and Office 2007: if you do something right enough, people will never buy another product unless forced. That means you need to downsize your company.
In other words, the end result of Microsoft would be to make a really good operating system and software, then fire everyone but five guys who answer the emails and keep selling the stuff.
Businesses need to find new horizons in order to stay ahead of this, just like societies constantly need new goals to avoid stagnation, but with all of the regulatory, tax, and affirmative action costs, they cannot afford to do that.
Instead they become rent-seekers, having built something great and now trying to extract as much money out of it as possible. Consequently they want you to pay them fifty bucks a month, however they have to justify it, so they can count on consistent profits and limit their size accordingly.
These are signs of a sick economy, and that usually means a sick society, since it has made crazy-stupid decisions to the point that it no longer operates as an economy but as a tax and rent-seeking cash cow.
All of that is extracted from the average wagie, which means that he pushes his employer to find ways to make more money in the world outside of his borders, at which point globalism — effectively created by unions driving labor offshore at the same time that democracy decided that with the Soviets out of the way, it might as well complete what it started in WW1 and take over the world — becomes a ruthless profit-seeking activity.
We saw this starting two decades ago when grocery stores began offering those little customer loyalty cards. If you got the card, you got better prices and enough coupons to keep you coming back.
As long as they got their $50 a month out of you, life was easy for them. Multiply that amount times their number of consumers times twelve and they know their baseline revenues, which enables them to keep hiring their friends and other bloat.
Software updates are another variation on this. They ship you “free” updates every month that eventually require you to upgrade your gadget because it cannot handle the bloat and waste of the new updates.
When margins overwhelm profit potential, everyone turns into a rent-seeker. “I have this title or ownership, therefore hand me things.”
Entropy wins at that point. No one can act to improve anything, and everyone forms a little hugbox dedicated to preserving the gimmedats of the status quo.
A civilization avoids this state by doing two things: first, it cuts external costs so that margins do not overwhelm profit potential, and second, it socializes mature products by granting monopolies that then cut staff.
If, for example, we decided that Microsoft Office 2019 was the best that an office suite could ever get and had no flaws, it would make sense to transfer it to another authority which would be five guys in an office with a monopoly and no interest in expanding it.
That would force Microsoft to find new fields to till, new mountains to climb, and new visions to dream instead of milking the past in a rent-seeking pattern that ends with everyone paying them a subscription fee just to enjoy normal tools.
We know that tech is grinding to a halt because it has invented nothing new for a long time. The grand visions of Google sputtered and died; Facebook has turned into Second Life; Twitter now seems like a good place to go get state propaganda but not much else.
This means that transition is on the wind. The old ways no longer work. Every time you see a service fee or update, console yourself with the knowledge that this is simply a grave being dug for worldwide democracy and the NWO.
In New York City, few original diners remain. However, the recent embracing of nostalgia — think, the rise in speakeasies — has also revitalized the typical American diner.
American Diner.
A recent addition to New York’s Soho neighborhood is the trendy ’50s-style Soho Diner, part of the Soho Grand Hotel. Other New York diners, like the Waverly Diner and the Empire Diner, have managed to keep their doors open despite changing tastes.
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CIA tries to import insects that devistate crops
China inspects all packages. It’s a 100% full scan policy. This is because for decades, the United States has been busy introducing plagues, insects, and viruses to destroy China via destruction of it’s food base, and in any and all forms. This is known as “hybrid war”.
China has not retaliated…yet.
But if and when they do, the United States will collapse like the house of cards that it is.
This is typical, and apparently it’s a common enough event. Once discovered, the Chinese then send the packages on (minus the insects) and watch who gets the packages. Then the person just disappears after their mandatory interview with the PLA. video 3MB
Unfortunately, the sanctions the US put on Russia do not appear to be harming Russia at all, even as they are furthering the destruction of the economy of the West, and setting the stage for a collapse of the dollar as reserve currency.
Russia has just announced that if Europe wants its oil, they’re going to have to pay in rubles. This will heavily reenforce the ruble, of course. Presumably, it will make up for most or all of the damage that the sanctions have caused.
Russia will now accept payment for gas exports to “unfriendly countries” in rubles only, President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the government on Wednesday.The president explained that Russia plans to abandon all “compromised” currencies in payment settlements. He added that illegitimate decisions by a number of Western countries to freeze Russia’s assets destroyed all confidence in their currencies.“I have decided to implement in the shortest possible time a set of measures to change the payments for – yes let’s start with this – for our natural gas supplied to the so-called unfriendly countries in Russian rubles, that is to stop using all compromised currencies for transactions,” the Russian president said.“It doesn’t make sense to deliver our goods to the EU and the US and get paid in dollars and euros,” he added.
For those who don’t know the details: it is impossible for Europe to shut off Russian gas any time soon. They will literally freeze to death, or have to figure out some kind of wooden steam system.
People were saying Russian might just shut off the gas and let Europe deal with the situation, but this is much better.
The ruble bottomed out on March 7, and has been largely recovering. It’s only down 13% over the month of war.
If you consider that Russia is currently under the most severe economic sanctions in history by the most powerful economic entity in history – it’s not looking too bad.
That 13% isn’t going to affect anyone’s life in Russia, it only affects international trade. Not a big deal. No one in Russia is suffering from this, unless you consider being denied PornHub, Netflix, and McDonald’s as “suffering.”
This ultimatum to Europe will give it its 13% back.
Meanwhile, the Russian stock market, which was closed on the day of the incursion into the Ukraine, was reopened and is doing fine.
Russia’s stocks continued to rise sharply on Thursday as the Moscow Exchange reopened for limited trading this week, after suspending most of its transactions on February 28.The ruble-based MOEX benchmark went up more than 11% to 2,743 points. The dollar-denominated RTS index of leading Russian stocks was down slightly, to 888.59 points.The Moscow Exchange resumed trading in 33 Russian equities, including shares of Gazprom, Sberbank, Aeroflot, and other domestic firms. Oil majors Rosneft and Lukoil were both up by 20% and 16%, respectively. Aluminum company Rusal rose more than 14%, while Norilsk Nickel jumped more than 22%.
So, basically, the US operation against Russia has been like a situation where a guy breaks into your house and is waving around a gun at your family, then he goes ahead and puts the gun in his mouth and blows his own brains out. You’re going to have to clean the brains off the wall, and repair the locks on the door, but otherwise you’re going to be good. The intruder, however, is not so good. He’s just blown his own brains out.
This is all happening very quickly.
It’s hard to keep up with.
But the US has effectively committed a very public suicide in the name of a bizarre moral signaling campaign about how they are very good people and so oppose the very bad Russians.
It now looks to me as though this thing was planned over a very long period of time. Since the Maidan, Russia, presumably working with China, has set a trap for the United States in the Ukraine. They knew that after the revolution, the West wouldn’t be able to help itself, and would move NATO forces into the country, and NATOize the country, and so they planned the response – and understood the US response.
There had to be an invasion, because they had to get the US to act in this deranged way, which is the result of both unfathomable hubris and the general degrading of the culture into a state of nonstop moral panic.
The US has already lost.
Putin has demonstrated hypersonic missiles in the Ukraine. These cannot be shot down by any of NATO’s missile defense systems, meaning if NATO tries to attack Russia conventionally, Russia can strike targets across Western Europe. Moreover, there is just no way to invade Russia.
The only remaining options are to back off or start a nuclear war.
It is looking like they will do some kind of chemical attack false flag hoax in the Ukraine, but I don’t even understand what purpose that serves. The only people who will believe that are the “international Community,” which America is already dragging down to hell with them.
There are other theories. Alex Jones and others are saying that Western intelligence is planning to assassinate Joe Biden and blame Russia. That seems a bit outlandish, but I guess you never know. Still, I don’t really see what purpose that would serve. Russia can just say they didn’t do it. Then what changes?
The wheel is already turning.
The jig is up.
The Church – Under The Milky Way
Continuing with the 1990s theme, perhaps a reader or two might remember this little gem…
Family. Rufus. It’s all about a greater purpose. video 1MB
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
We are witnessing the end of the United States military Empire. As well as the rise of a unified Asia.
There are all sorts of articles on this subject. Most out of the United States are pretty limited in scope. No one is looking at the big picture, and instead what they see is evil or frightening. But it need not be.
First, lets look at history…
All credit to the author. And note that it was formatted to fit within this venue. The article is titled “The Last Days of Rome: How A Great Empire Fell With Barely a Whimper“, and it makes some very interesting points.
…
Unlike the valiant last stand by Constantine XI in Constantinople which marked the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, the Roman Empire in the West did not fall after a notable battle. Indeed, it is perhaps ironic that one of the greatest empires in history surrendered rather meekly without much of a struggle. Although the end of the empire is said to have occurred when Odoacer marched into Rome and deposed Emperor Romulus Augustus on September 4, 476, the end was nigh for quite some time.
A Fragmented Empire
Although Diocletian managed to bring the disastrous Third Century Crisis to an end by taking control in 284, the Empire was fundamentally weakened. Aside from widespread economic strife throughout the Empire in the fourth century, the tribes of Germany significantly increased their populations and became more of a threat.
By 376, an enormous influx of barbarians from across the Danube threatened the Eastern part of the Empire, and the Romans suffered a disastrous defeat at Adrianople in 378 when Emperor Valens died with most of his army. By the end of the fourth century, Emperor Theodosius was reliant on barbarian warlords who lacked discipline and loyalty. It was the equivalent of allowing wolves into the chicken coop.
To make matters worse, Theodosius had to contend with the usurper Magnus Maximus who declared himself Emperor of the West in 383. Theodosius finally defeated his enemy in 388 but with heavy losses on both sides that only served to weaken the Empire. When he died in 395, his sons Honorius and Arcadius became emperors. Both were incompetent and little more than puppet rulers.
Sack of Rome
Much like the Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople in 1204 was the beginning of the end for the Byzantine Empire, the Sack of Rome in 410 can be seen as the start of the Western Empire’s last days. The King of the Visigoths, Alaric, first attempted to invade Italy in 401 but was repelled by Stilicho at Pollentia the following year. When Emperor Honorius ordered a massacre of Goths serving in the Roman military, some 30,000 of them defected to Alaric in 408.
He laid siege to Rome that year and forced its citizens to pay a sizeable tribute to prevent them from starving to death. Alaric did not want to destroy the Empire; he just wanted a recognized position within its borders. After another siege in 409, he tried to negotiate with Honorius the following year. The influence of an enemy Goth during negotiations angered Alaric, so he laid siege to Rome once again. This time, he succeeded in breaking through and sacked the city.
Oddly enough, there was relatively little destruction during the three-day sacking of Rome. Alaric invited barbarian slaves to join his army, and a large proportion was happy to do so. He had no intention of remaining in Rome and decided to sail to Africa. However, his ships were battered by storms, and he died of fever. Although Alaric did not remain in Rome to conquer it, the sacking of the city was an indication of just how weak the Empire in the West was. The countdown to its demise began in earnest.
A Continued Collapse
The Empire disintegrated further throughout the fifth century. It lost Carthage to the Vandals in 439 and was at the mercy of Attila the Hun during the 440s and early 450s. After successful campaigns against the Eastern Empire, he turned his attention to the West, and while he suffered defeat at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains in 451, he invaded Italy. Attila accepted a favorable peace treaty but planned to invade Italy once again before his death in 453.
After a brief resurgence under the rule of Emperor Majorian (457-461), the Empire once more plunged into chaos. A Germanic general called Ricimer entered Rome in 472, but he died just six weeks later. Over the next four years, the Western Empire had a succession of Emperors who were little more than puppets for barbarian warlords.
A Sad End
In 475, a man named Orestes drove the Emperor Julius Nepos out of the capital Ravenna and declared his 16-year-old son as Emperor Romulus Augustus. The teenager was never recognized as the ruler outside Italia, and when his father refused to grant federated status to the Heruli, its leader Odoacer launched an invasion. He chased Orestes to Pavia and then Piacenza where the Emperor’s father was executed on August 28, 476.
On September 4, 476, the Senate compelled Romulus Augustus to abdicate, and it is typically on this day that the Western Roman Empire is said to have officially fallen. The unfortunate boy remained in Ravenna, but instead of executing him, Odoacer showed mercy by sending him to live in Campania. The fate of the last Emperor of the West is unknown because he disappears from the historical record.
Although 476 is used as a convenient date to mark the end of the Empire, it is a little more complicated. The deposed Julius Nepos continued to claim that he was the Emperor of the West until he was murdered in 480. In the meantime, Odoacer began negotiations with Zeno, the Emperor of the East. Although Zeno accepted Odoacer as viceroy of Italia, he insisted that the barbarian continue to recognize Julius Nepos as the Emperor in the West.
Odoacer invaded Dalmatia when he learned of Nepos’ murder while in 488, Zeno authorized the Ostrogoth Theodoric the Great’s invasion of Italia. After five years of indecisive fighting, Odoacer and Theodoric agreed to rule jointly, but the Ostrogoth betrayed his new ‘ally.’ At a banquet celebrating their new arrangement in 493, Theodoric’s men slaughtered Odoacer’s troops, and he cut his rival in half.
And so one of the greatest Empire’s in history ended not with a fearsome battle, but with a sorry capitulation. Its hold on the East lasted for almost 1,000 years after that, and while the Byzantine Empire also fell apart meekly, the final battle at Constantinople was at least more befitting of a regime’s downfall than the slow, painful demise of Rome.
Likewise, we can expect America to die with a whimper.
Indeed, unless [1] World War III occurs, or [2] the United States government starts acting and behaving like people who care for America, the nation is destined the long slow crawl towards the gutter. It will be just like Rome. With insignificant minor events as defined by technology rather than structure.
Let’s consider China. Indeed, let’s understand what contemporaneous Chinese think of America through the lens of their own history.
The Rise and Fall of the Han Dynasty
Although the brief Qin dynasty managed to unite the Warring States of China, the Han dynasty is considered to be the second great Chinese imperial dynasty after almost 800 years of Zhou control. The Han had such a profound impact on its nation’s culture that the word ‘Han’ ultimately referred to a person who was ethnically Chinese.
The short-lived Qin dynasty (221-206 BC) began with the unification of six warring states. Led by a man who proclaimed himself the Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the empire unified China for a brief period before Qin died in 210 BC. The result was a vicious civil war which was won by Liu Bang who defeated Xiang Yu. Liu led the Han since 206 BC and after four years of fighting, finally got the better of Xiang after surrounding him at the Yangzi River where his rival committed suicide. From 202 BC until his death seven years later, Liu was known as Emperor Gaozu of Han, the first leader of the dynasty.
He decided to pick Chang’an as the empire’s new capital as all major roads converged there; it was also the eastern end of the legendary Silk Road. Within 200 years, the population of the city grew to approximately 250,000 as it was the economic, cultural and military center of the nation.
When the emperor died in 195 BC, his wife Lu Zhi tried to take the empire for her family. She murdered all of her husband’s sons born to concubines and mutilated his favorite mistress. The Empress embraced nepotism by installing relatives in positions of power, replacing those who had been loyal to the emperor. Emperor Gaozu’s heir apparent was his teenage son, Liu Yang who became Emperor Hui of Han. Once he found out what his mother was doing, the frightened emperor took great care not to disobey her.
Rise & Fall of the Lu Clan
Emperor Hui did not have any children so when he died in 188 BC; his mother showed that she was the real powerbroker in the Han dynasty by placing one ruler on the throne before removing him for someone else. During the reigns of her handpicked emperors, Lu Zhi issued imperial edicts and picked family members as kings, military officers and officials.
Once Lu Zhi died in 180 BC, the King of Qi (grandson of the first emperor) raised an army to fight the Lus but before they could engage, the Lu Clan was destroyed by a coup. The King of Qi did not become the new ruler; instead, the King of Dai, Liu Heng, became Emperor Wen and ruled until 157 BC.
Stability & Prosperity
Wen was succeeded by Emperor Jing who ruled until 141 BC. The near 40-year period of combined rule by these two men was an era of stability and prosperity for the Han dynasty. While the Qin dynasty was known for its cruelty, the Han tried to show a different face of power by issues multiple amnesties, reducing tax on agricultural goods and abolishing mutilation as a legal form of punishment.
However, kingdoms that rebelled against the Han were ruthlessly dealt with as their territories were reduced and in some cases, kingdoms were abolished altogether. The result was an increase in the number of kingdoms and commanderies.
Emperor Wu was one of the longest reigning Han rulers; he became the leader in 141 BC and ruled until his death in 87 BC. Although he had to contend with the Xiongnu and fought a lengthy war with this enemy, literature, poetry and philosophy flourished under Wu. The ‘Shiji’ was written by Sima Qian, and this Historical Records text set the standard for later histories sponsored by the government. The Shiji recorded information about ‘barbarians’ that lived on the borders of the empire among other things.
Emperor Wu also established Confucianism as the kingdom’s basis for proper conduct and education.
China regained a number of territories under his rule with new commanderies formed in Korea. In 101 BC, the Han conquered Ferghana and several neighboring regions which enabled them to steal a large quantity of horses. At this stage, China had control of important trade routes around the Taklamakan Desert. The nation traded its coveted silk and gold for items such as grapes, wine, broad beans, and alfalfa.
Fall of the Western Han
The death of Emperor Wu resulted in a variety of social and political conflicts that eventually led to the downfall of the Western Han dynasty. The Empress Wang Zhengjun oversaw the succession of emperors and ensured her male relatives took the throne one after another.
In 8 BC, her nephew, Wang Mang, became General-in-Chief but was removed from office less than a year later. Pressure from his supporters ensured he returned to the capital in 2 BC.
The following year, Emperor Ai died, and as he had no son, Wang Mang assumed the title of regent over Emperor Ping.
When Ping died in 6 AD, Empress Wang confirmed Wang Mang as the acting emperor. Although he promised to relinquish power when the child Liu Ying came of age, he clearly decided that he enjoyed being emperor.
Wang Mang started a propaganda campaign, announced the end of the Han dynasty and proclaimed himself the leader of the new Xin dynasty in 9 AD.
Rise & Fall of the Eastern Han
To Wang Mang’s credit, he tried to change the unfair land ownership situation but failed. In 23 AD, a rebellion led by a group called the Red Eyebrows sacked the capital city of Chang’an and beheaded the unfortunate Wang Mang.
The court of the Eastern Han dynasty was laden with scheming and intrigue during the first century AD as there was no real line of succession.
Most of the emperors died relatively young with no heirs, so a close relative usually became the next ruler. Towards the end of the second century AD, eunuchs had far too much power in the royal court, and the people ultimately grew tired of government corruption.
The Yellow Turban Rebellion of 184 AD threatened the capital city (Which was Luoyang since 25 AD), and six years later, a warlord called Dong Zhou captured the city and placed a child named Liu Xie on the throne.
Although the young boy was a member of the Han, Zhou was the real leader, and he proceeded to murder all the eunuchs and burn the city to the ground.
A succession of battles significantly weakened the empire, and in 220 AD, Liu Xie agreed to abdicate and allowed Cao Pi, King of Wei, to take over. This marked the end of the Han dynasty and the formation of the Cao Wei state which was a major player during the period of the Three Kingdoms.
Confusing?
In China the nation was ruled by the elite. Much like America is ruled by the elite in Washington DC. And this rule involved all kinds of “back stabbing”, “power plays”, “alignments”, and subterfuge. And that is what we see here. The entire dynasty was broght down by the very people who were supposed to make it last, and work; the leadership.
But they were far too preoccupied with petty squabbles, wealth and power, and politics that they let the empire dissolve around them. Sure, there had capable people, and technologies at their disposal, but their interest wasn’t in the good of the nation.
It was themselves.
Let’s look at America today…
The best articles are the ones that come with a historical perspective. They are the best. And here is one right here. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I have. What is surprising is that it comes right out of America. Imagine that someone stuck their head out of the echo-chamber bubble to throw this one together.
Of course, all credit to the original author. Note that it was reformatted to fit this venue, but the content stays the same. You can read the original article HERE.
How Empires End
“Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” – Thomas Jefferson
Histories are generally written by academics.
They, quite naturally, tend to focus on the main events: the wars and the struggles between leaders and their opponents (both external and internal). Whilst these are interesting stories to read, academics, by their very nature, often overlook the underlying causes for an empire’s decline, – reports the Internationalman website.
Today, as in any era, most people are primarily interested in the “news”—the daily information regarding the world’s political leaders and their struggles with one another to obtain, retain, and expand their power. When the history is written about the era we are passing through, it will reflect, in large measure, a rehash of the news. As the media of the day tend to overlook the fact that present events are merely symptoms of an overall decline, so historians tend to focus on major events, rather than the “slow operations” that have been the underlying causes.
The Persian Empire
When, as a boy, I was “educated” about the decline and fall of the Persian Empire, I learned of the final takeover by Alexander the Great but was never told that, in its decline, Persian taxes became heavier and more oppressive, leading to economic depression and revolts, which, in turn led to even heavier taxes and increased repression. Increasingly, kings hoarded gold and silver, keeping it out of circulation from the community. This hamstrung the market, as monetary circulation was insufficient to conduct business. By the time Alexander came along, Persia, weakened by warfare and internal economic strife, was a shell of an empire and was relatively easy to defeat.
The Tang Dynasty
Back then, I also learned that the Tang Dynasty ended as a result of the increased power amongst the eunuchs, battles with fanzhen separatists, and finally, peasants’ revolts. True enough, but I was not taught that the dynasty’s expansion-based warfare demanded increases in taxation, which led to the revolts. Continued warfare necessitated increasing monetary and land extortion by the eunuchs, resulting in an abrupt decrease in food output and further taxes. Finally, as economic deterioration and oppression of the citizenry worsened, citizens left the area entirely for more promise elsewhere.
Is there a pattern here? Let’s have a more detailed look—at another empire.
The Spanish Empire
In 1556, Philip II of Spain inherited what was regarded as Europe’s most wealthy nation, with no apparent economic problems. Yet, by 1598, Spain was bankrupt. How was this possible?
Spain was doing well but sought to become a major power. To achieve this, Philip needed more tax dollars. Beginning in 1561, the existing servicio tax was regularised, and the crusada tax, the excusado tax, and the millones tax were all added by 1590.
Over a period of 39 years (between 1559 and 1598) taxes increased by 430%. Although the elite of the day were exempt from taxation (the elite of today are not officially exempt), the average citizen was taxed to the point that both business expansion and public purchasing diminished dramatically. Wages did not keep pace with the resultant inflation. The price of goods rose 400%, causing a price revolution and a tax revolution.
Although Spain enjoyed a flood of gold and silver from the Americas at this time, the increased wealth went straight into Philip’s war efforts. However, the 100,000 troops were soon failing to return sufficient spoils to Philip to pay for their forays abroad.
In a final effort to float the doomed empire, Philip issued government bonds, which provided immediate cash but created tremendous debt that, presumably, would need to be repaid one day. (The debt grew to 8.8 times GDP.)
Spain declared bankruptcy. Trade slipped to other countries. The military, fighting on three fronts, went unpaid, and military aspirations collapsed.
It is important to note that, even as the empire was collapsing, Philip did not suspend warfare. He did not back off on taxation. Like leaders before and since, he instead stubbornly increased his autocracy as the empire slid into collapse.
Present-Day Empires
Again, the events above are not taught to schoolchildren as being of key importance in the decline of empires, even though they are remarkably consistent with the decline of other empires and what we are seeing today. The very same events occur, falling like dominoes, more or less in order, in any empire, in any age:
The reach of government leaders habitually exceeds their grasp.
Dramatic expansion (generally through warfare) is undertaken without a clear plan as to how that expansion is to be financed.
The population is overtaxed as the bills for expansion become due, without consideration as to whether the population can afford increased taxation.
Heavy taxation causes investment by the private sector to diminish, and the economy begins to decline.
Costs of goods rise, without wages keeping pace.
Tax revenue declines as the economy declines (due to excessive taxation). Taxes are increased again, in order to top up government revenues.
In spite of all the above, government leaders personally hoard as much as they can, further limiting the circulation of wealth in the business community.
Governments issue bonds and otherwise borrow to continue expansion, with no plan as to repayment.
Dramatic authoritarian control is instituted to assure that the public continues to comply with demands, even if those demands cannot be met by the public.
Economic and social collapse occurs, often marked by unrest and riots, the collapse of the economy, and the exit of those who are productive.
In this final period, the empire turns on itself, treating its people as the enemy.
The above review suggests that if our schoolbooks stressed the underlying causes of empire collapse, rather than the names of famous generals and the dates of famous battles, we might be better educated and be less likely to repeat the same mistakes.
Unfortunately, this is unlikely. Chances are, future leaders will be just as uninterested in learning from history as past leaders. They will create empires, then destroy them.
Even the most informative histories of empire decline, such as The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon, will not be of interest to the leaders of empires. They will believe that they are above history and that they, uniquely, will succeed.
If there is any value in learning from the above, it is the understanding that leaders will not be dissuaded from their aspirations. They will continue to charge ahead, both literally and figuratively, regardless of objections and revolts from the citizenry.
Once an empire has reached stage eight above, it never reverses. It is a “dead empire walking” and only awaits the painful playing-out of the final three stages.
At that point, it is foolhardy in the extreme to remain and “wait it out” in the hope that the decline will somehow reverse. At that point, the wiser choice might be to follow the cue of the Chinese, the Romans, and others, who instead chose to quietly exit for greener pastures elsewhere.
Editor’s Note:The US government is overextending itself by interfering in every corner of the globe. It’s all financed by massive amounts of money printing. However, the next financial crisis could end the whole charade soon.
The truth is, we’re on the cusp of a global economic crisis that could eclipse anything we’ve ever seen before.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you.
I do not advocate following this law, but you all should be made well aware of it. When you are outside of your friends and family you enter a zone of questionable trust. You do need to be somewhat guarded in your public dealings as not everyone is a friend. No matter what they say. The world is filled with all kinds of people, all involved with all kinds of agendas.
Please take note that there are others that prefer to use this technique. Be wary.
LAW 12
USE SELECTIVE HONESTY AND GENEROSITY TO DISARM YOUR VICTIM
JUDGMENT
One sincere and honest move will cover over dozens of dishonest ones. Open-hearted gestures of honesty and generosity bring down the guard of even the most suspicious people. Once your selective honesty opens a hole in their armor, you can deceive and manipulate them at will. A timely gift— a Trojan horse—will serve the same purpose.
OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW
Sometime in 1926, a tall, dapperly dressed man paid a visit to Al Capone, the most feared gangster of his time.
Speaking with an elegant Continental accent, the man introduced himself as Count Victor Lustig.
He promised that if Capone gave him $50,000 he could double it.
Capone had more than enough funds to cover the “investment,” but he wasn’t in the habit of entrusting large sums to total strangers.
He looked the count over: Something about the man was different—his classy style, his manner—and so Capone decided to play along.
He counted out the bills personally and handed them to Lustig. “Okay, Count,” said Capone. “Double it in sixty days like you said.”
Lustig left with the money, put it in a safe-deposit box in Chicago, then headed to New York, where he had several other money- making schemes in progress.
The $50,000 remained in the bank box untouched.
Lustig made no effort to double it.
Two months later he returned to Chicago, took the money from the box, and paid Capone another visit.
He looked at the gangster’s stony- faced bodyguards, smiled apologetically, and said,
“Please accept my profound regrets, Mr. Capone. I’m sorry to report that the plan failed... I failed.”
Capone slowly stood up.
He glowered at Lustig, debating which part of the river to throw him in.
But the count reached into his coat pocket, withdrew the $50,000, and placed it on the desk.
“Here, sir, is your money, to the penny. Again, my sincere apologies. This is most embarrassing. Things didn’t work out the way I thought they would. I would have loved to have doubled your money for you and for myself—Lord knows I need it— but the plan just didn’t materialize.”
Capone sagged back into his chair, confused. “I know you’re a con man, Count,” said Capone.
“I knew it the moment you walked in here. I expected either one hundred thousand dollars or nothing. But this... getting my money back ... well.”
“Again my apologies, Mr. Capone,” said Lustig, as he picked up his hat and began to leave. “
My God! You’re honest!” yelled Capone.
“If you’re on the spot, here’s five to help you along.”
He counted out five one-thousand-dollar bills out of the $50,000. The count seemed stunned, bowed deeply, mumbled his thanks, and left, taking the money.
The $5,000 was what Lustig had been after all along.
FRANCESCO BORRI. COURTIER CHARLATAN
Francesco Giuseppe Borri of Milan, whose death in 1695 fell just within the seventeenth century ... was a forerunner of that special type of charlatanical adventurer, the courtier or “cavalier” impostor....
His real period of glory began after he moved to Amsterdam.
There he assumed the title of Medico Universale, maintained a great retinue, and drove about in a coach with six horses.... Patients streamed to him, and some invalids had themselves carried in sedan chairs all the way from Paris to his place in Amsterdam.
Borri took no payment for his consultations: He distributed great sums among the poor and was never known to receive any money through the post or bills of exchange.
As he continued to live with such splendor, nevertheless, it was presumed that he possessed the philosophers’ stone.
Suddenly this benefactor disappeared from Amsterdam. Then it was discovered that he had taken with him money and diamonds that had been placed in his charge.
THE POWER OF THE CHARLATAN, GRETE DE FRANCESCO, 1939
Interpretation
Count Victor Lustig, a man who spoke several languages and prided himself on his refinement and culture, was one of the great con artists of modem times.
He was known for his audacity, his fearlessness, and, most important, his knowledge of human psychology.
He could size up a man in minutes, discovering his weaknesses, and he had radar for suckers.
Lustig knew that most men build up defenses against crooks and other troublemakers.
The con artist’s job is to bring those defenses down.
One sure way to do this is through an act of apparent sincerity and honesty.
Who will distrust a person literally caught in the act of being honest?
Lustig used selective honesty many times, but with Capone he went a step further.
No normal con man would have dared such a con; he would have chosen his suckers for their meekness, for that look about them that says they will take their medicine without complaint.
Con Capone and you would spend the rest of your life (whatever remained of it) afraid.
But Lustig understood that a man like Capone spends his life mistrusting others.
No one around him is honest or generous, and being so much in the company of wolves is exhausting, even depressing.
A man like Capone yearns to be the recipient of an honest or generous gesture, to feel that not everyone has an angle or is out to rob him.
Lustig’s act of selective honesty disarmed Capone because it was so unexpected.
A con artist loves conflicting emotions like these, since the person caught up in them is so easily distracted and deceived.
Do not shy away from practicing this law on the Capones of the world.
With a well-timed gesture of honesty or generosity, you will have the most brutal and cynical beast in the kingdom eating out of your hand.
Everything turns gray when I don’t have at least one mark on the horizon. Life then seems empty and depressing. I cannot understand honest men. They lead desperate lives, full of boredom.
Count Victor Lustig, 1890-1947
KEYS TO POWER
The essence of deception is distraction.
Distracting the people you want to deceive gives you the time and space to do something they won’t notice.
An act of kindness, generosity, or honesty is often the most powerful form of distraction because it disarms other people’s suspicions.
It turns them into children, eagerly lapping up any kind of affectionate gesture.
In ancient China this was called “giving before you take”—the giving makes it hard for the other person to notice the taking.
It is a device with infinite practical uses.
Brazenly taking something from someone is dangerous, even for the powerful.
The victim will plot revenge.
It is also dangerous simply to ask for what you need, no matter how politely:
Unless the other person sees some gain for themselves, they may come to resent your neediness.
Learn to give before you take.
It softens the ground, takes the bite out of a future request, or simply creates a distraction.
And the giving can take many forms: an actual gift, a generous act, a kind favor, an “honest” admission—whatever it takes.
Selective honesty is best employed on your first encounter with someone.
We are all creatures of habit, and our first impressions last a long time.
If someone believes you are honest at the start of your relationship it takes a lot to convince them otherwise.
This gives you room to maneuver.
…
Jay Gould, like Al Capone, was a man who distrusted everyone.
By the time he was thirty-three he was already a multimillionaire, mostly through deception and strong-arming.
In the late 1860s, Gould invested heavily in the Erie Railroad, then discovered that the market had been flooded with a vast amount of phony stock certificates for the company.
He stood to lose a fortune and to suffer a lot of embarrassment.
In the midst of this crisis, a man named Lord John Gordon-Gordon offered to help.
Gordon-Gordon, a Scottish lord, had apparently made a small fortune investing in railroads.
By hiring some handwriting experts Gordon-Gordon was able to prove to Gould that the culprits for the phony stock certificates were actually several top executives with the Erie Railroad itself.
Gould was grateful.
Gordon- Gordon then proposed that he and Gould join forces to buy up a controlling interest in Erie.
Gould agreed.
For a while the venture appeared to prosper.
The two men were now good friends, and every time Gordon-Gordon came to Gould asking for money to buy more stock, Gould gave it to him.
In 1873, however, Gordon-Gordon suddenly dumped all of his stock, making a fortune but drastically lowering the value of Gould’s own holdings.
Then he disappeared from sight.
Upon investigation, Gould found out that Gordon-Gordon’s real name was John Crowningsfield, and that he was the bastard son of a merchant seaman and a London barmaid.
There had been many clues before then that Gordon-Gordon was a con man, but his initial act of honesty and support had so blinded Gould that it took the loss of millions for him to see through the scheme.
A single act of honesty is often not enough.
What is required is a reputation for honesty, built on a series of acts—but these can be quite inconsequential.
Once this reputation is established, as with first impressions, it is hard to shake.
…
In ancient China, Duke Wu of Chêng decided it was time to take over the increasingly powerful kingdom of Hu.
Telling no one of his plan, he married his daughter to Hu’s ruler.
He then called a council and asked his ministers,
“I am considering a military campaign. Which country should we invade?”
As he had expected, one of his ministers replied, “Hu should be invaded.”
The duke seemed angry, and said,
“Hu is a sister state now. Why do you suggest invading her?”
He had the minister executed for his impolitic remark.
The ruler of Hu heard about this, and considering other tokens of Wu’s honesty and the marriage with his daughter, he took no precautions to defend himself from Cheng.
A few weeks later, Chêng forces swept through Hu and took the country, never to relinquish it.
…
Honesty is one of the best ways to disarm the wary, but it is not the only one.
Any kind of noble, apparently selfless act will serve.
Perhaps the best such act, though, is one of generosity.
Few people can resist a gift, even from the most hardened enemy, which is why it is often the perfect way to disarm people.
A gift brings out the child in us, instantly lowering our defenses.
Although we often view other people’s actions in the most cynical light, we rarely see the Machiavellian element of a gift, which quite often hides ulterior motives.
A gift is the perfect object in which to hide a deceptive move.
…
Over three thousand years ago the ancient Greeks traveled across the sea to recapture the beautiful Helen, stolen away from them by Paris, and to destroy Paris’s city, Troy.
The siege lasted ten years, many heroes died, yet neither side had come close to victory.
One day, the prophet Calchas assembled the Greeks.
Image: The Trojan Horse. Your guile is hidden inside a magnificent gift that proves irresistible to your opponent. The walls open. Once inside, wreak havoc.
“Stop battering away at these walls!” he told them. “You must find some other way, some ruse. We cannot take Troy by force alone. We must find some cunning stratagem.”
The cunning Greek leader Odysseus then came up with the idea of building a giant wooden horse, hiding soldiers inside it, then offering it to the Trojans as a gift.
Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, was disgusted with this idea; it was unmanly.
Better for thousands to die on the battlefield than to gain victory so deceitfully.
But the soldiers, faced with a choice between another ten years of manliness, honor, and death, on the one hand and a quick victory on the other, chose the horse, which was promptly built.
The trick was successful and Troy fell.
One gift did more for the Greek cause than ten years of fighting.
…
Selective kindness should also be part of your arsenal of deception.
For years the ancient Romans had besieged the city of the Faliscans, always unsuccessfully.
One day, however, when the Roman general Camillus was encamped outside the city, he suddenly saw a man leading some children toward him.
The man was a Faliscan teacher, and the children, it turned out, were the sons and daughters of the noblest and wealthiest citizens of the town.
On the pretense of taking these children out for a walk, he had led them straight to the Romans, offering them as hostages in hopes of ingratiating himself with Camillus, the city’s enemy.
Camillus did not take the children hostage.
He stripped the teacher, tied his hands behind his back, gave each child a rod, and let them whip him all the way back to the city.
The gesture had an immediate effect on the Faliscans.
Had Camillus used the children as hostages, some in the city would have voted to surrender.
And even if the Faliscans had gone on fighting, their resistance would have been halfhearted.
Camillus’s refusal to take advantage of the situation broke down the Faliscans’ resistance, and they surrendered.
The general had calculated correctly.
And in any case he had had nothing to lose: He knew that the hostage ploy would not have ended the war, at least not right away.
By turning the situation around, he earned his enemy’s trust and respect, disarming them.
Selective kindness will often break down even the most stubborn foe: Aiming right for the heart, it corrodes the will to fight back.
Remember: By playing on people’s emotions, calculated acts of kindness can turn a Capone into a gullible child. As with any emotional approach, the tactic must be practiced with caution: If people see through it, their disappointed feelings of gratitude and warmth will become the most violent hatred and distrust. Unless you can make the gesture seem sincere and heartfelt, do not play with fire.
Authority:
When Duke Hsien of Chin was about to raid Yü, he presented to them a jade and a team of horses. When Earl Chih was about to raid Ch’ou- yu, he presented to them grand chariots. Hence the saying: “When you are about to take, you should give.”
(Han-fei-tzu, Chinese philosopher, third century B.C.)
REVERSAL
When you have a history of deceit behind you, no amount of honesty, generosity, or kindness will fool people.
In fact it will only call attention to itself.
Once people have come to see you as deceitful, to act honest all of a sudden is simply suspicious.
In these cases it is better to play the rogue.
…
Count Lustig, pulling the biggest con of his career, was about to sell the Eiffel Tower to an unsuspecting industrialist who believed the government was auctioning it off for scrap metal.
The industrialist was prepared to hand over a huge sum of money to Lustig, who had successfully impersonated a government official.
At the last minute, however, the mark was suspicious.
Something about Lustig bothered him.
At the meeting in which he was to hand over the money, Lustig sensed his sudden distrust.
Leaning over to the industrialist, Lustig explained, in a low whisper, how low his salary was, how difficult his finances were, on and on.
After a few minutes of this, the industrialist realized that Lustig was asking for a bribe.
For the first time he relaxed.
Now he knew he could trust Lustig: Since all government officials were dishonest, Lustig had to be real.
The man forked over the money.
By acting dishonest, Lustig seemed the real McCoy.
In this case selective honesty would have had the opposite effect.
…
As the French diplomat Talleyrand grew older, his reputation as a master liar and deceiver spread.
At the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815), he would spin fabulous stories and make impossible remarks to people who knew he had to be lying.
His dishonesty had no purpose except to cloak the moments when he really was deceiving them.
One day, for example, among friends, Talleyrand said with apparent sincerity, “In business one ought to show one’s hand.”
No one who heard him could believe their ears: A man who never once in his life had shown his cards was telling other people to show theirs.
Tactics like this made it impossible to distinguish Talleyrand’s real deceptions from his fake ones.
By embracing his reputation for dishonesty, he preserved his ability to deceive.
Nothing in the realm of power is set in stone.
Overt deceptiveness will sometimes cover your tracks, even making you admired for the honesty of your dishonesty.
Do you want more?
I have more posts in my “48 Laws of Power” Index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
“We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.”
— Ayn Rand
Rule by brute force.
That’s about as good a description as you’ll find for the sorry state of our nation.
SWAT teams crashing through doors. Militarized police shooting unarmed citizens. Traffic cops tasering old men and pregnant women for not complying fast enough with an order. Resource officers shackling children for acting like children. Homeowners finding their homes under siege by police out to confiscate lawfully-owned guns. Drivers having their cash seized under the pretext that they might have done something wrong.
The list of abuses being perpetrated against the American people by their government is growing rapidly.
We are approaching critical mass.
The groundwork has been laid for a new kind of government where it won’t matter if you’re innocent or guilty, whether you’re a threat to the nation, or even if you’re a citizen. What will matter is what the government—or whoever happens to be calling the shots at the time—thinks. And if the powers-that-be think you’re a threat to the nation and should be locked up, then you’ll be locked up with no access to the protections our Constitution provides.
In effect, you will disappear.
American Citizens are just “things” that the elites use
President Biden’s long list of executive orders, executive actions, proclamations and directives is just more of the same: rule by fiat.
Now the Biden Administration is setting its sights on gun control.
Mark my words: gun control legislation, especially in the form of red flag gun laws, which allow the police to remove guns from people “suspected” of being threats, will become yet another means by which to subvert the Constitution and sabotage the rights of the people.
In Radley Balko's study of police raids of the homes of civilians for the CATO Institute, he described the mayhem currently taking place at the hands of federal and state governments in the United States in the name of law enforcement:
"Americans have long maintained that a man's home is his castle and that he has the right to defend it from unlawful intruders. Unfortunately, that right may be disappearing. Over the last 25 years, America has seen a disturbing militarization of its civilian law enforcement, along with a dramatic and unsettling rise in the use of paramilitary police units (most commonly called Special Weapons and Tactics, or SWAT) for routine police work. The most common use of SWAT teams today is to serve narcotics warrants, usually with forced, unannounced entry into the home.
"These increasingly frequent raids, 40,000 per year by one estimate, are needlessly subjecting nonviolent drug offenders, bystanders, and wrongly targeted civilians to the terror of having their homes invaded while they're sleeping, usually by teams of heavily armed paramilitary units dressed not as police officers but as soldiers. These raids bring unnecessary violence and provocation to nonviolent drug offenders, many of whom were guilty of only misdemeanors. The raids terrorize innocents when police mistakenly target the wrong residence. And they have resulted in dozens of needless deaths and injuries, not only of drug offenders, but also of police officers, children, bystanders, and innocent suspects."
- from the Executive Summary of a research paper titled, Overkill: he Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America by Radley Balko, CATO Institute.
…
But you have already heard this spiel…
America is a military empire, it’s police are military soldiers.
These “red flag” laws, growing in popularity as a legislative means by which to seize guns from individuals. They are an excuse. The excuse sounds so reasonable. People who are viewed as a danger to themselves or others, have their guns removed. Yes, this is yet another Trojan Horse, a stealth maneuver by the police state to gain greater power over an unsuspecting and largely gullible populace.
Nineteen states and Washington DC have red flag laws on their books.
That number is growing.
As The Washington Post reports, these laws “allow a family member, roommate, beau, law enforcement officer or any type of medical professional to file a petition [with a court] asking that a person’s home be temporarily cleared of firearms. It doesn’t require a mental-health diagnosis or an arrest.”
America is a military empire, it’s police are military soldiers.
Sound familiar?
Someone in the neighborhood doesn’t like you…
… they claim that you are a witch…
…or you are a communist…
…or a child sex offender…
…or are a danger to yourself.
In the midst of what feels like an epidemic of mass shootings (the statistics suggest otherwise), these gun confiscation laws—extreme risk protection order (ERPO) laws—may appease the fears of those who believe that fewer guns in the hands of the general populace will make our society safer.
Of course, it doesn’t always work that way.
It’s just an excuse
SWAT team raids "The Garden of Eden" The beast is gaining more and more unbridled power to lash out as he did this week at "The Garden of Eden" - a small organic farm in Texas reported by a RT News. This is but one of many raids that take place on a daily basis throughout the U.S. In this case they held 6 adults at gunpoint and handcuffed them for 10 hours saying they were looking for marijuana. Throughout the day the police conducted their search, destroying parts of the farm in the process. However, the property owner Shelley Smith told the media, "They came here under the guise that we were doing a drug trafficking, marijuana growing operation. They destroyed everything.”
The residents believe the raid was only an excuse to allow them to change the farm's "unconventional appearance." Code enforcement cops came along with the SWAT team and Smith said that they had been issued a number of code violations recently including, “grass that was too tall, bushes growing too close to the street, a couch and piano in the yard, chopped wood that was not properly stacked, a piece of siding that was missing from the side of the house and generally unclean premises,” The cops found no drugs or criminal activity but arrested one of the members of the group for an unpaid parking ticket.
While in theory it appears perfectly reasonable to want to disarm individuals who are clearly suicidal and/or pose an “immediate danger” to themselves or others, where the problem arises is when you put the power to determine who is a potential danger in the hands of government agencies, the courts and the police.
Any excuse serves a tyrant
It took place in August, 2005 when a SWAT team killed an innocent man in his home while his wife and 4 year old son hid in a bedroom closet in Sunrise Florida. After killing the man, the police claimed they knocked on his door and announced they were police. But according to neighbors who watched the scene unfold from their window, the police in black masks did not identify themselves before smashing down his door and using a flash grenade expecting to find drugs and guns. The neighbors said that if the police had yelled, "POLICE!" - they would have heard it. The police claimed that 23 year old Anthony Diotaiuto (a two-time Iraq war veteran) fled from his bed into another room and "armed himself." Radley Balko (quoted above) reported that the police initially claimed that he fled to the bedroom for a handgun and pointed the gun at them. Later, the story changed with a spokesperson for the police saying that the "found the weapon next to his body" after they killed him.
Diotaiuto returned from his night shift at one of the two jobs he had to provide for his family. According to his friends, he had a shotgun and handgun which he kept for protection with a valid concealed weapons permit. Balko surmised that he rose from a deep sleep, disoriented by the crashing of his door and flash grenade and ran terrified into another room. After they killed him, the police claimed that they found 2 ounces of marijuana, some plastic baggies and a scale. But by the time the case went to a jury trial, that amount of marijuana was determined to be 16 grams, a little more than half an ounce. The Broward County medical examiner reported 10 bullet wounds in his head, chest, torso, and limbs.
America is a military empire, it’s police are military soldiers.
We’ve been down this road before.
Remember, this is the same government that uses the words “anti-government,” “extremist” and “terrorist” interchangeably.
This is the same government whose agents are spinning a sticky spider-web of threat assessments, behavioral sensing warnings, flagged “words,” and “suspicious” activity reports using automated eyes and ears, social media, behavior sensing software, and citizen spies to identify potential threats.
This is the same government that keeps re-upping the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which allows the military to detain American citizens with no access to friends, family or the courts if the government believes them to be a threat.
This is the same government that has a growing list—shared with fusion centers and law enforcement agencies—of ideologies, behaviors, affiliations and other characteristics that could flag someone as suspicious and result in their being labeled potential enemies of the state.
For instance, if you believe in and exercise your rights under the Constitution ...
(namely, your right to speak freely, worship freely, associate with like-minded individuals who share your political views, criticize the government, own a weapon, demand a warrant before being questioned or searched, or any other activity viewed as potentially anti-government, racist, bigoted, anarchic or sovereign),
Radley Balko’s White Paper, Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America:
Balko said that botched raids such as this one are not 'isolated incidents.' Other examples of SWAT teams misused are the hundreds of raids conducted each year at a wrong address. Often the people targeted are completely innocent, unlike in the Diotaiuto tragedy. Further, the 'no-knock' and 'quick-knock' raids often rely on anonymous tips and 'dubious informants to obtain the search warrants.'
The raids are intended to terrify. The police generally break down the doors with a battering ram or blow them off with explosives. Sometimes police use a flash bang grenade. Once inside, police force the occupants to lie prone, generally at gunpoint...
Balko wrote in Overkill, 'The idea of sending battalions of men dressed, trained, and armed like soldiers to do civilian police work should give us great discomfort'.”
America is a military empire, it’s police are military soldiers.
Now consider the ramifications of giving police that kind of authority: to preemptively raid homes in order to neutralize a potential threat.
It’s a powder keg waiting for a lit match.
Duncan Lemp
Under these red flag laws, what happened to Duncan Lemp—who was gunned down in his bedroom during an early morning, no-knock SWAT team raid on his family’s home—could very well happen to more people.
At 4:30 a.m. on March 12, 2020, in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic that had most of the country under a partial lockdown and sheltering at home, a masked SWAT team—deployed to execute a “high risk” search warrant for unauthorized firearms—stormed the suburban house where 21-year-old Duncan, a software engineer and Second Amendment advocate, lived with his parents and 19-year-old brother.
America is a military empire, it’s police are military soldiers.
No one in the house that morning, including Lemp, had a criminal record.
No one in the house that morning, including Lemp, was considered an “imminent threat” to law enforcement or the public, at least not according to the search warrant.
So what was so urgent that militarized police felt compelled to employ battlefield tactics in the pre-dawn hours of a day when most people are asleep in bed, not to mention stuck at home as part of a nationwide lockdown?
According to police, they were tipped off that Lemp was in possession of “firearms.”
Thus, rather than approaching the house by the front door at a reasonable hour in order to investigate this complaint—which is what the Fourth Amendment requires—police instead strapped on their guns, loaded up their flash bang grenades and acted like battle-crazed warriors.
In May, 2010 Joseph Weekley, a Detroit cop shot and killed Aiyana Stanley Jones, a seven-year-old girl when they raided a home during the early morning hours as she lay sleeping on a sofa in her home on Lillibridge Street in Detroit. Aiyana was shot in the head and neck. Assistant Police Chief Ralph Godbee said the heavily armed "Special Response Team" was executing a "no-knock" search warrant for a homicide suspect and they threw a flash grenade through an unopened window around 12:45 a.m. before charging in with guns drawn but they got the wrong house. It may have never gained international attention except that it was recorded by a reality TV crew, which was filming an episode of “The First 48,” a program like "Cops" and other racist TV shows that feed off the misery of victims in praise of the work of US police.
In June, 2013 Weekley went on trial for involuntary manslaughter with a possible sentence of 15 years in prison. The cop claimed that he had "physical contact" with the little girl's grandmother, Mertilla Jones, after entering the home. On June 18, the trial ended in a hung jury and he is now to be retried. In the trial, Grandmother Mertilla testified,
"I saw the light leave out of her eyes, and blood gushed out of her mouth. I knew she was dead.” After the first trial, Mertilla stated, "He admitted he shot and killed her. He's a dirty cop because he said I touched him. I never touched that man. ... I was never anywhere near Joseph Weekley. He's a lying [expletive] cop."
The Military patrol America today
America is a military empire, it’s police are military soldiers.
This is what you get when you live inside a Military Empire.
This is the blowback from all that military weaponry flowing to domestic police departments.
This is what happens when you use SWAT teams to carry out routine search warrants.
Red Flag Laws
America is a military empire, it’s police are military soldiers.
This is what happens when you adopt red flag gun laws, which Maryland did in 2018, painting anyone who might be in possession of a gun—legal or otherwise—as a threat that must be neutralized.
Therein lies the danger of these red flag laws, specifically, and pre-crime laws such as these generally where the burden of proof is reversed and you are guilty before you are given any chance to prove you are innocent.
Red flag gun laws merely push us that much closer towards a suspect society where everyone is potentially guilty of some crime or another and must be preemptively rendered harmless.
Where many Americans go wrong is in naively assuming that you have to be doing something illegal or harmful in order to be flagged and targeted for some form of intervention or detention.
The American Police State
America is a military empire, it’s police are military soldiers.
In fact, U.S. police agencies have been working to identify and manage potential extremist “threats,” violent or otherwise, before they can become actual threats for some time now.
All you need to do these days to end up on a government watch list or be subjected to heightened scrutiny is use certain trigger words (like cloud, pork and pirates)…
America is a military empire, it’s police are military soldiers.
Be warned: once you get on such a government watch list—whether it’s a terrorist watch list, a mental health watch list, a dissident watch list, or a red flag gun watch list—there’s no clear-cut way to get off, whether or not you should actually be on there.
You will be tracked wherever you go.
You will be flagged as a potential threat and dealt with accordingly.
This is pre-crime on an ideological scale and it’s been a long time coming.
The government has been building its pre-crime, surveillance network in concert with fusion centers (of which there are 78 nationwide, with partners in the private sector and globally), data collection agencies, behavioral scientists, corporations, social media, and community organizers and by relying on cutting-edge technology for surveillance, facial recognition, predictive policing, biometrics, and behavioral epigenetics (in which life experiences alter one’s genetic makeup).
America is a military empire, it’s police are military soldiers.
It’s the American police state’s take on the dystopian terrors foreshadowed by George Orwell, Aldous Huxley and Phillip K. Dick all rolled up into one oppressive pre-crime and pre-thought crime package.
If you’re not scared yet, you should be.
It’s a Nightmare America
America is a military empire, it’s police are military soldiers.
Connect the dots.
Start with the powers amassed by the government under the USA Patriot Act, note the government’s ever-broadening definition of what it considers to be an “extremist,” then add in the government’s detention powers under NDAA, the National Security Agency’s far-reaching surveillance networks, and fusion centers that collect and share surveillance data between local, state and federal police agencies.
To that, add tens of thousands of armed, surveillance drones that will soon blanket American skies, facial recognition technology that will identify and track you wherever you go and whatever you do. And then to complete the picture, toss in the real-time crime centers being deployed in cities across the country, which will be attempting to “predict” crimes and identify criminals before they happen based on widespread surveillance, complex mathematical algorithms and prognostication programs.
Hopefully you’re starting to understand how easy we’ve made it for the government to identify, label, target, defuse and detain anyone it views as a potential threat for a variety of reasons that run the gamut from mental illness to having a military background to challenging its authority to just being on the government’s list of persona non grata. Finally, add in the local police agencies and SWAT teams that are being “gifted” military-grade weaponry and equipment designed for the battlefield and trained in the tactics of war.
It all adds up to a terrifying package of brute force coupled with invasive technology and totalitarian tactics.
This brings me back to those red flag gun laws.
It’s the nail in the American Coffin
America is a military empire, it’s police are military soldiers.
In the short term, these gun confiscation laws may serve to temporarily delay or discourage those wishing to inflict violence on others, but it will not resolve whatever madness or hate or instability therein that causes someone to pull a trigger or launch a bomb or unleash violence on another.
Indeed, those same individuals sick enough to walk into an elementary school or a movie theater and open fire using a gun can and do wreak just as much havoc with homemade bombs made out of pressure cookers and a handful of knives.
Nor will these laws save us from government-instigated and directed violence at the hands of the militarized police state or the blowback from the war-drenched, violence-imbued, profit-driven military industrial complex, both of which remain largely overlooked and underestimated pieces of the discussion on gun violence in America.
No matter how well-meaning the politicians make these encroachments on our rights appear, in the right (or wrong) hands, benevolent plans can easily be put to malevolent purposes. In this way, even the most well-intentioned government law or program can be—and has been—perverted, corrupted and used to advance illegitimate purposes once profit and power are added to the equation.
The war on terror, the war on drugs, the war on illegal immigration, asset forfeiture schemes, road safety schemes, school safety schemes, eminent domain: all of these programs started out as legitimate responses to pressing concerns and have since become weapons of compliance and control in the police state’s hands.
And what is next…
.
Well, it’s when the elites declare that they are a class that is up and above that of the American citizenry.
.
The following article is reprinted as found with limited editing to fit in this venue, and all credit to the original author. by Baruch Pletner,PhD,MBA
The Hi-Tech Traditionalist: A Revolution In Reverse: The Uprising Of The American Elites Against The American People
The great Bolshevik revolutions of the last century in Russia, in China, and in Cuba all followed a familiar pattern: a group of young, energetic, endlessly corruptible, but not yet corrupt outsiders take on, in the name of the people, a tired corrupt establishment.
A civil war ensues in which the people side with the revolutionaries because they (mistakenly) think that things can never be worse.
Revolutionaries win, slaughter the establishment elites, and proceed to rob and enslave the people in even more outrageous fashion.
In May, 2008, a SWAT team raided a home in Norwalk, Connecticut after a prostitute called the police telling them that the home contained drugs and weapons. She gave the police a false name and after the killing no weapons were found but the police killed Gonzalo Guizan and dragged the home owner, Ronald Terebesi out in handcuffs. In February, 2013 taxpayers from 5 Fairfield County towns were ordered to pay $3,500,000.00 resulting from the raid on the residence in Norwalk that left Guizan dead, Terebesi traumatized and heavy damage done to his house. Reporter Jonathan Turley expressed his view of the $3.5 million settlement:
"Now, Easton First Selectman Thomas Herrmann insists that the settlement does not reflect any negligence by his officers or those of the other towns: 'While the defendants, police departments and officers from Darien, Easton, Trumbull, Monroe and Wilton maintain they were not responsible for the unfortunate death of Mr. Guizan, the insurers for the defendants, who will bear the full cost of the settlement, believed that it was best to resolve the matter rather than incur further attorneys’ fees, which were anticipated to be significant. The defendants concurred, further believing it was important to facilitate the Guizan family being relieved of the combined burden of litigation.'
"That seems a rather belated concern for the Guizan family since you first launched a virtual military assault on a drug allegation, then killed the unarmed Guizan, and then fought their claim for damages until you had little practical alternative but to settle."
The only thing the police found were two smoking pipes and a tin with a minuscule amount of drugs. Jonathan Turley described the raid and this part of his original story has since been redacted,
"One would have thought this was the alleged bin Laden raid, as it looked like a military operation in a war zone. Heavily armed police and SWAT teams raided a home owned by Ronald Terebesi based on a tip from a local stripper that she had a “dispute” with Terebesi. This sounds pretty harmless so far, but SWAT team members dressed in armor bore down on this home with flash grenades, snipers surrounding the house, and a virtual tank supplied to this police department after the cover up of 9/11 by DHS.
"When all was said and done, one man, Gonzalo Guizan, was killed and Terebesi was dragged from his home. Both of these men were unarmed, and had done nothing to warrant this raid, and in fact were cowering in a corner when the spray of bullets were fired."
Soon enough the old guard revolutionaries become every bit as corrupt as the ones they have replaced if not more so and the cycle repeats itself.
In America, the situation is rather farcically backwards.
America is a military empire, it’s police are military soldiers.
In America, the corrupt establishment elites have decided to stage a Bolshevik coup against the American people rather than the other way around.
A Tsar fully in command of his own kingdom staging a coup against his own people is a bizarre development to say the least, and yet, here we are in 2021 America.
Like always, there are reasons.
First and foremost among them is the sheer scope of the nepotism and corruption of the American elites in business, government, technology, and the intelligence services.
This scope has very likely far exceeded anything previously known in human history.
Had the dimensions of the robbery perpetrated by the American ruling classes against the American people become widely known earlier, America could well have experienced a more typical revolution, one by the people against the elites.
Well aware of the possibility if not probability of such an outcome, the people who run America put in place a plan to make it all but impossible.
America is a military empire, it’s police are military soldiers.
The plan involved the gradually escalating erosion of the limits on government powers put in place by the Constitution with a parallel erosion in the God-given rights guaranteed every American by the same document.
This was a fully bipartisan effort, put in place immediately after president Reagan departed office.
It is sufficient to observe the exponential increase in government versus private sector employment in America from 1988 to 2019 to fully grasp this point.
Stopping immigration from countries that have (or at least used to have) a tradition of personal freedom and limited government while throwing open the spigots for immigration from countries that have neither was the second part of the same plan.
The destruction of family values and Christianity in America was the third.
On the whole, the plan was a spectacular success.
Americans proved easy targets for propaganda on pro-gay rights and every other kind of moral depravity and have learned to bite their tongues and bow low whenever they heard the phrase: “diversity is our strength”.
White Americans learned to internalize guilt for something they had no control over – the very color of their skin.
Americans allowed themselves to become squeezed out of well-paying jobs by the elites-induced trifecta of low and high-skilled immigration and automation, with nary a whisper in protest.
All was going well for the elites until they had a panic attack, a freakout of unheard of proportions when a non-establishment person, Donald Trump managed to get himself elected president.
The problem for the elites inherent in Trump’s election was simple: they have not done much, if anything, to cover the tracks of their massive robbery of the American people.
America is a military empire, it’s police are military soldiers.
That meant that when Trump assumed office even their best efforts would likely not be good enough to stop him from perceiving at least a glimpse of the true scale of their crimes.
There is a certain irony in the fact that being criminals themselves, the American establishment has found, in Trump, the one true nemesis.
For he is a New York developer who cut his teeth dealing with the New York building trades, which are, of course, a criminal element in and of themselves.
Trying to pin on Trump their own sins of sexual corruption, nepotism, embezzlement, etc. has not been a well-thought out strategy on the part of the American power elites.
America is a military empire, it’s police are military soldiers.
This is simply because it enabled him to begin educating the American public as to the breathtaking scope of their own criminality.
And that pretty much explains what happened during the election of 2020; a coup d’etat against the American people, the American Constitution, and the American Republic itself.
Since the elites still very much permeate every hall of power in America, this is a one-off deal in which the rulers of a country set out to violently overthrow the very political structure of the country they are ruling, but, as they say, it is what it is.
The cover may be different, but the playbook is the same, so we are already being exposed to the oldies but goodies of…
escalating agitprop (weaponized lies and propaganda),
suppression of unwanted elements (cancel culture),
and paid snitching (whistleblowing).
Now we are entering into a new phase, that of secret trials with a predetermined outcome.
Apparently congressional Democrats are going to hold impeachment hearings (read Bolshevik tribunal) at a secret location with no rights whatsoever being afforded to the accused.
America is a military empire, it’s police are military soldiers.
Unfortunately for all of us, however, the scope of their criminal acts is such that they cannot contemplate any due process without committing political and even non-political suicide.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said federal government programs that armed police “with the weapons and tactics of war” had led forces across the United States to become unnecessarily and dangerously militarized.
“The use of hyper-aggressive tools and tactics results in tragedy for civilians and police officers, escalates the risk of needless violence, destroys property and undermines individual liberties,” the ACLU said in a report.
It said police forces set up special weapons and tactics (SWAT) units initially to face emergencies such as hostage situations and active-shooter scenarios.
But after studying more than 800 SWAT deployments conducted by 20 law enforcement agencies between 2011-2012, it said the specialized teams had moved away from that original role and were increasingly used to search people’s homes for drugs.
It said the raids were often violent, involving 20 or more officers armed with assault rifles and stun grenades, breaking down doors and windows, and screaming at occupants to get on the floor. It said children were present on numerous occasions.
The ACLU said the militarization of policing was also evident in police training that it said encouraged officers to adopt a “warrior” mentality – something it said was reinforced by the use of equipment such as battering rams, flashbang grenades, and armored personnel carriers.
It said the shift in culture was partly driven by U.S. Supreme Court rulings that gave police increased authority to force their way into homes, often in narcotics probes.
All things are on the table right now, including things that now sound crazy like setting up a parallel Supreme Court having declared the Constitution illegitimate because it was written by white males some of whom supported slavery and ratified without African American and other minority votes.
Needless to say, such actions may well precipitate an armed conflict we know of as civil war, but that would not be an unexpected outcome for the elites.
We know now that the American intelligence services all work for the elites and not for the people.
They will fight on their side in the coming war. What we don’t know is to what degree the armed forces have been infiltrated, especially the mid-level officer corps.
The outcomes of such cataclysms are never possible to predict, but we know what we know.
American ruling classes have long since betrayed her and her people to make themselves fabulously, generationally rich and powerful.
They could have cut a power-sharing deal with the American people as represented by president Trump; his hand has always been open to them.
They didn’t take him up on it.
Massive anger is building up in America now and the battle lines are drawn: either the American republic overthrows her own criminal elites or they overthrow her.
Which shall it be? To quote the Commander in Chief of the forces of light: “we’ll see what happens.”
The MM Opinion
Nothing is going to happen domestically. People are getting ready, ready, ready but there isn’t any “trigger” that will enable the unleashing of holy terror internally.
If something is going to happen, then it will happen externally.
Which brings up all these “waltzes” and “dances” that the Biden administration is involved in regarding other nations. It’s very blatant and “in your face”. Here’s my terms, you lowly Chink.. you lowly scum Russki… you evil Iranian… accept them or we will squelch you like the vermin you are.
Is it intentional? Or is the leadership complete morons? It’s difficult to tell these days. So I must ask…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Lately I have been really driven to throw things out. It’s almost like a real crush. I feel that I must send out as much as I possibly can, for some strange compulsion. It’s darn strange and tiring me out.
Seriously.
You all would be surprised at the rate my fingers are typing and the pace that these darn articles are coming out.
It’s a good thing that I have to go to a couple of factories and give my typing fingers a rest. It’s wearing me out. I’m set up for some fun in my near future. Some great friends, some fantastic food. A goodly amount of booze, and some friendly environments from where I can make some new friends in. I’m trembling in anticipation, I’ll tell you what.
I think that it’s a fair time to go play with some dice, make some new friends, and sing a song or two.
Anyways, I would suggest that all of you all also take the time to spend with some friends and play some games. Talk a little bit, chat some and have a good time. Don’t forget the food. And don’t buy cheap booze. Life is too short to waste on cheap booze.
And if you have the means, go ahead and make some new friends. There’s an entire world of interesting and colorful people to meet.
The world is filled with all kinds of interesting and colorful people. Everyone has a story, and everyone likes food. So what is stopping you?
Anyways…
The thing that I have been trying to underline all week is a very simple point.
Which is…
Make no mistake. A war with a major military power will result in the complete annihilation of America.
I’ve really been somewhat fixated in driving this point home. I don’t understand why. I don’t think that I have tapped into any kind of non-physical data stream or anything like that. But never the less, I am driven. Who’d figure.
So…
Don’t poke the Panda, or kick the bear.
Not that anyone will listen to me. It seems that either the United States leadership has a death wish, or that they are seriously retarded morons without a lick of sense.
…
Consider just how dangerous the “deep state” has become.
Now… imagine that a serious REAL war takes place. Missiles are flying back and forth. Entire cites are blasted out of existence, and evil people at the local level take up arms to defend their little patches of land and territory. Here and there.
What do you think the “deep state” would do?
You just cannot assume that they would all disappear, or slink under a rock, or go a hiding in the bushes. they will still exist, and given their (former) levers of power… what do you think they would be capable of? And how far do you think that they would go to exert full regional control in a nation that is in the process of going absolutely mad?
…
It’s bad enough that they are poking the bear and panda…
…but they will utilize what ever happens to their own personal benefit.
Military, Deep State and the American Naivety
While only 11% of Americans trust Congress, a whopping 74% have a “great deal or quite a lot of” trust in the military, which also vastly outperforms newspapers (23%) and even the US Supreme Court (37%).
Similarly, the CIA and the FBI get an “excellent” rating from 58% of Americans.
While reverence to military is quite common all over the world — perhaps related to evolutionary fear — it behooves us to be a bit more critical and objective.
Like the Old Testament characters who never asked Moses for evidence regarding the burning bush, Americans blindly accept all verdicts from the intelligence agencies.
The rise of the colossal military and the “Deep State” are new phenomenons in American history, and a dispassionate scrutiny underscores the need for more vigilance on our part.
Military-Industrial Complex – Eisenhower
While many Americans consider it heretical to question the US military, none other than a five-star military general and US president did just that.
“we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”
Such a speech would now be derided as a conspiracy theory and even labeled as treasonous.
CIA – Truman
Guess who thought that the CIA had turned into an American Gestapo?
Harry Truman, the US president who created the CIA.
“Those fellows in the CIA don’t just report on wars, they go out and make their own (wars), and there’s nobody to keep track of what they’re up to. They spend billions of dollars on stirring up trouble. The CIA has become a government all of its own.”
Former Director of the CIA, William Colby, described CIA’s culture in his memoir as follows:
“cult of intelligence … that held itself to be above the normal processes of society, with its own rationale and justification, beyond the restraints of the Constitution …”
Election Meddling and Coups by the CIA
Since World War II, the CIA has meddled in more than 80 foreign elections around the world (doesn’t include coups and regime changes!).
And the RAND corp has the nerve to refer to Russia as a "rogue state". I discussed this HERE.
The US Senate’s Church Committee in 1975 documented several instances of US meddling in other nations.
The operations included suitcases of cash to bribe politicians and voters, manuals for psychological warfare, sensational fake news, organized mass protests, armed violent oppositions etc.
Starting in the 1980’s, the Deep State refined its plans for regime changes, resorting to the use of sophisticated NGO’s such as the USAID, NED and Open Society Foundations of George Soros, which all specialize in mass propaganda and color revolutions.
When asked a few months ago, if we still meddle in other countries’ elections, CIA director James Woolsey grinned and responded, “myum, myum, myum.”
There are incontrovertible proofs for some of the coups, thanks to declassified CIA documents – for example, the overthrow of democratically elected leaders in Iran in 1953 and in Guatemala in 1954.
Assassinations
Recently released “JFK Files” from the CIA archives show detailed plans to assassinate Fidel Castro that included exploding cigars and tuberculosis-laced diving suit.
Other leaders targeted in these documents include General Trujillo of Dominican Republic and Patrice Lumumba of Congo.
William Blum has done extensive research and documented numerous foreign assassinations – successful and attempted – by the CIA and/or the US military.
Theoretically, nothing stops the killing machine in operating within the US.
Even intellectuals like David Talbot — founder of Salon magazine and editor of Time magazine — are convinced that some from the top echelons of the CIA assassinated JFK.
President Truman also seemed to suggest the same when he wrote an extraordinary op-ed in Washington Post one month after JFK’s assassination saying that CIA’s covert operations must be terminated.
By the way, the phrase “conspiracy theorist” was invented by the CIA in 1967 to discredit anyone challenging the official narratives!
The US has supported and installed numerous brutal tyrants and authoritarians all over the world in the last century.
Suharto in Indonesia, for example, killed two million people, but was loved by the West, since he let western corporations exploit his people and plunder his country.
Nazis and Jihadists
After the defeat of Hitler, the US recruited more than 1000 Nazis, including high-ranking officials, to work against the Soviet Union.
Under Operation Paperclip, the CIA brought numerous Nazi scientists into the US.
As I explain in my book, Deconstructing the Syrian War, the US has trained, armed and funded Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Libya, Syria etc. to wage proxy wars.
Drug Trafficking
From 1950 to 1975, the CIA — using a fleet of planes and helicopters known as Air America — was involved in massive heroin trafficking from the Golden Triangle area in Myanmar, Thailand and Laos.
After the Vietnam War, the Deep State in the 1980s used heroin in Afghanistan to fight the USSR and cocaine in Central America to fight leftist leaders. According to Gary Webb, the CIA also imported cocaine into the US.
In 1998, a Congressman entered into official records a shocking document called “A Tangled Web: A History of CIA Complicity in Drug International Trafficking” that summarizes CIA’s nefarious drug activities from 1947 to 1996.
Since the US invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11, opium cultivation there has exploded. Correlation or causation? As a NY Times investigation revealed in 2009, the biggest Afghan drug dealer was on the CIA payroll.
Propaganda & Psy Ops
America did this for “democracy”. What do you think that a leader would do to you and your family for his own personal power.
CIA’s Operation Mockingbird was an extensive operation to infiltrate and control all the major news organizations.
Over the decades, the CIA and the Pentagon have actively participated in over 800 major movies and 1000 TV shows to make sure that the right (propaganda) message reaches the audience!
Declassified documents on MK-Ultra and other mind-control and brainwashing programs and experiments –LSD and numerous other drugs, hypnosis, electric shock etc. – are right out of a sci-fi horror movie.
Wars and Lies
Remember all the deceit and fearmongering that convinced us to go to Iraq war after 9/11?
He could launch chemical weapons against Israel and British soldiers (in Cyprus) in just 45 minutes
Through innuendos and bold lies, the Establishment convinced 70% of Americans that Saddam was responsible for 9/11 and even the Anthrax attack that followed.
Go back in history, there are many such lies, including the Gulf of Tonkin claim that helped the US launch the Vietnam War.
Wars and Corporatism
America did this for “democracy”. What do you think that a leader would do to you and your family for his own personal power.
Every American should read General Smedley Butler’s amazing testimony titled, “War is a Racket.”
John Perkins’ book, “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” is another must read to understand how banks and corporations drive geopolitics, coups, regime changes and wars in the 21st century.
False Flag Attacks
Somehow, it’s psychologically hard for people to think that their government might stage false flag attacks.
However, as recently declassified documents show, the CIA had many such ideas – killing boatloads of Cuban refugees or blowing up ships and then blaming Fidel Castro;
…carrying out “terror campaigns” – their own words – with bombs in Miami and Washington D.C. to frame Castro;
…and buying Russian planes to attack US soldiers to start a war with the Soviet Union.
Shockingly, these plans got approved all the way up to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and only got stopped by JFK or his brother.
There are convincing evidence to prove the CIA carried out similar false flag attacks — Operation Gladio — in Europe in the 1950’s through the 1970’s to blame the communists and shift the political landscape to the right.
In recent years in Libya, Syria and Ukraine, false flag attacks were used to launch the regime change operations.
Wild accusations such as the Novichok poisoning in the UK by Russia also bear all the hallmarks of fake or false flag attacks.
Torture and Human Experiments
America did this for “democracy”. What do you think that a leader would do to you and your family for his own personal power.
While our politicians are skilled at crying crocodile tears over human rights abuses by our geopolitical adversaries, the CIA runs secret torture prisons in many countries to avoid scrutiny.
Sometimes we do it ourselves, like in Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib, Iraq.
According to a 1994 government report, hundreds of thousands of Americans were subjected to unethical radiological, chemical, biological and medical experiments between 1940 and 1974.
The US military even conducted biological warfare testing on the entire city of San Francisco!
Nuking 1200 Cities
Another deeply held American belief is that our elites always hold high moral standards, value lives and are compassionate.
In September 1945, merely one month after Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the US military drew up plans to drop 204 atomic bombs on 66 cities in the USSR, who was our ally during World War II and still an ally at that time!
Then a decade later, in 1956, the US military had detailed plans to drop 2,000+ atom and hydrogen bombs on 1,200 cities in Russia, China and Eastern Europe.
This would have immediately killed 500 million people, 99% innocent civilians.
Think about what kind of evil monsters and sociopaths would come up with such genocidal ideas.
Also, if they had carried out their psychopathic plan, the nuclear fallout might have ended the entire human race.
Perpetual Wars
Since 9/11, the US/NATO wars have already cost $5.6 trillion and killed 5 to 7 million people, but clever propaganda hide or justify such atrocities.
In the 1990s, half a million Iraqi children died from US sanctions, which Sec. of State Madeleine Albright said was “worth it.”
Wars and conflicts are extremely profitable for the military-banking-intelligence complex, which uses the soldiers as pawns. 2.7 million Americans have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11; and more than 400,000 of them suffer from PTSD.
If diplomacy, free trade and fair wages become the norm, we wouldn’t need 800 military bases in 140 countries to prop up friendly dictators, bully competitors, and enforce the Ponzi scheme of the Petrodollar regime.
The unsustainable Empire thrives because we cannot question or challenge it.
Mass Surveillance
America did this for “democracy”. What do you think that a leader would do to you and your family for his own personal power.
In the land of the free, Americans don’t mind NSA spying on them.
While many assume that it’s to protect us from terrorists, Edward Snowden revealed that the mass collection of phone calls has been going on since 1985.
If the spooks have dirt on every single American, it’s no wonder that no politician speaks out against the Orwellian nightmare.
The attacks on Wikileaks and Julian Assange also reveal how much the Deep State hates transparency and accountability.
Conclusion
The zeitgeist in America demands blind support for military, defense industry and the intelligence community.
Like fish in the water, Americans have lost the ability to notice the pervasive and omnipresent propaganda.
However, we owe it ourselves to be more knowledgeable and objective in processing and reacting to information.
We also need to be more cynical about our government and the mass media.
Freedom, liberty and prosperity are not achieved and maintained through willful ignorance, blind allegiance and naïve faith.
Now, when a full SHTF event occurs, these very same people will capitalize on the situation and turn it into their own personal benefit. You all need to be ready and aware of that. For this is what always happens after the dust settles and the war subsides.
Where will you be when that happens, and will you be ready to handle the new leaders that rise up out of the ashes? Are you ready?
I’m getting ready. I’m spending my time getting drunk and making all sorts of new friends. Because, as I have stated over and over again, it is your friends that will be able to help you when you need it the most. Nothing else.
I’m spending my time getting drunk and making all sorts of new friends.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
i don't know that the usa has any type of long range strategy... and i don't think they care who dies, or what mess they make of other places on the planet either... it seems the usa is intent on serving the god of mammon only.. this certainly works for wall st and the military industrial complex... i really don't think concern for the welfare of other nations, or the planet for that matter, are any considerations washington gives at this point... and to have the same brand of neo cons in bidens gov't as the previous bunch, is not a positive sign either.. it is hard to appreciate the constant hate towards russia these people have.. i find it impossible to understand in fact..
It’s a nice day out. And maybe too nice to complain about the mess the United States is today. But that’s life, don’t you know. Human constructions, nations and people, come and go. But the weather, society, the birds and the bees continue oblivious to whatever the United States does.
Too nice a day to worry about the collapse of whatever the heck it is. But it’s happening whether we want to watch or not. Meanwhile it’s not only the “rank and file” citizenry; the “Joe Sixpack” in the “flyover states” discussing this, but also the “elites” in the posh enclaves inside the elite residential areas of the North east. And they so banter about…
Here we have a couple of elites chatting about what’s going on.
While (initially) laws might say that everyone is equal, what actually happens is that certain types of people (psychopaths) tend to gobble up all the “power” over time. Thus resulting in a society of “elites” who rule over the nation.
These elites are talking.
I found it interesting, not only for the way that they are approaching the current situation; all, but also for what they know, and what they are oblivious to. As people used to say in the hills “He might be smart, but he has shit for brains”…
These people talk about life inside of the Washington DC “beltway”, and the various “alphabet” agencies while they live in their nice plush estates, inside their gated communities. You cannot blame them. They are not oblivious to what is going on in America, and in the rest of the world on the international scene, instead, they view it from a set of “eyeglasses” that is alien to the rest of us. thus their discourse, and bantering about has value and is valuable to us.
It’s worth taking the time to absorb…
Here's a pretty good read about what America is, and who the "leaders" are. It came from Culture News, and I edited to fit this venue. the author wrote long expansive paragraph-long run-on sentences that was difficult to read. But aside from that, and my own artistic flourishes in this particular article, the content remains intact. It's a good read. All credit to the author.
Please note that I interjected quotes and comments from the “Joe Six-pack” audience at the start of each section, just to keep everyone grounded. They are in dialog boxes.
The Codevilla Tapes
The historian of American statecraft and spycraft and conservative political philosopher Angelo Codevilla talks about the ruling elite, Jonathan Pollard, and the rise of the techno-surveillance state—and the consequent demise of the American Empire.
That’s the terror and the beauty of American life in a nutshell.
It is the answer to the secret of how 300 million people from many different places can live together between two oceans, sharing a future-oriented outlook that methodically obliterates any ties to the past.
All prior lived experience is transformed into science fiction…
…or else into self-serving evidence of …
…the present-day moral, intellectual, and technological superiority of the brave imagineers…
…those who are fortunate enough to live here, in the “Now”, while all who came before them are cursed.
It’s out of control
Yes it is.
Thanks for pointing out the planning of US aggression. One hopes this is all brinksmanship on all sides.
If the plan is to take Crimea, then the USA has completely lost its mind and is hellbent on extinction rather than face collapse of 'the greatest country in the history of the world.'
It's understandable that those wanting to see the USA get its ears boxed are frustrated by Putin/Russia's strategy of repeatedly 'turning the other cheek.'
Rather than weakness, we can see now how Russia has consolidated its alliances, developed advanced weaponry, and consistently worked within International Law and not the Rules Based International Order of Might Makes Right.
The United States and its equally bankrupt allies/vassals face a three-front battlefield - Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Obviously the supply chain is a problem.
So, dear friends, the question is: How batshit crazy are the folks pulling the strings?
No one can or does control such fantasy-driven machinery…
… which seems incapable of operating in any other way than it does, i.e., in a space with no beginning and no end…
… but trending always toward utopia perfection.
Learning to accept imperfection and failure may be an emotionally healthy way for adults to negotiate the terrors and absurdities of human existence, but it is not the highway to the perfectibility of man or woman-kind.
Because the large-scale explanations that Americans offer each other about how their country works, or doesn’t work, arise from working backwards from the expectation of some future storybook perfection…
…Americans tend to be either childishly conspiratorial or cartoonishly stupid…
…because those are the types of explanation that tend to win out…
…once you stipulate an ever-more-perfect-and-glorious future…
…as the inevitable outcome of whatever snake oil it is that you are pitching to the suckers.
The Snake Oil Addiction
To my mind, the most chilling sentence uttered in this whole affair was by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. He said "that any attempts to start a new military conflict in Ukraine’s war-torn east could end up destroying Ukraine".
Lavrov never speaks like this and the Russians do not bluff.
Zelensky signed a decree recently stating Ukraine's intent to take back the Donbass AND Crimea! This means if Ukraine attacks, Russia WILL intervene and destroy Ukraine as we know it. I think it means Russian tanks will roll on Kiev to stop this war forever.
Moves like recalling the US Ambassador are very ominous and usually prelude all out war between nations. Combined with Lavrov's warning, Russia is giving all possible signals it is ready for war with Ukraine AND the US.
In today’s America, these explanations come in the form of shallow and sweeping identitarian polemics (“white people” or “globalists” run “everything”)…
… indecipherable academese backed by graphed coefficients (people are motivated by “rational self-interest,” as calculated by academics)…
… or as appeals to a glorified and abstracted historical past (“the Founding Fathers,” “the melting pot”)…
…whose promises of future perfection may have seemed real enough to past generations, but must now grow ever more distant with every new iteration of Moore’s law.
Who is in control?
Martyanov is correct in the sense that the USA can only claim to be "universal" (empire) as long as it keeps the European Peninsula in its hold.
psychohistorian @ 4 states that the USA would still be the world empire even if it loses Europe because it has the financial system. But this financial system, including the dollar standard, would mean jack shit without Eurasia. The Americans would lose, by definition of the term, the petrodollar if it were to lose Eurasia, plus most of the world trade. The USD would have nothing to back it up as the world standard fiat currency; at most it would still be a strong, well-respected fiat currency (a la Swiss Franc, Pound Sterling, Euro, Yen and now the Renminbi) which would probably still be the currency used in Latin America and the Pacific region - but the power to enforce economic sanctions the USA has today would be instantly over.
Without its great foothold in the European Peninsula, the USA would certainly lose any serious claim to be a world empire. Maybe if it somehow would be able to keep the Middle East (through Israel and Saudi Arabia) - but that would probably be a Justinian version of the American Empire, not the Good Ol' American Empire of the times of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
If it were to lose the European Peninsula, the USA would just have Japan, South Korea, Australia and other Western Pacific islands as its last serious footholds in Eurasia. It would be what I called here sometimes a "Byzantine" USA - essentially a Western Empire, with some footholds in the Western Pacific, memories of a glorious long gone past. It would not mean the end of the American Empire by any stretch of the imagination (the true end of the American Empire can only be achieved by internal conflicts/contradictions, not external), but it would certainly mean the beginning of another era (a much less glorious one) of its history, for sure.
Which is not to say that America isn’t governed by an elite class, just like China, or Japan, or France is—only that the ability of that class to actually rule anything is even more constrained by the native culture.
The idea that an advanced technologically driven capitalist or socialist society of several hundred million people can be run by something other than an elite is silly or scary…
…the most obvious present-day alternative being a society run by ever-advancing forms of AI, which will no doubt have only the best interests of their flesh-and-blood creators at heart.
Yet it is possible to accept all of this, and to posit that the reason that the American ruling class seems so indisputably impotent and unmoored in the present…
…is that there is no such thing as America anymore.
In place of the America that is described in history books…
…, where Henry Clay forged his compromises, and Walt Whitman wrote poetry, and Herman Melville contemplated the whale, and Ida Tarbell did her muckraking, and Thomas Alva Edison invented movies and the light bulb, and so forth…
… has arisen something new and vast and yet distinctly un-American.
That for lack of a better term is often called the American Empire.
Which in turn calls to mind the division of Roman history (and the Roman character) into two parts: the Republican, and the Imperial.
The American Empire
I guess the Russians made clear they mean business:
"What happened and how this could be, that mighty Ukraine and her US handlers suddenly want to prioritize "political and diplomatic way". Well, here is some snippet of suddenly a much more peaceful mindset with a bit of explanation of this sudden (not really) change:
The United States on Thursday said it was discussing Russia’s military build-up near the Ukrainian border with Nato allies as fresh reports showed Russia deploying ballistic missiles to the area. Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said that Washington was “increasingly concerned” about what has been described as Russia’s largest military manoeuvres in the area since the break-out of hostilities in eastern Ukraine in 2014. “Five Ukrainian soldiers have been killed this week alone. These are all deeply concerning signs,” Ms Psaki told reporters on Thursday."
And suddenly the Ukrainians become angels of peace: ""Liberation" of Donbass by power means will lead to mass loss of life among civilians and military personnel--this is unacceptable for Kiev, stated the Commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Ruslan Khomchak. "Being dedicated to universal human values and norms of humanitarian law (I am under the table trying to get up....), our state places the life of its citizens on the first place (I tried to get up, fell again...)",
While containing the ghosts of the American past, the American Empire is clearly a very different kind of entity than the American Republic was…
…starting with the fact that the vast majority of its inhabitants aren’t Americans.
Ancient American ideas about individual rights and liberties, the pursuit of happiness, and so forth, may still be inspiring to mainland American citizens or not…
… but they are foreign to the peoples that Americans conquered.
To those people, America is an empire, or the shadow of an empire, under which seemingly endless wars are fought…
… a symbol of their own continuing powerlessness and cultural failure.
Meanwhile, at home, the American ruling elites prattle on endlessly about their deeply held ideals…
….of whatever that must be applied to Hondurans today…
…and Kurds tomorrow…
…in fits of frantic-seeming generosity in between courses of farm-to-table fare.
Once the class bond has been firmly established, everyone can relax and exchange notes about their kids…
… who are off being credentialed at the same “meritocratic” but now hugely more expensive private schools that their parents attended…
… whose social purpose is no longer to teach basic math or a common history….
…but to indoctrinate teenagers in the cultish mumbo-jumbo that serves as a kind of in-group glue that binds ruling class initiates (she/he/they/ze) together…
…and usefully distinguishes them from townies during summer vacations by the seashore.
America is run by a class of people
A quick consideration on the MIC question.
It is patent that the USA, at this stage of its development, depends almost entirely on its defense industry - which is backed up and insulated from the law of capitalism by the State - on keeping its technological prowess.
We already know that, as the world's financial superpower, the USA is destined to deindustrialize (because that's the price of keeping the USD as the standard fiat currency without incurring the danger of hyperinflation). As it deindustrializes, another part of the world must industrialize - in this case, Asia (China in particular). That's the conditio sine qua non for the financial hegemony to exist without quickly self-destructing, i.e. another part of the world has to industrialize, you can't have a financial superpower without an industrial superpower, as the commodities are what back up money (as Marx once said, the use value is the Träger des Tauschwerts, the surface over which the house of cards can be erected).
By exclusion, the USA can only keep its status as the financial superpower as long as it keeps absolute control over the Seven Seas (most of trade still happens through the sea), which means a strong defense industry must be kept at the behest of the financial sector (Wall Street). The Defense industry is, therefore, the exception to the rule - alongside the electronics-communications system (which gives material form to the financial system, to the USD and the stock market) - over which the USA cannot escape. If it can keep recycling USDs through multi-billionaire defense contracts with other countries, the better, as it gives another life extension to the USD. This is what happen in the famous Petrodollar scheme, where Saudi Arabia denominates its oil in USDs by buying American T-bonds, but also American military weapons and systems, which keeps Saudi Arabia sovereign and intact to keep its oil reserves denominated in USDs, in a virtuous cycle.
That's why arms sales are so important to the USA: it keeps, at the same time, its domination of the Seven Seas and therefore of world trade thus keeping its financial system the dominant one, and decelerate its inevitable deindustrialization process.
The understanding of America as an empire is as foreign to most Americans as is the idea that the specific country that they live in is run by a class of people who may number themselves among the elect but weren’t in fact elected by anyone.
Under whatever professional job titles…
… the people who populate the institutions that exercise direct power over nearly all aspects of American life from birth to death are bureaucrats…
…university bureaucrats,
…corporate bureaucrats,
…local, state and federal bureaucrats,
…law enforcement bureaucrats,
…health bureaucrats,
…knowledge bureaucrats,
… spy agency bureaucrats.
At each layer of specific institutional authority, bureaucrats coordinate their understandings and practices…
…with bureaucrats in parallel institutions through lawyers.
They do so in language that is designed to be impenetrable, or nearly so, by outsiders.
Their authority is pervasive, undemocratic, and increasingly not susceptible in practice to legal checks and balances.
All those people together comprise a class.
For themselves, and only for themselves.
I’ve never commented before. I’m in South Africa, with family members in Palestine and family members who’ve lived through WWII.
I truly hope that Russia has a strategy to make the US Mainland (I also have many American friends I dearly love) carry some of the consequences of anglozionist adventures abroad.
The world is imploding/exploding under the weight of Western hegemony.
None of the people I love (including my dearest family and friends or myself) will probably survive consequences a conflagration of this type could unleash. But what option is there to responding to ongoing geopolitical abuse by the US-ZIO-EU? How sad! Five billion years of evolution and this is what it comes to?
Another thing that residents of the broad North American expanse between Canada and Mexico have noticed is…
…that the programs and remedies that this class has promoted, both at home and abroad…
… have greatly enriched and empowered a small number of people, namely themselves.
While the broader American population continues to decline in wealth, health, and education.
Meanwhile, the American Empire that the ruling elite administers is collapsing.
The popularity of such observations on both the left and the right is what accounts for the rise of Donald Trump, on one hand, and of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren on the other hand…
… among an electorate that has not been historically distinguished by its embrace of radicalism.
Add those voter bases together, and perhaps 75% of Americans would seem to agree that their country, however you think of it, is in big trouble.
And that the fault lies with the country’s self-infatuated and apparently not-so-brilliant elite.
Why Empires Fall
Xerxes, Russia (or any other country) is unlikely to “make the US Mainland carry some of the consequences of anglozionist adventures abroad”. This could only happen in a “post-war/Nurenburg” type scenario, once the US has already been defeated. What they will do, and have been doing, is to separate from the US monetary system, work together with other resistance countries, and let the US isolate itself and fade as a result of this.
Fortunately the US empire has been weakening, and other countries developing and strengthening and working together under an ostensibly fairer paradigm. The worm has been turning against the empire. This is something to be happy and hopeful about.
Every student of history has their own theory about how and why empires fall.
My theory is this:
The wealth of any empire flows disproportionately to the capital, where it nourishes the growth, wealth, and power of the ruling elite.
As the elite grows richer and more powerful, the gulf between the rulers and the ruled widens…
… until the beliefs and manners of the elite bear little connection to those of their countrymen…
… whom they increasingly think of as their clients or subjects.
That distance creates resentment and friction.
In response to which the elite takes measures to protect itself.
The more wealth and power the elite controls, the more insulation it must purchase.
Disastrous mistakes are hailed as victories or are made to appear to have no consequences at all.
This is done in order to protect the aura of collective infallibility that protects ruling class power and privilege.
What happens next…
the US sociopaths want to do in Europe much the same as what they did in Iraq - but using different means/proxies:
Create a situation of much chaos in a chosen country, as a relatively modern state dissolves, and use that as a pretext both to inject themselves even more into that region's affairs, and also to spread the 'contagion' of 'chaos' to other surrounding states..... where the US sociopaths who run the Empire will try (again) for regime changes in the surrounding nations (from Serbia to Georgia to the other Black Sea states) and beyond.
that the puppet Zelensky has been off to Qatar and next Turkey is a sure sign that these mindless people in the US national security state are going to try once again using the psychopathic jihadists as one of their means to inject instability, terror and chaos into the region.
on top of all that, as many commentators have already pointed out, as soon as Russia intervenes in a big way (if it does go that route), the Nord-Stream project is over with, Germany is without its gas and gas hub plans - plus there's now no gas/oil going to Europe via the Ukraine.
So two birds with one stone: northern/central Europe is then even more dependent on the US for energy, as well as 'protection' from the big bad bear.
What happens next is pretty much inevitable in every time and place…
…Spain, France, Great Britain, Moghul India, you name it…
… Freed from the laws of gravity, the elite turns from the hard work of correct strategizing and wise policymaking…
…to the much less time-consuming and much more pleasant work of perpetuating its own privileges forever.
In the course of which endeavor the ruling elite is revealed to be a bunch of idiots and perverts who spend their time prancing around half naked while setting the territories they rule on fire.
The few remaining decent and competent people flee this revolting spectacle, while the elite compounds its mistakes in an orgy of failure.
The empire then collapses.
Sanity Check
Interesting to see the sudden back-peddling by the Kiev mouthpieces. I see a few different things going on here. First, and the biggest, is that I have come to believe that Russia (and China) has finally had enough, what with the constant pinpricks of the Trump years and now the absolute vitriol and diplomacy-killing antics of O'Biden, and have decided that everything else has been tried, the only way the US will listen is if it gets its nose bloodied, and bloodied good. Too many years of no consequences. So with this in mind, I believe Russia (and perhaps China) are actually looking for a good opportunity to inflict pain.
In the hopes of confirming or disproving my theory, I recently traveled out to a vineyard in Plymouth, Northern California. There I found Angelo Codevilla.
He, who along with Michael Walzer of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, is one of the few American political philosophers who combines a deep sense of the Western moral and philosophical traditions with a hard-nosed sense of how the American political system actually works.
While I am naturally more inclined toward Walzer-ism, I thought it would be fair minded to give Codevilla a hearing, despite the fact that he identifies as a conservative Catholic rather than as a liberal Northeastern Jew.
As a sometime student of intelligence work, I will also admit to being an attentive reader of Codevilla’s book Informing Statecraft.
Which together with Norman Mailer’s novel Harlot’s Ghost offers a fair guide to the karmic evolution of the U.S. intelligence community.
Codevilla’s former boss in the U.S. Senate, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, had this to say about his protégé’s book:
Woodrow Wilson once spoke of the demands that would be made on Presidents in the age to come; demands of a kind that could only be met by “wise and prudent athletes, a small class.” Such is Angelo Codevilla; one of the small class of intelligence analysts who has actually been there. Read him; although I plead: Do not invariably agree!
What follows is an edited record of our conversation, which began when I arrived at the Codevilla vineyard in the evening and then continued the next morning, after the Codevillas invited me to spend the night at their house and then served me a delicious breakfast.
***
The Ruling Elite
David Samuels: In 2010, you wrote an article, which then became a book, in which you predicted the rise of someone like Donald Trump as well as the political chaos and stripping away of institutional authority that we’ve lived through since. Did you think your prediction would come true so quickly?
Angelo Codevilla: I didn’t predict anything. I described a situation which had already come into existence. Namely, that the United States has developed a ruling class that sees itself as distinct from the raw masses of the rest of America. That the distinction that they saw, and which had come to exist, between these classes, comprised tastes and habits as well as ideas. Above all, that it had to do with the relative attachment, or lack thereof, of each of these classes to government.
David Samuels: One of the things that struck me about your original piece was your portrait of the American elite as a single class that seamlessly spans both the Democratic and Republican parties.
Angelo Codevilla: Of course, yes. Not in exactly the same way, though; what I said was that the Democrats were the senior partners in the ruling class. The Republicans are the junior partners.
The reason being that the American ruling class was built by or under the Democratic Party. First, under Woodrow Wilson and then later under Franklin Roosevelt. It was a ruling class that prized above all its intellectual superiority over the ruled. And that saw itself as the natural carriers of scientific knowledge, as the class that was naturally best able to run society and was therefore entitled to run society.
The Republican members of the ruling class aspire to that sort of intellectual status or reputation. And they have shared a taste of this ruling class. But they are not part of the same party, and as such, are constantly trying to get closer to the senior partners. As the junior members of the ruling class, they are not nearly as tied to government as the Democrats are. And therefore, their elite prerogatives are not safe.
David Samuels: As a young person moving through American elite institutions, I was always struck by the marginal status of those other people you mention, Republicans. Clearly, they were not as bright as me and my friends were, which is why they were marginal, even if they had an easier path to some kind of dubious status as pseudo-intellectuals in their second- or third-rate party organs. That hardly mattered, though. The New York Times was the important newspaper, and it was a liberal newspaper. The New Yorker was an important magazine, and so it was a liberal magazine. Right-wing types might look instead to the Conservative Review of Books, published out of Mobile, Alabama, or the Jesuit review of something or another. But nobody was quaking in their boots about how such places might review your work. All the cultural capital was on the Democratic side of the ledger.
Angelo Codevilla: What a marvelous recitation of ruling class prejudice.
Of course, you would not have judged them to be nearly as intelligent as you folks were. And you probably didn’t imagine that others would think you less intelligent.
David Samuels: Let them rant and rave about their conspiracy theories and whatnot. They didn’t matter.
Angelo Codevilla: Well, they didn’t matter. Because of the power that you wielded, because of the institutions that you controlled.
Now let me give you an alternative. In France, with which you tell me you are acquainted, you have meritocracy in government and institutions. Meritocracy ensured by competitive exams. I, and a bunch of nonliberal democrats as myself, would be absolutely delighted if institutions like TheNew York Times, TheAtlantic, were to open their pages to people who bested others in competitive exams. But of course, they’re not thinking at all of doing that. As a matter of fact, the institutions of liberal America have been moving away from competitive exams as fast as they know how.
In living memory, and I’m an example of that, it was for a time possible for nonliberal Democrats to get into the American foreign service, and if they did as I did, and scored number one in their class, they would have their choice of assignments. But now, you have all sorts of new criteria for admission into the foreign service, which have supposedly ensured greater diversity. In fact, what they had done was to eliminate the possibility that the joint might be invaded by lesser beings of superior intelligence.
David Samuels: There is a curious mélange of dispensations under which people are escorted into the grand ballroom of the good and the great, right? Category one were with high test scores. Then there were the children of people who had gone to these institutions in previous generations, whose parents have money and might be named Cabot or Lowell. Then there were the admissions categories that cover you in the opposite direction—4.8% African Americans plus at least one white person who grew up without shoes in the mountains of West Virginia. These covering cases were useful because they could be trumpeted as proof of how far and wide the net was cast. All of which went to show that the most meritorious people were all gathered together in this place, and were therefore fit to rule everyone else.
Angelo Codevilla: Merit as defined by what?
David Samuels: I have no idea.
Angelo Codevilla: Merit as defined by the capacity to be attractive to those at the top of the heap. In other words what you have is rightly called not meritocracy, but co-option.
Now it is one of the fundamental truths of our co-option that it results in a negative selection of elites. That each group selects people who are just a smacking below themselves, so that generation after generation, the quality of those at the top deteriorates.
David Samuels: Are you suggesting that the all-white Christian male elites, who largely inherited their status from their parents, were more deserving of their elevated status than their more diverse counterparts, like the people who ran American foreign policy under President Barack Obama?
Angelo Codevilla: I don’t know that the statesmen of the 1920s and ’30s were any more meritorious than the folks under Barack Obama, because they themselves were not selected by any meritocratic criteria, as you suggest. However, I do know, having taught college for many years, that the amount of work that was done by college students 50 years ago or more was considerably greater than the amount of work that is done by college graduates today.
David Samuels: As a graduate of two elite American universities, I am entirely willing to grant that point.
Angelo Codevilla: Them that don’t work so much don’t learn so much, usually.
David Samuels: There is something funny to me about your description of these people as the “elite” or a “ruling class,” though. I picture grand country homes like in the Masterpiece Theatre production of Brideshead Revisited. But if you look at your American elite, you find earnest bureaucratic types living in collegiate apartments with Ikea furniture.
Angelo Codevilla: No. Not Ikea furniture.
David Samuels: You’re talking about a class of people who are academics or lawyer-bureaucrats living on federal government and NGO salaries.
Angelo Codevilla: They have far more money than people who don’t have similar government attachments. The fact is that proximity to government power has meant, and does mean, more money and greater possibility.
David Samuels: I think about the tech oligarchs who park their multibillion-dollar fortunes offshore.
Angelo Codevilla: I would dispute that.
David Samuels: Really? How many tens of billions of dollars has Apple parked offshore? How much money do Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer and Mark Zuckerberg pay in taxes?
Angelo Codevilla: Apple and Bill Gates have secured their money, not so much by relocating, but by having become the biggest lobbyists in the country. That is the source of their financial security.
The point of the ruling class is precisely the confusion of public and private power. This is, in fact, this is becoming in fact a corporate state. Which by the way was pioneered by one of my former countrymen by the name of Benito.
David Samuels: So, when you’re talking about the ruling class, you’re positing a continuum between the Silicon Valley oligarchs with their hundred-billion-dollar fortunes and these public employee and NGO types.
Angelo Codevilla: I am indeed. That is the meaning of the word party. The Democratic Party is in fact composed of the very people that you are talking about.
Parties are by nature coalitions, each part of which benefits from the other. But they share certain things in common. One of them is contempt for Americans who are outside of their ranks.
David Samuels: You call those contemptible people the “country party.”
Angelo Codevilla: Precisely. Here, I’m borrowing an 18th-century British term.
David Samuels: I thought it was a good term because it brings to mind country music.
Angelo Codevilla: That too. Have you ever been to Branson, Missouri? Do you even know what it is?
David Samuels: I gather it’s neither Aspen nor Hollywood.
Angelo Codevilla: Branson, Missouri, is an entertainment center, larger in every way than Hollywood. It is located in Branson, Missouri, in the Ozarks. It is one of the homes of country music stars and starlets. It’s a huge complex of every kind of family entertainment, from bass fishing to theater, music, museums, anything you can imagine. Now the fact that you have never heard of it typifies the limitations of the ruling class.
David Samuels: My oligarchical snobbery.
Angelo Codevilla: No, no, no. You haven’t even risen to that.
David Samuels: I’m a piker. I bet $5 on the trifecta at the dog track.
Angelo Codevilla: It typifies the limitations of the ruling class mind, not even to understand that over which you are lording it.
David Samuels: So, what role do the poor and disadvantaged people of America play in your scheme? As I’m sure you understand, the reason we members of the elite class accumulate so much money and power is to be good allies for those who are less fortunate than we are. At least that’s what they teach my children in these schools that cost $35,000 a year.
Angelo Codevilla: You certainly do teach them that. It is a youthful pretense. It is a pretense to which the Roman patricians did not stoop.
David Samuels: But eventually they did, right? Constantine got them. The nobles all made public displays of their Christian charity.
Angelo Codevilla: No, no, go back. The Roman patricians call these unfortunates clients. Their relationship with their clients is precisely your relationship with the unfortunate and the poor. They are your pawns, the people whose votes you take.
David Samuels: So, when I express my sincere concern about transgender rights, you would presumably accuse me of manufacturing a new category of clients—and at the same time, a new class of bigots for me to self-righteously oppose.
Angelo Codevilla: You are not manufacturing a class, or rather you are exploiting that class’ weakness to turn that class into clients.
Most of all, what you are giving them—which really in a sense they crave more than anything else—is a sense of grievance against the rest of America. Grievance is the handle by which you push these pawns into your cultural wars.
David Samuels: What an ungenerous way to describe my noble instinct to help the less fortunate. Do the less fortunate truly have nothing to be aggrieved about, here in America?
Angelo Codevilla: Whatever they have to be aggrieved about, that grievance serves your instrumental purpose. Their grievance is your happiness. If they didn’t have a grievance, you’d try to manufacture it. Their having a grievance is an occasion for you to, to sharpen it, to scratch it, and to make it more relevant to them than it otherwise would be.
David Samuels: So, what exactly does the authority of the beneficent class I am supposedly part of, and which you seem to abhor, rest upon? There is the inherent rightness of my views, of course, which is proven by science—
Angelo Codevilla: Well, no. It is founded upon your will to power.
David Samuels: But look at all the wonderful benefits we elitists have to offer, like Davos in the wintertime. Why shiver out in the cold, Angelo?
Angelo Codevilla: Let me crib my response to you. Verily, verily I say unto thee, they have their reward. Do people in your class know where that comes from?
David Samuels: I’m a Jew, so I get a mulligan on quotations from the New Testament.
Angelo Codevilla: I read the first part of the Bible as well as the second, so you ought to read the second as well as the first.
David Samuels: So people have insisted to the Jews throughout our history.
Now tell me: How does your eccentric description of the American elites square with what we know to be the American democratic system? Congress makes the laws. The president of the United States is in charge of the executive functions of government. And then there’s the Supreme Court, which makes sure everything’s constitutionally kosher.
What you are describing is a kind of semiconspiratorial extraconstitutional elite superstructure whose actions do not accord with American civics textbooks or what I read in the newspaper.
Angelo Codevilla: Thank you! Right over the plate.
You are describing, and the textbooks describe, what used to be the American system of government, which has not existed since the late 1930s. The last attempt to revive that system, to make it rise up out of the overlay of administrative agencies that the New Deal built, was the Supreme Court of Schechter Poultry vs. the United States, 1935, the essence of which decision was to say that a legislative power cannot be delegated. Were that maxim to be enforced, the FAA, the FCC, and on and on, all of these agencies would cease to exist because they are, quite literally, unconstitutional. Now the Supreme Court has held them to be constitutional under the fiction that they are in fact merely filling in the interstices of laws. However, your average law passed by Congress these days consists almost exclusively of grants to these agencies to do whatever it is they wish.
Which is why, when Nancy Pelosi said of Obamacare that we would only know what it contained after it was passed, she was entirely correct. She was describing the way the American government works, which is in fact, to use your words, a vast conspiracy between the best lawyers on the outside and the best lawyers on the inside of government. They call each other, both on the inside and the outside, stakeholders. And the rest of us are what, scumbags?
David Samuels: Deplorables.
Angelo Codevilla: Deplorables, yes. But we’re not stakeholders, we who are neither regulators nor regulated entities, but rather ordinary people. We are not parties to this covenant.
There’s a lecture given by James Wilson, the signer of the Declaration of Independence and the head of the first American law school, about the difference between American law and law everywhere else in the Western world. Elsewhere, law came from power. In America, positive law will be valid only if it was in accordance with the laws of nature and nature’s god.
David Samuels: But that’s not the basis of the revolt of the deplorables, or the country party, as you call it.
Angelo Codevilla: The basis of the revolt is simple. We realize that you hate us and therefore we hate you back. And we will take anybody, not that we found this man who fits our description, because Donald Trump didn’t fit anybody’s description of what they wanted. But we will take anybody who’ll take a swing at you.
Which is why I originally wrote at the back of that essay, that this revolution would be for the better or the worse. Because of the urgency that the country class felt. For getting out of all of this.
David Samuels: You seem to have had a marvelous life, though.
Angelo Codevilla: Fraught with all manner of difficulties. I had several job offers just as I was finishing my comps, and then I got drafted. By the time I came out of the service, there were no jobs to be had. And so first I worked at a jerkwater college in Pennsylvania. Too awful for words, I got out of there, but I couldn’t find anything else. So I did the only thing that I could do, which is to pass exams. I got into the foreign service. And then from there to the Hill and then to Stanford to the Hoover Institution and then to Boston. While I was on the Hill, I also taught ancient and modern political thought in Georgetown.
I probably would have done better for myself and my family if I stayed in the foreign service. Or, in the depths of my depression I got admitted to Berkeley Law school. But hey, you’re right. I have absolutely nothing to complain about.
David Samuels: You got to write. You got to think. You got to see the kinds of things that were going to feed your writing.
Angelo Codevilla: I got to teach a lot of students, several of them are teaching right now. And they’re doing good work. Books, we’ll see. I don’t think I’m going to write another book because the last one I wrote, hell of a good book, didn’t sell very much. But who knows. If I get some time off of the vineyard here, and I don’t get too many irrigation systems going wrong or things like that, I’ll write some more.
***
The Rise of the Surveillance State
David Samuels: You have some real knowledge of how the American intelligence community thinks and operates, from your days as a staffer working for Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
Angelo Codevilla: Senate staffer in control of the intelligence budget. My senator was the chairman of the Budget Subcommittee of the Intelligence Committee. Which means that the budgets came through him and therefore through me. And back then we had markups and we could punish those who were not forthright with us, and we did.
David Samuels: How do you understand the seemingly unchecked growth of this globe-spanning American surveillance apparatus, and how do you understand the danger of that apparatus being turned to domestic political purposes?
Angelo Codevilla: There’s always danger inherent in secrecy. And you know secrecy of course is central to intelligence operations. Secrecy most often is used not for the good of the operation, but to safeguard the reputations of those who are running the operations.
The agencies, like all bureaucracies, have always tried to aggrandize themselves, build their reputations, in order to make and spend more money. Get more high-ranking positions. Get more post-retirement positions for their people in the industries that support them. They’ve done exactly what bureaucrats in other agencies have done, neither more nor less.
But the business they’re in, which involves surveillance, is uniquely dangerous, because surveillance is inherently a political weapon. Inherently so. And there is never any lack of appetite for increasing the power of surveillance, and for increasing the reach of surveillance.
Fortunately, especially in my time on the Hill, we had pretty good resistance against bureaucratic attempts to increase the reach of government surveillance over the rest of the country.
Then along came 9/11, and congressmen, senators, who didn’t know any better, were rather easily persuaded, and for that matter Presidents—George W. Bush being exhibit number one—were very easily persuaded, that giving the agencies something close to carte blanche for electronic surveillance would help to keep the country safe. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was amended in 2008 to accommodate the practices which had evolved extralegally under George Bush, which essentially allowed the agencies to wiretap at will, so long as they claimed that this was for foreign intelligence purposes. In this regard, they claimed that what they were doing was within the spirit, if not the letter, of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which stated that any warrantless collection of electronic intelligence, bugging and other means of collection in finding intelligence, could capture the communications of U.S. persons, only incidentally in the course of capturing the communications of foreign targets.
The 2008 amendments legalized this practice, and added the capacity of the agencies to compel communications companies to help upstream collection of emails etcetera, which would then be recorded. The act, rather the amendment, contains an even longer list of apparent restrictions on how these intercepts of Americans may be used. But these restrictions are basically for show because, essentially, once the foreign intelligence surveillance court authorized a particular operation the practical means of judicial review of what has happened, of how it is being carried out, are so complicated as to be unworkable. And besides, what the hell do judges know about the substance of these things?
Therefore, to get to the point of your question, this increased power and lax attitude conserving it posed a temptation to use these tools for the convenience of the administration in power, which was made much more likely by the increasing identification of the senior ranks of the intelligence community with your ruling class. To the point that these people, being ordinary sentient human beings, believe what the people at the top of their class are saying about the opposition.
David Samuels: We are good, and they are bad.
Angelo Codevilla: We are good and these opponents of ours, which mean to take over our positions, are bad people, they are dangerous to the country, and therefore why not look for every possible means of keeping them out of office?
David Samuels: You were directly involved in the drafting of the original FISA law in 1978.
Angelo Codevilla: That’s correct.
David Samuels: In the aftermath of the Church Committee revelations, yes?
Angelo Codevilla: Right. Now you use that term “the Church Committee” in the context that it was something that was antagonistic to the intelligence business. It was not. The Church Committee was a joint operation between, let’s call it “the left” inside the intelligence community, specifically the CIA, and their friends on the Hill. The result of it was that the left component of that bureaucracy has control of the CIA now.
The drafting of FISA was a cooperative enterprise between the Democratic majority, at that point, of Congress, the staffers being all Church Committee staffers, every one of them. And the ACLU. What I’m calling the establishment left. They were the drafters.
But the impetus of the drafting came from the FBI, primarily, and secondarily from the CIA, the NSA. The reason for their pressure was that the left had sued individual members of the FBI for having wiretapped them during the Vietnam War, in their communications with North Vietnam, communist Czechoslovakia, the KGB, and so on. Now they didn’t like that, and they wanted to make sure that nothing like that ever happened again.
So the point of FISA from the standpoint of the left was to keep that from happening again. The point of FISA from the standpoint of the FBI etcetera was never to be in a position to be sued again.
David Samuels: Right. A judge signed it. So now it’s legal.
Angelo Codevilla: Right. What the FBI etcetera demanded was preauthorization. We will not do any wiretapping unless it is preauthorized. Unless we are ipso facto clean.
Now the objections to FISA were primarily of a constitutional kind, mainly that wiretapping for national security was an inherent part of presidential power. The president is commander-in-chief of the armed forces. And that was a true objection.
I however made a different objection, although I agreed with the constitutional objection. I said that pre-authorization, pre-clearance of wiretapping, would be an unendurable temptation for people in the agencies to do whatever the hell they wanted. They would be exempt from the prudence that the fear of being sued would impose.
My objection caught the eye of the American Bar Association at the time, which organized a debate on that subject at the University of Chicago Law School, with me on one side, and a local law professor by the name of Antonin Scalia on the other.
Scalia took the position that the danger, which I described, which he found real, was minor compared to the need to get the agencies doing their job vigorously. We see how the future turned out.
I must note that Scalia is a southern Italian. And I am a northerner.
David Samuels: When you saw the Snowden revelations about Stellar Wind and these other collection programs which then were retroactively legalized—what was your response?
Angelo Codevilla: “What else is new?”
David Samuels: Along with the impetus of 9/11, do you feel that the technology itself fundamentally—
Angelo Codevilla: Sure. Technology itself increased the possibilities. And it would have taken real self-restraint for people to say, “No. We could do this, but we won’t.”
David Samuels: We fear the future threat to the constitutional order.
Angelo Codevilla: We ought not to have such powers.
David Samuels: Please remove me from temptation, said no one, ever.
Angelo Codevilla: Well as a matter of fact, Christians do “lead us not into temptation” all the time.
David Samuels: You do say “lead us not into temptation,” but I am not aware of the Christian prayer that says “please take away the chocolate cake while I’m in the middle of eating it.”
Angelo Codevilla: Well, St. Augustine said exactly that, you know, “Lord make me pure, but not yet.”
***
Are Assange and Snowden heroes or villains?
David Samuels: I was an early and avid supporter of Julian Assange, who is now the devil for both the Democratic and Republican elite factions and appears to have vanished into a dark hole. But I have always defended him, because I felt that at the heart of his project, and no one else’s project, was a fundamental insight into how information was controlled and moves in the modern surveillance state, and how to confront it using the actual tools that are now in play.
When people said, that’s not journalism, I have always looked at them and said, “Yeah, it is. Or at least, it’s more like journalism than most of what passes now for journalism. It is a method for making public the fundaments of how the country is actually being governed.” I don’t know how you’re supposed to have a democratic society without that kind of transparency into the bureaucracies that spy on us and lie about it—and have turned a supine press into these pathetic hand puppets.
If you look at the universe of government bureaucrats and contractors and all the rest, there are now well more than a million Americans with some form of top secret or higher security clearance. Now I can accept that something is properly a secret if only five people know it, or if 40 people know it, or even 400 people. But there is no such thing as a secret that is shared by 1 million people. That is an anti-democratic exercise of power by a bureaucracy.
Angelo Codevilla:I agree with everything you said, up until the time you got to numbers. Because military operations involve a lot of people. Some intelligence operations are essentially military operations which put people’s lives at risk. The line must be drawn where the military is involved.
However, every word you said concerning Julian Assange, I agree with. Every last word.
David Samuels: Did you understand Edward Snowden to be a knowing Russian agent? As someone who was used and manipulated by the Russians?
Angelo Codevilla: I do not know. What is fairly clear is that Snowden entered government service with the idea of doing something like what he did, which certainly removes him from the category of whistleblower. He is certainly no innocent.
But regardless of his motivation, I am glad that he existed. And I’m glad that he did what he did.
The United States does not suffer, and has never suffered, from a lack of knowledge about the rest of the world on the basis of which to make foreign and defense policy. OK? And that is a fundamental fact. And because of that, all the fancy arguments that you must sacrifice this and that for the sake of intelligence, I think are false.
David Samuels: One of the minor scandals that startled me in the late Obama/early Trump interregnum was the unmasking scandal, which struck me as much more significant than people seemed willing to credit at the time. I mean, the fact that someone leaked an intercept to David Ignatius may be a crime, but it was hardly news to me. I mean, people leak stuff all the time. That’s how Washington works.
What struck me as much more significant was the defense that “oh, actually most of these unmasking requests came from Samantha Power, in her job as U.N. ambassador.” And then it turned out it wasn’t her sitting at her desk all day long unmasking hundreds of names of U.S. citizens. It was someone she deputized in her office. She didn’t even know about these requests, or most of them, or so she claimed.
It was news to me that ordinary low-level bureaucrats and political appointees now sit at their desks all day reading raw intercepts targeting American civilians, collected under the pretext of gathering foreign intelligence. A 26-year-old assistant can sit there all day long reading your email, based on the three-hop rule. I don’t think that’s what—
Angelo Codevilla: What the authors of the FISA had in mind.
David Samuels: Authors of FISA, authors of the U.S. Constitution, you can pick your authors. Yet that has became normative reality, right?
Angelo Codevilla: Look. Most people who have a title in Washington don’t do their work. There’s always the chief assistant to the assistant chief, they’re the ones who do the work. And so yeah, they get deputized.
David Samuels: So now we have this surveillance apparatus that Snowden, James Risen, and others have detailed, which provides daytime reading material for bored 26-year-old assistants, which means that material can easily be repurposed for—
Angelo Codevilla: Any purpose under the sun.
David Samuels: That is a very powerful weapon for this bureaucracy to have.
Angelo Codevilla: That’s the point.
***
When Jeff Bezos Has Dinner With the CIA
David Samuels: The guys working in the White House whether under Obama or Trump aren’t writing the code for their surveillance systems. Neither are the nice people at the CIA. They’re all writing checks to Silicon Valley.
I saw the other day that Jeff Bezos, who’s one of the most dedicated champions of democracy and the free press in America, the guy who says that democracy dies in darkness, I saw that his company, Amazon, provides all the data storage for the CIA. Now as a reporter and as a citizen, that makes me confident—
Angelo Codevilla: Ha, ha.
David Samuels: —that Jeff Bezos’ newspaper, The Washington Post, is reporting without fear or favor every day on Jeff Bezos and all these CIA and DoD contracts with Amazon, because they have such a strong incentive to make sure that everything’s on the up and up. And by the way, Amazon is definitely not listening in on your private conversations through the listening devices—in the form of digital assistants like Alexa, Echo speakers, and doorbells with spy cameras in them—that it is installing by the millions in American homes.
Angelo Codevilla: May I give you a quick answer to your larger question?
David Samuels: Yes.
Angelo Codevilla: It depends on who goes to dinner with whom. That’s how Washington works.
David Samuels: That can’t be your answer, so let’s take it from the top. There is a company called Amazon, which now has monopolistic position A, in the field of books and all printed material distributed in America, and B, in a whole host of other industries ranging from diapers to blow-up pool toys. It looks like a classic monopoly trust. You have Google, which has a near-monopoly over the search function, the leading portal to most information on the internet, and holds a monopoly on search advertising. You have Facebook, which controls 78% of entries onto the internet now through their platform. So, you have these three monopolistic companies, right, one of which also owns the only major newspaper in Washington, D.C., and which control the movement of information throughout the entire society.
Now, another arm of Silicon Valley controls storage and access to the information that the government agencies gather on the society. And all of the money earned from both these pursuits flows back to these people, who are richer than any class of people in America since the robber barons. They got so rich by sucking out the life’s blood from five dozen different industries that employ people and destroying the 20th-century press, which played a key role in maintaining our democracy.
Now I look at that, and I say the power is out there. You look at it and you say no, my lad. It’s about who has dinner with who in Washington.
Angelo Codevilla: Oh no, no, no. You misunderstand me. The ruling class transcends Washington. Part of it is in Silicon Valley, it’s in every major university town in America. It’s in Sacramento. And then you ask, what is it that ties it together?
David Samuels: Right, the poor associate professor of gender studies with his or her little espresso machine.
Angelo Codevilla: The poor associate professor of gender studies, number one is not so poor. Number two, she gets her living from the same partisan connection that Jeff Bezos does. She is part of the same party as Jeff Bezos, who has God knows how many billions.
David Samuels: A large fortune.
Angelo Codevilla: But his power as you have pointed out substantially consists of his connection with government. Although I must say one thing contrary to an absolutist view of the ruling class. That the four major trusts that you mentioned are in large part—have in large part grown naturally, organically. They’re securing themselves by government power. But the government did not force anybody to shop with Amazon.
David Samuels: Ah! As a matter of fact, Google and Facebook secured their monopolies and their ability to commit massive and ongoing copyright violations thanks to a little-known provision of the Communications Decency Act, which was passed by Congress in 1996 in response to a series of moral panics that engulfed America at around that time. Those included the McMartin nursery school witchcraft case—
Angelo Codevilla: Oh ho ho ho ho. I remember that.
David Samuels: There was a generalized hysteria about pedophiles running nursery schools and satanic rituals involving small children. And this became part of a hysteria so significant that Congress had to pass a law. And the law specifically targeted this phenomenon which was almost entirely imaginary, even if in a few specific instances it might have also been real, as is always the case. Except for the Jews baking matzo with the blood of Christian children, of course. We didn’t actually do that.
Angelo Codevilla: You didn’t?
David Samuels: No. Matzo tastes bad enough as it is.
So the Communications Decency Act was set up to prevent pedophiles from sharing pictures of child sexual abuse over the newfangled internet. In response to which, two farsighted members of congress, Ron Wyden and Christopher Cox, who fancied themselves experts on the digital frontier, wrote into the Communications Decency Act a section stating that internet providers shall not be considered to be publishers and that if you provide internet service or platforms or hosting you are not subject to any of the liabilities that traditionally attach to publishing information.
Now, all of a sudden, thanks to the wisdom of the U.S. Congress, two classes of publishers were created. One class, traditional publishers, had to spend a lot of money on fact checkers, editors, lawyers, and other people because they could be held legally responsible for the information that they published in their newspapers. Another class of publishers, internet publishers, like Google at the time and Facebook as it emerged, were free from all of these potential torts. So Facebook or Google could put up any damn thing they wanted—
Angelo Codevilla: Yeah, except the fact that Google and Facebook supposedly exercise no control.
David Samuels: That’s clearly a lie, especially now. They are obviously not the telephone company.
Angelo Codevilla: Very interesting. At which point, one can challenge that exemption.
David Samuels: Except it’s now too late. They ate the 20th-century American press.
Angelo Codevilla: Let me give you the tiniest, tiniest glimmer from the margins, the very, very remote margins, of all of this, so you can understand my perspective. Q: There is a dream that unites progressives and bureaucrats and wealthy technologists. And where does that dream come from?
A: It’s a dream peculiar to this class. Other classes have been united by different dreams.
Q: Is it a substitute for religion? A: Yes.
When I started working for the Senate, some folks at the agency figured out that I wasn’t a run-of-the-mill staffer. So I was visited by one of the old boys who took me up to the director’s office—the director wasn’t there at the time. He took me up via the director’s elevator, he had a key. And showed me all around and was very, very clubby with me. Then they took me to his house, which is overlooking the Potomac, with these large wolfhounds sitting about. And essentially, he said the equivalent of “all this could be yours.”
David Samuels: My son, if you play the game.
Angelo Codevilla: If you play the game. I said to myself, “Hmmmm, what did the Lord say to all this?”
But it really is a matter of who has dinner with whom. I have worked in Washington long enough to know that people would sell their souls for invitations to be at certain tables. To be allowed to speak with this person or that. In the end, it’s all social.
And how do you become social? You express the same thoughts, you have the same tastes. You vacation in the same places. You love the same loves, you hate the same hates.
David Samuels: This is a very Italianate explanation.
Angelo Codevilla: No, it’s not. You have the wrong idea about Italy. I’m from Northern Italy. I believe this is a hardheaded explanation of a soft but powerful reality.
David Samuels: These are all people who are connected to the power of government.
Angelo Codevilla: Either physically, i.e. economically, or emotionally—power. The dream of sharing power. The gender studies professor not only gets her money eventually from government, but she dreams of being part of a world-transforming enterprise.
David Samuels: Here, I agree with you. There is a dream that unites progressives and bureaucrats and wealthy technologists. And where does that dream come from?
Angelo Codevilla: It’s a dream peculiar to this class. Other classes have been united by different dreams.
David Samuels: Is it a substitute for religion?
Angelo Codevilla: Yes.
David Samuels: Is that its primary emotional charge?
Angelo Codevilla: Well, I don’t know about primary. Look, the primary element is, as we Christians were taught, pride. That is the sin of sins. There is nothing that moves human beings quite so much as the desire to be on top of other human beings.
David Samuels: It’s interesting. I’m a Jew. But there are things that are lacking in our tradition, just as there are things that are very well developed in our tradition. You know, decent food can be lacking in our traditions.
Angelo Codevilla: However, not in Italy.
David Samuels: Oh, my God. The Jewish food in Italy is fantastic.
Angelo Codevilla: The Jewish food in Italy is fabulous.
David Samuels: I see that more as a reflection on Italy than the Jews.
***
Henry Kissinger Meets the Demon Emperor
David Samuels: Judaism as it has existed for the last 2,000 years is an exilic tradition. The religion took the place of both the rituals in the Temple and the state itself. It was all ritualized. So for a 2,000-year-old tradition that’s remarkably elaborated and rich and subtle in so many areas, you have remarkably little discussion of political power—including the sins related to power, the proper ways to exercise power, all that was outside the experience of these people because they were politically powerless. Religion took the place of statecraft.
Israel hasn’t necessarily helped. Why do Jews want political power? To keep themselves from being exterminated. Why does a Jewish state want a strong army? Because if you don’t have one, people are going to wipe you out. In the Middle East, that’s a pretty ironclad rule. These are not very subtle or complicated ideas.
Angelo Codevilla: But there are plenty of Jews in Europe who are very well acquainted with the theory and practice of exercising power.
David Samuels: Of course, but—
Angelo Codevilla: But these Jews were not real Jews. I mean, they were not religious Jews. They happened to be Jewish but they were primarily socialists or whatever.
David Samuels: Or Henry Kissinger.
Angelo Codevilla: What a fraud.
David Samuels: He is an egomaniac and he is highly manipulative and he is a flatterer and a courtier. But Henry Kissinger sure ain’t dumb.
Angelo Codevilla: Oh no. He’s very smart. Very smart.
David Samuels: And one has the sense, that if he had really spent the time working on a biography of Metternich, that it would have been fantastic, too.
Angelo Codevilla: Yes! Look, the man never had time to be a scholar. He was taken up immediately into the world of conferences and power. And he navigated it masterfully.
David Samuels: Plus, he had the emotional capacity to get down on his knees and pray to Jesus with Richard Nixon after five whiskeys. And you look at Trump and you’re like, that’s what’s needed here too. Right?
Angelo Codevilla: What would Kissinger do with Trump? Who knows. This man Trump is something else.
David Samuels: I have a name for Trump: The demon emperor. Because I feel like he’s like a figure that you’d find in some Chinese chronicle, right? There was a time of terrible chaos, social disintegration, and then a Mongol invasion. They breeched the Great Wall and did this and that. And in those moments, the Demon Emperor would arise and take power. He had the head of a pig and the body of man, and he was known for his vile excesses and the terrible rampages that he’d go on, and his desecrations of ancient scrolls. Everyone bemoaned him.
But there was a certain virtue, at times, in certain moments, to having the demon emperor around. Yes, he raped 150 virgins in surrounding villages and all their families were very upset and there’s no reason he should have done that, and he defiles the very ground he stands on, and indeed, no one of noble birth would consent to marry his daughter. At the same time, he defeated the Mongols.
So, the real question isn’t whether Trump is vile, but rather what has he actually done, aside from being vile?
Angelo Codevilla: Putting a parenthesis in the conversation, talking about Chinese epics. Are you familiar with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms?
David Samuels: No.
Angelo Codevilla: You should be. This is a book that describes the tradition between—or rather I should say the end of the Han Dynasty around 200 A.D. The book was written over maybe 200 years. And it is partly prose, partly poetry. And it’s considered one of the great classics of Chinese literature. The Chinese government a couple years ago did a—condensed it into 95, 45-minute TV episodes. Beautifully acted, with gorgeous costume. With English translations that read something between Shakespeare and Thucydides.
Captivating.
I started watching it, I couldn’t stop. I mean my poor wife was left alone. And it conveyed as deep an insight into Chinese character as I’ve ever seen. To get Westerners to empathize with Chinese characters takes some doing. And you can download it, it’s free. The Chinese government has made sure you can download it for free.
***
The Progressive High Church Mass
David Samuels: Where does the ethos of a class come from?
Angelo Codevilla: Here I speak with the prejudices of an academician. Because the ethos of the academy changed, evolved. And what drove the change was the growing contempt of professors for our civilization. And you Jews ought not to feel that you are any less the enemy of these people than we Christians.
I should say the defining feature of the ruling class is a certain attitude. And that attitude developed in the academy, and that attitude became uniform throughout the country because of the uniform academy. The uniformity of the academy transformed itself into the uniformity of the ruling class.
David Samuels: Because that was the institution that credentialed the otherwise uncultured American masses?
Angelo Codevilla: It credentialed the mind and the habits. The habits of the heart. It credentialed the habits of the heart. The habits of conversation. The habits of work. The habits of logic. The habits period.
Can you imagine a bright kid coming in contact with that kind of intellectual fraud? The smartest ones will say, “hey, I don’t want to be part of this.” He’ll do something else. He won’t be taken in. Which means that this class will continue to degrade itself.
David Samuels: Just as it would be wrong to understate the importance of who has dinner with whom in Washington, it would be wrong to understate the extent to which the class you dislike is moved by an idea: The rational scientific functioning of the bureaucratic state. That’s their God. I may find this attachment emotionally bizarre, but that doesn’t make it any less real.
Angelo Codevilla: You’re saying the same thing in two different ways. Why is it that they have dinner together? It is that they believe that they share something terribly important. And that is precisely what they believe to be their stewardship of all things good.
Once upon a time, thus moved, they believed that they were holier than thou. Now they simply believe that they’re trendier than thou. In other words, they share the most valuable thing, which is not devotion to God but devotion to their own corporate mission. Their own corporate status. Status and mission. Status being the priests of the salvific religion of science and progress.
David Samuels: Yeah, that’s right. There is a monkish sense of devotion.
Angelo Codevilla: You’re going far too far with using the word “monkish.”
David Samuels: They exist! These people exist.
Angelo Codevilla: Oh no, no, no. They exist but they’re very few.
I taught in Boston for many years. And believe it or not, I put my kids in the highest-ranking schools in Boston, and I had to go to a parent meetings and school celebrations. And these were, in fact, secular masses. With, including, believe it or not, the breaking of bread.
Bread! Simple bread, passing it around. There’s a kind of faux simplicity. You have fake Puritans too.
David Samuels: Now the idea of the worship of the corporate bureaucratic state, right? You have a religion that is capable of attracting, if not the adherence of the majority of the country, then maybe 40% of them.
Angelo Codevilla: No, no, no, no, no. Not 40%. This is an elite attraction. Which attracts people who naturally, very naturally, want to rise above others.
Again, as a kind of professor, I came across hundreds of young people who very naturally ask the question, how can I rise in life?
David Samuels: That is my job. I am young, I am supposed to rise.
Angelo Codevilla: I am supposed to rise in my life, how can I do that? And I in good conscience explain to them that the paths are there and the ladders are being provided. And they will take you to these places. You will, however, have to adapt yourself to the mindset of these folks.
Now, if you insist on being independent minded, don’t bother. But if you do insist on being independent minded, also realize that these ladders will not be available to you.
A lot of kids will come and tell me how much they enjoy my classes and how much they like the ancients, the way I taught the ancients. And I said to them: “Look. There is no future for you in following the likes of me. I cannot give you the kinds of internships and prospects for employment and writing that others can.”
David Samuels: But they also were successful it seems to me, in inculcating parts of their faith in what you would describe as their client base. Right?
Angelo Codevilla: No, no, no, no, no. Clients, certainly not.
David Samuels: They win elections in some places.
Angelo Codevilla: Sure, they win elections. Not through faith but through pure clientelism. And don’t forget, especially nowadays, more and more nowadays, by fostering hate, by fostering resentment against others. If you are on our side, you’re on the side of the good. But more important than that, on the other side are people who hate you.
This is especially true with regard to blacks. They want to put you back in chains! What utter nonsense.
David Samuels: Jews are subjected to the same kinds of disciplinary activity. Don’t you understand that the right wingers are all secret neo-Nazis who are planning to pack you off to the gas chambers? I’m an FDR-type liberal, but I find those attempts to trigger some fearful reflex to be incredibly demeaning and offensive.
Angelo Codevilla: People believe mistakenly that Jews are especially smart. American Jews have proven to be dumb, politically. What is political stupidity? Political stupidity means not knowing which side your bread is buttered on.
Jews have taken to believing the leftist propaganda that the Christians are somehow their enemies. Where in fact, there is no group that is friendlier to Jews in America.
The more Christian you are, the more let us say pro-Jewish we tend to be. And why? Well for this very simple reason. That if you read the Bible, you don’t grow up rooting for the Philistines.
David Samuels: American Jews come primarily from Poland and from Russia, where the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox churches often played a very nasty political role and also preached a pretty harsh supersessionist doctrine. They were not friendly to Jews. Now that’s very different from American Protestantism, and also American Catholicism.
Angelo Codevilla: The Christian faith has always been an outgrowth of Judaism. That’s not contention, that is a fact.
David Samuels: Any group that has a scar, you can press on the scar and profit.
Angelo Codevilla: Well, yeah. But Jews are supposed to be smart.
David Samuels: It’s embarrassing to be the object of this kind of primitive manipulation. And both sides do it. You know how they really talk about you, you know what they say behind your back. They’re gonna make your kids bow down to Jesus! Now vote for me.
Angelo Codevilla: Working on the Hill, I would see these Jewish lobbyists breaking their heads against the left. Whereas if they’d gone to conservatives, they would have been greeted with open arms and gotten exactly what they wanted.
***
The Cruxification of Jonathan Pollard
David Samuels: You were working on the Hill when Jonathan Pollard was thrown in jail for life to cover up the crimes of Aldrich Ames and others.
Angelo Codevilla: Oh, that’s a really big subject.
David Samuels: Would you say that the treatment of Pollard happened independently of the fact that he was a Jew?
Angelo Codevilla: Oh heavens, no. No, no, no. Since you’re asking this question to me, you obviously have read that I did what I could to champion his release. Having nothing to do with the fact that he was a Jew, and everything with the obvious falsehood of the accusations on the basis of which he was sentenced.
David Samuels: Right.
Angelo Codevilla: He certainly committed espionage. And rightly merited prison for a couple of years. Instead he got a life sentence. Which ended up to be 30-something years. Why? Certainly not on the basis of the indictment. I mean, he was accused and pleaded guilty to precisely what he did.
What I know, which a lot of other people did not know, is that given his clearances, he could not possibly have done the things on the basis of which he was sentenced. It was simply impossible for him to do that. And every time I pointed that out to people in intelligence, they would make an argument which was untenable. Mainly that the revelation of facts in reports is tantamount or can easily lead to the revelation of sources and methods.
Nonsense! The compartmentation of American intelligence is premised precisely on the notion that this is not possible. Or extremely difficult. And although it is theoretically possible, one would have to show precisely how it did happen. And nobody even tried to do that.
Furthermore, Pollard was sentenced on the basis of a memorandum, which is yet secret. For our judicial system, to sentence anyone on the basis of any secret proceeding is about as un-American as anything yet.
David Samuels: Have you read that memorandum?
Angelo Codevilla: Hell no!
David Samuels: Did anyone ever offer you a summary of its contents?
Angelo Codevilla: Well, sure! But it had been only in the most general terms, to which I would say, oh? Show me how that’s possible.
You know, if somebody says, well and by the way, the snowballs in hell were not melting. I’d say, what? How is that happening?
David Samuels: How do you understand his treatment?
Angelo Codevilla: Oh horrible, horrible.
David Samuels: No, I’m asking why.
Angelo Codevilla: Why? Well, OK. The CIA has all kinds of social-political prejudices. The first thing I learned that I did not expect to learn when I went to my job on the Hill was just how controlled and defined by certain social norms the CIA is. That it is a kind of club that secures itself through co-option. And that co-option involves the furtherance of a whole bunch of prejudices.
So, the straightforward political prejudices are, in no particular order: liberalism, prejudice in favor of the Arabs. You probably are not aware of the corporate prejudices that existed in the favor of the Soviet Union. And they were very, very powerful at CIA, as opposed to DIA or NSA.
To give you an example of these political, pro-Arab prejudices and how they work, when specifically relevant to the Pollard case: When Israel bombed Iraq, the CIA came to us and they formed this committee, and railed at the Israelis for having spoiled this wonderful relationship we had with this wonderful man, Saddam Hussein. I remember at the time sitting next to Pat Moynihan who gave me the elbow and chuckle.
I would say that the majority, by far, of the intelligence committee, laughed at—this is Bobby Ray Inman. And they were cheering on Israel. Hey, bomb more!
But CIA was coming to notify us that in fact they were cutting off the flow of certain intelligence to Israel. And they were doing so in great anger. Now these items of intelligence which were being cut off were precisely the items of intelligence that Jonathan Pollard supplied to them.
David Samuels: They were hurt!
Angelo Codevilla: They were hurt! They were hurt and they took it out on Pollard. How far did this attitude which I just described blend over into anti-Semitism? I don’t know.
David Samuels: Right.
Angelo Codevilla: But if I were a Jew, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch for me to think that it did. And even though I’m not, I sure would have my suspicions.
So that’s the essence of my attitude, attitude and subsequent involvement, such as it was, in the Pollard case. I mean I saw number one, that the reason for the CIA’s anger was wrong. And in fact, the United States had every reason to cheer what the Israelis did. And most Americans did, as a matter of fact. And later on, the subsequent administration thanked the Israelis for having done precisely what they did.
So the CIA was wrong in that regard. And they were doubly wrong in convincing that imbecile, Caspar Weinberger, to write that un-American memorandum. And that judge should be damned by his profession for having paid attention to it. You don’t sentence people on the basis of a secret memorandum. You just don’t do that in America.
David Samuels: The basis for his sentencing is still classified. So who can say for sure if his sentence was unjust.
Angelo Codevilla: Well, no. We can say. It doesn’t matter that it’s classified, because it alleges something that couldn’t possibly have happened. You can classify it, but that doesn’t make it any truer or any likelier to be true. In fact, it makes it less likely to be so.
***
Secrecy and the Rule of Law
David Samuels: Now this opens up the last subject that I wanted to talk about at some length. Which is, what happens when secret intelligence becomes the basis for actions within the domestic sphere. This seems to me like a gathering storm cloud over this country and the freedoms that most of us still believe are ours.
Angelo Codevilla: Right, quite so. Two things happen. The first bad, the second worse.
The first is that policy or action made on the basis of information that is not generally available tends to be bad policy. Secret policy doesn’t get the kind of scrutiny that ordinary policy does. And the people who make it do not themselves feel the necessity to be as careful at all that they do as they otherwise would be. So you get sloppy policymaking. You get people riding hobby horses. Not thinking through what they’re doing. And you end up with unintended consequences.
The second is that policymaking on the basis of information not generally available allows one to cut out one’s opponent, allows one to make policy partisan. More partisan than it would otherwise be.
David Samuels: Would you say that the Iraq War was an example of that?
Angelo Codevilla: Yes, in the following way. And we’re talking of course about two Iraq wars and then the criticism applies to both in a different way.
The first Iraq War, that is the original invasion of Iraq, happened because the president was under entirely reasonable pressure to do something serious, something definitive, about terrorism. And he concluded in his heart of hearts that overthrowing the regime would have been most vocal in its advocacy of anti-Americanism, and anti-American terrorism, would eliminate one of the major sources of terrorism, and also send a healthy message to other regimes that were in their own ways fostering terrorism.
But, when the subject was moving about inside the highest levels of government, great resistance was encountered to this. And the Bush administration found itself searching for a rationale for that invasion that would minimize opposition from within the government and the ruling class in general. And they sent up a whole bunch of trial balloons in that regard, and the trial balloon that got the least resistance was the trope about the weapons of mass destruction. About which the evidence was always terribly sketchy. But they found that to be the most bureaucratically tenable explanation, and so they went ahead with it. That was a mistake made intramurally, which compromised the eventual support of the larger population.
So much for the first Iraq War. The second one, being the occupation, that was decided in an even less transparent manner. We know that there was intense lobbying on the part of CIA and State for the occupation. And lobbying by the Saudis for that same course. How all that interacted and how George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice and friends soldiered all of that out and came to that particular decision, we still do not know. And they ain’t about to tell us.
And so, we ended up with an occupation which would ostensibly be for the purpose of democratization, but which number one, shied away from democracy because everyone involved realized that democracy meant that the Shia ruled. So as a fact, the day-to-day effort of the occupation, the one that cost so many American lives, had nothing to do with democratization. It had everything to do with preserving a role for the Sunnis.
The U.S. government never fought that war with the intention of crushing the Sunni opposition. They never fought that war with the intention of crushing the people who were shooting at Americans. And then ended up, in fact giving up on that war and paying those very people, in what was otherwise known as the Surge.
A whole bunch of idiots, Fox News conservatives count the Surge, the so-called Surge, as a great success. Great success in what?
Again here, this is as good an example as you will find of the wages of making policy in a nontransparent manner.
David Samuels: There was one quote, I forget who it came from, but it came out of an interaction of one of the reasonably high-up war planners in the Defense Department and a journalist for, I think it was, The Atlantic. And the quote was that power creates its own reality. So it doesn’t matter what we say, because even if it’s not true now, by the time we’re finished we will make it true. And therefore there is no real difference between statements that are true or false, as long as we make them.
Do you have the sense that a similar attempt to manufacture reality was at play in what at this point are the still-unknown interactions between the CIA, the FBI, and the Obama White House with regard to the surveillance of Donald Trump’s associates, and the attempt to suggest some vast Putin-Trump conspiracy to game American elections, and whatnot?
Angelo Codevilla: I don’t think that it went that far. Or I should say, I don’t think the people involved thought about it that deeply.
David Samuels: I would agree.
Angelo Codevilla:I think what you had was a small pooling of resources to tweak the news cycle with regard to the hacking of the Democratic National Committee, which then turned into something very major.
David Samuels: After the election.
Angelo Codevilla: After the election. It was, like Watergate, a minor attempt to gain marginal advantage. Which then, unintended by the people involved at the time, became something very big, which escaped everyone’s control.
I believe that there are a whole bunch of people in Washington right now who are quaking in their boots because the House Intelligence Committee has shaken loose some of the documents involved. Because in the long run there are no secrets in Washington. And one can then wonder about the quality of the people who imagined that the things they did could remain secret.
It really was a marvel. The idea was that if we all say it together long enough and we shout it loud so nothing else can be heard, then it will become the effective truth, Machiavelli’s verita effettuale. But I mean, there is a limit to this. I have some close personal friends who are more on the left, and I said to them: OK. Where’s the evidence? Who did what when to whom? Where are the quids and where are the quos? What’s going on here? And all they could say is, “Well, the investigation is going on.”
What is not clear is just how much of the reality will come into the public’s consciousness.
David Samuels: Whose fault is this?
Angelo Codevilla: The fault here is not of Democrats on the left. The fault here is of Donald Trump and his friends who have refused to enforce the most basic laws here. The most obvious one is Section 798, (18 U.S. Code), the simple comment statute. Now anybody in the intelligence business knows that this is the live wire of security law. It is a strict liability statute. It states that any revelation, regardless of circumstance or intent, any revelation period, of anything having to do with U.S. communications intelligence is punishable by the 10 and 10. Ten years in the slammer, and $10,000 fine. Per count.
Now the folks who went to The Washington Post and The New York Times in November and December of 2016 and peddled this story of the intelligence community’s conclusion that Trump and the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia, these people ipso facto violated §798.
Considering these matters are highly classified, and that the number of the people involved is necessarily very small, identifying them is child’s play. But no effort to do that has been made.
David Samuels: But doesn’t that failure in turn point to what is, to some extent, the root of this entire drama, which is that Donald Trump seems unfamiliar with and temperamentally at odds with the executive function that he has now assumed?
Angelo Codevilla: That’s certainly true. But you have to go beyond Donald Trump, to Republican power holders in general. These people far more than Donald Trump would be inclined to forbear for the sake of comity with the ruling class. And what kind of comity are we talking about? We’re talking about social comity. Because if you follow the law in this case, you end up putting former directors of CIA, FBI etcetera behind bars. They, and a whole bunch of their subordinates. Maybe a dozen people here would end up behind bars.
David Samuels: We’ve come to accept that certain classes of people are in fact above the law.
Angelo Codevilla: We have come to accept that.
The election of 2016 was precisely about whether anyone in America is above the law. The reason why so many people did not vote for Hillary Clinton is the feeling that she and her ilk were above the law, were acting as if they were above the law, which happened to be entirely true. Now the fact that the Trump administration is acting according to the same premise, i.e., that some people are above the law, is evidence that the revolution that the voters wanted in 2016 has only just begun.
***
Conclusion
It’s interesting to read the opinions of others. Especial if they come from the Washington “beltway”. It’s almost like they are a completely different “animal” than what the rest of us are. I suppose it goes along with my belief that the super elite have evolved into something other than what the rest of us are. They are another creature entirely. It’s not that they are clueless. For they indeed have intelligence. I just wonder if they have scruples and understanding. That’s all.
But that’s just me.
One thing is for certain, they think that they are better than you and I. They are driving the United States into a massive war that does not have an exit. It’s crazy, it’s dangerous, and while they might be intelligent, they sure are out of touch with man’s humanity.
And his humility.
That frightens me.
But they seem oblivious to it all. It’s like people coloring a coloring-book with crayons inside a large RV that is being driven by a drunk madman. These fools haven’t a clue as to what dangers are being toyed with. Sheech!
Do you want more?
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Well, America is in a process of change. And it is happening, though it is not being reported. Both the alt-Left and the alt-Right are silent on what is actually going on. The American people are being kept ignorant. But you can rest assured that changes are in process. Pieces are moving into place, and not a peep is being reported to anyone.
Things are occurring.
They are not being reported.
Do not be under the impression that it’s all part of [1] the COVID-19 vaccination issue, [2] the round-up of the participants in the White House Riots, or [3] the moves towards diversity, reparations, or [4] any such quasi-political posturing. Those are nice distractions that the “news” likes to take issue about.
Nothing is being reported. Secrets and orders are being carried out in isolation, by trusted operatives, and done in absolute secrecy. You can guarantee that.
Instead, other things are being “reported” in the American “news”. It’s just one distraction after the other. Hey! How’s all that 5G “brain damage” working out, or those dangerous giant zombie killer hornets (from China)? How has the “news” about this improved our life?
Watch out for the dangerous giant zombie killer hornets (from China – don’t you know!).
…
The New Chinese Year of the Bull starts this evening.
And all of China is subdued.
Part of it is because after last year (2020) most people are cautiously guarded. (Which I think is pretty much the same all over the world). But also because of the risk of war (from the United States and the Quad). The USA, even though Biden is President, is still sending military weapons, equipment and a presence to sit off the coast of China and threaten. And that is what it is. Don’t you know.
They sit there and threaten.
Not for “democracy”.
But to appease the wealthy oligarchy cluster (inside the American military Empire) that Biden will not stop the anti-China narrative. You know, a target; a scapegoat, a “evil” must be identified so that the military war machine can gear into action!
Whoosh!
But really the silence is deafening. Why? Well, for the first time in all of Chinese history, fireworks have been banned. Which makes a very quiet holiday, I’ll tell you what.
We put up our yearly door decorations, and bought some food for the holiday. We’ve got a lot of booze, fine delicious food, and plenty of snacks. But, unlike other years, this year we won’t be off going to a ton load of parties.
Unfortunately.
MM’s yearly door decorations are up for the new year.
.
There’s a heightened sense of awareness regarding biological weapons (after what happened last year) has got the inspectors running overtime. They are on a ruthless search and destroy mission to catch the (still officially unnamed) COVID-20 and COVID-21 bio-weapons. The ones released in the fall of last year by a very vindictive President Trump. And the Chinese government has taken action in Beijing and Hong Kong regarding the strange appearances of these bio-weapons.
The virus kit now has throat testing for COVID-19 and anal swabs for COVID-20 and COVID-21. Which is making it rather uncomfortable and unpleasant. But (after all) no one really wants to die by vomiting or diarrhea. So you take the exam lying down. Well, actually, on your side. And you allow the masked and garbed medical professional to shove a long cotton swab in your anus and swirl it around about ten times. They do this twice, you know.
Any ways, it’s really making this CNY feel awfully strange and odd.
Just a reminder.COVID-20 Unusually huge sized virus. Swine-based. Human-transmission. Lethal. Causes death by vomiting. Discovered in a Beijing "wet market" within weeks of the Huge Trump-led US Navy Armada sailing home without a military confrontation. When the PLA discovered the virus, President Trump went into a three day "retreat" causing the USA military to go DEFCON ONE. The cover story was that he had the Coronavirus.
COVID-21 Unusually huge sized virus. Tick-based. Human-transmission. Lethal. Causes death by diarrhea. Discovered in Beijing in October right before the US Presidential Election.
The military are out.
Not as a show of force or intimidation. Not for “riots” or any such nonsense, but because China is back at DEFCON ONE. And you can see the military manning their stations. Here’s a picture at the local mall about a fifteen minute walk from my house.
Nothing of concern, mind you. They are just manning their stations.
The Chinese military are all at DEFCON ONE. To translate to the Alt-Right in the audience; “The ChiCom PLA is in full force oppressing the people again.”
.
Usually, it’s a time of “the great migration”, or when everyone goes back home for a month long orgy of eating, drinking, and drinking, and drinking and more eating.
Not this year though.
Everyone is asked to stay home. The local villages have gone door to door asking everyone to tell their relatives to stay put. And bigger cities, like mine, is giving people money to spend at the stores and restaurants to help with the unexpected deviance from tradition.
Now, people ARE having parties, dinners and going out. Just not in their home-towns, and in much smaller and subdued groups.
Chinese New Year is when you go out and drink, and drink, and socialize and eat and eat and eat.
What is all this delicious "democracy" that I keep hearing about? It must be something wonderful and great. It has to be, don't you know, for America to spend trillions of dollars destroying a third of the world for it's survival.
I guess that none of you all realized that this was going on, eh?
Meanwhile, most “normal” and regular folk are having meals with their families. They are all happy affairs, and look sort of like this…
Typical CNY meal in China.
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Not what you would see in an American “Chinese Restaurant” eh?… That’s because what most food in an American-Chinese restaurant are Americanized versions of Chinese food. And it’s sort of the “fast food” version of actual Chinese food.
It’s equivalent to thinking that a McDonald’s “hamburger” is “authentic” American dinner food.
Thinking that a “Chinese Restaurant” in America serves “real and authentic” Chinese food is to think that a McDonald’s hamburger is what a “real” American dinner looks like. While I am sure that (judging from photos of Walt-mart shoppers) that this might be the case, you and I sure as heck knows that it’s not a “real” hamburger.
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But back to my rant…
Oh, yeah.
Sorry about the food digression. I’m talking about the digression of CNY, and how it is muted because of the Coronavirus, the vomiting-to-death virus, and the Beijing tick virus.
BTW... Did you know that there were ticks in Beijing? I didn't. It's too cold and dry, and dusty for them to live. So the ticks must be a hardy species indeed. Wouldn't you think. That is why they have to use remote-controlled drones to spray human-transmissible tick viruses over the populated Northern cities of China.
(Forehead slap!)
I wonder how America would do if some nation decides to conduct this exact same activity on New York, Chicago or Houston? At the rate America is playing with "fire", it might be a good idea to maintain strong bio-weapon discipline and preventative measures as a matter of habit.
Have you ever watched a magician perform a magic trick? One hand is doing the secret activity, while the other hand is involved in the big deception.
All by the American “news”. Hey! What’s in the “news” today, eh?
You all shouldn’t get too riled up about all this. The big build-up is gearing towards Russia. After all, America needs China to keep supplying the parts, materials and electronics for it’s fighter planes and expensive weapons systems.
The hate-narrative is building up against Russia…
What else is new? Eh?
Just like Ancient Rome that HAD to continually right on the outskirts of the empire and "defeat the barbarians at the gates", America must constantly fight against, terror, hunger, obesity, poverty, communism, and everything else it can find...
...for "democracy!"
…now those dirty commies are putting bounties on killing Americans. How dare they! Stinkin’ dirty commies!
But it’s a new year; the year of the Bull, and it’s gonna be real exciting.
Hunan style fish.
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But it’s the world we live in.
Right now. Anyways.
The people running the levels of control of America (and Britain) are a tad crazy. And I need to remind everyone of this, because you aren’t watching how the rest of the world are reacting to the craziness that America is today.
I have to show it to you all in a very elementary form.
You know. Something like this…
Yep. Read and learn.
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Now, if I were in the USA I would lie low and make sure that I knew my neighbors really, really well. You all need a true and real sense of unity during times of high stress and upheaval.
I am not advocating armed rebellion.
But rather a way of connecting with friends and family, and a serious decline in the social networks and communication screed that passes for modern American communication these days. Get back to your roots and help each other. If you try to be the “lone wolf” you will end up…
…being alone.
Work together with friends and family.
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And while President Biden is trying to put a “adult in the room ” aura don’t let that fool you. There are elements in government that are working hand-in-hand, and behind the curtain, to force some changes that many people will be very uncomfortable with.
Only this time…
…well…
…those in government are smarter and better prepared to implement the changes that they desire.
Whether you are a drug dealer, a sexual deviant, a LGBT hater, a member of a “hate” group, a tax cheat, or any other of the millions of titles that they use to justify… they can seize everything you own, destroy your life, and send you to the lowest social classes from whence you will die.
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You know, as someone who actually lives inside a communist country, I can tell you first hand that the rap it gets has little in common with the actual reality. Don’t fear what you do not understand, and please be more understanding of those who hold different views from you.
Now…
That being said, do not turn a blind eye to history. There are some very evil people out there. many of whom prefer to dwell around large urban areas. You know the places, like Washington DC, New York City and Chicago. And they are capable of really taking a wrecking ball to your life. So you need to be alert.
And speaking about changes…
…maybe a review of some history might be in order.
The following is an article titled “46 things I learned from being gulaged Varlam Shalamov spent much of the period from 1937 to 1951 gulaged in the arctic cold of Kolyma. These are the 46 things he learned from the experience”. It was written on January 15, 2020, and described the life inside a Gulag camp in the former Soviet Union. Reprinted as found with notations as shown. All credit to the source and the author.
46 things I learned from being gulaged – Varlam Shalamov
Varlam Shalamov after his first arrest, 1929.
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Varlam Tikhonovich Shalamov (June 18, 1907 – January 17, 1982) was a Russian writer, journalist, poet and Gulag survivor. He spent 15 years enslaved in Soviet gulags — six of them in the gold mines in the bitter arctic cold of Kolyma — due in part to having supported Leon Trotsky and praised the anti-Soviet writer Ivan Bunin.
One of Shalamov’s surviving writings is a 1961 list of 46 things he learned from his gulag experience.
You will benefit the most from it by already knowing the basics about these slave camps which worked many inmates to death (and in some cases even forced the slaves to eat each other).
The essay was translated by Dmitry Subbotin and Robert Denis, and editorial additions are marked in bracketed italics.
What I Saw and Learned in the Kolyma Camps
1. The extraordinary fragility of human nature, of civilization. A human being would turn into a beast after three weeks of hard work, cold, starvation and beatings. [People can easily turn feral. Do not be under the illusion that we (as humans) are beyond our base natures.]
2. The cold was the principal means of corrupting the soul; in the Central Asian camps people must have held out longer — it was warmer there. [Humans can survive in warmer weather, but colder weather will absolutely kill you.]
3. Friendship and solidarity never arise in difficult, truly severe conditions — when life is at stake. Friendship arises in difficult but bearable conditions (in the hospital, but not in the mine).
[ed: u/LevantineJR had an interesting comment on this: “That this is less than a universal, profound truth, has been demonstrated in the labour camps of Imperial Japan during WW2, as recorded by company commander Ernest Gordon in “Miracle on the River Kwai” a.k.a. “In the Valley of the Kwai” (1963). It’d be very interesting and important to understand why widespread solidarity appeared in the WW2 labour camps in Indochina after a period of ~10 months, while in the GULAG it failed to appear for years, or even decades. Harshness of conditions? The death rates in the Japanese war labour camps were several times higher than in the GULAG. So, the general harshness of conditions is ruled out. Nor could it be simply culture or genes, because those very same inhabitants of Kolyma created resistant collectives of solidarity in the Moscow prisons. Now, what of a particular factor: cold? Plausible, I think. Shalamov may be right that cold was an exceptionally strong, and a sort of a key factor.”]
4. Spite is the last human emotion to survive. A starving man has only enough flesh to feel spite — he is indifferent to everything else.
5. The difference between prison and work camps. Prison strengthens character, and work camps, corrupt the human soul.
In America you can see the difference.
In Pennsylvania, the purpose of prison is to rehabilitate. So Prisons are designed to help people correct their behaviors.
In Arkansas, the purpose of prison is to punish. So all prisons are hard-labor work-camps. It is to make people fear the government and incarceration.
6. Organization is important in survival against an oppressive government. I learned that Stalin’s «triumphs» were possible because he slew innocent people: had there been an organized movement, even one-tenth in number, but organized, it would have swept Stalin away in two days.
7. Humans are resilient. I learned that humans became human because they are physically stronger, tougher than any animal — no horse endures work in the Far North.
8. You need faith, and belief in a higher purpose. I saw that the only group that retained a bit of their humanity, despite the starvation and abuse, were the religious, the sectarians, almost all of them — and the majority of the priests.
9. The easiest to corrupt are those in government. The first ones to be corrupted, the most susceptible, are the party members and military men.
10. People who have never been exposed to raw force, and who expected to debate were often surprised how serious, and how quickly events can go from “neutral” to “hot”. I saw what a forcible argument a simple slap could be for an intellectual.
11. You start to rate people by their ability to be brutal. That people distinguish between camp chiefs according to the power of their punches, to their enthusiasm for beatings.
12. A beating is almost irresistible as an argument («Method number three»).
13. Show Trials was how everything was actually run in the DOJ. I learned the truth about the preparations for the cryptic trials [ed: the show trials of the Great Terror of 1937] from masters of the craft.
14. The “grapevine” is real. I learned why in prison you get political news (arrests, etc.) sooner than on the outside.
15. Rumors always had a basis on reality. That prison (and camp) rumours [ed: known in Russian prison slang as parasha — “the slop bucket”] always turn out to be anything but slop.
16. I learned that one can live on spite alone.
17. I learned that one can live on indifference.
18. Hope is bleached from your life. I learned why a man lives neither on hope — there are no hopes at all, nor on will — what will?, but only on the instinct of self-preservation, the same as a tree, a rock, an animal.
19. Don’t stick out. You become a target. I’m proud that at the very beginning, back in 1937, I decided to never become a foreman if my decision could lead to another man’s death, if my will would be forced to serve the authorities oppressing other people, prisoners like myself.
20. My body and spirit proved to be stronger in this great trial than I thought, and I am proud to have betrayed no one, to have sent no one to death nor to the camp, to have denounced no one.
21. It’s easy to give in and sign “the papers” showing your guilt. I’m proud to have made no requests until 1955.
[ed: In 1955 Shalamov made a request for rehabilitation].
22. Bad people are terrible and awesome in their evil. I saw the so called «Beria amnesty» there and then — it was something to see.
[ed: Lavrentiy Beria was one of Stalin’s henchmenHe was a serial rapist and mass murderer who was responsible for, among other things, coming up with the idea for and then carrying out the execution of all of the Soviet Union’s 22,000 Polish prisoners (the Katyn massacre). Shalamov’s “Beria amnesty” is a reference to when Beria released a large number of criminal class gulag prisoners as a political play that backfired on him.]
23. I saw that women are more honest and selfless than men — there was not a single husband at Kolyma who came after his wife. But wives did come; many did (Faina Rabinovitch, Krivoshey’s wife) [ed: See Shalamov’s Green attorney].
24. People still held on to their roles within families. I saw the amazing northerner families (civilians, former prisoners) with their letters to their «lawful husbands and wives» etc.
25. The Wealthy did terrible things to become rich. I saw «the first Soviet Rockefellers», underground millionaires, and heard their confessions.
26. Political prisoners suffered the harshest punishments. If your ideology did not match that of the people running the government, then run for your lives. I saw the hard laborers, and also the large E and B contingents, the Berlag camp.
[ed: Berlag, or Beregovoy Camp Directorate, Special Camp No. 5, was an MVD special camp. These were camps established exclusively for political prisoners convicted according to the more severe sub-articles of Article 58 (enemies of the people). Wrote Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in The Gulag Archipelago: “There is no step, thought, action, or lack of action under the heavens which could not be punished by the heavy hand of Article 58.”]
27. There are tradeoffs to everything you do. I learned that one can achieve a lot (a hospital, a work transfer), but at the risk of life — at the cost of a beating and the isolation cell cold.
28. Cells some in different shapes and sizes. All are unpleasant. I saw an isolation cell carved out in rock, and spent one night in it myself.
29. Power is seductive, and entraps everyone. The lust for power, for unpunished murder is great — from big shots down to regular police operatives with rifles (Seroshapka [ed: See Shalamov’s Berries] and his ilk).
30. To protect yourself, you learn to rat-out others, anyone else, just to survive. I learned the unrestrained Russian lust to denounce, to complain.
31. There are no “good” and “bad” people. I learned that world should be divided not into good and bad people but into cowards and non-cowards. 95% of cowards are capable of any meanness, lethal meanness, after light threatening.
32. Prison and work camps do not improve anyone. It’s all a corrupt system of suppression. I am convinced: the camp is a negative experience — entirely. If one spent but an hour there — it would be an hour of moral corruption. The camp has never given anything to anyone — and never could. Everyone, both prisoners and civilians, are corrupted by the camp.
33. Work and “rehabilitation” camps were everywhere, just not advertised to the public. In every region there was a work camp, there was one at every major construction site. Millions, tens of millions of prisoners.
[ed: Estimations of gulag slaves between 1928/9 and 1953 (earlier gulag stats much harder to analyze) range from 14 to 25 million. This number excludes the millions who were “internally exiled” to the wilds or just outright murdered.]
34. A corrupt government leadership corrupts everything. Repressions touched not only the ruling elite but all levels of society — in every village, at every plant, in every family either relatives or friends were repressed.
35. Being helpful to others provides inner peace. I consider the best time of my life to be the months spent in the cell of Butyrki prison, where I managed to strengthen the spirit of those who were weak and where everyone spoke freely.
36. Live day to day, in the “now”. I learned to «plan» one day ahead, no further.
37. Bosses become a different kind of animal. I learned that kingpins are not human.
38. Everyone becomes equal in a work camp. That there are no criminals at the camp, there are your present (and future) neighbors caught behind the line of the law and not those who crossed it.
39. Being a thief is a survival skill. I learned how terrible the ego of a boy, of a youth is: better steal than ask. This and their boasting throws youth to the bottom.
40. When you are isolated away from women, you don’t enjoy their pleasures. Women didn’t play a big role in my life — camp is the reason.
41. Character discernment is useless. The discernment of character is a useless ability — I am unable to change my ways for any scum that comes along.
42. Avoid being the last. The last in the row, which are hated by everyone — by guards and inmates alike — are those dropping behind, the sick, the weak, those incapable of running in the cold.
43. Power comes from a gun. I learned what power is and what a man with a gun means.
44. The balance of justice shifts in a work camp. That the scale is shifted, and this is what is most typical in a work camp.
45. Returning to civilian life is difficult. That passing from a prisoner condition to civilian is very hard, and nearly impossible without a long adaptation period. [It took me about three weeks to get used to soft chairs, commodes with seats, electrical wall outlets, and being able to go outside at will. Not to mention being able to taste salt and sugar, and seasonings. Cheese, butter, and fruit are all glorious.]
Conclusions
Yeah. It’s an interesting piece of history. I think that it gives us an insight into our human nature. Now, let’s all pray that the conditions for mass enslavement of citizens is never replicated ever again. But, let’s be real. OK?
It can.
All it takes is a national leadership that wants to do this (for their own purposes) and an ineffectual department of Justice, and a complete lack (or omission) of leadership policing organizations.
Meanwhile…
Here in China it’s a new year. It’s 2021 and it’s the year of the Bull. Most people are optimistic, even though they are cautiously guarded.
For a while I used to get a new coffee mug at every New Year. It was my little pleasure; to have a new coffee mug to drink out of each year. Unfortunately I feel out of the habit. But that is neither good nor bad. It’s just a sign of change… and a sign of change tends to indicate growth.
Here’s some pictures from my friends. Taken as a whole it might give you all a “flavor” as to what this very strange and odd year of the Bull is starting out as…
Typical. Wine to drink. The Chinese do not daintily sip wine slowly. They drink entire glasses in one singular gulp. Like this gal is doing. She announces “Geng Bei” and empties the entire glass. This picture is a sign of respect to the new in-coming year. It means “I salute your arrival”.
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Seems strange? Yeah. But it’s a different culture. They aren’t afraid of losing their jobs for drinking wine on their holidays (like I was threatened at General Motors, Delco Electronic, and Poulan Weed-Eater.) And so, living without fear of “consequences” enables people to live life freely.
It’s called “freedom”. You all should try it some time.
Red envelopes. In the Chinese New Year, everyone gives each other “Red Envelopes” full of money. This is instead of presents. There are all sorts of rules regarding it. And they differ from region to region. In general, families pass money back and forth easily, and the kids make out like bandits. Young boys buy toy guns, and games. Young girls buy dolls, APPs and some trinkets.
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This shows what it is like to get a “red envelope” from a brother or sister. Or perhaps a friend, or an uncle. It’s all very typical.
While I have discussed the enormous red envelopes that companies would give to their employees (in prior articles), this article is on a more personal basis. It’s about celebrating holidays with friends and family.
Red envelopes can come with notes and messages, or just be a thank you for business or friendship. We used to give out red envelopes to our mail mean (actually the UPS equivalent), the local BaoAn(s) which are the security guards to the complex, the management, and the janitorial staff.
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Again. All this is very typical, and very normal. And isn’t at all being reported by the “informed news” out of America. Have you ever heard of FOX “news” reporting on the red envelopes in China? Have you ever heard Rush Limbaugh discuss it? What about Ellen DeGeneres?
Silence.
Crickets.
And yet some people have the nerve to think that they are well “informed” on the Geo-political issues of the day by listening to “American news”. Give me a break.
Chinese companies process wads of cash to give out to their employees during CNY. All untaxed. All in hard cold cash. How about American and British companies? What do your end-of-year bonuses look like? Tell me about it.
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yes.
Anyways, money is great, and we could all use more of it, don’t you know. But What I really like about the Chinese new year is all the eating and drinking. I just love food. Yes. It is true, I am a “foodie”, and who can blame me?
Shots of BaiJiu are the norm.
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And here’s some more pictures of what is going on in China right now, today. Tell me about how CNN is reporting on it. Tell me about what Twitter, and Facebook has to say about it. Please give me insight in how you all can understand China by listening to MSNBC. I’d like to know.
A typical family gathering.
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Almost like what you would see in the United States. Almost. Only here in China, the adults drink alcohol alongside with the children who drink whatever they want. Since there are no prohibitions (read LAWS) banning things, most children have the opportunity to drink with their parents, and can get exposed to alcohol very early age.
But…
They don’t drink because it is meaningless to them. it is something that ‘adults do”, and you all know that adults are ‘square” and not “hip” and “groovy”. So they tend not to become addicts.
Another typical meal.
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All this is what is happening right now. People are celebrating the end of 2020, the year of the rat, and welcoming in 2021, the year of the Bull. I pretty much assume that this is what was going on in America as well, though to different extent. And in a different manner.
As well as on a different date.
Typical CNY and CNY eve meals.
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It’s different and even shocking for most Americans. I think that this is because they don’t know what “freedom” is. They have been repeating the mantras for decades with no understanding, and when they see how other nations live, they become horrified.
“This can’t possibly be true!” They retort.
Everyone knows that….
Yeah.
“Everyone knows…”
Who told them?
Guess which nation this photograph was taken? American LGBT advertising for a “roommate” in Wal-Mart.
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Sometimes the strange image out of America are just the “tip of the iceberg”, and are but distractions from the master hand-movements of the master deceptions made by the oligarchy? And if so…
…then…
Maybe Americans are already living in a nice Gulag already, but they don’t yet realize it.
That maybe it’s all just a matter of degree. Why construct work camps here and there? Why not turn the entire nation into one gigantic labor camp? Why not? When you can print unlimited money? Control the media, and have a forever-lock on the government, and can make rules and laws with no opposition,and not even follow “guidelines” let alone the “guaranteed” Rights…
…what’s stopping you?
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To understand where the United States is heading today, we should look through the lens of the past. And while I can refer to Rome, the Soviet Union, Athens and Sparta, and a host of other historical precedents, instead, we will focus on something different than the political issues. Here we will focus on the visceral hatred that develops between Americans when they fight against each other.
Yes. We are going to discuss the American Civil War.
A history lesson
Most generals in the Civil War were trained at West Point. That
training, along with experiences in the Mexican-American War and
skirmishes with Indians, taught them how to lead men into battle. One
Civil War general stands out in bold contrast to what he called the
“P’inters.” That was Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821-1877) was a Confederate general during the Civil War (1861-65). Despite having no formal military training, Forrest rose from the rank of private to lieutenant general, serving as a cavalry officer at numerous engagements including the Battles of Shiloh, Chickamauga, Brice’s Crossroads and Second Franklin.
Known for his maxim “get there first with the most men,” Forrest was relentless in harassing Union forces during the Vicksburg Campaign in 1862 and 1863, and conducted successful raiding operations on federal supplies and communication lines throughout the war.
In addition to his ingenious cavalry tactics, Forrest is also remembered for his controversial involvement in the Battle of Fort Pillow in April 1864, when his troops massacred black soldiers following a Union surrender. After the Civil War Forrest worked as a planter and railroad president, and served as the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. He died in 1877 at the age of 56.
-History.com
His military skills grew out of the rugged experiences of life in
frontier western Tennessee, and his leadership skills grew out of his
inborn commanding, even frightening, personality.
Forrest enlisted in the Confederate army, alongside his
fifteen-year-old son, as a private. He was quickly made a cavalry
officer and rose to the rank of Lieutenant General during the war.
He never wrote a book on military practices and likely never read one
on that topic. As far as formal schooling was concerned, he had only
about six months of it. In his own manner and by his example, he
displayed a military prowess and innate genius that ranked him among the best generals of that war and of all times.
His sayings bear witness to his personality and style, but also capture the essence of a natural born leader of men in battle.
“When you see anything blue, shoot at it, and do all you can to keep up the skeer.”
“Always git the most men thar fust, and then, if you can’t whup ’em, outrun ’em.”
“Whenever you meet the enemy, no matter how few there are of you or how many of them, show fight.”
“The way to whip an enemy is to git ’em skeered, and then keep the skeer on ’em.”
When recruiting soldiers from among Tennessee boys, he told them, “I wish none but those who desire to be actively engaged,” and then no doubt with a gleam in his eye, he added, “Come on, boys, if you want to have a heap of fun and kill some Yankees.”
To the Confederates, he was known as “the Wizard in the saddle,” but to the enemy, he was called “that devil Forrest.” Union General William Sherman said he was “the most remarkable man our Civil War produced.” The Union Secretary of War Stanton said, “There will never be peace in Tennessee until Forrest is dead.”
At least twenty-nine horses were killed out from under him, but he
took consolation in having personally killed at least that many Union
soldiers. He even killed one of his own subordinates in a fight after
Forrest implied the officer was a coward. Forrest himself was wounded in
that skirmish, which was just one of at least three times he was shot
during the war.
For all of his aggressiveness, Forrest was quite adept at winning battles by stealth and deception. When parlaying with enemy officers, he would have troop movements going on in sight of the enemy officers giving the impression that his forces were larger than they really were. When one Yankee complained after surrendering that he had been deceived, Forrest replied, “Ah, Colonel, all is fair in love and war you know.” At other times, when surrounding an enemy stronghold, Forrest would warn them that unless they surrendered, “I will have every man put to the sword.” His reputation for ruthlessness caused many an enemy to bow before such threats.
When the occasion called for direct attack and battle, Forrest was
always up to the task, both personally and as the commander. Finding
himself having ridden into the middle of a group of Yankee soldiers at
the Battle of Shiloh, Forrest began lashing right and left with his
sword. A Yankee soldier put a gun in Forrest’s side and fired, lifting
him up out of the saddle. Forrest continued fighting and then grabbed a
Yankee soldier by the neck and used him as shield until he escaped from
the enemy.
When Forrest’s cavalry found itself surrounded at the Battle of Parker’s Crossroads, he gave the command, “Charge them both ways.” Once again, his boldness and unorthodoxy in battle paid off. Until the very end of the war when he told his men, “You may do as you damn please, but I’m a-going home,” Forrest fought to win. This fighting spirit not only undid the courage of his opponents, it often put him at odds with the Confederate higher command.
Early in the war, Forrest’s cavalry found itself surrounded along with other Confederate troops at Fort Donelson in northwestern Tennessee. The other generals met to talk about how to go about surrendering to U. S. Grant’s surrounding forces. Forrest fumed at their decision. “I did not come here to surrender my command.” Taking his men and others who could ride along behind them, Forrest’s cavalry, which he called his “Critter Company,” broke through the lines and escaped.
Much later in the war, when General Braxton Bragg refused to pursue the fleeing Yankee army after the Battle of Chickamauga, Forrest reached his limits of serving under Bragg. Then when portions of his command were taken away, Forrest confronted Bragg personally. After calling him a coward and a liar, Forrest concluded his verbal attack on Bragg by telling him, “You have threatened to arrest me for not obeying your orders promptly. I dare you to do it, and I say to you that if you ever again try to interfere with me or cross my path it will be at the peril of your life.”
It would be the independent commands, and especially raids on enemy forts, where Forrest excelled as a commander. When Forrest was cut loose from the larger army units and command structure and was given free rein to disrupt supply lines and harass the enemy from the rear, he excelled. One of his staff officers said, “He was unfit for command under a superior; he was like a caged lion on the field of battle where he was not himself commanding.”
Forrest himself summed up his accomplishments by noting that he and
his Critter Company had fought in some 50 battles, inflicting 16,000
casualties on the Union, had captured or destroyed some 300 wagons and
67 artillery pieces, had dismantled some 200 miles of railroad, and had
cost the United States at least $15 million.
It is no wonder that Nathan Bedford Forrest has been viewed as one of the great military leaders of the war. It is not surprising that his name sent shivers into the hearts of his enemies. At the same time, Southerners took comfort in hearing the pounding of the hoofs of Forrest’s cavalry as it rode throughout middle Tennessee and other parts of the Confederacy.
Conclusion
Nice little tale. It’s the story of a man who lived and served perhaps 150 years ago. That’s it, eh? Just a nice little tale. Close the history book, and go check your news feed. Eh?
People are capable of extraordinary feats and activities. And this fellow was a ruthless General for the Confederate States; states that believed that they were wronged by the Federal Government and wanted no part of it any longer. And while history has been rewritten that the American Civil War was about “slavery”, it was really all about the freedom for the people within the States to live life as THEY chose. Not what the Federal Government decided for them.
In the big picture, after the American Civil War, nothing really changed.
And because of all this, we have the problems that America is dealing with today.
But…
That is not the point that I want to make. The point that I want to make is that all of his anger, his angst, and his hatred was directed at his fellow Americans. It was directed at people who attended the same churches his family attended, drive the same wagons his family drove. Walked the same roads, used the same Post Offices, ate the same foods and spoke the same language as he did.
Do not be so sure that ideology will not change people into monsters. It will.
Be alert, and do everything in your power to prevent history from reoccurring.
Do you want to see similar posts?
I hope that you found this post curious. Please take care. You can view other similar posts in my SHTF Index, here…
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you.
And it’s not going to be available for long. You can bet on that.
Nothing on the site is password protected. It’s all gone.
Call it a “dump” if you like…
Wikileaks just dumped all of their files online. Everything from Hillary Clinton’s emails, McCain’s being guilty, Vegas shooting done by an FBI sniper, Steve Jobs HIV letter, PedoPodesta, Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Bilderberg, CIA agents arrested for rape, WHO pandemic. Happy Digging!
No doubt about it: 2020—a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year for freedom—was the culmination of a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad decade for freedom.
Government corruption, tyranny, and abuse coupled with a Big Brother-knows-best mindset and the COVID-19 pandemic propelled us at warp speed towards a full-blown police state in which nationwide lockdowns, egregious surveillance, roadside strip searches, police shootings of unarmed citizens, censorship, retaliatory arrests, the criminalization of lawful activities, warmongering, indefinite detentions, SWAT team raids, asset forfeiture, police brutality, profit-driven prisons, and pay-to-play politicians were accepted as the norm.
Here’s just a small sampling of the laundry list of abuses—cruel, brutal, immoral, unconstitutional and unacceptable—that have been heaped upon us by the government over the past two decades and in the past year, in particular.
The government failed to protect our lives, liberty and happiness. The predators of the police state wreaked havoc on our freedoms, our communities, and our lives. The government didn’t listen to the citizenry, refused to abide by the Constitution, and treated the citizenry as a source of funding and little else. Police officers shot unarmed citizens and their household pets. Government agents—including local police—were armed to the teeth and encouraged to act like soldiers on a battlefield. Bloated government agencies were allowed to fleece taxpayers. Government technicians spied on our emails and phone calls. And government contractors made a killing by waging endless wars abroad.
The American President became more imperial. Although the Constitution invests the President with very specific, limited powers, in recent years, American presidents (Trump, Obama, Bush, Clinton, etc.) claimed the power to completely and almost unilaterally alter the landscape of this country for good or for ill. The powers that have been amassed by each successive president through the negligence of Congress and the courts—powers which add up to a toolbox of terror for an imperial ruler—empower whoever occupies the Oval Office to act as a dictator, above the law and beyond any real accountability. The presidency itself has become an imperial one with permanent powers.
Militarized police became a power unto themselves, 911 calls turned deadly, and traffic stops took a turn for the worse. Lacking in transparency and accountability, protected by the courts and legislators, and rife with misconduct, America’s police forces continued to be a menace to the citizenry and the rule of law. Despite concerns about the government’s steady transformation of local police into a standing military army, local police agencies acquired even more weaponry, training and equipment suited for the battlefield. Police officers were also given free range to pull anyone over for a variety of reasons and subject them to forced cavity searches, forced colonoscopies, forced blood draws, forced breath-alcohol tests, forced DNA extractions, forced eye scans, forced inclusion in biometric databases.
The courts failed to uphold justice. With every ruling handed down, it becomes more apparent that we live in an age of hollow justice, with government courts more concerned with protecting government agents than upholding the rights of “we the people.” This is true at all levels of the judiciary, but especially so in the highest court of the land, the U.S. Supreme Court, which is seemingly more concerned with establishing order and protecting government agents than with upholding the rights enshrined in the Constitution. A review of critical court rulings over the past two decades, including some ominous ones by the U.S. Supreme Court, reveals a startling and steady trend towards pro-police state rulings by an institution concerned more with establishing order and protecting the ruling class and government agents than with upholding the rights enshrined in the Constitution.
COVID-19 allowed the Emergency State to expand its powers. What started out as an apparent effort to prevent a novel coronavirus from sickening the nation (and the world) became yet another means by which world governments (including our own) could expand their powers, abuse their authority, and further oppress their constituents. While COVID-19 took a significant toll on the nation emotionally, physically, and economically, it also allowed the government to trample our rights in the so-called name of national security, with talk of mass testing for COVID-19 antibodies, screening checkpoints, contact tracing, immunity passports, forced vaccinations, snitch tip lines and onerous lockdowns.
The Surveillance State rendered Americans vulnerable to threats from government spies, police, hackers and power failures. Thanks to the government’s ongoing efforts to build massive databases using emerging surveillance, DNA and biometrics technologies, Americans have become sitting ducks for hackers and government spies alike. Billions of people have been affected by data breaches and cyberattacks. On a daily basis, Americans have been made to relinquish the most intimate details of who we are—our biological makeup, our genetic blueprints, and our biometrics (facial characteristics and structure, fingerprints, iris scans, etc.)—in order to navigate an increasingly technologically-enabled world.
America became a red flag nation. Red flag laws, specifically, and pre-crime laws generally push us that much closer towards a suspect society where everyone is potentially guilty of some crime or another and must be preemptively rendered harmless. Where many Americans go wrong is in naively assuming that you have to be doing something illegal or harmful in order to be flagged and targeted for some form of intervention or detention. In fact, all you need to do these days to end up on a government watch list or be subjected to heightened scrutiny is use certain trigger words (like cloud, pork and pirates), surf the internet, communicate using a cell phone, limp or stutter, drive a car, stay at a hotel, attend a political rally, express yourself on social media, appear mentally ill, serve in the military, disagree with a law enforcement official, call in sick to work, purchase materials at a hardware store, take flying or boating lessons, appear suspicious, appear confused or nervous, fidget or whistle or smell bad, be seen in public waving a toy gun or anything remotely resembling a gun (such as a water nozzle or a remote control or a walking cane), stare at a police officer, question government authority, appear to be pro-gun or pro-freedom, or generally live in the United States. Be warned: once you get on such a government watch list—whether it’s a terrorist watch list, a mental health watch list, a dissident watch list, or a red flag gun watch list—there’s no clear-cut way to get off, whether or not you should actually be on there.
The cost of policing the globe drove the nation deeper into debt.America’s war spending has already bankrupted the nation to the tune of more than $20 trillion dollars. Policing the globe and waging endless wars abroad hasn’t made America—or the rest of the world—any safer, but it has made the military industrial complex rich at taxpayer expense. The U.S. military reportedly has more than 1.3 million men and women on active duty, with more than 200,000 of them stationed overseas in nearly every country in the world. Yet America’s military forces aren’t being deployed abroad to protect our freedoms here at home. Rather, they’re being used to guard oil fields, build foreign infrastructure and protect the financial interests of the corporate elite. In fact, the United States military spends about $81 billion a year just to protect oil supplies around the world. This is how a military empire occupies the globe. Meanwhile, America’s infrastructure is falling apart.
Free speech was dealt one knock-out punch after another.Protest laws, free speech zones, bubble zones, trespass zones, anti-bullying legislation, zero tolerance policies, hate crime laws, shadow banning on the Internet, and a host of other legalistic maladies dreamed up by politicians and prosecutors (and championed by those who want to suppress speech with which they might disagree) conspired to corrode our core freedoms, purportedly for our own good. On paper—at least according to the U.S. Constitution—we are technically free to speak. In reality, however, we are only as free to speak as a government official—or corporate entities such as Facebook, Google or YouTube—may allow. The reasons for such censorship varied widely from political correctness, so-called safety concerns and bullying to national security and hate crimes but the end result remained the same: the complete eradication of free speech.
The Deep State took over. The American system of representative government has been overthrown by the Deep State—a.k.a. the police state a.k.a. the military/corporate industrial complex—a profit-driven, militaristic corporate state bent on total control and global domination through the imposition of martial law here at home and by fomenting wars abroad. The “government of the people, by the people, for the people” has perished. In its place is a shadow government, a corporatized, militarized, entrenched bureaucracy that is fully operational and staffed by unelected officials who are, in essence, running the country and calling the shots in Washington DC, no matter who sits in the White House. Mind you, by “government,” I’m not referring to the highly partisan, two-party bureaucracy of the Republicans and Democrats. Rather, I’m referring to “government” with a capital “G,” the entrenched Deep State that is unaffected by elections, unaltered by populist movements, and has set itself beyond the reach of the law. This is the hidden face of a government that has no respect for the freedom of its citizenry. This shadow government, which “operates according to its own compass heading regardless of who is formally in power,” makes a mockery of elections and the entire concept of a representative government.
The takeaway: Everything the founders of this country feared has come to dominate in modern America. “We the people” have been saddled with a government that is no longer friendly to freedom and is working overtime to trample the Constitution underfoot and render the citizenry powerless in the face of the government’s power grabs, corruption and abusive tactics.
So how do you balance the scales of justice at a time when Americans are being tasered, tear-gassed, pepper-sprayed, hit with batons, shot with rubber bullets and real bullets, blasted with sound cannons, detained in cages and kennels, sicced by police dogs, arrested and jailed for challenging the government’s excesses, abuses and power-grabs, and then locked down and stripped of any semblance of personal freedom?
No matter who sits in the White House, politics won’t fix a system that is broken beyond repair.
For that matter, protests and populist movements also haven’t done much to push back against an authoritarian regime that is deaf to our cries, dumb to our troubles, blind to our needs, and accountable to no one.
So how do you not only push back against the government’s bureaucracy, corruption and cruelty but also launch a counterrevolution aimed at reclaiming control over the government using nonviolent means?
You start by changing the rules and engaging in some (nonviolent) guerilla tactics.
Take your cue from the Tenth Amendment and nullify everything the government does that flies in the face of the principles on which this nation was founded. If there is any means left to us for thwarting the government in its relentless march towards outright dictatorship, it may rest with the power of juries and local governments to invalidate governmental laws, tactics and policies that are illegitimate, egregious or blatantly unconstitutional.
In an age in which government officials accused of wrongdoing—police officers, elected officials, etc.—are treated with general leniency, while the average citizen is prosecuted to the full extent of the law, nullification is a powerful reminder that, as the Constitution tells us, “we the people” are the government.
What really needs to happen
The folk running the government are all really blatant with their criminal actions. They perform the crimes and do it openly and brazenly, while the rest of us do hard time for the slightest offense. This needs to end.
A Saudi execution.
Other opinions
Most websites that have the term “opin” in the title, like “Opinion watcher”, and “Opinion tracker”, and Opinseach says it NOT TRUE, or overly hyped and questionable …
Pah! At most, there will be some token legislation that will be directed at innocent civilians, and none of the oligarchy or upper class will be affected.
America today. You are fucked.
And the sheeple yawn.
The signs are all there.
An out of control oligarchy class, a nation of mind-numbed serf/slave sheeple, high technology weapons and 70 years without fighting a peer-capable nation. What the fuck do you think is gonna happen?
I’m just an old tired, pissed off grouch. So hear me out…
Random thoughts of a pissed-off citizen
Let me start with this…
America today.
.
Today, Americas are the proverbial frog in the pot of boiling water. And the frog is truly cooked.
But that really doesn’t do America justice. I think the Norma Desmond does…
America today.
.
America is truly at that uncomfortable stage when [1] it’s past the time when any realistic solutions to the problems of America can be remedied, and [2] too early to shoot and hang the bastards.
Come on!
Just look at your life now, compared to what it was just a few years ago. It is different because your matured and got older? Or is it because of society? Or is it because of the government making laws, and rules, one after another like a “tommygun”…?
Remember when?
Why is this important?
Because there just isn’t any “free press” left in America.
There simply isn’t anyone doing anything to police the crooks that run the nation.
Zilch.
And as a result the nation is wholly out of control, and careening wildly down the tracks.
The “news” is a for-profit mechanism. It is owned by the government. Alternatives to the “news” are also bought out and owned by the government. Trying to find “news” on the internet is like trying to go to the desert to find a pool to swim in. You might be lucky, but most of the time you will not.
You tell ’em George.
So.
So what is going to happen? Do you seriously think that this Wikileak is going to make a difference?
Metallicman Comments
It’s like the scene from the movie “Aliens”, when they discover this little girl named Newt. And they tell her not to worry. The Imperial Space marines are there to protect her and save the say. And she looks up at Ripley and replies “it won’t make any difference”.
Ripley: These people are here to protect you. They're soldiers.
Newt: It won't make any difference.
Newt.
.
I think that the scene is very apt.
Personally, my take on this is that it’s all too late, and at this stage in the game, it’s all just theater. It’s just spin and “bread and circuses” for the sheeple. So what if the rich and famous get caught with “their hand in the cookie jar“, or their “dirty linen is aired“, or that the “skeletons in the closet” are brought out into the open. Ain’t nothing gonna happen.
So what?
So what if everyone sees all the dirty laundry of the people who run the government. Nothing is going to happen to them.
There won’t be any big uprisings. There won’t be any outcries or public shows of remorse or hearings. There won’t even be any “blue panel” investigative committees. Nothing is going to happen. And nothing is going to change. The vector; the trajectory that the USA is on right now is not going to slow down, alter course or change direction. No brakes will be applied.
The USA is fucked.
The USA today is like an old commode that is just full of shit.
It is a thick stew of brown shit that should have been flushed away centuries ago, and not, the weight of that shit is starting to go down the pipe. You know, you can only hold just so much water before the commode just automatically flushes.
America today.
.
And it’s starting to move. With a shudder…
But it’s gonna be a long drawn out flush.
Maybe, and probably, take years….
And then the fat pig-like crapper is going to sit on it one last time, and lay a big fat load directed at some external villain or threat, and the entire commode is going to crack and explode.
Yah. That’s what’s going to happen.
There are no citizen-soldiers or patriots in the USA any longer. Just sheeple, and pretend wanna-be Rambos.
Soon. Very soon.
.
How do we know?
Just look at what Americans have become. Google “People of walmart“.
Perhaps a renaming is in order…
Maybe the United States should be renamed. I suggest “commode” might be the most appropriate. Because that is what it resembles today. One giant, filthy, full of shit, old, broken down commode.
People! Do you actually believe that this kind of news represents a healthy nation? Do you believe that the news in the rest of the world looks like this, but only in a different language? No.
No.
Hell… NO!
People, the oligarchy that runs the USA are all playing you for fools. And you are all standing around and taking it.
Grumblings continue but nothing ever happens.
The grumblings have been going on for a long, long time. It certainly pre-dates Metallicman, and everything it looked like people were going to rise up and overthrow the bastards, suddenly a war would crop up.
…
The deep-state murdered John F. Kennedy…
People started to grumble and get concerned, and stockpiles of weapons were purchased…
…and the Vietnam war happened.
You know.
For “democracy”.
…
When Bill Clinton started to break every law in the book and get away with it, numerous prepping sites discussed using code on beepers to communicate their plans. In those days it was believed that the people would rise up against a tyrannical government.
In fact, Bill Clinton clamped down on many freedoms and liberties that the conservatives held dearly. The ban on “assault guns” really upset many conservatives. So when Bush came to office…
… a war in the Middle East against Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, etc…
…
Wars are the big distraction that the oligarchy class uses to control the mob. And as time moves on, and their crimes get larger, more “in your face”, more obvious and outrageous, then the larger the war of distraction must be…
…before the grumblings become overt and dangerous.
Oh such short memories
There was a time when “preppers” readied for the “big uprising” by contemplating communicating using pagers to send messages back and forth. Of course nothing came of this, but the point is, that maybe it should have.
…
.
When you look at the bigger picture, one that spans decades, you can see that the parallels between slave and owner, between serf and overseer, and between king and subjects all exist in America today.
Of course nothing ever came of this potential revolt, but the disgust and upset runs long and deep in certain elements of American social strata. I’ve lived long enough to know that if you let the roast in the oven too long that it gets burnt to a crisp and becomes uneatable.
Let’s see just what the flash point will be.
Right now it looks like America has the flash point of water instead of kerosene.
But, you know, most Americans are too dumbed down to know or care what lies ahead…
Yah! If you think it is bad now, just keep in mind that this is just the beginning.
There is no telling what evil plans the oligarchy in Washington has planned for their slave / serf minions.
So many times, when I devote posts like this, I feel that my fellow Americans believe that I really should be talking in a language that they can understand. You know, like Dr. Lexus here…
Dr. Lexus.
The USA cannot continue like this for much longer.
Not for much longer. No it cannot.
It has gotten this far by being the sole world reserve currency, and as such, it has been printing money like crazy. Just look at the American debt today.
Meanwhile the rest of the world sees this debt with a look of horror and are taking steps to avoid the trap of the looming USD collapse…
Do you actually believe that you are insulated and won’t feel the effects of this?
Ah. Lisa.
She makes some good points.
Here’s another one of hers…
She’s good, but think about this all.
The whole, entire picture.
There is a reason why that big invasion fleet that Trump sent to China in the Summer of 2020 steamed home. And no, it wasn’t because of it completed it’s mission of intimidation” either. You have three enormous, expensive carriers with nuclear power supplies and suddenly all the electronics goes hay-wire and the nuclear systems start to SCRAM. And they just cannot. Three expensive carriers and the nuclear piles start to go into meltdown.
Not one shot being fired.
All three carriers were heading towards a Chernobyl moment.
CHINA. DOES. NOT. PLAY.
Well. Do you think that the Oligarchy learned anything…?
Not likely.
Soon it will be Russia! Russia! Russia!. .
My bet is that it’s going to get really ugly at about that time.
An observant reader…
The following is from an observant reader…
I just looked in to some of the wiki leaks on MM website. At first, I was looking as fast as I could thinking the pages would be erased. Then, it got me wondering.... if they ARE leaking top secret hush hush info, surely the US would know and act accordingly.
The more I look at them I see something off. They are all archived on the same date. The year they are archived sticks out only because it’s the year I was born, 1984. My first thought was, maybe this is how delicate info is stores and coded. But, why 1984? Then it hit me.... George Orwell’s 1984. Is this Just another political agenda-ed pawn movement?
Trump is exclaiming this was apart of his plan to expose our corrupt government. He wanted to make sure it was done while he’s still in office. If this was his shadiwork, at this point idk if he did it for the American people or he’s salty he lost. (Funny but true, Geminis are sore losers)
Observation and discernment are the keys to understanding MM. Not everything is permitted to be said, and not everything is understood.
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This post is exactly what the title says. It discusses ways and techniques for a single person to disable an armed technical using only a hunting rifle. It requires the use of stealth so that the shooter can extract a clip of ammo and then egress out of the area immediately afterwards. This is part of my SHTF series, and discusses techniques and means that a person can survive when their entire world is turned upside-down.
Again, this is a post by request. I want to get off the SHTF nonsense, but I find that one of my posts hit the American prepper blog-a-sphere and went exceptional. Since then, I have been getting some requests. So I'm dusting off a few misc post that I need to push out there. I guess that now is the time. I guess.
People!
Keep in mind that most Americans are good. It is an illusion that those at the other side of the political spectrum are evil, or that Chinese are evil, or that Russians are evil. Most people are not. Those that are pushing for a war...
...they are the evil ones.
You all should stop contemplating fighting each other, and both gang up against the wealthy oligarchy playing you all as fools. They are the ones driving this entire nightmare and pushing it to it's ultimate conclusion.
The world turning upside-down is in process right now. Some areas are worse than others, but the United States is pretty much a “basket case”.
We need to look at other places, other times, other events from the lens of history. And much of what we must read is from sources outside the United States. For the United States media has created insulated “echo chambers” fully intending to keep Americans like mushrooms; in the dark.
Learn from the events outside of the USA, and discard that very popular saying that “America is special, it is exceptional, it is different”. It’s a lie. America is not immune to change. And it is long overdue. Change is coming and you all had best gather all your strength to deal with it.
Learn from other nations and what they have experienced.
Businessman shot and killed by gunfire in the early days of the Bosnian conflict.
.
You need to be prepared. No one can predict the future, and it is my sincere hope that history does not repeat itself. Bu you all should be well aware of history and of similar situations that seem to resemble what is now building up inside of America today.
You need to be prepared.
Know your history.
Ad hoc road block established to thwart an attack.
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Be prepared. Part of that is personal. With food, gun training, ammo, and contingency plans. But part of it goes beyond that. Clan up with a group. Know your neighbors in a good and strong way. Identify who will collect your name on a list and be very wary of them. Identify what your weaknesses are and mitigate your concerns.
Do not be like the Bosnian’s who fled their villages for the woods, and then who were hunted down over the next few months by aggressive and very motivated irregulars. It didn’t work out well for them. Don’t allow history to repeat itself.
Don’t be like the villagers in Bosnia who fled and ran into the woods when troops came to collect the women and take them to the (newly established) rape complexes in the cities.
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One of the most important things that you can do is know how to suppress a technical. Their role is to suppress you, and others while active regulars go house to house seizing people.
If you can take down a technical, you will go a long way to suppress their activity, and even gain control of the situation. Realize that the technical is the major source of power in these excursions. Take out the technical, and the leadership and the attack and assault will more than likely break.
What is a “technical”
A technical is a type of improvised fighting vehicle, typically a civilian or military non-combat vehicle, modified to provide an offensive capability similar to a military gun truck. It is usually an open-backed civilian pickup truck or four-wheel drive vehicle mounting a machine gun, light anti-aircraft gun, recoilless rifle, or other support weapon.
Usually it consists of a medium machine gun to heavy machine gun mounted on the bed of a small pickup truck. The vehicle is usually (mostly) unarmored, and the advantage of the technical is rapid mobility while producing substantial small arms firepower.
A basic “technical” vehicle.
The Toyota pickup truck seems to be a very common platform from which to mount medium and heavy machine guns. Notice that aside from the gun mount, there is very little other modifications. There might be a large ammo box in the bed of the truck for ammo, and maybe a gas can or two, but that is about it. Usually the vehicles aren’t even painted.
Here’s another technical that is very similar to the photo above. But if you look closely you can see differences. And you all should know that one is in Syria while the other was in Libya.
Another basic “Technical” vehicle.
These next two technical vehicles both have an armored shield mounted with the machine gun. They offer protection from defensive fire that originates from the target. In most cases the weapon of choice will be a medium to heavy machine gun, and supports, or is supported by a squad of regulars.
Notice that the technical would typically include a crew of three.
A driver.
A machine gunner.
And someone riding “shotgun”.
Yet another basic technical vehicle.
Cautions and limitations
Just because you see something on the internet doesn’t mean that it is wholly and completely accurate. Every person, every situation, every location, and every war is different. You just can’t simply rely on MM here to provide accurate life or death intel. And so don’t. This is just and only an introduction. If you have nothing else to go on, you can use what is printed herein as a guide to help illuminate a path to take to resolve a problem that could very well occur.
Just keep in mind that were a SHTF event to occur, it is highly likely that technicals will be involved. Being a “lone wolf” defending your homestead without a clan or a group of people for support will be lethal. A technical will be used to frighten, harass, scare, threaten, and destroy from a distance. It is not something that you can view as an after thought. It is something that you need to prepare for.
When a technical rolls into you small town or hamlet, will you be able and equipped to suppress it and immobilize it?
How they are used
In an anticipated North American SHTF situation (which is pretty much why we are discussing this) these vehicles will more than likely used by progressive Marxists to suppress the countryside. As such they will be used to…
Secure major intersections, bridges, and points of interest.
Secure “high ground” prior to a larger assault.
Capture or suppress key minor-defended targets.
Which should not be a real surprise. Of course they will be used in this role to provide quick and mobile weapons platforms. But what most civilians will need to be concerned about is as a supporting role in local assaults in small villages and hamlets.
Harass the civilian population. Cause them to break and be unable to provide a strong unified defense.
The technicals would be used to scare and chase away civilians and cause them to scatter in the directions that they choose. Eventually rounding up and herding the populace towards collection points where others would secure the people for relocation to “safe areas”. You can well guess what these “safe areas” are.
If you can, avoid boarding the trucks to take you to a “safe area”. History clearly shows that the likelihood of you and your family surviving in those conditions is small.
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You don’t want to board the cattle cars, hop into the trucks, or be in any way carted off by agents of the enemy.
When Bosnian Serb forces broke through two years later, about 15,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys fled into the woods. And twice as many terrified residents rushed to the U.N. compound in what was formerly an industrial zone at the entrance to town, in the hope that Dutch U.N. peacekeepers would protect them.
However, the outgunned peacekeepers watched helplessly as Serb troops took around 2,000 men and boys from the compound for execution...
... while bussing the women and young girls to Bosnian government-held territory.
Meanwhile, in the woods around Srebrenica, Serb soldiers hunted the fleeing Bosniaks, as Bosnian Muslims are otherwise known, killing them one by one.
The killers sought to hide evidence of the genocide, piling most of the bodies into hastily made mass graves, which they subsequently dug up with bulldozers and scattered the bodies across numerous burial sites.
In the years since, bodies have been unearthed and the victims identified through DNA testing. About 1,000 victims remain to be found.
A special U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague and courts in the Balkans have sentenced close to 50 Bosnian Serbs, including their top civilian war-time leader, Radovan Karadzic, and his military commander, Ratko Mladic, to more than 700 years in prison for Srebrenica crimes.
-Seattle Times
British forces helping collect women and loading them into trucks “for their protection”. Of course, we all know the price that the young women had to pay for that kind of safety.
An estimated 30,000 Muslim refugees packed around the Dutch peacekeeping base in Potocari, just north of Srebrenica, after Bosnian Serb forces seized the 'safe area'. Mladic sought to calm them, telling the crowd they did not need to be afraid.
Bosnian Serb forces put the frightened refugees on to buses to leave. Many of the refugees were evacuated to Kladanj, 30 miles away on the edge of government-held territory.
The UN noticed that most of the refugees arriving from Srebrenica were women, children, and the elderly and became concerned about the fate of the men.
Over the week that followed the fall of Srebrenica, a total of about 8,000 men and boys from the enclave are estimated to have been killed by Bosnian Serb forces in detention or while trying to flee through the woods.
Men were crammed into warehouses, schools and barns in the area outside Srebrenica. They were shot and their bodies were dumped in mass graves. Serb forces subsequently dug up the bodies and scattered them in a systematic effort to conceal the crime. UN war crimes investigators later excavated the mass graves, but over 1,000 bodies are still missing.
-Srebrenica massacre anniversary: Europe's worst atrocity since the Nazis
During this up coming SHTF event, it would be prudent to trust no-one. Absolutely trust no one. Instead rely on your wits, family and closest friends. In times like these betrayal becomes normal. Expect it.
The After Picture.
Remains of the men who obeyed the troops, the police, and the advise of the political personages that were directing the entire situation “to keep order”.
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Now that you have seen the “after” pictures, let me present to you the “before” pictures. They say that a picture can say a 1000 words. Well, these two pictures taken together should speak volumes. Do not let, or allow, anyone to take you or your family to a “safe area”. No matter what it is called. FEMA camp, “holding area”, “rest area”, “UN compound”, just don’t allow it to happen.
The “before” picture. How the men were rounded up and led to a place for their protection…
The before picture. The round-up of men and women will be orderly. They will say that they will take you to a safe area; an area of peace and quiet. You know one that they have the control and you do not.
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In order for you to avoid the “after picture”, you need to avoid the “before picture“. Don’t you agree?
Other Applications
These technical vehicles can often hold much larger weapons. Typically they are anti-aircraft guns, and other such weapons. They will be able to reduce a house to rubble. We need not quibble about the size of the weapon, or predict what will be made available when. What we do know is that powerful forces are accumulating large stocks of military grade weapons for the progressive Marxists to use. My guess is that this is going to be much more than rifles, machine guns and rocket launchers.
The prepared prepper needs to be ready for anything.
Technical with a mounted anti-aircraft platform.
And let’s not get all too hung up on terminology either.
A technical is a light improvised fighting vehicle, typically an open-backed civilian pickup truck or four-wheel drive vehicle mounting a heavy weapon, such as a machine gun, anti-aircraft gun, rotary cannon, anti-tank weapon, anti-tank gun, ATGM, mortar, howitzer, multiple rocket launcher, or recoilless rifle, operating similar to a light (unarmored) military gun truck.
-wikipedia
Light improvised fighting vehicles date back to the first use of automobiles, and to the horse-drawn tachankas mounting machine guns in eastern Europe and Russia.
Machine guns are commonly mounted on fast attack vehicles such as technicals to provide heavy mobile firepower, armored vehicles such as tanks for engaging targets too small to justify use of the primary weaponry or too fast to effectively engage with it, and on aircraft as defensive armament or for strafing ground targets, though on fighter aircraft true machine guns have mostly been supplanted by large-caliber rotary guns.
Technicals are typically fitted with heavy machine guns (especially the DShK and M2 Browning).
Also mounted are anti-aircraft artillery (usually the ZPU or ZU-23-2) AA guns.
It is not uncommon to see recoilless rifles (usually the SPG-9 or M40 recoilless rifle) on such vehicles, as they now become able to take down light armored vehicles and provide HE rounds to destroy houses and fortifications.
Technical with a recoilless rifle.
Additionally, multiple rocket launchers (such as the Type 63 multiple rocket launcher or the M-63 Plamen) have been seen on these vehicles.
In the 2012 Syrian civil war, the Syrian government said rebels used the gun mounted on cars.
Technical mounting a quad rocket launcher.
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Here’s a great PDF writeup on having mounted rocket launchers on technicals.
Makeshift rocket launchers, whether converted from existing rocket pods or of an entirely improvised design, have featured in conflicts in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, the former Yugoslavia, Georgia, Libya and, most recently, the ongoing conflict in Syria.
Most prominent amongst the rockets used in this manner are those of the Soviet (later Russian) S-5 series.
Over the past half a century, these rockets became one of the standard weapons for the majority of Soviet and later Russian combat aircraft and helicopters. Although Soviet forces began to supplement, and in some cases replace, S-5 rockets in many roles with the larger 80 mm S-8 series in the 1970s, the S-5 remains commonplace amongst the armed forces of many countries, particularly in the developing world.
S-5 rockets continue to be used in both the conventional manner and in improvised launchers. In many cases, improvised systems based around surface-to-air rockets are employed as makeshift multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS), often in a standalone manner.
Launchers in this configuration appear to be used predominantly for indirect fire support, and make use of improvised weapons mounts allowing high elevation.
In other cases, such systems are employed in the direct fire support role. In these cases, the weapons may be used to supplement existing vehicle armaments, or in a standalone fashion.
Launchers used like this are often pintle-mounted, or mounted in a fixed or coaxial position. In at least one documented example, an improvised S-5 system was claimed to be used in an anti-helicopter role. It is also important to note the existence of other systems, including both towed and immobile launchers, remotely-operated systems mounted on radio-controlled vehicles, and man-portable single-tube launchers, including shoulder-fired examples.
Why is is important?
Well, unless you are able to respond back to an aggressive force strongly, they will destroy everything. Then, they will come back and collect the survivors. And the results will not be pretty.
Arkan’s Tigers kill Bosnian Muslim civilians during the first battle for Bosnia in Bijeljina, Bosnia, March 31, 1992. The Serbian paramilitary unit was responsible for killing thousands of people during the Bosnian war, and Arkan was later indicted for war crimes. This image and the series that accompanies it were used for evidence in the International War Crimes Tribunal for the indictment and conviction of Serbian leaders.
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When you encounter an armed aggressive force using technicals, understand that it will involve groups of armed insurgents, of which the technical will provide a supporting role. You will need to be calm, steely, and composed. Then you need to carefully identify your targets and with a fixed mind eliminate them.
There will be bedlam everywhere. Shooting, screaming, cries, explosions, fires and smoke. Do not be shaken.
Some technicals will typically fitted with heavy machine guns (especially the DShK and M2 Browning), anti-aircraft artillery (usually the ZPU or ZU-23-2), recoilless rifles (usually the SPG-9 or M40 recoilless rifle), or multiple rocket launchers (such as the Type 63 multiple rocket launcher or the M-63 Plamen).
They can completely and absolutely destroy a small town or community. Being a lone wolf will be lethal.
Burning homes in Bosina. The rural areas were terribly exposed. The aggressors would go after people on a list that they compiled, and if that person was in a small town or hamlet, they completely gutted the entire area.
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The SPG-9 can typically be found mounted on a wide variety of vehicles known as “technicals” in Somalia.
Great resources on this matter
There are military handbooks for this kind of thing. If you have the ability, I would strongly urge you to read and consult those handbooks if you can find them.
A Muslim in Bijelina, Bosnia begs for his life after capture by Arkan’s Tigers in the spring of 1992.
The suggested methods
Remember that during this period of time, long before any shooting starts, the intention of a technical in your region is to kill.
That is it’s primary purpose. It’s secondary purpose is to destroy, and the third purpose is to intimidate.
Technicals are often used to transport people when not engaged as a weapons platform.
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Your ideal situation is to disable the technical before it gets into a position of control. What ever that might be. If you can disable the technical before it can get to a staging location, or set up a firing zone, then you have completely thrown a “monkey wrench” into the assault plans. You want this.
There are numerous was to disable a technical. In no particular order they are;
Immobilize it. (Shoot off it’s tires, destroy the radiator, muck up the gas, destroy the battery.)
Kill or disable the driver. While anyone can drive a pickup truck, if you steal the keys, it will be rather hard to move the vehicle.
Render the weapon inoperable. Either deny it ammo, remove the firing mechanism or clog the barrel.
Kill or disable the gunner. Again, you might need to eliminate numerous people, as one person after the other might attempt to man the gun.
Yah, I get it. Duh!
Now, reread the list. Remember DO NOT ALLOW THE ENEMY to define the time, or the place, or the rules of engagement. When you do, you provide him the keys to success. Do not fight a defensive war. Fight an offensive war.
Destroyed Technical.
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You have an opportunity during the beginning stages of a conflict to disable the weapons systems, and the techinicals that you enemy is planning on using. It is at this time that he is vulnerable. He is not expecting anything. You need to eliminate the treat, or mitigate the enormity of the threat long before it manifests.
Read that list again.
If you have failed, and the enemy has decided to attack your community with technicals, then you need to still play offense. But only it will be much harder. You will need to have the technical say in a fixed location for enough time for you to attack it. And then, again, disable it so that it cannot move, and then once disabled, attack the gunner.
Do not be intimidated by the presence of this vehicle. Because that is it’s intended purpose.
Advisement’s for America during SHTF
We cannot predict what will happen in the United States. Certainly one half of the nation if pitted against the other half. And both are being gloated on by wealthy interests. Bu I would advised to shake off all of your misconceptions about who the “enemy” is. They are wrong.
Do not expect that the vehicles rolling into your hamlet will be machine-shop modified technicals. They might be pristine, off the factory floor, custom designed technicals designed for the American battle arena. Be wary. Be frosty.
Do not expect that the vehicles rolling into your hamlet will be machine-shop modified technicals. They might be pristine, off the factory floor, custom designed technicals designed for the American battle arena. Be wary. Be frosty.
Conclusion
It is highly likely that if a SHTF event were to occur in the United States, that urban youth would stream out from “blue controlled” areas and invade the surrounding countryside.
They will have lists and will target those on the lists as their key focus of attacks.
Then they would take on a secondary role. This would be to round up all the people and stream them towards “safe areas” which they control.
Only they won’t really be safe. They will be traps and those going there will expect historically bad treatment, and death.
Technicals form the core “heart” of an insurgency movement. It is used for transport as well as a gun platform. By taking it out, you are best able to gain control of the situation.
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To control the countryside they will use either existing armored vehicles as part of the DHS, and other alphabet organizations, or “home grown” technicals.
This article focuses on the technical, which is a lightly armored weapons platform that is key to controlling wide areas of contentious population. And remember…
People!
Keep in mind that most Americans are good. It is an illusion that those at the other side of the political spectrum are evil, or that Chinese are evil, or that Russians are evil. Most people are not. Those that are pushing for a war... they are the evil ones.
You all should stop contemplating fighting each other, and both gang up against the wealthy oligarchy playing you all as fools.
Alt-Right are not evil.
Alt-Left are not evil.
Those that are pushing hatred towards others that have different views from you; they are the evil ones!
And one last point…
Perhaps Mike Pompeo would be less inclined to start and fight a war, if he took a couple of tabs of acid, drank some icy cold beers, and sat down and talked deeply about the purpose of life with one of his “enemies”. We all need to chill out, and communicate. That’s a fact, Jack.
Idea: In a small scale social experiment by Heineken, as part of their ad campaign, 3 pairs of complete strangers with (secretly) wildly-differing views went to a warehouse. There, they built various constructions in pairs and asked each other questions that were prepared in advance by the event organizers. In the end, everyone finds out that their partner had completely opposite beliefs than their own. Everyone then decides if they want to talk to their partner over a bottle of beer.
Result: Among the 3 pairs of participants there was a supporter of the climate change theory and an skeptic; a feminist and a man holding conservative views; and a transgender individual, as well as a man against gender reassignment. In the end, friendship and curiosity prevailed, as every single person decided to drink a beer together, chatted, got to know each other, and deepened their knowledge about the questions they thought they had all figured out.
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I’m going to lay off this stuff about the American shit-a-storm a-brewing. It’s a real drag don’t ya know. So this will be my last post on it for a couple of weeks. Instead, I will get back to more positive and productive posts like time-travel, sex at KTV’s, delicious bacon vodka, as well as art, and literature. I’ll bet you all were afraid that I fell into a black hole on all this crap, eh?
Yeah.
I am writing this by request. I sincerely wish that none of this ever comes to pass. Sincerely. I mean, why can't we all get along together. We're all Americans we need to act like it.
There is a movement (political) that is well funded, and organized. They are an offensive movement. That is to say that they want to go on the offensive to enact their desires. It represents about 5% of the population. These are hard-core, alt-Left progressive socialists.
There is a counter movement (political) that is grass-roots and unorganized. They are a defensive movement. They consist of preppers and other survivalists. They have a few organizations, but are pretty disorganized. They are on the defensive. They represent about 5% of the population. They are known as Alt-Right, or Hard-Right or preppers.
Then there is everyone else. And everyone else is being forced to pick sides. I think most people want to be left alone, go to work, and just a return to "normality" what ever that is. This post is for the vast bulk of people who really don't want to align themselves with any movement, just defend their family, and live a quiet life outside the fray. But you know, just because you don't want to partake in politics, doesn't mean that it doesn't want to partake in you.
So, there is a buildup and a gathering storm. You can run and hide, but powerful, wealthy, interests are seemingly desirous of hunting you all down and rooting you all out. And thus this post.
These are defensive techniques for use during a SHTF event and should not be considered to be anything else.
Remember that if all you do is "play defense" you will never "win the game". You must have a strong offensive strategy.
And, if you have the means, go to a nice safe and calm place. I'm thinking Greenland. Don't you know.
You can go ahead and visit numerous prepping and survival websites for advice and recommendations on what to do during a SHTF event. They offer good, solid and reliable information for the well-prepared survivalist. Here, I want to add some of my thoughts into the mix. And rather than duplicate the excellent advice given by others, I will concentrate on other things that might not be so well known.
I have some general knowledge and advice. Some of which might be buried inside some prepper sites, and others that might not be obvious.
Again, the best preparation that you can have is to associate yourself with a community where you are respected and one where you contribute. If that means that you need to become a Mennonite, and change your entire standard and way of living, then make it so. You need to be part of something. Being a “lone wolf” during this anticipated SHTF event is likely to be lethal.
The future will belong to the builders, the creators, the fluid and the flexible, and those that can fit into society. If you cannot, you will not do well in the coming years of shit-storm-a-thon.
Here’s my thoughts on alternative tools that one can use when going into a defensive posture during an extreme societal upset.
Line Of Sight
LOS, or Line of Sight, refers to the simple belief that you need to see something to shoot and hit it. It’s pretty basic, actually. The only way around this is to use really large explosive ordinance, that do not require precision placement.
Selco tells a story about the difficulty in obtaining water. And there was a stream (a river actually) that people would try to go down to to fetch some water. The problem was that it was frequented by snipers, and those that went looking for water often died and stayed there.
If you need to make a water run, wouldn't it be nice to have a two person team do it. One to get the water, and the other to blind all snipers with something. Whether it is smoke, haze, fog, or blinding flashes of light?
This idea that you need to be able to see something to hit it is the reason why there is camouflage clothing, and the like. A good survivalist realizes this and makes sure that he / she is out of sight. “Out of sight, out of mind” as we used to say in Pennsylvania.
But you know, there are other techniques that you can use that will keep you all “out of sight”. And they are not that obvious. The following is something that was used during the Portland Rioters. They would blast these high intensity pulsed strobe lights at the police, effectively blinding them and making it impossible to target anything.
So, legit, we walked into this thing blind, in hindsight it was stupid on our part, I had no idea that they were like that. If it had been a full-blown riot we would not have gone. Bottom line, man, if you had ever given me a scenario like this and said hey, you’re sober, and you have a gun, and somebody is hitting you with a bat and throwing rocks at you that could kill you or put you in a coma, you try to get away but they cut you off with a convoy of vehicles and the assault starts again. They impede your movement and beat you with bats…
Would you shoot?
I’d be like, yeah what fucking planet are you from?
But in all the training that I’ve been through my life, I’ve never been in one where in the first five seconds of the scenario you’re blinded with a strobe light and sprayed with pepper spray…. That changes everything.
They were throwing these rocks from 15 feet back in the crowd, you couldn’t see who the fuck through it, etc. things like that…. It’s just a good talking point for guys that carry concealed, but you need to think through all these different scenarios.
It got way worse after that video ended, they chased us for 11 city blocks. They had a convoy of about 25 vehicles that cut us off at the next intersection, They had scouts on the corner with radios, they had a drone following us, they had a bull horn calling us Nazis, and the crowd was following a red strobe light that was up in the air on a stick, so they would announce Nazis and then people would follow the red strobe light, That video is just the beginning, I’ve got a fucking fractured hand from a baton, everyone of us has black and blue bruises up and down their legs and back, I had a guy spit in my face from 6 inches away, call me a pussy and a coward for not doing anything about it, and then tell me that he was going to find where I live, rape my mother, rape my children in front of me and then kill me.
I’ve never been more angry about something in my fucking life, the level of restraint that it took for us to not fight back in any capacity whether that was with a gun or fists is incredible.
-2020 is the year that the American Civil War got “real”. With shootings, military tactics, and armed insurrection.
The idea here is that the enemy knows that you are in the vicinity. They want to box you in, hit you with bullets, and make it difficult for you to fire back. Rather than use smoke, you would disable their ability to target you with a high-intensity beam of light. I would like to introduce the reader to the High-intensity, Multi-function Portable Strobe Light.
Industrial grade high intensity strobe light.
Strobe lights are used in industry, in photography, and for special purposes. What you want is a portable unit, battery powered. You want one that cycles rather rapidly, at least once a second. Though, I suppose that once every three seconds might actually work. If you can find a sharpshooter that can locate you and target you under three seconds then you are in trouble.
If you are on a budget, you can even make your own.
The basic circuit is really super simple, with a single IC chip. You would need to construct the housing and make it shoot out a matrix array of perhaps fifty LED’s, focuses behind a lens. It requires a basic skill level in soldering electronics, but it doable, that is for certain.
Here is a simple circuit for a single LED, run off a single tiny 6V battery. If you wanted to scale it up you would multiply the (resistor + LED) by fifty, and put them in parallel, and then from pin #3 (Q) it would control the gate on a transistor or FET.
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To control a large array of LED lights, you would take the output of the IC chip at pin #3 (Q) and run it to a FET, and have the power to the LED array handled separately like this…
Where LOAD is the 50 LED array with one resistor to each LED. Q, from pin #3 would come in from the left and enter R. So you would have a 6V battery to operate the strobe, and a 12V batter operate the lights from the strobe. Of course it is super easy to have the 12 V batter run everything, but most of my readership are probably not up to the challenge.
DIY Claymore
Everyone is seemingly in love with the idea of using a nice sleek expensive bullet firing gun during a SHTF event. I call it the Hollywood effect. Here’s a hint; it’s all bullshit.
A gun is useless unless you know how to use it; and use it well under very adverse conditions. People will not start dropping like flies with single shots to the head when you spray an area with suppressive fire. If you believe that, then you are deluding yourself.
You need to hide, be low key, and be part of a crew, or a clan that works together. Then, and only then, you fight as it is necessary. And you fight as a last resort. And you never, ever, go out looking for a fight unless it is absolutely necessary.
But here, we are going to discuss something that is quite different. We are going to discuss “home made claymores”.
Designed to counter human-wave assaults, the Claymore uses a shaped C-4 charge to fire several hundred steel balls into a designated 55-yard killing zone. (Illustration by Gregory Proch)
In the lead-up to World War II József Misznay, a Hungarian army officer and ballistics expert, and German physicist Hubert Schardin formulated the Misznay-Schardin effect, a phenomenon in which the blast from the face of an explosive sheet expands perpendicularly from its surface. Nazi Chancellor Adolf Hitler was particularly interested when fellow Austrian Franz Rudolf Thomanek applied this principle to design shaped charges to defeat tanks and fortifications.
The war ended before Thomanek could perfect his weapon, and information on the Misznay-Schardin effect fell into American hands. Explosives researcher Norman A. MacLeod used it to design a weapon to counter human-wave assaults, such as those waged by Chinese soldiers against Americans in the Korean War. He named his antipersonnel mine the claymore, after the two-handed sword wielded by his Scottish ancestors. The device weighed 5 pounds and shot 700 steel cubes 40 feet.
The U.S. Army wanted something lighter, more efficient and more powerful. Responding to its 1954 request for proposal, researchers at Aerojet Corp. collaborated on a weapon whose C-4 charge could shoot steel balls to an effective range of 55 yards. The Army accepted the claymore in 1956, and factories produced 80,000 per month during the Vietnam War. U.S. soldiers first used them to devastating effect against Viet Cong and North Vietnamese human-wave assaults.
-M18A1 Claymore Mine: Enemy Troops Fall to Pieces
Designed to counter human-wave assaults, the Claymore uses a shaped C-4 charge to fire several hundred steel balls into a designated 55-yard killing zone. (Illustration by Gregory Proch)
Essentially, this weapon is a steel box with a directional charge. The munitions are placed on one side, and the gun-power on the other, so that when ignited, the gunpowder detonates and showers the area with devastation.
I will not get into the details of such a mechanism. You can figure it out on your own, and after a few tries and experimentation you can come up with innovations ranging from electrical denotation, to movement actuated detonation, to time delay activation. It’s all in the electrical circuits, and it’s all very easy to make.
And the decision to use electronics to ignite it isn’t all that difficult either. It’s rather standard stuff. In fact, you can buy off-the-shelf hardware used for home-security systems to trigger the mine is a door is opened, light is turned on, there is motion in front of the area, etc.
A DIY claymore is rather simple to construct, but does require a handyman with some basic skills to fabricate.
Cheap DIY claymore
Here is a description on how to construct a DIY claymore out of a spring loaded rat-trap. It’s found on an Airsoft site, but it works just as well with gunpowder as it does with colored paint.
DIY claymore on the cheap.
I'm cheap, and curious, so rather then spending over $100 on a claymore, I made my own.
Materials required:
Victor Rat trap x2
Victor Mouse trap x1
Small hinge x2
Strong Rip-stop cloth 50cmx 6.5cm (20"x 3")
Wooden shelf 16cm deep by at least 50cm long (6"x 20")
Wood screws (1.5" long)
Green braided fishing line (not mono-filament)
Straight braces X2 (optional)
I used a press-board shelf as that's what I had on hand. If i were to do this again I would definitely suggest a solid wood shelf instead.
Step 1
Prepare the 2 rat traps as follows,
Remove the trigger and trigger arm circled in green
Cut the wooden base at the red marks
BE CAREFUL, these traps are powerful.
Step 2
Rip the length of the shelf to give you pieces as follows,
2x 'A' x 'B' (Pieces 3&4)
2x 'A' x shelf width -'B' (pieces 1&2)
'B' should be equal to the width of the rat trap plus 2x the thickness of the shelf
'A' should be 25cm
Step 3
Assemble the rat traps and Pieces 1&2 ontop of Piece 3 as in the above image. Use screws to fasten in place. The traps will be placed so that they snap outwards. When the trap is armed the bar should be in the center. Leave a space between the two traps. Once you have the traps fastened down cut a piece of scrap from one of the traps to fill in 1cm at the bottom of the gap between the traps.
You can also cut any scrap pieces of wood to fill in the gaps at the ends, this is optional but will give the claymore a little more strength.
Step 4 (optional but highly recommended)
To make safety bars straighten out the trigger bars that you removed in Step 1. Now drill holes in pieces 1&2 so the safety bars can go from top to bottom and hold the bars on the traps in a compressed position.
Step 5
With the traps compressed and the safety bars in place thread the strip of cloth through the traps so that it makes a single loop around both bars. Sew this firmly. I used mono-filament fishing line to do this. The claymore should now look something like this:
Step 6
Fasten Piece 4 on the front of the claymore using the 2 hinges to connect it at the bottom to Piece 2. Put one of the 1.5" screws into Piece 4, 2cm from the top and centered. The screw should be almost all the way through but not quite.
Step 7(Optional)
Fasten the 2 brackets onto the sides of the claymore and sharpen the ends so you can jab it into the ground
Step 8
Now for the part that took me the most time to figure out. How to make a trigger that's secure, but sensitive enough to be used as with a trip wire.
Remove the trigger bar from the mouse trap. Bend a loop into it so that it looks as below.
Use a second piece of wire from the mouse trap to make a small tripwire piece as below.
Use a screw and couple washers to attach the trigger bar to the top of the trap. The screw will go through the loop in the trigger bar. One washer goes below, one above, tighten enough to hold in place but not to impede movement of the trigger bar.
Put the two staples that held the rat trap trigger plates side by side at the end of the long arm of the trigger bar as you can see in this image:
Step9
Attach a small loop of fishing line to the loop on the end of the long arm of the trigger bar. (note, I used twine but found it's wearing out very quickly)
Attach another loop of fishing line to the screw on Piece 4. This loop needs to be just long enough to reach the small arm of the trigger bar.
Attach a long piece of fishing line to the screw on Piece 4. Attach the tripwire piece about 25cm (10") along this line. Tie it on firmly so it won't move at all. I tied the rest of this to the wooden part of the mouse trap and wrapped it around so I had my tripwire and it wouldn't get tangled
Step 10 ARMING THE CLAYMORE
a) Compress the rat traps and install the safety bars.
b) Spread the cloth out and press the center into the gap between the rat traps. Fill it with BBs and fold the excess on top of them to hold them in place.
c) Place the loop of fishing line on Piece 4 over the small arm of the trigger bar.
d) Put the small loop on the long arm of the trigger bar between the two staples.
e) Put the tripwire piece under the staples and through the loop.
f) Place your claymore and run the trip wire, fasten the end of it, or leave it loose so you can pull it by hand.
g) double check the trigger and remove the safety bars
Step 11
Enjoy the surprised yelp as your unseen claymore springs open on some unsuspecting victim.
-Airsoft Canada
Bullet Matchbox
Let’s keep things really simple, we have an even simpler design a “bullet matchbox”.
This mechanism is much simpler. Instead of having to mix and pack gunpowder into a box and then hand-load the projectiles in the front, you simply make a steel box that sits a carton of ammo. Behind the ammo is a striking mechanism. This mechanism can be a simple solenoid, or a spring loaded trigger. And when it is depressed, all the bullets will ignite simultaneously devastating the intruders in front of it.
It does not need any barrels, as this is not precision mechanism. It’s a last ditch emergency device.
And of course, it need not be carefully and precisely manufactured. Any household rat trap will have enough force to hit the pins on the bullets and let fly an arsenal of death.
Infrared viewscopes
We’ve all heard of night vision scopes, but what about infrared vision? These high-tech devices enable you to find camouflaged people regardless as to how well concealed they appear. But what is unknown is how (relatively) inexpensive they have become.
Night Vision
If we’re being technical, this type of night vision scope is called image intensification, or just I2. Obviously, this kind of technology only works at night. This scope gives you the gray and green images you’re used to seeing in movies and television.
It captures bits of light from the environment, such as the moon and stars, and uses a special, electronic tube to magnify that light and project it onto your lens. This is the green image you see.
The images from these scopes are varying shades of green because the human eye can see more shades of green than any other color. This means that green imaging gives you the best, most detailed vision.
The most important thing to remember about night vision is that it won’t work in total darkness. It needs a little bit of light to work its magic, no matter which generation you choose.
– Gen 1 units typically need an infrared illuminator to be useful. These are the least precise, and images are often cloudy and noisy.
– Gen 2 units are better quality and produce brighter, clearer images than Gen 1. These have a short depth of field, however, so you may have to spend time adjusting focus when targets move.
– Gen 3 is the highest quality and offers the best focus and clarity. These are used by law enforcement and some military operations.
A few of the best include: – ATN X-Sight II 5-20 Smart Riflescope – Armasight Nemesis6x-SD Gen 2+ Rifle Scope – ATN Gen 2+ Night Arrow 4-2 Weapon Sight
Infrared and Thermal Scopes
Even though you might see infrared and thermal vision talked about as two separate things, when you’re looking for a scope, they’re basically the same. Most quality scopes will be labeled with “thermal imaging” or something similar, so that’s what you should look for when you’re shopping.
“Night vision” is not the same as “thermal vision”.
A thermal scope works by capturing heat from the environment instead of light. This heat is actually infrared energy, which is why you’ll see both terms used sometimes. Everything in the world produces at least a little bit of infrared energy, so it’s easy to get a clear view of your environment with infrared technology.
Thermal imaging uses a special lens that focuses on infrared light and creates a thermogram. The thermogram is then turned into electrical impulses that become a picture on the screen. The cool thing about thermals is that they can detect the heat given off by any living object.
As opposed to night vision, they do not require ambient light to work. However, they do not require darkness to function either! This means thermals can be used during the day or night as opposed to the other type of optic.
Low End Thermal Imaging
When you view something hot, like humans, animals or running machinery, the image will show up in shades of gray and white with the lightest areas being the hottest or vice versa depending on the scope. Things like trees or buildings will show up as “cooler” images because there is not much energy release happening.
Thermal imaging is very detailed and doesn’t need light to work.
Night vision vs. Thermal imaging.
The most basic thermals have a range of 300 yards for a man-sized heat signature. Mid-level detectors typically have a 500 yard range, and an extender can lengthen that range to 900 yards. The upper-tier, military and law enforcement-grade ones can accurately detect heat over half a mile away.
A few of the best include: – ATN ThOR HD 384 Smart Thermal Riflescope – Armasight Zeus 336 Thermal Imaging Weapon Sight – IR Hunter Mark II Thermal Rifle Scope
High End Thermal Imaging
The High end version of thermal imaging systems display colors. This is very useful in discordant and contentious environments when bursts of clarity are required in a survival situation.
Drones
You can buy drones and they are very useful. They are used now, during riots, as surveillance devices, and mobile place-markers. But they have other uses as well.
Remote-controlled aerial bomb.
Mobile strobe to disorient the enemy.
Recon.
Distraction device. (Speakers, smoke, flashes.)
Additionally, the Chinese have perfected swarm drones.
Drone Swarm
These are available all over China and are used for impressive night-time displays instead of, or in association with, fireworks. America is a bit “behind the ball on this”, and it’s playing a game of “catch up”. As I know, no swarm drones are available to the American citizen as of this writing.
In a SHTF situation, the likelihood of antibiotics and medical care being available is going to be hit and miss. It might be more prudent, in the long term, to equip yourself with weapons that are cheap and easy to provides cuts and holes rather than expensive knock-down ammo. Then when a person has a .22 sized hole in their arm, they will need to deal with infection when there are no antibiotic medications around.
Rather than trying to purchase the biggest and most dangerous weapons you can find, in the belief that stopping power is most important, you should play the “long game”. If it really comes down to a SHTF situation, then there will be two things that will not be available. That is food and medical care. All it takes is for someone with a cut or a bruise to get infected, and they will die. We take antibiotics for granted. We never think about what it would be like when they are unavailable.
Antibiotics can be purchased on line inexpensively.
I would advise a small stockpile just in case.
Antibiotic online. It is possible to buy antibiotics at any time and in any place with the Internet access. Placing an order you will need to indicate your address for the delivery of the drug. Medications are delivered to any place of the planet in no time and there is no need to leave your house in order to get your package.
-Generic Antibiotic Online With No Prescription
Microwave cannons
Sounds like science fiction, eh? Well it’s not, really. The only issue is the range of application. These little monsters will cook a person alive. And are very lethal.
If you can get a hold of a microwave based radar system from an airplane junk yard, it will not be all that difficult to construct your own microwave cannon. The range will be longer, and the effects devastating.
When I was in the Navy I watched a video showing a person walking in front of a jet with it's radar accidentally turned on. That person was fried alive. Just because you cannot see it does not mean that it doesn't exist.
Microwave radar from the front of a military jet.
You can also make you own, though with a pretty short range, out of old microwaves from the kitchen. There’s a reason why the box and front door are shielded like they are.
Here’s a great technique if you want to create a very, well really big bomb. You detonate an expanding cloud of gas, and then (a second or so later) you ignite it. It’s called a Vapor Cloud Explosive (VCE).
Vapor Cloud Explosions (VCEs) The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) defines this phenomenon as : An outdoor vapor cloud explosion is the result of the release of gas, vapor, or mist into the atmosphere, forming a cloud within the fuel’s flammable limits and causing subsequent ignition.
-VaporCloudExplosions (VCEs)
Vapor Cloud Explosions (VCEs)
In military parlance these are called Fuel-Air Explosives [FAE].
Fuel-Air Explosives [FAE] disperse an aerosol cloud of fuel which is ignited by an embedded detonator to produce an explosion. The rapidly expanding wave front due to overpressure flattens all objects within close proximity of the epicenter of the aerosol fuel cloud, and produces debilitating damage well beyond the flattened area. The main destructive force of FAE is high overpressure, useful against soft targets such as minefields, armored vehicles, aircraft parked in the open, and bunkers.
The Marine Corps and Navy withdrew their remaining fuel-air munitions from operational service following Operation Desert Storm. By 1996, the Army’s Operations Support Command transfered the CBU-55 and CBU-72 to demilitarization, and by mid-2001 only a few hundred remained to be demilitarized.
Russia used such “thermobaric” weapons sparingly during the 1994-1996 war in Chechnya. These were employed outside the city of Grozny against villages and mountain positions. Only the RPO-A flame thrower, which has a thermobaric round, was used in fighting in Grozny itself.
When the fighting rekindled in the fall of 1999, Russian forces bombarded some villages in Dagestan with thermobaric bombs, but initially limited their use. When the Russian Army was committed, it slowly advanced across Chechnya’s plains, preceded by conventional artillery fire. The advance, however, stalled when it finally reached Grozny and the mountains.
Conventional artillery could not force out the Chechens and the Russian Army looked for other ways to move them. Two methods were apparently opposed-chemical weapons and thermobaric weapons. The Russian political leadership apparently vetoed the use of chemical weapons, but allowed the use of ground-delivered themobaric weapons. Air-delivered thermobaric systems were only used outside the city.
Fuel/air explosive represent the military application of the vapor cloud explosions and dust explosions accidents that have long bedeviled a variety of industries.
Accidental vapor cloud explosion hazards are of great concern to the refining and chemical processing industry, and a number of catastrophic explosion accidents have had significant consequences in terms of injury, property damage, business interruption, loss of goodwill, and environmental impact.
Every year, many serious explosions and fires occur in industrial plants as a result of dust. Many materials form dust clouds that can easily ignite and explode, injuring personnel and damaging plant. This is a well-known phenomenon in the coal mining, grain storage, and the woodworking and paper industries.
Many miners have been killed and injured and massive production losses have resulted from coal dust explosions in underground coal mining operations. Of the 129 grain dust explosions that occurred nationwide between 1987 and 1997, about half involved corn. Eleven were caused by wheat dust and 10 by dust from soybeans. Billions of tiny, highly combustible particles of grain are generated by grain kernels rubbing together as they move along conveyer belts and shifted between bins. Inside the enclosed chambers, those particles rise in a cloud. When the dust gets in with the right mixture of oxygen and comes in contact with a spark or even an overheated bearing on a conveyer belt, it is extremely explosive.
Almost all organic material in the form of a dust cloud will ignite at temperatures below 500 oC - approximately the same temperature as a newly extinguished match. Cotton, plastics and foodstuffs such as sugar, flour and cocoa can also, under the right conditions, act as explosives. In order for a dust explosion to take place, the dust particles must be of a certain size and the amount of finely granulated material per unit of volume must lie within certain critical values. There is generally a direct correlation between particle size and explosive hazard. The smaller the particle, the more reactive the dust. As the materials become smaller, they disperse and remain suspended more easily, increasing the potential for ignition and propagation of the reaction. Industrial explosion prevention measures include, where possible, providing nitrogen gas purging to ensure that the oxygen concentration is kept below that required for combustion.
For vapor cloud explosion there is a minimum ratio of fuel vapor to air below which ignition will not occur. Alternately, there is also a maximum ratio of fuel vapor to air, at which ignition will not occur. These limits are termed the lower and upper explosive limits. For gasoline vapor, the explosive range is from 1.3 to 6.0% vapor to air, and for methane this range is 5 to 15%. Many parameters contribute to the potential damage from a vapor cloud explosion, including the mass and type of material released, the strength of ignition source, the nature of the release event (e.g., turbulent jet release), and turbulence induced in the cloud (e.g., from ambient obstructions).
TNT generates well over 4,000 psi overpressure in close proximity to the source of the explosion, along with significant radiant heat effects from the explosion's fireball. Conventional high explosive munitions also produce fragments from the munition case, as well as fragments from material in the target area that is broken loose by the high blast overpressures.
Peak pressures created within the detonated fuel-air cloud reach 300 pounds per square inch (psi). Fuel-air munitions create large area loading on a structure as compared to localized loadings caused by an equal weight high explosive charge. High temperatures ignite flammable materials.
There are dramatic differences between explosions involving vapor clouds and high explosives at close distances. For the same amount of energy, the high explosive blast overpressure is much higher and the blast impulse is much lower than that from a vapor cloud explosion. The shock wave from a TNT explosion is of relatively short duration, while the blast wave produced by an explosion of hydrocarbon material displays a relatively long duration. The duration of the positive phase of a shock wave is an important parameter in the response of structures to a blast.
Although the detonation combustion mode produces the most severe damage, fast deflagrations of the cloud can result from flame acceleration under confined and congested conditions. Flame propagation speed has a significant influence on the blast parameters both inside and outside the source volume.
The blast effects from vapor cloud explosions are determined not only by the amount of fuel, but more importantly by the combustion mode of the cloud. Significant overpressures can be generated by both detonations and deflagrations. Most vapor cloud explosions are deflagrations, not detonations.
Flame speed of a deflagration is subsonic, with flame speed increasing in restricted areas and decreasing in open areas. Significantly, a detonation is supersonic, and will proceed through almost all of the available flammable vapor at the detonation reaction rate. This creates far more severe peak over-pressures and much higher amounts of blast energy. The speed of the flame front movement is directly proportional to the amount of blast over-pressure. A wide spectrum of flame speeds may result from flame acceleration under various conditions. High flame front speeds and resulting high blast over pressures are seen in accidental vapor cloud explosions where there is a significant amount of confinement and congestion that limits flame front expansion and increases flame turbulence. These conditions are evidently more difficult to achieve in the unconfined environment in which military fuel-air explosives are intended to operate.
Based on the known properties of flammable substances and explosives, it is possible to use conservative assumptions and calculate the maximum distance at which an overpressure or heat effect of concern can be detected. Distances for potential impacts could be derived using the following calculation method [described in Flammable Gases and Liquids and Their Hazards]:
D = C x (nE)1/3
where D is the distance in meters to a 1 psi overpressure; C is a constant for damages associated with 1 psi overpressures or 0.15, n is a yield factor of the vapor cloud explosion derived from the mechanical yield of the combustion and is assumed to be 10 percent (or 0.1) and E is the energy content of the explosive part of the cloud in Joules. E can be calculated from the mass of substance in kilograms times the heat of combustion (hc) in Joules per kilogram as follows:
E = mass x hc
Combining these two equations gives:
D = 0.15 x (0.1 x mass x hc)1/3
Vapor cloud explosion modeling historically has been subject to large uncertainties resulting from inadequate understanding of deflagrative effects. According to current single-degree of freedom models, blast damage/injury can be represented by Pressure-Impulse (P-I) diagrams, which include the effects of overpressure, dynamic pressure, impulse, and pulse duration.
The peak overpressure and duration are used to calculate the impulse from shock waves. Even some advanced explosion models ignore the effects of blast wave reflection off structures, which can produce misleading results over- or under-estimating the vulnerability of a structure. Sophisticated software used to produce three-dimensional models of the effects of vapor cloud explosions allows the evaluation of damage experienced by each structure within a facility as a result of a primary explosion and any accompanying secondary explosions produced by vapor clouds.
-GlobalSecurity
Fuel-Air Explosives [FAE]
There is evidence that the 2020 Beriut explosion was either a micro nuke or a FAE. One thing is certain, it was devastating.
I just had to add this. Hydrogen peroxide (yes, that stuff that you can buy on the bottom shelf under the mouthwash section) is violently explosive when in the presence of copper. Even a very tiny section of a copper wire will cause it to ignite violently and dangerously.
This is, by the way, the explosive warhead on numerous Russian torpedoes, and one of the reasons why the Kursk was sunk.
A huge explosion sank the giant nuclear-powered submarine Kursk, killing most of its crew and stranding nearly two dozen survivors hundreds of feet underwater. An international rescue team assembled to save the sailors, but was unable to reach them in time.
-The True Story of the Russian KurskSubmarineDisaster
The remains of the Kursk after a front-end torpedo was accidentally detonated. The entire front end has been ripped to shreds.
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This type of munition is just a volatile as it is dangerous. You have to be precise in making the triggering mechanism and you must be very careful in handling it. The slightest contact between the two elements will be explosive.
Hydrogen peroxide is not considered an explosive. However, when it is mixed with organic substances at significant concentrations, hazardous impact-sensitive compounds may result. Small amounts of other materials that contain catalysts (silver, lead, copper, chromium, mercury, and iron oxide rust) can cause rapid decomposition and an explosive pressure rupture of the containing vessel if it is not properly vented.
In addition to accelerated decomposition through contamination, the decomposition rate of hydrogen peroxide is increased with alkalinity, contact with certain materials of construction, and increasing temperatures. The rate of decomposition increases approximately 2.2 times for each 10 degrees C rise in temperature in the range from 20 degrees C to 100 degrees C, or 1.5 times for each 10 degrees F rise from 68 degrees F to 212 degrees F.
Decreasing temperatures have little effect on hydrogen peroxide until they drop substantially below 0 degrees C. Crystals do not begin to appear in 35% and 50% solutions until -33C (-27.4F) and -52.2C (-62F), respectively.
-Hydrogen Peroxide Safe Handling | USP Technologies
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Most of what you can purchase off the shelf in America is diluted hydrogen peroxide solution. So you would need to have a higher concentration of the material from a warehouse.
"Set up your demonstration in an area that will be easy to clean up. A 30% hydrogen peroxide will make the most impressive explosion."
All this is nasty stuff
Yes it is. Its terrible and ugly.
I feel “icky” writing about this. I left my weapons development days a long time ago. And I really don’t want to revisit that situation. I really don’t.
From my point of view, you all should scram and get out of the line of fire. Why spend $2000 on a nice semi-auto weapon when you could (just as easily) spend the money on a round trip ticket to another part of the world and live off the remaining half in cheap hotels eating cheap food while you search for a local chick to shack up with.
But that’s just me.
The smart man avoids war, and gets way, far away, from any conflict. The sly man tries to get a technical advantage over his foes. The brutish man tries to fight his foes directly on their turf and under their terms.
I have. I’m not fucking around. Dangerous times are ahead, and it’s not going to be waving a flag for this side of that side. You all are being played by a wealthy oligarchy who treats you all like dirt. Nope, no me. Tell you what, I’m gonna be quaffing some nice icy beers and cavorting with pretty girls instead. I recommend that you all do as well. Life is too short to fuck around.
Now, if you decide to stick around, here’s my advice;
You can never win a war alone.
You can never win a war if you play defense all the time.
You can never win a war if your enemies decide the terms of engagement (time, location, and weapons.)
Being an individual will be lethal if you stick around. Clan up or leave.
Anticipate back-stabbing and betrayal.
The “news” won’t report jack-shit.
Things will be going down, long before you are aware of it.
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Love him or hate him, President Trump has severely altered the geography of the American domestic political scene. He has also severely altered the international relationships that America has with other nations; friend and foe. (Well documented.) Some people laud this as beneficial, while others decry this as something horrible. For me, personally, it’s a “mixed bag”.
"a mixed bag"
COMMON IDIOM
If something is a mixed bag, it contains things that are of very different types or qualities. The newspapers carry a mixed bag of stories on their front pages. The programmes are a mixed bag as they have to cater for all tastes. Note: The bag referred to here is a hunting bag containing the different kinds of animals and birds that the hunter has shot.
-The Free Dictionary
On one hand, it was a relief to see an “outsider” enter Washington, DC and “shake things up”. I was getting tired of feeling like no one in government cared about me, or my problems and issues. Trump entered office and acted like a “big wrecking ball”. He “shook things up”, and really “upset the apple cart”. That was a relief. It gave me hope that real change in America was possible.
shake something up
to cause changes to something, esp. in order to make improvements.
upset the apple cart
wreck an advantageous project or disturb the status quo.
go under the wrecking ball
To be destroyed or demolished.
Fig. to be wrecked or torn down.
But on the other hand, he and his small army of neocon conservatives completely demolished whatever international standing that America has held. They (the neocons) were under the delusion that somehow 2020 was actually 1960, and that America was a vibrant and healthy nation, a manufacturing powerhouse, and beloved all over the world. All of which was false.
And in their glee to “reestablish America as a global leader – 1960s style” they torn down all the Agreements that America was part of. They did so in the belief that better, more pro-America agreements would be put in their places. And sadly, that has not been the case.
Now a new President will come into office; Mr. Biden.
I cannot predict what will happen. Actually. I know that the American “news” organizations are flooding the internet with stories about how [1] Biden will be tougher on China than Trump, [2] that Biden is going to issue forth Marxism in the United States, [3] Ban Guns, and [4] so on and so forth… But no one really knows what will happen.
It could become a complete police state, but jeeze guys, isn’t that what it is already?
America is a military empire and it’s citizens live within a Police State.
Anyways, I find that this fascinating.
Why?
Two reasons.
[1] The American government owns all mainstream, alt-Left and Alt-Right media. They are pushing these narratives. Why? Why are they doing it?
That’s right. I can see an anti-China propaganda campaign as a lead up to a hot war. That always happens. That is what happened with Syria and what happened with Vietnam. But if there is no hot war, or the intention of going into a hot war, then why do it?
What is the purpose of the devotion of time, money, and resources to get Americans all riled up against a common enemy if it is not war? Why is the media (Alt-Left, Alt-Right and mainstream) all geared up so that just about every second or third article is Hate-China?
It’s getting to be that Americans are becoming fearful of the most popular, and the most populous nation on the planet. Why? (You might want to see what the rest of the world thinks about America today.)
Who and what really controls the American “news”.
[2] Both the Democrat Party and the Republican Party are a uni-party. They show different faces to the electorate, but actually are in the same club.
The uni-party are the same with only very minor differences in ideology. That is true. Look at the voting records. Not the individual votes. But rather the final votes when the votes have been counted.
Oh, sure, Congressman Royalasshole decided to vote “no” on congressional resolution Fuck-Americans-in-the-ass, but his party did. Oh, by just one or two votes. Imagine that! Back-door dealings…
Hey Congressman Smartlydressedolderdickhead made the arrangements. Most could vote to please their constituents, but, as long as the party voted as the oligarchy favored, then all was well.
It’s a uni-party.
The uni-party.
So what is actually going on?
My personal belief is that President Trump was an intentional plant. He was popularly elected, but it was intended for him to be elected. Hillary Clinton was a very polarizing figure, ran a weak election campaign, and lost.
I believe that it was intended for him to be elected over Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Further, that it was intended for him to has a short four year term in office, intentionally. Leading up to Biden who is the intentional follow-up President that came into office.
From my point of view, as an outsider – I no longer live inside the American media echo chamber, it appears to be crystal clear that America is being run as a big Ponzi scheme and that the entire election process is just one big hoax. No citizens have any control over anything.
And you are free to agree or disagree. But it really seems to me that the forces aligned for a Biden win, whether legitimate or not, are aligned that way intentionally.
Very powerful force, with very powerful resources, are manipulating American citizenry in very precise and elaborate ways. The outcome, no matter how you look at it, is planned.
What is going on?
I personally believe that most people are good. And that most American are good. That they live in a nation that has become hostile to them in various ways. For some, it dates way back decades or centuries, for others it is recent. But both sides of the political spectrum see America a very sick and in need of change. The difference is that both sides see different ways of accomplishing that objective.
Far Left = Marxism is the solution.
Mainstream = The status quo is perfect as it is.
Far Right = A return to a Republic is the solution
All are false.
You are here.
It is no secret (but not at all publicized in the United States) that China threw away it’s mantle of Marxist Communism back in the 1970’s. It nearly destroyed the nation, and torn it apart in ways that Americans have a hard time understanding. Over 30 million people died under Chinese Marxism. And the Chinese leadership said “never again” and changed the government.
Someone should have woken up the neocons and got them out of their comfortable echo chamber. Their narrative about what China is hasn’t been updated since the 1970’s and they are spouting nonsense that anyone outside of the USA can see clearly. China is many things, but Marxist Communist it is not.
No. American Marxism will not be an improvement. It will be a disaster.
Bafflegab.
Likewise, a return to a Republic is not the solution either. We know from history how the American Republic turned into a Democracy. How it became an Oligarchy, and then evolved into a Military Empire. Trying to hit a “reset button” in the hope of a return to what was intended is a mistake. It’s just going to allow others to establish a better, stronger and more powerful oligarchy.
No. A return to the past is not the solution either.
I want to believe.
Now, I advocate something radical.
I strongly suggest that the federal government be dissolved. It be destroyed and the individual States regain their sovereign identities.
I think that the citizens will have better control over their lives and that the benefits that the Federal Government provides won’t even be noticed when it is gone. In fact, I argue that the benefits of having a Federal Government is actually tiny on a vast majority of folk in the United States today.
How are the citizens of West Virginia benefiting from the war in Yemen?
How do the people in Tennessee benefit for the billions of federal taxes for a High Speed Train in California?
In what way does the ATF benefit the people of North Dakota?
Selected flags of the various States.
Rather than fight each other over ideology, I argue that now is the time for Americans to come together and forge a new government, and stop looking to the past for answers. Whether it is Marxism, or a 1776 Republic.
While everyone might have different personal ideologies, I argue that most people want to be left alone. they want to work, play, and raise their families. And that they really don’t care all that much about who is doing what in Washington DC.
The two parties simplified.
So What is the Big Picture?
Provided that I am correct, that it’s all a big show for the masses, then what is actually going on? What is the big plan?
Well, by looking at the results of the Trump Administration’s actions on an international scale, it seems rather obvious. He has pretty much torn up almost all the agreements, trampled on our relationships with long-term allies, and has engaged on a war footing with the largest and most important nation on the planet. Why?
Look what he is doing…
Isolate America from the rest of the world.
Contain any upset and internal turmoil domestically to American shores.
Minimize the economic “footprint” of any economic collapse that will happen inside of America.
Limit any external damage that might occur as the American monster empire goes into it’s death throes.
That is the only thing that makes sense when you look at things objectively. And not from some kind of partisan divide.
Don’t believe ANYTHING out of the American “news”. Both the Alt-Left and the Alt-Right are controlled by the American State Department. They push narratives to control the citizenry.
Why is this going on?
Well, it seems obvious. The United States is long, long over due for a reset. And no matter how you look at it; it is going to occur.
It is going to occur. The reset will happen. The oligarchy realizes this. So they have planned accordingly. From their point of view, it is best to let the trends run their course, but in such a way that they control the outcome. And that is why all this is going on.
The dichotomy between what is happening in the real world and what is happening in the world of the financiers will lead to violent upheaval on a timeline not anticipated by the ruling class. There is a good reason gun stores were overwhelmed with business at the outset of this over-hyped flu pandemic. Trust in the government, central bankers, the corporate media, and “experts” is disintegrating rapidly. The anger and disillusionment grows by the day and pockets of resistance are propagating throughout the country...
The only thing that matters is we will experience a disastrous outcome in the very near future from this reckless issuance of debt. The civic decay has entered the confrontational stage, with sides taken, weapons at the ready, awaiting the spark which will ignite the dynamite.
Reopen the nation, American Thinker – Hundreds of thousands of businesses are on the verge of bankruptcy and permanent closure. 33+ million are unemployed, and the federal government is creating massive unsustainable debt. This nation has made the biggest blunder in its history. The time has come for the politicians from the President to the Governors and Mayors to stop hiding behind the scientist/bureaucrats and fully reopen the nation. Focus on that segment of the population most at risk, without compulsory isolation or de facto imprisonment. And restore the civil liberties that have been wantonly eroded.
Spicy times ahead. Read some history.
Picture above; as the Ottoman empire started to collapse, they disarmed the citizenry. Then found scapegoats or villains. They collected them, marched them off and killed them.
Spicy times ahead.
The importance of isolating America from the rest of the world
America is being isolated in so many, many ways. Most Americans are unaware of this, as they do not live internationally. But what is actually happening is that President Trump’s policies have make it very “uncool” to have anything to do with America.
Global stability is maintained by strong routes of communication, give and take, and trade. This ensures that countries can address concerns early on before things get blown out of control, and spiral down a dangerous path towards war. It’s a very human thing, this idea of clear communications and open productive dialog.
It’s like a family. What happens when one member decides to stop talking, starts doing what they please without the consent of others in the family? What happens when they arbitrarily decide to eat what they want and spend the family budget as they feel fit, without input form the rest of the family?
But when you have a problematic family member, one with a mental illness, and alcohol addiction, or problems with the police, the family has a responsibly to isolate him/her and get them help where their problems can be resolved. For some this is a 12-step program, for others it is incarceration in a jail or a mental hospital. But no matter what the situation, the person needs to be placed in a “safe place”, isolated and attended to by experts.
When you have problematic family members you need to isolate them and get them help. They need to work out their own problems in a safe and controlled environment.
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Other nations do not want “spill over” from American domestic turmoil to affect their economies. They collectively desire to minimize the effects of any problems.
That is what the United States is being set up for now.
And people are noticing.
From the woodpile report; July will tell the truth about the economy. I’ve chosen November as the month of general truth, whether the years following will be of manageable coping, of unexampled disaster, or something in between.
We could see a return to pre-Covid conditions, the economy revive, preps largely unneeded. Or hard times will persist but get no worse than they are now, with normalcy slowly returning, preps helpful but not critical. Or daily life could worsen long term and become the new normal, modest preps necessary but sufficient until a slow turnaround takes hold some years out.
Or systemic disruption and shortages could multiply, the recession deepen into a depression , extensive preps needed to make it from one month to the next. Or it could become a general disaster with outright starvation, government rule by decree, cities uninhabitable, regional withdrawals into fiefdoms, and only extensive preps being enough to avoid personal catastrophe. Or we'll see a rapid and unstoppable national and global collapse, criminal raids on a regional scale, rule by force, preps depleted or confiscated and the widespread rise of outright survivalism.
Preppers attempt to maintain some or most of their present circumstances in tough times. The survivalist has his own definition of preps. He practices to survive by anticipating and training for the worst of the possibilities.
Survivalism comes first, not last, because in the end preps assume the prepper survives to use them.
There are entirely reasonable variations on these themes. This is merely my personal arrangement.
He also goes on to say…
It appears we're at the start of an economic collapse similar to that of 1929 and into the 1930s. What we're seeing in Minneapolis and elsewhere appears to add the danger of organized violence.
A widespread decampment from big cities began some time ago and appears to be accelerating. Bloomberg reports RV sales are up 30% in some urban places.
The causes are fascinating but in the end what matters is how their migration to the "flyover country" they so despise may affect your personal plans.
July, when the long term direction of the economy will be plain to see, may be your last opportunity to shape your preparations more exactly, meaning food, shelter and protection. November is the month of the presidential election, when all sides reveal their intentions and one is chosen. It's also when winter weather begins.
Time is running out.
The alarm bells are ringing all over the United States…
Lockdowns, Mises Institute – Those who have claimed that lockdowns are “the only option” had virtually no evidence at all to support their position. Indeed, such extreme over-the-top measures such as the general lockdowns required an extreme level of high-quality, nearly irrefutable evidence that lockdowns would work and were necessary in the face of a disease with an extremely high fatality rate. But the only “data” the prolockdown people could offer was speculation and hyperbolic predictions of bodies piling up in the streets. The lockdown crowd destroyed the lives of millions to satisfy the hunches of a tiny handful of politicians and technocrats.
Peter Grant at Bayou Renaissance Man mentions the unmentionable in his essay, Bailing out the states: the momentum and the prospect for violence builds. Excerpts:
If their residents find that government largesse is no longer flowing; and if they believe that they're entitled to such largesse; then they're going to get out of control and try to take what they want. The results are likely to be catastrophic for law and order, and civil society.
I think the ordinary people of America realize this. After all, that's why they bought more guns in March than any other month in previous US history. They're getting ready to defend what's theirs—and I believe they're right in anticipating the need to do so...
You want to know why my friends want me to upgrade their rifles? You want to know why I've been warning about COVID-19 as a threat to personal security, and suggesting ways to keep your shooting skills honed, even during the lockdown? ... Look no further.
American Gun News – Another Maryland Man Red-Flagged to Death by the Cops … cops shot him through a window while asleep in bed. They also shot his pregnant girlfriend
Power grab, Sovereign Man – If you think about 9/11 in particular, its remarkable how much power the government grabbed, and how many freedoms they took away. What I’m most concerned about at this point is not the virus, nor even the economic devastation.They have us all cowering in our homes, stripped of the most basic freedoms to do just about anything. People are being thrown off their own private property because they’re not an ‘official resident’ of the town. Others have been arrested for attending a funeral. Others threatened with jail for their social media posts. There’s going to be a huge impact on our freedom from this astonishing growth of unchecked government power.
…
The oligarchy, and I mean the top most, highest levels of the 1%, are aware of all these trends and they expect things to get worse. They see and view what America is entering as something that is unavoidable, but can be controlled somewhat.
The most important thing for them is to limit the damage.
Keep it on a local scale within America. Try to avoid spillover to the rest of the world. And that requires that America be isolated to various degrees from the rest of the world. Disentangled.
Isolation
As I see it, there is an effort for complete isolation.
When I mean complete isolation, I am referring to [1] a drop in international obligations and trades as well as [2] a long drawn-out rise in being fearful of other nations. Treaties would be torn up or ignored. All done to “improve” America. And news would make Americans fearful, afraid, and full of hate towards other nations, and other peoples.
You simply cannot deny this.
The year of 2020 has been a non-stop China-hate-fest. Every other article is China doing something wrong, and how dangerous they are. Coupled with that is systems of isolation and a break-up of channels of communication. Students are no longer permitted in the USA, Chinese applications and communication channels are banned (such as QQ, Wechat, and Tiktok) plus an onslaught on the American means of communication. Zoom now requires the Chinese to pay a hefty fee to use it, and Skype is putting access limitations on it’s use within China.
Americans have been so dumbed down that they don’t even realize it is happening. You would think that they would at least ask themselves “Why this flood of anti-China articles now? What happened to the most favored trading nation status?”
America is so dumbed down that this is what passes for “news” in the United States today.
.
You can argue the Mike Pompeo narrative; “China IS bad. So all this is necessary”. But I argue that it’s a big lie. It’s all part of a large orchestrated effort to isolate America from the rest of the world.
What follows is a brief compilation of the many, many treaties that President Trump and his small band of neocons have broken, collapsed, argued for re-posturing, or simply abandoned and no longer functionally obeys the Agreements that the United States has already signed. Combined, it paints a damning picture of intentional isolation from the global, and Geo-Political landscape.
Broken Treaties leading towards American isolation.
Let’s walk down the long hallway of broken treaties, collapsed agreements, and ignored responsibilities. Let’s look down that hallway and see whether or not the United States people are being screwed by it’s leadership… all in the name of “Making America Strong Again”.
As we walk down this hallway, let’s look for clues to see whether or not Americans are being screwed by the oligarchy as part of their long term plan.
.
President Donald Trump's decision to begin the process of withdrawing the United States from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty will end an arms control agreement with Russia that has been a centerpiece of European security since the Cold War.
The move, meant to penalize Russia for noncompliance, is likely to alarm the international community, particularly Europe, and cause fears that the US and Russia could enter a new nuclear arms race.
Trump's time in office has seen the President remove the US from multiple international organizations and has not hidden his frustration with international trade groups and security alliances.
-CNN
China
China really doesn’t figure strongly here. Trump has made it clear that he wants to sever all ties with China, and isolate them. To this end he has constructed the ‘QUAD” to encircle China and threaten them with military support. It’s sort of like this…
Trump is trying to isolate China from the United States.
Trump’s long list of global trade deals, agreements exited or renegotiated
President Donald Trump campaigned on deals. Making deals — like an Israel-Palestine peace accord. And breaking deals — like the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Iran Deal, both of which he labeled disasters.
Since entering the Oval Office in 2016, Trump — a self-professed negotiator —has delivered on many of his promises to abandon international pacts that previous administrations had authorized.
KORUS
The Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) went into effect on March 15, 2012. Most Korean industrial and consumer goods currently enter the United States free of duty and the merchandise processing fee (MPF) and by 2016 that figure grew to over 95 percent.
Then Trump ended it as soon as he came to office.
He renegotiated in such a way that South Korea will no longer have the United States as it’s largest export target. Instead there are limits to what South Korea can ship to America. That way, when or if, America collapses, the economy of South Korea will not be so broadly affected.
This makes sense from an Oligarchy point of view. Not so much for a MAGA (Make America Great Again) point of view.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership
KORUS wasn’t the only treaty that Trump broke as soon as he came to office.
Just days after assuming office, Trump delivered on a campaign promise and announced that the U.S. would be pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade agreement between 12 Pacific Rim countries that took seven years to negotiate and was signed by then-President Barack Obama in his second term. Its goals were to boost exports, remove tariffs and non-tariff barriers, and open access to more markets.
It was a turn toward protectionist measures. By abandoning a deal that would give American companies an opportunity to seek cheap labor abroad, Trump signaled that his priority is to reduce the number of jobs leaving the country.
In a memorandum announcing the move, Trump favored bilateral negations and said they were to be pursued whenever possible to “promote American industry, protect American workers, and raise American wages.”
The end result was that the huge trade connections that America has had with 11 other nations collapsed. The trade back and forth between these countries started to decline and now are only a fraction of what they once were.
If Trump did nothing, and TPP stayed intact, a collapse of the American economy as a result of internal turmoil or economic malfeasance would result in economic turmoil in those 11 nations as well. Pulling out provides a “safety valve” for those nations so that if anything were to happen to the USA, the damage would be domestic and not international in scope.
The Paris Agreement
On June 1, 2017, Trump announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris Agreement, an international climate accord that the U.S. signed under the Obama administration that aims to combat global warming by gradually reducing emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, which come from the burning of fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas.
Trump cited “onerous energy restriction” on the U.S. and the possible job losses it could cost as reasons for dropping out of the deal. Industrial sectors such as cement, coal, and iron and steel, Trump said, could be affected by America’s inclusion in the accord. He said there were plans to begin negotiations to reenter the deal or enter an “entirely new transaction on terms that are fair to the United States, its businesses, its workers, its people, its taxpayers.”
Trump said the deal “punishes the United States,” which he claimed was the world leader in environmental protection, without imposing any “meaningful obligations” on the world’s leading polluters. Historically, the U.S. has ranked as one of the worst emitters of carbon dioxide, but it’s been noted as recently as this year that its contribution to CO2 levels globally has been on the decline.
What is not spoken of isn’t anything regarding climate, or the environment. There are two impacts that this has that are significant here;
American influence in an entire slew of subsequent treaties will be absent.
Other nations will not be economically dependent on this treaty as a source of income.
People all over the world rely on American funding through treaty. Trump has gone about severing as many of those ties as possible.
The Iran Deal
Throughout the 2016 presidential election campaign, then-candidate Trump promised that once he was in office he would tear up the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran — better known as the Iran nuclear deal. The president called it the “worst deal ever.” Pushed into passage by the Obama Administration, the Iran nuclear deal reduced economic sanctions against Iran as long as the country ended its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
In May, the White House announced that because the JCPOA “failed to protect America’s national security interests” it would be pulling out of the historic deal.
The White House accused the Iranian regime of archiving its past nuclear weapons work and continuing to enrich uranium and develop ballistic missiles. The administration left some room for a new deal to be struck but said that a return to the negotiating table would depend on a number of preconditions such as the Iranian regime completely abandoning their intent to develop nuclear weapons—something Trump alleges they never stopped pursuing.
In the meantime, the administration has renewed sanctions against Iran. These measures, according to the White House, would target several of the country’s economic sectors such as energy, petrochemical, and finance.
So what? What does this matter?
Iran who is one of the leading economic influences int he Middle East will continue to be economically removed from the United States. People! This is not about nuclear weapons, bombs or war. This is about preventing the entire Middle East from getting economically entangled with the United States when it is on the verge of a major shut-down.
G7
The Group of Seven (G-7) is an intergovernmental organization that meets periodically to address international economic and monetary issues. G-7 countries consist of the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Canada, and Japan.
This is an important group. It discusses international trade, money and related issues. Trump is not pulling out of it, as it really doesn’t make trade decisions, but it is very noteworthy that Trump has insisted that Russia be part of it, and China be out of it.
What is he thinking? What is on his mind?
UNESCO
In Oct. 2017, the State Department announced that the U.S. withdrawal from the United Nations cultural organization UNESCO, which serves a number of functions around the globe such as promoting literacy and protecting historic and cultural sites through the World Heritage Center.
It was a symbolic gesture on part of the Trump administration, seeing as the Obama White House cut off funding for UNESCO in 2011, after the group voted to include Palestine as a member. The reasons the State Department gave for leaving the organization include what it views as mounting debt within the organization, a need for “fundamental reform,” and continuing bias against Israel.
Again, America’s ties to major world organizations is being severely reduced, curtailed and severed.
NAFTA
On Aug. 27, President Trump ended nearly 25 years of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, the trade pact linking U.S., Canada, and Mexico. He announced a new, bilateral agreement with Mexico known as the U.S.-Mexico Trade Agreement.
Canada was initially left out of the new deal, which was designed to replace the NAFTA, an agreement that Trump says carried bad connotations. Signed in 1993, NAFTA eliminated tariffs on most goods traded among the continent’s three largest countries and made it easier for companies in those countries to move goods across borders. The old trade pact is often blamed for the flight of U.S. manufacturing jobs to Mexico and the deindustrialization of the American economy.
The new deal includes controversial stipulations such as the “rule of origin,” which requires that cars must be built with at least 75 percent parts made in North America (up from 62.5 percent under NAFTA) and that 40 to 45 percent of an automobile must be manufactured by employees earning at least $16 an hour.
This is a mixed bag. I see the economic ties to Mexico loosened, but not severed. Any collapse of America will affect Mexico. But not as terribly as before.
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty
On Oct. 20, Trump announced to reporters his intention to pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a 1987 pact between the United States and Russia that required both countries to destroy ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of between 310 and 3,400 miles, along with any supporting equipment.
Nothing quite ruins your day like global thermonuclear war.
Trump claims that Russia has violated the Cold War-era treaty, set to expire in two years, and said that the U.S. will begin weapons development unless Russia and China—who is not a party to the pact—agree to a new deal.
Days after the announcement, White House National Security Advisor John Bolton met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin and said there was no chance the Trump administration would reverse its decision. Bolton suggested the INF treaty was outmoded.
“There’s a new strategic reality out there,” Bolton said. “This is a cold war bilateral ballistic-missile-related treaty — in a multipolar ballistic-missile world.”
The USA has 6000+ nuclear weapons. Russia has 7000+ nuclear weapons. But it’s a multipolar because China has 300. What the fuck?
Including China guarantees that this treaty will die. China wants no part of nuclear negotiations. (Their weapons are just enough to deter, not to MAD smash.) Knowing this, Trump has set the treaty to end. Why?
Why?
United Nations Human Rights Council
Calling it a “cesspool of political bias,” Nikki Haley, then-Ambassador to the United Nations, announced in June that the United States was pulling out of the United Nations Human Rights Council, leaving the U.S. without a vote and sidelined from the Geneva-based group that aims to promote human rights around the world.
The Trump administration made the move amid criticism surrounding its practice of separating immigrant children from their parents at the border. The Human Rights Council called on the White House to end the practice because it “runs counter to human rights standards.”
Again, severing the agreements with other nations. Closing of economic ties and destruction of lines of communication.
UNRWA
In August, the Trump Administration said that it would halt U.S. contributions to the United Nations’ aid program for Palestinian refugees. The decision is part of the administration’s efforts to rein in foreign aid and restrict assistance to the West Bank and Gaza. The move came one week after the White House revoked more than $200 million in economic aid to the Palestinian territories.
The U.S. is “no longer willing to shoulder the very disproportionate share of the burden of UNRWA’s costs,” said State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, referring to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. The U.N. agency provides health care to approximately 3 million Palestinians, education assistance to 500,000 children, micro-loans to another 400,000 beneficiaries, among other aid.
Again, severing the agreements with other nations. Closing of economic ties and destruction of lines of communication.
WTO
The World Trade Organization is a global organization made up of 164 member countries that deals with the rules of trade between nations. Its goal is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly and predictably as possible.
As part of his broader attempts to renegotiate the United States’ global trade deals, President Trump has threatened to withdraw from the WTO, calling it a “disaster.”23 If the U.S. were to withdraw, trillions of dollars in global trade would be disrupted.
Again, severing the agreements with other nations. Closing of economic ties and destruction of lines of communication.
WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) was first proposed in 1945 as a public health agency to be formed as part of the United Nations. WHO’s constitution was ratified on April 7, 1948, marking its official establishment.
WHO categorizes its work into three broad areas of focus:
Advocating for universal health coverage
Preparing for public health emergencies and coordinating a global response
Serving vulnerable populations
As an agency of the United Nations, WHO’s governing body – the World Health Assembly (WHA) – includes representatives of every United Nations Member State. WHO’s structure includes an executive board comprised of 34 technically qualified representatives from the various Member States. These members generally possess an extensive background in clinical or public health.
The WHA currently consists of 194 members, one designee from each Member State. Meetings of the WHA and Executive Board may be attended by “non-State actors” (non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, philanthropic organizations, and others) who may observe and make statements to the body, but cannot vote.
During the middle of a global pandemic that is crushing the United States, Trump pulls out of the very agency set up to deal with this problem.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an alliance of 28 countries that border the North Atlantic Ocean. The Alliance includes the United States, most European Union members, Canada, and Turkey. The United States contributes three-fourths of NATO’s budget.
Again, severing the agreements with other nations. Closing of economic ties and destruction of lines of communication.
Open Skies
**BREAKING**
The United States will officially pull out of another arms control pact with Russia on Sunday, marking the end of a six-month notification process informing Moscow, U.S. officials told Fox News. -FOX News 22NOV20
The Trump administration is set to pull out of the Open Skies Treaty, which was signed between former Cold War foes in 1992 to set up unarmed, reconnaissance flights over each other’s territory to collect data on military forces.
However, the U.S. has accused Russia of violating the agreement for years, barring flights over Russian territory, including Kaliningrad where nuclear weapons are suspected of being present and in range of major European capitals.
Conclusion
As I see it, there are no “real” political parties. Just actors playing a role. And who would be best at playing this particular role, right now, than a reality show television star and casino owner; Donald Trump. He plays a role. He is an actor. And people are treating him as “the real thing”, when all he is is just a puppet for the oligarchy.
We need to be careful and see things as they really are.
You need to be careful not to confuse who you are dealing with or what they actually are.
Instead of thinking Progressive Marxists vs. Traditional Conservatives, perhaps we should be thinking in terms of …
… serfs vs. the massive oligarchy.
A reset is in process. It is going to happen whether you want it to or not. The only thing that you can do is escape to safe havens (like the oligarchy did, or what I did), or hunker down and steel-yourself for some discomfort.
I have mapped out, here, what I believe is going on.
The oligarchy realizes that the United States is due for a most contentious clamorous collapse. It will not be uniform. Some areas will remain unscathed, while other areas will be dangerous, even lethal.
As the USA collapses like a big, dangerous out of control monster, it will thrash about and cause all sorts of discord. This is what the oligarchy fears.
And so, President Trump, their "plant" has set up systems so that the collapse of the United States will be isolated to America (as much as possible).
Now, President Biden will try to calm things down, perhaps do his best to control the hard-Left, and the minor oligarchy members (Congress and other billionaires; the PTB) from aggravating the hard-right. He will have a tough time at it.
But you will probably see him trying to settle and calm things, rather than to stir things up.
Predictions;
America will undergo a reset. 2023 to 2025 at it’s peak, with a long slow return to stability starting to manifest around 2030.
Some areas will be affected terribly, others no so badly.
Internationally, it will have an effect on the globe, but not as terrible as one might fear.
A hot war with a major nuclear-armed power is a strong possibility. I believe that it will be Russia.
China will get some dings. But it will not be anything like what will happen to America.
If a hot war occurs, the United States (as we know it) will be no longer.
What will replace America could be anything. Though my bets are on a fractured nation into five or more separate nations, all tied together by treaty. Each one with it’s own laws and ways of doing things.
Remember boys and girls, America can’t build a simple wall on it’s territory, spend 77 billion dollars for s simple train line, or keep the COVID-19 in check. What makes anyone think that it can rebuild after a devastating nuclear war? It cannot.
The loss and destruction of America will not any sense, but that is the human species for you. You need not be surprised.
The loss and destruction of America will not any sense, but that is the human species for you.
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Fourth amendment? What's a "fourth amendment"?
-Joe Average American Citizen
This is a compilation of articles, thoughts, information and data that I threw together for my personal use. It dates from the time period of 2013 through to 2018, and has not really been updated to account to the enormous expansion of the surveillance capabilities of the various alphabet organizations under President Trump.
Essentially, it became too overwhelming. It was impossible to keep up with the massive effort under-weigh to convert the United States government into a totalitarian utopia for the oligarchy.
Looking at the sole enormity of this information shows an overwhelming preponderance of evidence that the United States is not only no longer “free”, but that it has become a prison-state. It somehow by-passed or slid past the military totalitarian state mode and went straight to wall-less prison.
“Im just setting up a barebones linux laptop to go to Panama with. All the essentials will be kept on an encrypted thumb drive just incase I need to access client machines. Installed Skype, remote software and password safe, but the data is on the thumbdrive that gets wiped after 10 tries at the password. Its a shame that americans have to be like this for doing nothing illegal.”
-Skype message to the Author on 13JAN18.
We are witnessing the integration of spying on two levels, the government level (federal, state and local) and the corporate level (via telecom providers, web services and credit card companies). It’s “Full Metal” Orwell.
The term "full metal Orwell" is a play on words.
Full Metal
Full Metal Jacket is a 1987 British-American war film directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick. The screenplay by Kubrick, Michael Herr, and Gustav Hasford was based on Hasford's novel The Short-Timers (1979). Its storyline follows a platoon of U.S. Marines through their training, primarily focusing on two privates, Joker and Pyle, who struggle to get through camp under their foul-mouthed drill instructor, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, and the experiences of two of the platoon's Marines in the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War. The film's title refers to the full metal jacket bullet used by soldiers. The film was released in the United States on June 26, 1987. In slang the term “full metal” means “to go into combat or to fight”.
Orwell
Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel, often published as 1984, is a dystopian social science fiction novel by English novelist George Orwell.It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final book completed in his lifetime. Thematically, Nineteen Eighty-Four centres on the consequences of totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and repressive regimentation of persons
If you are a user of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Craigslist or another popular site, the U.S. security state is watching you. An increasing number of federal agencies are employing sophisticated means to monitor Americans’ use of social networking sites.
1984 was not supposed to be an instruction manual.
.
Federal entities from the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Defense Department to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to even the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are involved in developing programs to track the American public online.
Criminals are running the United States government; call them what you will, but they all serve their own interests.
“There’s nothing more destructive to a society than the institutionalization of immunity for elite criminals, yet that’s exactly what’s happened since the financial crisis. Top tier predators, whether they operate within government or mega corporations, recognize that the system they control will never hold them accountable for anything they do.”
Read more here; https://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2018/01/22/we-can-do-a-lot-better-than-this/
This is not, not, NOT how a function government acts. Not how ANY functioning goverment acts. Let alone one that was set up as a “Republic” for the people, by the people.
“Today the path to total dictatorship in the U.S. can be laid by strictly legal means, unseen and unheard by Congress, the President, or the people.
Outwardly we have a Constitutional government.
We have operating within our government and political system … a well-organized political-action group in this country, determined to destroy our Constitution and establish a one-party state....
The important point to remember about this group is not its ideology but its organization…
It operates secretly, silently, continuously to transform our Government....
This group ... is answerable neither to the President, the Congress, nor the courts. It is practically irremovable.”— Senator William Jenner, 1954 speech
This corruption of what the United States is has many facets. But in this article we will look at a very specific, tiny portion of this corruption. It is, to put it in a nutshell, the abrogation of the powers of Congress to agencies; the “alphabet organizations”. And the powers that they have grabbed for themselves when Congress stopped policing their behaviors.
In short, Congress has created numerous “Frakenstein monsters”. (Named CIA, FBI, IRS, ATF, DHS, etc…)
A metaphorical Frankenstein monster is a situation —political, financial, ecclesiastical, or domestic—which has been created through folly, and which has become so potent and uncontrollable that it is now a menace to social stability.
Meaning of “A Frankenstein Monster” phrase of Idiom
To each one they granted it their own regulation-making and law-making powers. And to each one they allowed it to grow and get big with no limits on behaviors, no oversight in what they were doing, and no controls or rules over their ability to run “roughshod” over the Bill of Rights.
Particuliarly the 9th and the 4th amendments.
The Ninth Amendment was James Madison’s attempt to ensure that the Bill of Rights was not seen as granting to the people of the United States only the specific rights it addressed. In recent years, some have interpreted it as affirming the existence of such “unenumerated” rights outside those expressly protected by the Bill of Rights.
The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. It prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. In addition, it sets requirements for issuing warrants: warrants must be issued by a judge or magistrate, justified by probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and must particularly describe the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.
Here is a brief summary of some of the programs that now exist un-constitutionally within the alphabet organizations that Congress has created.
WARNING: Specific examples come from both Conservative and Progressive websites. There, apparently, is more conservative examples of progressive abuses being illustrated than the other way around. Sorry about that. I use what is available to me.
Let it be well understood that the two political parties are both THE SAME PARTY. It is the party of the rich and powerful. They conduct theater to keep you and I occupied while they rob us blind. So do not get all caught up on “he did this”, or “she was innocent”, nonsense.
The examples used are illustrative only. So please do not be offended that I am using Hillary Clinton as an example, or Donald Trump as an example. Stop thinking of them as being the “flag bearers” of your own personal ideology.
They are both actors playing a role. Nothing more.
Justice Department
“To block exposure of their misdeeds, these officials falsely claimed that national security would be damaged.”
-Michael Goodwin
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) released a report from the DOJ’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property section, “Obtaining and Using Evidence from Social Networking Sites,” that describes how evidence from social networking sites can reveal personal communications that might help “establish motives and personal relationships.”
It reports that monitored data from such sites can provide location information and “prove and disprove alibis.”
Perhaps most illuminating, it advises agents that “going undercover” on social media sites can enable law enforcement to communicate with suspects and targets, gain access to nonpublic information and map social relationships.
The DOJ document notes that Twitter retains the last login IP address, but does not preserve data unless legally required to do so. However, that means nothing. Twitter censors, deletes, and fabricates lies to meet whatever objective that it deems appropriate.
It was in 2016, when angry tweeters alleged that Jack Dorsey et al., were purposefully censoring and "suppressing" certain content on Twitter,
[1] namely anything to do with the leaked DNC and John Podesta emails, as well as
[2] hashtags critical of Hillary Clinton
[3] while "shadow-banning" pro-Donald Trump content. (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-31/twitter-shadow-banning-donald-trump)
We can now confirm that at least one part of the above was true, because during the late 2017 Senate hearing, Twitter admitted it "buried", which is another word for censored, significant portions of tweets related to hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chair John Podesta in the months heading into the 2016 presidential campaign.
Twitter’s systems hid 48 percent of tweets using the #DNCLeak hashtag and 25 percent of tweets using #PodestaEmails, Twitter general counsel Sean Edgett said in his written testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
Twitter.
Can you just imagine all the issues related to twitter with Donald trump? Oi Vey! I’ll tell youse guys. You are either convinced that there is no such thing as freedom of speech or not. It’s not my job to prove it to anyone.
“While the FISA court’s activities are secret, the court did admit in 2013 that it had, during its several decades in existence, approved over 99.9 percent of the US government’s surveillance requests.”
-Adam Dick via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity
There is an American idiom for this. It is known as “rubber stamping” something. It means to approve something without any consideration, as a formality. Obviously any court that approves 99.97 percent of anything isn't doing jack shit as far as doing its job is concerned.
Hence, rubber stamps became one of the symbols of excessive bureaucracy, and a rubber stamp, in your sentence, would be someone whose role was merely to signify their approval of something, to endorse uncritically. The OED says of "rubber stamp" as a verb: "To endorse or approve uncritically; to pass routinely or automatically."
Rubber stamp - phrase meaning and origin
The IRS
“The gov is so rotten that it’s going to take an incredible, massive, long effort to expose, indict, charge, try, convict, and sentence the evil doers. It won’t always be pretty. But it HAS to be done.”
-2/8/2018, 5:24:35 AM by little jeremiah
The IRS uses a variety of social media sites like Facebook, Google, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and Second Life to investigate taxpayers.
It seems to have started this practice in 2009 (shortly after Obama became President), providing agents with special training on social networking operations, and user habits. The EFF posted the IRS’ 38-page training that offers detailed tips to agents on how to conduct searches, locate relevant taxpayer information, narrow down and refine results.
The DOD Social Media Strategic Communications Program (SMISC).
The Defense Department has solicited proposals through DARPA for a $42 million “Social Media Strategic Communications” (SMISC) program, a tool that tracks social media and weeds out information.
It has set four goals for the project: [1] to detect, classify and measure the development of ideas, concepts in hidden social media messages; [2] specify the structure of the campaign and influence in social media sites and the community they create; [3] identify the participants and intention in conducting a social media campaign of persuasion and measure its effect; and [4] develop an effective counter-message to an identified campaign carried out against the enemy.
If not, we are no longer America. We are a banana republic where it’s acceptable for the government to use its police powers against political opponents.”
-Michael Goodwin
There should be no doubt in the mind of the reader as to just how corrupt the FBI has become. Permitting serial felonious treason, while at the same time operating “secret societies” within the government, are all crystal clear indicators of dangerous behaviors. Behaviors that can turn on the American people at any time for any reason.
The FBI has become a dangerous and out of control anti-American organization.
“Several other GOP Congressmembers have weighed in. "I have read the memo," tweeted Rep. Steve King (R-IA), adding "The sickening reality has set in. I no longer hold out hope there is an innocent explanation for the information the public has seen. I have long said it is worse than Watergate. It was #neverTrump & #alwaysHillary. #releasethememo."
Along with the four-page memo, Congressional investigators learned from a new batch of text messages between anti-Trump FBI investigators that several individuals within the Department of Justice and the FBI may have come together in the "immediate aftermath" of the 2016 election to undermine President Trump, according to Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) who has reviewed the texts.”
-From the article; “Comey, Rosenstein, McCabe All Named In FISA Memo, First Leak Reveals”
Unfortunately, for all the scandal, most people watching the mainstream media (run by the oligarchy) would be unaware of the turmoil inside of the FBI.
The FBI operates as a secret police. They are completely armed with military grade weapons, and they have their own secret court system. They do not follow the rule of law, and make it up as it suits them. It has gotten worse over time, and most alarming (after “upgrading” by President Obama) they have become dangerously political.
We can only imagine the terrible capabilities that they must now have after a Trump Presidency, and a Mike Pompeo Secretary of State.
This is pretty darn sad.
“So it was — and, look, this is scary stuff, right? I mean, these are secret courts. And I have long supported these because it’s mainly to go after terrorists and people abroad who are looking to do bad things. Never did I think that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act would be used to go after a political campaign. And, you know, there’s gonna have to be some major reforms done to these programs. And what shocks me is that the people at these institutions aren’t worried about this.
I mean, you know, we have a hard enough time, Rush, trying to track down terrorists and bad guys around the world. And just the fact that they would have wasted our intelligence agencies’ time to go after somebody like Carter Page to try to get into the Trump campaign is really scary stuff and really a waste of taxpayer money, and I think every American should be concerned about this no matter if you’re a Republican or Democrat or don’t even pay attention to politics, you ought to care about this.”
- Congressman Devin Nunes of California (chairman of the House Intelligence Committee) discussing the abuse by the FBI and how it was weaponized by Hillary Clinton for political purposes to attack American citizens.
The truth is, that today, the FBI was involved in activities more suited to Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, China under Mr. Mao, and Cuba under Fidel Castro than their constitutionally stated purpose.
They not only went far and above the law, they created their own internal “secret society”.
While the "secret society" reference may have been in jest, a “whistleblower” has (allegedly) confirmed the existence of clandestine meetings. Of which high ranking U.S. intelligence officials met "offsite" to conspire against a sitting President.
This is according to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI).
“...we have an informant talking about a group holding secret meetings off-site,” Johnson said. “We have to continue to dig into it,” he added. “This is not a distraction. This is biased, potentially corruption at the highest levels of the FBI.”
-The Hill
On the night of 22JAN18, Reps. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) and Trey Gowdy (R-SC) told Fox News what they had learned from a batch of communications between two FBI investigators. These FBI communications were contained within a 384-page batch of text messages that were delivered to Congress from the DOJ on 19JAN18.
Of particular note is that Ratcliffe says that Strzok and Page were included in the clandestine anti-Trump cabal. This was at the highest levels of the American intelligence community. This is disturbing stuff no doubt.
These meetings are evidence of a secret society, or club. It’s a secret society where they gathered together and determined how to achieve their own internally-determined objectives. Often, if not always, that ran counter to the needs of the American people.
I wonder if they wore robes, had secret handshakes, and performed satanic rituals…
It is critical to the “powers that be” that this information be kept secret and hidden from the American people.
Therefore, of course, the oligarchy is fighting back hard.
Sen. Feinstein, Rep. Schiff urged Facebook and Twitter to investigate involvement of Russian bots in pushing "Release the Memo" campaign:"
If these reports are accurate, we are witnessing an ongoing attack by the Russian government through Kremlin-linked social media actors." pic.twitter.com/SkAci5NefK” (https://t.co/SkAci5NefK)
— ABC News (@ABC) January 23, 2018 (https://twitter.com/ABC/status/955830690381254659?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
The letter's claims were immediately shot down by Facebook, which told the Daily Beast (https://www.thedailybeast.com/source-twitter-pins-releasethememo-on-republicans-not-russia/) that #ReleaseTheMemo hashtag has been pushed by actual Americans.
A knowledgeable source says that Twitter’s internal analysis has thus far found that authentic American accounts, and not Russian imposters or automated bots, are driving #ReleaseTheMemo.
There are no preliminary indications that the Twitter activity either driving the hashtag or engaging with it is either predominantly Russian.
In short, according to this source, who would not speak to The Daily Beast for attribution, the retweets are coming from inside the country.
The PTB, and their oligarchy, simply just doesn’t want to lose their grip on power. They need the FBI, CIA, DHS, IRS, and the DOJ on “their side”. Or else they risk swinging from nooses on scaffolding.
It appears Billionaire (Democrat mega-donor) and Rabid-Clintonite Tom Steyer (D) is surprised that the nationwide ad campaign he bankrolled to urge members of Congress to impeach President Trump hasn’t yielded any results.
Steyer went off on both Republicans and Democrats in January 2018 after a House vote on articles of impeachment garnered a paltry 66 votes.
"This vote is not a reflection of whether or not Trump has passed the threshold for impeachment, which he did months ago, it is a failure by members of Congress to do what’s right to keep the American people safe."
- Steyer stated on Friday 12JAN18 in a press statement after the Congressional vote.
Steyer, a billionaire (former) hedge fund manager from California, launched his ‘Need to Impeach’ movement in October of 2017. While more than four million people have signed his petition, Democrats aren’t particularly happy with the initiative. Democratic leaders believe pushing for impeachment could hurt their party’s chances in the midterms later this year.
Steyer underscored his campaign by sending copies of Michael Wolff’s book “Fire and Fury” to every lawmaker.
Check out this video; https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-10-21/democratic-megadonor-launches-campaign-impeach-mentally-unstable-trump
To anyone reading these references, they seem so out-of-date, and boring. It’s “old news” the argument goes. Or, “Hey! it’s the democrats”, or “Hey! It’s the Republicans!” That’s not the point.
That’s not the point.
It’s both “parties”.
It’s a club and you ain’t a part of it.
Look at what is beginning to go on after the 2020 election, it’s all the same “song and dance”. It’s not to amuse Americans. It’s to control them.
Any idea of transparency in government is a FARCE.
As these dated examples indicate.
So to recap: not only were high level intelligence officials allegedly involved in clandestine meetings in which they conspired to “impair” Donald Trump, this leak in conjunction of the four-page GOP memo confirms what many have suspected all along; a highly illegal operation was conducted against a sitting President (President Trump) which goes all the way to the top of the U.S. government.
It’s a club, and you are not part of it. If you are an “outsider”, you will have zero support, and every method will be used to remove you.
“Stop and think what really happened here. We have a political candidate who lost the election. (Then) commissions an opposition research document, the Steele dossier. Which is then packaged and presented as legitimate intelligence (gathered by respected intelligence agents the world over). And it features such shocking details as the golden showers story.
We find out that Hillary Clinton’s campaign, the DNC paid for this, $10 million. We find out that Steele did not even talk to these people in Russia in person on the phone.
We then find out that the FBI uses this to get a warrant, as you say, to spy on Carter Page. They did NOT tell the court that this was a political document. This is the kind of thing that movie scripts contain and are made of.
It’s hard to get my arms around comprehending the number of people that had to be in on this and their motivation. Now, you may be nervous about going into motivation. To me, that is everything. Why? What’s the purpose here?”
-Rush Limbaugh talking to Congressman Devin Nunes of California (chairman of the House Intelligence Committee) discussing the abuse by the FBI and how it was weaponized by Hillary Clinton for political purposes to attack American citizens.
It’s a private club. It’s a “secret organization” that floats in the upper percentages of the United States population. The entire American government, all that juicy “freedom” and “mouth-watering “democracy” are just lies used to manipulate and control the American people from rising up from their roles as cash-cows under a feudal serfdom.
So, they must do everything in their power to keep their actions secret. For their actions are illegal and against the Constitution, and ultimately the citizens of the United States. They absolutely MUST keep things secret.
“In Comey's testimony where he said he did not determine not to recommend Hillary for indictment before her interrogation was held he asked that if any FBI person thought he was lying they should contact him privately before stating their opinion.
I thought that was a very odd thing to say.”
-LostinfortwaltonJan 25, 2018 8:00 AM PermalinkA former Federal Prosecutor sat down with The Daily Caller (http://dailycaller.com/2018/01/20/obama-administration-plot-exonerate-hillary/) to give perhaps the most comprehensive rundown of the Obama Administration's "brazen plot to exonerate Hillary Clinton" and "frame an incoming president with a false Russian conspiracy."
“The FBI used to spy on Russians. This time they spied on us.
(This is) what this story is about - a brazen plot (by the FBI) to exonerate (Democrat Presidential Candidate) Hillary Clinton from a clear violation of the law with regard to the way she handled classified information with her classified (secretive) server.
(This was) Absolutely a crime, absolutely a felony.
It's about finding out why (as the Inspector General is doing at the department of justice) why Comey (head of the FBI) and the senior DOJ officials conducted a fake criminal investigation of (to exonerate) Hillary Clinton.
(They) ...
[1] Followed none of the regular rules,
[2] gave her every break in the book,
[3] immunized all kinds of people,
[4] allowed the destruction of evidence,
[5] no grand jury,
[6] no subpoenas,
[7]no search warrant(s).
That's not an investigation, that's a Potemkin village. It's a farce.
And everybody knew it was a farce.
The problem was, she didn't win (the 2016 Presidential election).
And because she didn't win, the farce became a very serious opera. It wasn't a comic opera anymore, it was a tragic opera. And she was going to be the focus.
What this is about, this is about a lavabo, a cleansing of FBI and the upper echelons of the Department of Justice.
We're going to discover that the Attorney General, Loretta Lynch (under President Obama), her deputy Sally Yates, the head of the national security division John Carlin (under President Obama), Bruce Ohr and other senior DOJ officials, and regrettably, lying attorneys (were ALL involved in this effort).
People who were senior career civil servants violated the law, perhaps committed crimes, and covered up crimes by a presidential candidate (Hillary Clinton)
But (it was) more than that, they tried to frame an incoming president with a false Russian conspiracy that never existed, and they knew it, and they plotted to ruin him as a candidate and then destroy him as a president.
That's why this is important. That's why connecting the dots is important.
DiGenova condemned the FBI for working so closely with the controversial Fusion GPS, a political hit squad paid by the DNC and Clinton campaign to create and spread the discredited Steele dossier about President Donald Trump.
Without a justifiable law enforcement or national security reason, he says, the FBI “created false facts so that they could get surveillance warrants.
Those are ALL crimes.”
-Daily Caller
The FBI has become a very powerful police force run for and by the oligarchy.
It is used to keep the American people under control and “in line” while America undergoes a transformation to a “new” government structure –one that favors the elite oligarchy, and closes everyone else out.
This is not my opinion.
There proof of this is out there and obvious to all who is willing to face the ugly truth;
“The leadership of the FBI and DOJ behaved in a way we would expect of the former Soviet Union, not the United States of America. I applaud Representative Nunes and other Republican members of the House Intel Committee for fighting and exposing corruption.
Americans are tired of corrupt bureaucrats and their career politician enablers.
If powerful leaders are not held accountable, the American people will never regain faith in the institutions meant to protect us. Former FBI Director James Comey was entrusted with one of the most powerful positions in the world. Sadly, he intentionally abused his power in an effort to destroy Donald Trump’s presidency.
He should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and sent to prison for his crimes. No one is above the law. No one.”
– Georgia GOP Gubernatorial candidate Sen. Michael Williams demanding the prosecution of (former) FBI Director Comey for his efforts related to treason.
The FBI is seriously corrupted, and works to further the agendas of others.
“III. Conclusion
We should all recognize the harm done to our rule of law when crimes go unpunished because government officials look the other way for the wealthy, famous, or powerful.
Americans rightly expect a single and impartial system of justice for all, not one for the well connected and a separate one for everyone else.
The information available to the Committee at this time raises serious questions about how the FBI applied the rule of law in its investigation of classified information on Secretary Clinton’s private email server. We know that:
• The FBI did not use a grand jury to compel testimony and obtain the vast majority of evidence, choosing instead to offer immunity deals and allow fact witnesses to join key interviews.
• There were substantial edits to Director Comey’s public statement that served to downplay the severity of Secretary Clinton’s actions, and that the first draft of the memo was distributed for editing two months before key witnesses were interviewed.
• Director Comey stated that he had not consulted with the Justice Department or White House, when text messages suggest otherwise.106 We have text messages in which two key investigators discuss an “insurance policy” against the “risk” of a Trump presidency, and “OUR task.”
• Messages discuss “unfinished business,” “an investigation leading to impeachment,” and “my gut sense and concern there’s no big there there.”
• Senior FBI officials—likely including Deputy Director McCabe— knew about newly discovered emails on a laptop belonging to Anthony Weiner for almost a month before Director Comey notified Congress.
• Over the period of at least four months, the FBI did not recover five months’ worth of text messages requested by DOJ OIG and two Senate committees; however, when pressed, DOJ OIG was able to recover missing texts in less than one week.
Taken together, this information warrants further inquiry. While some may discount the investigation for political reasons, we all have a great interest in ensuring the public has confidence in the integrity and independence of the FBI, the preeminent law enforcement agency in the world. Unlike prosecutors or inspectors general, the primary goal of congressional oversight is full transparency in order to promote public awareness and confidence in federal agencies. For these reasons, our important work will continue.”
- THE CLINTON EMAIL SCANDAL AND THE FBI’S INVESTIGATION OF IT. An Interim Report. A Majority Staff Report of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs United States Senate. Senator Ron Johnson, Chairman
file:///C:/Users/Michael/Downloads/2018-02-07%20Interim%20Report_The%20Clinton%20Email%20Scandal%20and%20the%20FBI’s%20Investigation%20of%20It.pdf
To this end, the FBI has it’s hands in all kinds of ways to monitor (so they can control) Americans. Of course, we know that the 4th amendment to the United States Constitution prevents them for collecting “unauthorized” information. They need a court document from a judge to do that. So what they are doing in the meantime (without going through a judge) is simply collecting the information…you know, “just in case”.
Democrats do it. Republicans do it. It is a policy that is rampant.
As of 2016, the FBI has been soliciting a bid for a program that seems very similar to the DHS social-network monitoring program. Dubbed the “FBI Social Media Application,” the program would have
"[the ability] to rapidly assemble critical open source information and intelligence ... to quickly vet, identify and geo-locate breaking events, incidents and emerging threats."
In the FBI’s 12-page solicitation, it requests a program that can quickly identify, display and locate alerts on geo-spatial maps and enable users to summarize the “who, what, when, where and why” of specific threats and incidents.
Going further, it seeks to not simply detect “credible threats,” but to identify those organizing and taking part in gatherings and to predict upcoming events. According to the FBI,
"Social media will be a valued source of information to the SIOC [i.e., Strategic Information and Operations Center] intelligence analyst in a crisis because it will be both eyewitness and first response to the crisis."
An FBI spokesperson insisted,
"[We] will not focus on specific persons or protected groups, but on words that relate to 'events' and 'crisis' and activities constituting violations of federal criminal law or threats to national security. Examples of these words will include lockdown, bomb, suspicious package, white powder, active shoot, school lockdown, etc.”
Rest assured, much like the assurances voiced by the DHS, the FBI insists that its monitoring won’t be used to focus on specific individuals or groups.
The FBI’s Next Generation Identification (NGI) system is made up of fingerprints, iris scans, faceprints, and other facial recognition data. As of 2016 EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center) sued regarding the FBI’s plan to include tattoos and scars in the database.
According to EPIC:
“With NGI, the FBI will expand the number of uploaded photographs and provide investigators with ‘automated facial recognition search capability.’ The FBI intends to do this by eliminating restrictions on the number of submitted photographs (including photographs that are not accompanied by tenprint fingerprints) and allowing the submission of non-facial photographs (e.g. scars or tattoos).”
“The FBI also widely disseminates this NGI data. According to the FBI’s latest NGI fact sheet, 24,510 local, state, tribal, federal and international partners submitted queries to NGI in September 2016.”
EPIC asked a judge to force the FBI to release records about its plan to share the biometric data with the U.S. Department of Defense. EPIC filed a Freedom of Information Act request in 2015, but the FBI has so far refused to release the 35 pages of responsive records.
EPIC and privacy advocates are concerned about the potential for cases of mistaken identity and abuse of the collected data. EPIC also argues
“the FBI stated that ‘increased collection and retention of personally identifiable information presents a correspondingly increased risk that the FBI will then be maintaining more information that might potentially be subject to loss or unauthorized use.”
Although very little is actually known about the database, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and EPIC have been able to uncover that the FBI would like to track every individual as they move from one location to another. In 2013, EPIC obtained a document that showed
“NGI shall return an incorrect candidate a maximum of 20% of the time.”
In 2011, EFF observed the growing biometrics trend:
"Once the collection of biometrics becomes standardized, it becomes much easier to locate and track someone across all aspects of their life.
EFF believes that perfect tracking is inimical to a free society.
A society in which everyone’s actions are tracked is not, in principle, free. It may be a livable society, but would not be our society.”
In 2014, EFF received documents from the FBI related to the NGI system.
Based on the records, EFF estimated the facial recognition component of NGI would include as many as 52 million face images by 2015. Indeed, the danger of abuse from facial recognition programs is on the rise.
Activist Post recently highlighted a new report from Georgetown Law University’s Center for Privacy and Technology that details how law enforcement is using facial recognition software without the knowledge or consent of the people. The report, “The Perpetual Line-Up: Unregulated Police Face Recognition in America,” examines several cases of misuse or abuse of facial recognition technology.
Facial recognition software is not the only type of surveillance tool the FBI has an interest in. The Bureau is reportedly set to sign a contract with Dataminr that will provide the feds with an upgrade to social media monitoring software.
According to the Federal Business Opportunities’ official government page, the contract will provide the FBI with around 200 licenses for Dataminr’s Advanced Alerting Tool. This upgrade “will permit the FBI to search the complete Twitter firehose, in near real-time, using customizable filters.”
The FBI claims to want the social media tool for detecting and catching terrorists, but it doesn’t take a huge leap of the imagination to see how this could be applied to U.S. citizens.
The pursuit of facial recognition software and social media monitoring tools is just the latest step in the expanding war on privacy, which is itself a part of the eternal war on freedom.
This system has been in operation for a number of years now, and is toted as a success.
This Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) covers the Next Generation Identification-Interstate Photo System (NGI-IPS), which serves as the FBI’s biometric identity and criminal history records system and maintains the fingerprints and associated identity information of individuals submitted to the FBI for authorized criminal justice, national security, and civil purposes.
-PIA: NGI-Interstate Photo Systen — FBI
Finally, let it be understood that the FBI’s Next Generation Identification system exempt from Privacy Act News roundup: The FBI Next Generation Identification biometrics database is exempt from the Privacy Act.
“From Rep. Adam Schiff’s increasingly desperate attempts to stonewall the truth to the FBI’s predictable appeals to secrecy from law enforcement to cover corruption, this memo is lifting the scales from the eyes of voters all over the country.
It’s telling them the cockroaches have run out of corners to hide in.
Time to put on our pointy shoes and start kickin’.
The reaction to this memo puts paid the classic libertarian critique that an organization’s highest priority is self-preservation. Doing what you formed the organization to do comes a distant second.
Government creates organizations that are not directly accountable to the people who fund them and therefore can dig moats around themselves to ensure their survival no matter what.
This is the essence of corruption. It is the essence of why the Swamp needs to be drained.
The FBI is a corrupt and venal organization of power-hungry, self-righteous arbiters of arbitrary justice. Even the good agents are tainted by the organizational rot. The same is true in every government department.
No one sees corruption like a government employee with half a conscience.
The pressure to not release this memo comes from formerly very powerful people – Obama and his staff, the Clintons, the DNC, etc. The fallout will be an overhaul from the ground up of multiple powerful agencies within the Federal Government.”
-Tom Luongo
It’s often the case that new technologies arrive on the scene faster than our society and its legal code can keep up. Sometimes this can be a good thing. For instance, 3D printing allows people to print out unregulated gun parts, thus allowing gun owners to circumvent the onerous laws of our government, which has struggled to come up with new laws to restrict the technology.
When technology advances at a breakneck pace however, it can also be quite dangerous for our liberties. This is especially true in regards to privacy. If a new technology makes it easy for the government to track us, you can bet that the government is going to take its sweet time updating the legal code in a way that will protect us from surveillance.
That certainly seems to be the case with facial recognition software. During a recent Congressional Oversight Committee hearing, members of both political parties sounded the alarm on the FBI’s use of the technology, and read the written testimony of Electronic Frontier Foundation senior staff attorney Jennifer Lynch:
Lynch detailed the stunning scope of the FBI’s photo collection. In addition to collecting criminal and civil mug shots, the agency currently has “memorandums of understanding” with 16 states that mean every driver’s license photo from those states is accessible to the agency—without the drivers’ consent. The FBI also has access to photos from the U.S. State Department’s passport and visa records.
Lynch argued that “Americans should not be forced to submit to criminal face recognition searches merely because they want to drive a car. They shouldn’t have to worry their data will be misused by unethical government officials with unchecked access to face recognition databases. And they shouldn’t have to fear that their every move will be tracked if face recognition is linked to the networks of surveillance cameras that blanket many cities.”
“But without meaningful legal protections, this is where we may be headed,” Lynch stated. “Without laws in place, it could be relatively easy for the government and private companies to amass databases of images of all Americans and use those databases to identify and track people in real time as they move from place to place throughout their daily lives.”
All told, law enforcement agencies around the country have access to 400 million photos in facial recognition databases, which are connected to roughly 50% of American adults. Most of these people have never committed a crime, and obviously haven’t given any consent to this.
At first glance it may sound harmless to be in one of these databases. Movies and TV shows make it sound like this technology can help law enforcement swiftly and precisely nab suspects. So what do you have to fear if you haven’t committed a crime? It turns out that in real life, facial recognition is far from perfect.
Internal FBI documents obtained in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center indicate that the FBI’s own database, called the Next Generation Identification Interstate Photo System, or NGI-IPS, had an acceptable margin of error of 20 percent — that is, a 1-in-5 chance of “recognizing” the wrong person.
And research published in the October 2015 issue of the scientific journal PLOS ONE by researchers at the universities of Sydney and New South Wales in Australia found that the humans who interpret such data build in an extra error margin approaching 30 percent.
If we ever allow our government to roll out facial recognition cameras on a wider scale, lots of innocent people are going to be hurt. Whether by mistake or by malice, it will become shockingly easy for law enforcement to identify ordinary people as criminals. The surveillance control grid will not only be inescapable, it will be unwieldy and rife with abuse.
It’s often said that you should never trade freedom for safety. In this case, we wouldn’t receive any kind of safety.
The FBI is operates as a “Secret Police”
In order to boost the credibility of the FBI’s investigations of the Trump team, much of the media is whitewashing the bureau’s entire history. But the FBI has been out of control almost since its birth. Here is a concise summary of some interesting history regarding this issue. Intelligence provided here was collected by James Bovard and all credit due to James Bovard.
In the 1930s, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court feared that the FBI had bugged the conference room where justices privately wrangled over landmark cases, as Tim Weiner noted in his “Enemies: A History of the FBI.”
From 1956 through 1971, the FBI’s COINTELPRO program conducted thousands of covert operations to incite street warfare between violent groups, to get people fired, to smear innocent people by portraying them as government informants, to sic the IRS on people, and to cripple or destroy left-wing, communist, white racist, antiwar, and black organizations (including Martin Luther King Jr.). These operations involved vast numbers of warrantless wiretaps and illicit break-ins and resulted in the murder of some black militants. A Senate Committee chaired by liberal Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho) issued a damning report on FBI abuses of power that should be mandatory reading for anyone who believes the bureau deserves deference today.
Politifact quotes a professor who asserts that “any use of unnecessary violence (by the FBI) would be met with the full force of the criminal law.” Is that why an internal FBI report claimed that every one of the 150 shootings by FBI agents between 1993 and 2011 was faultless?
FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi gunned down Vicki Weaver in 1992 as she stood in her Idaho cabin doorway holding her baby. After being accusing the FBI of a coverup in a Wall Street Journal oped, FBI chief Louis Freeh denounced Jim Bovard for twisting the truth. But after a confidential Justice Department report leaked out revealing the FBI’s deceits and unconstitutional rules of engagement, the feds paid a $3 million wrongful death settlement to the Weaver family. When an Idaho County sought to prosecute the FBI sniper, the Justice Department invoked the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution to torpedo the case. (Ah, the 9th Circuit Court, rules in favor of the Progressive government.)
“Our very fear of speaking out (against the FBI) ... has watered the roots and hastened the growth of a vine of tyranny ... which is ensnaring that Constitution and Bill of Rights which we are each sworn to uphold.”
The FBI is currently scorning almost every congressional attempt at oversight. Thus far, members of Congress have responded with nothing except press releases and talk show bluster.
Politifact repeatedly scoffs at the notion that the FBI is “a secret police agency such as the old KGB.” And since the FBI is not as bad as the KGB, let’s mosey along and pretend no good citizen has a right to complain. A similar standard could exonerate any American president who was not as bad as Stalin.
In the 1960s, some conservatives adorned their cars with “Support Your Local Sheriff” bumper stickers. How long until we see Priuses with “Support Your Secretive All-Powerful Federal Agents” bumper stickers? But those who forget or deny past oppression help forge new shackles for the American people.
The FBI can come after YOU!
This should be obvious, but it isn’t. Most Americans think that “it can never happen to me”. Ask anyone in prison. Life can change in a heartbeat. Especially when the corrupt and powerful is in control of your life.
“RUSH: And welcome back. We wrap up here with Congressman Nunes. I thought of one more thing I wanted to run by you during the break. And it was… I played the audio sound bite of this earlier. It’s a former CIA counterintelligence muckety-muck guy named Phillip Mudd, and there have been two other people like him over the weekend saying to President Trump, “You know what? If you’re gonna pick a fight with the FBI, you don’t want to make those guys mad.“They can really come after you.”
And I’ve heard that before. The same thing has been said by Chuck Schumer to President Trump about the CIA, the intelligence community. I’m sure you’re getting the same kind of insults. Now, with people saying, “You better not make the FBI mad! They could really come out and do you damage or come after you,” doesn’t that kind of validate what’s already going on, if we have people advocating that the FBI be used as a weapon against political opponents?
NUNES: Yeah. So those days are over, Rush. That is what they did in the Obama administration. These institutions became corrupt at the top, and it’s not just the FBI. It’s all of the departments who became just out of control. I mean, do we have to go back to Lois Lerner and the IRS and all of those games that were played?
RUSH: Right.
NUNES: And what’s happening here is that the first time in a long time Congress — which is a separate branch of government. We created the FBI.
RUSH: Right!
NUNES: We created the Department of Justice.
RUSH: You could abolish them if you want to!
NUNES: We could abolish them. We could cut their money off. But the bottom line is this. I said, “We’re done. You cross the rubicon. You abused the FISA court.” And, you know, I had to fight for these documents for months and months and months. We issued the original subpoenas back in August of last year, and it took until just a few weeks ago for us to finally put all the pieces together. So, you know, I’m not gonna take their crap. I’m not gonna be threatened. They tried to do an end run around me, and Speaker Paul Ryan said, “No. The Congress is gonna exert our authority.”
-Rush Limbaugh talking to Congressman Devin Nunes of California (chairman of the House Intelligence Committee) discussing the abuse by the FBI and how it was weaponized by Hillary Clinton for political purposes to attack American citizens.
It’s getting pretty serious. It is obvious that the FBI no longer serves the American people. It serves the oligarchy and itself only.
“I’ll tell you how serious it’s getting. Well, not how serious it’s getting. To illustrate for you just how even greater the divide is becoming, there’s a CIA analyst named Phil Mudd and we’ve got the audio sound bite coming up. This guy is on CNN, and he’s actually saying to Nunes and to Trump, “You know, you make these guys at the FBI mad at you, and they can come back and destroy you.”
What in the hell does that mean? You make these guys at the FBI mad, and they can really come get you. What is that supposed to mean? And he says that with approval and advocacy, like as though he’s in favor of the nation’s premier law enforcement agent targeting people for their politics. It’s like when Chuck Schumer warned Trump, “You better be careful of these guys in the intelligence community. They can wipe you out six ways from Sunday,” which we know to be the case, but to advocate for that.
And lest anybody have any doubt, I’m amazed at people who are just realizing this, but they are. I’ve read I don’t know how many pieces, media on our side — I’m talking about the conservative media, forget the left — who have come to a sudden shocking realization that the media is part of the establishment! I’m reading this, “Duh. You think that’s a revelation?” But, I mean, I’ll take it. I mean, the more people get it, the better.”
-Rush Limbaugh
The FBI Is Paying Geek Squad Members To Dig Around In Computers For Evidence
“Compared to the 18-minute “gap” in the White House tape during the Watergate scandal, this is the Grand Canyon[i]. So what does the Bureau have to say about it?
They blamed it on “misconfiguration issues related to rollouts, provisioning, and software upgrades.” Someone at the FBI actually wrote that.“
-Robert Knight - Sunday, January 28, 2018[i]"The Grand Canyon". The pattern of alarming behavior at the FBI and the Justice Department deserves a recap:
On June 27, 2016, Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch held a private meeting with Bill Clinton in a jet at the Phoenix airport, even though the FBI, a branch of the Justice Department, was investigating Mr. Clinton’s wife’s conduct as Secretary of State. A more glaring conflict of interest is hard to imagine.
A week later, on July 5, then-FBI Director James Comey released a report exonerating Mrs. Clinton. He criticized her misuse of emails, but described her violation of national security protocols as “extremely careless” instead of the criminally indictable “grossly negligent” in the original draft. The ever nimble Mr. Strzok has been credited with that edit.
Mr. Strzok also revealed in a text that the FBI team had removed a reference to President Obama as having received a text from Mrs. Clinton when one of them was “on the territory of sophisticated adversaries.” Was it Russia? Alabama?
To downplay the severity of the breach, the FBI report editors cleverly demoted Mr. Obama from president into just “another senior government official,” according to The Journal. The very next day after Mr. Comey’s press conference and release of the report, Ms. Lynch announced that no charges would be filed against Mrs. Clinton, to no great surprise.
Mr. Comey also drafted a statement closing the Clinton email investigation before the FBI even interviewed Mrs. Clinton or her staff. And, Mr. Comey leaked his own memo to a reporter about a conversation with President Trump in order to trigger the Mueller investigation. This all adds up to a disturbingly convincing scenario in which partisan FBI officials bent the law to protect Hillary Clinton, sully Donald Trump before the election, and destabilize his presidency afterward.
If something here isn’t a federal crime, I really don’t know what is.
Law enforcement has a number of informants working for it and the companies that already pay their paychecks, like UPS, for example. It also has a number of government employees working for the TSA, keeping their eyes peeled for “suspicious” amounts of cash it can swoop in and seize.
According to court records, Geek Squad technician John "Trey" Westphal, an FBI informant, reported he accidentally located on Rettenmaier's computer an image of "a fully nude, white prepubescent female on her hands and knees on a bed, with a brown choker-type collar around her neck."
Westphal notified his boss, Justin Meade, also an FBI informant, who alerted colleague Randall Ratliff, another FBI informant at Best Buy, as well as the FBI. Claiming the image met the definition of child pornography and was tied to a series of illicit pictures known as the "Jenny" shots, agent Tracey Riley seized the hard drive.
Not necessarily a problem, considering companies performing computer/electronic device repair are legally required to report discovered child porn to law enforcement.
The difference here is the paycheck.
This Geek Squad member had been paid $500 for digging around in customers’ computers and reporting his findings to the FBI. That changes the motivation from legal obligation to a chance to earn extra cash by digging around in files not essential to the repair work at hand.
More of a problem is the FBI’s tactics. While it possibly could have simply pointed to the legal obligation Best Buy has to report discovered child porn, it proactively destroyed this argument by apparently trying to cover up the origin of its investigation, as well as a couple of warrantless searches.
Setting aside the issue of whether the search of Rettenmaier's computer constituted an illegal search by private individuals acting as government agents, the FBI undertook a series of dishonest measures in hopes of building a case, according to James D. Riddet, Rettenmaier's San Clemente-based defense attorney. Riddet says agents conducted two additional searches of the computer without obtaining necessary warrants, lied to trick a federal magistrate judge into authorizing a search warrant, then tried to cover up their misdeeds by initially hiding records.
The “private search” issue is mentioned briefly in OC Weekly’s report, but should be examined more closely. Private searches are acceptable, but the introduction of cash payments, as well as the FBI having an official liaison with Best Buy suggests the searches aren’t really “private.” Instead, the FBI appears to be using private searches to route around warrant requirements. That’s not permissible and even the FBI’s belief that going after the “worst of worst” isn’t going to be enough to salvage these warrantless searches.
A bill that will allow homes to be searched without a warrant was passed with overwhelming support by the United States Congress.
It was signed into law by President Trump.
It happened silently with no media coverage and very little fanfare.
On the surface, House Joint Resolution 76 looks harmless. The title of the bill claims that its purpose is “Granting the consent and approval of Congress for the Commonwealth of Virginia, the State of Maryland, and the District of Columbia to enter into a compact relating to the establishment of the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission.”
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/congress-passes-bill-allowing-homes-searched-without-warrant/
No 4th Amendment Protections!
As Andrew Fleischman points out at Fault Lines, the government’s spin on the paid “private search” issue — that it’s “wild speculation” the Best Buy employee was acting as a paid informant when he discovered the child porn — doesn’t hold up if the situation is reversed. AUSA Anthony Brown’s defensive statement is nothing more than the noise of a double standard being erected.
Flipping the script for a minute, would an AUSA say it was “wild speculation” that a man was a drug dealer when phone records showed he regularly contacted a distributor, he was listed as a drug dealer in a special book of drug dealers, and he had received $500.00 for drugs? Sorry to break it to you, Mr. Brown, but once you start getting paid for something, it’s tough to argue you’re just doing it for the love of the game.
In addition to these problems, the file discovered by the Best Buy tech was in unallocated space… something that points to almost nothing, legally-speaking.
In Rettenmaier's case, the alleged "Jenny" image was found on unallocated "trash" space, meaning it could only be retrieved by "carving" with costly, highly sophisticated forensics tools.
In other words, it's arguable a computer's owner wouldn't know of its existence. (For example, malware can secretly implant files.)
Worse for the FBI, a federal appellate court unequivocally declared in February 2011 (USA v. Andrew Flyer) that pictures found on unallocated space did not constitute knowing possession because it is impossible to determine when, why or who downloaded them.
This important detail was apparently glossed over in the FBI’s warrant application to search Rettenmaier’s home and personal devices.
In hopes of overcoming this obstacle, they performed a sleight-of-hand maneuver, according to Riddet.
The agents simply didn't alert Judge Marc Goldman that the image in question had been buried in unallocated space and, thus, secured deceitful authorization for a February 2012 raid on Rettenmaier's Laguna Niguel residence.
Courts have shown an often-excessive amount of empathy for the government’s “outrageous” behavior when pursuing criminals. The fact that there’s child porn involved budges the needle in the government’s direction, but the obstacles the FBI has placed in its own way through its deceptive behavior may prevent it from salvaging this case.
The case is already on very shaky ground, with the presiding judge questioning agents’ “odd memory losses,” noting several discrepancies between the FBI’s reports and its testimony, and its “perplexing” opposition to turning over documents the defense has requested.
In any event, it appears the FBI has a vast network of informants — paid or otherwise — working for both private companies and the federal government. Considering the FBI is already the beneficiary of legal reporting requirements, this move seems ill-advised. It jeopardizes the legitimacy of the evidence, even before the FBI engages in the sort of self-sabotaging acts it appears to have done here.
Underneath it all is the perplexing and disturbing aversion[i] to adhering to the Fourth Amendment we’ve seen time and time again from law enforcement agencies, both at local and federal levels. Anything that can be done to avoid seeking a warrant, and anything that creates an obfuscatory paper trail, is deployed to make sure the accused faces an even more uphill battle once they arrive in court[ii].
The DHS Media Monitoring capability Program (MMC).
Department of Homeland Security. A more aggressive monitoring program was revealed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC).
This occurred when it secured from the DHS a list of approximately 380 keywords that the agency tracks. The allegedly threatening terms were found in the DHS’ Analyst Desktop Binder, part of its 2011 Media Monitoring Capability (MMC) program.
Agencies – 26 terms, including “DHS,” “FBI”, “CIA,” “Air Marshal,” “United Nations” and “Red Cross”;
Domestic security – 52 terms, including “assassination,” “dirty bomb,” “crash,” “first responder,” “screening” and “death.”
Hazardous materials – 34 terms, including “hazmat,” “nuclear,” “leak,” “burn” and “cloud.”
Public health – 47 terms, including “ebola,” “contamination,” “wave,” “pork” and “agriculture.”
Infrastructure security – 35 terms, including “AMTRAK,” “airport,” “subway,” “port,” “electric” and “cancelled.”
Southwest border violence – 65 terms, including “drug cartel,” “decapitated,” “gunfight,” “marijuana,” “heroin,” “border” and “bust.”
Terrorism – 55 terms, including “Jihad,” “biological weapons,” “suicide attack,” “plot” and “pirates.”
Emergencies and weather – 41 terms, including “disaster,” “hurricane,” “power outage,” “ice,” “storm” and “help.”
Cyber security – 25 terms, including “cyber terror,” “malware,” “virus,” “hacker,” “worm,” “China” and “Trojan.”
The DHS has been engaged in monitoring social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and LinkedIn as well as blogs since at least 2010. Its effort is run through the Office of Operations Coordination and Planning (OPS), National Operations Center (NOC), and is entitled “Publicly Available Social Media Monitoring and Situational Awareness (Initiative).” Its ostensible purpose is to provide situational awareness and strengthen its common operating picture.
The scope of DHS’ practice of social monitoring was unexpectedly revealed in a special congressional hearing, the House Subcommittee on Counterintelligence and Intelligence, headed by Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-PA), in February. Two DHS officials, Chief Privacy Officer Mary Ellen Callahan and Director of Operations Coordination and Planning Richard Chavez, raised the representatives’ ire by appearing to be deliberately stonewalling on the scope and practice of the agency’s social media surveillance.
Most disturbing, the DHS reps appeared unsure about the monitoring program’s goals, how the gathered information would be used and whether it would be shared with other agencies. In an unusual show of bipartisan unity, Reps. Billy Long (R-MO), Jackie Speier (D-CA) and Bennie Thompson (D-MS) joined Rep. Meehan in chastising the DHS officials.
Under intense congressional probing, DHS reps revealed that the keywords chosen for monitoring were drawn from commercially available, off-the-shelf database programs that were customized to meet its specifications. The agency was particularly interested in determining first witnesses to breaking events like the 2011 Tucson shooting of Gabrielle Giffords and others and the January 2012 bomb threat at an Austin school.
The DHS reps insisted that data gathered was only used to confirm other news reports and that information on private citizens was not being collected. In addition, they claimed that that all personally identifying information was regularly scrubbed from the agency’s servers.
Few should feel comforted by the DHS assurances. At the House hearing, it was also revealed that the agency was involved in what appears to be an ongoing campaign to monitor the actions and beliefs of individual Americans engaged in community-based political activism. It compiled a report, “Residents Voice Opposition Over Possible Plan to Bring Guantanamo Detainees to Local Prison-Standish MI,” that tracked community reactions to the proposed location of Guantánamo detainees in a local Michigan prison.
The DHS report is part of the EPIC documents acquired through a Freedom of Information request. It details that information was gathered from a variety of sources, including newspaper articles and responses, blogs by local activists, and Twitter and Facebook posts.
The House hearing also shed light on the DHS practice of outsourcing keyword tracking of social media through a sole-source contract to the giant defense contractor, General Dynamics. In 2011, General Dynamics had revenues of $5.5 billion of which 84 percent ($4.6 bil) came from government contracts. Earlier it’s Advanced Information Systems division was awarded a $14 million DHS contract to (in the words of a press release) “provide constant and continual watch operations for critical communications to the agency’s National Coordinating Center.” In addition, it will “identify the possible impacts of potentially disruptive events.
In keeping with the prevailing ethos of corporate unaccountability, it turns out if the General Dynamics employees are found to have misused the information garnered from a social network user, including a journalist or public figure, the employee must take a training course or, worst case, lose his/her job. No criminal penalties are specified.
A word to the wise, Big Brother is watching you.
The US Ministry of Propaganda
In the last your of President Obama’s term of office, “a bill to implement the U.S.’ very own de facto Ministry of Truth had been quietly introduced in Congress.
As with any legislation attempting to dodge the public spotlight the Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act of 2016 marks a further curtailment of press freedom and another avenue to stultify avenues of accurate information.
Introduced by Congressmen Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Ted Lieu (D-CA), H.R. 5181 seeks a “whole-government approach without the bureaucratic restrictions” to counter “foreign disinformation and manipulation,” which they believe threaten the world’s “security and stability.”
Creation
Also called the Countering Information Warfare Act of 2016 (S. 2692), when introduced in March by Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), the legislation represents a dramatic return to Cold War-era government propaganda battles.
“These countries spend vast sums of money on advanced broadcast and digital media capabilities, targeted campaigns, funding of foreign political movements, and other efforts to influence key audiences and populations,”
Portman explained, adding that while the U.S. spends a relatively small amount on its Voice of America, the Kremlin provides enormous funding for its news organization, RT. Portman stated,
“Surprisingly, there is currently no single U.S. governmental agency or department charged with the national level development, integration and synchronization of whole-of-government strategies to counter foreign propaganda and disinformation.”
Yah. Sure. What ever you say bub.
You ever hear of the NID, or the NED, or the “color revolutions” or the “Pro-Democracy” movements?
Long before the “fake news” meme became a daily topic of extensive conversation on such discredited mainstream portals as CNN and WaPo, H.R. 5181 would task the Secretary of State with coordinating the Secretary of Defense, the Director of National Intelligence, and the Broadcasting Board of Governors to “establish a Center for Information Analysis and Response,” which will pinpoint sources of disinformation, analyze data, and — in true dystopic manner — ‘develop and disseminate’ “fact-based narratives” to counter effrontery propaganda.
In short, long before “fake news” became a major media topic, the US government was already planning its legally-backed crackdown on anything it would eventually label “fake news.”
Here is the full statement issued by the generously funded Senator Rob Portman (R- Ohio) on the singing into law of a bill that further chips away at press liberties in the US, and which sets the stage for future which hunts and website shutdowns, purely as a result of an accusation that any one media outlet or site is considered as a source of “disinformation and propaganda” and is shut down by the government. Go Here to read about this historical event.
Portman-Murphy Bill Promotes Coordinated Strategy to Defend America, Allies Against Propaganda and Disinformation from Russia, China & Others
U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) today announced that their Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act – legislation designed to help American allies counter foreign government propaganda from Russia, China, and other nations– has been signed into law as part of the FY 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Conference Report. The bipartisan bill, which was introduced by Senators Portman and Murphy in March, will improve the ability of the United States to counter foreign propaganda and disinformation from our enemies by establishing an interagency center housed at the State Department to coordinate and synchronize counter-propaganda efforts throughout the U.S. government. To support these efforts, the bill also creates a grant program for NGOs, think tanks, civil society and other experts outside government who are engaged in counter-propaganda related work. This will better leverage existing expertise and empower our allies overseas to defend themselves from foreign manipulation. It will also help foster a free and vibrant press and civil society overseas, which is critical to ensuring our allies have access to truthful information and inoculating people against foreign propaganda campaigns.
“Our enemies are using foreign propaganda and disinformation against us and our allies, and so far the U.S. government has been asleep at the wheel,” Portman said. “But today, the United States has taken a critical step towards confronting the extensive, and destabilizing, foreign propaganda and disinformation operations being waged against us by our enemies overseas. With this bill now law, we are finally signaling that enough is enough; the United States will no longer sit on the sidelines. We are going to confront this threat head-on. I am confident that, with the help of this bipartisan bill, the disinformation and propaganda used against us, our allies, and our interests will fail.”
“The use of propaganda to undermine democracy has hit a new low.But now we are finally in a position to confront this threat head on and get out the truth. By building up independent, objective journalism in places like eastern Europe, we can start to fight back by exposing these fake narratives and empowering local communities to protect themselves,” said Murphy. “I’m proud that our bill was signed into law, and I look forward to working with Senator Portman to make sure these tools and new resources are effectively used to get out the truth.”
Priorities
The bipartisan Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act is organized around two main priorities to help achieve the goal of combating the constantly evolving threat of foreign disinformation from our enemies:
The first priority is developing a whole-of-government strategy for countering THE foreign propaganda and disinformation being wages against us and our allies by our enemies. The bill would increase the authority, resources, and mandate of the Global Engagement Center to include state actors like Russia and China as well as non-state actors. The Center will be led by the State Department, but with the active senior level participation of the Department of Defense, USAID, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the Intelligence Community, and other relevant agencies. The Center will develop, integrate, and synchronize whole-of-government initiatives to expose and counter foreign disinformation operations by our enemies and proactively advance fact-based narratives that support U.S. allies and interests.
Second, the legislation seeks to leverage expertise from outside government to create more adaptive and responsive U.S. strategy options. The legislation establishes a fund to help train local journalists and provide grants and contracts to NGOs, civil society organizations, think tanks, private sector companies, media organizations, and other experts outside the U.S. government with experience in identifying and analyzing the latest trends in foreign government disinformation techniques. This fund will complement and support the Center’s role by integrating capabilities and expertise available outside the U.S. government into the strategy-making process. It will also empower a decentralized network of private sector experts and integrate their expertise into the strategy-making process.
And so, with the likes of WaPo having already primed the general public to equate “Russian Propaganda” with “fake news” (despite admitting after the fact their own report was essentially “fake”), while the US media has indoctrinated the public to assume that any information which is not in compliance with the official government narrative, or dares to criticize the establishment, is also “fake news” and thus falls under the “Russian propaganda” umbrella, the scene is now set for the US government to legally crack down on every media outlet that the government deems to be “foreign propaganda.”
Just like that, the US Ministry of Truth is officially born.
Impact
The Founding Fathers protected freedom of speech and freedom of the press as the most important liberties. They are protected in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. And as discussed below, the Founders recognized that the ability to speak freely was the foundation for all other freedoms. If you remove it, the other freedoms would fall. Thousands of years of history shows how rare and valuable such freedoms really are. Please consider…
Socrates
Socrates was killed in 399 BC for “failing to acknowledge the gods that the [government] acknowledges”.
Using the Printing Press
Before the invention of the movable type printing press by Gutenberg, the church controlled the production of books. Gutenberg’s invention allowed cheap production of books. This challenged the monopoly on books by the church, and thus allowed different viewpoints to be heard.
For example, when Martin Luther posted his “95 Theses” on a church door in Germany criticizing the corrupt Catholic practice of selling “indulgences” – paying the church in return for a reduction of your time in purgatory – the printing press spread his writings throughout all of Germany in 2 weeks, and throughout “all of Christendom” within a month. This launched the Protestant Reformation, and challenged the power of the Catholic church.
So Pope Alexander VI issued an edict against unlicensed printing in 1501.
And in 1535, Francis I of France prohibited – under penalty of death – the printing of any books.
William Tyndale
William Tyndale was killed in 1536 for translating the Bible into English so that everyone could read it for themselves, and no longer had to rely on the clergy to tell them what it said.
Unlicensed Printing
In 1585, the Star Chamber assumed the right to confine printing to London, Oxford and Cambridge, to limit the number of printers and presses, to prohibit all publications issued without proper license, and to enter houses to search for unlicensed presses and publications. The search for unlicensed presses or publications was entrusted to an officer called the ” messenger of the press.”
In 1557, Henry II made the collecting of prohibited books punishable by death or imprisonment. An in 1559, he made it punishable by death to print without royal authority.
Galileo
In 1616 and 1633, Galileo was tried for saying that the Earth revolves around the Sun, instead of agreeing with the church’s “mainstream” view that the Sun revolves around the Earth.
Heretics and Critics
Many people have been killed over the centuries for saying anything that the church authorities of the day disliked. And the British monarchy punished anyone caught with materials criticizing the monarchy, which they labeled as “libelous” or “scandalous”, even if what was written was true.
(Indeed, the ransacking of houses by authorities searching for “heretical” and “libelous” material was so common that it was the main reason the Founding Fathers wrote the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting unreasonable “search and seizure”).
Benjamin Franklin
In 1773, Ben Franklin was fired as colonial Postmaster General for informing the American Colonists about what the British were really doing.
Strongmen
Strongmen of all stripes have cracked down anyone who insults the strongman or criticizes his policies.
Book Burnings
In 1933, the Nazis carried out numerous book burnings of authors such as Einstein, Freud, Kafka, Hellen Keller, Jack London, Thomas Mann, Proust, Upon Sinclair and H.G. Wells because their writing book …
“acts subversively on our future or strikes at the root of German thought, the German home and the driving forces of our people…”
There have been many other book burnings throughout history.
Mussolini
Mussolini had around 2,000 people killed because they challenged the dictator.
Stalin and the Soviet Union
Stalin murdered or through into insane asylums countless people who criticized the Soviet government or Communism.
Other Communist Regimes
China’s Mao and other Communist leaders killed people who failed to sign the Great Leaders’ praise.
CIA
In 1972, CIA director Richard Helms relabeled dissenters as “terrorists”.
Reporters
The extremely popular tv personality Phil Donahue’s show – the most popular on MSNBC – was canceled for questioning the wisdom of the Iraq war. Indeed, many reporters have been fired, harassed, spied upon and even accused of terrorism for reporting stories critical of government actions or policies.
Protect What Makes Us American
Those in power are always tempted to censor and punish critical speech and reporting. George W. Bush said “You’re either with us or your against us”, and cracked down on criticism and protest. Most powerful Democrats now want to suppress right-wing speech. But freedom of speech and of the press – no matter how much we may disagree with and even hate what someone else says – is the bedrock of America.
If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
– George Washington
“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.”
– Ben Franklin
“Freedom of expression is the matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every other form of freedom.”
– U.S. Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo
“The framers of the constitution knew human nature as well as we do. They too had lived in dangerous days; they too knew the suffocating influence of orthodoxy and standardized thought. They weighed the compulsions for restrained speech and thought against the abuses of liberty. They chose liberty.”
-U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Douglass
“If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.”
-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis
NGA
If you’re one of the countless Americans who was distraught to learn of the revelations made by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, the mere idea that there might be yet another agency out there – perhaps just as powerful and much more intrusive – should give you goosebumps.
Foreign Policy reports that the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, or NGA, is an obscure spy agency former President Barack Obama had learned to love and appreciate. Like the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA), the NGA is an intelligence agency, but it also serves as a combat support institution that functions under the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).
With headquarters bigger than the CIA’s, the building cost $1.4 billion to be completed in 2011. In 2016, the NGA bought an extra 99 acres in St. Louis, building additional structures that cost taxpayers an extra $1.75 billion. Enjoying the extra budget Obama threw at them, the NGA became one of the most obscure intelligence agencies precisely because it relies on the work of drones.
A partially redacted March 2016 report released by the Pentagon revealed that drones had already been used domestically on about 20 or fewer occasions between 2006 and 2015. Though some of these operations mostly involved natural disasters, National Guard training, and search and rescue missions, quotes from an Air Force law review article found their way into the report. In it, Dawn M. K. Zoldi wrote that technology designed to spy on targets abroad could soon be used against American citizens.
Use Foreign Intelligence to Collect Intel
.@Judgenap: Three intel sources have disclosed that Pres. Obama turned to British spies to get surveillance on Trump pic.twitter.com/IghCFm7qhO
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) March 14, 2017
During the waning months of the Obama Administration, then President Obama used the British spy agency GCHQ to collect information on incoming President-elect Trump. This was because of both the constitutional limitations placed on him by law, as well as avoiding any connection to spying (and wiretaps like Richard Nixon had the unfortunate experience to endure) by using a “cat’s paw” to collect the intel.
MUSCULAR (DS-200B)
MUSCULAR (DS-200B), located in the United Kingdom, is the name of a surveillance programme jointly operated by Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) that was revealed by documents which were released by Edward Snowden and interviews with knowledgeable officials.
GCHQ
GCHQ is the primary operator of the program.GCHQ and the National Security Agency have secretly broken into the main communications links that connect the data centers of Yahoo! and Google.Substantive information about the program was made public at the end of October 2013.
The programme is jointly run by:
Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) (United Kingdom)
U.S. National Security Agency (NSA)
MUSCULAR is one of at least four other similar programs that rely on a trusted 2nd party, programs which together are known as WINDSTOP. In a 30-day period from December 2012 to January 2013, MUSCULAR was responsible for collecting 181 million records. It was however dwarfed by another WINDSTOP program known (insofar) only by its code DS-300 and codename INCENSER, which collected over 14 billion records in the same period.
According to the leaked document the NSA’s acquisitions directorate sends millions of records every day from internal Yahoo! and Google networks to data warehouses at the agency’s headquarters at Fort Meade, Maryland. The programme operates via an access point known as DS-200B, which is outside the United States, and it relies on an unnamed telecommunications operator to provide secret access for the NSA and the GCHQ.
According to the Washington Post, the MUSCULAR program collects more than twice as many data points (“selectors” in NSA jargon) compared to the better known PRISM Unlike PRISM, the MUSCULAR program requires no (FISA or other type of) warrants.
Because of the huge amount of data involved, MUSCULAR has presented a special challenge to NSA’s Special Source Operations. For example, when Yahoo! decided to migrate a large amount of mailboxes between its data centers, the NSA’s PINWALE database (their primary analytical database for the Internet) was quickly overwhelmed with the data coming from MUSCULAR.
Closely related programmes are called INCENSER and TURMOIL. TURMOIL, belonging to the NSA, is a system for processing the data collected from MUSCULAR.
Blaming Others for Nefarious Activities
The WikiLeaks’ Vault 7 release contains a batch of documents, named ‘Marble’, which detail CIA hacking tactics and how they can misdirect forensic investigators from attributing viruses, trojans and hacking attacks to their agency by inserted code fragments in foreign languages. Per the WikiLeaks release:
"The source code shows that Marble has test examples not just in English but also in Chinese, Russian, Korean, Arabic and Farsi. This would permit a forensic attribution double game, for example by pretending that the spoken language of the malware creator was not American English, but Chinese, but then showing attempts to conceal the use of Chinese, drawing forensic investigators even more strongly to the wrong conclusion, --- but there are other possibilities, such as hiding fake error messages."RELEASE: CIA Vault 7 part 3 "Marble"
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) March 31, 2017
The latest release is said to potentially allow for ‘thousands’ of cyber attacks to be attributed to the CIA which were originally blamed on foreign governments.
WikiLeaks said Marble hides fragments of texts that would allow for the author of the malware to be identified. WikiLeaks stated the technique is the digital equivalent of a specialized CIA tool which disguises English language text on US produced weapons systems before they are provided to insurgents.
It’s “designed to allow for flexible and easy-to-use obfuscation" as "string obfuscation algorithms” often link malware to a specific developer, according to the whistleblowing site.
The source code released reveals Marble contains test examples in Chinese, Russian, Korean, Arabic and Farsi.
“This would permit a forensic attribution double game, for example by pretending that the spoken language of the malware creator was not American English, but Chinese, but then showing attempts to conceal the use of Chinese, drawing forensic investigators even more strongly to the wrong conclusion,” WikiLeaks explains, “But there are other possibilities, such as hiding fake error messages.”
The code also contains a ‘deobfuscator’ which allows the CIA text obfuscation to be reversed. “Combined with the revealed obfuscation techniques, a pattern or signature emerges which can assist forensic investigators attribute previous hacking attacks and viruses to the CIA.”
Previous Vault7 releases have referred to the CIA’s ability to mask its hacking fingerprints.
WikiLeaks claims the latest release will allow for thousands of viruses and hacking attacks to be attributed to the CIA.
CIA's "Marble Framework" shows its hackers use potential decoy languages
Background: https://t.co/GsoN4BuyTz pic.twitter.com/ZT66doCnfY
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) March 31, 2017
Full release from WikiLeaks:
Today, March 31st 2017, WikiLeaks releases Vault 7 "Marble" -- 676 source code files for the CIA's secret anti-forensic Marble Framework. Marble is used to hamper forensic investigators and anti-virus companies from attributing viruses, trojans and hacking attacks to the CIA.
Marble does this by hiding ("obfuscating") text fragments used in CIA malware from visual inspection. This is the digital equivallent of a specalized CIA tool to place covers over the english language text on U.S. produced weapons systems before giving them to insurgents secretly backed by the CIA.
Marble forms part of the CIA's anti-forensics approach and the CIA's Core Library of malware code. It is "[D]esigned to allow for flexible and easy-to-use obfuscation" as "string obfuscation algorithms (especially those that are unique) are often used to link malware to a specific developer or development shop."
The Marble source code also includes a deobfuscator to reverse CIA text obfuscation. Combined with the revealed obfuscation techniques, a pattern or signature emerges which can assist forensic investigators attribute previous hacking attacks and viruses to the CIA. Marble was in use at the CIA during 2016. It reached 1.0 in 2015.
The source code shows that Marble has test examples not just in English but also in Chinese, Russian, Korean, Arabic and Farsi. This would permit a forensic attribution double game, for example by pretending that the spoken language of the malware creator was not American English, but Chinese, but then showing attempts to conceal the use of Chinese, drawing forensic investigators even more strongly to the wrong conclusion, --- but there are other possibilities, such as hiding fake error messages.
The Marble Framework is used for obfuscation only and does not contain any vulnerabilties or exploits by itself.
Intentional Fabrication of UFO lore.
And why not?
You see all the above examples, the many, many, many examples are mostly political, or used to add control “for natural security”. It’s all just excuses.
It’s not about “getting your political opponents”. Nor is it about “the children”, or “for national security”.
It’s all about control.
"I share your concern over the secrecy that continues to shroud our intelligence activities on this subject."
-Congressman Thomas L. Ashley in a letter to NICAP (National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena) on the subject of UFOs.
Numerous government employees have been actively engaged in the creation of UFO / extraterrestrial lore. This involves various people in the military; including the leadership, various government employees of various agencies that includes both contractors and direct payroll staff, and even elected officials who do so for political purposes. The reasons behind why they were involved in such activities ran the gambit from governmental projects with intentional goals, to mere mischievous pranks. These individuals are now well known in their complicity to deflect, redirect, and discredit all extraterrestrial related study and lore.
One must give pause as to why the government would want to employ someone to do this full time.
A former Air Force special investigations officer named Richard Doty has admitted to having infiltrated UFO circles. As a UFO researcher says:
"Doty had this wonderful way to sell it – 'I'm with the government. You cooperate with us and I'm going to tell you what the government really knows about UFOs, deep down in those vaults.'"
Doty and his colleagues fed credulous ufologists lies and half-truths, knowing their fertile imaginations would do the rest. In return, they were apprised of chatter from the community, thus alerting the military when anyone was getting to close to their top-secret technology. And if the Soviets thought the US really was communing with aliens, all the better.
The classic case, well-known to conspiracy aficionados, is Paul Bennewitz, a successful electronics entrepreneur in New Mexico. In 1979, Bennewitz started seeing strange lights in the sky, and picking up weird transmissions on his amateur equipment. The fact that he lived just across the road from Kirtland air force base should have set alarm bells ringing, but Bennewitz was convinced these phenomena were of extraterrestrial origin. Being a good patriot, he contacted the Air Force, who realized that, far from eavesdropping on ET, Bennewitz was inadvertently eavesdropping on them. Instead of making him stop, though, Doty and other officers told Bennewitz they were interested in his findings. That encouraged Bennewitz to dig deeper. Within a few years, he was [1] interpreting alien languages, [2] spotting crashed alien craft in the hills from his plane (he was an amateur pilot), and [3] sounding the alert for a full-scale invasion. All the time, the investigators were watching him observe them. They gave Bennewitz computer software that “interpreted” the signals, and even dumped fake props for him to discover. The mania took over Bennewitz’s life. In 1988, his family checked him into a psychiatric facility.
There’s plenty of stories like this.
Many central tenets of the UFO belief system turn out to have far earthlier origins. Mysterious cattle mutilations in 1970s New Mexico turn out to have been officials furtively investigating radiation in livestock after they’d conducted an ill-advised experiment in underground “nuclear fracking”.
Test pilots for the military’s experimental silent helicopters admit to attaching flashing lights to their craft to fool civilians. Actual photos were doctored to appear that things were being hidden, while other actual pictures were lost in the static of confusion.
It is now easy for anyone to simply say;
“There are no aliens or extraterrestrials at all. The government has been conducting a program to hid advanced research and development programs from the public. They use the smoke-screen of extraterrestrial activity to stigmatize observers of such actions into passive silence.”
As that is, indeed, partly the case.
But I am here, and I am telling you otherwise. Oh, the extraterrestrial presence is real. The technology is real. The government cover-up is real.
But most of what you read on the Internet, and in books are but lies and fabrications. What you see on the television, and observe on the Internet are but cleverly orchestrated efforts used to manipulate group conventional thought and placate the populace for the purposes of the government.
Conclusion
Long and drawn out.
Boring. Old “news”.
Old “subjects”.
Yeah! I get it.
These articles dated to before the Trump Administration. Now, you can well imagine that things are much tighter, the controls more restrictive, exacting, and lethal to your supposed “freedom”. You all are just animals in a big “free ranging” field. Nothing more.
And please don’t get all “hung up” on the “political song and dance”; the “progressives vs. the conservatives”. It’s all just “bread and circuses” for the mindless masses.
bread and circuses A phrase used by a Roman writer to deplore the declining heroism of Romans after the Roman Republic ceased to exist and the Roman Empire began: “Two things only the people anxiously desire — bread and circuses.” The government kept the Roman populace happy by distributing free food and staging huge spectacles.
-Bread and circuses | Definition of Bread and circuses
When Congress gave up it’s powers to the alphabet organizations, they did much more than create “Frankenstein Monsters”. They created an endless system that keep you within a stratified social construct. One that you must toil for the well-being of others, and by which you can be imprisoned and even killed if you fail to conform.
This means a complete subversion of the systems that are intended to help you and your family in “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.
The subversion is now complete. It is beyond redemption.
Key Point: The “fighting” for your Rights is all just a farce. The elections are all just theater. The systems are in place, and you are the cattle that toils for your new masters. Oh, the faces change on the “news” screens, but the takeover is complete. So any articles about “regaining” your “God given” Rights is just meaningless. You have NONE. It’s over. And nothing will be done when one party or the other takes power. It’s all just nonsense.
Anyone still sticking around in America is now trapped. It’s probably too late to escape. And if history has anything to say, it is that it’s only going to get worse.
Do you want more?
I have more posts like this in my Front Row Seat Index, though this could just as well fit under any other index as well.
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Well, the much promoted debates on television between Donald Trump and Biden has finally concluded, and all of us who watched them were disgusted. Very few left feeling better about ourselves, about our nation, and about where the world was heading. Instead, it actually reminded us of something quite different. It reminded us of two dirty old rats fighting for moldy turnip greens on the deck of a sinking ship.
That’s what it was like.
It was disgusting, horrifying, and just awful. But don’t worry. Trump just announced that he has COVID-19. And meanwhile…
Anyone who cannot see that the United States is in a state of decay and collapse is delusional. The USA is a mess, and the best leadership that the two parties can come up with are these two sorry washed-out clowns. It’s… well, pathetic.
Words fail me.
Perhaps, you might well appreciate what is going on through a song, eh?
Conrad Harris – Paradise (Tiny Tim on vocals.)
Yes.
It’s sort of like this.
You, yes you, are sitting in the front row seat to the collapse.
Now, maybe it will be quiet and peaceful. Maybe it will be calumnious and frightening. But, it will be a collapse. It is well beyond the point of recovery. The nation is collapsing in upon itself, and the best thing for the rest of the world to do is… stand back and let the whole thing implode.
Can you imagine Xi Peng acting like Donald Trump did?
Can you imagine Mr. Putin acting like Biden did?
I cannot. I see no leadership in either of the “preferred” candidates. I see just comical satire that has been streamlined into some kind of sick cartoon. It doesn’t matter who started the entire fiasco. Donald Trump appears to be the culprit. But the entire situation reeks of failure.
Instead, we were treated to a glimpse on the terrible, and misguided distortions of what some crazy people think is “how you rule the world”. And, people, It is dog-shit frightening.
If the world is to be handed over to these two clowns, then let me off the boat. The world is in for a shit-load of hurt on a mega-scale.
One thing is certain, and should be absolute crystal clear by now, the USA has ceased to be a leader in world governance. Further, it is under a state of collapse that is astounding in it’s magnitude and breadth and scope. And even beyond that, the general collapse of the American society on all levels; social, economic, financial, business, family, religion, morals, ethics, educational, and governance is so profound that no one can deny the truth.
The USA and the illusion of the “Strength and power” of the United States is over and long gone.
Jesus. Watching the debates was like watching two feral dogs in a remote countryside village fight over a leg of maggot infested mutton. It was that bad.
It was like watching two village dogs fighting.
It was that terrible.
Terrible.
The only thing that could recuse the participants would be either [1] a sudden war or [2] if one of them ended up with a life-threatening illness.
When Donald Trump left Walter Reed Medical Center in a car this afternoon, he simply had Secret Service agents drive him around the block so he could see his cheering idiot supporters outside the hospital, only to drive him right back into the hospital. If this stunt left a bad taste in your mouth, you’re not the only one.
Dr. James P. Phillips, who works at Walter Reed, tweeted this: “Every single person in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary Presidential “drive-by” just now has to be quarantined for 14 days. They might get sick. They may die. For political theater. Commanded by Trump to put their lives at risk for theater. This is insanity.
Which brings me to the latest in my SHTF series on the collapse of America.
The following is titled “Why the US is falling – and faster than you may expect: A 40-year-old prediction coming true”. Written by JO (Jan Oberg) on September 30, 2020. Reprinted with minor alterations to fit this venue. All credit to the author.
Why the US is falling – and faster than you may expect: A 40-year-old prediction coming true
The unique, dominating position of the United States in the post-1945 world is well-known. It maintains this position thanks to both a very large historical goodwill capital and former glory in the eyes of generations around the world – and thanks to rampant militarism and imperialism that has destroyed the good ‘America’ that it used to be.
The world’s major division the next few years will be this: Are you on the side of [1] continued US global dominance or [2] do you want to see a new multipolar world with more balance and the US in the role of a partner among equals?
In my view, the US no longer has the capacity to lead itself effectively.
Nor can it find solutions to its own multi-dimensional crisis be it the economy, democracy, climate change, warfare addiction, social polarization, racism and on top of it all the Covid-19 crisis.
Not being able to lead itself, no one should wish that the US should lead the world. Neither does it have any right to.
Reread that sentence. Any nation that cannot handle its own domestic matters, cannot lead the world. It is like putting a pyromaniac in charge of a fire department.
While its allies, friends and admirers are increasingly turning skeptical, others turn away and look for other partners be it China, Russia or Iran.
While the friends of the US should try to help it out of its addiction to its outdated self-image…
… the designated enemies, of course, cannot help the US…
… as it simply would not listen. Strangely, these countries also need the US and have sought and still seek constructive cooperation but in vain.
The fact is that no one threatens the US (and certainly not Russia with less than 8 % of the military expenditures of NATO. The US has become its own worst enemy but blames others for its problems.
Sadly, it seems that there is not one ministry of foreign affairs among the EU /NATO countries that has even thought of developing a strategy for the post-US dominated West.
Countries such as China, other BRICS and many others are building a new world order. Will the West, therefore, loose completely, or will parts of it still be able to save what can be saved and transition into the future multipolar world order?
The chances of a “yes” to that question is diminishing by the day.
The list of twenty points below was written long before the Presidential candidate debate on September 29 (it would be an offense to children to say that they behaved like children). But that debate only confirmed these points – and the simple point that it doesn’t matter much whether the next president of the US will be Trump or Biden.
It’s the system, stupid!
And it is rapidly coming to an end.
It’s a valid intellectual-theoretical point that one cannot apply characteristics from psychology – basically the science of the individual – to much larger aggregates such as people, nations or the global system. That’s the fallacy of levels.
That said, let’s anyhow try to just a bit of such “psychologizing” to make it more familiar to the reader.
All empires go down, sooner or later – the latest was the Soviet Union, and the US/West has not been able to cope since its beloved enemy disappeared. All empires emerge, grow, reach a peak point, climax – and then begins to lose it to move to relative decline (others coming up) and then fall. Rather much like the individual life.
Over-reachor you never get enough – there is no one and nothing you don’t want to try to influence, dominate or control.
Hubris – we can get away with everything, we are big and powerful. May be right for a time, then reality catches up.
Exceptionalism– we can do things nobody else can because we are those we are – and we can tell others not to do what we ourselves do. We are above the law that others must follow, we fight wars for good while others fight for evil and are evil. Because we are good and have God on our side.
The unbearable lightness of routine – it’s all gone so well for so long thanks to our pervasive mind- and lifestyle-shaping influence through the media, film, culture, arts – Hollywood and all that. For as long as the rest of the world sees you as an ideal to imitate, – Americanization – everything goes smoothly.
The Number One problem– meaning that if you are (or believe you are) Number One in a rank order, there is no one to look up to and learn from so you end up becoming a teacher, master, dictator, more or less arrogantly “downwards”. If you are No 37, there are 36 others to learn from – how did they do it better than we did? However, sooner or later, the “pupils” stop listening and obeying the Master – His Master’s Voice, so to speak.
Mission activity or ‘mission civilisatrice’ – you try ad absurdum to shape others in the image of yourself; they shall become like us. Our national thinking is universalizable. The world should adapt to us, not we to the world. Remember who was The First World – (the Second and the Third) earlier?
Legitimacy in the eyes of others slowly disappears – you may get away with some bad acts once or twice, but when it becomes a habit, others begin to think. As time goes by, your normative power is eroded, and you rely increasingly on naked force – the military. My country, right or wrong: Send the marines!
Overmilitarization– the system needs a war more or less regularly; that means you need images of enemies (invented or real) all the time. Like a drug addict needs a fix. The US surely cannot do without enemies. The problem is that that military colossus called the Military-Industrial Media Academic Complex (MIMAC) always wants more – also in times when the economy cannot carry that burden. (Like the Sovjet Union in the 1970s and 1980s couldn’t). And the Coronavirus weakens the economy even further.
Increasing autism, denial of the real world plus Group Think– “everything worked so fine in the past, it cannot be true that we cannot just continue what we used to do. (So, let’s start a new Cold War, this time against China). Group think means that a small group of people over time build a common worldview that repels any new thoughts from the outside and become convinced that it’s right and everybody else wrong. The problem is that they don’t know they sit in that restaurant on US Titanic, the music playing so well…
Socio-political metal fatigue – something has been strong for a long time but suddenly there is a crack, and then comes another. The unthinkable, or at least unlikely and unforseen, suddenly happens repeatedly. And old tools can’t fix the problems.
Lack of vision and lack of the pioneering new dynamics– of the type that makes other want to follow you voluntarily. Little by little, everything signal you send out is negative or destructive.
The old positive life energy ebbs, and paranoia enters – like the increasingly old crumpy person who feels that the world turns its back and become unreasonable. Is there any important country in today’s world that the Trump US is not running some kind of conflict with, even friends and allies? Enters paranoia – “The whole world is against us… we see enemies all around – the world doesn’t understand us anymore. But we shall teach them a lesson…”
Stagnation and anti-intellectualism– you continue to do what worked before, such as solving every problem with the military and increasingly becoming unable to think. To the person who has only a hammer in the toolbox, every problem in the house is about hammering…So, don’t allow anything new, don’t tolerate diversity, and crack down on critical voices.
The normative and cultural power vanish– the perception by others of the Empire’s values as good and fair and as part of a vision crumbles. They embark on a future without the Empire’s diktat and/or protection and build a new world order (that the US will not hear about or let its subordinates participate in).
Over-extension through self-aggrandizement– you engage in conflicts and wars which you don’t stand a chance to win, increasingly losing a sense of reality and of your own strength vis-a-vis others.
Addiction& uni-dimensionality – since the only power scale in which you are “second to none” is the military, you use that where other means would be much more effective and cheaper as well as create respect worldwide. Diplomacy fades – lacking carrots, use the big stick.
Decadence, illusions and lies – the Secretary of State, Pompeo, is on record boasting that it is part of the American tradition to “cheat, steal and lie” – in other words, moral decay. Fake and omission, a struggle about what reality really is mounted.
Psychopaths and kakistocrats increasingly win influence = Pathocracy! Kakistocracy means government by the worst, least qualified, and/or most unscrupulous citizens. The tempo with which norms and expectations of normal behaviour is broken overwhelms the world. Leader senility may play its role too – remember Breznev? And then, somebody usually turns up in the chaotic developments and declares that s/he is the saviour.
Democracy and people’s participation in it crumbles – most citizens sense what happens but in disbelief. Mobilization of counterforces to save what can be saved, become more difficult by the day.
“And faster than you may expect”?
One should hesitate to appear too sure about predicting the final end. Sometimes terminally ill people live longer than medical expertise predicted. Taking the risk anyhow, I would say within the next presidential term 2021-2026 or at the latest by 2030.
When the cracks are frequent enough and big enough, the decline and breakdown accelerate exponentially. Remember the end of the Cold War in 1989 when border guards just opened the gates and people started moving freely.
In a Danish academic book from 1981 (1) I predicted the fall of the West thus:
“The Western world is on its way down and the present crisis is not just cyclical and also not just a crisis of capitalism (it is not exclusively economic) but a sort of civilizational crisis. The global system that has existed with Europe-US as its center and developed over the last 400-500 years is going through convulsions of a deeper nature than is normally perceived.Neither liberalism nor Marxism which are both Western thought systems and neither the US nor the Soviet Union appears as attractive models to the rest of the world. They are in deep crisis themselves – socially as well as economically – while Japan, China and a series of new growth centers and regional larger powers are rising, particularly in Asia.The wealthy, overdeveloped countries are approaching certain ‘objective’ limitations in terms of nature, raw materials, exploitation of human beings, the sheer size of the systems as well as management problems, social pressures, etc.Armament and the increasing militarization of various types of social structures everywhere is an (attempt at) “rejuvenation treatment” in the old- age phase of the West, a sort of compensation for diminishing power in other areas.”
Perhaps another song is in order…
Conrad Harris – All of me (Tiny Tim on vocals.)
Conclusion
Those governments, businesses, academia and others who (in these years) hold on to the US Empire (as the leader of the “free world”)…
… will become a periphery in the future world order.
…
…
Why chain yourself to the anchor of a sinking ship? But that is what Australia is doing. That is the the United Kingdom is doing. Is that really an intelligent thing to do? Is it in the best interests of the citizens that they are supposed to represent?
America is like this big, enormous, and beautiful ship that is sinking into the deep dark oceans. It’s because the interior of the ship has not been maintained. That the hull has rusted out and the engineers and Captain do not have the skills needed to fix it and prevent it from sinking.
The future belongs to the builders, the makers and the contributors.
Not to those who hold on to the old methods, suppress any new methods, and praise themselves for tabulating and monitoring the spreadsheets in support of their activities.
"A majority of Americans are bracing for the possibility of a politically-fired civil war, and more than half are already stockpiling food and other essential items to survive and fight back, according to a new survey shared with Secrets.
In the survey, 61% said that the United States is nearing a second civil war, including a shocking 41% who “strongly agree” with that assessment.
And 52% are so convinced that it is just around the corner, or after Election Day, that they are putting away food and other essentials, an historic expansion of the prepper movement that has been brewing for years, now driven by fear and coronavirus-induced shortages."
And the other 48% who have not prepared at all will now understand the process of natural selection first hand.
-Powder keg: 61% say United States ‘on verge of civil war,’ 52% already preparing
And the final song for this theme shall be…
Conrad Harris、tiny tim – Auf Wiedersehen, My Dear (Remaster)
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Do you want more?
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I hope that you found this post curious. Please take care. You can view other similar posts in my SHTF Index, here…
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you.
This isn’t a topical post. It’s just historical for those with short memories.
A secret high-level committee of Hong Kong senior activists worked with Western agents from the CIA to coordinate and amplify the leaderless protests against the fugitive law amendment last year, Nury Vittachi claims in his book The Other Side of the Story: A Secret War in Hong Kong.
Vittachi, a veteran journalist and a columnist for The Standard, accused the CIA of funding anti-government activities in the SAR. He said Hong Kong protesters have received practical training in street-protest strategy and media control from members of the professional revolution industry since January 2013.
The book named three US-based groups - the Oslo Freedom Foundation, the Albert Einstein Institute and the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies - which were directly involved in last year's social unrest.
He added that public records had shown that the National Endowment for Democracy, the CIA's regime-change arm, had sent HK$170 million to the mainland or Hong Kong since 2014 to "advance the cause of democracy."
https://lnkd.in/dwnSU-S
This is an article that I wrote at the tail end of 2019, as I was getting ready to leave to my in-laws for the 2020 Chinese New Year. At that time, the news was awash with articles that Donald Trump admitted to being involved in the protests, and that he intended a “color revolution” there. He also admitted to supporting the NED and other adversarial elements.
This was all as a result of getting China to agree to a very watered-down trade agreement at that time. Then after two days, all news went quiet about the United States involvement in trying to destabilize Hong Kong.
Hush…
(Be quiet)
Nothing to see here…
Then COVID-19 hit China hard, and Donald Trump unleashed a most aggressive and nasty anti-China propaganda campaign. Simultaneously. One that continued for at least six months, up until that too… ended. When he himself admitted to sponsoring the anti-Chinese propaganda onslaught as well.
Well, here it is. Around one year later.
All the dust has cleared and settled. We’ve had a near non-stop “hybrid-war” of America against China raging for a year now. We can see the hand of America in just about every “accident”, and “coincidence” that befell China during 2020.
And as America decided to engage in a Lose-lose strategy against China, their calculus was that China would suffer far worse than America would. Because China was fragile, did not have people’s support, made shoddy products, ate disgusting animals, and wore ill fitting clothing, etc…
Well, all 2020 was a “hybrid-war”. It was a lose-lose engagement. And who actually lost more China or the USA? Look at the 2020 Q2 growth rate;
USA is -9.1%
China is 3.2%
Now, if you are reading this, you all pretty much understand this. The United States is on fire. There are protests in all the cities. There’s an election going on, and it’s a bloody slug-fest between the two candidates and their followers. America is a real mess with defaults, bankruptcy and unemployment rampant on all levels.
And yet…
And yet still…
Americans believe that the Chinese hate their government, and that China is covering up and suppressing the “pro-democracy” movement in Hong Kong. that it’s all a big lie that the Chinese are happy with their government. All news out of China is considered a lie, and all data and figures out of China must be a lie, because there is “no way” that China could be doing better than American. It’s inconceivable!
Well, no it’s not.
The Chinese don’t need to lie. It’s not a “democracy” that depends on public opinion to stay in power. They don’t fuck around. They tell the truth and if you can’t handle it, well tough noodles! Which is pretty much one of the many reasons why the Chinese love their nation, and why they are all hyper-patriotic.
Yet, somehow the Americans that I have been talking to say that everything about China is a lie, and the polls in America are all a lie, and that President Donald Trump is doing the best job of any President in history. And as such they cannot believe that all that nonsense about Pepe the frog in HK, and the singing the American anthem in HK, and waving American flags were all just props of an American “color revolution effort”.
Chinese leaders unnerved by protests elsewhere this year have been steadily tightening controls over civic organizations on the mainland suspected of carrying out the work of foreign powers.
The campaign aims to insulate China from subversive Western ideas such as democracy and freedom of expression, and from the influence, specifically, of U.S. groups that may be trying to promote those values here, experts say.
“Experts” say…
Subversive ideas like “democracy“, and the “freedom of expression“.
How dare China!
That campaign is long-standing, but it has been prosecuted with renewed vigor under President Xi Jinping, especially after the overthrow of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych following months of street demonstrations in Kiev that were viewed here as explicitly backed by the West.
The Washington Post would also report:
One foreign policy expert, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive subject, said Putin had called Xi to share his concern about the West’s role in Ukraine.
Those concerns appear to have filtered down into conversations held over cups of tea in China, according to civil society group members.
So both the Presidents of Russia and China are alarmed, or “concerned” about the Untied States government trying to destabilize their nations.
“They are very concerned about Color Revolutions, they are very concerned about what is going on in Ukraine,” said the international NGO manager.
(Whose organization is partly financed by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)).
... blamed here for supporting the protests in Kiev’s central Maidan square.
“They say, ‘Your money is coming from the same people. Clearly you want to overthrow China.’ ”
Oh, but you do know that the NED is the CIA.
Same funding.
Same leadership.
Same direction.
Same training manuals.
Same operational objectives.
Congressionally funded with the explicit goal of promoting democracy abroad...
... NED has long been viewed with suspicion or hostility by the authorities here.
But the net of suspicion has widened to encompass such U.S. groups as
... the Ford Foundation,
... the International Republican Institute,
... the Carter Center and,
... the Asia Foundation.
Of course, NED and its many subsidiaries including the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute do no such thing as “promoting democracy.”
Instead they are in the business of constructing a global network of neo-imperial administration termed “civil society” that interlocks with the West’s many so-called “international institutions”…
… which in turn are completely controlled by interests in Washington, upon Wall Street, and in the cities of London and Brussels.
While the Washington Post would have readers believe NED is in the business of promoting “freedom of expression” and “democracy” the corporate-financier interests represented on NED’s board of directors are anything but champions of such principles, and are instead notorious for principles precisely the opposite.
The very concept of the United States “promoting democracy” is scandalous when considering it is embroiled in an invasive global surveillance scandal…
… guilty of persecuting one unpopular war after another around the planet against the will of its own people…
… and based on verified lies…
… and brutalizing and abusing its own citizens at home with militarized police cracking down on civilians in towns like Ferguson, Missouri.
All of which makes China’s police actions against “Occupy Central” protesters pale in comparison.
“Promoting democracy” is clearly cover for simply expanding its hegemonic agenda far beyond its borders and at the expense of national sovereignty for all subjected to it, including Americans themselves.
In 2011, similar revelations were made public of the US’ meddling in
the so-called “Arab Spring” when the New York Times would report in an
article titled, “U.S. Groups Helped Nurture Arab Uprisings,” that:
The article would also add, regarding NED specifically, that:
The Republican and Democratic institutes are loosely affiliated with the Republican and Democratic Parties.
They were created by the United States Congress and are financed through the National Endowment for Democracy NED.
The NED was set up in 1983 to channel grants for promoting democracy in developing nations.
The National Endowment receives about $100 million annually from Congress.
Freedom House also gets the bulk of its money from the American government, mainly from the State Department.
Pro-war and interventionist US Senator John McCain had famously taunted both Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and President Xi Jinping’s predecessor in 2011 that the US subversion sweeping the Middle East was soon headed toward Moscow and Beijing.
He [McCain] said,
“A year ago, Ben-Ali and Gaddafi were not in power. Assad won’t be in power this time next year. This Arab Spring is a virus that will attack Moscow and Beijing.”
McCain then walked off the stage.
Considering the overt foreign-funded nature of not only the “Arab Spring,” but now “Occupy Central,”…
… and considering the chaos, death, destabilization, and collapse suffered by victims of previous US subversion…
… “Occupy Central” can be painted in a new light…
…it’s a mob of dupes being used to destroy their own homes…
…all the while abusing the principles of “democracy”…
…. behind which is couched an insidious, diametrically opposed foreign imposed tyranny.
In particular, this global hegemon seeks to suppress the reemergence of Russia as a global power, and prevent the rise of China itself upon the world’s stage.
The regressive agenda of “Occupy Central’s” US-backed leadership, and their shameless exploitation of the good intentions of the many young people ensnared by their gimmicks…
…forever pose a threat in reality that is every bit as dangerous as the “threat” they claim Beijing poses to the island of Hong Kong and its people.
Conclusion
It’s the tail end of 2020. We can look back over the last four years of the Donald Trump administration and the unusual series of events surrounding China with the eyes of experience. No longer can all the events be attributed to “unlucky coincidences”. From day one, and point zero, President Trump and his cabal of neocons went on the “war path” against China and did everything in their power short of an all-out hot shooting war to suppress China’s rise.
They have been largely unsuccessful.
Though, and make no mistake, things are still in process and there are apt to be more terrible surprises in the future.
This post concerns the efforts to destabilize Hong Kong.
In short, and in conclusion, the United States went all-out to destabilize Hong Kong, create unrest and scare away European interests from that region. They supported, trained, and funded “fifth column” agents who trained, and authored, the many violent protests within Hong Kong.
A fifth column is any group of people who undermine a larger group from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or nation.
The activities of a fifth column can be overt or clandestine.
Forces gathered in secret can mobilize openly to assist an external attack.
This term is also extended to organized actions by military personnel.
Clandestine fifth column activities can involve acts of sabotage, disinformation, or espionage executed within defense lines by secret sympathizers with an external force.
-Wikipedia
Make no mistake, all the American “color revolutions” around the globe are “Fifth column” events. It is the preferred option for America to conduct war when the opposing military is too strong, or better organized than American military forces are.
The rest of the world is finally catching up with Metallicman
Some related posts, written about a year after this post…
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This article was compiled back in 2018.
It is a "Franken-article" comprising a selection of elements from other articles that I have read, by other authors. I collected the key points, and had annotations linking to the articles, and then suffered a rather catastrophic computer failure, leaving my note in RTF format without links. Anyways, to make a long story short, the following is a Fraken-article compiled together to make a point.
Originally it discussed 2018 through 2028. I've updated it to 2020 through 2030.
This article was written before the Trump Trade war onslaught, and before the COVID-19 Bioweapon that Trump unleashed on the Chinese New Year celebrations. It was written before any of the riots and protests in Portland, Chicago or Los Angeles.
This was written in 2018. And I could see that…
There are dangerous times ahead.
Every 80 years, nations often experience colossal events. There are different theories about this cycle – for example, the Fourth Turning
theory focuses on the cyclical strengths of institutions versus
individuals. Others surmise that four generations after a major crisis,
there are no more older people to warn the society, and the younger
people take peace and prosperity for granted.
Well, exactly 80 years ago, America was mired in Great Depression,
and World War II was about to begin. Yet, predictably, most Americans
and Europeans now cannot even fathom such scenarios repeating in their
lifetime.
There are two major catalysts that can ignite catastrophic wars in the next decade. They are;
The debt/economic crisis in the West.
Growinge great-power rivalries (US + EU versus Russia + China).
Geopolitical tensions that are simmering now will reach a crescendo very soon. (I predicted in 2018.) Without extraordinary caution and prudence, we’re destined to become another victim of history’s inexorable cycle of conflict and collapse.
America is #2
Pretty much.
How many American politicians and elites will say, “America is the second largest economy in the world”? How will Americans react when they hear it for the first time?
For certain, there will be shock, anger, denial and a lot of blame and finger-pointing. However, most Americans fail to realize that not only is this scenario almost inevitable, but it will happen within the next 6-10 years.
Consider that China’s nominal GDP grew 200% since 2008, while the US
grew only 35%. Even if China slows down a lot and grows only 100% and
the US continues at the same pace, China will be #1 before 2028.
Chart of real GDP growth USA (blue) vs. China (red).
What does China’s rise mean to western corporations and the
globalists who control them? Loss of power and wealth. And that’s
something the globalists aren’t going to just let happen.
There’s more to China’s rise than just GDP.
In late 2017, US News and World Report ranked China’s Tsinghua University as #1 for computer science and engineering, dethroning MIT.
In hi-tech areas such as 5G, driverless vehicles, electric vehicles, passenger drones (“flying cars”), 3D printing, Artificial Intelligence, super computers, quantum computing and numerous other fields, China is #1. America is #2.
Throughout history, an established power has never passively watched a rising power take its spot. As Harvard Professor Graham T. Allison points out, 75% of the time, the established power goes to outright war with the rising power.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, American intellectuals’ favorite phrase was “the end of history.”
And John Bolton famously claimed that there should be only one country in the UN’s Permanent Security Council:
USA! America has the won the Cold War and will stay as the hyper-power forever! Everyone will embrace America’s exceptionalism and remain submissive.
Alas, Putin came along and resuscitated the Russia.
He[1] thwarted the globalists in Ukraine and [2] Syria, [3] survived a Wall Street-engineered drop in oil price (from $115 to $45 in mere six months), [4] prevented the collapse of the Russian economy in spite of severe sanctions, [5] shored up enormous gold and foreign exchange reserves, and [6] even managed to develop hyper-sonic ICBMs that can evade America’s vaunted missile defense systems.
Worse, Putin is also working with the Chinese on US-independent versions of the Internet, banking system, credit card system etc.
All these have turned Putin into the globalists’ public enemy #1.
… expect much more in the coming months and years.
The Middle East is in play.
In the 1990s, Neocons in Israel and the US (remember PNAC?) dreamed of hegemony over the Middle East.
All you need to do is take out Iraq and Iran, and the domination is complete.
Imagine controlling all that oil and the strategic waterways through which much of global trade passes.
And if western firms can construct oil/gas pipelines from the Middle East to Europe, the latter can say, “Nyet” to Russian oil/gas. Without Europe as the customer, Russia will suffer immensely and surrender.
Controlling the Middle East also means controlling the land and the sea routes of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. A few “moderate rebels” in strategic locations can greatly disrupt China’s Europe-bound trains.
In response to the belligerent comments by Esper and the Australian report, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said “China is firmly on a path of peaceful development and our national defense policy is defensive in nature”.
China has gone further by providing a cooperative framework under the Belt and Road Initiative which is built around the brilliant political agenda of providing diplomatic solutions to geopolitical points of tension through economic development strategies that enrich all participants.
This approach has provided China great payback through the defusing of tensions with other nations claiming territory within the South China Sea- especially under the pro-BRI orientation of Malaysia’s Dr. Mahathir Mohammed and the Philippines’ President Duterte.
-America Loses Asia-Pacific as Full Spectrum Dominance Continues to Fail
Road and Belt. This requires Pakistan agreements and ports in the Mediterranean. Everything has been going well. That is up until a massive explosion that some have referred to as a “mini-nuke” totally and completely gutted the Lebanon port in Beirut. An interesting assessment;
The Port of Beirut poses the biggest geostrategic threat to American power projection because China’s Silk Road is fast creeping towards the docks at Beirut Port. The US, having recently forced Israel to cancel its Haifa rail contract with China, has dampened the Chinese advance in the eastern Mediterranean, and what remains now in the path of the US is the Beirut Port. The US must either invade it to block the Chinese geostrategic mission creep, or else destroy it.
https://thesaker.is/china-newsbrief-sitrep-3/
And then it appears that a great accident destroyed it.
Moreover, the Port of Beirut also poses the biggest geostrategic threat for the US’s eastward-bound power projection where China and its new Silk Road operation is fast creeping westwards and is attempting to land at the eastern coastal strip of the Mediterranean, right where the Beirut Port docks. The US having recently forced Israel to cancel its Haifa contact with China has somewhat dampened the Chinese advance in the eastern Mediterranean, and what remains now in the path of the US is the Beirut Port. The US must either invade it to block the Chinese geostrategic mission creep, or else destroy it.
Evidently, the US has chosen the latter option – with Israel assigned the task of accomplishing the destruction of Beirut Port. After all, for different reasons, both benefit greatly from Beirutshima.
And so very timely is this destruction of the Beirut Port as the Lebanese government has very recently been in official talks with the Chinese over their offer to vastly invest in and develop the Beirut Port: a much needed gateway port and bridge into Europe for China, which represents an absolutely intolerable equation for the US’s hegemony in Europe. The Beirut Port’s rebuilding to its previous standard of activity will be contingent on strict conditions imposed by the US and Israel on the Lebanese government, if the port is allowed to be rebuilt at all, that is. Most certainly, the US is determined not to allow the Chinese any executive, investment or managerial access to it.
...
And this larger US project has everything to do with the current US war on China, albeit presently a non-military war, but a war nevertheless, a war that the Pentagon is militarily preparing for – hence the ever increasing and breathtakingly high defense budget that Congress has been allocating to the US military throughout the terms of the last three Presidents.
The US having lost Pakistan to the China sphere of influence, thus losing an attack dog bordering China, and having recently assigned Turkey as its new enforcer in the middle east, it now behooves the US to use its Mideast allies of both Turkey and Israel, two infamous terrorist states who regularly break international law with impunity: use them as spoilers and saboteurs against an advancing China and against any of Beijing’s Mideast regional allies.
Beirutshima is clearly an apparent US endeavor to push-back the Chinese advance in the highly strategic eastern Mediterranean, as the US attempts to simultaneously pivot eastwards itself through secured territories wherever China is successfully backtracked by the US and its regional henchmen.
But, can this grand geostrategic plan really work for the benefit of the US? Can the US really succeed at remaining the only superpower in the world by the incessant knee-capping of China’s new Silk Road project?
This is yet to be determined. But judging by the deep budgetary and societal crisis engulfing the US homeland, with no sign whatsoever of its deepening troubles abating, analysts doubt that the US has lungs large enough to last the whole race through with China. Here I will add that the US-China fight over the Beirut Port is not yet over. One wonders what went through the mind of the wily Chinese ambassador in Lebanon to witness the Beirut Port exploding as it shockingly did: to witness his pet project and assignment be destroyed right before his eyes and right before a signed agreement was made between him and the Lebanese government of Diab.
-UR
A War to Contain China
China’s Achilles heel is that it’s surrounded by America’s vassal states – Taiwan, Japan and South Korea for now.
The Philippines used to be America’s puppet, but it’s now leaning towards China and Russia, thanks to Duterte. How North Korea will turn out is yet to be seen.
India, which was colonized by the British for 200 years, is experiencing amnesia and is quickly ceding its sovereignty to the US.
Japanese elites – under pressure from globalists – are trying to
change their constitution so that Japan can build up its military again.
This is obviously an ominous sign.
Thus globalists have a lot of options to wage a proxy war on China. Asia has been growing rapidly and enjoying unprecedented prosperity, but there’s a good chance they will screw it up by becoming sacrificial pawns in the geopolitical chessboard.
Drawing China and Russia together
China knows what the neocons are doing. China and Russia share intel data, and combined saw that America was an active and real threat. If China collapses, Russia would be next. If Russia collapses, China would be next. So what did they do?
Then at the same time, they started to warn the United States to stop; just stop… please just stop…
Among the myriad, earth-shattering geopolitical effects of coronavirus, one is already graphically evident. China has re-positioned itself. For the first time since the start of Deng Xiaoping’s reforms in 1978, Beijing openly regards the US as a threat, as stated a month ago by Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Munich Security Conference during the peak of the fight against coronavirus.
Beijing is carefully, incrementally shaping the narrative that, from the beginning of the coronovirus attack, the leadership knew it was under a hybrid war attack. Xi’s terminology is a major clue. He said, on the record, that this was war. And, as a counter-attack, a “people’s war” had to be launched.
Moreover, he described the virus as a demon or devil. Xi is a Confucianist. Unlike some other ancient Chinese thinkers, Confucius was loath to discuss supernatural forces and judgment in the afterlife. However, in a Chinese cultural context, devil means “white devils” or “foreign devils”: guailo in Mandarin, gweilo in Cantonese. This was Xi delivering a powerful statement in code.
When Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, voiced in an incandescent tweet the possibility that “it might be US Army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan” – the first blast to this effect to come from a top official – Beijing was sending up a trial balloon signaliing that the gloves were finally off. Zhao Lijian made a direct connection with the Military Games in Wuhan in October 2019, which included a delegation of 300 US military...
-https://asiatimes.com/2020/03/china-locked-in-hybrid-war-with-us/
They also watch with some degree of hope that the intel information was incorrect, and that the United States would stop. That the United States would end it’s anti-Chinese propaganda campaign, it’s anti-China technology assault, and it’s anti-China biological warfare programs…
…but that is not in the cards. Not yet, anyways.
Financial Wars
If the globalists have mighty military and vassal states to impose their hegemony, they have one tremendous weakness: a fake economy based on debt and money-printing.
America’s enormous strength is based on petrodollar – an unfair system that forces other countries to buy oil and other commodities in US dollar.
Take that away, the American Empire starts to wobble. Without enormous demand for the US dollar and treasuries, interest rates will go up, debt will become expensive, and interest payments on existing debt will skyrocket.
This is why China, the largest importer of oil, just started oil futures that trade in Yuan. China has implemented systems where one can directly buy and sell oil in Yuan. If China were to get out of the globalist hegemony, there’s no better way than to establish petroyuan, especially if it’s backed by gold.
US will go to war to stop emergence of petro-yuan !
The introduction of oil trading in yuan is a very bold move by the Chinese, because the US will not give up the basis of its hegemony – the dollar as the world’s reserve currency – without a fight. The Chinese plan to roll out a yuan-denominated oil contract is a very “brave” move, since countries who “tried to exit the oil-dollar matrix have met terrible ends,”.
...
The US financial sector and its military-industrial complex are unlikely to give up the dollar hegemony without a fight, though, as the dollar is both the basis and the main product of America. And the US will use its other favorite tool for it – war…
“Maybe they will start a war between Japan and China, and maybe they will start a war with North Korea. America will do anything to keep the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency,” “They will invade the countries, like Afghanistan, they will stop at nothing. Because this is the basis of the US empire. It’s not land-based, it’s not based on material goods, it’s based on rent-seeking. It’s based on landing dollars, getting out income and when countries can’t pay they dismantle the assets and take them over. We saw it in Latin America, South America, this is how America built its empire.”
What’s Next?
America’s military impotence when faced with the new cutting edge technologies unveiled by Russia and China was outlined in a recent report released by the US Studies Center at the University of Sydney which stated that “America no longer enjoys military primacy in the indo Pacific and its capacity to uphold a favorable balance of power is increasingly uncertain.”
Referring to China’s advanced anti-aircraft weapons, the report says“Chinese counter-intervention systems have undermined America’s ability to project power in the Indo-Pacific region” which the authors say, could be rendered impotent within the first 8 hours of conflict.
-America Loses Asia-Pacific as Full Spectrum Dominance Continues to Fail
Thanks to Deep State and the Democrats, US-Russia relations will
continue to deteriorate as sanctions pile on. Globalists will also use
the anti-Russia hysteria to create an EU army, bolster NATO, and provoke
Russia with missile defense systems and military build up on its
borders. Russia’s neighbors — Ukraine, Georgia, Lithuania, Sweden,
Poland etc. — will all be used as pawns to needle and threaten Russia.
The US will continue to build its troops to encircle China, saber rattle in the South China Sea, incite Muslim separatists in Western China (Xinjiang), and try to turn Asian countries against China.
I’ve covered all the elements in other posts in far greater detail. There you can see the details. Links are as provided herein.
This is just an overview.
Create strife in HK. The “pro-democracy” protests were implemented by NED / NID insurgents under the guise of being “journalists”. <HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE>
Create strife in Xinjiang. Radicalized and CIA trained Muslim insurgents creating “fifth column“ activities. <HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE>
Forced Starvation. Destruction of the pork industry via drones and aerosol viruses, destruction of the chicken industry, the wheat and rice industries, and multiple waves of germ attacks. <HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE>
African Incentives. This is ongoing. Though lately a number of nations are demanding that China pay billions of dollars to them for COVID-19 damage. I cannot help but see a CIA hand in all this. <HERE><HERE><HERE>
Incentivize American Businesses. Enormous amounts of money has been handed to American companies throughout trumps first term of office, the greatest amounts came during the 2020 “COVID bailout”. However, no companies have shown any interest in returning operations to America. <HERE><HERE><HERE>
Anti-China propaganda campaign. This is hot and heavy. Apparently it’s working a full 30% of Americans hate China and blame it for all the American ills. <HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE>
Anti-China technology campaign. Well the arrest of the Huawei President and the suppression of 5G technology is only the tip of the iceberg. <HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE>
A Pandemic that would suppress China but ignore America. This is the highlight of the plan and really interesting. Three strains. A, B, and C. All unleashed on the world. Lethal strain B is for China. It is dangerous and lethal. However, Americans get the A virus. This virus is mild and safe. It self inoculates (or was intended to). It is designed for Americans to have “Herd Immunity”. <HERE><HERE><HERE><HERE>
An Alliance of other nations. By building a coalition of nations, the entire group could gang up against China in bulk. This includes strong showings by Australia, Canada, and the UK. <HERE>
Establish American Bases on Taiwan. Ongoing and NOT public.
There will also be endless economic, propaganda and hybrid wars against both Russia and China in the coming years.
US, EU, Russia and China will be developing many dangerous and effective weapons in the near future. This will include miniaturized nuclear bombs, weaponized satellites, and possibly a combination of both — satellites armed with nukes. Then there are hypersonic missiles that travel at 20 times the speed of sound, killer robots and fleets of armed drones.
Biological and germ warfare are also being developed by the US in many vassal countries. It’s a multi-dimensional and hybrid arms race that’s more lethal and destructive than ever before.
America is only 5% of the world’s population. It cannot expect to rule the other 95% forever. America’s unipolar dominance is a blip in the history. Americans have to learn to coexist with other great powers and focus on creating a peaceful, prosperous world.
Instead, America’s elites are filled with hubris and hegemonic fantasies of full spectrum dominance.
Full-spectrum dominance also known as full-spectrum superiority, is a military entity's achievement of control over all dimensions of the battlespace, effectively possessing an overwhelming diversity of resources in such areas as terrestrial, aerial, maritime, subterranean, extraterrestrial, psychological, and bio- or cyber-technological warfare.
-Wikipedia
The US is formally committed to dominating the world by the year 2020. With President Trump’s new Space Directive-4, the production of laser-armed fighter jets as possible precursors to space weapons, and the possibility of nuclear warheads being put into orbit, the clock is ticking…
Back in 1997, the now-re-established US Space Command announced its commitment to “full spectrum dominance.” The Vision for 2020 explains that “full spectrum dominance” means military control over land, sea, air, and space (the so-called fourth dimension of warfare) “to protect US interests and investment.” “Protect” means guarantee operational freedom. “US interest and investment” means corporate profits.
-Countdown to “Full Spectrum Dominance”
Americans – and sadly most Europeans now as well – are ignorant about geopolitics, easily swayed by propaganda, and programmed to accept wild stories without demanding proof or evidence. The combination of ruthless elites and gullible masses is extremely dangerous.
Without great restraint, diplomacy, wisdom and compromises, we will be sleepwalking into a nuclear disaster in the next decade.
2020 to 2030.
All the warning signs and signals are lit up and flashing.
Warning.
Those American military officials promoting the obsolete doctrine of Full Spectrum dominance are dancing to the tune of a song that stopped playing some time ago. Both Russia and China have changed the rules of the game on a multitude of levels, and can respond with fatal force to any attack upon their soil with next generation weaponry beyond the scope of anything imagined by ivory tower game theorists in the west.
-America Loses Asia-Pacific as Full Spectrum Dominance Continues to Fail
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Russia has been making friendly warnings to America and Americans. But, ah, no one in the United States is paying attention. Everyone is just all “sleepwalking”. You know, the rest of the world is watching what is going on inside of America right now. They see what is going on, and they know their own history. And what they see is as clear as day. The United States is collapsing and falling apart at the seams. And the people in control, are weak and ineffectual and are unable to stop the collapse. But still they try to warn. They try to implore Americans to take notice.
And no one is listening.
And most certainly NOT the neocons in office in the Trump White-house.
The following is one of the hundreds of warnings that I have collected where the Chinese, and the Russians have tried to warn America about what is coming. It’s a decent enough article and it is worthy of note. Most Metallicman readers will already know all this information, but you all should be pleased to read an opinion from the land of ice and snow; mother Russia.
The following is a reprint of an article titled “The American Right Will Be Crushed in a Civil War, Unless It Organizes NOW” by Gregory Conte Tue, Jan 21, 2020. It has been edited to fit this venue and all credit to the author. This post first appeared on Russia Insider
Please keep in mind that this is from a White Supremacist inside Russia. He does not see what is going on in the United States in any kind of balance.
He only sees…
Conservative = good.
Marxist = bad.
Never the less, what he says for the “Right”, equally applies to the “Left”.
The only… ONLY way this sinking American ship can be righted and put back on track is for both sides, at both extremes, to organize together and resolve this big mess. Both sides (right and left) have legitimate reasons to be angry. This is NOT the time to fight each other.
This is time to unify and fight the PEOPLE tugging at our strings and treating us like puppets.
And that takes organization. It takes leadership. It takes compromise. And it takes understanding.
So while the following article is written from a conservative hard-Right point of view, if you look beyond it, you can see that he is right. People need to organize and WORK TOGETHER to change things. Stop being manipulated. Work together to make the world a better place, and stay away from the radical elements that are unable to contribute to this end goal.
The Hard-Right Russian Article… please kindly look beyond his racial bigotry.
The American Right Will Be Crushed in a Civil War, Unless It Organizes NOW
Civil war is in the air. Many Americans have given up on
politics. The left keeps pushing to take away more of our freedoms. They
are chipping away at our culture, our traditions, our morals. They have
been doing it for a hundred years, and no one seems to be able to stop
them. It seems like the only way to change things is to have an all-out
fight.
So, many conservative whites have been talking seriously about civil war. That might not be very likely, but things have certainly been heating up.
Some state governments have passed laws clamping down on gun rights. The most egregious of these are “red flag” laws, which allow police to seize a citizen’s guns if a neighbor or family member “is worried about his mental health” or some other flimsy reason.
In response, several VA counties have
declared that they are “second-amendment sanctuaries,” meaning the
local government will not enforce unconstitutional gun laws, even if
state or federal authorities order them to.
But what if civil war does break out? Could conservative whites win an all-out fight against the system?
Many people think so.
They point out that right-wing whites have huge advantages. They own more weapons, they have better weapons, and they know how to use them. Liberals, on the other hand, live in cities with lots of hostile blacks and Hispanics. They will run out of food and water quickly. The state will not be able to maintain order.
On the other hand, some people argue that liberals and Jews (Well, this is from a Hard-Right Russian writer) will have the upper hand. As long as there is a rump-government that controls most of the US military, it will be able to use superior weapons and fire-power to crush any resistance. What chance does a rifle-militia have against an armored division?
But both sides are missing the point. Conservative whites will not
lose a civil war because of tanks and fighters and missiles. Nor will
the government lose because it cannot keep crowded cities fed and
orderly.
The winner will be the side that is better organized, better led, and knows what it is fighting for.
And, by these criteria, CONSERVATIVE WHITES WILL LOSE.
First of all, “civil war” does not mean “instant and immediate anarchy.” It is not like a zombie movie. The state and its foot-soldiers will not just disappear. In any foreseeable scenario, a crippled, weakened government will stay in place, or it might crack up into different factions. But the system will still control strong forces.
(Listen to what he is saying. He remembers the break up of Russia.)
While the state has less control, that does not mean that
there is a unified opposition. As it stands now, conservative Americans
do not have a common objective. For the most part, they just want to be
left alone. Sure, they’ll fight, but only when they or their friends and
families are threatened.
In contrast, the system has a very clear objective: it must
annihilate its competition. It will do whatever it takes. You can bet
the liberals and minorities will cling to the system, and submit to
whatever it demands of them.
Most importantly, the system will be able to count on its soldiers
and police, as long as it can feed and pay them. Most of them will do
their job and think up the necessary moral justifications later—after
they mow down scores of their fellow countrymen.
And as long as millions of rich Jews (Again, remember the source of this article.) need the US government to protect them and their property, the government can count on money, food, and weapons from foreign sources. The international Jewish system is not about to let its main hub—America—slip away.
This means that unless they organize and unite beforehand, right-wing whites will be crushed piecemeal. The system will use whatever police and military forces it can muster to defeat them in detail. It will find ways to take the rapacious energy of urban blacks and push it outward, toward suburban and rural whites. It will slowly drive the “resistance” deeper and deeper into the back-country until they can be cut off from their sources of supply and slaughtered one by one. It will use the very methods it developed to fight Iraqi and Afghan insurgents, but this time against its own citizens.
As it is, conservative whites have not been able to find a
common political goal and FIGHT FOR IT in times of peace, when it’s
easy. Since WWII, they have sat back and let their country be taken from
them. What makes them think they’ll do any better in times of war? As
long as they do not have the guts to march in the streets for their
rights and interests, they will not overcome the system, whether it’s a
shooting fight or not.
The problem is that conservative whites do not understand politics.
Liberals, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and, above all, JEWS do. They get
that winning (in war or in peace) depends on teamwork, leadership, and
clear, common objectives. It also depends on the spirit and willingness
to seize the initiative and ATTACK. That means taking smart, calculated
risks; not sitting back and waiting for the perfect opportunity, which
never comes.
So, what to do? There are a lot of dumb ideas floating around. Maybe
whites should give up, hit the bottle, and pray for a miracle. Or maybe
they should write more clever articles to spread “awareness” of race
issues or the Jewish question.
Or maybe we should just work out, knock up a girl and grind away at a system-job for fifty years—that’ll show those Jews!
Or, better yet, we can all get into Republican politics, never
say anything controversial, then, one day, we can turn the tables on
the elites and steal their donors right from under their noses!
A super-sneaky revolution!!!
Look, white man, there is only one way to solve your country’s
political problems. You have to STAND UP AND FIGHT! Americans need to
realize that the system is the enemy, and that the only way to be free
again will be to beat it. To beat the system, they need to ORGANIZE,
like the left has been doing for a hundred years. If you are not willing
to speak your mind in public now, what makes you think you’ll have the
guts to bang it out with swarms of riot police and federal agents when
they come to take your guns?
You have to sacrifice. You will lose friends, relationships, money,
status. One day, you might end up in jail or be killed. But you have to
do it. You have to do it now. Civil war will not improve your
chances.
As it is, speaking up is still technically legal. The worst that is
likely to happen is that you lose your job or get beat up or be slammed
with a flimsy lawsuit.
It is true that a few men have been railroaded in the courts
and sent to prison even though they acted legally. But that is only
because almost NO ONE STOOD UP FOR THEM. Where were the donors, where
were the lawyers for James Fields, the RAM guys, etc etc…?
It’s not like there aren’t lawyers and rich men who sympathized with
their plight. It’s just that people did not work together to do the
right thing.
The longer this goes on, the harsher the punishments will get.
For decades, whites have let things slide, and look where we are! If
we’d put up a fight years ago, we would not be facing such stark
punishments now merely saying the truth.
It’s now or never. “Join or Die.” Stop rationalizing cowardice. You
need to organize. You need to say the truth, come what may. The more men
who speak up, the more will find the courage to do so. You need to
prepare yourself mentally, spiritually, for whatever is coming.
Do it for your people.
For the memory of your ancestors,
And for the future of your children.
Only the brave deserve to be free.
Comments
Firstly sorry about any repulsion you might feel from reading this article. I normally do not publish either hard-Right nor Hard-Left articles on Metallicman. But he is correct in the primary thesis of this article; that organization is needed to solve the source of everyone’s anger.
And that is why this piece is here on Metallicman.
Well, what can I say. The United States is undergoing a complete full-blown melt-down, and if history is any indication, it’s only going to get worse.
We MUST work together.
Not as hard-Right, or hard-Left, but as worried and concerned citizens that want the world to be better. That you are just like those on “the other side”, you are fed up with the bullshit from Washington DC, and everything associated with it.
DO NOT FIGHT EACH OTHER.
Fight the people pulling the strings behind the curtain. Do not fight each other.
It's like the television show "The Walking Dead".
Zombies everywhere. Buildings destroyed. Communication, life, and technology all collapsed.
Who do they fight?
Other groups of survivors.
I think that this post from Eatgrueldog says it best…
Please take care. Be safe.
Know your neighbors. There is strength in groups of people that you know.
Fear is the great destroyer. Do not fall for it’s lies.
Stay away from crowds.
Remember, Hard-Right, or Hard-Left is not your enemy. It is the PTB that is pulling the strings behind the scenes. Work together. Compromise. Work as part of a group. Both extremes want change. You want change. Work together towards it.
Do not fall into the big trap – fighting among each other.
Do you want more?
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I hope that you found this post curious. Please take care. You can view other similar posts in my SHTF Index, here…
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you.
NEOCON
A neoconservative (colloquially, neocon) in American politics is someone presented as a "conservative" but who actually favors big government, globalism, interventionism, perpetual war, police state, gun control, and a hostility to religion in politics and government.
The word means "newly conservative," and thus formerly liberal.
A neocon is a RINO Backer, and like RINOs does not accept most of the important principles in the Republican Party platform.
Neocons do not participate in the March for Life, nor stand up for traditional marriage, advocate other conservative social values, or emphasize putting America first.
Neocons support attacking and even overthrowing foreign governments, despite how that often results in more persecution of Christians.
Some neocons (like Dick Cheney) have profited immensely from the military-industrial complex and their pro-war positions. Many neocons are globalists and support the War on Sovereignty.
-Conservapedia
The Trump Administration, led by American neocons believe that they can wage “limited” nuclear, chemical and biological war without consequence.
We argue here that that idea is preposterous.
There will always be a response, and depending on the target nation, a host of responses. It is foolish to expect no response, or a “measured response”. Indeed, history tells us how absolutely ridiculous this belief is.
Today, China is dealing with the COVID-19 biological weapons attack by America on their CNY 2020 holiday. They have finished dealing with a CIA / NED sponsored “color revolution” in Hong Kong, and have just experienced a collapse of their BRI center at the Beirut Lebanon Port due to a mighty explosion (that has the hallmarks of a 6kT nuclear warhead). America has declared war on all Chinese technology, all Chinese trade, all international relationships, and all Chinese people. The anti-China propaganda effort is astounding in it’s size, magnitude, and pure visceral hate…
The COVID-19 biological attack is just the latest of at least six previous biological warfare actions by the Trump Administration, starting in 2017. Each time getting more and more aggressive. The sixth was the most brazen, with the use of drones to spray / fog swine flu viruses all over widely separate and remote pig farms.
I mean, you can’t get more ballsy than that!
The United States has done everything, and I do mean everything, short of launching nuclear ICBM’s at Chinese cities….
To assume that China will “let it roll of their shoulders” is a serious miscalculation. China has been making plans on how to deal with this situation, and has been working with Russia on military preparations. China will respond to all this, on their terms. At their pace. In their way.
And this is what this post is all about. We all need to consider the harsh reality that a nation that is willing to use biological warfare to achieve their goals will not have any problem with using nuclear weapons as well.
The following is a reprint of an article titled “The Myth of Moderate Nuclear War” by Brian Cloughley on Global Research, written on March 04, 2020 for the Strategic Culture Foundation. It was edited as necessary to fit this venue. All credit to the authors.
Early on, President Trump surrounded himself with neocon advisors. They advised that it was foolish to maintain large stores of weapons if they were not going to use them. That to use them would guarantee American global superiority.
The Myth of Moderate Nuclear War
There are many influential supporters of nuclear war, and some of these contend that the use of ‘low-yield’ and/or short-range weapons is practicable without the possibility of escalation to all-out Armageddon.
"Ah. We can use "moderate" and "reasonable" nuclear weapons. It would never escalate into a full-fledged armageddon."
In a way their argument is comparable to that of the band of starry-eyed optimists who thought, apparently seriously, that there could be such a beast as a ‘moderate rebel’.
In October 2013 the Washington Post reported that…
“The CIA is expanding a clandestine effort to train opposition fighters in Syria amid concern that moderate, US-backed militias are rapidly losing ground in the country’s civil war,”
…and the US Congress gave approval to then President Barack Obama’s plan for training and arming moderate Syrian rebels to fight against Islamic State extremists.
The belief that there could be any grouping of insurgents that could be described as “moderate rebels” is bizarre and it would be fascinating to know how Washington’s planners classify such people.
What's a "moderate rebel"?
Someone who drinks tea with their pinky up? A person who listens to Indie Rock, and spreads organic Avocado on their whole-wheat toast, or perhaps someone who advocates "humane" techniques of torture.
"Moderate". What a nice, pleasant sounding term for a murderer.
It obviously didn’t dawn on them that any person who uses weapons illegally in a rebellion could not be defined as being moderate.
And how moderate is moderate?
Perhaps a moderate rebel could be equipped with US weapons that kill only extremists? Or are they allowed to kill only five children a month? The entire notion was absurd, and predictably the scheme collapsed, after expenditure of vast amounts of US taxpayers’ money.
President trump is an pro-war hawk that is for the use of nuclear weapons at will.
And even vaster amounts of money are being spent on developing and producing what might be classed as moderate nuclear weapons.
Moderate nuclear weapons, in that they don’t have the zillion-bang punch of most of its existing 4,000 plus warheads have.
“Moderate” nuclear weapons put a friendly face on the American use of theater nuclear bombs. This, the neocons believe, will make the use of them attractive to the American population. What they do not take into account is how their target nations would react. I dare say that they would not be pleased.
It is apparently widely believed in Washington that if a nuclear weapon is (comparatively) small, then it’s less dangerous than a big nuclear weapon.
Well…
Maybe they are right. Look what happened in the Beirut Port Bombing in August 2020.
And we know that this kind of event has been EXACTLY what the Trump NEOCONS have been arguing towards. Because, in January 2019 the Guardian reported that
“the Trump administration has argued the development of a low-yield weapon would make nuclear war less likely, by giving the US a more flexible deterrent. It would counter any enemy (particularly Russian) perception that the US would balk at using its own fearsome arsenal in response to a limited nuclear attack because its missiles were all in the hundreds of kilotons range and ‘too big to use’, because they would cause untold civilian casualties.”
Small nukes as a way to limit civilian deaths…
In fact, the nuclear war envisaged in that scenario would be a global catastrophe — as would all nuclear wars, because there’s no way, no means whatever, of limiting escalation.
Once a nuclear weapon has exploded and killed people, the nuclear-armed nation to which these people belonged is going to take massive action.
There is no alternative, because no government is just going to sit there and try to start talking with an enemy that has taken the ultimate leap in warfare.
It is fashionable to consider the use of low-yield nuclear weapons without consequence.
It is widely imagined — by many nuclear planners in the sub-continent, for example — that use of a tactical, a battlefield-deployed, nuclear weapon will in some fashion persuade the opponent (India or Pakistan) that there is no need to employ higher-capability weapons. Or, in other words, longer range missiles delivering massive warheads.
All retaliation would be measured, tit for tat.
These people think that the other side will evaluate the situation calmly and dispassionately and come to the conclusion that at most it should itself reply with a similar weapon.
Calmly.
Dispassionately.
But such a scenario supposes that there is good intelligence about the effects of the weapon that has exploded, most probably within the opponent’s sovereign territory.
This is verging on the impossible.
War is ugly and complex
War is confusing in the extreme, and tactical planning can be extremely complex. But there is no precedent for nuclear war, and nobody — nobody — knows for certain what reactions will be to such a situation in or near any nation.
The US 2018 Nuclear Posture Review (authorized by Trump as his NEOCON advisors Mike Pompeo and John Bolton) stated that low-yield weapons …
...“help ensure that potential adversaries perceive no possible advantage in limited nuclear escalation, making nuclear employment less likely”.
But do the possible opponents of the United States agree with that? How could they do so?
The reaction by any nuclear-armed state to what is confirmed as a nuclear attack will have to be swift.
But the neocons disagree, the threat of global conflagration will still exist.
The USA can launch small nuclear weapons, and reasonably expect no retaliation.
...
That is because it would need to be a "measured" response.
And if the attacked nation does not have low-yeld weapons, then they would refrain from using larger weapons. Instead, they would rely on their conventional arsenal.
...
Right?
It cannot be guaranteed, for example, that the first attack will not represent a series.
It will, by definition, be decisive, because the world will then be a tiny step from doomsday. The US nuclear review is optimistic that “flexibility” will by some means limit a nuclear exchange, or even persuade the nuked-nation that there should be no riposte, which is an intriguing hypothesis.
“the review calls for modification to ‘a small number of existing submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) warheads’ to provide a low-yield option."
It also calls for further exploration of low-yield options, arguing that expanding these options will …
‘help ensure that potential adversaries perceive no possible advantage in limited nuclear escalation, making nuclear employment less likely.’
This is intended to address the argument that adversaries might think the United States, out of concern for collateral damage, would hesitate to employ a high-yield nuclear weapon in response to a ‘lower level’ conflict, in which an adversary used a low-yield nuclear device.
The review argues that expanding low-yield options is ‘important for the preservation of credible deterrence,’ especially when it comes to smaller-scale regional conflicts.”
“Credible deterrence” is a favorite catch-phrase of the believers in limited nuclear war, but its credibility is suspect.
Former US defense secretary William Perry said last year that he wasn’t so much worried about the vast number of warheads in the world as he was by open proposals that these weapons are “usable”.
It’s right back to the Cold War and he emphasizes that…
“The belief that there might be tactical advantage using nuclear weapons – which I haven’t heard being openly discussed in the United States or in Russia for a good many years...
... is happening now in those countries...
... which I think is extremely distressing.”
But the perturbing thing is that while it is certainly being discussed in Moscow, it’s doctrine in Washington.
America is now ready to use nuclear weapons to achieve it’s goals
In late February US Defense Secretary Esper was reported as having taken part in a…
“classified military drill in which Russia and the United States traded nuclear strikes.”
The Pentagon stated that …
“The scenario included a European contingency where you’re conducting a war with Russia and Russia decides to use a low-yield, limited nuclear weapon against a site on NATO territory.”
The US response was to fire back with what was called a “limited response.”
First of all, the notion that Russia would take the first step to nuclear war is completely baseless, and there is no evidence that this could ever be contemplated.
But ever if it were to be so, it cannot be imagined for an instant that Washington would indulge in moderate nuclear warfare in riposte. These self-justifying war-games are dangerous. And they bring Armageddon ever closer.
Today 2020
So, let’s perform a quick recap…
The United States under President Trump is staffed with neocons.
The United States is currently fighting eight wars plus a hybrid war with China.
The United States has fielded “small” nuclear weapons.
The United States has been using biological germ warfare against China.
The President of the United States argues in favor of limited, surgical use of nuclear weapons to accomplish his objectives.
No matter what the United States does, China is still plugging away. It is still building things, trading things, and growing.
There will come a point in time where the neocons will feel that it is “now or never” to finally and completely suppress China.
…
LISTEN TO ME.
I have some points that I want to make perfectly clear.
The Chinese and the Russians will know before hand what is going to happen. They have intel.
If it is plausible that an event will happen on either Chinese or Russian land, they WILL strike first.
The response will NOT be with “moderate” and “friendly” tactical weapons.
It will be the unleashing of unholy terror.
America has NEVER experienced losing a war. It has NEVER been the vanquished people. Americans have no idea what it would be like to lose in a war…
So with this in mind, let’s look at what happened after Hitler killed himself in Germany, the nation surrendered to the Allies, and Victorious Russian troops flowed into Germany in 1945…
The Rape of Germany
When Berlin fell to the Soviets it is rumored that Stalin gave the Soviet Soldiers permission to do what ever they wanted for the first 3 days. At the end of that 3 days you would be hard pressed to find a single German woman who had not been raped at least once by the Soviet Soldiers.
Almost 100 percent of women between the ages of 8 and 80 were raped — repeatedly — some as many as 60 to 70 times.
Estimates are around 2,000,000 women were raped in Germany, 100,000 in Berlin. These estimates are based in part on the number of requested abortions that climbed markedly after the Russians arrived.
Female deaths in connection with the rapes in Germany, overall, are estimated at 240,000
War historians have described it as the “greatest phenomenon of mass rape in history”, and have concluded that at least 1.4 million women were raped in East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia alone.
Civilians from occupied countries and even Russian women rescued from work camps were at risk and Stalin gave his silent assent to this mayhem.
Stalin said people should
“…understand it if a soldier who has crossed thousands of kilometers through blood and fire and death has fun with a woman or takes some trifle”.
On another occasion, when told that Red Army soldiers sexually maltreated German refugees, he reportedly said:
"We lecture our soldiers too much; let them have their initiative."
The smart women didn’t resist or found an officer to bed. Officers tended to be more civilized and would protect their “women” from the rampaging enlisted men.
Magda Wieland, a 24-year-old actress, was dragged from a cupboard in her apartment just off the Kurfürstendamm. A very young soldier from central Asia hauled her out. He was so excited at the prospect of a beautiful young blonde that he ejaculated prematurely. By sign language, she offered herself to him as a girlfriend if he would protect her from other Russian soldiers, but he went off to boast to his comrades and another soldier raped her. Ellen Goetz, a Jewish friend of Magda’s, was also raped. When other Germans tried to explain to the Russians that she was Jewish and had been persecuted, they received the retort:
“Frau ist Frau.”
Women soon learned to disappear during the “hunting hours” of the evening. Young daughters were hidden in storage lofts for days on end. Mothers emerged into the street to fetch water only in the early morning when Soviet soldiers were sleeping off the alcohol from the night before. Sometimes the greatest danger came from one mother giving away the hiding place of other girls in a desperate bid to save her own daughter. Older Berliners still remember the screams every night. It was impossible not to hear them because all the windows had been blown in.
According to a former Russian army officer:
“We were young, strong, and four years without women. So we tried to catch German women and … Ten men raped one girl. There were not enough women; the entire population run from the Soviet Army. So we had to take young, twelve or thirteen year-old. If she cried, we put something into her mouth. We thought it was fun. Now I can not understand how I did it. A boy from a good family… But that was me."
A woman telephone operator from the Russian Army recalled that:
“When we occupied every town, we had first three days for looting and … [rapes]. That was unofficial of course. But after three days one could be court-martialed for doing this. … I remember one raped German woman laying naked, with hand grenade between her legs. Now I feel shame, but I did not feel shame back then… Do you think it was easy to forgive [the Germans]? We hated to see their clean undamaged white houses. With roses. I wanted them to suffer. I wanted to see their tears. … Decades had to pass until I started feeling pity for them.”
Abortions were the preferred choice of rape victims, and many died as a consequence of internal injuries after being brutally violated, untreated sexually transmitted diseases due to a lack of medicine, badly performed abortions, and suicides, particularly for traumatized victims who had been raped many times.
In addition, many children died in post-war Germany as a result of widespread starvation, scarce supplies, and diseases such as typhus and diphtheria. The infant mortality in Berlin reached up to 90 percent.
German historian Miriam Gebhardt …
“believes that members of the US military raped as many as 190,000 German women by the time West Germany regained sovereignty in 1955, with most of the assaults taking place in the months immediately following the US invasion of Nazi Germany. "
The author bases her claims in large part on reports kept by Bavarian priests in the summer of 1945.
Conclusion
War is a terrible, terrible thing.
The idea that the NEOCONS in America in Washington DC are in favor of it, by any means possible should send a shiver down the spines of anyone reading Metallicaman. How can I spell this out to you? If America gets involved in a kinetic “hot” war with another major power, it will not survive.
The chances are high that it will end up becoming a vanquished nation in a ruined world, and the rest of the world will expect Holy Hell from the survivors inside America. It will not be pretty or pleasant.
To avoid the coming conflict that the neoconservatives’ pursuit of American hegemony is bringing, the Russians have relied on fact-based, truth-based diplomacy. However, neocon Washington relies on lies and propaganda and has many more and much louder voices. Consequently, it is Washington’s lies, not Russia’s truth, that most of the Western sheeple believe.
In other words, Russia was misled by believing that the West respects and abides by the values that it professes. In fact, these “Western values” are merely a cover for the unbridled evil of which the West consists.
The Western peoples are so dimwitted that they have not yet understood that the “war on terror” is, in fact, a war to create terror that can be exported to Muslim areas of Russia and China in order to destabilize the two countries that serve as a check on Washington’s unilateral, hegemonic power.
The problem for the neocon unilateralists is that Russia and China—although misinformed by their “experts” educated abroad in the neoliberal tradition, people who are de facto agents of Washington without even knowing it—are powerful military powers, both nuclear and conventional. Unless Russia and China are content to be Washington’s vassal states, for the neoconservatives, who control Washington and, thereby, the West, to press these two powerful countries so hard can only lead to war.
As Washington is not a match for Russia and China in conventional warfare, the war will be nuclear, and the result will be the end of life on Earth.
-Paul Craig Roberts
Or, more likely, the end of life as we have known it to be, on earth.
Do you want more?
Do you want to see similar posts?
I hope that you found this post curious. Please take care. You can view other similar posts in my SHTF Index, here…
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you.
This is the free full text in glorious HTML of law 29 from Robert Greene’s work titled “The 48 Laws of Power”. This law is titled “Plan all the way to the end”. It is a great read, and contains a lot of wisdom on many levels. Indeed, anyone who has ever managed a project can attest to the validity of this law.
LAW 29
PLAN ALL THE WAY TO THE END
JUDGMENT
The ending is everything.
Plan all the way to it, taking into account all the possible consequences, obstacles, and twists of fortune that might reverse your hard work and give the glory to others.
By planning to the end you will not be overwhelmed by circumstances and you will know when to stop.
Gently guide fortune and help determine the future by thinking far ahead.
TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW
In 1510 a ship set out from the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic) for Venezuela, where it was to rescue a besieged Spanish colony.
Several miles out of port, a stowaway climbed out of a provision chest: Vasco Núñez de Balboa, a noble Spaniard who had come to the New World in search of gold but had fallen into debt and had escaped his creditors by hiding in the chest.
There are very few men—and they are the exceptions—who are able to think and feel beyond the present moment.
-CARL VON CLAUSEWITZ, 1780-1831
Balboa had been obsessed with gold ever since Columbus had returned to Spain from his voyages with tales of a fabulous but as yet undiscovered kingdom called El Dorado.
Balboa was one of the first adventurers to come in search of Columbus’s land of gold, and he had decided from the beginning that he would be the one to find it, through sheer audacity and single-mindedness.
Now that he was free of his creditors, nothing would stop him.
Vasco Núñez de Balboa could very well be represented by the Character Aguirre in “The Wrath of God”.
Unfortunately the ship’s owner, a wealthy jurist named Francisco Fer nández de Enciso, was furious when told of the stowaway, and he ordered that Balboa be left on the first island they came across.
Before they found any island, however, Enciso received news that the colony he was to rescue had been abandoned.
This was Balboa’s chance.
He told the sailors of his previous voyages to Panama, and of the rumors he had heard of gold in the area.
The excited sailors convinced Enciso to spare Balboa’s life, and to establish a colony in Panama.
Weeks later they named their new settlement “Darien.”
Darien’s first governor was Enciso, but Balboa was not a man to let others steal the initiative. He campaigned against Enciso among the sailors, who eventually made it clear that they preferred him as governor.
Enciso fled to Spain, fearing for his life.
Months later, when a representative of the Spanish crown arrived to establish himself as the new, official governor of Darien, he was turned away.
On his return voyage to Spain, this man drowned; the drowning was accidental, but under Spanish law, Balboa had murdered the governor and usurped his position.
Balboa’s bravado had got him out of scrapes before, but now his hopes of wealth and glory seemed doomed.
To lay claim to El Dorado, should he discover it, he would need the approval of the Spanish king—which, as an outlaw, he would never receive.
There was only one solution. Panamanian Indians had told Balboa of a vast ocean on the other side of the Central American isthmus, and had said that by traveling south upon this western coast, he would reach a fabulous land of gold, called by a name that to his ears sounded like “Biru.”
Balboa decided he would cross the treacherous jungles of Panama and become the first European to bathe his feet in this new ocean.
From there he would march on El Dorado. If he did this on Spain’s behalf, he would obtain the eternal gratitude of the king, and would secure his own reprieve—only he had to act before Spanish authorities came to arrest him.
THE TWO FROGS
Two frogs dwelt in the same pool. The pool being dried up under the summer’s heat, they left it, and set out together to seek another home.
As they went along they chanced to pass a deep well, amply supplied with water, on seeing which one of the frogs said to the other: “Let us descend and make our abode in this well, it will furnish us with shelter and food.” The other replied with greater caution: “But suppose the water should fail us, how can we get out again from so great a depth?”
Do nothing without a regard to the consequences.
-FABLES, AESOP, SIXTH CENTURY B.C.
In 1513, then, Balboa set out, with 190 soldiers. Halfway across the isthmus (some ninety miles wide at that point), only sixty soldiers remained, many having succumbed to the harsh conditions—the blood-sucking insects, the torrential rainfall, fever.
Finally, from a mountaintop, Balboa became the first European to lay eyes on the Pacific Ocean. Days later he marched in his armor into its waters, bearing the banner of Castile and claiming all its seas, lands, and islands in the name of the Spanish throne.
Look to the end, no matter what it is you are considering. Often enough, God gives a man a glimpse of happiness, and then utterly ruins him.
-THE HISTORIES, HERODOTUS, FIFTH CENTURY B.C.
Indians from the area greeted Balboa with gold, jewels, and precious pearls, the like of which he had never seen.
When he asked where these had come from, the Indians pointed south, to the land of the Incas. But Balboa had only a few soldiers left. For the moment, he decided, he should return to Darien, send the jewels and gold to Spain as a token of good will, and ask for a large army to aid him in the conquest of El Dorado.
When news reached Spain of Balboa’s bold crossing of the isthmus, his discovery of the western ocean, and his planned conquest of El Dorado, the former criminal became a hero.
He was instantly proclaimed governor of the new land.
But before the king and queen received word of his discovery, they had already sent a dozen ships, under the command of a man named Pedro Arias Dávila, “Pedrarias,” with orders to arrest Balboa for murder and to take command of the colony.
By the time Pedrarias arrived in Panama, he had learned that Balboa had been pardoned, and that he was to share the governorship with the former outlaw.
All the same, Balboa felt uneasy.
Gold was his dream, El Dorado his only desire.
In pursuit of this goal he had nearly died many times over, and to share the wealth and glory with a newcomer would be intolerable.
He also soon discovered that Pedrarias was a jealous, bitter man, and equally unhappy with the situation. Once again, the only solution for Balboa was to seize the initiative by proposing to cross the jungle with a larger army, carrying ship-building materials and tools.
Crossing the mountains.
Once on the Pacific coast, he would create an armada with which to conquer the Incas.
Surprisingly enough, Pedrarias agreed to the plan—perhaps sensing it would never work.
Hundreds died in this second march through the jungle, and the timber they carried rotted in the torrential rains.
Balboa, as usual, was undaunted—no power in the world could thwart his plan—and on arriving at the Pacific he began to cut down trees for new lumber. But the men remaining to him were too few and too weak to mount an invasion, and once again Balboa had to return to Darien.
Pedrarias had in any case invited Balboa back to discuss a new plan, and on the outskirts of the settlement, the explorer was met by Francisco Pizarro, an old friend who had accompanied him on his first crossing of the isthmus.
But this was a trap: Leading one hundred soldiers, Pizarro surrounded his former friend, arrested him, and returned him to Pedrarias, who tried him on charges of rebellion.
A few days later Balboa’s head fell into a basket, along with those of his most trusted followers. Years later Pizarro himself reached Peru, and Balboa’s deeds were forgotten.
THE KING. THE SUFI. AND THE SURGEON
In ancient times a king of Tartary was out walking with some of his noblemen. At the roadside was an abdal (a wandering Sufi), who cried out: “Whoever will give me a hundred dinars, I will give him some good advice.”
The king stopped, and said: “Abdal, what is this good advice for a hundred dinars?”
“Sir,” answered the abdal, “order the sum to be given to me, and I will tell it you immediately.”
The king did so, expecting to hear something extraordinary.
The dervish said to him: “My advice is this: Never begin anything until you have reflected what will be the end of it.”
At this the nobles and everyone else present laughed, saying that the abdal had been wise to ask for his money in advance.
But the king said: “You have no reason to laugh at the good advice this abdal has given me. No one is unaware of the fact that we should think well before doing anything. But we are daily guilty of not remembering, and the consequences are evil. I very much value this dervish’s advice. ”
The king decided to bear the advice always in his mind, and commanded it to be written in gold on the walls and even engraved on his silver plate.
Not long afterward a plotter desired to kill the king.
He bribed the royal surgeon with a promise of the prime ministership if he thrust a poisoned lancet into the king’s arm.
When the time came to let some of the king’s blood, a silver basin was placed to catch the blood.
Suddenly the surgeon became aware of the words engraved upon it: “Never begin anything until you have reflected what will be the end of it. ”
It was only then that he realized that if the plotter became king he could have the surgeon killed instantly, and would not need to fulfill his bargain.
The king, seeing that the surgeon was now trembling, asked him what was wrong with him. And so he confessed the truth, at that very moment.The plotter was seized; and the king sent for all the people who had been present when the abdal gave his advice, and said to them: “Do you still laugh at the dervish?”
-CARAVAN OF DREAMS. IDRIES SHAH, 1968
Interpretation
Most men are ruled by the heart, not the head.
Their plans are vague, and when they meet obstacles they improvise.
But improvisation will only bring you as far as the next crisis, and is never a substitute for thinking several steps ahead and planning to the end.
Balboa had a dream of glory and wealth, and a vague plan to reach it.
Yet his bold deeds, and his discovery of the Pacific, are largely forgotten, for he committed what in the world of power is the ultimate sin: He went part way, leaving the door open for others to take over.
A real man of power would have had the prudence to see the dangers in the distance—the rivals who would want to share in the conquests, the vultures that would hover once they heard the word “gold.”
Balboa should have kept his knowledge of the Incas secret until after he had conquered Peru.
Only then would his wealth, and his head, have been secure.
Once Pedrarias arrived on the scene, a man of power and prudence would have schemed to kill or imprison him, and to take over the army he had brought for the conquest of Peru.
But Balboa was locked in the moment, always reacting emotionally, never thinking ahead.
What good is it to have the greatest dream in the world if others reap the benefits and the glory? Never lose your head over a vague, open-ended dream—plan to the end.
OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW
In 1863 the Prussian premier Otto von Bismarck surveyed the chessboard of European power as it then stood. The main players were England, France, and Austria.
Prussia itself was one of several states in the loosely allied German Federation.
Austria, dominant member of the Federation, made sure that the other German states remained weak, divided and submissive.
Bismarck believed that Prussia was destined for something far greater than servant boy to Austria.
This is how Bismarck played the game. His first move was to start a war with lowly Denmark, in order to recover the former Prussian lands of Schleswig-Holstein. He knew that these rumblings of Prussian independence might worry France and England, so he enlisted Austria in the war, claiming that he was recovering Schleswig-Holstein for their benefit.
In a few months, after the war was decided, Bismarck demanded that the newly conquered lands be made part of Prussia.
The Austrians of course were furious, but they compromised: First they agreed to give the Prussians Schleswig, and a year later they sold them Holstein. The world began to see that Austria was weakening and that Prussia was on the rise.
Bismarck’s next move was his boldest: In 1866 he convinced King William of Prussia to withdraw from the German Federation, and in doing so to go to war with Austria itself.
King William’s wife, his son the crown prince, and the princes of the other German kingdoms vehemently opposed such a war.
But Bismarck, undaunted, succeeded in forcing the conflict, and Prussia’s superior army defeated the Austrians in the brutally short Seven Weeks War.
The king and the Prussian generals then wanted to march on Vienna, taking as much land from Austria as possible.
But Bismarck stopped them—now he presented himself as on the side of peace.
The result was that he was able to conclude a treaty with Austria that granted Prussia and the other German states total autonomy.
Bismarck could now position Prussia as the dominant power in Germany and the head of a newly formed North German Confederation.
The French and the English began to compare Bismarck to Attila the Hun, and to fear that he had designs on all of Europe.
Once he had started on the path to conquest, there was no telling where he would stop.
And, indeed, three years later Bismarck provoked a war with France.
First he appeared to give his permission to France’s annexation of Belgium, then at the last moment he changed his mind.
Playing a cat-and-mouse game, he infuriated the French emperor, Napoleon III, and stirred up his own king against the French. To no one’s surprise, war broke out in 1870. The newly formed German federation enthusiastically joined in the war on France, and once again the Prussian military machine and its allies destroyed the enemy army in a matter of months.
Although Bismarck opposed taking any French land, the generals convinced him that Alsace-Lorraine would become part of the federation.
Now all of Europe feared the next move of the Prussian monster, led by Bismarck, the “Iron Chancellor.” And in fact a year later Bismarck founded the German Empire, with the Prussian king as the newly crowned emperor and Bismarck himself a prince.
But then something strange happened: Bismarck instigated no more wars.
And while the other European powers grabbed up land for colonies in other continents, he severely limited Germany’s colonial acquisitions.
He did not want more land for Germany, but more security.
For the rest of his life he struggled to maintain peace in Europe and to prevent further wars. Everybody assumed he had changed, mellowing with the years. They had failed to understand: This was the final move of his original plan.
He who asks fortune-tellers the future unwittingly forfeits an inner intimation of coming events that is a thousand times more exact than anything they may say.
-WALTER BENJAMIN, 1892-1940
Interpretation
There is a simple reason why most men never know when to come off the attack: They form no concrete idea of their goal.
Once they achieve victory they only hunger for more.
To stop—to aim for a goal and then keep to it—seems almost inhuman, in fact; yet nothing is more critical to the maintenance of power.
The person who goes too far in his triumphs creates a reaction that inevitably leads to a decline.
The only solution is to plan for the long run.
Foresee the future with as much clarity as the gods on Mount Olympus, who look through the clouds and see the ends of all things.
From the beginning of his career in politics, Bismarck had one goal: to form an independent German state led by Prussia. He instigated the war with Denmark not to conquer territory but to stir up Prussian nationalism and unite the country. He incited the war with Austria only to gain Prussian independence. (This was why he refused to grab Austrian territory.) And he fomented the war with France to unite the German kingdoms against a common enemy, and thus to prepare for the formation of a united Germany.
Once this was achieved, Bismarck stopped. He never let triumph go to his head, was never tempted by the siren call of more. He held the reins tightly, and whenever the generals, or the king, or the Prussian people demanded new conquests, he held them back. Nothing would spoil the beauty of his creation, certainly not a false euphoria that pushed those around him to attempt to go past the end that he had so carefully planned.
Experience shows that, if one foresees from far away the designs to be
undertaken, one can act with speed when the moment comes to execute them.
-Cardinall Richelieu, 1585-1642
KEYS TO POWER
According to the cosmology of the ancient Greeks, the gods were thought to have complete vision into the future. They saw everything to come, right down to the intricate details.
Men, on the other hand, were seen as victims of fate, trapped in the moment and their emotions, unable to see beyond immediate dangers. Those heroes, such as Odysseus, who were able to look beyond the present and plan several steps ahead, seemed to defy fate, to approximate the gods in their ability to determine the future. The comparison is still valid—those among us who think further ahead and patiently bring their plans to fruition seem to have a godlike power.
Because most people are too imprisoned in the moment to plan with this kind of foresight, the ability to ignore immediate dangers and pleasures translates into power.
It is the power of being able to overcome the natural human tendency to react to things as they happen, and instead to train oneself to step back, imagining the larger things taking shape beyond one’s immediate vision.
Most people believe that they are in fact aware of the future, that they are planning and thinking ahead.
They are usually deluded: What they are really doing is succumbing to their desires, to what they want the future to be. Their plans are vague, based on their imaginations rather than their reality.
They may believe they are thinking all the way to the end, but they are really only focusing on the happy ending, and deluding themselves by the strength of their desire.
Athens
In 415 B.C., the ancient Athenians attacked Sicily, believing their expedition would bring them riches, power, and a glorious ending to the sixteen-year Peloponnesian War.
They did not consider the dangers of an invasion so far from home; they did not foresee [1] that the Sicilians would fight all the harder since the battles were in their own homeland, or [2] that all of Athens’s enemies would band together against them, or [3] that war would break out on several fronts, stretching their forces way too thin.
The Sicilian expedition was a complete disaster, leading to the destruction of one of the greatest civilizations of all time.
The Athenians were led into this disaster by their hearts, not their minds. They saw only the chance of glory, not the dangers that loomed in the distance.
France
Cardinal de Retz, the seventeenth-century Frenchman who prided himself on his insights into human schemes and why they mostly fail, analyzed this phenomenon.
In the course of a rebellion he spearheaded against the French monarchy in 1651, the young king, Louis XIV, and his court had suddenly left Paris and established themselves in a palace outside the capital.
The presence of the king so close to the heart of the revolution had been a tremendous burden on the revolutionaries, and they breathed a sigh of relief.
This later proved their downfall, however, since the court’s absence from Paris gave it much more room to maneuver.
“The most ordinary cause of people’s mistakes,” Cardinal de Retz later wrote, “is their being too much frightened at the present danger, and not enough so at that which is remote.”
The dangers that are remote, that loom in the distance—if we can see them as they take shape, how many mistakes we avoid.
How many plans we would instantly abort if we realized we were avoiding a small danger only to step into a larger one. So much of power is not what you do but what you do not do—the rash and foolish actions that you refrain from before they get you into trouble.
Plan in detail before you act—do not let vague plans lead you into trouble.
Will this have unintended consequences? Will I stir up new enemies? Will someone else take advantage of my labors? Unhappy endings are much more common than happy ones—do not be swayed by the happy ending in your mind.
French Elections
The French elections of 1848 came down to a struggle between Louis-Adolphe Thiers, the man of order, and General Louis Eugène Cavaignac, the rabble-rouser of the right.
When Thiers realized he was hopelessly behind in this high-stakes race, he searched desperately for a solution.
His eye fell on Louis Bonaparte, grand-nephew of the great general Napoleon, and a lowly deputy in the parliament.
This Bonaparte seemed a bit of an imbecile, but his name alone could get him elected in a country yearning for a strong ruler.
He would be Thiers’s puppet and eventually would be pushed offstage.
The first part of the plan worked to perfection, and Napoleon was elected by a large margin.
The problem was that Thiers had not foreseen one simple fact: This “imbecile” was in fact a man of enormous ambition.
Three years later he [1] dissolved parliament, [2] declared himself emperor, and [3] ruled France for another eighteen years, much to the horror of Thiers and his party.
The ending is everything. It is the end of the action that determines who gets the glory, the money, the prize. Your conclusion must be crystal clear, and you must keep it constantly in mind. You must also figure out how to ward off the vultures circling overhead, trying to live off the carcass of your creation. And you must anticipate the many possible crises that will tempt you to improvise. Bismarck overcame these dangers because he planned to the end, kept on course through every crisis, and never let others steal the glory. Once he had reached his stated goal, he withdrew into his shell like a turtle. This kind of self-control is godlike.
When you see several steps ahead, and plan your moves all the way to the end, you will no longer be tempted by emotion or by the desire to improvise. Your clarity will rid you of the anxiety and vagueness that are the primary reasons why so many fail to conclude their actions successfully. You see the ending and you tolerate no deviation.
Image: The Gods on Mount Olympus. Looking down on human actions from the clouds, they see in advance the endings of all the great dreams that lead to disaster and tragedy. And they laugh at our inability to see beyond the moment, and at how we delude ourselves.
Authority: How much easier it is never to get in than to get yourself out! We should act contrary to the reed which, when it first appears, throws up a long straight stem but afterwards, as though it were exhausted ... makes several dense knots, indicating that it no longer has its original vigor and drive. We must rather begin gently and coolly, saving our breath for the encounter and our vigorous thrusts for finishing off the job. In their beginnings it is we who guide affairs and hold them in our power; but so often once they are set in motion, it is they which guide us and sweep us along.
(Montaigne, 1533-1592)
REVERSAL
It is a cliché among strategists that your plan must include alternatives and have a degree of flexibility. That is certainly true. If you are locked into a plan too rigidly, you will be unable to deal with sudden shifts of fortune. Once you have examined the future possibilities and decided on your target, you must build in alternatives and be open to new routes toward your goal.
Most people, however, lose less from overplanning and rigidity than from vagueness and a tendency to improvise constantly in the face of circumstance. There is no real purpose in contemplating a reversal to this Law, then, for no good can come from refusing to think far into the future and planning to the end. If you are clear- and far-thinking enough, you will understand that the future is uncertain, and that you must be open to adaptation. Only having a clear objective and a far-reaching plan allows you that freedom.
Conclusion
Today we see the United States, led by Donald Trump trying unsuccessfully to “suppress” China. We see and watch China just continuing on as normal. Just smiling and investing money on new constructions and investments.
Donald Trump might have a long term strategy, but it appears that all his actions are focused on the resultant opinions of the American electorate. This is a short-term strategy. It is seemingly focused on the results of the November 3rd 2020 election results.
Meanwhile, the Chinese, though Xi Peng are investing in ten, twenty and fifty year duration projects along a vision that describes China in 2030, 2030 and 2050.
While no one knows what will happen between these two nations, what we can be assured of is that China will be following the paths mapped out by the Chinese leadership today, while the Americans within America will run from one objective to the other without any apparent cohesive strategy.
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This post is an update to my SHTF series of posts.
My last SHTF post was back in October 2019, and before the COVID-19, the NED sponsored pro-democracy attempt at a “color revolution” and the fierce anti-China propaganda onslaught. Back then, it seemed that America was waltzing into a state of intensified confusion.
Now things are much clearer.
The USA is on an out-of-control bobsled heading straight for disaster.
There’s no getting off now.
In previous SHTF posts, I had advised (fellow) Americans that the United States was due to a great reset, and that it would be uncomfortable for many. I also advised that if they were smart, to leave America and go to stable but boring places far away from the “death throes” of a dying empire.
I was correct.
Today, most Americans are trapped within the United States are are unable to leave. For the most part, there are very few nations willing to take in American citizens. The terrible handling of the COVID-19 has make the rest of the world frightened in having anything to do with Americans.
So Americans are trapped. Not only from asking permission to leave America by the American government, but also finding another nation willing to take in Americans. It’s “slim pickings”.
So…
Here you are.
We are in a SHTF situation where you are geographically locked inside a geographic region, while that region experiences all sorts of upheavals and changes. Don’t believe me? Well, take a look at the latest news articles out of the Drudge Report today…
You are trapped inside the United States, the news is about this chaos…
… and that chaos.
It’s all a big nasty mess. From people unemployed because of the COVID-19, to the illness itself. To the BLM and Antifa riots, to food shortages, and armed marches. To Donald Trump going “hog wild” crazy in his anti-China crusade. Seriously, it is nuts.
Indeed, in your immediate neighborhood, everything is quiet and calm. Most of the upset is transmitted to you via the Internet, and you have no idea what is true or what is false. Though most of you probably believe in the trends of what you read.
Well…
This is normal.
The Timeline
Let’s take a review of the timeline for the “great reset”.
To review, according to all the measurements that I have mentioned beforehand, everything is pointing to a period of discomfort starting in 2008, and increasing in severity in 2018. Then from 2018 to 2028 will be the worst period of discomfort. With things really starting to get bad around 2020. And a peak crisis period from 2023 to 2027, with the major crisis event centering around 2025.
According to the “Fourth Turning”, we can expect a major critical event to take place around 2025. As shown in the following illustration…
Here are the next few years before the Fourth Turning is expected to reach a crisis point.
Here are my thoughts, and some advice to those of you willing to listen…
Good News
There are some good things that I can say right now.
[1] Firstly, the good news is that change is a natural part of growing. (I know, yada, yada, yada.) But it is true. The United States simply cannot continue as an oligarchy ruled military empire run on imaginary “petrol-dollars”. It has to change. And it will, and you are seeing the start of the changes…
[2] The climax of the event is not this year. That’s the good news.
[3] It will be sometime around 2025 (plus or minus two years). Or as early as 2023, or as late as 2027. That’s in three years at the earliest.
The period of discomfort will last a decade. So expect things to be dicey through 2030.
[4] Here’s more good news. It will not be uniform. There will be areas that will see terrible change, and others what will not see much change at all.
So what will it be like?
Several things will explode all at once…
Several things could implode all at once. Indeed, this is the likeliest scenario. As there are all sorts of trends and events just about to run “off the rails”, and all sort of “the opportunistic others” who have plans to take advantage of government collapse.
All the usual “good people” assure us that violent revolution is not on the table. This means, simply, that it is.
- From Brett Stevens at Amerika
It could be everything and anything. It could be social upheaval in alignment with the Nazi takeover of Germany in the 1930’s, coupled with the genocide of the Cambodians under Pol Pot. It could be a mixture of George Orwell, and the worst elements of THX1138. It could be every nightmare that you could possibly dream of.
‘THX 1138’ is a chilling look at a 25th-century totalitarian state where mankind is stripped of any individuality. People are numbered drones, and a government-enforced program of sedating drugs controls the populace. The story’s title character, THX, is a factory worker whose life is irrevocably changed when he stops taking his mind-numbing drugs.
When the violence comes—and it will come—the military and militarized police forces will face domestic insurgents who are better armed, trained, supplied, coordinated, and technologically proficient than the foreign insurgents the military has heretofore been unable to defeat.
- From Robert Gore at Straight Line Logic
Breitbart - Calif. Police Chief Cancels Event to Honor Fallen Officer Because Republicans Were Invited ... "this is not Trump country, we don’t want Republicans here"
Indeed, all this anti-white propaganda is geared towards genocide. It is not geared to any objective regarding healing. It is an out of control manipulation by the oligarchy to pit Americans against each other.
You cannot purify white people through the healing magic of diversity if they are not actually part of diversity.
-Z Man
Let’s just clear out all the nonsense and get to the basics…
When Progressives talk about diversity, they mean blacks.
We can put the upper bound on diversity as 20%. Any more than that and white crime victimization and awareness of it begins to soar. This sets off white flight.
Baltimore is a great example. Once its black population crossed the 25% level, it began a rapid decline into chaos.
As Rhodesia, Baltimore and now South Africa show, there is some minimum number of whites required to keep the lights on, so everyone can enjoy the wonderfulness of diversity.
In the case of Rhodesia, the number fell below the minimum and it became Zimbabwe. In Baltimore, they have hovered along the critical number for decades. South Africa staggers on, but they too are approaching the inflection point.
-Z Man
Someone, or some group, is organizing a campaign leading towards the genocide of “white people”. This will absolutely manifest during the crisis period. Look, just because the mainstream media isn’t covering the obvious does not mean that that it doesn’t exist.
Fighting Is Under Way
And leftist blood-lust is not limited to a fringe. A very intelligent and gentle acquaintance of mine, someone with whom I once enjoyed a cordial and friendly long-running debate, believes that Trump sent federal troops into Berkeley the other night to conduct mass arrests of protesters, trigging the riots. It’s completely untrue and she had no idea where she heard it, but she believes it as much as she believes in gravity. And her false belief, what psychologists would call a hallucination (h/t Scott Adams), allows her to justify anything the rioters did, up to and including murder.
Here’s the thing. You’ve probably heard the word “privilege” so much you could puke when you hear it. The idea of white privilege is central to the leftist hallucination. And the idea of a privileged race led Germany to the Final Solution.
Adolf Hitler wrote in 1919:
"But an anti-Semitism based on reason must lead to a systematic legal elimination of the privileges of the Jews. The ultimate objective of such legislation must, however, be the irrevocable removal of the Jews from civil and cultural influence."
In fact, the Nazi propagandists worked overtime to defame Jews for their privilege. Hitler claimed Jews avoided physical labor of any kind, preferring work in finance, mercantile, and the arts. He lamented that Jews wrote and produced 90 percent of German movies despite being only one percent of the population. His propaganda depicted Jewish women as fat and lazy, yet wealthy, feeding off the labor of the German people.
Substitute “working class whites” for “Jews,” and Nazi propaganda sounds a lot like CNN commentators and UC Berkeley professors. Even so-called conservative Bill Kristol says it’s time to replace America’s white working class with immigrants.
It’s pretty clear that the left uses the same rhetoric and scapegoating against conservatives as the Nazi used against Jews. So we have to ask if these leftists use the propaganda techniques to the same end.
The Nazis wanted to vilify and dehumanize Jews so the German people would be conditioned for the Final Solution: extermination.
When you hear the speeches of campus protesters, you have to conclude that the left has a final solution in mind for people like you and me. You don’t have to take my word for it. Here are the words of a school teacher in Seattle protesting against Trump and his supporters:
"And we need to start killing people. First off, we need to start killing the White House. The White House must die. The White House, your fucking White House, your fucking Presidents, they must go! Fuck the White House.
Pay the fuck up, pay the fuck up. It ain’t just your fucking time, it’s your fucking money, and now your fucking life is devoted to social change."
Democrats, establishment Republicans, and the supposedly “responsible” media ignored this story. They ignored it because they are afraid of attracting the mob’s attention. Like Germans in the 1930s, some people value their own survival too much to stop bloodshed and brutality.
-Hennessysview
It could be an exodus of the wealthy from the urban centers…
All those pricey urban meccas could become crime-ridden ghost towns. How could such a reversal occur? Everyone who lives outside protected enclaves will reach a point where the "urban lifestyle" is no longer worth the sacrifices and costs. Once enough of the top 10% leave, the food/beverage service industry implodes.
Service employees are renters, paying sky-high rents that unemployment can't cover. Vacant apartments pile up. As the exodus gathers momentum, all the reasons people clung so rabidly to urban meccas decay. Local government jacks up fees, tickets, permits and taxes, accelerating the exodus.
That's how pricey urban meccas turn into ghost towns inhabited by those who can't leave and those living on public services.
-Of Two Minds Blog
And what would happen if a civil war, a CWII or SHTF event were to occur? America would be in chaos. Everything would be a mess, and the central governments from the Federal to the State, and Local levels would be very busy trying to maintain order.
Would other nations sit by and watch from afar? Would they decide to help and roll in the UN to restore order? Or would they just be content to watch America burn?
Thus, if a civil war broke out in the United States, would China, Russia, and Iran not jump in to finally render America helpless? To take advantage of the situation, to cripple the United States to a point where it could never ever, ever EVER fully recover?
Why NOT do a “double tap” and castrate America back into oblivion from which it would take a full 100 years to recover from?
Nuclear war, one initiated by America in order to control the American mobs, could easily reverse America’s fortunes in a nanosecond. The idea that a war out here, or over there, would be created and have no consequences is a very dangerous belief. The world is not the 1960’s, and not every nation is a third world tiny splat of land. Major nations are now getting involved in the global scene, and they do not take kindly to Americans throwing their weight around.
If America has gotten fat, plump and comfortable, being the bully on the global stage, throwing “regime changing” wrenches (via the CIA, NED, and NID) to everyone from Venezuela, Syria, the Ukraine, Hong Kong and China, won’t other nations resent it?
And, if an opportunity presents itself, would not another nation take advantage of that opportunity. An opportunity to “de-fang” the United States, and “neuter” it’s ability to project global influence (read; power) in the world?
I would say yes.
“Hours after the bombs go off in cities, these fires continue to build up and they create firestorms that feed on themselves. They get so hot that everything in the city becomes fuel for its own destruction. The energy released becomes much greater than the weapon itself,” Dr. Mills explained, drawing parallels to the way fire consumed the city of Dresden during the World War II. From each of these 100 detonations, massive firestorms would engulf whole cities and churn five million tons of black carbon into the stratosphere.
By nuking the major American cities, all industry would grind to a halt. Banking and savings would be non-existent. Everything would collapse and the survivors would flee the cities into the countryside.
Americans should never be under the impression that the rest of the world views us with favor. In fact, it is quite the opposite.
The next turning could have the worst elements of everything known to man. This could be nuclear war, chemical, biological and germ warfare high technology spying and swarm drone weapons. All of which could happen simultaneously while the USA government might to enact genocide against its citizenry.
Oh, and by the way, a fellow by the name of John Titor claimed to be from the future. Yes, he claimed to be a time traveler from the future. He described just this exact scenario, where there was a rather long period of civil unrest and then Russia nuked all the cities. Whether you believe him or not is immaterial. He has some interesting things to ponder.
The link below opens up into a new tab for your reading pleasure.
From the post…
' The blogger suggests this because he questions what actually occurred did not match all the conflicts that John Titor predicted. Perhaps the events he mentions will actually still occur, only they will actually occur 10 years later.
Maybe, instead of a civil war in 2013, there is one in 2023? Nuclear war in 2025, instead of 2015. '
Remember those dates;
2020 – Instability.
2023 – Civil War.
2025 – Nuclear War.
So, there is going to be an increase in the severity of the current mess…
Yes, there is.
And no, we don’t know the precise details.
But, do we really need to know all those details? History has told us that when America goes into a Fourth Turning reset situation, it becomes a no-rules cluster slug-fest. In fact, we can say that…
The most advanced weapons will be used.
War will be fought on American soil.
Foreign nations will be involved to some extent.
And since this is scheduled to happen pretty soon, what can you do (personally) to protect yourself and your family?
Well, I have some thoughts on this matter…
[1] Relocate to a safe, boring area.
Yes, you are trapped in the USA for now. Maybe things will open up next year, or maybe not. But in the meantime, you can relocate to a safe and quiet location that is pretty bland and boring. That’s the key don’t you know. Be bland. Be boring. Be safe. Be dull. Be uninteresting.
A great idea me-thinks.
But where?
[1a] Avoid all urban areas. You want to avoid crowds and the likelihood of meeting people who you do not know personally. Historically, cities have always been dangerous during societal upsets, resets and wars. Let me be clear about this; Get out while the getting’s good.
[1b] Avoid wilderness areas. One of the first things that began in March when the COVID-19 outbreak started to happen was all the city-dwellers took their RV’s, trucks, pickups and vehicles and headed for the state forests. The roads were blocked and the entire forests were jammed packed like a New York City rush hour with angry and frustrated city people. There were arguments, stores that were cleaned out and incidents of stabbings and shootings. Do not go where other people might go. Avoid state parks, federal parks, state and federal forests, and other “green areas” that are displayed on maps.
[1c] Move into a small town. Small towns have the basics that you need to survive. Additionally, it is much easier to make friends there. Now the thing is that if you move into a small community, you absolutely MUST know your neighbors. Do not plan on moving somewhere and not meeting people and making friends. Not only must you make friends, but you must be productive, helpful and good.
I would suggest that you also…
[2] Have a secure lifestyle
Which means…
[2a] Get involved in the community. A the bare minimum, this would include being a regular member of a church, and a member of some other activity, like the Chamber of Commerce, or the Grange, or the Rotary. make sure that you are known and recognized.
Many people think about “bugging in”, or “being mobile”. Here, I suggest that you integrate yourself with your community. For there is strength in numbers. Automatically, you will be part of something bigger. And when things go bad, you would be far, far better off than the lone guy hiding in a basement with six months stockpile of rice.
Now is NOT the time to be a “lone wolf”. You need to integrate yourself as part of a community and do it quickly.
And that is lifestyle.
To be a part of something, you must be ready and willing to participate in things and contribute. This is true in life, but it becomes very importantly true during crisis situations.
So here, I advise that you pick up some skills that you can use to provide help, services, and assistance were things to go really bad…
[2b] Emergency First Aid. You should take some classes in emergency first aid. You should be able to bend a broken arm, stitch up a cut, and perform emergency surgery. You should know how to handle gunshot wounds, infections, and food poisonings. This means that not only would you take a singular class at the YMCA, but advanced courses at the community college, and have some reference books on hand in your house. Finally, let people KNOW that you have these skills.
This is not only a useful skill for yourself, but it is something that you can trade for when you need to trade or barter.
[2c] Access to fresh water. During great societal upsets the ability to get water, electricity and internet is gone. Some areas might be spared this, but most will not. We know from recent history that in Bosnia, people died trying to get fresh water, or contracted illnesses from drinking tainted water. Either have a way to collect and purify water, or invest in a well.
[2d] Ability to repair without electricity. Which means that the ability to repair things without electricity would be a very valuable skill. If you have access to a manual lathe, or other such tools, you will be able to provide your services from anything to repairing a windmill on a water pump, to repairing a gun. Be helpful.
Try repairing things without electricity. You will be surprised how difficult it is. You need to be able to do this with files, hammers and pliers.
[2e] Local Indian lore. Long before the United States was colonized, the local Indians in your region lived well. They farmed and had their own ways of preserving food, and treating their sick. This is local lore that has been forgotten, but not at the local library or historical society. Connect with these people and learn a thing or two. You will not regret it.
This is one of those things that you see all over the Internet. How to make hide-holes, and how to secure your windows and other such things. There is much to cover here, but I will stick to the basics.
[3a] You need well bolted doors. One that can be barricaded with 2×4 lumber pieces from the inside (two beams, top and bottom, resting on a metal clamp). It might not prevent your house from burning down, but it will be able to defend against roving bands of urban youth in jacked cars.
[3b] Windows need to be secured and covered if need be. Plywood, ready to put up in place, or welded metal bars, or other systems that would make break-ins very difficult.
[3c] The home needs to be hidden with overgrown shrubbery and debris. Sure, eventually people will find you. But don’t make it easy. Be the junk yard next to the gold refinery. Be the boring electrical sub-station next to the grocery store. Be the abandoned building next to the hardware store.
[3d] You need a hidden room, or basement chamber. Any hidden room, or any size if far better than none at all. You need to be able to secure your valuables, both things and people.
[3e] You need guns and you need not to be afraid to use them. I would suggest that you forget about those cheap SKS banana-clip pseudo assault guns. Get yourself a couple of shotguns. And a few reliable 9mm handguns. Expect that when you shoot people, it will NOT be like television. They will not go down on the first shot. Chances are that you would have to empty the entire clip into their chest. Be ready to use them.
[3f] You need a garden and you need to keep it working year-around. Make sure that you always have potatoes, onions, and other related root crops planted. Most bandits couldn’t tell a potato plant from skunk weed. So while they might raid your tomato bushes, they would tend to leave your potatoes alone. Plant some apple trees, and other berry bushes. Let your property provide sustenance for you.
[3g] If you have room, consider a chicken coop. Learn how to raise chickens. These are a great thing to do to provide food on your table, and a great way to trade with your neighbors with.
[4] Supplies
From what I see, things are going to get really bad over the next three years. Finally around 2025, things are going to go to shit really fast. So you’ve got a precious few years to stock up, learn and prepare. I hope that things won’t go “tits up” in your area, but if they do, you’ll be ready for anything.
[4a] You need basic food supplies to last you for at least six months. This means canned goods, rice, wheat flour, nuts, and other things of importance. Like cooking oil, salt, pepper, baking soda, yeast, etc. Buy the cans by the case. Buy the staples by the sack. Buy the liquids by the gallon.
[4b] Additionally, you will need “kits”. These are things that will provide you will options if things go really bad. Like cages to raise pigeons in, fishing tackle, traps for rabbits and other small game, crossbow or other quiet way to hunt. And, with everything, you had best be well prepared in how to use them effectively and properly.
[4c] Prepare things for trade. You should plan on having things for trade. The most popular things are vices. So you can stock up with cheap alcohol in little bottles (bigger than those airline bottles), smaller than a regular bottle. This can be any alcohol. Same goes for tobacco, cigarettes, and other related items. Including disposable lighters. (You can buy a case of 100 really cheaply.)
[5] Mobility
You should have a bicycle or two. Both should be capable of off road use. Do not expect that vehicles will still be operable during the height of the crisis. In fact, you will probably want to keep off the roads. Anything that will enable you to travel quickly and silently through the forest would be an advantage.
[6] Electric system
You should have a system of recharging DC batteries. Whether this is by solar power or wind, and then have a set of walkee-talkee’s. You can also have a small battery powered, or hand crank powered radio and lights. Plan now. Do not wait until the last moment.
Here at MM I can supply shipping containers of this stuff. (nothing smaller than a pallet load). If you are interested contact me privately on laobangbh@163.com .
[7] Deceptions
If things get to the point where the government has broken down…
Police are unavailable. Military are deployed in certain areas. News is periodic or confused, then you know that SHTF is getting worse. You will need to create deceptions to make your property unattractive.
Some ideas.
[7a] (Fake) Downed high power lines with signs that warn of “High Voltage”. And (if possible) some low voltage DC shock wires to dissuade any adventuresome individual.
[7b] A few dead people in the yard that looks like they got trapped when they messed up with the wrong people.
[7c] Bad odors, flies, maggots, and refuse.
[7d] Rattling cans, and other things that make a real racket is anyone moves in a certain area on your property. Most people want stealth and quiet. Even after all the turmoil dies down, people will still travel in small groups and move about silently. By rigging up noise makers, you will discourage these people from coming near your property.
[7e] Traps. With spikes, barbed wire, and other mechanisms that can be lethal if triggered. Think Vietnam booby-traps.
The idea here is that you do not want anyone to come near your space and your property. You will make it as unappealing as possible, and life threatening tends to work the best.
With or without war, American society will be transformed into something different.
The emergent society may be something better, a nation that sustains its Framers’ visions with a robust new pride.
Or it may be something unspeakably worse.
The Fourth Turning will be a time of glory or ruin.
It will be a turning point. It will be a point of inversion, a point of change. A point where things go one way or the other, and everyone in the middle is killed.
Glory or Ruin.
It will be the us vs them. The patriots vs the Red Coats. The grey vs the blue. The yanks against the Nazi’s.
Conclusion
Aside from the move to a safe spot, every item on this list can be purchased in total under a few thousand dollars.
If nothing happens, then consider yourself fortunate. You will have squandered your money on a insurance policy. But you and I both know that things are building up. The Antifa and BLM are on the march and are openly telling everyone what they plan to do. Theya re being funded by rich oligarchs, and are receiving large sums of money and weapons…
If something does happen, while you might not be the best prepared prepper in the nation, you will be able to survive. And that is what all this is about. Survival.
I wish that you all could have done what I did, and took a “life boat” off to a far away land. But most of you did not. Instead, figuring that you would know when you would need to leave, and then leave then.
Well… that time came and went. And you should have left the same time as when the oligarchy fled. The last week of March 2020.
You are now completely trapped with the rest of the population upon a ship that is slowly sinking into the deep dark cold waters.
It’s quiet now…
But the Captain is busy shouting orders to the staff, and people are a little restless in the lounges and staterooms. He’s slurring his voice, and making all kinds of strange proclamations and orders. Sometimes the stewards just stand there and look at him with a blank expression on their face. “Is he mad?” they ask themselves.
Do not think that it is just going to go away. Plan and take the necessary actions to secure you and your family’s safety.
Do you want more?
Do you want to see similar posts?
I hope that you found this post curious. Please take care. You can view other similar posts in my SHTF Index, here…
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you.
In this post we will address one of the most common misconceptions found in the world. We will address what freedom is and what it is not. And the reason why we are going to do so is simply because brutish rulers use the ignorance of their people to enslave them. And part of that enslavement is to convince them that they have this intangible “thing”; this “freedom”. And, if you are one of those people who think that you are “free”, and that you proudly wave your flag and shout how “free” you are, perhaps this post is written for you.
What it is not.
The first thing that we must make perfectly clear is define what freedom is not. Because many people confuse “freedom” with other things. Like [1] trains that run on time, [2] having ATM machines, [3] having fast food restaurants, [4] being able to vote, or [5] having a “democratic system of governance”. Ah. None of those things have anything to do with freedom. Not one thing. None of them.
In fact, when the United States was initially founded, the people who founded it wrote an entire book on why they founded the nation, and how it was designed to work. This book was called “The Federalist Papers” and you can see it online (for free in full free text), if you don’t believe anything that I have written herein. And one of the most important principles within that book was a warning that democracies take away freedom. And, that the (then newly formed Republic) should be guarded from ever the encroachment of democracy.
So, keep in mind that if you reside within a “democracy” the chances of you having any kind of freedom is practically zero.
That’s not me talking. That’s Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and the rest of the crew that first established the United States back in 1776.
Well, if a democracy is not freedom, then what is?
What freedom is…
It’s actually very simple. It’s the ability for YOU to live life on YOUR terms without any kind of interference.
If you want to go walk down the street, the freedom to get up and walk down it should be cherished. This includes the freedom if you want to eat a hotdog, or listen to a song on a radio, or being able to swim in a pond. The ability to do any of these things are freedoms.
Even the strange and the odd, maybe even especially those things.
Having the freedom to live your life on your terms is what freedom is all about. And if you cannot, then you do not have freedom.
Freedom is the ability to live life on your terms no matter what other people think. Here’s a picture of a man holding his cock out for the entire world to see.
But that is not realistic…
Now, that is where things start to get tricky. You see, there are all sorts of people, “busybodies” as I like to call them, who have a vision of a “better world”. And more often than not, their vision requires you to act in some way that they feel is proper. So they make rules, laws, add fees, and taxes, and prohibitions and bans to stop you from exercising your freedoms.
Any action that you do that has any of the following attached to it is NOT a freedom;
A regulation.
A rule.
A tax.
A fee.
A membership.
A prohibition.
A ban from use.
Forced used.
Forced sharing.
Permit.
So, if you like to eat a triple greasy hamburger with a sunny-side-up egg on top, with a beer, and your dog beside you inside a restaurant in New Jersey, but…
There is a ban on triple hamburgers.
There is a ban on sunny-side-up eggs.
You are prohibited from bringing your dog in a restaurant.
You must pay tax on your meal.
You must be carded to check your age for the beer.
You must finish before 2 am in the morning.
You are NOT free. You are enslaved.
Ah. But how do you measure it?
Well, surprisingly enough, freedom can be measured by the same set of criteria that was laid out in The Federalist Papers.
It’s the ability to have [1] life, [2] liberty, and [3] the pursuit of happiness. With part one [1] life being further divided into [1a] food, [1b] clothing, and [1c] shelter.
And, following the guidelines as listed above, any encroachment of any of those five items is a subtraction of freedom from your life.
Since most people are confused what freedom is, and how you can measure it, let’s go one by one through those five characteristics as listed…
[1a] Food
The ability to put anything you want in your body, at any time, and at any amount free of taxes, regulation, rules, bans or prohibitions of any type is a freedom. Failure to do so is tyranny. If you and your nation is somewhere in between it is “an encroachment of tyranny”.
One person’s freedom is another person’s horror. Here, many Hindu’s from India would be horrified by this meal, and would ban this meal and probably lynch you for eating it.
It does not matter if it is a tuna fish sandwich or a tab of LSD. The freedom to ingest, inject, or partake in anything into your own body free of outside influence, regulation, fees or taxes, let alone bans or prohibitions is a freedom.
[1b] Clothing
The ability to wear what you want, when you want and how you want is a freedom. If you are forced to wear a hat, a scarf, or a head-covering, you are not free. The same is true if you must wear a uniform. Whether it is a type of dress style for your corporate office, or a uniform as part of a para-military unit. True freedom involves personal dress selection.
This also includes hair styles, and makeup and other adornments.
One person’s freedom is another person’s horror. In America many companies would forbid you to wear these outfits as part of the “dress code”.
[1c] Shelter
The ability to own things is the bedrock of freedom.
Throughout history, up until the last century, people would build houses and would put their belongings within those houses. All of which they would totally and completely own.
Now, however, things are quite different.
You rent out your house to the bank on a thirty year mortgage. Your home is subject to real estate taxes, and school taxes, and you must obey the regulations set by your neighborhood from everything that you do to change the house. In fact, often you must get permission to cut down the trees on your property, or suffer with fines and fees for the failure to maintain your property up to community standards.
Because certain areas are too restrictive in the United States, people move out of the heavily taxed and restrictive areas (such as California) and more to less restrictive areas, such as Alabama.
If anyone can place rules, regulations, prohibitions, taxes, fees, or anything else on your home, you do not own it. Failure to own things is (historically) a trait of the slave and sub-servant classes.
[2] Liberty
According to the dictionary, “liberty” is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one’s way of life, behavior, or political views.
In other words, while the first three characteristics involved property (1a,1b, and 1c) this involves thought, belief and political views.
If you are unable to express them, or are constrained in writing about them, reading about them, or discussing them with others, you do not have liberty. It has been taken from you.
Some regions restrict how you think about things and what you actually think. To these other people, your thoughts and the resulting lifestyle that you embrace is a threat to their well-ordered life and society. Thus they do everything that they can to ban your behaviors and actions.
[3] Pursuit of Happiness
Finally, whether you have freedom or not, the ability to forge towards getting freedom is important. And this act, trying to have freedom is known as the “Pursuit of Happiness”.
However, if someone places laws, regulations or obstacles in front of you that prohibits or prevents you from obtaining your freedoms, they are interfering with your pursuit of happiness.
The Ideal vs. the Actual
Now the astute reader will note that the ideal cannot be found anywhere on the planet. There simply isn’t anywhere where people can have all five elements of freedom unencumbered. That is fine. Not perfect, but fine.
It leaves plenty of room for the pursuit of happiness, don’t you know.
Instead, we can measure things comparatively.
United States and China
Of course, the United States says that it has “freedom and democracy”. But does it really? According to the criteria above, the answer is a big flat no. On every level, the amount of freedom that a person has in the United States is actually quite scant.
What about China?
Well, according to the American media, China is a horrible, terrible and repressive place. It is a place full of sad impoverished people and a terribly corrupt nation. Well, that is what the powerful American press says.
Well, those expats who has visited it can confirm that it doesn’t look anything like what the American media narrative says it is. And, I can say and confirm that while there are many things that aren’t free (like not being allowed to take recreational drugs, for instance), on the whole, most Chinese people experience a far greater, wider and more diverse set of freedoms than Americans do. And if you don’t believe me, hop on a plane an see it for yourself.
Conclusion
It is easy to repeat the mindless mantras as spewed forth by the mainstream and the alt-press media. It’s far harder to engage in rational thought with those that do. This post is my “baseline”.
It’s simple.
You are either free or you are not.
If you move from a place that doesn’t have certain freedoms to a place that does, you are enjoying the “pursuit of happiness”.
And that’s exactly what I have done.
I went from a place where every single purchase of alcohol required me to show some picture identification, to where I just raise my hand and it is brought over wordlessly.
I went from leaving my dog in the truck to taking him inside of restaurants with me.
I went from taking a few drags of an expensive cigarette in the rain in the company parking lot, to smoking cigars in my large spacious office.
I went from paying yearly taxes, and reporting it to the federal government, on my house every year, to owning homes with zero taxes, zero reporting, and zero regulations.
Freedom.
You either have it or you do not.
One person’s idea of freedom is another person’s horror. Here, many Muslims would outright ban eating bacon, and maybe even decapitate you for even considering such a sandwich.
Do you want more?
Do you want to see similar posts?
I hope that you found this post curious. Please take care. You can view other similar posts in my SHTF Index, here…
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you.
Have you ever wondered why some people become filthy rich while others remain poor for their entire lives? Ah, well if you haven’t you should of. It pretty much explains the nature of the universe, don’t you know.
Here we are going to look at a a “successful” loser.
We are going to tear his life apart, dissect it and study it. For we want to know how a person who was such a terrible General, so much that everyone realized it, that he still continued and was able to maintain his position without troubles of demotion. Why do some absolutely awful people get into such powerful positions?
…
No. This isn’t a rehash of the “Peter Principle”.
In the 1969 book, "The Peter Principle," authors Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull wrote that workers in a hierarchical structure get promoted to the level at which they are incompetent and stay at that level for the rest of their careers.
Well, I don’t have the answer to that question. It’s a complex one and involved many factors, but we can look at certain people. We can study them. And they we can see what we would do different if we were in their shoes. We must realize that we are not perfect, and that we have faults.
And the true man (or woman) in control of their life is one that knows their faults and compensates for them.
Introduction
Why did the South lose the Civil War? That question has produced many books, lectures, and heated discussions from both historians and Civil War buffs. Now, it is my personal belief that all it takes is one bad leader to totally destroy a nation and lose a war. Indeed, the tales of all those cities that misjudged Genghis Khan can so very clearly illustrate this. Now, as far as the American Civil War goes, one of the many answers that could be given can be summarized in two words: Braxton Bragg.
Bragg achieved the rank of full general in the American Civil War.
With a military background, he quickly rose through the ranks after his adopted state of Louisiana seceded. (He was originally from North Carolina.) Early on, he led a group of volunteers in capturing a federal arsenal in Baton Rouge. During the first year of the war, he proved to be an apt troop trainer. He later became a corps commander under General Albert Sidney Johnston at the Battle of Shiloh. After Johnston was killed at Shiloh, he was succeeded by P. G. T. Beauregard. When Beauregard left his command for health reasons, Bragg inherited the leadership of the Army of Tennessee, which would be the primary Confederate military force in the western theater of the war.
Most people will not turn down a promotion, especially if it comes with greater pay and prestige—even if they know they are unqualified for the position.
Skilled in training troops and having earned praise for his leadership in early battles, Bragg seemed worthy of his rise in the ranks.
A terrible General
Yet, despite the early signs of success, General Bragg became a strong contender for the title of “worst high-ranking Confederate general.”
There is certainly no shortage of grist for the mill when making the case against Bragg. Quite a few of his fellow commanders, most of whom served under him, were contemptuous of his leadership.
Artillery officer E.P. Alexander said that Bragg was “simply muddle headed.”
On several occasions generals in his army sent letters to President Jefferson Davis asking that Bragg be sacked.
General Frank Cheatham, after the Battle of Stones River, vowed never to serve under Bragg again.
After that same battle, General John C. Breckinridge, seething over a failed charge Bragg had forced him to make, challenged Bragg to a duel.
Even General Forrest was infurated
Nathan Bedford Forrest was never known as a commander easy to work alongside, but his greatest outburst against a commander came after the Battle of Chickamauga. Having won a great battle, arguably in spite of his own actions, Bragg refused to follow up his victory with further pursuit of the Union Army. This was too much for Forrest. After nearly begging Bragg for the chance to put his cavalry on the heels of the Union troops, Forrest turned from supplicant to accuser. Forrest said, “You have played the part of a damned scoundrel, and are a coward, and if you were any part of a man I would slap your jaws and force you to resent it.” He then told Bragg that he would never obey any orders from him.
Historians hated him…
Historians have not been gentle with Bragg either.
David Donald said Bragg was “tense, punctilious, arrogant, a martinet, and a dawdler.”
T. Harry Williams said Bragg “lacked the determination to carry through his purpose.”
Douglas Southall Freeman, after comparing Bragg with Robert E. Lee, pondered, “How different might have been the fate of Bragg and perhaps the Confederacy if that officer had learned . . . from Lee.”
James McPherson said that it was “bumblers like Bragg” who lost the war in the west.
Bruce Catton, with a little more balance in his observation, said, “Braxton Bragg was as baffling a mixture of ability and sheer incompetence as the Confederacy could produce.”
Biography
Even Bragg’s biographers were critical. Grady McWhiney said Bragg had “failed as a field commander,” that he had “no real taste for combat,” that he had no ability to inspire confidence in other commanders, that he was “notoriously inept at getting along with people he disliked,” and that he had failed to learn from his mistakes. To make matters worse, McWhiney noted that Bragg was “not lucky.”
The first volume of McWhiney’s biography, Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat, was published in 1969.
It was 1991 before the second volume appeared, and it was authored by one of McWhiney’s graduate students, Judith Lee Hallock.
This prompted another historian to speculate that McWhiney had found his subject “so nauseous that he abandoned the project.” Hallock disagreed, but she had her own criticisms of Bragg. She thinks his worst problem was his inability to establish and maintain group solidarity within his army. After noting other such problems as Bragg’s not being able to distinguish friends from enemies, not recognizing the abilities of his subordinates, and being a poor judge of character, she summed up his faults with this: “He could manage everything but people.”
Private Sam Watkins, in his outstanding memoir of Confederate service titled Company Aytch, expressed continual grumbling from himself and others about his service under Bragg. He said…
“None of Bragg’s soldiers ever loved him. They had no faith in his ability as a general. He was looked upon as a merciless tyrant.”
What was Bragg’s problem?
The answers and speculations are many. His health didn’t help his leadership duties. Migraine headaches, boils, and dyspepsia plagued him, especially in times of overwork and stress. He also suffered from rheumatism and nervousness.
Besides the responsibilities of leadership, Bragg was personally prone to drive himself relentlessly in his work. One general said he was “the most laborious of commanders, devoting every moment to the discharge of his duties.”
Bragg likely had psychosomatic problems as well. McWhiney said that at times Bragg “lost touch with reality.”
Compounding all this was his use of calomel, a mercury-based purgative, which had severe side effects. It is also possible that his physicians prescribed opium to Bragg for his ailments. That might explain some of his tendencies to lose track of what he was doing in the midst of a battle.
Halleck said it might also explain his paranoia toward fellow officers.
Grady McWhiney also attributes Bragg’s failures to his penchant for frontal attacks.
This was a topic that McWhiney developed more fully in his book Attack and Die and then repeated in his biography. Southern commanders were obsessed with frontal attacks, which were based on military tactics from previous wars.
Civil War weaponry had made such attacks extremely costly in terms of casualty counts. But if this line of argument is taken, it begs the question of why Bragg was unsuccessful when the same tactics were used by almost every other general in both Northern and Southern armies.
The Theater of War
Since Bragg’s command was in the western theater of the war, most of his battles were in Tennessee. In contrast with Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia which spent much of the war in a confined region of Virginia, the Army of Tennessee, Bragg’s command, covered a wider area and suffered from greater hardships in terms of supply and support from the Confederate government. Bragg was given a near impossible task in defending Tennessee and the western Confederacy.
Consider also the size of the armies of the Civil War.
George Washington led about 15,000 men at the most during his years in the American War for Independence. Andrew Jackson won the Battle of New Orleans with less than 6000 men. Bragg and other full generals were commanding armies four times the size of Washington’s army and ten times the size of Jackson’s.
Bragg is usually given high marks by the historians for his ability to organize and supply his troops. His West Point education and experience in the Mexican-American War had equipped him for leadership. But the logistics and demands of leading an army of such size was beyond even most trained military officers.
Primarily, it was battlefield actions that unhinged Bragg.
Bragg tended to lose his grip on the reality of what was happening in the proverbial “fog of battle.” He judged victories as defeats and defeats as victories. He was indecisive when decisiveness was needed and was decisive when discretion was needed. He exasperated his commanders, lashed out at them at the wrong times, closed his ears to their counsel, and generally destroyed any chances of coherent, unified leadership.
Wins and Losses…
Bragg failed in the western campaign.
He lost Stones River and Perryville and abandoned Chattanooga.
He failed to follow the unexpected and decisive victory at Chickamauga and was not able to hold the seemingly unconquerable defensive position on Lookout Mountain. But then what commander in the west did succeed?
Albert Sidney Johnston lost his life and the Battle of Shiloh.
John Pemberton lost Vicksburg.
John B. Hood abandoned Atlanta and went on to destroy the Army of Tennessee in his epic failures at Franklin and Nashville.
Joseph E. Johnston was perhaps the best commander in the west, but his record was one of strong defenses followed by skilled retreats.
Was Bragg a total failure?
That question calls for a lot of reflection that goes beyond the complaints of his subordinates.
History has not been kind to him.
It is hard to imagine fans of the Confederacy decorating their walls with pictures of Bragg or naming their sons “Braxton” in his honor. To a large degree, McWhiney was on target when he said that Bragg was simply just not lucky.
Conclusion
It’s easy for us, sitting in our comfortable chairs, to judge a man for his deeds or misdeeds over a hundred years ago. But that is not what we are doing here. We are trying to learn from his mistakes, and in so doing, imagine what we would have done differently were we to be in his place.
Here is a man that was very good in military logistics, and was promoted over and over again for various reasons. Eventually reaching the rank of General.
And in that role, he was a failure.
This could happen to anyone, and everyone. Just because you can fix a race car engine, does not mean that you have the ability to be a race car driver. Or if you are a wonderful cook, that you can create and expand a large chain of fast food restaurants. Or, more contemporaneously, if you are quite adept at building casinos and golf courses, you might not be qualified to lead a nation as big as the United States.
Which is a law, I believe that is missing in Robert Greene’s “48 Laws of Power”, which should be “know your limits, and know your strengths”.
To be successful you need to build up, or compile a small group of people that have strengths to complement your weaknesses. If you are strong in organization, but weak in finance, you need to find a strong finance person to work with. And if you are and the finance person are weak in Sales, perhaps you should consider adding a strong and experienced salesman to your group.
This is what Ronald Regan did when he was President of the United States, he staffed competent people, and then managed them. This is what Xi Peng is doing today.
Do not believe that you know everything and that your decisions are always ideal. That is a fantasy.
The idea that one lone person can do it all, and be the ultimate best is a uniquely American fantasy. It is false. Don’t ever believe that you are in your role or position because you are somehow “special” or that “God granted you that position”. Instead look at what you need to make your situation a success, and realize too that your weakness can absolutely kill any prior “good” work that you have accomplished.
Do not fall into the narcissistic trap of self-superiority. Do not believe that you, and only you, knows how to do things. That is an illusion.
Work as part of a team toward well-defined and common goals. You will succeed.
Do you want more?
I have more posts along these lines in my SHTF Index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.
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Yes. It’s almost like the CIA no longer exists. For after a few decades of non-stop headlines about all the abuses of the CIA, it all went dark. It all went silent. It all went away. Why?
I’ll tell you why.
The CIA outsourced it’s nefarious activities.
They outsourced them to “non-governmental” agencies and NGO’s. And it has been these other organizations that have been doing all the “dirty work” of the CIA.
These NGO’s are the “cat’s paw” of the CIA.
cat's-paw
A person who is used by another to achieve some end, especially in a duplicitous or cynical manner. Taken from a fable about a monkey who uses a cat's paw to retrieve chestnuts from a fire.
I thought that Jake really loved me, but in the end, I was just a cat's-paw so he could stir up jealousy in his ex-boyfriend.
-Cat's paw - Idioms by The Free Dictionary
There are numerous such NGO agencies. But I will focus on the one that has been in the news lately. This NGO is the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) which has been busy stirring up strife and conflict in Hong Kong under the guise of “pro-democracy”.
Trojan Horse: The National Endowment for Democracy
How many Americans could identify the National Endowment for Democracy? An organization which often does exactly the opposite of what its name implies.
The NED was set up in the early 1980s under President Reagan in the wake of all the negative revelations about the CIA in the second half of the 1970s. The latter was a remarkable period. Spurred by Watergate – the Church committee of the Senate, the Pike committee of the House, and the Rockefeller Commission, created by the president, were all busy investigating the CIA.
Seemingly every other day there was a new headline about the discovery of some awful thing, even criminal conduct, the CIA had been mixed up in for years. The Agency was getting an exceedingly bad name, and it was causing the powers-that-be much embarrassment.
Something had to be done.
What was done was not to stop doing these awful things. Of course not. What was done was to shift many of these awful things to a new organization, with a nice sounding name – The National Endowment for Democracy. The idea was that the NED would do somewhat overtly what the CIA had been doing covertly for decades, and thus, hopefully, eliminate the stigma associated with CIA covert activities.
It was a masterpiece. Of politics, of public relations, and of cynicism.
Thus it was that in 1983, the National Endowment for Democracy was set up to “support democratic institutions throughout the world through private, nongovernmental efforts”. Notice the “nongovernmental” – part of the image, part of the myth.
In actuality, virtually every penny of its funding comes from the federal government, as is clearly indicated in the financial statement in each issue of its annual report. NED likes to refer to itself as an NGO (Non-governmental organization) because this helps to maintain a certain credibility abroad that an official US government agency might not have. But NGO is the wrong category. NED is a GO.
GO - Government Organization
“We should not have to do this kind of work covertly,” said Carl Gershman in 1986, while he was president of the Endowment. “It would be terrible for democratic groups around the world to be seen as subsidized by the C.I.A. We saw that in the 60’s, and that’s why it has been discontinued. We have not had the capability of doing this, and that’s why the endowment was created.” 1
And Allen Weinstein, who helped draft the legislation establishing NED, declared in 1991: “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” 2
In effect, the CIA has been laundering money through NED.
The Endowment has four principal initial recipients of funds: the International Republican Institute; the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs; an affiliate of the AFL-CIO (such as the American Center for International Labor Solidarity); and an affiliate of the Chamber of Commerce (such as the Center for International Private Enterprise). These institutions then disburse funds to other institutions in the US and all over the world, which then often disburse funds to yet other organizations.
In a multitude of ways, NED meddles in the internal affairs of numerous foreign countries by supplying funds, technical know-how, training, educational materials, computers, faxes, copiers, automobiles, and so on, to selected political groups, civic organizations, labor unions, dissident movements, student groups, book publishers, newspapers, other media, etc. NED typically refers to the media it supports as “independent” despite the fact that these media are on the US payroll.
NED programs generally impart the basic philosophy that working people and other citizens are best served under a system of free enterprise, class cooperation, collective bargaining, minimal government intervention in the economy, and opposition to socialism in any shape or form. A free-market economy is equated with democracy, reform, and growth; and the merits of foreign investment in their economy are emphasized.
From 1994 to 1996, NED awarded 15 grants, totaling more than $2,500,000, to the American Institute for Free Labor Development, an organization used by the CIA for decades to subvert progressive labor unions. 3 AIFLD’s work within Third World unions typically involved a considerable educational effort very similar to the basic NED philosophy described above. The description of one of the 1996 NED grants to AIFLD includes as one its objectives: “build union-management cooperation”. 4 Like many things that NED says, this sounds innocuous, if not positive, but these in fact are ideological code words meaning “keep the labor agitation down … don’t rock the status-quo boat”. The relationship between NED and AIFLD very well captures the CIA origins of the Endowment. 5
NED has funded centrist and rightist labor organizations to help them oppose those unions which were too militantly pro-worker. This has taken place in France, Portugal and Spain amongst many other places. In France, during the 1983-4 period, NED supported a “trade union-like organization for professors and students” to counter “left-wing organizations of professors”. To this end it funded a series of seminars and the publication of posters, books and pamphlets such as “Subversion and the Theology of Revolution” and “Neutralism or Liberty”. 6 (“Neutralism” here refers to being unaligned in the cold war.)
NED describes one of its 1997-98 programs thusly: “To identify barriers to private sector development at the local and federal levels in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and to push for legislative change … [and] to develop strategies for private sector growth.” 7 Critics of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, a socialist, were supported by NED grants for years. 8
In short, NED’s programs are in sync with the basic needs and objectives of the New World Order’s economic globalization, just as the programs have for years been on the same wavelength as US foreign policy.
Interference in elections
NED’s Statement of Principles and Objectives, adopted in 1984, asserts that “No Endowment funds may be used to finance the campaigns of candidates for public office.” But the ways to circumvent the spirit of such a prohibition are not difficult to come up with; as with American elections, there’s “hard money” and there’s “soft money”.
As described in the “Elections” and “Interventions” chapters, NED successfully manipulated elections in Nicaragua in 1990 and Mongolia in 1996; helped to overthrow democratically elected governments in Bulgaria in 1990 and Albania in 1991 and 1992; and worked to defeat the candidate for prime minister of Slovakia in 2002 who was out of favor in Washington. And from 1999 to 2004, NED heavily funded members of the opposition to President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela to subvert his rule and to support a referendum to unseat him.
Additionally, in the 1990s and afterward, NED supported a coalition of groups in Haiti known as the Democratic Convergence, who were united in their opposition to Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his progressive ideology, while he was in and out of the office of the president. 9
The Endowment has made its weight felt in the electoral-political process in numerous other countries.
NED would have the world believe that it’s only teaching the ABCs of democracy and elections to people who don’t know them, but in virtually all the countries named above, in whose electoral process NED intervened, there had already been free and fair elections held. The problem, from NED’s point of view, is that the elections had been won by political parties not on NED’s favorites list.
The Endowment maintains that it’s engaged in “opposition building” and “encouraging pluralism”. “We support people who otherwise do not have a voice in their political system,” said Louisa Coan, a NED program officer. 10 But NED hasn’t provided aid to foster progressive or leftist opposition in Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, or Eastern Europe – or, for that matter, in the United States – even though these groups are hard pressed for funds and to make themselves heard. Cuban dissident groups and media are heavily supported however.
NED’s reports carry on endlessly about “democracy”, but at best it’s a modest measure of mechanical political democracy they have in mind, not economic democracy; nothing that aims to threaten the powers-that-be or the way-things-are, unless of course it’s in a place like Cuba.
The Endowment played an important role in the Iran-Contra affair of the 1980s, funding key components of Oliver North’s shadowy “Project Democracy” network, which privatized US foreign policy, waged war, ran arms and drugs, and engaged in other equally charming activities. At one point in 1987, a White House spokesman stated that those at NED “run Project Democracy”. 11 This was an exaggeration; it would have been more correct to say that NED was the public arm of Project Democracy, while North ran the covert end of things. In any event, the statement caused much less of a stir than if – as in an earlier period – it had been revealed that it was the CIA which was behind such an unscrupulous operation.
NED also mounted a multi-level campaign to fight the leftist insurgency in the Philippines in the mid-1980s, funding a host of private organizations, including unions and the media. 12 This was a replica of a typical CIA operation of pre-NED days.
And between 1990 and 1992, the Endowment donated a quarter-million dollars of taxpayers’ money to the Cuban-American National Foundation, the ultra-fanatic anti-Castro Miami group. The CANF, in turn, financed Luis Posada Carriles, one of the most prolific and pitiless terrorists of modern times, who had been involved in the blowing up of a Cuban airplane in 1976, which killed 73 people. In 1997, he was involved in a series of bomb explosions in Havana hotels, 13 and in 2000 imprisoned in Panama when he was part of a group planning to assassinate Fidel Castro with explosives while the Cuban leader was speaking before a large crowd, although eventually, the group was tried on lesser charges.
The NED, like the CIA before it, calls what it does “supporting democracy.”
The governments and movements whom the NED targets call it “destabilization.” 14
Here is an example of one of their agents;
Here’s one of the leaders of the Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong. He wrote the guidebook for the Hong Kong revolution. Oh, wait. He isn’t even Chinese. He’s an American in “yellow face” posing as a Chinese. He was an American teaching in Hong Kong and was also working for Amnesty International. That used to be a good organization and then like so many it took Soros money and got poisoned. Now is it just like Human Rights Watch, another Soros fake organization.
Here is from Max’s story,
“An American man with ties to Amnesty International and key Hong Kong separatist figures has been posing online as a Hong Kong native named Kong Tsung-gan. Routinely cited as a grassroots activist and writer by major media organizations and published in English-language media, the fictitious character Kong appears to have been concocted to disseminate anti-China propaganda behind the cover of yellowface.
Through Kong Tsung-gan’s prolific digital presence and uninterrogated reputation in mainstream Western media, he disseminates a constant stream of content hyping up the Hong Kong “freedom struggle” while clamoring for the US to turn up the heat on China.
https://thegrayzone.com/2020/08/08/hong-kong-western-media-yellowfacing-amnesty/#more-37402
The CIA and its many front organizations have thousands of these people. The news media never figures it out.
An American man with ties to Amnesty International and key Hong Kong separatist figures has been posing online as a Hong Kong native named Kong Tsung-gan. Routinely cited as a grassroots activist and writer by major media organizations and published in English-language media.
Conclusion
The NED is the CIA. It uses the same funding mechanism, the same people, the same policies, and the same techniques. It just uses a different name to confuse people, and distract attention away from what is really going on.
And what it actually is...
Is covert military activity used to topple another nation through destruction of it's governmental institutions. It is a technique of fighting war.
Thus the United States, via the NED, fight wars against other nations. They desire to topple the governments of those other nations as they believe that co-existence with the other nation is not int he best interests of America.
It is used to attack other nations, because use of the American military to engage in wars requires Congressional approval.
"The old paradigm of blind engagement with China has failed. We must not continue it. We must not return to it."
-Mike Pompeo
Notes
The New York Times, June 1, 1986
Washington Post, September 22, 1991
NED Annual Reports, 1994-96
NED Annual Report, 1996, p.39
For further information on AIFLD, see: Tom Barry, et al., The Other Side of Paradise: Foreign Control in the Caribbean (Grove Press, NY, 1984), see AIFLD in index; Jan Knippers Black, United States Penetration of Brazil (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1977), chapter 6; Fred Hirsch, An Analysis of Our AFL-CIO Role in Latin America (monograph, San Jose, California, 1974) passim; The Sunday Times (London), October 27, 1974, p.15-16
NED Annual Report, November 18, 1983 to September 30, 1984, p.21
NED Annual Report, 1998, p.35
See NED annual reports of the 1990s.
Council on Hemispheric Affairs (Washington, DC), press release, June 13, 2002; Washington Post, November 18, 2003; NED Annual Report, 1998, p.53; Haiti Progres (Port-au-Prince, Haiti), May 13-19, 1998
New York Times, March 31, 1997, p.11
Washington Post, February 16, 1987; also see New York Times, February 15, 1987, p.1
San Francisco Examiner, July 21, 1985, p.1
New York Times, July 13, 1998
For a detailed discussion of NED, in addition to the sources named above, see: William I. Robinson, A Faustian Bargain: U.S. Intervention in the Nicaraguan Elections and American Foreign Policy in the Post-Cold War Era (Westview Press, Colorado, 1992), passim
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.
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As I watch from afar, I see numerous “interests” cheering for radical change inside the USA. I can see their sentiment, and for certain there are agitators and people promoting this level of extreme change. But people(!), history tells us that there is unpleasant change, and then there is REALLY UNPLEASANT CHANGE. Please be careful what you are wishing for.
Let’s look at the French Revolution. For in many ways it mirrors what the USA is going through right now…
…in many ways.
The French Revolution changed everything. France’s kings were replaced almost overnight by the most radical government the world had ever seen. France was suddenly a beacon of freedom: “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite” was the motto of the revolution.
Gosh. Really, it is still used to defend liberalism today.
But the revolution wasn’t all positive.
Thousands of innocent people lost their lives and the country was torn between different groups who used force to crush rebellion. It led France into dictatorship and, eventually, back to the days of kings and serfs…
Just like what might happen to modern contemporaneous America today.
The French Revolution (The Reign of Terror) 1789-1799
The story of the French Revolution is the story of a country collapsing in on itself.
It’s unfair to compare these events to the colonial uprising of the American Revolution. That is because that conflict did not take place at the center of power, and King George wasn’t exactly removed from the throne and decapitated.
… which is kinda how things went down in France in the 1790’s.
It was a time when the hostilities between the royalty and the common folk took on a real nasty tone.
Spoiler alert: things got ugly real fast.
Towards the end of the Eighteenth Century, France was dissected into three distinct classes / estates: the Nobility, the Clergy, and the smelly broke peasants who really didn’t count (aka everyone else).
At this time in France, people of the poorer classes were members of what was called the “Third Estate” in French legislature.
This is how things had been for longer than anyone could remember, and no one really second guessed it…
At least until a dangerous new idea came along…
The Third Estate: Other
The Enlightenment was a grass-roots movement that caused the underrepresented 99% to question EVERYTHING.
It was kinda like if Morpheus was going door to door with red pills and pamphlets about how the machines are harvesting our bodies as living batteries while we’re living our lives in virtual reality.
“No one can be told what <The Enlightenment> is, you have to see it for yourself.”
The Enlightenment, or Age of Reason, was an extension of the Italian Renaissance (meaning ‘Rebirth’), which brought new emphasis on discovery, and a search for truth and meaning through critical thinking, rather than just listening to what ‘they’ wanted you to think. This began an unprecedented drive for equality and individual rights which would ultimately challenge the hierarchy of the monarchy based government system.
The Catalysts of Change Chaos
Enter: the Bourbon King, Louis XVI (yes, that’s Louis the SIXTEENTH). Prince Louis (the 16th) was a reluctant ruler, with little to no interest in politics…
…then, suddenly he became the default king of France during the worst crisis of his country’s history in 1765.
The Bourbon monarchy reigned from the palace of Versailles.
This was Louis the 14th’s palatial estate. It was built 20 miles outside the districts of Paris, the nation’s capitol. Which was pretty handy. It was close enough for royal Kingly duties, yet far enough away from the stench of its open sewer system, and the complaints of the commoners.
This truly monstrous mansion would put every single house on MTV’s Cribs to shame.
Versailles: a 2,300 room, gold-plated, Sixty-Seven-THOUSAND-Square-Meter estate of PURE unadulterated EXCESS.
Versailles: Extravagance personified.
Not only did Louis get to be King, and live in a gigantic theme park dedicated to him…
…but he also married the young and beautiful, (albeit a little ditzy), Marie Antoinette, the Archduchess of Austria, in 1770. Louis XVI had won the lottery of arranged marriages and couldn’t really care either way.
Marie Antoinette: Madame Deficit
Meanwhile, back in the real world: France was simmering in a toxic mixture of hunger, and anger.
Enormous fiscal mismanagement
On July 11, 1789, finance minister Jacques Necker, who was already not in good standing with the King, was fired for suggesting that the royal family go on a budget to help conserve funds.
To make matters exponentially worse, the French lost against Great Britain during the Seven Years War in North America, effectively draining the bank as it were.
They took all the money in the Treasury and used it on wars, and the salaries of the military forces.
Much like how the United States has been draining the Treasury on an endless expanse of wars and military policing activities.
The French people were the ones who ultimately paid the price, starving in the streets while their privileged leaders partied around the clock like it was already 1999.
Then, when America rose up against France’s long term nemesis (they were still bitter about that whole Hundred Years War affair), Louis further bankrupted the country to send money and troops to help out the revolutionary colonists, an oversight that worked out rather well in America’s interest, but not so much for the French people.
All the while, Louis’s Queen (Marie Antoinette), ran up the credit card bills with her increasingly extravagant purchases to the point where she earned the title: Madame Deficit.
France had grown significantly in a short period of time, putting increased pressure on the government. Bakery raids, and riots swept the country. So between the food shortage, increased taxes, economic crisis, and political discourse, France was one gamma-inducing-accident away from Hulking out.
Maximilian Robespierre
That’s when a man named Maximilian Robespierre, leader of the Third Estate, came forth as the voice of the poor and disenfranchised.
You might want to consider the "Third Estate" to be the party of the "common man". It's closest equivalent would be the American Democrat Party.
Max reasonably demanded that the wealthy paid their fair share in taxes.
In his address, he blamed the royal court for their pile of problems, and essentially called Louis XVI a greedy jerk, which he definitely was.
Maximilian Robespierre
The Oligarchy refuses to listen
“A great revolution is never the fault of the people, but of the government.”
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1789: During an appeal to the courts, the nobility and clergy completely ignored their pleas.
Since legal channels didn’t work, they decided to take a different route.
The representatives of the Third Estate got up during the meeting, and simply walked out.
Well, that didn’t sit well.
After being locked out of a meeting, the members of the Third Estate regrouped outside the court house in a tennis court (randomly), and announced an Oath against the King’s authority and formed The National Assembly.
The aptly named Tennis Court Oath was basically like a French version of the Declaration of Independence.
Perhaps some compromises might help…
King Louis, unsure of how to proceed, attempted to make both sides happy, which he failed to do, on both ends.
Then as a last step, he called in troops from abroad to ‘keep the peace’. Within days 30,000 troops surrounded Paris.
Sort of like how President Trump had called up the DHS and Border Patrol troops to seize people off the streets in Portland, Oregon.
In response, The People formed a guard to fight the power!
Sheer revolt had taken hold at long last. Paris erupted into violence as the people of Paris demanded retribution. Revolution had come at last, and things were about to get fugly…
The only problem? The make-shift militia had plenty of muskets…
…but not much in the way of ammo…
The solution: Raid the Armory!!!
The French Revolt!
Spurred on by these factors, on the morning of July 14, 1789, members of the Third Estate stormed the Bastille, a political prison in Paris, in search of gunpowder.
The Bastille, though only housing seven prisoners, was a symbol of government tyranny at the time. The assault on the Bastille is now considered a flashpoint of the Revolution, and is still celebrated today in France.
“Storm the Bastille!” they cried (in French, presumably).
And so the 99% marched towards the Bastille, ready to dish out some old school justice on some fools.
The Bastille was a literal fortress. It was a tall dark fortress with an enormous dungeon that symbolized the monarchy’s absolute power, and the citizens of Paris were about to tear it apart, quite literally brick by brick!
Storm the Bastille!
“Enough is enough!” – a French Revolutionary
The soldiers stationed at the Bastille crapped their collective pants as the entire population of Paris came down on them shouting ‘Vive La France!’
Those that were too stupid to abandon their posts met a gruesome death at the hands, knives, and pitchforks of the angry mob that swarmed the castle like a colony of killer bees!
Afterwards the amount of blood splashed on the walls and pooling on the floor become a symbol for the “revolution!”.
The mob reaches the palace.
Meanwhile, ¡Vive la Revolución! had reached the gates of Versailles.
The angry mob of mothers and bakers tore into the palace, pillaging the flour storage… and royal blood!
Accounts of the time claim that more than one of the palace guards was literally ripped limb from limb.
According to an urban myth of the time, when Marie Antoinette was approached by her servants about the starving, angry, people rioting outside, the Queen dismissively pointed to the leftovers from the party, and told her advisors, “Let them eat cake.”
As funny as that is, she never actually said it.
In reality Marie was shocked.
She had no idea just how bad things had gotten, from her sheltered lifestyle in the palace.
Some claim that as she was running for her life, she may have said something in panic, along the lines of “If they’re hungry, can’t we give them some Brioche?” not fully grasping the severity of the situation.
Surrender!
King Louis XVI looked out the window, saw the torches and pitchforks, and immediately set about dipping his quill in ink to sign their Declaration of the Rights of Man, relinquishing his power.
The King and Queen attempted to sneak away, but were captured, and marched unceremoniously back to Paris in a parade of revolutionaries waving red, white, blue…
… oh and the severed heads of the royal guards on pikes.
The National Assembly took control of the system, aristocracy was thrown out for democracy (by extreme means) and a Constitutional Monarchy was established by the people of France.
Now…
Now…
If you think that’s the happy end of our triumphant story you’re dead wrong.
Now, we get to the entire point of this.
It is now 2020. America is in a state of upheaval, and the ruling Oligarchy are oblivious. The actions taken are "half-measures" and doomed to fail. Soon, one way or the other, a successful change will come about, and when it does, there will be a period of readjustment.
Consider the readjustment that occurred during the French Revolution...
The REIGN OF TERROR Begins…
The Reign of Terror.
In 1791, the King and Queen attempted an escape to Austria, disguised as servants. Unfortunately they kinda sucked at acting. They were found out, arrested, and dragged back to Paris to await trial.
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette kept their identities secret from the people of France, and only guests who stayed at Versailles really knew what they looked like. This came in handy during the Revolution as the pair tried to make their escape, but there was one flaw in the plan: the king’s face was stamped on all gold coinage. They made it as far as the border before being recognized.
All the while, Jon Paul Marat became the voice of the Revolution. As it turns out, Marat was a voice of insanity.
Jon Paul Marat
His solution to every problem was the rolling of heads.
In his newspaper (entitled, “The Friend of the People”), he claimed that betrayal was everywhere.
He was sort of the Alex Jones / Bill O Reilly of Eighteenth Century France.
Jon Paul Marat demanded the execution of hundreds, and when that wasn’t enough, he upped it to hundreds of thousands!!
As it turns out, people believed every angry word he put into his one-sided tabloid, and took up arms to carry out his will…
The September Massacre
1792: War breaks out between Prussia and Austria!
The Revolution back home in France takes a turn for the worse: The September Massacre – 1600 prisoners are slaughtered by crazed revolutionaries.
Many are given quick, biased show-trials before being hanged, or worse. Enemies of the revolution are made an example of. Criminals and aristocrats alike are killed without mercy.
A noble woman, Charlotte Corday, eventually got sick of all the death and destruction brought about by Jean-Paul Marat’s poisonous words.
So with a concealed knife she set about silencing him.
Charlotte shanked Marat (in the bathtub, mob-style) with hopes of bringing peace to her country.
Unfortunately, things didn’t work out that way…
… seeing as who he was, he suddenly become praised as a martyr…
…which only made things much, much worse.
Jon Paul Marat’s famous death.
Eat This: Guillotine Cuisine!
Speaking of bloodshed… There was A LOT of it going around, which was not only work, but (as you can imagine) created quite a mess.
The French janitors were tired of mopping up crimson streets.
Turns out, Dr. Joseph Ignace Guillotin had just the invention to streamline the whole mass execution process. His shiny new killing machine was christened, ‘The Guillotine’!
The Guillotine was created as a ‘humane’ form of decapitation. I can only imagine Doctor Guillotine giving a demonstration like a day time TV commercial, “It’s quick, efficient, (effortless), and ‘painless’!” CHOP! (Thud.)
The Guillotine was placed in the center of a town square in Paris, for all to see. This unsanitary death-dealing device soon became the bloody symbol of the French Revolution, with a name that evokes a cross between a pro-wrestler and a death-metal band: “The Nation’s Razor”!!
The Nations Razor.
Maximillian Robespierre, a former adversary of the death penalty, did a 360, flip flopping with the times, and became the Guillotine’s most outspoken supporter overnight.
Robespierre would help fulfill Marat’s blood lust as the people demanded it.
By the end of the century, 40,000 would lose their heads to the dreaded Guillotine!
Peasants looted and burned homes of tax collectors and landlords in what became known as “The Great Fear.” Many nobles fled France at this time, fearful of the rebellion. This inspired the end of feudalism, which was officially abolished on August 4, 1789.
Death of the King
1793: The King is tried as a traitor. He is declared guilty of treason.
The punishment: Death.
Both King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette were beheaded during the Revolution. The king was beheaded on January 12, 1793. Marie Antoinette followed her husband to “The National Razor” on October 16, 1793. Her last words were “I'm sorry”—not to the people, but to her executioner; she had accidentally stepped on his foot.
A few argued that the death of the former King would only excuse violence as a means to happiness. Those who spoke against it however were drowned out by the savage calls for his head.
King Louis, the 16th, was led to the maroon-stained scaffold.
He turned to his people in remorse and attempted to give a dignified final speech.
The crowd toned him out, booing and throwing rotten cabbage. They had come for blood (especially those in the splash zone).
Poor Marie Antoinette was also put on trial. When she was brought into the courtroom, she barely resembled her former self, as a list of made-up charges was rattled off. At 38 her hair had gone gray while awaiting her sentencing in a dungeon.
She too was led to the Guillotine.
“Whose next?”
It wasn’t all smooth sailing: the so-called “Reign of Terror” followed the initial revolutionary events, starting from around 1793 and ending with the fall of Robespierre in 1794. During the Reign of Terror, many political dissidents or perceived enemies of the Revolution were executed. Between June 1793 and July 1794, there were 16,594 official death sentences across France.
Britain takes advantage of the situation
Then, without warning, Britain began invading and panic filled the streets! (More so then before.)
An emergency government was put in place, the constitution suspended, and a police force of spies were institutionalized.
A revolutionary tribunal – a 12 men council – the ironically titled ‘the Committee of Public Safety’ was a collective dictatorship.
The government became extremely paranoid.
The Catholic Church was abolished, religious icons and statues were destroyed, thousands of priests drowned.
People were rounded up and sent to the guillotine on the most mundane of charges. Even a lack of enthusiasm could be seen as traitorous.
The Reign of Terror was in full swing.
France becomes a dictatorship
Maximillian Robespierre implemented dictatorial powers, declared himself the supreme ruler, and made lists upon lists of people to kill.
“Terror without Virtue is disastrous. But, Virtue without Terror is powerless!”
-Maximillian Robespierre spoke before his groupies.
In 1794, Robespierre helped sponsor a cult based on the Goddess of Reason in place of Christianity.
In his free time he established a new holiday: The Festival of the Supreme Being.
During the festivities, Maximillian Robespierre symbolically descended from atop a paper-machete mountain in the clouds, clad in robes.
This was seen as a thinly veiled attempt at making himself appear divine.
Though, in general, people were convinced that he’d lost his marbles, and began to get suspicious.
Robespierre chose this moment to deliver a speech of threats, with an all new list of enemies against the Republic.
The best way to tell what side a man was on was to check out his clothing. The French nobility wore knee-length silk breeches, whereas the lower class militiamen wore long trousers, short-skirted coats, clogs, and red caps that symbolized liberty.
This (of course) backfired in his face when the people flipped out and silenced him.
He was immediately arrested, and sentenced to death before he could finish reading off his latest hit list.
While in captivity, Robespierre attempted suicide. His advisors succeeded, but Max only managed to shoot off his jaw. The revolutionaries carted him off to the guillotine to finish the job for him.
As poetic justice would have it, Maximillian Robespierre was killed by his own revolution. FAIL
Maximillian Robespierre guillotined.
Enter… Napoleon
By 1804, a guy by the handle of Napoleon had risen through the ranks from General to Emperor.
On November 9, 1799 Bonaparte staged a coup d’état that abolished the Directory, the government in power at the time; he then pronounced himself as “first consul” of France. This event ended the French Revolution proper and began the Napoleonic era in France.
France had gone full circle, trading one monarchy for another.
After the rise and fall of Napoleon, the other European powers reestablished a constitutional monarchy in France.
King Louis XVIII (the 18th) was followed by Charles X (not to be confused with Professor Charles Xavier), and Emperor Napoleon III. During this time France would go on to have a few more Revolutionary movements.
The subsequent French Revolutions were minor in comparison to the first, and were by and large unsuccessful:
The July Revolution of 1830
The June Rebellion of 1832 (which was a complete disaster – as seen in the play / multiple movie adaptations of ‘Les Misérables’, by Victor Hugo)
The French Revolution of 1848.
The last of which established the Second Republic of France, which lasted until Napoleon the Third’s coup in 1851, effectively establishing the Second French Empire.
The Second French Empire eventually collapsed…
… and the Third Republic of France was established in 1870.
Everything was peachy until of course World War II when Hitler’s Nazi Party went around their massive defensive perimeter (the Maginot Line) to invade and temporarily conquer France (1940-1944).
The *FOURTH* Republic of France that followed ended up imploding in 1958 due to the Algerian Crisis (long story) to finally be replaced by the current administration:
The FIFTH (and Final?) Republic of France.
THE (first) French Revolution may have been a bloody mess that seemingly accomplished little, but it’s arguable that it had a greater impact on the world at large than the American Revolution, by challenging the old ways, and making way for the modern era.
In the end, the French Revolution would lead to a century full of instability, with two more Revolutions taking place. The country would be governed as a dictatorship, republic, constitutional monarchy, and two different empires before reaching equilibrium.
The Beheading Louis XVI
The beheading of Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette was one of the biggest events of the French Revolution, but it didn’t have to happen.
Before he was king, Louis XVI was quiet, dedicated to his studies and painfully shy. It took him seven years to consummate his marriage to the beautiful and intimidating Hapsburg heiress.
When he became king he was cautious and indecisive, eager to be loved. In another age he would have been a great king, but he was entirely unsuited to the political crisis of the time.
People around him took advantage of his weakness to seize more power.
Louis was little more than a figurehead.
It was no surprise when the new government voted to abolish the monarchy shortly after.
Some revolutionaries argued against executing Louis, but the revolution was in full swing and the public hated him. Louis XVI was killed by guillotine in January 1793.
Louis XVIguillotined.
The move shocked many across the world since Louis had always been seen as a moderate king. His death enraged nearby European countries and led to a war that might have been avoided. He faced his death fearlessly: with his final breath, he forgave those who condemned him and hoped that no more blood would be spilled.
The Toppling Of Statues
Executing Louis wasn’t enough: later that year, the rebels decided to remove all trace of the old kings from the country.
They started with the tombs of St Denis, the traditional resting place of France’s royals.
To begin with, the masons were happy just to destroy the old Carolingian statues and other symbols of royalty.
Destruction of Statues in America in 2020.
But within a month they were hammering into the old vault that held the kings from the House of Bourbon.
When they were in, they started destroying the old coffins.
Some of the kingly remains were put on public display, while others were dumped into a large burial pit, to cries of joy from the crowd.
Many people came to watch—so many that the laborers struggled to do their work. According to eyewitnesses, members of the crowd grabbed at the bodies when they could, taking stray hairs, teeth and other things as personal mementos.
These acts were later condemned both within France and across the world, but by that time it was too late.
Destruction of Statues in America in 2020.
After the Bourbon Restoration, the kings were retrieved from the pit and moved to the crypt in the basilica, but the damage was already done: many of the kings were unrecognisable.
The Law of Suspects
The revolution started because the rebels wanted everyone to be free and equal.
After they won, though, their anger didn’t come to an end: instead, they started hunting down anyone who might be a threat.
This period is now known as the Reign of Terror, and it resulted in thousands of innocent deaths.
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror started with the Law of Suspects, which granted the government the power to accuse pretty much anyone of being a rebel.
They attacked the priests, who were driven underground—for a while, being Catholic was actually illegal. In the end, anyone who might have been connected to the old nobles could be imprisoned and executed.
Over two years around 500,000 people were accused—a huge number for the time.
So many were accused, in fact, that the prisons were too full and people had to be put under house arrest.
Though most were eventually allowed to walk free, around 16,000 people were killed—and many thousands more died in prison.
Under the law, anyone whose “conduct, relations or language [showed them to be] partisans of tyranny … and enemies of liberty” was arrested and put on trial.
The city of Lyon backed the moderate Girondins, a group who were part of the revolution but were not as bloodthirsty as the others.
The rebel leaders considered Lyon a centre of royalist support, so they laid siege to it in 1793.
Over the course of the fighting over 2,000 people were killed in Lyon and the city was conquered. The revolutionaries had won, but they had further plans for the city.
In October, the National Convention issued a decree calling for Lyon to be destroyed.
Everyone who lived in Lyon was to have their weapons taken away.
They would be given to revolutionaries.
Any building “inhabited by the wealthy” was to be torn down, leaving only the homes of the poor, factories, and some monuments.
They even planned to purge the city’s name from history.
The city’s name would be erased: Lyon would be called Liberated City (Ville Affranchie) instead. They planned to build a column with an inscription on it saying: “Lyon made war on Liberty; Lyon is no more.”
Fortunately, this project was never finished.
The Girondins Executed
France’s new government had two main groups: the Girondins and the Montagnards.
Girondins – Moderates
Montagnards – Extremists
The Girondins were moderates: they wanted to build a free, capitalist, democratic country where everyone had a say in how they were ruled—regardless of who they were.
They were supported across France but the people of Paris liked the Montagnards more.
They were extremists who “wanted everything leveled”.
Anyone seen as elite had to give up their status or be executed. The groups got along well to begin with, but fell out over Louis’s death. The Montagnards wanted to kill him, but the Girondins wanted the country to vote on it. The Montagnards said they were plotting to save the king and called them traitors.
Things boiled over on the streets of Paris.
A group of soldiers and citizens surrounded the government buildings and demanded the Girondins be kicked out of the government.
The Montagnards duly did so.
Some Girondins were able to escape, but a few months later, those who were left were rounded up and guillotined.
Many Girondins guillotined.
The Drownings at Nantes
The city of Nantes was a center of revolution, but much of the countryside surrounding it was royalist. The region rose up in rebellion, leading to the Battle of Nantes. After this, the new French government decided to purge the city of anyone who still supported the monarchy.
To do this, they sent Jean-Baptiste Carrier, one of their most committed supporters.
Jean-Baptiste Carrier.
Jean-Baptiste took his job very seriously. In around five months, between 12,000 and 15,000 people were killed by his order.
Nantes lies on the Loire, which Jean-Baptiste called “the national bathtub”.
He and his men built special boats called lighters which were specifically designed for drowning prisoners.
The captives would be shackled to each other, often naked, and herded onto the boats—which had trap doors on the bottom.
The boats were then sunk with the prisoners on board. The elderley, pregnant women and children were all drowned without distinction.
In the end Jean-Baptiste’s methods were too extreme even for the revolution: he was recalled to Paris by the Committee of Public Safety, put on trial and executed by guillotine.
Jean-Baptisteguillotined.
The Law of 22 Prairial
Over the course of the Reign of Terror, thousands of people were imprisoned, some for absurd reasons. By June 1794, the prisons of France—particularly Paris—were overcrowded, so action had to be taken.
Robespierre and his allies drafted a new law which would allow trials to be concluded much quicker: they pushed this law through the Convention and it was passed on 10 June 1794.
It meant that people could be put on trial for simple things like ‘spreading fake news’ or ‘seeking to inspire discouragement’.
Citizens were expected to confront or report their neighbors if they expressed any kind of opposition to the government.
When these people were put on trial, they weren’t treated fairly: the judges and jury only had three days to come to a conclusion, and they had to choose whether to allow the accused to go free or be put to death.
This new law marked the beginning of the Grand Terror.
Executions per day increased dramatically across France, and most of those killed were undoubtedly innocent. The Grand Terror came to an end after two months, but not because people were horrified by the killings.
No, the new law had also made it so members of the Convention could now be put on trial. Looking to preserve their own skins, the members of the Convention removed Robespierre and guillotined him, bringing an end to the killings.
Robespierre guillotined.
The Massacre in the Vendee
The revolution was supposed to be a movement that freed the French lower classes and gave them liberty and security.
But anyone who opposed the new government was harshly punished, even those who were lower class.
In the early days, the church was singled out for its wealth and excess.
The revolutionary government veered between atheism and a new state religion, the Cult of the Supreme Being, but they were united in their desire to destroy the old Catholic system.
In the Vendee, however, the people rose up to protect their priests and churches from the new revolutionary government.
When the government ordered them to form a conscript military unit, they rebelled, joining together in local militias which were collectively known as the Catholic and Royal Army. This alarmed the new government, who sent the army to tackle the problem. After a series of pitched battles, the Catholic and Royal Army was defeated.
But the government didn’t stop there.
Determined to prevent another such uprising, the government sent General Louis Marie Turreau with twelve columns of troops to destroy to Vendee. Farms, villages, supplies and forests were destroyed, and the soldiers killed without restriction.
When it was over, General Francois Joseph Westermann wrote a letter back to the government saying:
“There is no more Vendée… According to the orders that you gave me, I crushed the children under the feet of the horses, massacred the women who, at least for these, will not give birth to any more brigands. I do not have a prisoner to reproach me. I have exterminated all.”
“Scorched Earth” on the Vendee.
The Law of the Maximum
Unlike many other atrocities on this list, the Law of the Maximum was implemented with good intentions—though the government was forced to do it. One of the biggest reasons people joined the rebellion in the first place was because food was too expensive, but by 1793 even the basics were going back up in price.
The enrages, a collection of anti-elite protestors who might today be called Marxists, argued that the nobility had been replaced by greedy merchants. Action was needed to take away their wealth and help the poor.
The government passed the Law of the Maximum in response.
It set a maximum price for goods, from bread and wine to iron and shoes.
Merchants had to display a list of prices outside their stores and, if any of their prices were above the maximum, they would be fined. Instead of going to the government, the fine went to whoever informed the authorities about the illegal pricing, encouraging people to rat out merchants who ignored the law.
It had a disastrous impact on France.
While merchants did reduce their prices, it left them with almost no money.
The less honest shopkeepers began watering down their goods, disguising ash as ground pepper, starch as sugar and pear juice as wine.
Farmers in rural areas began hoarding their produce because they couldn’t get a good enough price in the cities, meaning that people in the cities starved.
The result was a black market where the rich could still buy the goods they needed, while the poor had no access to food at all.
These famines were fixed temporarily when the government sent soldiers to take food from the farmers and bring it to the city by force, but this only caused more unrest.
The September Massacres
Or, in other words, the whole-scale slaughtering of all the prisoners in all the jails and prisons throughout France…
After Louis was killed, the government fell into chaos. No-one knew who was in charge. In the meantime the Paris Commune, who were supported by the armed mob, had all the power. Chaos reigned as the new government fought over who should be in power, alongside issues like the economy, the army, and the justice system.
What dominated, however, was a fear of counter-revolutionary backlash.
The new movement had been denounced in Britain, Austria and Prussia, and war loomed on the horizon.
Meanwhile, French royalists were gathering support in other parts of the country.
The revolutionaries feared that, if a royalist army was to attack Paris, the new revolutionary government would fall.
In particular, they came to believe that the inmates of the city’s prisons would join with the counter-revolutionaries if given a chance. These fears were exacerbated when it came time for the new army to leave the city, with the people believing it would leave the city vulnerable to a prison break.
Between the 2nd and 6th of September 1792, the inmates were attacked by revolutionary mobs, with over 1000 being killed in the space of a single day.
Half the city’s entire prison population was massacred, with corpses left mutilated in the streets.
The revolutionary government sent letters to regional governments saying that conspirators in the city’s prisons had been executed. The act was repeated elsewhere: murders of prisoners took place in 75 of France’s 83 departments.
Conclusion
History can be interesting.
This is especially true if you are living through a time period that would most certainly be put into the history books.
This is 2020. A revolution has been brewing for some time, and (rightly so) many people are beginning to recognize the start of this period in America as 2008 when the banks fell, and massive financial fraud was committed. Now, the chain of events are starting to accelerate and it’s starting to look like elements of numerous historical catastrophes are starting to converge within America…
The Wall Street Crash.
The Fall of the Roman Empire.
The collapse of the Soviet Union.
…and…
The French Revolution.
Most certainly the elements are all there, and I cannot tell you what will happen. But I can paint some broad “brush strokes” for you all to ponder…
Do not expect any election to change anything substantially. It will only change form, but it will still keep moving in the same direction.
Things are going to get worse before they get better. We have not yet reached the peak.
When it appears that the old order has been toppled, and a new order is forming, that is when the REAL DANGERS will start to appear.
Expect some kind of foreign war or military action to distract attention. Expect a villainization of some nation, race or people. But note that it will not really work the way it is intended to.
The implementation of all the strife and chaos will not be uniform. It will be patchy, with some areas more dangerous than others.
Who survived the French Revolution?
Not the oligarchy, nor those that lead the revolution. Not those that were “moderate”. The survivors were those that lived outside the cities that also had strong connections with friends and families within their communities.
The American culture of “lone wolf” and “every man for himself” will be problematic at this time. I do not advise it. instead I strongly advise the formation of small tightly knit communities that share and work together.
I recommend the following…
Stay away from crowds.
Do not get involved in politics at any level.
Practice strong provisioning, and practice familial disciplines.
Be a member of your local community.
Offer your time, resources, and supplies to your community. Think of it as an extended family.
Do you want some more?
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All the people writing about the intrusive nature of the NSA, and the collection of data through the cell-phones by back-door access has got it all wrong. It’s not about the collection of data. It’s about using your phone to control your mind.
All these “back doors” and secret embedded code within your electronics, your chips, and your cell-phones is not simply about collecting your personal information. That is the obvious purpose, but that is not the ultimate purpose.
The ultimate purpose is to enable the embedding of special algorithms and embedded code that allow the government to manipulate what you see, read and hear. These enormous (and hidden) embedded programs overlay instructions to your mind. They alter the selection of programs that you might want to use, they change the access and ease of access to websites. They alter the type, range and frequency of information on your feeds, and change what you would watch, see and listen to.
Have you ever been on your cell phone, and musing about something... thinking about a memory or an event... and then suddenly you see a link or an article related to a similar type of event?
No. It's not coincidence.
It's intentional.
You are being subconsciously manipulated to act, think, and behave as part of a herd of humans, that the oligarchy wants to shepherd into certain defined behaviors.
And the revelations by Wiki-leaks in Vault 7 proves this.
Vault 7
Whenever you mention the “power” that the United States has over the serfs citizens living there, you really need to mention “Vault 7”. “Vault 7” proves, beyond all and any shadow of a doubt, that the United States government has complete distain for the Bill of Rights, and everything that it stands for. Americans have no protections. ZERO. Americans exist at the mercy of their government.
Democrat Senator Feinstein trying to put limits on the the first amendment to the Bill of Rights.
Americans are just monitored cattle. They are monitored by their owners; those handful of Billionaires that fully control the government.
WikiLeaks has published what it claims is the largest-ever release of confidential documents on the CIA. It includes more than 8,000 documents as part of “Vault 7”, a series of leaks on the agency, which have allegedly emerged from the CIA’s Center For Cyber Intelligence in Langley, and which can be seen on the org chart below, which Wikileaks also released:
A total of 8,761 documents have been published[v] as part of “Year Zero”. This “Year Zero” is the first in a series of leaks the whistle-blower organization has been dubbed “Vault 7.” WikiLeaks said that “Year Zero” revealed details of the CIA’s “global covert hacking program,” including “weaponized exploits” used against company products including “Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows and even Samsung TVs, which are turned into covert microphones.”
WikiLeaks tweeted the leak, which it claims came from a network inside the CIA’s Center for Cyber Intelligence in Langley, Virginia.
Wikileaks released ORG Chart.
Among the more notable disclosures which, if confirmed, “would rock the technology world“, the CIA had managed to bypass encryption on popular phone and messaging services such as Signal, WhatsApp and Telegram. According to the statement from WikiLeaks, government hackers can penetrate Android phones and collect “audio and message traffic before encryption is applied.”
Another profound revelation is that the CIA can engage in “false flag” cyberattacks which portray Russia as the assailant. Discussing the CIA’s Remote Devices Branch’s UMBRAGE group, Wikileaks’ source notes that it “collects and maintains a substantial library of attack techniques ‘stolen’ from malware produced in other states including the Russian Federation.
“With UMBRAGE and related projects the CIA cannot only increase its total number of attack types but also misdirect attribution by leaving behind the “fingerprints” of the groups that the attack techniques were stolen from. UMBRAGE components cover keyloggers, password collection, webcam capture, data destruction, persistence, privilege escalation, stealth, anti-virus (PSP) avoidance and survey techniques.”
As Kim Dotcom summarizes this finding,
"CIA uses techniques to make cyber attacks look like they originated from enemy state. It turns DNC/Russia hack allegation by CIA into a JOKE"
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) March 7, 2017
But perhaps what is most notable is the purported emergence of another Snowden-type whistleblower: the source of the information told WikiLeaks in a statement that they wish to initiate a public debate about the “security, creation, use, proliferation and democratic control of cyberweapons.” Policy questions that should be debated in public include “whether the CIA’s hacking capabilities exceed its mandated powers and the problem of public oversight of the agency,” WikiLeaks claims the source said.
The FAQ section of the release, shown later, provides further details on the extent of the leak, which was “obtained recently and covers through 2016”. The time period covered in the latest leak is between the years 2013 and 2016, according to the CIA timestamps on the documents themselves. Secondly, WikiLeaks has asserted that it has not mined the entire leak and has only verified it, asking that journalists and activists do the leg work.
Weeping Angel
Among the various techniques profiled by WikiLeaks is “Weeping Angel”, developed by the CIA’s Embedded Devices Branch (EDB), which infests smart TVs, transforming them into covert microphones. After infestation, Weeping Angel places the target TV in a ‘Fake-Off’ mode, so that the owner falsely believes the TV is off when it is on. In ‘Fake-Off’ mode the TV operates as a bug, recording conversations in the room and sending them over the Internet to a covert CIA server.
Dotcom also added that “Obama accused Russia of cyberattacks while his CIA turned all internet enabled consumer electronics in Russia into listening devices. Wow!”
Obama accused Russia of cyberattacks while his CIA turned all internet enabled consumer electronics in Russia into listening devices. Wow!
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) March 7, 2017
Julian Assange, WikiLeaks editor stated that
“There is an extreme proliferation risk in the development of cyber ‘weapons’. Comparisons can be drawn between the uncontrolled proliferation of such ‘weapons’, which results from the inability to contain them combined with their high market value, and the global arms trade. But the significance of “Year Zero” goes well beyond the choice between cyberwar and cyberpeace. The disclosure is also exceptional from a political, legal and forensic perspective.”
Key Highlights
“Year Zero” introduces the scope and direction of the CIA’s global covert hacking program, its malware arsenal and dozens of “zero day” weaponized exploits against a wide range of U.S. and European company products, include Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows and even Samsung TVs, which are turned into covert microphones.
Wikileaks claims that the CIA lost control of the majority of its hacking arsenal including malware, viruses, trojans, weaponized “zero day” exploits, malware remote control systems and associated documentation. This extraordinary collection, which amounts to more than several hundred million lines of code, gives its possessor the entire hacking capacity of the CIA. The archive appears to have been circulated among former U.S. government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive.
By the end of 2016, the CIA’s hacking division, which formally falls under the agency’s Center for Cyber Intelligence (CCI), had over 5000 registered users and had produced more than a thousand hacking systems, trojans, viruses, and other “weaponized” malware. Such is the scale of the CIA’s undertaking that by 2016, its hackers had utilized more code than that used to run Facebook.
The CIA had created, in effect, its “own NSA” with even less accountability and without publicly answering the question as to whether such a massive budgetary spend on duplicating the capacities of a rival agency could be justified.
Once a single cyber ‘weapon’ is ‘loose’ it can spread around the world in seconds, to be used by rival states, cyber mafia and teenage hackers alike.
CIA targets iPhones, Androids, smart TVs:
CIA malware and hacking tools are built by EDG (Engineering Development Group), a software development group within CCI (Center for Cyber Intelligence), a department belonging to the CIA’s DDI (Directorate for Digital Innovation). The DDI is one of the five major directorates of the CIA (see this organizational chart of the CIA for more details).
The EDG is responsible for the development, testing and operational support of all backdoors, exploits, malicious payloads, trojans, viruses and any other kind of malware used by the CIA in its covert operations world-wide.
The increasing sophistication of surveillance techniques has drawn comparisons with George Orwell’s 1984, but “Weeping Angel”, developed by the CIA’s Embedded Devices Branch (EDB), which infests smart TVs, transforming them into covert microphones, is surely its most emblematic realization.
The attack against Samsung smart TVs was developed in cooperation with the United Kingdom’s MI5/BTSS. After infestation, Weeping Angel places the target TV in a ‘Fake-Off’ mode, so that the owner falsely believes the TV is off when it is on. In ‘Fake-Off’ mode the TV operates as a bug, recording conversations in the room and sending them over the Internet to a covert CIA server.
As of October 2014 the CIA was also looking at infecting the vehicle control systems used by modern cars and trucks. The purpose of such control is not specified, but it would permit the CIA to engage in nearly undetectable assassinations.
The CIA’s Mobile Devices Branch (MDB) developed numerous attacks to remotely hack and control popular smart phones. Infected phones can be instructed to send the CIA the user’s geolocation, audio and text communications as well as covertly activate the phone’s camera and microphone.
Despite iPhone’s minority share (14.5%) of the global smart phone market in 2016, a specialized unit in the CIA’s Mobile Development Branch produces malware to infest, control and exfiltrate data from iPhones and other Apple products running iOS, such as iPads. CIA’s arsenal includes numerous local and remote “zero days” developed by CIA or obtained from GCHQ, NSA, FBI or purchased from cyber arms contractors such as Baitshop. The disproportionate focus on iOS may be explained by the popularity of the iPhone among social, political, diplomatic and business elites.
A similar unit targets Google’s Android which is used to run the majority of the world’s smart phones (~85%) including Samsung, HTC and Sony. 1.15 billion Android powered phones were sold last year. “Year Zero” shows that as of 2016 the CIA had 24 “weaponized” Android “zero days” which it has developed itself and obtained from GCHQ, NSA and cyber arms contractors.
These techniques permit the CIA to bypass the encryption of WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Wiebo, Confide and Cloackman by hacking the “smart” phones that they run on and collecting audio and message traffic before encryption is applied.
Take aways…
CIA malware and hacking tools are built by EDG (Engineering Development Group), a software development group within CCI (Center for Cyber Intelligence), a department belonging to the CIA’s DDI (Directorate for Digital Innovation). The DDI is one of the five major directorates of the CIA (see this organizational chart of the CIA for more details).
The increasing sophistication of surveillance techniques has drawn comparisons with George Orwell’s 1984, but “Weeping Angel”, developed by the CIA’s Embedded Devices Branch (EDB), which infests smart TVs, transforming them into covert microphones, is surely its most emblematic realization.
Many of these infection efforts are pulled together by the CIA’s Automated Implant Branch (AIB), which has developed several attack systems for automated infestation and control of CIA malware, such as “Assassin” and “Medusa”.
The CIA has developed automated multi-platform malware attack and control systems covering Windows, Mac OS X, Solaris, Linux and more, such as EDB’s “HIVE” and the related “Cutthroat” and “Swindle” tools.
Also cars,
As of October 2014 the CIA was also looking at infecting the vehicle control systems used by modern cars and trucks.
The purpose of such control is not specified, but it would permit the CIA to engage in nearly undetectable assassinations.
This is quite suggestive of the CIA having a role in the death of Michael Hastings.
The CIA also runs a very substantial effort to infect and control Microsoft Windows users with its malware.
This includes multiple local and remote weaponized “zero days”, air gap jumping viruses such as “Hammer Drill” which infects software distributed on CD/DVDs, infectors for removable media such as USBs, systems to hide data in images or in covert disk areas ( “Brutal Kangaroo”) and to keep its malware infestations going.
Hoarding of Zero Day exploits:
In the wake of Edward Snowden’s leaks about the NSA, the U.S. technology industry secured a commitment from the Obama administration that the executive would disclose on an ongoing basis — rather than hoard — serious vulnerabilities, exploits, bugs or “zero days” to Apple, Google, Microsoft, and other US-based manufacturers.
Serious vulnerabilities not disclosed to the manufacturers places huge swathes of the population and critical infrastructure at risk to foreign intelligence or cyber criminals who independently discover or hear rumors of the vulnerability. If the CIA can discover such vulnerabilities so can others.
The U.S. government’s commitment to the Vulnerabilities Equities Process came after significant lobbying by US technology companies, who risk losing their share of the global market over real and perceived hidden vulnerabilities. The government stated that it would disclose all pervasive vulnerabilities discovered after 2010 on an ongoing basis.
“Year Zero” documents show that the CIA breached the Obama administration’s commitments. Many of the vulnerabilities used in the CIA’s cyber arsenal are pervasive and some may already have been found by rival intelligence agencies or cyber criminals.
As an example, specific CIA malware revealed in “Year Zero” is able to penetrate, infest and control both the Android phone and iPhone software that runs or has run presidential Twitter accounts. The CIA attacks this software by using undisclosed security vulnerabilities (“zero days”) possessed by the CIA but if the CIA can hack these phones then so can everyone else who has obtained or discovered the vulnerability. As long as the CIA keeps these vulnerabilities concealed from Apple and Google (who make the phones) they will not be fixed, and the phones will remain hackable.
The same vulnerabilities exist for the population at large, including the U.S. Cabinet, Congress, top CEOs, system administrators, security officers and engineers. By hiding these security flaws from manufacturers like Apple and Google the CIA ensures that it can hack everyone &mdsh; at the expense of leaving everyone hackable.
Take aways…
In the wake of Edward Snowden’s leaks about the NSA, the U.S. technology industry secured a commitment from the Obama administration that the executive would disclose on an ongoing basis — rather than hoard — serious vulnerabilities, exploits, bugs or “zero days” to Apple, Google, Microsoft, and other US-based manufacturers.
Serious vulnerabilities not disclosed to the manufacturers places huge swathes of the population and critical infrastructure at risk to foreign intelligence or cyber criminals who independently discover or hear rumors of the vulnerability. If the CIA can discover such vulnerabilities so can others.
Please see the table of contents for the full list of projects described by WikiLeaks’ “Year Zero”. (Over 500 and counting…)
Proliferation of leaked/hacked Cyberwar programs:
While nuclear proliferation has been restrained by the enormous costs and visible infrastructure involved in assembling enough fissile material to produce a critical nuclear mass, cyber ‘weapons’, once developed, are very hard to retain.
Cyber ‘weapons’ are in fact just computer programs which can be pirated like any other. Since they are entirely comprised of information they can be copied quickly with no marginal cost.
Over the last three years the United States intelligence sector, which consists of government agencies such as the CIA and NSA and their contractors, such as Booze Allan Hamilton, has been subject to unprecedented series of data exfiltrations by its own workers.
Once a single cyber ‘weapon’ is ‘loose’ it can spread around the world in seconds, to be used by peer states, cyber mafia and teenage hackers alike.
The U.S. Consulate in Frankfurt is a covert CIA hacker base
In addition to its operations in Langley, Virginia the CIA also uses the U.S. consulate in Frankfurt as a covert base for its hackers covering Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
CIA hackers operating out of the Frankfurt consulate ( “Center for Cyber Intelligence Europe” or CCIE) are given diplomatic (“black”) passports and State Department cover.
The instructions for incoming CIA hackers make Germany’s counter-intelligence efforts appear inconsequential: “Breeze through German Customs because you have your cover-for-action story down pat, and all they did was stamp your passport”
Examples of CIA projects
The CIA’s Engineering Development Group (EDG) management system contains around 500 different projects (only some of which are documented by “Year Zero”) each with their own sub-projects, malware and hacker tools. The majority of these projects relate to tools that are used for penetration, infestation (“implanting”), control, and exfiltration.
Umbrage: The CIA’s Remote Devices Branch’s UMBRAGE group collects and maintains a substantial library of attack techniques ‘stolen’ from malware produced in other states including the Russian Federation. With UMBRAGE and related projects the CIA cannot only increase its total number of attack types but also misdirect attribution by leaving behind the “fingerprints” of the groups that the attack techniques were stolen from.
Fine Dining: Fine Dining comes with a standardized questionnaire i.e menu that CIA case officers fill out. The questionnaire is used by the agency’s OSB (Operational Support Branch) to transform the requests of case officers into technical requirements for hacking attacks (typically “exfiltrating” information from computer systems) for specific operations. Among the list of possible targets of the collection are ‘Asset’, ‘Liason Asset’, ‘System Administrator’, ‘Foreign Information Operations’, ‘Foreign Intelligence Agencies’ and ‘Foreign Government Entities’. Notably absent is any reference to extremists or transnational criminals.
‘Improvise’; a toolset for configuration, post-processing, payload setup and execution vector selection for survey/exfiltration tools supporting all major operating systems like Windows (Bartender), MacOS (JukeBox) and Linux (DanceFloor).
HIVE: HIVE is a multi-platform CIA malware suite and its associated control software. The project provides customizable implants for Windows, Solaris, MikroTik (used in internet routers) and Linux platforms and a Listening Post (LP)/Command and Control (C2) infrastructure to communicate with these implants. The implants are configured to communicate via HTTPS with the webserver of a cover domain; each operation utilizing these implants has a separate cover domain and the infrastructure can handle any number of cover domains.
Evading forensics and anti-virus
A series of standards lay out CIA malware infestation patterns which are likely to assist forensic crime scene investigators as well as Apple, Microsoft, Google, Samsung, Nokia, Blackberry, Siemens and anti-virus companies attribute and defend against attacks.
“Tradecraft DO’s and DON’Ts” contains CIA rules on how its malware should be written to avoid fingerprints implicating the “CIA, US government, or its witting partner companies” in “forensic review”. Similar secret standards cover the use of encryption to hide CIA hacker and malware communication (pdf), describing targets & exfiltrated data (pdf) as well as executing payloads (pdf) and persisting (pdf) in the target’s machines over time.
CIA hackers developed successful attacks against most well known anti-virus programs.
CIA hackers discussed what the NSA’s “Equation Group” hackers did wrong and how the CIA’s malware makers could avoid similar exposure.
UMBRAGE
The CIA’s hand crafted hacking techniques pose a problem for the agency. Each technique it has created forms a “fingerprint” that can be used by forensic investigators to attribute multiple different attacks to the same entity.
This is analogous to finding the same distinctive knife wound on multiple separate murder victims. The unique wounding style creates suspicion that a single murderer is responsible. As soon one murder in the set is solved then the other murders also find likely attribution.
With UMBRAGE and related projects the CIA cannot only increase its total number of attack types but also misdirect attribution by leaving behind the “fingerprints” of the groups that the attack techniques were stolen from.
It’s easy to have the NSA place “digital fingerprints” on their hacking efforts using these tools, and then blame another nation.
UMBRAGE components cover keyloggers, password collection, webcam capture, data destruction, persistence, privilege escalation, stealth, anti-virus (PSP) avoidance and survey techniques.
Unless maintained, the Bill of Rights becomes useless and superannuated.
Fine Dining
Fine Dining comes with a standardized questionnaire i.e menu that CIA case officers fill out. The questionnaire is used by the agency’s OSB (Operational Support Branch) to transform the requests of case officers into technical requirements for hacking attacks (typically “exfiltrating” information from computer systems) for specific operations.
The questionnaire allows the OSB to identify how to adapt existing tools for the operation, and communicate this to CIA malware configuration staff. The OSB functions as the interface between CIA operational staff and the relevant technical support staff.
Among the list of possible targets of the collection are ‘Asset’, ‘Liason Asset’, ‘System Administrator’, ‘Foreign Information Operations’, ‘Foreign Intelligence Agencies’ and ‘Foreign Government Entities’. Notably absent is any reference to extremists or transnational criminals. The ‘Case Officer’ is also asked to specify the environment of the target like the type of computer, operating system used, Internet connectivity and installed anti-virus utilities (PSPs) as well as a list of file types to be exfiltrated like Office documents, audio, video, images or custom file types. The ‘menu’ also asks for information if recurring access to the target is possible and how long unobserved access to the computer can be maintained. This information is used by the CIA’s ‘JQJIMPROVISE’ software (see below) to configure a set of CIA malware suited to the specific needs of an operation.
Improvise (JQJIMPROVISE)
‘Improvise’ is a toolset for configuration, post-processing, payload setup and execution vector selection for survey/exfiltration tools supporting all major operating systems like Windows (Bartender), MacOS (JukeBox) and Linux (DanceFloor). Its configuration utilities like Margarita allows the NOC (Network Operation Center) to customize tools based on requirements from ‘Fine Dining’ questionairies.
HIVE
What is an "implant"?
It is the embedded code that instructs your brain what to do and how to behave when you are using electronics technology.
It is the software that has the back of your mind musing about certain things, issues of the day, or getting all emotionally upset about something.
HIVE is a multi-platform CIA malware suite and its associated control software. The project provides customizable implants for Windows, Solaris, MikroTik (used in internet routers) and Linux platforms and a Listening Post (LP)/Command and Control (C2) infrastructure to communicate with these implants.
The implants are configured to communicate via HTTPS with the webserver of a cover domain; each operation utilizing these implants has a separate cover domain and the infrastructure can handle any number of cover domains.
Each cover domain resolves to an IP address that is located at a commercial VPS (Virtual Private Server) provider. The public-facing server forwards all incoming traffic via a VPN to a ‘Blot’ server that handles actual connection requests from clients. It is setup for optional SSL client authentication: if a client sends a valid client certificate (only implants can do that), the connection is forwarded to the ‘Honeycomb’ toolserver that communicates with the implant; if a valid certificate is missing (which is the case if someone tries to open the cover domain website by accident), the traffic is forwarded to a cover server that delivers an unsuspicious looking website.
The Honeycomb toolserver receives exfiltrated information from the implant; an operator can also task the implant to execute jobs on the target computer, so the toolserver acts as a C2 (command and control) server for the implant.
Similar functionality (though limited to Windows) is provided by the RickBobby project.
“You could have all the crazy thoughts you wanted, as long as you smiled and kept them to yourself.”
― Mara Purnhagen, Past Midnight
99.9% of the articles (on the internet and in books) discuss how “unconstitutional” the collection of information, by the NSA, is. They argue (and rightfully so) that the United States government should not be doing this, that it is against the Constitution, the law, the purpose of government, and is a dangerous precedent. Ah. We all get this and understand it.
I argue something a little different.
The reason why the United States wants your reading, watching, listening, and Geo-location information (as well as your passwords, your friends, and your associations) is not so much to track your actions and behaviors. But instead, to be able to feed embedded algorithms into your phone.
These hidden and secretive signals direct your subconscious actions.
They control what you look at, what you listen to, and what you are exposed to.
Thus, they “box you in” to a particular “mind set”. And in so doing, they control you.
And the American PTB (Deep State) Oligarchy leadership are believing that this 2D manipulation of minds will guarantee their successful implementation of change; guarantee that they will remain in power forever, and guarantee that their goals and societal adjustments will occur without any opposition.
But the universe is far more complex than any 2D operation. It’s at a bare minimum, an 11D exercise. And pushing this controlling narratives into the minds of millions of Americans will have , or is having…
… unexpected, or unintended consequences.
It should be no surprise that the United States is now balkanized into violently radical warring factions. All of which are attuned to certain pre-defined narratives. Individual, independent thought no longer exists. You are either “A”, or “B” or “C”. And they have further classified you in to a direct subcategory all for the purposes of your control. “A-4”, or “B-7”.
Vault 7 exposes this.
Now a cursory look at the files might (indeed) give you the impression that it’s just advanced techniques for the collection and gathering of information. I urge the reader to think past that. Any nation that has an intimate knowledge of your “private papers” and “personal privacy” in real time has the ability to control you.
It’s all about control.
The control of what and how you think, by a very powerful government.
And this is why Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo are all up in arms about 5G, and Huawei. It's not that the technology is better, dangerous, or would have "back doors". It is that the stranglehold of the American government control over people would come to an end as less and less people use programs with these embedded algorithms.
If you want to protect yourself from being manipulated by hidden, invisible and secret manipulations, you need to start using phones, and software developed outside of the United States. Those products that are being “banned from American use” such as Huawei and Xiaomi are almost certainly devoid of NSA malware.
Though, perhaps the best thing might be to just move away from all electronic media and live a far simpler life.
A simpler life.
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Well, America is in the middle of the COVID-19 viral emergency. Due to incompetence at all levels of the various American governments, there has been a complete failure of handling this event and it has manifested into an outright fiasco. With things as they stand today, and what we know about the corrupt American government, what is next?
Already States, and local governments are placing restrictions on liberty and behaviors. Stores are being ordered to close and assembly can get you arrested.
No one stated it better than Remus in the Woodpile Report…
These are your choices. They always were and they always will be.
Prepare when no one else is preparing.
Panic when everyone else is panicking.
Got food? Ammo? Meds?
It's too late now to prepare adequately for the pandemic much less the impending derailment of civilization itself. Preppers were calmly topping off their stashes in early January, at regular prices, in any quantity with lots-o'-choices. They saw the foreshadow of this emergency and acted appropriately. Prepping always looks crazy until the rug gets pulled. Paranoia is a survival tool, panic is not.
Systems are visibly collapsing.
The stock market is out-crashing the 1929 debacle in both speed and depth. "No Admittance" signs are posted at hospitals and needed surgeries are being cancelled. Police aren't responding to anything less then a murder in progress. Cities are opening the prison doors and chasing off the inmates. Food wholesalers were cleaned out in a fortnight and many can't restock enough to matter. Others have stopped answering their phones.
Guns and ammo are selling at a record rate.
Dealers say even anti-gun leftists are buying 'em. No one will say it, but it won't take much scarcity for the perpetual EBT Diversity to go where the food and supplies are. It's just there they'll meet real resistance for the first time in their lives. The suburbs have learned their family freezers are worth more than social posing. Unlike the stock market, price discovery will be utterly reliable when it comes to fried chicken and a six pack.
Emergency Rooms
Our Open Borders Diversities already clog the ER and get it all for free because you're paying their bills. Activists will choose the most deserving victims and it won't be the Deplorables. Compulsory charity can't be any other way. Tribal loyalty or redemption will be served. Either way, traditional Americans are a problem to be solved and inaction leaves no fingerprints.
The Center for Disease Control
The CDC had one job. Virology. Other countries had reliable test kits ready to go, in sufficient quantity to be useful. The technology is decades old yet the "renowned" CDC managed to botch it. The CDC distributed excuses and promises. N95 masks? Ventilators? Um, no. Maybe eventually, their Top Men are working on it. Somehow they always have plenty of everything to "fight the epidemic of obesity and racism" but not enough to perform their mandate. The CDC is useless and incompetent, an 11 billion dollar scam, benefiting no one except otherwise unemployable social activists.
Meanwhile, Russia is shipping nine planeloads of medics and surplus equipment and supplies to Italy, including ventilators.
Natural News reports:The battle for Los Angeles is lost. LA County announces no more testing for coronavirus, containment now impossible, 100,000+ may die in LA, prepare for chaos
The tipping point of containment has long since passed. That’s not even the goal anymore, and the number of infections being reported out of LA will no longer even come close to describing the real situation on the ground there...
Expect chaos. Expect looting and violence. It's LA, after all, and the gangs are barely kept in check even during good times.
America is right now in the midst of a full-scale SHTF event.
This is the thing that preppers have been readying for all these many, many years. And as all preppers know, there is a point in time when you are in the middle of “it”…
When you are in the middle of “it”.
With all this in mind, lets take a look at what will follow next…
A need for “violent” change.
For the oligarchy (PTB) have well prepared for this. And make no mistake, they will use this event to consolidate their power and implement sweeping changes to America… to your families and… your way of life.
Let’s dust off this document of horror…
The following is an article titled “The Next American Revolution? Anticipated Civil Unrest”By Larry Romanoff in Global Research, November 27, 2019. Edited to fit this venue and all credit tot he author.
The Next American Revolution? Anticipated Civil Unrest
Preparing For Civil War?
US authorities have for decades become increasingly prepared for mass civil disturbances resulting from government and corporate attacks on American society. We can recall that in the early 1980s the Hidden State launched its open war on the middle class by the savage FED-induced recession and the unilateral revocation of the social contract that had existed since 1946.At that time, the US government had already anticipated widespread public unrest, fully expecting mass protests and riots, and had made preparations to deal with them in the form of internment camps. In a real sense, the government had prepared for another civil war.
REX-84
Like most of the “Great Transformation”, it began during Reagan’s reign with what was called “Rex 84”, an abbreviation for Readiness Exercise 1984.
It is a plan by the US government to detain large numbers of American citizens in case of civil unrest.
This master plan involved the FBI, Department of Defense, the Emergency Measures group, the Secret Service, the CIA and altogether 34 government agencies.
It was presented as an exercise to test military assistance in civil defense in times of national emergency, but in fact the plan was anticipating civil disturbances, major demonstrations and labor strikes that would affect continuity of government.
The anticipated civil unrest from the FED-induced financial crisis that devastated the middle class was considered “subversive”.
And, REX-84 is an authorization for the US military to implement government-controlled movements of civilian populations at both state and regional levels. Including the arrest of many segments of the American population, and the imposition of martial law. (1) (2)
Federal Police in America have been training alongside the American military to best be able to deal with Americans within the individual states.
Initially, the Rex-84 program was created under the pretense of a possible mass exodus of illegal aliens attempting to cross into the US from Mexico.
However, when the program accidentally became public during the Iran-Contra Congressional hearings in 1987, it was revealed that it was in fact a secret federal government program…
“to suspend the Constitution, declare martial law, assign military commanders to take over state and local governments, and detain large numbers of American citizens determined by the government to be ‘national security threats’.”
Ah. That good ‘ol “National Security” reason.
An Actual Program.
This was part of a master contingency plan.
It is a plan for which the FBI today has a primary list of more than 100,000 Americans, and a secondary list ten times larger, who are targeted to be rounded up as subversives.
Scene from the 1980’s movie “Red Dawn”.
This list includes labor leaders, scholars and public figures. With the incarceration designed to isolate political dissidents and to contain civil unrest.
And these are prison camps, ringed with fences, barbed wire and armed
guards, not places from which escape would be likely, and they were
designed to hold Americans, not Mexicans. (3)
“Avenge Me” Scene from the 1980’s movie “Red Dawn”.
There is no question the US government is prepared for the possibility of widespread and uncontrollable domestic disorder.
This program in place and building for years was encouraged by fears of a massive public uprising in the wake of the 2008 banking fraud.
US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said some years ago that [1] concentration camps were a likely future reality for Americans and [2] that the Supreme Court would not do anything about the tyranny should the executive branch think it necessary.
“Avenge Me” Scene from the 1980’s movie “Red Dawn”.
He mentioned the World War II internment of Japanese in the US and said of these camps,
“you are kidding yourself if you think the same thing will not happen again”. (4) (5)
“Internment specialists”
In 2009, as the US financial crisis deepened and concern about public unrest was increasing, the US National Guard was posting job opportunities for “Internment/Resettlement Specialists” to work in “civilian internee camps”. These camps were within the United States. With Halliburton subsidiary KBR actively seeking subcontractors to staff “emergency environment” camps located in five regions of the US.
KBR, outsourced Americanized Gestapo forces.
Earlier, in 2006, KBR was contracted by Homeland Security to build detention centers designed to deal with “the rapid development of unspecified “new programs” that would require large numbers of people to be interned.” (6) (7)
The US has for many years been dangerously close to a situation where, if the American people take to the streets in protest, these internments can be easily carried out.
By 2004, there were more than 800 of these internment camps in the US, all empty, but all fully operational, staffed, and surrounded by full-time guards, ready to receive prisoners.
I have seen photos.
State of the art American patrol car.
As well, many military bases are slated to be closed down and used as extra civilian prisons if the need arises, all intended for the internment of dissidents and others deemed “potentially harmful to the state”.
Some camps can each hold 20,000 or more prisoners, a massive effort at civilian population control, and the program is still expanding.
America is at this point today.
The US is very near the point today where political dissidents questioning the actions of their government will risk being rounded up. And then forced into these prison camps,. This is essentially a government plan to forcibly suppress political dissent under the guise of rooting out domestic “terrorism”.
State of the art American patrol car.
The US government defines many Americans as having become “pre-revolutionary” from their outrage at the 2008 government-approved housing collapse. They have increasing concern that massive civil unrest would emerge from both the poverty-stricken lower classes and the eviscerated middle class. They believe that this would lead to what would become an internal civil war.
This is the reason that the FBI and DHS increasingly focus their “anti-terror” apparatus on white middle-class Americans like the Occupy Wall Street protestors who were categorized as “low-level terrorists”.
State of the art American patrol car.
“Domestic Security”
In 2008, the Washington Post reported government plans to station many tens of thousands of troops inside the country for purposes referred to as “domestic security”. They did this in the light of massive civil unrest that would follow an economic collapse or serious financial crisis, perhaps stemming from 2008.
According to the government document,
“Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security”,
stating that the military may be needed to quell “purposeful domestic resistance”.
State of the art American patrol car.
To prepare for this quelling of resistance, the US has resorted to demonizing its own citizens.
A recent study funded by DHS conveniently identifying those Americans who are “suspicious of centralized federal authority” and who exhibit signs of being “reverent of individual liberty”, and re-categorizing them as “extreme right-wing” terrorists. (8) (9) (10)
The program is designed to “reduce and eliminate” all domestic resistance to the US government.
“Crowd control agents” will be used for this purpose, and government agencies will be involved in “gathering information on dissidents” to identify all those who have either “threatened or are creating disturbances”.
American police forces today.
Manuals and Policies.
The US military produced a manual on what it termed “Civil Disturbance Operations” that outlines how military assets will be used to “help local and state authorities to restore and maintain law and order” in the event of mass riots and civil unrest.
Military and other law-enforcement will be tasked with “breaking up unauthorized gatherings” and restoring order by
“presenting a show of force, establishing roadblocks, breaking up crowds, employing crowd control agents, and other operations as required”.
American police forces today.
The same government manual describes how prisoners will be processed through these internment camps, and outlines how these internees would be “re-educated” while detained in prison camps inside their own country by their own government.
FM 3-39.40 Internment and Resettlement Operations
A leaked military document titled ‘FM 3-39.40 Internment and Resettlement Operations’, outlined a program for “re-education camps” in the US which contained plans for “political activists” to be “pacified” by various psychological officers.
They would be re-programmed into “sympathizing” with the government and into “developing an appreciation of US policies” while detained in prison camps inside the US.
American police are fully equipped to suppress a well-controlled American populace.
The document was restricted to Department of Defense personnel but was been leaked and posted online.
It outlined policies for “processing detainees into internment camps” and made clear these operations would be used for domestic civilian situations. (11) (12) The full document is available here: (13)
“Once the detainees have been processed into the internment camp, the manual explains how they will be “indoctrinated”, with a particular focus on coercing political dissidents into expressing support for U.S. policies.”
The American police are trained to control, and suppress Americans who refuse to obey Federal laws.
Part of the stated role of the psychological officers would be to
identify political activists, political leaders, ‘malcontents’, and
other agitators, and to develop and execute appropriate
“indoctrination programs to reduce or remove antagonistic attitudes”.
However, their first task would be to “pacify and acclimate detainees
to accept the internment facility’s authority and regulations”.
Americans have become accustomed to the new face of Authoritarian government control.
Approved use of violence against Americans.
There are also disturbing insights into the government’s intention to use brutal force to violently quell any civil political unrest.
The manual includes a long list of weapons meant to be used against protesting American civilians, including anti-riot grenades.
All over America, from Hawaii to Alaska, from California to Maine, the police are armed with military weapons and equipment for use against American citizens.
Page 20 of the manual authorities the use of “deadly force” in confronting these peaceful political “dissidents”, the murderous intent made disturbingly clear with the directive that “Warning shots will not be fired” first.
Northcom itself, in a September 8, 2008 Army Times article, said the first wave of the deployment, which was put in place on October 1st at Fort Stewart and at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, would be aimed at tackling “civil unrest and crowd control”.
All sorts of high precision, and lethal weapons are deployed with American police and Federal police today.
In November of 2013, Forbes Magazine ran an article based on the AP newswire, detailing that DHS had been assembling a massive weapons arsenal since 2011 or 2012. (14)
The AP reported that Homeland Security had been stockpiling ammunition by buying more than 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition in addition to a prior purchase of 1.5 billion rounds, for a staggering total of more than three billion rounds.
Depending on the state and the local police force, all manner of high-technology and state-of-the-art weapons are issued to police forces. These weapons are not for the military to use against an enemy. They are for American police to use against American people.
This is more ammunition than the US military used collectively in all its wars in the last decade, and represents about ten shots for every man, woman and child in America.
There were also confirmed purchases by various government agencies, of hundreds of millions of hollow-point rounds to be delivered to dozens of locations around the US.
These bullets are so lethal they are banned for battlefield use during wars because they mushroom and fragment on impact, their only purpose being to cause the maximum possible damage to internal organs.
The reader must ask themselves why suppression firearms, like machine-guns, and grenade launchers are being issued to American police forces. The Constitution has been quite explicit and exact that standing armies are forbidden to exist upon American soil.
Also purchased were large numbers of magnum rounds with the power to penetrate walls, and a frightening hundreds of millions more rounds of specialty sniper ammunition.
Friendly Weapons
Even more, it was reported in early 2015 that DHS had placed orders for massive amounts of other kinds of anti-civilian weaponry termed “Less Lethal Specialty Munitions”, which were described as “an arsenal of specialized weaponry for training and deployment against crowds”.
Why are American regional police forces issued and trained to us the M134 GAU-17 Gatling Gun?
These included flash grenades, light bursts, gas and chemical grenades, riot rounds, rubber bullets, and much more.
These are all heavy-duty crowd control and civilian intimidation weapons.
They have no other purpose and, in the volume in which they are being purchased, it is clear the US government is expecting some very serious civil disturbances, possibly a revolution, and soon.
One such non-lethal weapon is the 500-vold shotgun.
As recently as 2018, Forbes was reporting more of the same, that these purchases have reached an astonishing ubiquity.
It isn’t only Homeland Security who is arming to the teeth. Thousands of agents at the IRS now have tactical assault rifles and heavy weaponry.
The Small Business Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs have purchased thousands of Glock handguns.
The Health Services agencies purchased millions of dollars worth of Glock handguns – equipped with silencers.
The US Geological Survey, which is a weather bureau, purchased millions of dollars worth of Winchester Black Shadow shotguns with large bulk ammunition orders in addition to Glock handguns.
Even the Department of Education purchased millions of dollars worth of Glock handguns, shotguns and body armor.
I am unaware of any nation in the world where the income tax department or the departments of education and health care require huge amounts of military-grade weapons, much less body armor and gun silencers.
Non-lethal microwave cannon to use to fry the living daylights out of protesters and mobs.
Armed to the teeth
In June of 2016, RT reported that non-military federal agencies had more firepower than the entire US Marine Corps.
This including agencies like education, health and income tax. (15) RT documented, a new report where 67 non-military federal US agencies spent $1.50 billion purchasing guns, ammunition and military-style equipment.
Tazer pistols are quite common all over America and are used with far less restraint than normal pistols.
The details came from the Militarization of America: non-military federal agencies purchases of guns, ammo, and military-style equipment, published by the non-profit good government group OpentheBooks.com. (16) (17)
In addition to the massive purchase of ammunition, DHS was showing off its acquisition of heavily armored and mine-resistant personnel carriers.
Sticky foam is one such non-lethal weapon that is deployed inside America.
These have been seen on streets all across America and verified with photos and video.
Forbes noted that these vehicles are equipped with gun ports and are “designed to withstand IEDs, mine blasts and 50 caliber hits to bullet-proof glass”, and asked why they would be necessary on American streets.
The “Thunder Generator” was originally developed by Israeli farmers to scare away crop-eating birds. However, it has now grown to become a viable weapon against humans. In good conditions, the Thunder Generator can hurl a series of super-short shockwaves up to 100 meters (328 ft) away. In general, these shockwaves serve to only knock down and stun individuals. Any closer than 10 meters (33 ft), however, and the waves can result in permanent damage or death.
The DHS also purchased large amounts of riot gear and bullet-proof checkpoint booths, as well as a purchase of 7000 automatic rifles, and 2700 armored vehicles, and the deployment of drones with allowance for their use on US citizens.
The DHS is becoming a massive domestic army to handle domestic conflict. In the words of Ellen Brown,
“somebody in government is expecting some serious civil unrest …”
American police have taken a page out of the Communist Chinese civilian suppression manual and have adopted drones for surveillance, crowd control and suppression purposes.
False Claims of utility.
DHS chief Janet Napolitano claimed this was to prepare for a mass influx of immigrants into the United States that would require the “shelter and processing” of large numbers of people, but this is nonsense.
By whom will the US be attacked that Homeland Security would be responsible for defense, and from where would arise a mass of peaceful immigrants so large as to require more than three billion bullets to repel them?
America has spent millions of dollars, if not billions, on prisons and internment facilities to deal with emergencies and large scale unrest.
This is the same government that recently shut down many of its operations including most of the National Parks, for lack of funds, yet had sufficient money to purchase billions of bullets for a non-existent civilian army.
A spokesperson was quoted as justifying this massive purchase to “help the government get a low price for a big purchase”, and claimed DHS used “as many as 15 million rounds every year in training exercises”.
Someone should ask DHS to divide 3 billion by 15 million, which tells us the ammunition purchase will supply DHS needs for the next 200 years.
America has spent millions of dollars, if not billions, on prisons and internment facilities to deal with emergencies and large scale unrest.
The authorities naturally attribute criticism and hard questions to mentally-unbalanced ‘conspiracy theorists’, but this is one more instance where actions appear irrational and the official story is so full of holes that it makes no sense.
‘Unconventional’ paper targets.
Another DHS purchase that produced a firestorm of anger when its news went viral, was the supply of what we might call ‘unconventional’ paper targets which were used as practice shooting targets in ‘training exercises’.
This could very well be the future for many Americans who are not “with the program”.
These targets consisted of figures of American civilians in residential settings. They included small children. They include a young pregnant mother, and old women in robes. They include grandmothers and grandfathers in their kitchens and front yards. They include teenagers in parks, little girls and more.
Perhaps the most frightening part being that all these were termed “no hesitation targets”, meaning to fire without hesitation at the sight of these enemies.
American protestors are the exact type of people that these weapons are targeting.
What could possibly justify the supply of such targets to a military force, with such an instruction? The US fedbiz.op website took down the solicitation after Infowars broke the story, and eventually apologized publicly for creating these targets of small children.
A Fake City
In early 2014 it was reported that the US military had built a $100 million fake city of about 300 acres in Virginia, for use in training.
The Federal government has created these fake cities and towns from which to train warriors to fight American patriots on American soil with.
This was for the training of troops for the occupation of cities, complete with a sports stadium, bank, school, and an underground subway in order to train for future combat scenarios in American urban areas.
The subway carriages even carry the same logo as those in Washington DC. More disturbingly, it was reported that
“soldiers are being taught that Christians, Tea Party supporters and anti-abortion activists represent a radical terror threat, mirroring rhetoric backed by the Department of Homeland Security which frames “liberty lovers” as domestic extremists.”
The DHS is also building a 176-acre secure compound in the
lowest-income area of Washington, DC, which seems almost certainly a
preparation for civil war. (18) (19)
American soldiers, train alongside the DHS, in these American sized towns wearing full spectrum bio-warfare gear.
The Trigger Event
The trigger could be an economic collapse that causes angry Americans to flood the streets similar to the Occupy Wall Street and other scenes witnessed across both the US and Europe during the last FED-induced economic crisis.
Or it could be COVID-19.
It is worth noting that the Occupy Wall Street protest had the right idea but the wrong target.
A military urban training center, which is a mock 30-acre town located on Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, has been recently upgraded to look more American than the ‘international city’ it once did, adding a Baptist church, a police station and several farmhouses. Just last February we posted a story of another fake “American looking” city, equipped with our street signs, a church and an underground subway system nearly identical to one in Washington DC.
Wall Street is just an idea, and a bit player. The ultimate cause is the FED, and that should have been their focus. But the FED, the bankers and the FBI saw this coming and infiltrated and financed the protest groups as a way to take control and deflect them from any useful action or focus.
The “top secret” exercises
In the middle of 2013 several US local media reported the DHS was conducting widely public but still “top secret” exercises categorized as “full scale terrorism drills” across the entire nation.
All of this was with the stated purpose of making citizens “feel safe”, but which resulted in thousands of terrified people not knowing how to respond to what appeared as a domestic invasion by the US military.
The military has a very long history of training and using aerosols that they would spray over regions. They have done this for cloud seeding, insect control, and to practice germ and chemical warfare operations in simulated battle conditions.
People were capriciously apprehended and released after having their belongings searched, but nevertheless urged to celebrate their “independence” from tyranny.
These drills were presented as readiness training for potential terrorist incursions, though DHS failed to mention the New York Times observation that all the domestic terror plots in the United States over the last decade were “hatched by the FBI”.
One other worrying development …
One other worrying development was the appearance of US military C-130 cargo planes apparently spraying “mosquitoes” over various Florida cities at an altitude of less than 50 meters.
An American Air Force C-130 spraying pesticides over a target area.
Pest control is hardly a military duty, these events immediately reminding me of the US military spraying bacterial and other pathogens over many parts of the US in various CIA-related experiments on the domestic population.
These low-altitude overflights are almost certainly practice runs for potential crowd control in the future, for dispensing tear gas or other non-lethal (or lethal) material that would disperse or disorient protestors.
A spraying and aerosol mixing assembly system being installed and loaded into a C-130 cargo plane for undisclosed purposes.
I cannot imagine all the possibilities, but the US military most certainly is not going into the mosquito-spraying business. (19) (20)
US Major General Curry was quoted as stating,
“We have local police, backed up by each state’s National Guard, backed up by the Department of Defense. So in addition to all these forces why does Homeland Security need its own private army? Why do the SSA, NOAA and other government agencies need to create their own civilian security forces armed with hollow nose bullets?”
Some may want to dismiss this as just another conspiracy theory, but we might recall the words of Senator Daniel Inouye in 1987,
“There exists a shadowy Government with its own Air Force, its own Navy, its own fundraising mechanism, and the ability to pursue its own ideas of national interest, free from all checks and balances, and free from the law itself.”
The threats to civil liberties
The threats to civil liberties go much farther and are much more ominous than I’ve related so far.
Another factor is the spate of secret Executive Orders that Obama signed without Congressional approval, observers claiming those orders violated existing laws and were therefore illegal, but that the powers behind the White House considered themselves above all law.
Militarized police can go and conduct military operations, using the same sort of tactics, in America against Americans at will.
One of the most sinister was Executive Order 13603 which granted authorization to seize possession of every possible resource, including property and “all food storage facilities”.
One author wrote that…
“This extremist, maniacal edict is designed to enforce our submission, rendering us totally dependent on Big Brother government or face the obvious – starvation and extermination.”
What could possibly have instigated such an order, unless the government is preparing for an all-out war against the American people?
What possible excuse, during peace-time, would a “democratic” government have, for the initiation of a program to seize all the “food, water and food storage facilities” of a nation?
The various American government(s) at all levels have been training on how to control, herd and disarm normal American civilians.
If we add these to the internment camps and the bullets, what conclusions are possible?
Another Threat
Another ominous threat is that much of the NSA’s illegal intelligence-gathering activities were transferred to the Department of Homeland Security.
This is the same people with the 800 internment camps and the 3 billion bullets.
The apparent reason is that the NSA can collect information on domestic political dissidents but has no police powers to act on them, whereas DHS has legislative authority to gather, arrest and incarcerate anyone on their watch lists.
American police today more resembles a military army that operates on American soil, in complete defiance of the United States Constitution.
DHS is apparently creating a “graded list” of these targeted so-called “security threats”. Those at the top of this list assessed according to how widely disseminated are their anti-establishment views, the followers they appear to have. These will be the first to disappear into the internment maze.
This new policy gives Homeland Security full authority to effectively terrorize the American people under a pretense of controlling domestic terrorism. When we consider these two items, Executive Order 13603 and the new powers granted to DHS, the only possible response can be fear.
When the militarized police come into your communities they will first sweep it of guns, making absolutely sure that the civilians are disarmed properly and completely.
Secret Procedures
If all this isn’t enough, DHS was revealed to have a secret procedure for the instant shutting down of all private communications in America. This includes mobile phone networks. It is a program that was accidentally revealed when government officials in San Francisco disabled all mobile phone calls during a peaceful protest.
The administration insisted it had the legal authority to control these communications “during times of national crisis”, and “for the purpose of ensuring public safety”. It has also given DHS the power to actually “seize” all privately-owned communications facilities in order to prevent any civilian communications occurring.
It is quite common to find militarized police in America conducting “no knock” raids on innocent American civilians. People! Not even Communist China does this.
Some individuals applied to the courts for further information on these new procedures and policies, but DHS claimed it was “unable to locate or identify any records” in relation to the matter.
Nothing more to be said, but it’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that the US government is quickly becoming fully prepared for war against its civilian population.
No Fourth Amendment.
With the NSA revelations by Edward Snowdon, there is no longer any question that many US government agencies have been monitoring and gathering information on large numbers of known American political dissidents.
These many agencies include the NSA, FBI, CIA, DHS, various military groups and another 70 or 80 so-called “public-private fusion centers” scattered around the US.
Americans are monitored -, then they will be disarmed, as they are all on “lists” where the government will use to secure them into “camps” for their own safety.
Former NSA Technical Director William Binney claimed in an interview that the NSA had a list of 500,000 to one million people in the US who were closely watched and whose every communication and bit of personal data were recorded.
These are not terrorists in any sense, but potential leaders of political dissension and therefore potential suspects in the event of civil disturbances.
Americans are on “lists”…
There also exists a database known as “Main Core”, containing names of Americans who might be considered troublesome.
Knowledgeable sources claim these lists contains the names and communication information of more than eight million Americans who would be potential suspects of political activism.
“Political Activism” would include “national opposition to US military invasion abroad”.
It includes political dissidents, environmental and other activists, political and tax protesters, lawyers and professors, publishers and journalists, and many more who are most likely harmless, average people.
Average, everyday Americans, are the targets for the PTB; the oligarchy that plans to totally transform America into their vision of utopia.
The database apparently contains all to and from email addresses, all email content, all in and out phone numbers plus duration of calls, the amounts and locations of ATM withdrawals, all credit card purchases and much more.
It appears that this dissident surveillance program dates back to the early 1980s, the time of our Great Transformation.
When it was revealed that Oliver North, operating from a secure White House site, had been using a database called PROMIS which was part of the REX-84 plan, to track dissidents and potential troublemakers within the United States.
This database was meant to identify and immediately locate perceived “enemies of the state” if mass civil disturbances were to break out. (21) (22)
The perceived “enemies of the state” are average people like you and I, who might not agree with the % who rule America.
The Middle-Class Revolt
In late 2008 a leaked internal memo from Tom Fitzpatrick, Citibank’s chief technical strategist, contained ominous predictions for American civil society after the vicious financial crisis. He wrote,
“The world is not going back to normal ‘after the magnitude of what they have done'”.
Fitzpatrick claimed that [1] the massive destruction of the middle class, [2] the draining of all the wealth from the population, and [3] the QE money creation by the FED would either bring about a resurgence of inflation…
… or that the US would fall into “depression, civil disorder and possibly war”.
Occupy Wall Street protest.
He claimed that with the passing of each week and month there was a growing danger that could lead to political instability, a risk of domestic unrest because people were becoming increasingly disenfranchised and impoverished.
Lest we succumb to the temptation of accepting the 2008 financial
crisis and the resulting loss of homes as an accident of fate, it would
be wise to consider these quotes by Montagu Norman, Governor of The Bank
of England prior to the crash of 1929, addressing the United States
Bankers’ Association, New York, Idaho Leader, 26 August 1924.
“Capital must protect itself in every possible way, both by combination and legislation. Debts must be collected, mortgages foreclosed as rapidly as possible. When, through process of law, the common people lose their homes, they will become more docile and more easily governed through the strong arm of the government applied by a central power of wealth under leading financiers. These truths are well known among our principal men, who are now engaged in forming an imperialism to govern the world.”
And his thoughts on democracy:
“By dividing the voters through the political party system, we can get them to expend their energies in fighting for questions of no importance.”
“It is thus, by discrete action, we can secure for ourselves that which has been so well planned and so successfully accomplished.”
The US government has developed an increasing fear of its own middle class.
The PTB Oligarchy should not need to fear Average Americans unless…
Armed Citizens
A middle class that is wide awake to the protests and uprisings in other nations where governments have colluded with the international bankers.
And where large multi-nationals to gut their middle classes and effect the same transfer of wealth to the top 1% as occurred in America.
People in many Western societies have become disgruntled and bitter at the increasing evidence that their vaunted democracies have been usurped by the unrestrained capitalists, creating intolerable situations where the people are sacrificed for the increasing wealth of that same top 1%.
While the coronavirus continues to spread throughout the world some people are stockpiling toilet paper and food, while Americans are flocking to buy guns. Images and videos of people lining up outside gun stores in the United States are emerging on social media. Amelia Adams, the US correspondent for Nine News tweeted a video of people lining up outside a gun shop in Los Angeles, with the queue trailing some 10 meters from the shop’s door down the sidewalk.
At first, the US government exhibited a grim and rather reprehensible kind of satisfaction at watching the misery in other nations where the FED and IMF and the International Bankers had succeeded in their aims of wealth transference, but it also realized that the same boiling rage existed in America and perhaps much less controllable.
US citizens were protesting against a government that was no longer democratic in any sense…
… and was both unwilling and unable to repair a hopelessly corrupt and inefficient system.
They finally awoke en masse and objected to ingrained corruption, shoddy public services, high taxes, homelessness, unemployment, rising inflation, the development of a police state, and more.
Public Rage
It is public rage at the realization of having been betrayed by a “democratic” government that converts civil unrest into political activism and revolution…
… and it is this that lies at the heart of the FBI’s categorization of US political dissent as “domestic terrorism”.
The number of American militias form with each encroachment on freedom and liberty. Today, many such militias exist throughout the United States.
This terminology is important because the US, in all its hypocrisy for democracy, free speech and freedom of assembly, cannot face the world with open and apparent suppression of political dissent.
Therefore, US citizens protesting against their own government cannot be exercising free speech but rather anarchy and terrorism, thereby justifying the use of deadly force to control dissension.
The powers that control America (PTB) have no interest in fairy-tales of freedom. They are interested in wealth and control, and the people in any country are irrelevant – including those in the US.
The number of American militias form with each encroachment on freedom and liberty. Today, many such militias exist throughout the United States.
Americans have experienced first-hand the destruction of their quality of life; they see clearly the disappearance of future opportunity for their children, and they recognize better than most the loss of their freedom of expression which they have so valued.
And they know it is precisely the retraction of that expression that is necessary for their no-longer-democratic government to maintain control.
The number of American militias form with each encroachment on freedom and liberty. Today, many such militias exist throughout the United States.
This is where their economic and social dissatisfaction mutate into political activism – revolution, in fact – and it is this realization among the authorities that has spawned the internship camps, the billions of bullets purchased, and the “shoot to kill” orders.
Revolution – The Struggle for Class Power
Buried in the litany of troubles the US is facing today is the primary fact that the nation is engaged in a brutal class war, a struggle for class power that the bottom 99% are losing.
This war was declared in the late 1970s, gained great momentum in the 1980s and 1990s, and is still accelerating toward its final desperate conclusion.
There are few signs on the horizon that cause hope for a change in direction, and I fear it may be too late.
The number of American militias form with each encroachment on freedom and liberty. Today, many such militias exist throughout the United States.
There is still power with the people themselves, and indeed without the both active cooperation and silent complicity of the people, none of the pathological descent into despair would have been possible.
Probably the only force in America that can change what is happening is the combined force of labor.
This isn’t so easy today, since the government killed most labor organizations and there is now little if any leadership.
A total withdrawal of labor succeeded in forcing a new social contract in 1946 and may be the only power remaining today, but times have changed and tactics must change too. If all unions withdrew their services with the full cooperation of unorganized labor, change might be possible.
Socialist Antifa shock-troops lining u to overthrow the government in favor of a social utopia.
But realistically, there is no hope that such a mass protest could be organized even though it is the only possible way to get the attention of whatever remains of a conscientious government and force through a reversal of the tide.
In any case, taking to the streets is unlikely to produce pleasant results. If the police don’t have enough bodies to beat up and arrest everyone, DHS has its internment camps, its 3 billion bullets, its years of practice with “no-hesitation” human targets, and it will use all of them.
BLM – Black Lives Matter forces demanding “social and racial change”.
The only safe way for Americans to go on strike today is to stay at home. On this topic, one internet commenter wrote,
“Just don’t go to work. There is no need to picket in the streets to be on strike, and the factories and offices will be just as quiet and empty, and the profits just as non-existent. The police cannot possibly conduct home-by-home visits to beat up strikers one by one, and no military, even the DHS, is efficient when trying to blow up houses scattered all over the county, one by one. Strikers are probably safe if they stay at home and lock their door.”
Another wrote,
“Another tactic is for Americans to simply quit shopping. They don’t have the money anyway, and don’t need all that useless junk. Don’t buy anything you don’t actually need, and delay even those purchases as long as possible, especially the big-ticket items like cars and furniture. If at all possible, delay every purchase for at least one year. As much as is practicable, stop driving your car. Cancel your cable TV and read a book.” Your grandmother gave you advice 100 years ago that is still valid today: “Use it up, wear it out. Make it do. Do without.”
A third commenter gave this advice:
“One thing you can do to get their attention is to stop paying your bills. VISA and MasterCard can’t cancel 800 million credit cards at the same time, and no bank can process 100 million mortgage defaults. No system can cope with massive non-payment of debt. You are their only source of money and you can ensure they don’t get any of it. That will wake them up. Tell them you’ll begin paying when the overseas corporate tax holiday is over, when high income taxes are reinstated for the rich, when the individual bankers are in prison and when the lost jobs begin returning. This isn’t foolproof, but it’s the best I can do.”
And finally, a more ambitious poster offered these comments:
“Today, the US State Department, the CIA and the FBI pride themselves on their ability to use Twitter and Facebook to cause civil unrest, chaos, violence, and even revolutions, in other countries. It may not have occurred to them that the same tools they use against everyone else can be just as easily used against them. The CIA used Gene Sharp and his Einstein Institute to prepare the Otpor civil disobedience manuals that our government used as the gunpowder to destroy Jugoslavia, and as the template for a dozen other “color revolutions” of which it was so proud. Copies are freely available on the internet.”
William Blum again:
“As I’ve said before: Inasmuch as I can’t see violent revolution succeeding in the United States (something deep inside tells me that we couldn’t quite match the government’s firepower, not to mention its viciousness), I can offer no solution to stopping the imperial beast other than this: Educate yourself and as many others as you can, raising their political and ideological consciousness, providing them with the factual ammunition and arguments needed to sway others, increasing the number of those in the opposition until it raises the political price for those in power, until it reaches a critical mass, at which point … I can’t predict the form the explosion will take or what might be the trigger … But you have to have faith. And courage.”
Isn’t this exactly what is happening today?
Isn’t all these suggestions what is occurring today? People are staying inside. They are not buying anything. They are sheltering in place, and cowering in fear.
This translates into one of two things.
Advantage for the PTB to implement drastic change.
Advantage for the grassroots American citizenry to implement drastic change.
Both of which are truly frightening in the “powder keg” that America is today.
Author
Larry Romanoff is a
retired management consultant and businessman. He has held executive
positions in international consulting firms, and owned an international
import-export business. He lives in Shanghai and is currently writing a
series of ten books generally related to China and the West. He can be
contacted at: 2186604556@qq.com
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you.
I read that Donald Trump wants the COVID-19 vaccine that is being developed in Germany. He wants it to be patented as an American product and limit it’s utilization to Americans only.
Meanwhile, China is sending supplies and resources to any nation that needs it. Planes, boats and transports have been dispatched and are busy trying to help other nations during time of need.
America - Selfish, self-serving, and demanding.
China - Helpful, compassionate, offering help.
Perhaps it’s time to step back and look at the bigger picture.
It’s a picture of what lies outside the shores of the United States. It’s a picture that does not resemble anything that any American media reports. This is true whether it is the Alt-Left, the Mainstream Media or the Alt-Right neocon publications.
Instead, take a look at what’s really going on, in the bigger picture…
The following is a reprint of an article found on the Global Research website. All credit to the authors.
Washington elites can’t recognize that a multi-polar world is already here. Worse, the Trump administration keeps constantly stumbling in foreign policy, thus showing the entire world that the USA may not be the almighty superpower.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that the US is turning into Rodney Dangerfield of geopolitics.
Here are some recent examples of embarrassing US foreign policy:
EU & Russia
USA openly tries to block Nord Stream, the gas pipeline that links Russia to Europe. And the US-led propaganda campaign was non-stop & intense.
In the end, Germany & others went ahead with the Russian pipeline anyways.
Nord Stream
What does this have to do with America? Why is America so fixated in preventing this progress?
India and Turkey
India and Turkey ignore America’s public bullying and buy Russian missile defense systems (S-400).
Then the US threatens to retaliate by blocking the sale of F-35 to Turkey.
What does this have to do with America? Why is America so fixated in preventing this progress?
India
India — America’s strategic partner to “contain” China — buys oil from Iran & Venezuela, ignoring US sanctions.
India and Iran have made many trade agreements.
What does this have to do with America? Why is America so fixated in preventing this progress?
Venezuela
Having failed in Syria & Iran, the bloodthirsty Neocons wanted at least one damn regime change. So they targeted Venezuela and used all the standard strategies — choosing a puppet leader (Guaido), trying to bribe/blackmail military leaders, obvious sabotage of electricity across the whole nation etc.
John Bolton, Marco Rubio and Mike Pompeo spend enormous time tweeting sensational propaganda.
Yet, Maduro has survived.
Now, to rub it in, Putin is flying Russian military and aid to Venezuela; and China has sent medical supplies. The Monroe Doctrine is openly challenged for the first time since the Cuban Crisis.
Maduro and Xi Peng.
What does this have to do with America? Why is America so fixated in preventing this progress?
Huawei
US bans Huawei & dictates all its allies into doing the same!
Panama ignores US threats, welcomes Xi Jinping, joins Belt and Road, and signs 40 bilateral agreements with China.
Xi Peng in Panama.
What does this have to do with America? Why is America so fixated in preventing this progress?
Italy
Similarly, the US government publicly threatened Italy about joining the BRI…
How idiotic!
The rest of the world does not subscribe to American Alt-Right neocon publications. This type of rhetoric is fine within the American echo chamber, but looks absolutely ridiculous to the rest of the world.
Maybe Washington doesn’t know that many EU countries are already formal members of BRI — Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece, Malta, Poland, Portugal etc.
Well, Xi Jinping visited Italy in March, got a royal welcome and signed huge deals.
Italy ignored the US and signed on to Belt and Road. Plus, Italian PM Conte visited China in April for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Summit (where representatives from 150 countries, including 37 Prime Ministers and Presidents, attended).
As Italian leaders put it, “BRI creates a circle of virtuous growth” and “BRI is a train that Italy cannot afford to miss.”
Also please note, that during the COVID-19 crisis, the United States refused to help Italy in any way.
Yet China not only sent supplies, but sent doctors and medical staff to assist the already stressed Italian medical staff.
What does this have to do with America? Why is America so fixated in preventing this progress?
France
Then Xi Jinping went to France, got a red carpet welcome again
(including at Arc de Triomphe in Paris) and signed a massive deal to buy
300 French Airbus planes!
Not the American planes that they had discussed with Obama.
Xi Jinping went to France, got a red carpet welcome again (including at Arc de Triomphe in Paris) and signed a massive deal to buy 300 French Airbus planes!
Two days earlier, Macron had warned that Europe shouldn’t be naive about China’s influence.
But now he claims “China is EU’s strategic partner!!!”
China is EU’s strategic partner!
What does this have to do with America? Why is America so fixated in preventing this progress?
Germany
Even Germany’s Merkel endorsed the Belt and Road Initiative by saying…
“It’s an important project and Europeans want to participate in it.”
Germany has become strategic partners with China.
Everyone around the world realizes the power of China’s economy. And they ignore America’s hysterical reaction.
The entire saga is like that “Distracted Boyfriend” meme.
“Distracted Boyfriend” meme.
America needs a proactive, constructive, positive foreign policy in this multi-polar world. And the US should stop being so insecure, paranoid and negative.
Trump should join the Belt and Road Initiative and work with 126 other member countries to build infrastructure, increase connectivity and boost trade. Also, stop demonizing Russia & picking fights with Venezuela, Iran, Syria etc.
We need to get out of the zero-sum attitude & focus on a win-win strategy.
Conclusion
It doesn’t take a “Rocket Scientist” to figure out where the world is moving towards.
America possesses 10% of the world’s factories. China possesses nearly 70% of the factories. China hasn’t fought a war since 1977, and they offer grants and loans with “no strings attached”. They seek harmony and a “win – win” arrangement. They view global relationships as “give and take” in a way that both parties benefit.
They keep their “noses out of” other nations internal affairs.
Hard manufacturing industry as part of a nation’s GDP world-wide. America is on par with Burma. Even tiny Sri Lanka, and Paraguay have better ratios.
Meanwhile the United States, like a big lumbering aged dinosaur is trying to clutch and claw itself back into global significance. It has to. For if it doesn’t, that enormous mountain of debt, based on the inflated petrol-dollars, will totally devastate what remains of America.
The only options left for America are to [1] get with “the program” and work together with the rest of the world, or [2] engage China (and by extension, Russia) in World War III.
No other options are “on the table”.
Let’s see what happens. Pay strict attention to the American mainstream and Alt-Right media. The nature of the articles will inform you as to which path America has embarked upon.
If the anti-China rhetoric keeps on increasing in intensity, a move to Iceland might be prudent.
I hope that you enjoyed this post. I have many others in my Trump Trade Wars Index, here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.
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We like to think that we are independent thinkers. We like to believe that we really know what is going on in the world. We know that the American government controls the press, and that the rich oligarchy controls the Big Government Deep State. And we think of everyone else that believes them as “sheeple”.
But perhaps, the government controls ALL of the media, both the left-wing and the right-wing.
And that perhaps you are being led to believe that you are thinking independently, when you are actually just following the programmed narrative that the PTB (the Powers That Be) desire.
I see this in the narratives that are almost always easy to categorize by political affiliation. It's become simplistic and frightening.
Here we discuss this mechanism.
The following is an article titled:”Social Media Is A Polarization Machine” by FMPadmin6120 written on December 31, 2019. It is edited to fit this venue, but aside from that left intact. All credit to the author; Paul Rosenberg at www.freemansperspective.com .
Sure, we’ve all seen this in practice and people have developed catchy terms for it, like echo chamber, but the polarization effect of social media has been demonstrated scientifically. In fact, some of us were warning about it more than a decade ago. And while I can no longer find my original documentation on the subject, I can tell you precisely how it works.
The One-Room Phenomenon
What researchers discovered about twenty years ago was that putting people of the same opinion into a single room had a striking effect: The opinion in the room moved, inevitably, to the extreme. And this effect was the same no matter what the original opinion may have been.
So, then:
If you put a bunch of right-wingers in a room, the shared opinion in the room will become stridently right-wing.
If you put a bunch of left-wingers in a room, the shared opinion in the room will become stridently left-wing.
If you put a bunch of save-the-planet advocates in a room, their opinion will become all the more adamantly save-the-planet.
If you put in a bunch of the-planet-is-just-fine advocates, their opinion will become all the more adamantly the-planet-is-just-fine.
This happens because of human insecurity and status-seeking: Anyone taking a contrary opinion (advocating “right-wing” economics in the left-wing room, for example) is instantly branded as a traitor and suffers heavy shaming within the group.
Gaining social status in the closed room, however, is simple and obvious: You just adopt a stronger, more polarized, version of the original opinion.
Because of this, the opinion in a closed group becomes more and more severe. That is, it becomes increasingly polarized.
Yeah, They Know
Like I said at the open, if you’ve observed people at all, you’ve seen them polarized by Facebook. They climb into their groups, block discordant voices, and end up in a (partly) self-created echo chamber.
I say “partly” self-created because Facebook knows all too well what they’re doing. They want people who are emotionally tied to their groups. It’s called addiction, and it’s what makes Facebook rich.
Being polarized also makes people cold and cruel. Anyone who’s on the other side of what their group thinks is not just wrong, but evil. And whoever fails to agree with them is their opponent… an object of disgust.
In that condition, people will advocate all sorts of stupid and even abominable positions, assured that the members of their group will support them tooth and nail. It’s now common, after all, for such groups to lump ten million people together and slap a negative verdict on them all. If you’re the wrong skin color, or too old, or too young, or a dozen other things, you’re “privileged,” or “don’t get it,” or something else. That is, you are declared evil. After that, whoever hurts you is a hero.
This serves Facebook, you understand. Once your opinions are polarized, you are dependent on your group and you’ll be unable to leave.
This addiction is also crucial for political causes. Facebook provides hard believers: addicts with claims to righteousness. And that means that politicians need Facebook, and deeply. Politicians get ahead by making their opponents into monsters, after all, and social media may be the best tool ever for creating polar opposites. (Or at least the illusion thereof.)
The Awakening Has Begun
Little by little, people are waking up to the evils of group dynamics and the devolutionary effects they generate.
Twitter, in my opinion, is the least bad of the centralized social media platforms, and will hopefully be decentralizing at some point. They have, at least, a team working on that.
There are decentralized social media experiments coming along, and I hope they succeed, but the closed group problem will remain, even if it isn’t stoked to the limit by political and financial mercenaries((I was ready to write “whores,” rather than “mercenaries,” but I can’t equate sex workers, even metaphorically, with willful and purposeful abusers of mankind.)).
Thoughtful, observant and intelligent people are noticing that social media makes humans hateful, as well as lonely, insecure and miserable. I hope that knowledge spreads. I further hope that people will realize the past ten years of their life have been polluted by social media.
No, there’s nothing wrong with talking to friends and sharing ideas, but Facebook and other social media companies have weaponized this. They are intentionally abusing human instincts.
So, don’t get angry and hateful in response; just stop rewarding them. People who addict and polarize you are precisely the wrong ones to empower.
Social media is a polarization machine. Separating from it would be a very good idea.
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This is an interesting article that I personal believe has merit. It is, of course, about the United States and some historical events that resulted into the cluster-fuck that America is today. It describes the “improvements” by the radical “enlightened” progressives that changed America into an oligarchy.
Good going assholes.
Well, the United States Empire is on the decline and the people on the decks of the sinking ship are all scurrying here and there trying to make sense of things, and figuring out how to survive the tumult. It’s horrific.
This article kind of winds the clock back a spell. We look at what events caused the great ship to sink. (Um. Many.) Now I have covered this subject in numerous other posts, but here we have another person that wants to throw his “two cents” into the fray.
It’s a good read.
(I am getting tired of the COVID-19 posts, lately.)
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how things are and how we got here – and I think I’ve identified the date when we went off course: September 14th, 1901.
The day William McKinley died, a few days after being shot.
Take a look at this last address, made shortly before he was shot – do read the whole thing.
But the bit that stands out for me is how he talks at length about the growing inter-dependence of the world…
… while also asserting that our fair trade relations must never be done at the expense of our home production.
Get it?
We must trade, but we must never harm ourselves in the pursuit of the almighty dollar.
This is the sort of speech we got when the President and Congress were trying to serve the interests of the American people…
… and they were doing what they did out in the open, debating it in public, and working strictly within the Constitutional confines of our government.
President McKinley
People don’t think much of McKinley and even someone as versed in history as I am only have a slight bit of knowledge about him…
… from a prosperous Ohio family; Civil War service, law, politics and the rise to the top.
He is portrayed as unimaginative; plodding.
He is entirely overshadowed by the man who succeeded him, Theodore Roosevelt, who is always cast in heroic terms…
…taking over and reinvigorating the American government.
But I think we can see now, at long remove, that having a vigorous American government isn’t an unalloyed benefit.
With a slight hiccup under Coolidge in the 1920’s, since McKinley we’ve seen the atrophy of Congressional power; an increasingly Imperial Presidency and the massive expansion of government control…
… and, over the long term, the imposition of policies which are overtly destructive of the United States.
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt came in and had his famous assertion that if the law doesn’t specifically prohibit a President from doing a thing, then the thing can be done.
It was a gigantic shift.
It started the process of having our system being that of a government with strictly enumerated powers to having a government doing whatever it can get away with.
Wilson and FDR just put that attitude on steroids…
… so much so that even a limited government man like Reagan still blithely exercised powers that Presidents up to McKinley would never dreamed of exercising.
But a government without limits is a government which not only can do anything…
… it will do anything…
… and as it will still be a government run by human beings, it will almost certainly end up doing whatever those with the most influence demand.
And therein lies our problem.
Today
Realize that today – right now – there are people, right and left, who are demanding that Trump essentially go to war with Turkey because they think it wrong that the Turks are going after the Kurds.
Maybe the Turks are wrong.
But if the Turks are wrong, then it isn’t for the American President to decide if we fight them…
…or, at least, it isn’t supposed to be the President who decides if we fight…
… it is supposed to be Congress.
Our Congress, which will debate a declaration of war and then vote on it…and if approved, we go to war.
But, we’re so far down this road that most don’t even see that – they are so used, that is, to the government just doing things that they are demanding it just do something in Syria.
And do something about climate change.
And do something about trans people.
And do something about illegal immigrants.
And so on and on and on.
A big mess.
And think about what we’ve got: a gigantic system of treaties, alliances, agreements, laws, regulations and such which authorize this, that or the other thing and none of it is fully known, hardly any of it was really debated…
…and it is all in the service of doing something…
… nobody really knows what…
… but if we don’t keep things just as they are, disaster will result.
Or, so we’re told.
President Trump
I asserted some while back that President Trump is the most law-abiding President we’ve had since Coolidge: and I’m sure I’m right about that.
I do not say the most morally excellent President – first off, I can’t peer into souls and so I’m unable to judge the status of President Trump’s; secondly, because it is irrelevant to whether or not the President obeys the law.
And Trump obeys the law.
The proof of that is that after years of relentlessly being investigated (often by entirely illegal means) they still haven’t found a crime they can hang around his neck.
Hardly anyone could survive that scrutiny…
…but, Trump has.
And if you look at what he says and does, he’s always acting within the law and asking Congress to codify things into law. He isn’t President Pen and Phone.
I don’t know if this lawfulness is the result of deep thought on the part of the President or mere instinct – but regardless, Trump has hit upon the first requirement of liberty: adherence to law.
That we can only do, via government, what the law says we can do – no more, no less and if you don’t like it, change the law via lawful means.
A Nation of Laws
It is my view that a Republic must strictly enforce its laws – and because of this, the laws must be [1] few and [2] easy to understand…
… and the government must not attempt to manage the lives of the people…
… because doing so requires a multiplicity of laws…
… each of which will merely increase government power along with the ability to abuse that power.
We cannot, willy nilly, go back to 1901…
… but we must go back to it as much as we can, and the first step is to start enforcing all the laws.
The laws against illegal entry. The laws against government malfeasance. So on and so forth: it doesn’t matter if they are good or bad laws: if they are on the books, they must be strictly enforced.
And it is the strict enforcement of bad laws which will ensure their repeal or modification…
… keeping in mind that a host of laws are on the books which routinely trip up regular folks…
… and they are kept intact because they aren’t allowed to trip up the Ruling Class…
…start having people like Hillary going to jail like a poor swabby who took a wrong picture…
… and all of a sudden our Rulers will be less interested in keeping laws like that on the books.
Detangling
The next part of a restoration should be, in my view, a disentangling of the United States from the world.
We can be an Empire or a Republic: We can’t be both.
NATO has to go.
The UN has to go.
Free Trade has to go – I am going to write up about what McKinley was talking up: Trade Reciprocity, which I think that Trump is on about. I want us to trade with the world – but only in ways that are mutually beneficial.
Bring our boys and girls back home.
Maintain a second-to-none military force in being. Advise the world that an attack upon the United States is a suicidal act – and then destroy the first nation which tests us on it. If we have alliances, they are to be temporary and serving a particular national goal.
No more CIA.
No more NSA.
No more FBI. Relations with tyrannical States to be kept to a minimum (tyranny and liberty cannot really coexist).
It is time – past time – that we gave up the goals of those who don’t have our interests at heart.
This is our country – it is made by us and for us.
It is not a world police, nor a dumping ground for the world’s refuse. It is a place where free people debate among themselves and decide via law what course to follow.
It is time, that is, for America to be America.
Conclusion
If laws are being selectively enforced, then America functionally has no laws. Instead it operates lawlessly outside the confines of its charter.
America became this “whatever it is” over the years. And it all pretty much began a hundred years ago.
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notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
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because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you.
The novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is a recently emerged human pathogen that has spread widely since January 2020. Initially, the basic reproductive number, R0, was estimated to be 2.2 to 2.7.
Here we provide a new estimate of this quantity.
We collected extensive individual case reports and estimated key epidemiology parameters, including the incubation period.Integrating these estimates and high-resolution real-time human travel and infection data with mathematical models, we estimated that the number of infected individuals during early epidemic double every 2.4days, and the R0 value is likely to be between 4.7 and 6.6.
We further show that quarantine and contact tracing of symptomatic individuals alone may not be effective and early, strong control measures are needed to stop transmission of the virus.
- Title: The Novel Coronavirus, 2019-nCoV, is Highly Contagious and More Infectious Than Initially Estimated
There’s a sizable percentage of people (Americans) who have absolutely no concept of what war is like. When elements of war starts raising it’s ugly head, they come up with other ideas and excuses what it could be. Anything but war. Anything but posturing for war. Anything.
To most Americans, war is a distant concept. It is something that you do in far-away third-world shit-holes. It’s where you tromp through deserts or slosh through jungles. It’s where you are issued an “assault rifle”, ride in helicopters and expensive sleek jets blow up Arabs riding white Toyota trucks.
That’s not war. That’s a “police action”, or as I like to refer to it… “conflict lite”.
Real wars occur when one nation tries to suppress another nation.
Hitler attacks Poland.
Japan attacks China.
Syria attacks Kuwait.
Suppressing China’s Rise
Lose-lose is a situation where no participant has any option that is positive. As such, strategy in a lose-lose situation is aimed at minimizing loss as opposed to winning.4 Examples of a Lose-Lose Situation - Simplicable
The United States has spent the last three years engaged in efforts to suppress China’s rise.
Jet Li in the movie “Fearless”.
It’s called a “lose – lose” strategy because (since the USA and China are both economically co-dependent) the only way to suppress China was to accept suppression of the USA in the process.
The idea was that China would “lose more” than what America would lose.
This is the Alt-Right “standard narrative” that “China needs the USA more than the USA needs China”.
So they implemented it on all sorts of levels…
Radical protests by “pro democracy” agitators in Hong Kong.
Uyghur Muslim assaults and aggression.
A on-going propaganda war.
Pressure on Taiwan.
Arrest of the President of Huawei.
Propaganda against advanced 5G, AI and robotic technologies.
A plague that wiped out the wheat crop.
A virus that wiped out the Chicken and poultry industry… in waves.
A virus that wiped out the pig industry, propagated by advanced drones.
Now, the deadly lethal COVID-19 virus on CNY eve of all times!
Some of it is so obvious that you have to be in complete denial not to acknowledge it… like the Arrest of the CEO of Huawei in Canada. Apparently her Chinese company sold products to Iran. And the United States wants everyone to boycott Iran.
Well, nationality is just an excuse… don’t you know.
Jet Li in the movie “Fearless”.
Another example is the on-going biological warfare being conducted against China. Trying to decimate it’s livestock, it’s chickens, it’s pork, it’s wheat crops…
…didn’t work. Though.
Oh… it’s just bad luck. Right?
Or as one website stated… “It’s God’s will”.
Good one that.
Jet Li in the movie “Fearless”.
And now the COVID-19 coronavirus attack on CNY eve. I mean, if it would have happened on Christmas eve, most Americans would be suspicious. But they aren’t.
Its just a “nothing burger”, don’t you know.
Conflicts look like this. Open your eyes.
You see people. Major conflicts start JUST LIKE THIS.
And everyone around you is in denial.
Just . Like . This.
Byretaliatinginthedecades-old tariff war, Trump hasnochoice. Either China eventuallybankruptstheUnitedStatesortheUnitedStates bankrupts China. Finally, thereisthethirdcommonsensedesiredoutcome: bothpartiessettlefor free trade withzero tariffs.
- Trump's Strategy in the China Trade War
Jet Li in the movie “Fearless”.
A hidden war…
When Hitler banned guns in Germany, the American media didn’t make a peep. When Stalin started starving the Lithuanians, the American media called it just bad weather and poor planning. When unrest started to hit Bosnia, the American media called it “isolated terror events”.
Trump’s key figures in the China Trade negotiations. All are neocons who earnestly want a lose-lose strategy.
The geo-political situation today is very complex. I cannot predict what will happen. I really cannot.
But you and I have a front-row seat to it.
Unfortunately.
The “big guns” came out to suppress China…
What I can say is that the COVID-19 bioweapon attack…
…and it actually was one – ask Xi Peng …
After all, he put his military on DEFCON ONE over it. Why are all the nuclear silos fully manned right now? Why is the Navy on high alert? Why are 100% of the militia called up? Why are all ports and entry points under lock-down? Why are all incoming packages frozen in customs and the internet completely locked solid?
Because of the... flu?
Jet Li in the movie “Fearless”.
… is that China handled the COVID-19 event exceptionally well. And the COVID-19 virus…
… still…
…it still got loose.
President Trump appoints VP Pence to handle the COVID-19 outbreak. He referred to it as Democrat Hype, and a “Hoax”. He further claimed that it is not as bad as the flu.
Not at all what the Trump Administration was expecting.
The decision to utilize biological warfare against China was hatched in the White house, and most certainly by resident neocons within the administration.
Now all people are getting infected. Not only Asians. And the mutation is observable. The current strains running through Iran, Italy and the USA are off-shoot “branches” from the “original” Chinese COVID-19 viral strain.
Jet Li in the movie “Fearless”.
People(!) brace yourself for some spicy times. You can believe whatever you want. You can believe this is natural if you wanna. You can believe that China is the scourge of the Earth and the USA is a gift from God. You can believe anything your heart desires…
But…
The USA is not China.
Jet Li in the movie “Fearless”.
The USA does not have the ability to handle a large influx of seriously ill people. It cannot handle people dropping like flies in the middle of the street or while they are driving their cars. It cannot handle disruptions of the food and petrol supplies. It cannot handle large conditions that tax the medical system.
You all know this is true.
Which is why many Americans are running to the gun stores first, then getting food.
Panic shopping in the United States. No one thinks that this is really bad, but they are stocking up just in case. How do I know? Well, no one is wearing a mask. They are also in a crowd. Further, they are not buying food, they are buying towels and soda. They believe that the COVID-19 is “just” another strain of the flu.
I take no joy in this. It greatly saddens me…
… and now to my point in all this…
Introduction
There’s a sizable percentage of people (Americans) who have absolutely no concept of what war is like.
They think that war is 9-11, that it is Pearl Harbor, that it is bombs exploding, and fires raging, and sleek jets flying.
Oh… sometimes.
But in reality war, real war, is not the made-for-television narrative. It is something that is usually done in secret, behind the scenes.
War is ANY conflict between nations.
War can be any kind of conflict between nations. Whether it is subtle, organized, planned, overt, or serendipitous. Scene from the Chinese movie with Jet Li titled “Fearless.”
Most wars are conducted in secret and hidden behind curtains of confusion and obfuscation. It’s “CIA type stuff”. It’s strange events “out of the blue”.
It’s a leading doctor gets sick here, and a report ends up missing there. It’s mass deaths in a obscure location over there.
It’s things like an explosion inside the North Korean nuclear weapons silo.
It’s things like pigs and chickens start dying all over China…
Jet Li in the movie “Fearless”.
When elements of war starts raising it’s ugly head, they come up with other ideas and excuses of what it could be. Anything but war. Anything but posturing for war. Anything.
Anything.
But people, listen up.
There will not be any announcements. No one is going to point at a person, place or thing and tell everyone to start fighting it. Instead, it will be conducted behind the scenes for a long time…
You see, it would be an absolute failure of the governments on both sides if it broke out into the open.
Scene from the movie about an out of control pandemic that hits the United States; “Carriers”.
It will be the worst kind of enemy; one that you cannot see and hurt and attack.
Like the movie "Invasion of the body snatchers."
This is a war that China has been dealing with since 2017, and keeping quiet and just smiling. But they have been dealing with it; fighting with it; and just keep on keeping on. They keep plugging away like the energizer bunny.
It’s got a visible face and a hidden face.
No one wants the true situation; that the agents of war; the COVID-19, has mutated to infect everyone and has washed up on the shores of the good ol’ USA.
Jet Li in the movie “Fearless”.
You had all best be wearing a mask and exercising rigorous hand washing discipline, as well as avoiding all contact outside of your homes.
Starting RIGHT NOW.
A taste of war
The neocons in the Trump administration strongly believed that they could launch this COVID-19 and it would be contained within China, and only kill Asians. They were convinced because their “experts” told them that this is what would happen.
Which explains why Trump and his administration keeps on saying the narrative that it isn't as bad as the flu...
The neocons expected that it would cause mass casualties that would overwhelm the Chinese hospital system. They figured that with a mortality rate of 10% it would cripple China for years.
The “experts” said…
Orville Schell (his father was the co-founder of Helsinki Watch) has been a card-carrying member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), which represents the highest, deepest echelon of the National Security State, and which has architected the anti-China consensus at the highest level of government and leadership in the US.
If we go to war with China--kinetic conflict--this will be in large part the doing of the CFR.
See here for a sampling of the type of tripe they routinely throw out about China. Remember, this is considered the elite "expert consensus".
The WHO is lying for China when it praises its response. https://www.cfr.org/blog/who-and-china-dereliction-duty (Compare this to what Dr. Bruce Aylward reported. Dr. Aylward was previously the UN lead for the Ebola outbreak, and he would know what he's talkng about).
Xi is aping Stalin
https://www.cfr.org/blog/china-likely-enter-another-long-period-severe-dictatorship
China is the perfect dictatorship https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/podcast-perfect-dictatorship
China is the bully of Asia https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/podcast-china-bully-asia
Jet Li in the movie “Fearless”.
But…
…that didn’t happen.
China enacted DEFCON ONE. They locked the entire nation down. They took immediate and fast action and was able to control the mortality rate to 3% in the infected areas.
A 3% mortality rate is what you have when you go into DEFCON ONE, build three hospitals, offer free medical care, and lock the entire nation down. It's what you get when you take drastic action to control a weaponized viral pathogen.
But you can expect a much higher mortality rate when you are dealing with for-profit hospitals, a media that is saying everything is fine, and a government run by the "deep state".
Maybe, China would have collapsed by now, if China was like America with [1] a contentious political structure, [2] a huge and slow moving bureaucracy, and [3] a culture of being a “lone wolf” where it’s every man for himself…
Maybe…
But…
Jet Li in the movie “Fearless”.
The Neocons made terrible assumptions…
But that cartoon image of China is seriously wrong.
China took a whole bunch of steps when they realized they had to repurpose big chunks of their hospital systems to [respond to the outbreak].
The first thing is, they said testing is free, treatment is free.
Right now, there are huge barriers [to testing and treatment] in the West. You can get tested, but then you might be negative and have to foot the bill.
In China, they realized those were barriers to people seeking care, so, as a state, they took over the payments for people whose insurance plans didn’t cover them. They tried to mitigate those barriers.
The other thing they did: Normally a prescription in China can’t last for more than a month. But they increased it to three months to make sure people didn’t run out [when they had to close a lot of their hospitals].
Another thing: Prescriptions could be done online and through WeChat [instead of requiring a doctor appointment].
And (fourthly) they set up a delivery system for medications for affected populations.
- Bruce Aylward
China is not the United States. It is a very serious nation that does not mess around. It is run by experts who are in their positions through merit, not popularity.
And more…
The average case fatality rate is 3.8 percent in China, but a lot of that is driven by the early epidemic in Wuhan where numbers were higher.
If you look outside of Hubei province [where Wuhan is], the case fatality rate is just under 1 percent now. I would not quote that as the number. That’s the mortality in China — and they find cases fast, get them isolated, in treatment, and supported early.
Second thing they do is ventilate dozens in the average hospital; they use extracorporeal membrane oxygenation [removing blood from a person’s body and oxygenating their red blood cells] when ventilation doesn’t work.
This is sophisticated health care.
They have a survival rate for this disease I would not extrapolate to the rest of the world. What you’ve seen in Italy and Iran is that a lot of people are dying.
This suggests the Chinese are really good at keeping people alive with this disease, and just because it’s 1 percent in the general population outside of Wuhan doesn’t mean it [will be the same in other countries].
- Bruce Aylward
The suppression strategy was a terrible mistake.
The people who came up with this suppression strategy were wrong.
Somehow the COVID-19 virus mutated. Whether it was a natural mutation, or had "help" from a lab is unknown. But the inherent "safety protocols" mutated away and resulted in an indiscriminate virus instead of a "safe and controllable" weaponized virus.
Like in the original "Drudge Dred" movie titled "Demolition Man" where the evil leadership resurrected Wesley Snipes with training to become a master criminal. And Judge Dred trained to knit. Only they added a special mind block - you cannot kill the leadership.
Wesley Snipes tries but can't. The evil leader laughs, and looks at him... his new puppet. So Wesley snipes orders his chief henchman to kill him instead.
It's sort of like that,
Wesley Snipes plays the evil villain that was trained to become a master criminal by the current government leadership.
Plus…
None of the neocons have any real-world experience with the horrors of war. They don’t know that things can go “tits up” very quickly and FUBAR, then “all bets are off”.
You know, it's not just war. It's projects. It's industry. It's investments. It's relationships. The jokers in Washington has spent so much time playing politics and living in the neocon echo chamber that they are oblivious to the realities outside of it...
They did not realize that war is the last resort action of fools.
China is not the United States. It is a very serious nation that does not mess around. It is run by experts who are in their positions through merit, not popularity.
They tried to implement a “lose – lose” strategy in order to contain China. China wanted a “win – win” the neocons wanted a “lose lose” because they actually believed that it was attainable. Both nations would lose, but China would be far more damaged than the United States would be…
…it’s the alt-Right narrative; “They need us more than we need them.” It’s ridiculously false.
It is mind-blowing off-the-charts false.
It is one of the biggest lies ever made, and yet the dumbed-down alt-Right American population actually believes it.
The Lose – Lose strategy was used by the Trump Negotiation team to resolve trade issues from 2016 to 2020. It’s based on the alt-Right narrative that “China needs the United States more than the United States needs China.” It’s wrong. Terribly wrong. And this move, this calculation based on this failed idea is what brought a weaponized viral agent to America.
The inescapable fact is that the neocon perceptions of what China actually is, and capable of, as well as what American capabilities are wildly divergent from reality.
I blame the belief in the propaganda bubble that surrounds America, but it doesn't really matter now.
Things did not go as planned…
China took drastic measures… going DEFCON ONE, and fully controlled and sealed the outbreak;
Ambitious, agile, and aggressive
The team began in Beijing and then split into two groups that, all told, traveled to Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chengdu, and the hardest hit city, Wuhan. They visited hospitals, laboratories, companies, wet markets selling live animals, train stations, and local government offices. “Everywhere you went, anyone you spoke to, there was a sense of responsibility and collective action, and there’s war footing to get things done,” Aylward says.
The group also reviewed the massive data set that Chinese scientists have compiled. (The country still accounts for more than 90% of the global total of the 90,000 confirmed cases.) They learned that about 80% of infected people had mild to moderate disease, 13.8% had severe symptoms, and 6.1% had life-threatening episodes of respiratory failure, septic shock, or organ failure. The case fatality rate was highest for people over age 80 (21.9%), and people who had heart disease, diabetes, or hypertension. Fever and dry cough were the most common symptoms. Surprisingly, only 4.8% of infected people had runny noses. Children made up a mere 2.4% of the cases, and almost none was severely ill. For the mild and moderate cases, it took 2 weeks on average to recover.
A critical unknown is how many mild or asymptomatic cases occur. If large numbers of infections are below the radar, that complicates attempts to isolate infectious people and slow spread of the virus. But on the positive side, if the virus causes few, if any, symptoms in many infected people, the current estimated case fatality rate is too high. (The report says that rate varies greatly, from 5.8% in Wuhan, whose health system was overwhelmed, to 0.7% in other regions.)
To get at this question, the report notes that so-called fever clinics in Guangdong province screened approximately 320,000 people for COVID-19 and only found 0.14% of them to be positive. “That was really interesting, because we were hoping and maybe expecting to see a large burden of mild and asymptomatic cases,” says Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “That piece of data suggests that’s not happening, which would imply that the case fatality risk might be more or less as we currently have.” But Guangdong province was not a heavily affected area, so it is not clear whether the same holds in Hubei province, which was the hardest hit, Rivers cautions.
Much of the report focuses on understanding how China achieved what many public health experts thought was impossible: containing the spread of a widely circulating respiratory virus. “China has rolled out perhaps the most ambitious, agile, and aggressive disease containment effort in history,” the report notes.
The most dramatic—and controversial—measure was the lockdown of Wuhan and nearby cities in Hubei province, which has put at least 50 million people under a mandatory quarantine since 23 January. That has “effectively prevented further exportation of infected individuals to the rest of the country,” the report concludes. In other regions of mainland China, people voluntarily quarantined and were monitored by appointed leaders in neighborhoods.
Chinese authorities also built two dedicated hospitals in Wuhan in just over 1 week. Health care workers from all over China were sent to the outbreak’s center. The government launched an unprecedented effort to trace contacts of confirmed cases. In Wuhan alone, more than 1800 teams of five or more people traced tens of thousands of contacts.
Aggressive “social distancing” measures implemented in the entire country included canceling sporting events and shuttering theaters. Schools extended breaks that began in mid-January for the Lunar New Year. Many businesses closed shop. Anyone who went outdoors had to wear a mask.
Two widely used mobile phone apps, AliPay and WeChat—which in recent years have replaced cash in China—helped enforce the restrictions, because they allow the government to keep track of people’s movements and even stop people with confirmed infections from traveling. “Every person has sort of a traffic light system,” says mission member Gabriel Leung, dean of the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong. Color codes on mobile phones—in which green, yellow, or red designate a person’s health status—let guards at train stations and other checkpoints know who to let through.
“As a consequence of all of these measures, public life is very reduced,” the report notes. But the measures worked. In the end, infected people rarely spread the virus to anyone but members of their own household, Leung says. Once all the people in an apartment or home were exposed, the virus had nowhere else to go and chains of transmission ended. “That’s how the epidemic truly came under control,” Leung says. In sum, he says, there was a combination of “good old social distancing and quarantining very effectively done because of that on-the-ground machinery at the neighborhood level, facilitated by AI [artificial intelligence] big data.”
Deep commitment to collective action
How feasible these kinds of stringent measures are in other countries is debatable. “China is unique in that it has a political system that can gain public compliance with extreme measures,” Gostin says. “But its use of social control and intrusive surveillance are not a good model for other countries.” The country also has an extraordinary ability to do labor-intensive, large-scale projects quickly, says Jeremy Konyndyk, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development:
“No one else in the world really can do what China just did.”
Nor should they, says lawyer Alexandra Phelan, a China specialist at Georgetown’s Center for Global Health Science and Security.
“Whether it works is not the only measure of whether something is a good public health control measure,” Phelan says. “There are plenty of things that would work to stop an outbreak that we would consider abhorrent in a just and free society.”
-ScienceMag
So China handled this biological weapons event expertly. They did so in a way that surprised the world. And while many find their techniques questionable, they begrudgingly admit that most other nations could not replicate their action.
What matters is that the COVID-19 that was supposed to cause strife in China has boomeranged, mutated, and like the “green slime monster” struck into the soul of America. And America is not ready for it.
American leadership is still, as of 3MAR20, treating it as a race-specific pathogenic organism. Even though all evidence shows otherwise. They are telling everyone over and over that the flu is far worse.
They say that flu is far worse.
Nothing to worry about here. The monsters are only harmless slime. This is a scene from the 1960’s class “B” science fiction movie: “The Green Slime”.
Lord help us all.
Why this matters…
Like I said. Anything can happen.
It could fizzle out to be nothing…
It could be contained like China contained it…
Or it could be a genuine SHTF event.
Let’s look at historical examples of other SHTF events and try to imagine what it must have been like for the participants of these events.
[1] The Massacre of Usipetes and the Tencteri
The Usipetes and the Tencteri were two ancient tribes who were massacred by the legions of Julius Caesar in 55 BC. We have known about their slaughter for thousands of years from ancient texts, including Caesar’s own account from his book on the Gallic Wars. However, we were never sure exactly where it happened, until 2015 when Dutch archaeologists claimed they found the site of the bloodbath near the town of Kessel.
According to ancient sources, the conflict began in the winter of 56 BC when the two tribes (who were referred to as Germanic but may have actually been Celtic) crossed the Rhine into Gaul after being driven away from their homeland by the Suebi.
The Usipetes and the Tencteri asked Caesar for permission to settle in Gaul, which was denied.
After negotiations failed, the Roman legions launched an attack on their camp and killed everyone in sight.
“there was also a great crowd of women and children and these now began to flee in all directions.
I sent the cavalry to hunt them down…
When they reached the confluence of the Meuse and the Rhine, they saw they had no hope of escaping farther.
A large number of them were killed and the rest flung themselves into the river, where they perished overcome by panic, exhaustion, and the force of the current.”
In his personal account, Caesar said there were around 430,000 people and that he slain them all. Modern scholars put the number at around 150,000 to 200,000, and some of them definitely survived as the tribes were still mentioned the following century. They opine that the inflated number was because Caesar wanted to portray them as a great threat and himself a protector of Rome.
In war, everyone is killed. Women, children and innocents are not spared. Later, the victors will write and boast about their success in the destruction.
[2] Genghis Khan Beheaded People For Being Over 90 Centimeters (3′) Tall
When Genghis Khan was 20, he led an army against the tribe that
killed his father and got his revenge. The Tatar army was crushed, and
Genghis Khan set about exterminating the people in an incredibly unusual
way.
Every Tatar man was lined up and measured against “the linchpin of a
wagon,” which is the axle pin in the middle of the wheel. Anyone who was
taller than these pins—which were 90 centimeters (3′) high—was to be
beheaded.
The criteria used to select survivors from the conquered is often arbitrary.
[3] The Severed Hands of Avaris
Severed Hands.
A few years back, archaeologists were excavating the ruins of Avaris and found, for the first time, concrete evidence of an ancient Egyptian practice that had been, up until that point, only read about in texts – cutting off the hands of vanquished enemies.
This evidence came in the form of 16 severed hands, all of them right ones,
buried in four pits throughout the former Egyptian capital. Two of the
pits, each containing a single hand, were found in what was believed to
have been the throne room, indicating that the presentation of the
trophies was part of a much grander ceremony.
The hands were around 3,600 years old
and came from an oft-forgotten part of Egyptian history called the
Second Intermediate Period or the Hyksos Period. It was defined by the
arrival of a new group of people called the Hyksos who conquered Lower
Egypt and installed one of their own as king. Therefore, Salitis of the
Hyksos became the first pharaoh of the 15th dynasty and, in the process,
also moved the capital to the city of Avaris.
Up until this discovery, this custom had only been referenced in ancient art and writing. However, one point that is still being debated is whether this practice was introduced by the Hyksos or was already present in Egyptian society before their arrival.
Once captured, do not assume that you would be sent off to a prison camp. There are other fates that can await you.
[4] Genghis Khan Victims’ Bones Were Mistaken For Mountains
In 1211, Genghis Khan turned his focus to modern-day China and attacked the Jin Empire. It was a reckless decision. The Jin Empire controlled 53 million people, and the Mongols had one million. Still…
… Genghis Khan won.
Within three years, the Mongols had made their way to Zhongdu (now
Beijing). The city walls were 12 meters (39 ft) high and stretched 29
kilometers (18 mi) around the city. It seemed impossible to get in, so
they didn’t try.
Instead, the Mongols starved Zhongdu out.
By summer 1215, the people there were so hungry that cannibalism was running rampant inside its walls. Finally, they surrendered, and the Mongols sacked and burned the city.
The massacre was horrific.
Months later, a passing eyewitness wrote that “the bones of the slaughtered formed white mountains and that the soil was still greasy with human fat.”
No matter how hungry you are, the fate that can occur in the hands of the enemy can be far worse.
[5] Interesting Mongol War Tactics: Cats, Swallows and Human Fat
Real war is based on surprise and the use of unconventional weapons and strategies.
The first large-scale Mongol attack in Xi Xia happened at the mighty fortress at Volohai.
Unable to breach the walls of Volohai, Genghis Khan resorted to a clever trick. He sent a message from his encampment to the Tangut general announcing that he would end his siege in exchange for a gift of one thousand cats and ten thousand swallows.
Astonished by the unusual request, the fortress commander gratefully complied.
After the animals arrived in the Mongol camp, Genghis Khan ordered his men to tie a small cotton-wool tuft to the tail of each creature then set the tuft afire.
When the panicked and frightened animals were turned loose, they made directly for their nests and lairs inside Volohai, igniting hundreds of small fires.
While the panicked defenders were preoccupied with putting out fires, Genghis Khan’s warriors stormed the city in conquest.
Here’s another example…
The Mongol siege against the walled town of Kusong exemplified Koryo’s [Korea’s] heroic resistance.
General Sartai brought the full array of his medieval assault weapons to bear against the city’s defenses. While Mongol troops attempted to undermine the defensive walls by tunneling under them, formidable lines of catapults hurled large boulders and molten metal at the town.
Special assault teams used siege towers and scaling ladders against the earthen walls and pushed flaming carts against the city’s wooden gates.
Perhaps the most grisly tactical weapon used at the siege of Kusong was the catapult-launched fire-bomb. The Mongols boiled down their captives and used liquified human fat to fuel a weapon which produced fires that were practically inextinguishable.
Kusong’s defenders refused to surrender and stubbornly held on for thirty terrifying days and nights.
An old Mongol general, inspecting the ramparts during the siege, commented that,
"...I have never seen [a city] undergo an attack like this which did not, in the end, submit."
In the end Kusong remained in Koryo’s hands.
Unconventional war is a strategy that generally results in victory. Expect the unexpected.
[6] Genghis Khan Exterminated 1.7 Million People To Avenge One Person
The marriages might have been strategic alliances, but that didn’t
mean there wasn’t any love involved. One of Genghis Khan’s daughters
loved her husband, a man name Toquchar. Genghis Khan loved him, too, as
his favorite son-in-law.
Genghis Khan’s troops attacked Nishapur and slaughtered every person there. By some estimates, 1,748,000 people were killed. Other historians dispute that number, but there’s no doubt that his armies killed everyone they found.
Women, children, babies, and even dogs and cats were tracked down and murdered. Then they were beheaded, and their skulls were piled into pyramids—a request by Genghis Khan’s daughter to ensure that no one got away with a simple wounding.
In War decisions can be made for emotional, not strategic reasons.
[7] Ancient “Barbarian” Warfare in Northern Europe
Archaeologists excavated 2,095 human bones and bone fragments—comprising the remains of at least 82 people—across 185 acres of wetland at the site of Alken Enge, on the shore of Lake Mossø on Denmark’s Jutland Peninsula. Scientific studies indicate that most of the individuals were young male adults, and they all died in a single event in the early first century A.D. (Around the time of Christ.)
Unhealed trauma wounds on the remains, as well as finds of weapons, suggest that the individuals died in battle.
The team didn’t dig up the entire 185 acres, but the researchers extrapolated that more than 380 people may have been interred in boggy waters along the lakeshore some 2,000 years ago, based on the distribution of the remains that were excavated.
In large scale conflicts, very few people will remember your heroism and the battles that you fought. You will be forgotten.
[7] The Mongols Had A Victory Feast On Top Of The Russian Nobility
In 1223, the Mongolian army was making its way through Russia and had
just won the Battle of the Kalka River. The Russian army had
surrendered, their towns had been captured, and the Mongolians decided
to celebrate.
The generals and nobility of the Russian army were forced to lie down
on the ground. Then a heavy wooden gate was thrown on top of them,
chairs and tables were set on top of the gate, and the army sat down for
a feast.
They held their victory celebration on top of the still-living bodies of their enemies, eating and drinking while Russian princes were crushed to death beneath their feet.
Do not expect leniency because you are rich, wealthy or powerful. In fact, you might be singled out for special treatment.
[8] Genghis Khan Diverted A River Through An Enemy’s Birthplace To Erase It Off The Map
When Genghis Khan found the Muslim kingdom of Khwarezmia, he did
something unusual: He took the peaceful route. A group of diplomats were
sent to the city, hoping to establish a trade route and diplomatic
ties.
The governor of Khwarezmia, though, didn’t trust them. He thought the
diplomats were part of a Mongolian conspiracy and had them executed. He
killed the next group they sent, too.
Genghis Khan was furious. He had tried to be nice, and he’d been
repaid with dead diplomats. He set up an army of 200,000 soldiers,
attacked, and completely destroyed Khwarezmia.
Even after he’d won, Khan sent two armies to burn down every castle, town, and farm they found to make sure that no hint of Khwarezmia survived. According to one story, he even diverted a river to run through the emperor’s birthplace, just to make sure it would never appear on a map again.
When the victor wants to erase you, your people, your city, your nation, your society and your culture, they can do it.
[9] Slaughter at the bridge
About 3200 years ago, two armies clashed at a river crossing near the
Baltic Sea. The confrontation can’t be found in any history books—the
written word didn’t become common in these parts for another 2000
years—but this was no skirmish between local clans. Thousands of
warriors came together in a brutal struggle, perhaps fought on a single
day, using weapons crafted from wood, flint, and bronze, a metal that
was then the height of military technology.
Struggling to find solid footing on the banks of the Tollense River, a narrow ribbon of water that flows through the marshes of northern Germany toward the Baltic Sea, the armies fought hand-to-hand, maiming and killing with war clubs, spears, swords, and knives. Bronze- and flint-tipped arrows were loosed at close range, piercing skulls and lodging deep into the bones of young men. Horses belonging to high-ranking warriors crumpled into the muck, fatally speared. Not everyone stood their ground in the melee: Some warriors broke and ran, and were struck down from behind.
Strong evidence suggests this wasn’t the first battle for these men. Twenty-seven percent of the skeletons show signs of healed traumas from earlier fights, including three skulls with healed fractures. “It’s hard to tell the reason for the injuries, but these don’t look like your typical young farmers,”
Standardized metal weaponry and the remains of the horses, which were found intermingled with the human bones at one spot, suggest that at least some of the combatants were well-equipped and well-trained.
“They weren’t farmer-soldiers who went out every few years to brawl. These are professional fighters.”
Body armor and shields emerged in northern Europe in the centuries just before the Tollense conflict and may have necessitated a warrior class.
“If you fight with body armor and helmet and corselet, you need daily training or you can’t move,”
When the fighting was through, hundreds lay dead, littering the swampy valley. Some bodies were stripped of their valuables and left bobbing in shallow ponds; others sank to the bottom, protected from plundering by a meter or two of water. Peat slowly settled over the bones.
Within centuries, the entire battle was forgotten.
Being in possession of the best technology and training might not provide you the advantage that you think it will.
[10] Genghis Khan Nearly Erased A Kingdom From History For Not Sending Troops
When Genghis Khan attacked Khwarezmia, he asked the conquered kingdom of Xi Xia to send him troops. They refused.
Xi Xia tried to take a bold stand against their oppressor, and they quickly regretted it. The Mongolian army swarmed through Xi Xia, destroying everything that they found. They systematically exterminated every member of the population.
They hadn’t written down their own stories, so the only records of their existence came from neighboring countries. Their language wasn’t recovered for more than 700 years. It took until the mid-20th century for archaeologists to unearth stones that had their writing on them. In the meantime, every word they had spoken was forgotten.
Genghis Khan died during the battle, most likely from being thrown from his horse. Still, the Mongolian army carried out his work. They slaughtered every person they found, even after their leader was dead and their enemy had surrendered.
You and your entire culture and society can be erased from history by the mistakes of your leadership.
Conclusion
That last lesson is poinent.
You and your entire culture and society can be erased from history by the mistakes of your leadership.
Scene from the movie “Carriers”. It is a movie about a lethal virus that hits the United States.
What was the Trump administration doing launching biological weapons against China? Did they actually believe that it would eventually bring China to “heel”; a nation much larger than the United States geographically, and with a population four times larger and ruled by merit?
What were they fucking thinking?
Geographically China is larger.
Population wise, China is four times larger.
Education wise, China has far more skilled STEM scientists.
Politically, China is a monolithic conservative culture. America is balkanized into disparate groups.
Chinese leadership are there through merit, America’s through graft & popularity.
China possesses the vast bulk of factories, resources, materials, and a motivated citizenry. America is a service economy dependent upon reputation and the petro-dollar.
For the last ten years, China has won every single military simulation that the United States conducts.
China is allied with Russia militarily, and socially. The USA is allied with Britain, and Australia and hosts a wide range of “client states”.
China is the “factory for the world”, America is the big piggy-bank based on the stability of the petro-dollar.
Jet Li in the Chinese movie “Fearless”.
Meanwhile, by all appearances, China is not doing anything.
They are just taking the hits and smiling.
Scene from the movie “Real Steel”.
They are practicing the well understood technique of using your foe’s weakness against him. This is Kungfu. This is martial arts. This is fundamental to understanding China.
Mosttraditionalorclassicalmartialartsuses the opponents strength againstthem. Thelistwouldbetoolongtogivethemallbutwillinclude: traditionalKarate (anystyle) Kungfu (anystyle) AikidoJudoTKD (traditional-nosportstkd) Mostpeoplehavethewrongideaconcernkarateandothertraditionalmartialarts.
- Martial arts using opponents strength against them
China knew (I surmise) that the virus would mutate. They always do. While there are species-specific viruses in the world, none are race-specific.
It implies that that a race-specific configuration is not stable.
Since it is not stable, that means that it has a “half-life” and soon mutates to fit a wide ranging biological host.
So now the SHTF COVID-19 biological attack has boomeranged back to it’s source.
For the last one hundred years the American government has cultivated the American citizenry into herd-mentality sheep. It’s rule over mobs of people, it serves the oligarchy well. It does not however, serve a crisis SHTF event well.
Americans are not being safe and treating this virus as the biological weapon that it is. They are treating it as if it is a variation of the flu. This is a very dangerous assumption.
How many face masks do you see? America is treating this virus as some variation of the flu and are treating it as such. They expect that it MIGHT hit them, and if so, they MIGHT get sick, and if sick, they MIGHT need to go to the hospital. All of these assumptions are false.
Things will probably go worse in America than what China experienced in January / February 2020.
Be safe.
This COVID-19 outbreak will hit America with the same level of ferocity that it did Wuhan.
Jet Li in the movie “Fearless”.
When the first person in China died, China went DEFCON ONE and locked the entire nation down. They built three hospitals (in ten days) and moved medial staff from all over the nation to Wuhan.
So far, as of today 4MAR20, eight people died in America. Test kits are under-supplied and do not work. The President and the media are telling everyone that it is nothing to worry about. To stay calm and wash hands often.
The Wuhan mortality rate was almost 4% a few weeks after DEFCON ONE. Now, the entire nation mortality is 1%.
My guess is that America’s mortality rate will approach the 10% figure as planned by the neocons in the White House. This is horrible. Please everyone… please be safe.
Jet Li in the movie “Fearless”.
Start Chinese-level personal measures now, today. Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Avoid people. Sanitize. Inside clothes and outside clothes. Pets inside. Work from home or order things remotely. Isolate and self quarantine yourselves.
And Robitussin will not help you. It’s NOT the flu.
The death rate from seasonal flu is typically around 0.1% in the U.S., according to The New York Times.
The death rate for COVID-19 appears to be higher than that of the flu.
-Livescience.
“Globally, about 3.4% of reported COVID-19 cases have died,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a press briefing at the agency’s headquarters in Geneva.
In comparison, seasonal flu generally kills far fewer than 0.1% of those infected, he said.
The World Health Organization had said last week that the mortality rate of COVID-19 can differ, ranging from 0.7% to up to 4%, depending on the quality of the health-care system where it’s treated.
Early in the outbreak, scientists had concluded the death rate was around 2.3%.
-WHO
This illness will rock America to it’s core and it will…
Impact the 2020 Presidential elections.
Impact the American economy.
Impact the global economy.
Impact the way the local government and schools and businesses operate.
Impact all the various disparate balkanized sub-groups within America.
Jet Li from the Chinese movie “Fearless”.
"Now we’re facing another kind of war, against the coronavirus. Trump got rid of our pandemic specialist two years ago and has defunded the Centers for Disease Control because he continues to ignore science."
-Variety
End Quotes
The World Health Organization (WHO) has shipped testing kits to 57 countries. China had five commercial tests on the market 1 month ago and can now do up to 1.6 million tests a week; South Korea has tested 65,000 people so far. The U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in contrast, has done only 459 tests since the epidemic began.
The rollout of a CDC-designed test kit to state and local labs has become a fiasco because it contained a faulty reagent. Labs around the country eager to test more suspected cases—and test them faster—have been unable to do so. No commercial or state labs have the approval to use their own tests.
In what is already an infamous snafu, CDC initially refused a request to test a patient in Northern California who turned out to be the first probable COVID19 case without known links to an infected person.
-ScienceMAg
A Los Alamos National Laboratory analysis of the outbreak in China in December 2019 and January 2020 puts the unrestrained R0 of Covid-19 at between 4.5 and 6.6. (The R-naught figure indicates the contagiousness of a disease in a given environment. If the number is above one, it’s spreading.)
The Novel Coronavirus, 2019-nCoV, is Highly Contagious and More Infectious Than Initially Estimated[Excerpts:] Integrating uncertainties in the exponential growth rate estimated from the ‘first arrival’ approach and the uncertainties in the duration of latent and infectious periods, we estimated the values of R0 to be 6.3 and 4.7. The high R0 values we estimated have important implications for disease control.The 2019-nCoV epidemic is still rapidly growing and spread to more than 20 countries as of February 5, 2020. Here, we estimated the growth rate of the early outbreak in Wuhan to be 0.29 per day (a doubling time of 2.4 days), and the reproductive number, R0, to be between 4.7 to 6.6.How contagious the 2019-nCoV is in other countries remains to be seen. If the value of R0 is as high in other countries, our results suggest that active and strong population-wide social distancing efforts, such as closing down transportation system, schools, discouraging travel, etc., might be needed to reduce the overall contacts to contain the spread of the virus.
This shockingly high original Chinese R0 value meant a doubling of the number of cases every few days, and subsequently, regional hospitals were overrun by infected patients. The Chinese experience indicates how it may spread in the West and the 3rd world. Critically, the often-quoted case fatality rate (CFR) of “only” 2% for Covid-19 occurs when severely affected patients have access to first-class medical treatment, with teams of nurses and doctors caring for them in isolation ICUs.
About 15% of people infected with the virus will develop severe symptoms (pneumonia, etc.) requiring intensive individual treatment in order to survive.
Once hospitals are swamped and many of the medical staff become infected, the CFR can swiftly rise to above 15%. This is believed to be the situation inside the Wuhan City quarantine zone.
An infectious disease with an R-naught above five, and the number of cases doubling every two days, is like a biological atomic bomb chain reaction, particularly in the age of jet travel to all points of the globe.
The USA and the West will quickly run out of Chinese-made PPE, medication, and hospital supplies. For example, China has nationalized the U.S.-owned factory that makes our N-95 masks and will, instead, keep them for their own use. The Chinese have seen Trump’s tariffs as outright economic warfare. Now, in my judgment, they are going to repay us by withholding shipments of PPE and medical supplies. China will leverage its present status as “factory to the world” to their best advantage while they still retain it. These critically needed supplies will be kept in China for their own use during the pandemic, and understandably so.
So, now it will be a race to see if America can set up enough factories to manufacture our own PPEs and other medical supplies rapidly enough to meet our soon-to-be exploding needs. China’s providing, or withholding, of required medical supplies will constitute a World War dimension of the pandemic. They will not send infected travelers to Western cities: they don’t need to do this. That ship has sailed; that horse is out of the barn.
Covid-19 will now travel on its own, with asymptomatic “super spreaders” carrying the virus from country to country for as long as unrestricted air travel is permitted. Then it will spread within each country, with every Western and third-world city a potential Wuhan.
China’s recent history teaches us that interpersonal social interaction has to be reduced as much as possible to get the R naught number down to controllable levels, but this radical reduction comes at a heavy price. When people don’t go to work out of fear of infection, or after being ordered by their governments to self-quarantine at home, economies shrink and eventually collapse. After weeks of forced home quarantine, China is now trying to restart critical factories, but this risks boosting their R0 number once again, leading to more hospitals being overrun and another round of chain-reaction contagion.
...
As usual, I just watched the most recent YouTube video by Dr. John Campbell (Covid-19 Thursday monring 27 Feb). Since he has gained global exposure, he’s getting emails from physicians all over the world, including Iran and China.
He typed up an email he received from the city of Chengdu, population 16 million, which relates their mandatory quarantine rules as China struggles to get Covid-19 under control. When the virus runs rampant and hospitals are overrun, as in Wuhan and Hunan Province, the death rate soars to over 15%, according to many accounts.
Under the strict quarantine rules in the image below, the death rate can be kept to below 2%, but at the cost of crippling the economy.
Now, just imagine trying to enforce this level of social control in American cities.
-Americanpartisan
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Here’s a bunch of videos that I collected during the (so far) six
week long quarantine that everyone in China experienced. The videos are a
selection of virus related subjects but generally relate to how China
handled the biological weapons attack, and how society adapted to it. As
of this writing, things have stabilized and people and companies are
cautious and careful in their actions and movements.
Please kindly note that this post has multiple embedded videos. It is important to view them. If they fail to load, all you need to do is to reload your browser.
Video 1 – New technology helps locate sick people.
Xi Peng has made a call out to all of China to help fight this deadly and lethal COVID-19 virus. The results have been astounding. From people running inside and handing wads of cash to the police (I have about a zillion videos on this), to people buying masks out of their “own pocket” and giving them away, to making food for all the workers… everyone is involved. This COVID-19 has really pulled the Chinese nation together. While before it was hyper-patriotic, today it is on a completely different level.
Here’s one of the latest innovations from the Shenzhen factories and R&D development centers. It’s already in mass production and the “word on the street” is that they will be handing these out to all of the police agencies all over China. Check it out.
Video 2 – America just doesn’t get it…
Nope, America just does not get it. The illness is a biological weapon. It is designed to be stealthy and hide within people and shed when they feel fine and normal.
So what you want to do is avoid crowds.
If you are trying to stock up for an emergency or SHTF event, you do not wait until it happens. You prepare years in advance. That is why they are called “preppers”.
Look at these fools. Do you see any of them wearing a mask? What about gloves? How many do you think are going to disinfect their clothing, wash their hands, or sanitize their car keys?
If the COVID-19 hits America, it will be like shooting fish in a barrel.
America is not anywhere as prepared, organized or run by talented and experienced leadership like China is. It just isn’t.
Video 3 – The new technology.
The new technology of the thermal imaging headsets are now in production and available. You can see them on the streets along with the flying drones and robots that are making sure that everyone is “with the program”.
America doesn’t have any of this. And won’t for years. 5G is bad for you don’t you know. It’s gonna give you brain damage, don’t you know. It’s gonna fry your brain… don’t you know…
Video 4 – Community pitches in.
China is hyper-patriotic. This is something that is unknown in the Untied States because everyone is in this propaganda bubble where everyone in China wants to move to America for “freedom” and “democracy”. Where the Chinese can’t wait to “throw away their chains” and over through the vicious tyrannical Chinese government… don’t ya know.
Here’s a common scene. The local kitchens feed the police, militia and volunteers with delicious meals. This looks to me like Guiling meifan. It’s a very delicious and spicy dish of noodles and pork.
Video 5 – Military decontamination team decontaminates the taxis.
When you are in China, most of what you will see are the civilian militia in their (either) red or orange jackets, or the hospital staff in their (either) white or blue NBC suits and masks. Most of the military presence is behind the scene. Like here…
Here is what happens before the taxis go out and about. They cycle back to their staging area for continuous decontamination by the military NBC troops.
Video 6 – Seriously sick man tries to break out of quarantine.
Yup, so you are in quarantine and you are ill and not thinking right. What you should do is call the police using the APP or the hospital and wait until they come and get you. But that’s not what this fellow does. He hops in his cart and tries to smash through the roadblock and escape on his own…
Video 7 – Xinjiang decontamination.
The Uyghur Muslims are on board with the program and are participating in the decontamination of their communities, their cities and their people. Here we have them working and participating side by side with the Chinese military crews working to decontaminate the communities in Xinjiang.
You would think that if the American narrative is correct, that the Chinese wants to exterminate the Uyghur Muslims that they would just simply let the illness run it’s course, right?
Conclusion
After about this bunch of videos I’m going to give it a rest for a spell. As you can clearly see, China is organized and working together to fight this terrible biological weapon. While it has put a dent in the Chinese economy, it is recovering.
Compare that to the levels of panic and ineptitude in the United States. It’s where “it’s every man for himself” and no one is trusting the government. Lord help the people in America. They have no idea what a shit-storm this biological weapon could end up being.
If you would like to check out the full index of the Trump Trade War activities, you can go here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.
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Here’s a bunch of videos that I collected during the (so far) six
week long quarantine that everyone in China experienced. The videos are a
selection of virus related subjects but generally relate to how China
handled the biological weapons attack, and how society adapted to it. As
of this writing, things have stabilized and people and companies are
cautious and careful in their actions and movements.
Please kindly note that this post has multiple embedded videos. It is important to view them. If they fail to load, all you need to do is to reload your browser.
Western media about China:
Xi Jinping is not the president but the "paramount leader" of China. Chinese media don't bring news because they're the "mouthpiece" of the Party
China doesn't fire officials, it "purges" them
China doesn't requisition private hospitals during a health emergency by passing laws, it "seizes" them
Chinese leaders don't strengthen laws, they "concentrate power"
China doesn't give out loans, they "trap" countries in debt.
China doesn't punish corrupt officials, they "net" them
Chinese media doesn't report news, it reports "propaganda"
China doesn't revise counting methodologies, it "under-reports" cases
Chinese companies don't innovate, they "steal IP"
Chinese people are not patriotic, they're "brainwashed"
Chinese provinces don't win PISA tests, they "selectively nominate the best schools".
-Maitreya Bhakal on Twitter @MaitreyaBhakal Feb 13. 2020
Video 1 – Virus strikes a motorcycle rider.
The thing is that this virus comes with a one-two punch. It is light and you seem to get over this minor cold, and then it goes into remission. It borrows deep. Then out of the blue, while you are feeling just fine and normal, it will suddenly strike you. It will be sudden and you can be doing anything. From walking, to riding a motorcycle to driving a car.
Once the virus hit, there was an increase in vehicular accidents on the highways and roads. Some of them seemed strange. Like the woman who was just pulling out of the driveway and crashed into the wall unconscious. Or the truck driver that ran over the car ahead of him, or the delivery truck that ran through a red light and crashed into the trees. Or, the truck that drove clear off the die of a tall bridge. These stories are horrifying.
Like this motorcycle rider…
Video 2 – What it is like when you are tested as positive at a road block.
My brother asked me what it was like if you went through a road-block and you were tested positive for the illness. Well, it’s like this. They just cannot test for the illness, but they can test to see if you are having any symptoms of an illness, and if you are, they will sequester you and pull you aside and take you into to quarantine. Like this…
Video 3 – When it strikes it is sudden and swift.
WHen the second phase of the illness kits, it’s a Knock-out punch and it is sudden. This video says it all. It is frightening and alarming.
I keep hearing that this isn’t as bad as all the hype makes it look.
I would like to remind the people saying this that this particular virus was CUSTOMIZED IN A LABORATORY.
Who knows what it will mutate into now that is out in the world FOREVER?
-Busted Knuckles
I just cannot grapple in my mind how anyone can possibly say that the flu is worse than this. Obviously they are back-seat drivers who are just paper-pushers living within their own sweet bubble. Well, you all had best wake up. The reality can get to be pretty harsh. I’ll tell you what.
Video 4 – Medical staff collapsing from the KO punch when the illness strikes
I’ve presented many such videos of hospital workers collapsing during this emergency. Sometimes it due to exhaustion, but more often than not, they contract the COVID-19 illness and succumb to it. It’s a very sad and tragic situation, indeed.
Sadly, many hospitals are experiencing this event and watching their staff succumb to this frightening illness; this evil horror.
Video 5 – Remote temperature and vitals check on quarantine housing.
The Chinese have been very proactive in using drones to check on the health of the people under quarantine. As can be easily seen in this video.
Video 6 – Collecting some infected people that refuse to stay in quarantine.
here we have a family of people that are infected. They know that they are infected. So they were put under house quarantine, and they broke quarantine. Thus they became a risk to the community. So the police came to seize them an put them into more secure quarantine facilities.
Video 7 – Road block
This is what a road block looks like on a highway off-ramp. It is pretty much the same all over China.
These roadblocks are covered in other posts as they are both interesting and come in all sorts of sizes and shapes.
Video 8 – Going back to work.
Now that most of the Chinese factories have reopened, new procedures are in place. The factory, as a closed eco-system must maintain the strictest health guidelines for safety and control of this serious COVID-19 virus. Here is a video that pretty much shows what it is like throughout China today…
Video 9 – Some closeups of the Chinese decontamination vehicles.
Here’s a video that shows a decontamination vehicle close up. It gives you a great idea of what it is like and it’s design. These vehicles are handed out to the local communities but they are military vehicles. The Chinese have a complete army of them, and they are now in all the top tier cities.
Unlike most military vehicles, they are not painted green or grey. They are used during public DEFCON ONE emergencies so they are treated as part of the hospital units. So they are painted white like the ambulances are.
Conclusion
This is a very unique time in this world. Yes, not just for China but for the world. This event is unheard of, or at least the modern incarnation of it is. It’s a horror movie right out of “12 monkeys” where an evil man tries to kill a huge swath of the global population by releasing a virus on Christmas eve. Funny how this hit stride during CNY eve.
I have hundreds of videos to post, and I will get to them as time permits. In the mean time please be safe.
If you would like to check out the full index of the Trump Trade War activities, you can go here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.
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Think about it. What benefit does the United States Federal Government provide that the State governments cannot?
And, is that benefit worth the extra multiple layers of taxation?
I strongly believe that it is not worth it at all. The United States today is an out of control corrupt empire, and almost everything it does benefits a mere handful of people, while Joe and Suzy Average derives very little benefit. I would like to expound on this, through the lens of history.
The following article; “The Antifederalists Were Eerily Prophetic” is a most excellent article from the Mises Institute. Written 17NOV19. All credit to the author; Gary M. Galles.
The Antifederalists Were Eerily Prophetic
What the Antifederalists predicted would be the results of the 1776 Constitution turned out to be true…
Most school kids are left with the impression that the US
Constitution was the inevitable follow-up to the Declaration of
Independence and the war with King George. What they miss out on is the
exciting debate that took place after the war and before the
Constitution, a debate that concerned the dangers of creating a federal
government at all.
The Antifederalist Movement
Everyone knows about the Federalists who pushed the Constitution. But far less known are the Antifederalists who warned with good reason against the creation of a new centralized government, and just after so much blood had been spilled getting rid of one.
The first of the Antifederalist Papers appeared in 1789.
The Antifederalists were opponents of ratifying the US Constitution as (they feared) it would create what would become an overbearing central government.
What the Antifederalists predicted would be the results of the Constitution turned out to be true in most every respect.
As the losers in that debate, they are largely overlooked today. But that does not mean they were wrong or that we are not indebted to them.
Those that fight the Deep State are antifederalists.
Confusing nomenclature.
In many ways, the group has been misnamed.
Federalism refers to the system of decentralized government. This group defended states’ rights—the very essence of federalism—against the Federalists, who would have been more accurately described as Nationalists. Nonetheless, what they predicted would be the results of the Constitution turned out to be true in most every respect.
The Antifederalists warned us that the cost Americans would bear in both liberty and resources for the government that would evolve under the Constitution would rise sharply.
That is why their objections led to the Bill of Rights, to limit that tendency.
Their Oppositions to the Constitution
Antifederalists opposed the Constitution on the grounds that its checks on federal power would be undermined by expansive interpretations…
… of promoting the “general welfare” (which would eventually be claimed for every law)…
… and the “all laws necessary and proper” clause (which would be used to override limits on delegated federal powers)…
… thus creating a federal government with unwarranted and undelegated powers that were bound to be abused.
One could quibble with the mechanisms the Antifederalists predicted would lead to constitutional tyranny.
For instance, they did not see that the Commerce Clause would come to be called “the everything clause” in law schools...
...justifying almost any conceivable federal intervention...
...because the necessary distortion of its meaning was so great even Antifederalists couldn’t imagine the government could get away with it.
It merits remembering the Antifederalists’
prescient arguments and the virtual absence of modern Americans who
share their concerns.
And they could not have foreseen how the 14th Amendment and its interpretation would extend federal domination over the states after the Civil War.
But despite that, it is very difficult to argue with their conclusions in light of the current reach of our government, which doesn’t just intrude upon, but often overwhelms Americans today.
We need to listen to the Anti-federalist argument.
Therefore, it merits remembering the Antifederalists’ prescient arguments…
… and how unfortunate is the virtual absence of modern Americans who share their concerns.
One of the most insightful of the Antifederalists was Robert Yates, a New York judge who, as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, withdrew because the convention was exceeding its instructions.
Yates wrote as Brutus in the debates over the Constitution.
Given his experience as a judge, his claim that the Supreme Court would become a source of almost unlimited federal overreaching was particularly insightful.
Expanded Judicial Power
Brutus asserted that the Supreme Court envisioned under the Constitution would become a source of massive abuse…
… because they were beyond the control “both of the people and the legislature,” …
…and not subject to being “corrected by any power above them.”
When the opportunity arises the corrupt officials will spring into action and restricts the rights of Americans so that they can gain personally.
As a result, he objected to the fact that its provisions justifying the removal of judges didn’t extend to rulings that went beyond their constitutional authority…
…thus, leading to judicial tyranny.
Brutus argued that when constitutional grounds for making rulings were absent…
… the Court would create grounds “by their own decisions.”
He thought that the power it would command would be so irresistible that the judiciary would use it to make law, manipulating the meanings of arguably vague clauses to justify it.
America today.
Expanded judicial power would empower justices to shape the federal government however they desired.
The Supreme Court would interpret the Constitution according to its alleged “spirit”…
… rather than being restricted to just the “letter” of its written words (as the doctrine of enumerated rights, spelled out in the 10th Amendment, would require).
Further, rulings derived from whatever the court decided its spirit was would effectively “have the force of law,”…
… due to the absence of constitutional means to “control their adjudications” and “correct their errors.”
This constitutional failing would compound over time in a “silent and imperceptible manner,” through precedents that build on one another.
Expanded judicial power would empower justices to shape the federal government however they desired…
… because the Supreme Court’s constitutional interpretations would control the effective power…
…power vested in government and its different branches.
That would hand the Supreme Court ever-increasing power, in direct contradiction to Alexander Hamilton’s argument in Federalist 78 that the Supreme Court would be “the least dangerous branch.”
Judicial Tyranny
Brutus predicted that the Supreme Court would adopt “very liberal” principles of interpreting the Constitution.
This is America today.
He argued that there had never in history been a court with such power and with so few checks upon it…
… giving the Supreme Court “immense powers”…
…powers that were not only unprecedented, but perilous for a nation founded on the principle of consent of the governed.
This is America today.
Given the extent to which citizens’ power to effectively withhold their consent from federal actions has been eviscerated, it is hard to argue with Brutus’s conclusion.
Brutus accurately described both [1] the cause (the absence of sufficient enforceable restraints on the size and scope of the federal government) and [2] the consequences (expanding burdens and increasing invasions of liberty) of what would become the expansive federal powers we now see all around us.
We need to understand their arguments and apply them to a NEW Constitution, if there is to be any hope of restraining the government to the powers it was actually granted in the Constitution.
Today
It’s well past time for a change.
But today, Brutus would conclude that he had been far too optimistic.
The federal government has grown exponentially larger than he could ever have imagined…
In part because he was writing when only direct, e.g., excise taxes and the small federal government they could finance were possible before the 16th Amendment opened the way for a federal income tax in 1913.
…far exceeding its constitutionally enumerated powers, despite the Bill of Rights’ constraints against it.
The result burdens citizens beyond his worst nightmare
The rise and fall of America.
Conclusion
The judicial tyranny that was accurately and unambiguously predicted by Brutus and other Antifederalists shows that in essential ways, they were right and that modern Americans still have a lot to learn from them.
We need to understand their arguments and take them seriously now, if there is to be any hope of restraining the federal government. Constraining it precisely to the limited powers it was actually granted in the Constitution. This is absolutely necessary given its current tendency to accelerate its growth well beyond enumerated Constitutional limits.
In my mind, the first step to controlling the out-of-control beast is to reestablish State sovereignty. Then, through concentrated and systematic efforts, starve the beast. Allow it to whither and die on the vine.
If Americans are unable to control this raging nasty beast, the rest of the world will need to call Animal Control to put it down, and that will certainly not be a pleasant event to witness.
This is America today. Look around you. The rest of the world is moving forward, and the enormous American empire remains dark and immovable.
I hope that you enjoyed this post. I have other posts that you might be interested in that can be found in my SHTF index here…
You’ll not find
any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
Or, don’t allow the flying chunks and pieces to wack you in the eye.
The USA is in a long and slow death spasm. It began about two hundred years ago when the Republic was turned into a Democracy. But things went really to dog-shit when the oligarchy took control of American finances with the 16th amendment. The last seventy years has been one of a dying Empire. Now, it’s in complete free fall. And everyone is scrambling to get their “little piece of the action” before it’s all gone. That being prefaced, let’s spend some time and talk about what is going on.
The election of Donald Trump was a “last gasp” in a near vain attempt to thwart the up-coming train-wreck. But opposition forces has, for all practical purposes, deprived him of his Presidential powers. His team, has back-stabbed him, thwarted his efforts, and conducted sabotage.
Yet he remains. A shining star for conservatives to lay their hopes upon.
The opposition party is vacillating between hard-core Marxism (with a friendly face) and a totalitarian dictatorship. They are idealistic uni-mind elitists. They are dangerous and they will be lethal if they ever get a chance to regain the formal reins of power again.
Americans like to dismiss this reality as “politics”, but it is more than that. It is battle between rats fighting over a scrap of pizza while the ship that they are on, sinks under the cool, cool icy calmness of the ocean.
America today. The rats are fights for the scraps of a once great nation. It’s every rat for himself.
This is a reprint of the article titled The Empire: Now or Never by Fred Reed it was written almost exactly a year ago, on February 20, 2019. Nothing has changed. Instead, things have gotten worse. All credit to the author.
Many people I talk to seem to think American foreign policy has something to do with democracy, human rights, national security, or maybe terrorism or freedom, or niceness, or something…
It is a curious belief, Washington being interested in all of them. Other people are simply puzzled, seeing no pattern in America’s international behavior.
But, really, the explanation is simple.
The reason of course is Empire.
American Empire
Empire; that desire for which is an ancient and innate part of mankind’s cerebral package. Parthian, Roman, Aztec, Hapsburg, British. It never stops.
America is an Empire. It utilizes all of the resources under it’s control to maintain that Empire. It is run as an Empire, and aside from the stereotypical images of what a ruthless Empire leader might look like, behaves exactly like a nefarious global evil Empire.
When the Soviet Empire collapsed, America appeared poised to establish the first truly world empire. The developed countries were American vassals in effect if not in name, many of them occupied by American troops: Among others, Europe, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Latin America, Saudi Arabia, and Australia.
The US had by far the dominant economy and the biggest military, controlled the IMF, NATO, the dollar, SWIFT, and enjoyed technological superiority…
…Russia was in chaos, China a distant smudge on the horizon.
Powerful groups in Washington, such as PNAC, began angling towed aggrandizement, but the real lunge came with the attack on Iraq.
Current foreign policy openly focuses on dominating the planet.
American foreign policy is one of an global Empire dominating the planet economically, militarily and socially.
The astonishing thing is that some people don’t notice this.
Oil and Petroleum Dominance
The world runs on oil.
Controlling the supply conveys almost absolute power over those countries that do not have their own. (For example, the Japanese would soon be eating each other if their oil were cut off.) Saudi Arabia is an American protectorate,and, having seen what happened to Iraq, knows that it can be conquered in short order if it gets out of line.
The U. S. Navy could easily block tanker traffic from Hormuz to any or all countries.
From the central control stations within America, talented people within the deep state bureaucracy are working diligently to make sure that the Empire, and it’s objectives are being met.
A major purpose of the destruction of Iraq was to get control of its oil and put American forces on the border of Iran, another oil power. The current attempt to starve the Iranians aims at installing a American puppet government.
The ongoing coup in Venezuela seeks control of another vast oil reserve.
It will also serve to intimidate the rest of Latin America by showing what can happen to any country that defies Washington.
Why are American troops in Nigeria? Guess what Nigeria has.
Note that Iraq and Iran, in addition to their oil, are geo-strategically vital to a world empire. Further, the immensely powerful Jewish presence in the US supports the Mid-East wars for its own purposes. So, of course, does the arms industry.
All God’s children love the Empire.
China and Russia are the Threats
For the Greater Empire to prevail, Russia and China, the latter a surprise contender, must be neutralized. Thus the campaign to crush Russia by economic sanctions.
All threats to the American Empire must be neutralized. They must be vanquished by whatever means possible, and secretly. Were an outright and overt war to occur, the United States would not fare well.
At the same time Washington pushes NATO, its deployed militia, ever eastward…
Wants to station US forces in Poland…
Plans a Space Command whose only purpose is to intimidate or bankrupt Russia…
Drops out of the INF Treaty for the same reasons…
And seeks to prevent commercial relations between Russia and the European vassals (e.g., Nordstream II).
China of course is the key obstacle to expanding the Empire.
Thus… the trade war.
America has to stop China’s economic and technological progress, and stop it now, as it will not get another chance.
For the American Empire to remain firmly and fixed in control, China must be stopped by any methods possible. With biological germ warfare being the present preferred method.
The present moment is an Imperial crunch point.
America cannot compete with China commercially or, increasingly, in technology. Washington knows it. Beijing’s advantages are too great:
A huge and growing domestic market…
A far larger population of very bright people…
A for-profit economy that allows heavy investment both internally and abroad…
A stable government that can plan well into the future.
And America’s Strengths…
America?
It’s power is more fragile than it may seem. The United States once dominated economically by making better products at better prices, ran a large trade surplus, and barely had competitors.
Today it has deindustrialized…
Runs a trade deficit with almost everybody…
Carries an astronomical and uncontrolled national debt…
And makes few things that the world can’t get elsewhere, often at lower cost.
Increasingly America’s commercial power is as a consumer, not a producer.
Washington tells other countries;
“If you don’t do as we say, we won’t buy your stuff.”
The indispensable country is an indispensable market.
With few and diminishing (though important) exceptions, if it stopped selling things to China, China would barely notice, but if it stopped buying, the Chinese economy would wither.
Tariffs, please take note, are just a way of not buying China’s stuff.
Since
the profligate American market is vital to other countries, they often
do as ordered. But Asian markets grow. So do Asian industries.
“Strong-Arm” Tactics
As America’s competitiveness declines, Washington resorts to strong-arm tactics.
It has no choice.
A prime example is the 5G internet, a Very Big Deal, in which Huawei holds the lead. Unable to provide a better product at a better price, Washington forbids the vassals to deal with Huawei–on pain of not buying their stuff. In what appears to be desperation, the Exceptional Nation has actually made a servile Canada arrest the daughter of Huawei’s founder.
The tide runs against the Empire.
A couple of decades ago, the idea that China could compete technologically with America would have seemed preposterous. Today China advances at startling speed.
It is neck and neck with the US in supercomputers…
Launches moon-landers…
Leads in 5G internet…
Does leading work in genetics…
Designs world-class chipsets (e.g., the Kirin 980 and 920) and smartphones.
Another decade or two of this and America will be at the trailing edge.
The big “elephant in the room” is the American use of biological germ warfare against China. First the destruction of the chicken industry, then the destruction of the pork industry (by using custom made drones) and latest is the attempt to wipe out a significant portion of the Chinese population using the COVID-19 coronavirus at Wuhan.
America’s damage is self-inflicted.
The American decline is largely self-inflicted.
The US chooses its government by popularity contests among provincial lawyers rather than by competence.
American education deteriorates under assault by social-justice faddists.
Washington spends on the military instead of infrastructure and the economy.
It is politically chaotic, its policies changing with every new administration.
The first rule of empire is, “Don’t let your enemies unite.” Instead, Washington has pushed Russia, China, and Iran into a coalition against the Empire.
It might have been brighter to have integrated Iran tightly into the Euro-American econosphere, but Israel would not have let America do this. The same approach would have worked with Russia, racially closer to Europe than China and acutely aware of having vast empty Siberia bordering an overpopulated China. By imposing sanctions of adversaries and allies alike, Washington promotes de-dollarization and recognition that America is not an ally but a master.
It is now or never.
If America’s great but declining power does not subjugate the rest of the world quickly, the rising powers of Asia will swamp it. Even India grows. Either sanctions subdue the world…
Or Washington starts a world war.
Or America becomes just another country.
To paraphrase a great political thinker, “It’s the Empire, Stupid.”
Conclusion
You do not need to believe me. Just look at how Russia, China and India are handing things today. Turn off the American propaganda bubble, and listen to what other nations think, and how they are handling things.
This COVID-19 coronavirus event is being treated by China as a DEFCON ONE military event against a biological weapons attack.
Just because CNN is not report it, does not mean that it is not happening. It is just that you, and your fellow countrymen, are unaware of it.
The American mainstream, left-ALT, and Alt-Right media are propaganda channels that the American government utilizes to control the population. They do not, and NEVER reflect, the true and real reality.
The United States is pushing, pushing, and pushing. The anti-Russia and the anti-China propaganda war is at a fever pitch. The last time we saw such media pro-war intensity was World War II.
I personally think that the “Genie is out of the bottle”, and unless something radical will happen, American neocons will drive America straight into Nuclear Armageddon. And do not be under the misguided impression that America will win. No one wins with Global Nuclear Annihilation. Especially when it will be full-spectrum with nuclear, germ, biological and chemical war.
No one.
No one wins with Global Nuclear Annihilation.
I hope that you enjoyed this post. I have many more in my SHTF Index, here…
You’ll not find
any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
America was established as a Republic. As a Republic, it was designed to protect the liberty and the freedom of the American citizenry. Over the last two centuries, various individuals have “improved” upon this concept by replacing a Liberty protecting Republic, into a oligarchy ruled pretend-Democracy.
Here we take a look at this transition. We do so based on the book “Liberty in Peril,” by Randall Holcombe.
Liberty is freedom from the government.
In his book, he challenges the presumption that liberty and democracy are complementary. They are not. You can either have a Republic, or you can have a Democracy. You cannot have both simultaneously.
High School Civics Class
There is no such thing as democracy. It's a sweet utopia. US was the first country to show threat only money design your status and access to privileges of 21st century. Western EU countries (like Germany) show that an average citizen has little to zero control over own countries processes.
There is no such thing as democracy. there are fairy tales about it which are used as a tool of politics from the neo imperialist West towards everybody else. They consider us all savages and act accordingly. Because they are so "special" (remember one of this degenerative Obama-speeches?)
- Michael Goryany
When I took history and government in school, many critical issues were misrepresented. They were given short shrift, and in many instances ignored entirely.
These omissions greatly hampered my understanding of America and created mysteries that my teachers could not answer.
How can you have the fourth amendment, and also have the sixteenth amendment at the same time? One permits you to keep your financial affairs private, the other requires that you disclose them under the penalty of law.
How can you have a second amendment that cannot be infringed, and an ATF who’s entire purpose and objective is to infringe on the second amendment?
How can the United States be a Republic when the general population can vote for the President?
Indeed, the confusing nature of what America was founded as, and the way America was managed undermined my ability to understand what America really was.
I believe that it is particularly great in regard to American constitutionalism, what it is, and what it was intended to be. He spends time describing how it has morphed from protecting liberty to advancing democracy instead. As well as how this love of “democracy” has run roughshod over Americans at the expense of liberty.
The founders did not intend the United States to be a democracy.
It does so with a host of novel and important insights rather than the disinterest generated by the books I suffered through in school.
The Role of Government
Holcombe gets right to the main point:
The role of government as [America’s founders] saw it, was to protect the rights of individuals, and the biggest threat to individual liberty was the government itself.
This is beautiful.
I only wish that it was taught in schools this way.
The American government was designed to protect the Rights of individuals.
... So they designed a government with constitutionally limited powers, constrained to carry out only those activities specifically allowed by the Constitution.
Our nation was designed to have a very small government, with the restrictions on it, large, and clearly defined.
This book describes how the fundamental principle underlying American government has been transformed over the years…
...from protecting individual liberty...
...to carrying out the will of the people, as revealed by a democratic decision-making process. (p. xxii)
Holcombe begins by laying out the case that…
“...the Founders had no intention of creating a democracy...
...in the sense of a government that would be guided by popular opinion,” (p. 5)
…in sharp contrast to current “understanding.” Where the point of government is to take polls and gauge public opinion. Then pretend to react to the opinion poll results.
Which of course is meaningless.
Studies have shown that the government does what it wants.
The media creates fake polls, and fake news, and fake opinion pieces and fake outrage to justify the governmental actions.
And what makes the transformation from a central focus on liberty to a central focus on democracy that routinely invades liberty…
... particularly significant is that the powers embodied in America’s twenty-first-century democratic government are those that eighteenth-century Americans revolted against to escape. (p. 7)
Liberty used to be important.
Since I do not have the space to dissect all of the issues in Liberty in Peril, I would like to highlight a few particularly noteworthy things.
Holcombe starts with John Locke, which is a common place to start for those interested in advancing liberty.
John Locke was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the “Father of Liberalism”.
But he also calls attention to Cato’s Letters, which was one of the most influential—but now almost completely ignored—influences leading to the birth of the American Revolution.
I have long been struck by how many of the insights our founders are credited with that actually trace back there (see the first major chapter of my book Lines of Liberty), and I echo Holcombe’s invitation for more people to discover it.
Are Liberty and Democracy Complementary?
Liberty in Peril challenges the typical current presumption that liberty and democracy are complementary.
They are not.
If anything, they are direct opposites.
American “democracy” is a corruption. It is an oligarchy of the wealthy over the rest of humanity.
The principle of liberty suggests that first and foremost, the government’s role is to protect the rights of individuals.
The principle of democracy suggests that collective decisions are made according to the will of the majority…
The greater the allowable scope of democracy in government, the greater the threat to liberty…
In particular, the ascendancy of the concept of democracy threatens the survival of the free market economy, which is an extension of the Founders’ views on liberty. (pp. 14-15)
This is reflected in the changing nature of elections.
At one time, elections might have been viewed as a method of selecting competent people to undertake a job with constitutionally-specified limits.
With the extension of democracy, elections became referendums on public policy. (p. 20)
Consensus vs. Democracy
The book also challenges commonly held presumptions that our Founders wanted democracy.
But while “the Founders wanted those in charge of government’s operations to be selected by a democratic process,”...
... they “also wanted to insulate those who ran the government from direct influence by its citizens”...
... because “[b]y insulating political decision-makers from directs accountability to citizens...
... the government would be in a better position to adhere to its constitutionally-mandated limits.” (p. 15)
Click and Goggle “democracy meme” to see just how effective and what the people think about “democracy” in the world today.
And today, in 2020 we see how absolutely correct this assessment is.
“Thus, the Constitution created a limited government designed to protect liberty, not to foster democracy.” (p. 16)
But the United States…
“consistently has moved toward more democracy, and the unintended side effect has been a reduction in liberty.” (p. 25)
After all, that was the sole purpose of both the 12th and the 17th amendments.
Holcombe lays out issues of consensus versus democracy, with consensus illustrated by market systems in which all those whose property rights are involved agree to transactions, (p. 29) but in government…
“a group is able to undertake more extensive collective action if it requires less consensus to act.” (p. 30)
And the slippery slope is that…
The more citizens want to further national goals through government action, the less consensus they will demand in the collective decision-making process. (p. 33)
An In-Depth Study of the Constitution
Another notable aspect of Liberty in Peril is how far beyond the typical discussion of constitutional issues it goes, substantially expanding readers’ understanding in intriguing ways.
For instance, how many Americans know of the Iroquois Constitution, which focused on unanimity?
The Iroquois constitution was based on the principles of peace, power and righteousness. It laid out a system of government and a method of electing representatives to its Long House Council surprisingly similar to the United States governmental system today. For instance, the Council is divided into Younger Brother and Elder Brother meetings, an instance of a bicameral legislature. Because trade and treaties with the Native Americans were critical to the success of the American colonies, the Iroquois constitution and related documents were translated into English and distributed throughout the colonies and European traders.
How many are aware of the Albany Plan of Union, drawn up in 1754, or how it was influenced by the Iroquois Constitution?
The Albany Plan of Union was a plan to create a unified government for the Thirteen Colonies, suggested by Benjamin Franklin, then a senior leader (age 48) and a delegate from Pennsylvania, at the Albany Congress on July 10, 1754 in Albany, New York. More than twenty representatives of several Northern Atlantic colonies had gathered to plan their defense related to the French and Indian War, the front in North America of the Seven Years’ War between Great Britain and France, spurred on by George Washington’s recent defeat in the Ohio valley. The Plan represented one of multiple early attempts to form a union of the colonies “under one government as far as might be necessary for defense and other general important purposes.”
How many know that a “clear chain of constitutional evolution proceeds from the Albany Plan of Union to the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution of the United States”? (p. 43)
How many have noticed that “when compared with the Articles of
Confederation, the Constitution clearly less constraining than the
document it supplanted…the Constitution did not limit the powers of
government; it expanded them”? (p. 48) Yet,
While the authors of the Constitution did deliberately expand the powers of the federal government, they just as deliberately tried to prevent the creation of a democratic government. (p. 52)
How many are aware of what the Confederate Constitution tells us about the US Constitution.
A first draft that remains of the Confederate Constitution.
As well as the drift from its principles since its adoption.
This is especially true because…
“the problems that the authors of the Confederate Constitution actually did address were overwhelmingly associated with the use of legislative powers. Yes, legislative powers used to impose costs on the general public to provide benefits to narrow constituencies”? (p. 107)
The Constitution often is portrayed as a document that limits the power of the federal government and guarantees the liberty of its citizens…
When compared to the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution places less constraint on the federal government and allows those who run the government more discretion and autonomy and less accountability.
The adoption of the Constitution enhanced the powers of government and laid the foundation for two centuries of government growth. (pp. 66-67)
American classroom teaching American history.
The Elitist Constitution
Holcombe’s section on “The Elitist Constitution” is fascinating.
It lays out the case for why…
“[t]he Constitution devised democratic processes for collective decision-making, but the Founders had no intention of designing a government that would respond to the will of the majority,” (p. 70)
…as illustrated by the fact that citizens …
“had almost no direct input into the federal government as the Constitution was originally written and ratified.” (p. 70)
The section on the Electoral College is even more striking, as it stands in sharp variance from the presumptions behind almost the entire current debate over the National Popular Vote compact:
[A]t the time the Constitution was written the Founders anticipated that in most cases no candidate would receive votes from a majority of the electors.
The Founders reasoned that most electors would vote for one candidate from their own states…
...and it would be unlikely that voting along state lines would produce any candidate with a majority of the votes. (p. 75)
Consequently,
The Founders envisioned that in most cases the president would end up being chosen by the House of Representatives from the list of the top-five electoral vote recipients…
Furthermore, there was no indication that the number of electoral votes received should carry any weight besides creating a list of the top five candidates…
The process was not intended to be democratic. (p. 76)
I found the issues discussed above to be of particular interest. But
there is far more in the book to learn from, and often be surprised by,
in comparison to what history courses usually teach.
Seventh grade history class as taught within a private school.
America’s Evolution Away From Founding Values
Such issues include the evolution of parties, the influence of Andrew Jackson, who …
“fought for democracy, but, ironically, the result of making the nation’s government more democratic has been to expand the scope and power of government in response to popular demands for govern programs,” (p. 91)
which…
... “the Founders foresaw and tried to guard against by limiting the role of democracy in their new government,” (p. 91),
...the War Between the States (“the single most important event in the transformation of American government,” (p. 93)
And, including the elimination of state succession as a real possibility, the Reconstruction Era amendments, the origins of interest group politics, the evolution of federal regulatory power, the evolution of the incentives of civil servants, the Sixteenth Amendment (income tax) as
“a response to the demand for a larger federal government,” (p. 149)
…a different take on the 1920s, in which …
“[f]ar from representing a retreat from progressivism, the 1920s extended the now-established orthodoxy, (p. 154)
…added insight into the New Deal and the courts, Social Security as the …
“one New Deal program for the responsibility for fundamentally transforming the historical, constitutional role of the federal government,” (p. 175)
…how
...“The Great Society represents the ultimate triumph of democracy, because for the first time a major expansion in the scope of government was based on the demands of the electorate, with no extenuation circumstances” (p. 205),
…and far more.
In sum, there are very many good reasons to recommend Liberty in Peril.
In it, Randall Holcombe provides not just a powerful and insightful
look into crucial aspects of America’s evolution away from the
principles of the revolution that created it but also an important
warning:
Unfortunately, many Americans do not appear to fully understand these dangers as they continue to push the foundations of their government away from liberty and toward democracy. (p. 225)
Why is this important?
Now, global capital has created a tiny minority of wealthy people who make the feudal lords seem almost a New York rush hour crowd by comparison. As few as three multi-billionaire Americans have as much combined wealth as 150 million Americans, all of those expected to dutifully troop off to the polls and vote for continuing the system that is moving much closer to a financial breakdown, with more pain and suffering for more Americans and the rest of the world than the last collapse caused. Using public funds to bail out private wealth temporarily saved that one and the public good be damned. That cannot be allowed to happen again, and uprisings all over the world are taking place because more people can’t take it anymore. They feel the pain and see the handwriting on the wall, which may still be beyond those of us who can only use our smartphones to get dumb news which tells us nothing but what consciousness control pays its media to cram into our heads.
...
It once was easier to get away with when there were enough people getting by to feel comfortable enough to think maybe it would eventually all work out for the best. That former working middle class is sinking lower, the lower class is in more misery than ever in modern times, and the tiny minority at the top is richer than ever before based on its purchase of armies and a professional class also dwindling in numbers but still numerous enough to transform minds and politics into acceptance of the economic slavery that passes for democracy.
It can’t and won’t last much longer and if we wait for nature to take action it will obviously be a disaster. But if we organize and act as a human race, facing our problems as a race threatened with annihilation if we don’t work together, the result could be the salvation offered by real democracy in which the words of past revolutionaries like Malcolm and Martin become the actions of the present generation. That means ending capitalism and beginning humanity.
- Frank Scott’s political commentary and satire are online at the blog legalienate: http//legalienate.blogspot.com
Conclusions
Here are my “take aways” for whatever it is worth.
The founders did not intend, nor want, America to be a “democracy”.
They wanted America to be a Republic.
A Republic protects individual rights and freedoms, not to mention liberty.
A “democracy” is mob rule and is easily manipulated by people with money, power and influence.
This is what happened to America.
Today, America is a “democracy” in name, and an oligarchy by function.
As an oligarchy, as history clearly states, that it will end catastrophically.
The ONLY was to avoid catastrophic turmoil is to drastically alter the current operating framework that the United States exists under. It must go from “democracy” to something else…
If you enjoyed this post, you can view similar posts by checking out this link to the SHTF index. Here…
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find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
Unless you have been living under a rock for the last few decades, you should be aware that most Americans are quite unhappy. The progressive liberals hate the nation, the country and what it stands for. They want it to burn, be destroyed and replaced with a social utopia. The conservatives hate what the nation has become. They want a full return to the original intended government, and a leadership that obeys it. Meanwhile, the wealthy and the powerful, in full control of the government, is playing both sides against each other.
A conflict is inevitable.
There should be no question at all that our nation is at an impasse. There is a serious question of direction. As in what direction should the nation follow?
Embrace a Marxist paradise with the genocide of deplorables.
Scrap all the progressive “improvements” and return the government back to the original intent.
The Conflict.
Basically, there are those who see America as a thing to be preserved and another who see it as a thing needing to be destroyed.
Patriots want a return to the original principles of the founding.
Progressives want everything torn down and replaced with a Marxist utopia.
The Marxist Plan.
It was said by a number of Marxist thinkers over the decades and most notably William Ayers, that for America to be destroyed, it was a thing to be destroyed first from within, then by getting help from the outside.
William Ayers.
And while Marxist and Anarchist apologists will be quick to minimize those statements through saying its simply from a man caught in the winds of his time, its incredibly important to note that this is the prevailing thought among higher-level academia. An academia which has groomed the brokers of power in all of our nation’s ruling agencies.
Ayers is but one man with a relatively small group, an incredibly high percentage of academics in this nation not only sided with him but not-so-quietly cheered such abhorrent actions on, shaping higher education for the decades to come.
Which brings us to the present day.
William Ayers was behind the Antifa riots in Berkley, California.
In every sociology program in America, undergrads are taught Max Weber’s theories on authority in a society and, perhaps more importantly, his theories on Bureaucracy. Normally juxtaposed to Gramsci’s theory of the superstructure, it is stressed in lectures that in order to control a society, control over the bureaucracy must first be established.
The American Government today.
Once that control is slowly implemented, there is no need for a sudden revolution. Control is already obtained. Crime becomes a tool of political power rather than a question of morality. Through this power the ability to define one’s enemies- and thus eliminate them- is simple.
Where we find ourselves today is the veil of objectivity in such a bureaucracy having been ripped away.
The corporate mass-media has recently discovered a “deep state” that they claim to be not some evil group of assassins who work for the super-rich owners of the country and murder their own president (JFK) and other unpatriotic dissidents (Malcom X, MLK, RK, among others) and undermine democracy home and abroad, but are now said to be just fine upstanding American citizens who work within the government bureaucracies and are patriotic believers in democracy intent on doing the right thing.
The ongoing impeachment farce has brought a vibrant highlight to that power wield upon anyone or anything they deem a worthy target. If the denizens of the ‘interagency group’, an unelected, unaccountable group of ring-knockers who apparently view themselves outside the authority of anyone but they, who decided to target the President for literally nothing at all, what will they do to you?
Indeed, all this political posturing is a war that is raging all around us.
When the dust clears, how will it affect you?
The Fourth Amendment.
I don’t believe its far-fetched to say the Fourth Amendment is finished.
There are no Fourth Amendment protections for Americans.
There is no such thing as privacy when so many freely chose to live their lives online. Where they are always volunteering an incredibly high amount of data on themselves. Which is a data set known as patterns of life in the intelligence world…
And when such a time occurs as say, a threatening of a mass disarmament and criminalization of firearms ownership and the right to organize and train under arms…
… that without protections against the machine, armed networks of potential guerrillas may very well be unknowingly compromised before such a thing can even get off the ground.
Revolt is fated to end before it’s even vocalized.
America is a full-on police state in the very definition of what a police state actually is.
The process behind this is known as the Target-Centric Intelligence Cycle.
It follows five steps.
Find
Fix
Finish
Exploit
Assess.
It begins with a target of interest. All data is collected on the potential target with the aim of creating a plan of attack. Finishing the target is the actions-on stage. The target is either apprehended or neutralized, depending on the desired result, giving way to exploitation and assessment- whatever effects were felt in the larger targeted community, while resetting the cycle based on new targets of interest.
Military Targeting Process.
With the tools at their disposal, this process can be done almost entirely remotely with the only physical surveillance necessary is to confirm the data on the targets, and usually just before conducting the actions-on raid of the cycle.
Think about that one for a second.
The interesting thing about collective action and social movements is
that once it gathers a fever pitch, its far too much of a risk for the
superstructure to wield collective force. Some would argue that the use
of force even reveals the waning influence of the superstructure. Right
or wrong, the optics of such a move are never good and in my personal
experience, only galvanizes a people against that power.
So the question remains then- what happens when a government decides on a dirty war against those it deems a threat?
They hate us.
We know without a doubt at this stage that the real power structure in this nation absolutely hates you and I.
By their own words they have nothing but contempt for us, for our points of view, for our way of life.
They hate us. They all have come from “privilege”, and have come to despise us common people.
Indoctrinated by the very same America-hating academics who serve on advisory committees…
… to the very agencies which created the powers for themselves…
… the communist revolution of gaining control of Gramsci’s superstructure has been applied to the principles of bureaucracy outlined by Weber.
Your future home – if you are lucky.
Now, with the tools they have at their disposal, how would such an organization commit itself to a dirty war- not risking overt action but rather simply eliminating voices of dissent quietly?
Simple implementation.
So-called ‘martial law’ doesn’t have to be declared nor would it be desirable. Ties between government agencies and elements of underground criminal organizations are very real- and will be used.
Rather than risk their own officers, target packets will be handed off to the local gang and a robbery gone wrong just might happen. Do not forget that they’ve imported millions of undocumented- and thus disposable- people for more than just votes.
And while all of this looks like a pattern to the folks who are awake, but being covert in nature, its an entirely deniable way to wage a war on anyone deemed a threat.
Maybe outright killing a target is too dramatic.
Maybe you’ll get caught on false charges and given a draconian sentence, while career offenders are released for ‘processing errors’.
You could be taken into custody for jay-walking, having a photo on your computer, or driving while talking on a cell-phone. Then, you could spend five or ten years in prison.
Maybe your bank accounts will get frozen or assets seized. Without hard proof (or even with it), naysayers are opening the door to lawsuits you can’t afford to fight while the rest continue their normalcy bias.
Thenormalcybias, ornormalitybias, isabeliefpeopleholdwhenthereisapossibilityofadisaster. Itcausespeopletounderestimateboththelikelihoodofadisasteranditspossibleeffects, becausepeoplebelievethatthingswillalwaysfunctionthewaythingsnormallyhavefunctioned. Thismayresultinsituationswherepeoplefailtoadequatelypreparethemselvesfordisasters, andonalargerscale, thefailureofgovernmentstoincludethepopulaceinitsdisasterpreparations. About 70% ofpeoplereportedlydisplaynormalcybiasindisasters.
- Normalcy bias - Wikipedia
They’ve been waging a dirty war, and its about to get even worse as more people wake up to the totality of the situation.
Break the Cycle.
Break the cycle. Its way more than just about firearms, the President, or your so-called rights.
Its a fight for survival.
The weight of an unaccountable class of people are bearing down on the rest of us, and its high time to shrug them off.
Recognize that we are an enemy to them. They are at war with you and I.
We are a threat to the “deep state” oligarchy and their “swamp”. This is a fact that will not go away. We can never coexist peacefully.
One thing is absolutely certain- they won’t back off any of this and they have no interest in stopping.
The bureaucracy which wholly serves the Leftist cause in the United States wants voices like ours gone and they’ve propagandized us as no longer being human.
And when they fail to yield to protests and non-violent demonstrations, you must be prepared for what comes next.
Genocide.
Conclusion & Takeways
What is the point of this aimless and wandering post?
Peaceful coexistence between Marxists and deplorables is impossible.
The oligarchy owns the “Deep State”.
The vast numbers of the “Deep State” are Marxists.
Therefore…
Deplorables are going to be silenced, firstly. (Already in process.)
Then they will be treated as second or third class citizens. (Also already in process.)
Then they will be disarmed. (Already in process.)
Finally they will be exterminated.
Gear up. You have to be an idiot not to see the “writing on the wall”.
If you enjoyed this little rant, you can read more here…
You’ll not find
any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
One of the often cited misconceptions that many Americans have is that China would collapse if the United States were to stop trading with her. The idea is that “China needs us more than we need them”. It’s not true, and it’s not even remotely true. Here, is the actual import data that China imports from the United States. Take a good long hard look at it.
China could very well have an embargo of the United States, and would do just fine.
The items that China imports from the United States.
Here’s a graphical summary.
While most Americans, and certainly most Alt-Right conservative Americans are under the impression that China imports an enormous amount of good from the United States, this is not the case.
Import data on what China imports broken down by type and classification.
Key Points
By looking at the graph above, the only manufactured items that are of significance to China (from the United States) are aircraft. Other manufactured products actually represent a very tiny percentage of imports by type. For instance, American-made machines represent only 5% of the total machines imported by China.
Conclusion
In the global sphere of things, the United States is not a dominant supplier of things that China wants or needs. Therefore, America has very little leverage to influence China to do its’ bidding.
In order to cajole or manipulate the Chinese government to take on positions that America wants, there has to be other systems in play. These manipulations and adjustments of global power projection such as [1] the threat of war, [2] famine, [3] sickness, or [4] regional revolt are the tools that the United States is, and has been, using to force China to bend to it’s will.
It is not at all outlandish to believe that the CIA, NED, the NID and other arms of the enormous United States bureaucracy has a “dark hand” at play at this time. It’s the only “cards” that America can play.
If you enjoyed this, you might want to see other posts on this subject in my China general index here…
You’ll not find
any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
I wrote this piece during the 2020 Chinese New Year when China went DEFCON ONE.
At that time, all of us inside of China were stunned when out of the blue, all the holiday celebrations were cancelled, called up all militia, set up road blocks everywhere, and manned all the ICBM and SLBM installations on full retaliatory strike mode. China was on FULL ALERT and FULL MILITARY FOOTING.
World War III was adverted, but just narrowly.
China secured the virus, and weathered out 2020. When I wrote this piece no one was aware what was going on, but my background in ONI, MAJ pretty much told me that something “fishy” was up. At that time, I was unaware of the full depth and background.
So I wrote this piece.
I’ve tried to keep it updated, but stopped around June 2020 or so. In August 2020, the Chinese government made an official statement to the UN which pretty much validated everything written here. They blamed the USA for designing, developing, and releasing the COVID-19 in China during 2020 CNY. What’s more, they had documentation to support all their accusations. They had videos, biopsies, and some hard technical data to back up what I have collected.
Mike Pompeo and Donald Trump refused to respond to the statement made by China. They made no statments. They did not respond. The American media remained silent. It was as if China was talking to an empty room.
Instead, they gathered a military flotilla consisting of five assault carriers and marine landing forces and sailed to the South China Sea. They also engaged in numerous NGO-backed “color revolutions”, and tried to set up “The QUAD”, which was intended to be a “Asian NATO” lead by America to threaten Asia with.
As of October 2020, all American efforts to suppress China have failed. I am leaving this post as is for historical purposes. It’s pretty much well established as to whom developed and released the viral pathogen on China. And irregardless to what the American media reports, the leadership of most Asian nations, and European nations fully recognize that the United States is the culprit behind this biological warfare attack. As well as the global Coronavirus pandemic that has swept the world and collapsed world-wide trade and commerce in 2020.
Read and learn…
Given that the US fired the National Pandemic Response Team, withdrew its Pandemic Liaison Officer from Beijing, held two major pandemic simulations (attended by the Deputy Director of the CIA), and experienced multiple, unexplained pneumonia cases in Maryland and Virginia, does this look suspicious to you?
Or is it just me?
It does seem farfetched, doesn’t it?
That the United States will risk World War III, using nuclear weapons, by launching a coronavirus inside China during the 2020 Chinese New Year celebrations? But that is exactly the scenario that I fear has occurred.
Here we discuss this horror.
If this is the actual case, and it is actually intentionally engineered and used against China, it means that the USA is flirting with global nuclear annihilation. This is nothing that should be treated lightly.
Maybe not so far-fetched. When you get into the details…
Introduction
Many in the know, believe America has two options when it comes to winning a world war against China and Russia. Also, what most agree on is the fact that America cannot win a conventional war against either power, or both.
- Can America Win World War III? A Critical Analysis
Officially called the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), [renamed to COVID-19 for some odd reason] the contagion is a respiratory illness, a new type of viral pneumonia, in the same family of infections as SARS and MERS.
It highly contagious. It’s of a factor many, many time contagious than any other known virus.
High Contagiousness
Indeed, if we compare how SARS spread out in 2002-2003, it is hard not to notice how much more contagious nCoV-2019 is compared to SARS.
It took SARS three months to reach to the point of 300 cases between November 2002 and February 2003. In the climax of SARS, the daily number of newly registered cases in Mainland China never exceeded 200 cases.
In comparison, on 28th January 2020 alone, 1459 new cases of nCoV-2019 were reported nationwide, including 315 cases in Wuhan. In just a week between 20-28 January, the number of patients with nCoV-2019 exceeded the number of all SARS patients confirmed in Mainland China between 2002-2004!
Mainland China had just 5327 cases of SARS, but nCoV-2019 already had 5974 registered cases by the end of January 28th, 2020.
- Coronavirus: Summary to date & insights
Taken alone, it’s just “another” viral agent. Only this time it’s much stronger. However, taken in context with other events, other systems, and other considerations it points to some very serious conclusions; conclusions that are far too hard to ignore.
Everything seemingly points to biowarfare being waged against China.
Crazy! Right?
“(…) advanced forms of biological warfare that can target specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool “.
- “Rebuilding America’s Defenses”, published by the conservative think tank “Project for a New American Century”
No nation would be so crazy, so stupid, so insane, so evil… as to launch a very deadly WMD inside a nuclear-armed world power on their most important holiday. Right?
The calls for drastic and immediate action against China are all over the major American neocon publications. Just because you (personally) are not aware of them, does not mean that they do not exist. These neocons are foaming at the mouth for a fight. They just cannot wait to go off the coast of China and start firing some of those expensive cruise missles at the Chinese mainland. They are all rearing up for another Iraq… or Afghanistan…
Who are they?
The culprits are the dominant Western Powers. Which pretty much is America and it’s allies (namely Britain). The objective is to put “stress” on China in a combined effort to contain her growing power and influence.
It seems so far-fetched.
No one would be that crazy, that evil, that insane to want to hurt a successful nation full of hard-working and family loving people. No one, unless…
…they are ideologically motivated.
Negotiation is not a policy. It's a technique. It's something you use when it's to your advantage, and something that you don't use when it's not to your advantage.
-John Bolton
During the 2020 Chinese New Year celebrations and mass-migration, a very dangerous and lethal virus exploded all over the nation. [renamed to COVID-19 for some odd reason]
This should not be a trivial concern.
To accuse the United States of doing so is not to be done lightly.
All that is presented herein is, of course, speculative. I sincerely wish, hope and desire that it is not the case at all. Though the sum total or unexplained coincidences have created a preponderance of evidence in support of America attacking China with multiple biological weapons…
Wuhan virus in 2020. [renamed to COVID-19 for some odd reason]
As it is pretty much a yearly event to have some type of flu or viral outbreak in China. The Chinese government is well-equipped to deal with these outbreaks.
However, what is different THIS TIME is that the virus is [1] new (not a strain of an existing virus), [2] extremely aggressive, [3] launched during the yearly Chinese migration, and [4] comes at the heels of a wide spectrum of American instigated attacks on China during the “Trump Trade Wars”.
Let’s open up this discussion with something that is well known all over the globe, but hidden from the Americans inside their echo-chamber media…
Swine flu was propagated by drones
As strange was it seems, the complete collapse of the pig farm industry in China in 2019 was propagated by drones. This is why so many isolated pig farms became infected. “Criminal elements” were using drones to spray the pigs with flu to devastate the pork industry.
The idea that drones would spread a virus was intriguing.
Who designed and modified the drones?
Who manufactured and modified them so professionally?
How were the drones in the South of China, equal to those in the West, North and East?
How can the pig farmers get a hold of the same viral agent?
Meanwhile the Western media isn’t reporting on the drone use to decimate the pork industry.
It’s using technology to destroy an entire national industry. And it’s blamed on “criminal gangs”. I know that gangs are powerful, but why would they ever want to destroy a national resource?
That is like Tony Soprano conspiring to sink every container ship in every port in the United States. It does not add up.
Tony Soprano
Trump trade war went “hot”
For some reason, ever since the “Trump trade war”, China has been hit with unusually dangerous and lethal germs, viral agents, and illnesses that has attacked livestock and people.
The Chinese chicken industry was almost wiped out in 2018 by the bird flu virus.
You do not need to believe me.
Just Google for viral outbreaks in China. It’s all over the place. It’s everywhere.
Ever since President Donald Trump became President and incorporated Neocon “War Hawks” on his negotiation team, China has been wracked with all sorts of [1] new, [2] novel, and [3] unusually lethal strains of viral agents. All of which cripple the Chinese people, food and livestock.
They have been relentless, and their control of the American media is such that no one notices or cares about their activities.
Swine flu devastated Chinese pork production in 2019.
History
Let’s take a look at the history behind the COVID-19. Here’s a time line. Check it all out…
Authorized and approved, and funded by Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump.
2015
2015
Let’s focus on Dr. Shi Zhengli https://www.veteranstoday.com/2020/03/27/pravda-us-army-created-covid-19-in-2015-research-proofs-or-debunking-you-pick/ Only focus on the work that she did. She took hundreds of trips to Yunnan to study bats and she was (more or less) the person that discovered that SARS-CoV came from bats. She and many others received grants from USA and China to, for some reason, create a chimeric bioweapon. I have not bothered to do any research to find the actual grants that were issued for this project. Here is the first important part, bats are the largest incubators of coronaviruses. But it was IMPOSSIBLE for bats to transmit the coronavirus to humans because they could not interact with human cells with ACE2 receptors. So the more typical route would be for a specific bat to infect some other animal (pig, bird, etc), and that animal then infects humans (from us eating said animal). It should be made abundantly clear that bats or the consumption of bats was NOT present at the Wuhan wet market. So there is absolutely zero proof of anyone in that market eating a bat and then spreading this virus. The study writes that Dr. Shi discovered a specific type of horseshoe bats that carry a unique strain of SARS coronavirus that can THEORETICALLY be transmitted to humans. The team named this SHC014-CoV. The science here is VERY complex and most will not understand it anyway, so to make it simple they made SARS into a super virus, that was airborne, could directly transmit to humans, and most importantly uses a glycoprotein S-Spike for RBD into ACE2. Let me make this very, very clear. The research team need to HACK SARS, give it GAIN OF FUNCTION just to make this virus POSSIBLE in nature. Again, I am ONLY referring to bat to human transmission, which the paper says is virtually impossible. Even Bat-animal-human ACE2 entry is absurdly improbable, but still possible, but then on top of that to have gain of function for R0+ aerosol? We are talking about a 0.00001% of evolution for this to happen. But this is still possible to evolve. Once this paper went public the backlash from the virology, biology, epidemiology community was heavy. Scientists could not understand why the team would intentionally weaponize SARS. That part can be verified. I heard that congress, or some government body then forced the UNC lab to be shutdown, grants revoked, and suddenly Dr. Shi goes back to China. I have not verified ANY of that information. Later in that same year, 2015, The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) opens the country’s FIRST BSL4 lab. This was a BIG DEAL in China, but opening a BSL4 lab in the middle of a major city was HEAVILY criticized. Dr. Shi was named the director of the BSL4 lab. I have HEARD that the scientific paper grants/work were, in part, from the DoD, which would not surprise me. I have not looked into that. Was SHC014 leaked from WIV BSL4? Absolutely not! SARS-CoV2 shares its closest connection to RaTG13, a different coronavirus found in Yunnan bats that has nothing to do with humans and has never infected humans. The most probable scenario is that the research team created this super weapon, their grants were cut and all of their research was terminated. The DoD 100% would have had this research and no one knows what they did with that. This is where Dr. Shi should exit our timeline, for now.
By 8/17 the COPD vaping sickness becomes an epidemic, and the CDC investigates 94 cases. The illness/deaths are later to be determined to come from vitamin E acetate. Once the government identified the specific products, the vaping deaths essentially dropped to zero. So it is highly IMPROBABLE that the vaping outbreak is related BUT it could have been used as cover OR it is highly probable that SOME/FEW of those cases was misdiagnosed and were actually COVID19. It would be great if ANY doctor could go back and look at those Virginia cases and confirm that COVID19 existed well before Wuhan.
29 June 2018
29 June 2018
In 6/29/18 At the Good Samaritan Society in Illinois, between mid May to June 29th, 20 suffer from an unknown respiratory illness, leaving 9 dead. All doctors were baffled and have zero answers to provide..
"The present invention provides a live, attenuated coronavirus comprising a variant replicase gene encoding polyproteins comprising a mutation in one or more of non-structural protein(s) (nsp)-10, nsp-14, nsp-15 or nsp-16."
It is an identical description of the current coronavirus [COVID-19]
"... a mutation in one or more of non-structural protein(s) (nsp)-10, nsp-14, nsp-15 or nsp-16."
Let that sink in…
May 2018
A sudden exit of the head of the “pandemic response” team in America exits. It is not cordial, and appears that he was forced out.
American Bio-Warfare Office Reorganization in 2018
At the same time, John Bolton take over all Bio-weapons programs and pandemic offices. There was a complete and utter shakedown. It went from a civilian response organizaiton, to a military offensive organization…
In 2018, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser at the time, John R. Bolton, ousted Mr. Bossert and eliminated the National Security Council directorate, folding it into an office dedicated to weapons of mass destruction in what Trump officials called a logical consolidation.
Asked about that shift on March 13, Mr. Trump told a reporter that it was “a nasty question,” before adding: “I don’t know anything about it.” Writing on Twitter the next day, Mr. Bolton lashed out at critics who said the shift had reflected disinterest in pandemic threats.
-MSN
A few months after the reorganization of the office…
January 2019 America runs a “Pandemic Exercise”.
‘Crimson Contagion’
The Crimson Contagion planning exercise run last year (2019) by the Department of Health and Human Services involved officials from 12 states and at least a dozen federal agencies. They included the Pentagon, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Security Council. Groups like the American Red Cross and American Nurses Association were invited to join, as were health insurance companies and major hospitals like the Mayo Clinic.
The war game-like exercise was overseen by Robert P. Kadlec, a former Air Force physician who has spent decades focused on biodefense issues. After stints on the Bush administration’s Homeland Security Council and the staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee, he was appointed assistant secretary of Health and Human Services for Preparedness and Response.
“He recognized early that we have a big problem and we needed much bigger budgets to prepare,” said Richard Danzig, the secretary of the Navy in the Clinton administration, who had worked with Mr. Kadlec.
The exercise played out in four separate stages, starting in January 2019.
The events were supposedly unspooling in real time — with the worst-case scenario underway as of Aug. 13, 2019 — when, according to the script, 12,100 cases had already been reported in the United States, with the largest number in Chicago, which had 1,400.
The fictional outbreak involved a pandemic flu, which the Department of Health and Human Services says was “very different than the novel coronavirus.” The staged outbreak had started when a group of 35 tourists visiting China were infected and then flew home to Australia, Kuwait, Malaysia, Thailand, Britain and Spain, as well as to the United States, with some developing respiratory symptoms and fevers en route.
A 52-year-old man from Chicago, who was on the tour, had “low energy and a dry cough” upon his return home. His 17-year-old son on that same day went out to a large public event in Chicago, and the chain of illnesses in the United States started.
Many of the moments during the tabletop exercise are now chillingly familiar.
In the fictional pandemic, as the virus spread quickly across the United States, the C.D.C. issued guidelines for social distancing, and many employees were told to work from home.
-MSN
A few months after the exercise, Canada tries to secretly import virulent viruses into China…
Imagine that!
29 June 2018
By the numbers in short order, we have in a very short time span… (1) Militarized Coronavirus Patent Granted (2) Bi-warfare office reorganized. (3) The “Pandemic Exercise”. And finally, after the results of the exercise, someone tries to sneak this very same virus into China….
March 2019 – Strange Shipment of Viruses to China
In March 2019, in a mysterious event, a shipment of exceptionally virulent viruses from Canada’s NML biological labs ended up in China. Canadian officials say the shipment was part of its efforts to support public-health research worldwide. They claimed that it was just normal procedure.
What is unclear is why it was done in secret, and why the Chinese officials lodged a complaint. For certain, if this was just a routine transfer, the Chinese government would have been notified. And they would not have lodged a complaint.
Lethal viral agents.
Secretly imported into China.
The Chinese government filed a complaint.
Keep in mind that this was during the peak of the Trump trade wars, and at a time when remotely operated drones were spraying swine flu and decimating the Chinese pig population.
May 2019
May 2019
5/23-30/19 A Baltimore couple (one hour from Fort Detrick) check into a resort in Dominican Republic, only to later be found dead in their room. Autopsy shows pulmonary edema, respiratory failure. Both had prior medical conditions. Another American also checked into the hotel on the exact same day as the couple. She dropped dead in her hotel room on 5/25. Her husband said she collapsed 30+ minutes after drinking something from the mini-bar. She suffered a heart attack BUT also died from pulmonary edema, and a mystery respiratory illness. She had several underlying medical conditions. Her husband did NOT have any underlying medical conditions. It is important to note that the Baltimore couple died first but were not found for FIVE DAYS. FBI and CIA ran toxicology and everything came back clean. Official FBI result of THREE coincidental deaths was just that.. unexplained and coincidence. Heart attacks can happen, but pulmonary edema is something that takes days to destroy your lungs and have you drown to death. So we have an unknown virus. I cannot find any information if anyone else at the resort was sick or died. Just amazing that this case from Baltimore happens and a month later there are TWO retirement home outbreaks of mystery respiratory illness. To correct something in your article, Fort Detrick received a cease and desist order from the CDC on 7/15/19, which is coincidentally exactly when the retirement home outbreaks happened.
June 2019 – Strange Tweets
June 14, 2019– CDC finds US Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, VA non-compliant with its pathogen control agreement.
The Tweets from Turkish psychic, spiritual guru and ultra-nationalist. p.s. He is a known psychic and close to authorities. My bet he had insider information.
This is his tweet from 06/11/2019:
“”Decipher:
06/11/2019
The U.S. sent an aircraft of biological weapons to China. Epidemics may begin in China soon.They should not forget that if there is a Turk on earth, there is hope.””
source: https://twitter.com/EmirYildizdan/status/1138545686100815873
June 30, 2019– Unidentified pneumonia in Springfield, Virginia nursing home near Fort Detrick, VA, 15 minutes from Fort Belvoir, VA, where the US team trained for the Wuhan Military Games.
July 2019 – American and Canadian Bio-Labs Lock-Down.
July 9th, Report of vape pneumonia 100km southeast of Fort Detrick, VA. The lungs showed the ground glass shadow typical of Covid-19. Still unexplained.
July 12th, 2019–Respiratory outbreak at Springfield, Virginia assisted care facility, near Fort Detrick, VA kills 2, sickens 54. A third patient dies four days later. Deaths remain unexplained to this day.
July 17th, 2019–A pneumonia epidemic report reported at a nursing home in Burke, VA, 56 minutes from Fort Detrick, VA. It remains unexplained to this day.
July 26, Virginia State Health Bureau takes measures to prevent the spread of the pneumonia epidemic, including stopping collective activities, screening residents, and extra cleanliness.
In July 2019, a group of Chinese virologists were forcibly removed from the Canadian National Microbiology Laboratory (NML).
The NML is Canada’s only level-4 facility and one of only a few in North America equipped to handle the world’s deadliest diseases, including Ebola, SARS, Coronavirus, etc.
People have speculated that there might be a connection between these two events. Perhaps, they wonder, that the Chinese have been stealing the weaponized viral agents. Perhaps, they wonder, that they were caught and then expelled from NWL.
But maybe something else was going on.
Perhaps, something else that had to be done in secret and kept away from the Chinese scientists.
August 2019 – American Germ Lab Shut Down.
August 6, 2019–CDC shuts down America’s main biological warfare lab at Fort Detrick, VA. A senior scientist describes the atmosphere there as one of “fear and mistrust.” The CDC refuses to provide details.
Deadly Germ Research Is Shut Down at Army Lab Over Safety Concerns
Problems with disposal of dangerous materials led the government to suspend research at the military’s leading biodefense center.
In the statement, the C.D.C. cited “national security reasons” as the rationale for not releasing information about its decision.
date: Aug. 5, 2019
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/health/germs-fort-detrick-biohazard.html
And in another first, that very same month.
In late August, America got her first “vaping death” which low and behold matched the symptoms of Coronavirus PERFECTLY. Imagine that!
Fever
Low dry cough
Rapid onset of lung failure (with the characteristic “frosted glass shards” effect).
That could possibly be “patient zero”, and it was all scammed under the radar as E-cigarette mayhem.
Aug 23, 2019
The death appears to be the first among a spate of mysterious lung illnesses now under investigation by state and federal health officials in connection to vaping — at least 193 cases in 22 states, many in teens and young adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- Vaping death: Person who used e-cigarettes died after ...
September 2019 – Trump signs an emergency Executive Order
In September 2019, President Trump signs an “emergency” Executive Order that gives 120 days for the development of a vaccine “just in case” a global pandemic were to occur. WTF?
September 2019–A nationwide outbreak of a mysterious pneumonia causes severe respiratory problems in hundreds of people, kills 54. So-called ‘vaping-associated lung disease’ shares same symptoms as Covid-19 and images invariably show the same bilateral ground-glass opacities.
September 2019 – Bolton and WHO
John Bolton figures predominantly in all of this.
The official US-WHO position is that the coronavirus originated
in Wuhan, Hubei Province and was first discovered in Late December. This statement is questioned by Chinese and Japanese virologistswho claim that the virus originated in the US.
Daniel Lucey, an infectious disease expert at Georgetown University in Washington, said in an article in Science magazine that the first human infection has been confirmed as occurring in November 2019, (not in Wuhan), suggesting the virus originated elsewhere and then spread to the seafood markets. “One group put the origin of the outbreak as early as 18 September 2019.
A renowned Taiwanese virologist pointed to evidence that the virus could have originated at an earlier stage, stating : “We must look to September of 2019” (in America).
John Bolton
John Bolton (Neocon who was in favor of World War III with China) was fired. No one knows why.
Perhaps we should take a look at his preoccupation with biological warfare, to get some insight…
“About 2 years ago when he was still in the White House as national security advisor, John Bolton abruptly disbanded the government officials responsible for dealing with pandemics, global health security and bioterrorism. Apparently the health security bureaucracy is fragmented across various agencies, which means the White House has significant control over national health security.
This would explain the strange behavior and response of the CDC and other ostensibly independent government agencies. They’re fragmented and dependent on White House direction. This also seems like it would be a ripe environment for funny business by elements of the national security state. If health security is fragmented across various agencies and subject to White House control and can be easily kept out of the loop of things, there’s a greater probability that black ops could be implemented without worry of whistleblowers and the like.
-Global Research
The circumstances regarding his firing is speculated upon, but not one person states the real reason for the firing. It’s a big mystery, and both the Alt-Right, and the mainstream media speculated endlessly on this. Even Rush Limbaugh put in his two cents.
The official US-WHO position is that the coronavirus originated in Wuhan, Hubei Province and was first discovered in Late December. This statement is questioned by Chinese and Japanese virologistswho claim that the virus originated in the US.
In October, a top secret meeting was held with President Trump to discuss how the United States would fare during a pandemic situation.
They discussed the results from the on-going exercise “Crimson Contagion” that pretty much run from January 2019 into later Summer.
That scenario, code-named “Crimson Contagion,” was simulated by the Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services in a series of exercises that ran from last January to August.
The simulation’s sobering results — contained in a draft report dated October 2019 that has not previously been reported — drove home just how underfunded, underprepared and uncoordinated the federal government would be for a life-or-death battle with a virus for which no treatment existed.
The draft report, marked “not to be disclosed,” laid out in stark detail repeated cases of “confusion” in the exercise. Federal agencies jockeyed over who was in charge. State officials and hospitals struggled to figure out what kind of equipment was stockpiled or available. Cities and states went their own ways on school closings.
Many of the potentially deadly consequences of a failure to address the shortcomings are now playing out in all-too-real fashion across the country. And it was hardly the first warning for the nation’s leaders. Three times over the past four years the U.S. government, across two administrations, had grappled in depth with what a pandemic would look like, identifying likely shortcomings and in some cases recommending specific action.
-MSN
Additionally, and strangely, at the same time…
October 18, 2019: The B. and M. Gates Foundation and the WEF were partners in the John Hopkins National Security October 2019 nCoV-2019 Pandemic “Simulation Exercise”. This event is in ADDITION to the American Government “Crimson Contagion,” exercise.
On October 18th the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, in conjunction with the World Economic Forum and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, brought together “15 leaders of business, government, and public health” to simulate a scenario in which a coronavirus pandemic was ravaging the planet. Major participants were American military leadership, and certain neocon political figures.
Simulation Exercise of a coronavirus epidemic which results in 65 million dead. Supported by the World Economic Forum (WEF) representing the interests of Financial institutions, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation representing Big Pharma:
In October 2019, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security hosted a pandemic tabletop exercise called Event 201 with partners, the World Economic Forum and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. … For the scenario, we modeled a fictional coronavirus pandemic, but we explicitly stated that it was not a prediction. Instead, the exercise served to highlight preparedness and response challenges that would likely arise in a very severe pandemic. We are not now predicting that the nCoV-2019 outbreak will kill 65 million people. Although our tabletop exercise included a mock novel coronavirus, the inputs we used for modeling the potential impact of that fictional virus are not similar to nCoV-2019.“We are not now predicting that the nCoV-2019 [which was also used as the name of the simulation] outbreak will kill 65 million people. .Although our tabletop exercise included a mock novel coronavirus, the inputs we used for modeling the potential impact of that fictional virus are not similar to nCoV-2019.”
Several of the occurrences of the nCoV-2019 exercise coincided with what really happened.
In the Event 201 Simulation of a Coronavirus Pandemic, a 15% collapse of financial markets had been “simulated”.
It was not “predicted” according to the organizers and sponsors of the event.
Private sector initiative. Participation of corporate execs, foundations, financial institutions, Banks, Big Pharma, CIA, CDC, No health officials on behalf of national governments or the WHO.
The simulation exercise was held on the same day as the opening of the CISM World Military Sports Games in Wuhan.
The Chinese were not invited. This is unusual, as almost all the major viral outbreaks for the last decade occurred inside of China and Africa.
The members took notes, and then returned to their day to day operations…
The very next day…
October 2019– American Military in Wuhan, China.
300 US military personnel arrived in Wuhan for the Military World Games on October 19. The American contingent did so abismially, that many have wondered if the American standards of performance has lowered, or that the participants were there for another purpose.
“They claim the inattentive attitude and disproportionately below average results of American athletes in the game indicate they might have been in for other purposes and they might actually be bio-warfare operatives, and that their place of residence during their stay in Wuhan was also close to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where the first known cluster of cases occurred.”
-Wikipedia
And the poor showing by the American military wasn’t the only thing observed…
In October 2019, the US brought 172 (really 369) military athletes to Wuhan for the World Military Games. Despite having the largest military in the world, ten fold, the US came in 35th behind nations like Iran, Finland and Slovenia. No video or photos exist of the US team, no records were kept, a huge team but a pitiful performance for the best military in the world.
The US team did so badly that they were called “Soy Sauce Soldiers” by the Chinese. In fact, many never participated in any event and stayed near the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where the disease is said to have originated only days after the US left the area.
The US team went home on October 28, 2019 and within 2 weeks, the first human contact cases of COVID 19 were seen in Wuhan. The Chinese have not been able to find “patient zero” and believe he was a member of the US team.
They also have sources that say the US had misrepresented influenza that Trump claims has killed thousands, an influenza carried to China by the US team, an influenza that was really COVID 19, a disease developed in a military bio-warfare facility in the state of Washington, now “ground zero” in the US for COVID 19.
The Chinese claim, something censored in the US, that the inattentive attitude and disproportionately below average results of American athletes in the game indicate they might have been in for other purposes and they might actually be bio-warfare operatives, and that their place of residence during their stay in Wuhan was also close to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where the first known cluster of cases occurred.
https://www.veteranstoday.com/2020/03/13/china-us-brought-covid19-to-china-during-army-games-hid-disease-in-us-as-influenza/
Additionally, and pay strict attention to this…
… the housing for the American military was also in close proximity to the [1] Iranian, [2] Italian and [3] South Korean military housings.
End October 2019
It appears that the American virus Covid 19 came with the U.S. soldier, Maatje Benassi. Maatje Benassi took part in the military games in Wuhan in October 2019.
Maatje Benassi has a relative, Matthew Benassi.
Matthew Benassi works at the Fort Detrick, the U.S. military’s chemical and biological weapons laboratory where the 2019 bio-warfare agent accident occurred.
She ( Maatje ) competed in the Wuhan Military Games as a women’s road cyclist. Maatje Benassi Age: 53 Gender: female Maatje Benassi is a NATO admiral guard and driver (diplomatic security officer) of Dutch origin.
What is a 53 year old woman doing in the Olympics?
She lives in close proximity to Fort Detrick. Fort Detrick is an American biological warfare lab, and the place where the biological weapons are developed.
We do not know how many others were infected, but we know that 5 US military where emergency rescued from the Dongfang Jianguo Hotel.
Chinese medical staff went to the Dongfang Jianguo hotel to rescue five American military participants who were suffering from [1] high fevers, [2] shallow coughs, and [3] chest pains.
Once retrieved from the Dongfang Jianguo hotel they were sent to the Wuhan hospital. There, their symptoms were recorded, some treatment provided and they were immediately evacuated to the Wuhan Tianhe International Airport.
They were then picked up by a special US military airplane to evacuate them to the US.
After the American military contingent left China, the hotel staff started to come down with an illness.
In all, 42 employees of the Oriental Hotel were diagnosed with COVID-19, becoming the first cluster in Wuhan.
At the time only 7 people from the market had been thus diagnosed (and treated before the hotel staff). All 7 had contact with the 42 from the hotel. From this source, the virus spread to the rest of China.
October 2019
A video surfaced that alleges that an American service person appears to purposefully spread COVID in Wuhan.
She is also described as an “armed diplomatic driver” with a history of ties to intelligence operations involving key RussiaGate figures.
Benassi was driver for General James Jones, of ShadowNet, (George Webb) and worked for US Army intelligence. ShadowNet and Psy-Group along with Cambridge Analytica were part of the Mueller investigation, seeking information on their relationships with Paul Manafort (imprisoned) and Donald Trump Jr. (not yet imprisoned).
Black-ops organizational chart.
2 November 2019– Wuhan Outbreaks.
The first (well established) coronavirus case in Wuhan appeared two weeks later, on November 2. [renamed to COVID-19]
Relative locations of the Wuhan vaccine lab, and where the American soldiers stayed, relative to the Wuhan wet market. Note that the American soldiers shared a hotel with Iranian, and North Korean and Italian soldiers at that location.
Keep in mind that the Coronavirus incubation period is 14 days.
So, fourteen days later…
15 November 2019
29 June 2018
“”Intelligence report warned of coronavirus crisis as early as November: Sources “Analysts concluded it could be a cataclysmic event,” a source says.”” https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/intelligence-report-warned-coronavirus-crisis-early-november-sources/story?id=70031273 So the CIA knew before China about a virus outbreak of pandemic proportions?!.
So how did the President deal with this information?
Strangely, while President Trump was downplaying the news in China as “just a flu”,
A “strange pneumonia” was circulating in northern Italy as long ago as November, weeks before doctors were made aware of the novel coronavirus outbreak in China, one of the European country’s leading medical experts said this week.
“They [general practitioners] remember having seen very strange pneumonia, very severe, particularly in old people in December and even November,” Giuseppe Remuzzi, the director of the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan, said in an interview with the National Public Radio of the United States.
“This means that the virus was circulating, at least in [the northern region of] Lombardy and before we were aware of this outbreak occurring in China.”
December 2019– Outbreaks increase in severity.
The first (outbreak) occurrences in China appeared in December.
Here is a statement from StatNews (“DNA sleuths read the coronavirus genome, tracing its origins and looking for dangerous mutations,” January 24, 2020). It’s a bit complicated, but read it over, and then I’ll comment:
“Given what’s known about the pace at which viral genomes mutate, if nCoV [the coronavirus] had been circulating in humans since significantly before the first case was reported on Dec. 8, the 24 genomes [from, presumably, 24 different samples of the virus in 24 people] would differ more. Applying ballpark rates of viral evolution, Rambaut [one of the “experts”] estimates that the Adam (or Eve) virus from which all others are descended first appeared no earlier than Oct. 30, 2019, and no later than Nov. 29.”
My, my. That’s quite a precise peg: the coronavirus jumped from animals to humans, for the very first time, between October 30 and November 29, 2019.
-No more fake news
They appeared to be of minor concern. The incubation period has not been definitively stated but, once infections began, the spread was surprisingly rapid after the first case was confirmed.
December 2019 – American Military Forbidden to View Chinese Videos.
When the outbreak began, the pentagon suddenly began telling it’s soldiers not to use popular Chinese APPs such as TicToc and WeChat…
…No excuses were given, other than for “Natural Security”.
Apparently the United States military did not want the rank and file soldiers watching locally made videos inside of China.
Everyone is getting in on the act. This was posted on 24FEB20. What the fucking hell could a Tiktok application do to TSA, for goodness sakes?
Was it because they hated lip-synchronization and dancing, or something else? Maybe they didn’t want the troops to see the “on the street” Chinese coping with American germ warfare.
The initial symptoms were mild, which permitted many people to travel before stronger symptoms were detected.
December 2019 – My Urges.
Curious coincidence, I published this post on Christmas Eve…
People, there are no such things as coincidences. Especially, not with my actions. Especially things that invade my subconscious.
December 2019– China alerted WHO
China’s early conventional efforts seemed unsuccessful in halting the spread of the disease.
Then on Jan. 23rd and after only 17 deaths, the Chinese government took the astonishing step of locking down and quarantining the entire 11 million inhabitants of the city of Wuhan, a story that drew worldwide attention. They soon extended this policy to the 60 million Chinese of Hubei province, and not longer afterward shut down their entire national economy and confined 700 million Chinese to their homes, a public health measure probably a thousand times larger than anything previously undertaken in human history. So either China’s leadership had suddenly gone insane, or they regarded this new virus as an absolutely deadly national threat, one that needed to be controlled at any possible cost.
Given these dramatic Chinese actions and the international headlines that they generated, the current accusations by Trump Administration officials that China had attempted to minimize or conceal the serious nature of the disease outbreak is so ludicrous as to defy rationality.
In any event, the record shows that on December 31st, the Chinese had already alerted the World Health Organization to the strange new illness, and Chinese scientists published the entire genome of the virus on Jan. 12th, allowing diagnostic tests to be produced worldwide.
Unlike other nations, China had received no advance warning of the nature or existence of the deadly new disease, and therefore faced unique obstacles. But their government implemented public health control measures unprecedented in the history of the world and managed to almost completely eradicate the disease with merely the loss of a few thousand lives.
-American Pravda: Our Coronavirus Catastrophe as Biowarfare Blowback?
December 31, 2019 China alerted WHO to several cases of “unusual pneumonia” in Wuhan, Hubei province.
On December 31, 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) was informed of an outbreak of “pneumonia of unknown cause” detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China – the seventh-largest city in China with 11 million residents.
Late December 2019
In late December about 10 doctors reported cases of an unknown or SARS- like virus. These were immediately reported to WHO and thorough investigation was undertaken in China and by WHO.
One doctor, Li Wenliang, posted two notices, sent from his colleagues engaged in the investigation, on wechat and weibo, and the local police reprimanded him for inappropriate use of social media.
Importantly, he was not silenced or fined.
Instead he kept working and he was by no means the only one involved in the research.
Of course, the Western media made a big brouhaha about a supposed ‘whistleblower’ who was ‘silenced’, but this was a clear distortion of the actual situation.
I recommend that you (the reader) read this report of the 40-day investigation of the matter by the National Supervisory Commission (on China Daily).
The report noted that there are very strict laws concerning the verification, release and reporting of epidemic information. Li had not followed those laws and provided some incorrect information at the time. Thus, the actions by the local police at the time had followed the law. At the same, Li – as a member of the CPC – had acted in good faith and for the social good. The report also finds that two of the police officers involved had followed substandard procedures. Thus, a sincere apology was given to Li’s family and the official letter of reprimand rescinded.
Clearly, the early mistakes in China were incidental and not systemic.
Later in December 2019
Meanwhile, WHO sent a team to China. This team included Americans who reported directly to Donald Trump.
Which is a contributor as to the absolutely ludicrous narrative that China withheld information, misinterpreted things, and did not act promptly enough. American doctors and scientists were inside the WHO investigation team almost from "day one".
16 U.S. administration officials were embedded with the WHO.
The sequence of the unknown virus was identified in a record 7 days by a Chinese laboratory.
A diagnostic kit was developed by a German lab.
A full diagnosis was possible by 20 January.
The WHO notes that this was the fastest identification made in the case of a new disease.
The plan developed was a WHO-China joint plan, and the WHO urged the rest of the world to act immediately since China had given the world an opportunity to change the course of the disease.
Unfortunately, too many countries did not listen and we find ourselves in the current situation.
In China, the ability of its socialist system to control and manage a new epidemic is now history.
Through widespread testing (1.6 million a day), integration of AI, 5G and big data, it was able to keep the epidemic to a miniscule fraction of one percent of the whole population. As for the population itself, the old Chinese cultural – and socialist – reality of the greater social good kicked in and almost everyone cooperated (those who did not soon did so). Notably, public health was paramount, and not the economy. Of course, the economy too would benefit from a focus on public health, as China’s staged resumption – as I write – of production indicates.
By contrast, the totally inept response in a place like Australia seeks to prioritize the economy and make public health a secondary issue. This will have greater economic repercussions, as more get infected.
As for the China Model, we can also note that those countries that followed it to some degree (Singapore and South Korea come to mind, but also – to its credit – Denmark, which still has a strong and able public sector, despite efforts to erode it over the last few years) have been able to control the epidemic.
Start of 2020 New Year
The United States begins a massive anti-China propaganda campaign. It was relentless and unwavering.
This campaign was uncovered in March 2020:
On March 21 the Daily Beast reported of the propaganda campaign the White House was launching against China:
As the number of coronavirus cases continues to grow at a rapid pace in the U.S., the White House is launching a communications plan across multiple federal agencies that focuses on accusing Beijing of orchestrating a “cover-up” and creating a global pandemic, according to two U.S. officials and a government cable obtained by The Daily Beast.
The cable, sent to State Department officials Friday, lays out in detail the circumstances on the ground in China, including data on coronavirus cases and deaths, the local business environment and transportation restrictions.
But it also issues guidelines for how U.S. officials should answer questions on, or speak about, the coronavirus and the White House’s response in relation to China.
The talking points appear to have originated in the National Security Council. One section of the cable reads “NSC Top Lines: [People’s Republic of China] Propaganda and Disinformation on the Wuhan Virus Pandemic.”
Soon the mainstream media started to spread the new talking points. A Google News search for the search term "China Cover-up" now finds 449.000 results.
EarlyJanuary 2020 – New Virus Identified.
January 7, 2020 Chinese officials announced they had identified a new virus, The novel virus was named by the WHO 2019-nCoV (exactly the same name as the virus pertaining to the John Hopkins simulation exercise, with the exception of the placement of the date).
Which triggered this timeline…
Here is a timeline on President Xi Jinping’s “personal leadership and personal commands” to combat the CoronaVirus crisis, published in the official Communist party magazine Qiushi magazine：
Jan 7:
Mr Xi met the party’s politburo standing committee, China’s most powerful decision-making body, and gave clear instructions on the virus response.
Jan 20:
Mr. Xi gave an official command to all levels of government to put lives and public health first, and effectively contain the virus spread.
Jan 22,
Mr. Xi sent clear commands to control human mobility from Hubei province.
Jan 25,
Mr. Xi chaired the Politburo Standing Committee meeting to establish the Virus Control leadership team.
Jan 7th meeting was 13 days before the Chinese public was warned about the human-to-human transmission.
-https://amp-ft-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.ft.com/content/3da73290-5067-11ea-8841-482eed0038b1
On January 10, gene sequencing further determined it to be the new Wuhan coronavirus, namely 2019-nCoV, a betacoronavirus, related to the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome virus (MERS-CoV) and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome virus (SARSCoV). However, the mortality and transmissibility of 2019-nCoV are still unknown, and likely to vary from those of the prior referenced coronaviruses.
January 2020 –CIA Propagandizes that it is a Chinese Bio-weapon.
The first mention of this being a biological weapon comes from Radio Free Asia. This is an American government propaganda outlet. Formerly CIA. Now operates “independently” under the leadership of CIA management.
They made the outrageous statement(s) that;
There is a military bio-weapons research complex in Wuhan.
That the Chinese government intentionally released it to hurt and harm the Chinese people.
The Chinese stole the technology from the United States.
Radio Free Asia, the U.S.-government funded media outlet targeting Asian audiences that used to be run covertly by the CIA and named by the New York Times as a key part in the agency’s “worldwide propaganda network.”
Though it is no longer run directly by the CIA, it is now managed by the government-funded Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which answers directly to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was CIA director immediately prior to his current post at the head of the State Department.
In other words, Radio Free Asia and other BBG-managed media outlets are legal outlets for U.S. government propaganda.
This information was picked up all over the American Alt-Right media.
Who gobbled it up as fact.
For everyone “knows” (in the Conservative circles) that China hates it’s people and China is Hard-Line Communist.
Nonsense.
But, articles like this one gets buried in the onslaught of the propagandized “biological weapons narrative” re-direction.
Additionally, it begins to be noticed outside of China…
Japan, North Korea, and Iran reports COVID-19 illnesses.
The moment it started spreading in Iran, it became obvious it was Israel/US rogue elements that spread coronavirus. Similar to when the Stuxnet ‘virus’ hit Iran and everywhere else but was denied by Israel/US intelligence at first. But this wasn’t JUST for Iran, this was for China, Iran, and the Silk Road countries.
- Ultimation 007
Mid January 2020
Trump’s first attempt was to blame the World Health Organization for not providing all information. But 16 U.S. administration officials were embedded with the WHO in Geneva. They relayed real time updates of all information the WHO received.
As the Democrats and the media did not join Trump in blaming the WHO another scapegoat was needed. Everyone then agreed that it China would be the most convenient target.
The intensity of the current anti-China campaign reminds one of the run up to the war on Iraq. The people who now claim that ‘China lied, people died’ are the very same who ran the Iraq WMD campaign. But all the reports claiming Iraqi weapons of mass destruction were just fantasy. The reports of Chinese culpability are similar nonsense.
To blame China the hawks are accusing it of three issues:
Lack of public hygiene
Insufficient information
Creating or spreading the virus by accident
The “wet market” in Wuhan did not have hygiene problems. A “wet market” is comparable to a farmers market (vid). It is “wet” in that it provides fresh products like fruits, vegetables, meat and fish. A “dry market” provides the complementary products like rice, flour, tea and sugar. China has yet to be overrun by super market chains. Some 40% of the Chinese people source their daily food at the wet markets.
The wet market in Wuhan was not the source of the epidemic. It did not and does not sell bats. The epidemic started in December at a time when bats hibernate. The first known case was not related to the market at all.
The U.S. claims that China did not inform it sufficiently. The timeline as published by China and confirmed by media reports does not support that claim.
On January 3 the head of the U.S. Center of Disease Control was personally informed by his Chinese counterpart that there was an outbreak of pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan. On January 8 the “unknown cause” was identified as a novel coronavirus. A full genome sequence of the virus was published on January 12 and preliminary testing kits were developed and made available in Wuhan. By January 13 another test and test protocol had been developed in Germany and on January 17 the WHO adopted its refined version.
In the U.S. the CDC insisted on developing its own test and failed by contaminating its test components. It then failed for more than a month to correct the issue.
The German Federal Health Ministry was recently asked if it perceived a lack of information from China or saw reason to criticize China over its changing case numbers. It responded (in German, my translation):
"The federal government is not aware that China held back any data." ... "Considering the interim development the adoption of different definitions of cases during the epidemic in China is comprehensible."
Another claim is that China somehow created the virus or let it escape from a laboratory in Wuhan where it was researching bat viruses.
Edward Holmes, a biologist at the University of Sydney and a fellow of the respected Royal Society in London, said the Wuhan laboratory blamed by some for the pandemic does have specimens of the bat virus RaTG13, the closest relative of Covid-19 source SARS-CoV-2, but the two are not genetically linked.
RaTG13 strains, he says, are from the southern Chinese province of Yunnan, not the central city of Wuhan, the pandemic’s initial epicenter.
...
Genome tracing has revealed that the bat virus RaTG13 has at least 20 years of genetic divergence, or evolutionary change, from SARS-CoV-2, and possibly as much as 50 years, ruling it out as the source of the pandemic.
The claims against China made by both U.S. parties do not have a factual basis.
January 24, 25, 2020: Meeting at Davos, under the auspices of CEPI which is also a WEF-Gates partnership, the development of a 2019 nCoV vaccine was announced. (2 weeks after the January 7, 2020 announcement, and barely a week prior to the launching of the WHO’s Worldwide Public Health emergency).
The first reported infected individuals, some of whom showed symptoms as early as December 8, were discovered to be among stallholders from the Wuhan South China Seafood Market. Subsequently, the wet market was closed on Jan 1.
The virus causing the outbreak was quickly determined to be a novel coronavirus. [renamed to COVID-19]
Worst Case: It's some bio-engineered frankenvirus, with who-knows what lethality, r-naught, and incubation time.
-Woodpile Report
As of January 26, there are over 2019 cases of 2019-nCoV [renamed to COVID-19] confirmed globally, including cases in at least 20 regions in China and nine countries/territories.
Local medical authorities have said the true extent of the Wuhan coronavirus [renamed to COVID-19] is unclear, and the early official figures may have been an underestimation since the mild symptoms and delayed onset meant infections may have been undetected.
January 30th, 2020, WHO Director General announces the “Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
The WHO did not act to reassure and inform World public opinion. Quite the opposite: A “Fear Pandemic” rather than a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) was launched.
Outright panic and uncertainty were sustained through a carefully designed media disinformation campaign.
Almost immediately this led to economic dislocations, a crisis in trade and transportation with China affecting major airlines and shipping companies. A hate campaign against ethnic Chinese in Western countries was launched, followed by the collapse in late February of stock markets, not to mention the crisis in the tourist industry.
The complexity of this crisis and its impacts have to be addressed and carefully analysed.
What we are dealing with is “economic warfare” supported by media disinformation, coupled with the deliberate intent of the Trump administration to undermine China’s economy. The ongoing economic dislocations are not limited to China.
There are important public health concerns which must be addressed. But what motivated the Director-General of the WHO to act in this way? Who was behind this historic January 30th decision of the WHO’s Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
-Global Research
31 January 2020– CIA pushes the narrative and Conservative shrills magnify it.
The American narrative that this is an accidental or intentional leak by the Chinese is heavily pushed by American “interests”. A good example is this one…
Written by ” harvard2thebighouse” who is actually an anonymous author. But who places this comment in the start of the article…
"An accessible and comprehensive YouTube summary of the report below by a Professor of Neurobiology at the University of Pittsburgh’s Medical School is available here. "
If you weren’t paying attention you would assume that the Professor of Neurobilogy at the University of Pittsburgh’s Medical Schools wrote this article.
But yet again…
Un-named sources. Un-named authors. Un-named school, but a rather generic and officially sounding association. Which medical school in Pittsburgh, and which professor at that medical school? All are un-named. But look at the rich and comprehensive narrative that states that it’s FROM CHINA.
Check it out!
Given that this outbreak was said to begin in late December when most bat species in the region are hibernating and the Chinese horseshoe bat’s habitat covers an enormous swath of the region containing scores of cities and hundreds of millions people to begin with, the fact that this Wuhan Strain of coronavirus, denoted as COVID-19 emerged in close proximity to the only BSL-4 virology lab in China, now notoriously located in Wuhan, which in turn was staffed with at least two Chinese scientists – Zhengli Shi and Xing-Yi Ge – both virologists who had previously worked at an American lab which already bio-engineered an incredibly virulent strain of bat coronavirus – the accidental release of a bio-engineered virus from Wuhan’s virology lab cannot be automatically discounted, especially when the Wuhan Strain’s unnatural genomic signals are considered.
-https://harvardtothebighouse.com/2020/01/31/logistical-and-technical-analysis-of-the-origins-of-the-wuhan-coronavirus-2019-ncov/
The American internet was flooded from January though to March with these kinds of articles. All pointing “fingers” at China for accidentally or intentionally releasing a bioweapon.
CNY February 2020 – China; Full Nationwide Lock-down
All the evidence suggests the Chinese authorities acted effectively as soon as they realized the danger they might be facing.
As Hubei was struggling to provide adequate care for those infected, over 10,000 medical professionals have volunteered by Feb. 3rd.
But as the number of patients became once again overwhelming even for them, Beijing enacted an emergency order.
On Feb. 9th. nearly 6,000 medical professionals were flown in on 41 flights from all over China.
Then on Feb. 10th., another order was activated and each province and major city in China was assigned one or several "sister cities" in Hubei which they will supply with medical teams and support logistically with medical supplies.
Currently (17FEB20) the number of medical professionals which arrived in Hubei from other provinces are estimated to be over 40,000. Now, that's one thing, but keep in mind, nearly all medical professionals in all of China are still on emergency standby and have not had a single days off since the beginning of the epidemic. The medical staff are all tired, and those that stayed behind are working overtime to pick up the work of those who went to Hubei.
What kind of evil person would unleash such a weapon?
Medical authorities immediately declared the outbreak, and within a week they had identified the pathogen and also determined and shared the genome sequence with the WHO and other parties, a sufficiently speedy response that earned praise from the WHO and scientists around the world.
In America – February 2020 – People told not to wear masks.
As unbelievable as it seems, the United States government instructed the American people NOT to wear masks. This is true even though the primary means of transmission of the COVID-19 virus is through the air.
Why did the American government tell Americans NOT to wear masks? What is their malfunction? This is a well-known method to controlling the spread of a dangerous viral agent. This has been well known since 1918!
Are they [1] intentionally trying to kill millions of Americans, or are they [2] trying to “gin up” a “scape-goat” from which to generate a new war with?
Various media articles detailed the growing anger over the CDC’s recommendation to not wear masks and the US politicizing of the coronavirus.
On Feb. 28, the CDC released a video on its official Twitter account entitled “COVID-19: Should I wear a mask?”, in which the CDC discouraged people from using face masks.
“The CDC’s recommendations were immediately questioned or slammed by the American public on social media, with many claiming that the irresponsible remarks [were] risking people’s life by not encouraging basic protection.”
-People
Americans are instructed to do the opposite of what China is doing. In China everyone MUST wear a mask or be arrested. In America, a mask is not needed, apparently…
Late February 2020– More Strange Tweets.
The Tweets from Turkish psychic, spiritual guru and ultra-nationalist. p.s. He is a known psychic and close to authorities. My bet is that he had some insider information.
Tweet from Feb 24 2020:
“”Deciphered:
24/02/2020
The Pentagon made a very dangerous NUCLEAR experiment.
Without trying this #Trump He doesn’t even know.
Since it is deciphered #Trump What will they lie to? How and in what way will they announce this dangerous trial to the World Public? Research, accident
… We eagerly await.””
source: https://twitter.com/EmirYildizdan/status/1231930978551107584
February 2020 – Test Results are Reported.
Beijing points a finger at the United States;
“Perhaps the US delegates (to the Wuhan Military World Games) brought the coronavirus to Wuhan, and some mutation occurred to the virus, making it more deadly and contagious, and causing a widespread outbreak this year.”
(People’s Daily, February 23, 2020) (1)
March 2020– China regains control over virus. USA holds secret meetings.
Reported new cases in China fall to double digits. 99 cases recorded on March 7.All of the new cases outside Hubei province are categorized as “imported infections”(from foreign countries).
The Trump administration is treating the meetings associated with this entire COVID-19 event as a Top Secret Deliberation. Apparently, some SAP information is being disclosed in the meetings and non-military people are excluded from attending.
The White House held dozens of meetings about coronavirus response that excluded government experts because the discussions were unnecessarily classified over the objections of HHS Secretary Alex Azar, reports Reuters. Experts were not just barred from speaking openly about what we knew about the emerging pandemic. Apparently, they weren’t even allowed in the room.
“It is not normal to classify discussions about a response to a public health crisis,” an unnamed official from the Republican George W. Bush administration told the wire service.
What “Top Secret” SAP information could be withheld from the participants during this national emergency? Why is this being done? What possible MILITARY information could be discussed in a meeting about a new kind of flu? (As this is the American government narrative.)
[1] Here in the United States, the National Security Council, under direct orders from the White House has sealed the top emergency meetings on this topic and classified them.
[2] Only people with top secret clearances have been allowed to participate, which rules out most of the medical experts who should have been there.
So putting these two facts together, first, that the rumors on Chinese social media that were already very widespread a month ago or more...
... and now have gotten the official stamp of approval that the coronavirus outbreak was an act of biological warfare by the United States...
... it seems to be becoming the official position of the Chinese government.
And that is quite concerning, because if indeed, the US government or its allies or out of control rogue agencies within it did in fact whether deliberately as is the most likely possibility, or accidentally or some combination thereof, perhaps a clumsy effort by someone outside of the normal chain of command, whatever the truth is about this, this could set off an escalation that could easily lead to World War Three.
–PressTV
And this…
Exclusive: White House Told Federal Health Agency to Classify Coronavirus Deliberations-Sources:
"Critical people who did not have security clearances who could not go,” one official said. “These should not be classified meetings. It was unnecessary.”
The sources said the National Security Council (NSC), which Exclusive: White House Told Federal Health Agency to Classify Coronavirus Deliberations- Sources advises the president on security issues, ordered the classification.
“This came directly from the White House,” one official said.
The White House insistence on secrecy at the nation’s premier public health organization, which has not been previously disclosed, has put a lid on certain information - and potentially delayed the response to the crisis.
COVID19, the disease caused by the virus, has killed about 30 people in the United States and infected more than 1,000 people. HHS oversees a broad range of health agencies, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which among other things is responsible for tracking cases and providing guidance nationally on the outbreaks.
The administration officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said they could not describe the interactions in the meeting room because they were classified.
An NSC spokesman did not respond to questions about the meetings at HHS. But he defended the administration’s transparency across federal agencies and noted that meetings of the administration's task force on the coronavirus all are unclassified. It was not immediately clear which meetings he was referring to. “From day one of the response to the coronavirus, NSC has insisted on the principle of radical transparency,” said the spokesman, John Ullyot. He added that the administration “has cut red tape and set the global standard in protecting the American people under President Trump’s leadership.”
A spokeswoman for HHS, Katherine McKeogh, issued a statement that did not address questions about classified meetings. Using language that echoed the NSC’s, the department said it that it agreed task-force meetings should be unclassified. Critics have hammered the Trump administration for what they see as a delayed response to coronavirus outbreaks and a lack of transparency, including sidelining experts and providing misleading or incomplete information to the public. State and local officials also have complained of being kept in the dark about essential federal response information.
U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence, the administration's point person on coronavirus, vowed on March 3 to offer “real-time information in a steady pace and be fully transparent.” The vice president, appointed by President Donald Trump in late February, is holding regular news briefings and also has pledged to rely on expert guidance. Katie Miller, Pence's press secretary, said Wednesday that since being appointed the vice president has never requested that HHS hold meetings in the SCIF or treat information as classified.
The meetings at HHS were held in a secure area called a "Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facility," or SCIF, according to the administration officials. SCIFs are usually reserved for intelligence and military operations.
Ordinary cell phones and computers can't be brought into the chambers. HHS has SCIFs because theoretically it would play a major role in biowarfare or chemical attacks.
A high-level former official who helped address public health outbreaks in the George W. Bush administration said “it’s not normal to classify discussions about a response to a public health crisis.”
Attendees at the meetings included HHS Secretary Alex Azar and his chief of staff Brian Harrison, the officials said. Azar and Harrison resisted the classification of the meetings, the sources said. HHS did not make Azar or Harrison available for comment.
One of the administration officials told Reuters that when complex issues about a quarantine came up, a high-ranking HHS lawyer with expertise on the issue was not admitted because he did not have the proper security clearance.
His input was delayed and offered at an unclassified meeting, the official said. A fifth source familiar with the meetings said HHS staffers often weren’t informed about coronavirus developments because they didn’t have adequate clearance.
He said he was told that the matters were classified "because it had to do with China."
26MARCH 2020
A few days ago, Mike Pompeo phoned Yang Jiechi, Chinese State Councillor for Foreign Affairs.
Pompeo’s counterpart is actually Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Yang is Wang’s boss, so Pompeo wanted to talk about something urgent and important.
The entire purpose of the phone call was that American Secretary of State Pompeo wanted the Chinese not to publicize what they had found out about the start of the illness in Wuhan.
Yang’s reply:
“We await your solemn explanation, especially about Patient Zero.”
This little bit of information is all over Chinese media and Social media. With absolutely zero coverage inside America.
April 2020
The United States adjusts it’s anti-China propaganda campaign.
On April 1 Bloomberg was called up by "officials" to reinforce the campaign by attributing the claim of a cover-up of China's case and death numbers to a "secret U.S. intelligence report". That report is unlikely to exist at all because the New York Timesreported a day later that the CIA hunt for "authentic numbers" of deaths in China was still ongoing and failing:
So far, to the frustration of both the White House and the intelligence community, the agencies have been unable to glean more accurate numbers through their collection efforts.
We used the Bloomberg report to explain that the case fatality numbers, which China reported correctly, are very different from the total number of fatalities, or excess deaths, an epidemic causes.
There was no cover-up by China but naturally incomplete reporting of all deaths.
A day later the BBC published a similar explainer piece.
On April 3 the Economist also discussed wrong fatality numbers though it had found those in Italy and Spain: Covid-19’s death toll appears higher than official figures suggest. It also made this snarky cover-up remark:
[W]hen Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in 2017, America recorded only 64 deaths. A study later found that the surge in total deaths was close to 3,000. Many occurred in hospitals that lost power.
And elements of it are completely “off the wall”…
https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2020/04/07/report-wuhan-funeral-homes-burned-people-alive/
Warning, this story is not for the squeamish, take comfort that it is most certainly fiction.
1. It's published by Breitbart which we know has low journalistic standards but it is sourced from 'Radio Free Asia' so it has our US CIA goons despicable fingerprints on it.
2. The propaganda worked on its target audience, the posters on Breitbart bought it hook-line-and-sinker.
3. Why do I think it's false? The sensationalistic tone, even FOX and the Daily Mail won't touch it (China must have gotten to them), they make other erroneous claims such as Chinese hospitals only giving patients oxygen because they don't have medicine while western hospitals are trying new therapies such as Colloquine. Notice the 'hero narrative' assigned to the U.S. even though China was the first to use this drup.
This is seriously demented.
-MoA Comments
Chinese treated this seriously.
Remembering the SARS troubles, they did much more.
In most large centers in the country, all sports venues, theaters, museums, tourist attractions, all locations that attract crowds, have been closed, as have all schools. All group tours have been canceled. Not only the city of Wuhan but virtually the entire province of Hubei has been locked down, with all trains, aircraft, buses, subways, ferries, grounded and all major highways and toll booths closed.
Thousands of flights and train trips have been canceled until further notice. Some cities like Shanghai and Beijing are conducting temperature tests on all roadways leading into the cities. In addition, Wuhan is building (in five days) a portable hospital of 25,000 square meters to deal with the infected patients. As well, Wuhan has asked citizens to neither leave nor enter the city without a compelling reason, and all are wearing face masks.
Additionally, the following unique measures are being taken throughout China. This is common in the far North as well as the remote South;
Small towns and villages are blocking the roads and not allowing anyone in or out. This is being enforced by the local militia.
In cities, the police are walking up and down the streets with bullhorns telling everyone to stay inside and not to leave their homes.
A tent hospital has been constructed in Wuhan to handle the cases.
A full “regular” hospital is being constructed (in ten days) to handle the problem.
A secondary hospital will be built after the construction of the first one is completed.
The military, police, fire, and hospital staff all over China are on full alert. Many are working without sleep and rest.
After the initial fireworks, everything turned eerily quiet. No one is going outside, no one is traveling, and no one is visiting friends.
All major transport hubs are on lock down and temperature screening by CDC attire is the norm.
Individual villages are laying down roadblocks all over China.
The scale of the challenge of implementing such a blockade is immense, comparable to closing down all transport links for a city five times the size of Toronto or Chicago, on Christmas eve. These decisions are unprecedented but testify to the determination of the authorities to limit the spread and damage of this new pathogen.
CHINA’S HANDLING OF THE NOVELLE CORONA VIRUS INFECTION
Below are comments from Robin Daverman , a American Doctor, expressed in Quora.
👇 Dude, the Chinese government has been exceptionally good in dealing with this virus. You can NOT deliver what the Chinese government has delivered so far, unless you are the mythical Santa Claus.
During the Western African Ebola virus epidemic in 2014, the CDC rushed in to try to find the virus. It took them 2 months from getting the 1st patient sample to identifying the complete genomic sequence, and then another 6 weeks to publish it.
This is Top Urgency, with a virus that has a 90% case fatality rate.
The 2009 Swine Flu in the US, which ended up infecting 55 million Americans and killed 11,000 of them, the first cases started to appear in late March, the CDC identified it on April 17, and the identification kits were not generally available until mid-May. And that was 250 people working 100+ hour a week!
CNY 2020 devistation!
They not only address the gravity of the situation but also the seriousness of consideration for the public health, unfortunate and difficult decisions since the holiday is being destroyed for hundreds of millions of people. Most public entertainment has been canceled, as have tours, and many weddings as well.
The damage to the economy during this most festive of all periods will also be enormous.
Just received some "professional analysis and insights" from CITI Group (as most of you know a company with a very checkered past). The most interesting "insight":
"In order to shut down the COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus, many countries will need to temporarily shut down economic activity."
Ominous. I'm about 90% convinced, based on a preponderance of circumstantial evidence, that this virus was genetically engineered and deliberately released into the public domain.
-Posted by: Ben C | Apr 8 2020 16:08 utc | 12
Hong Kong will suffer severely in addition to all its other troubles since visits from Mainland Chinese typically support much of its retail economy during this period.
John Bolton quote.
As an aside, I can confirm that no one is going out. Everyone is staying inside. Avoiding others, and all celebrations are either cancelled or muted. It's really sad.
The Chinese New Year is the most important festival for Chinese. Saturday, January 25, is the first day of the Lunar New Year, a festive period that typically sees the largest mass movement of people on the planet as Chinese flock back to their hometowns to be with relatives. No health authority has ever tackled the challenge currently faced by China, as the country grapples with a new coronavirus just as hundreds of millions prepare to travel.
What kind of evil person would unleash such a weapon?
And of course, the Western media had a field day of schadenfreude. CNN published a report – a bit too gleefully, I thought – on the potential damage to China’s economy:
“China’s economy is slumping and the country is still suffering the effects of the trade war with America. An outbreak of a new and deadly virus is the last thing it needs.
The Wuhan coronavirus has already roiled Chinese markets and thrown plans for the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday into chaos for millions of people. The world’s second-biggest economy grew at its slowest pace in nearly three decades last year as it contended with rising debt, cooling domestic demand and US tariffs, many of which remain in place despite a recent truce.
Beijing is worried about unemployment, too, and has announced a wave of stimulus measures in recent weeks aimed at preventing mass layoffs. . .
The Wuhan coronavirus outbreak could spark widespread fear and spur people to hunker down and avoid going outside. That kind of behavior would deal a huge blow to the service sector, which now accounts for about 52% of the Chinese economy.” [And so on... .]
American media… (shrug)… What can you say?
Meanwhile, in China…
From Asia Times https://lnkd.in/gErEzCe
"the speed of the Chinese scientific response has been breathtaking – and obviously not fully appreciated in an environment of Total Info War. Compare the Chinese performance with the American CDC, arguably the top infectious disease research agency in the world, with an $11 billion annual budget and 11,000 employees.
During the swine flu in the US in 2009 – 55 million infected Americans, 11,000 killed – the CDC took over a month and a half to come up with identification kits.
The Chinese took only 1 week from the first patient sample to complete, vital identification and sequencing of coronavirus. Right away, they went for publication and deposit in the genomics library for immediate access by the whole planet. Based on this sequence, Chinese biotech companies produced validated essays within a week – also a first."
Point of origin.
The Western media have already staked out their claim to the fundamentals, all media sources claiming the virus was transferred to humans from animals or seafood. None of which has been confirmed as happening.
So you can pretty much ignore the older articles like this one…
The media have added fuel to the fire by claiming the virus emerged from “illegally traded wildlife” in a market “where offerings reportedly include wild animals that can carry viruses dangerous to humans”, and that this virus “jumped into the human population from an infected animal”.
And a better detailed explanation…
Myth:
The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is a Chinese virus that comes from bats. It infected people because Chinese people eat bats.
Facts:
The source of the virus is actually not known. The patient number 1, the person who first carried the virus, has not been found. The Wuhan wet market where exotic animals are sold was not the source of the outbreak:
The paper, written by a large group of Chinese researchers from several institutions, offers details about the first 41 hospitalized patients who had confirmed infections with what has been dubbed 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). In the earliest case, the patient became ill on 1 December 2019 and had no reported link to the seafood market, the authors report. “No epidemiological link was found between the first patient and later cases,” they state. Their data also show that, in total, 13 of the 41 cases had no link to the marketplace. “That’s a big number, 13, with no link,” says Daniel Lucey, an infectious disease specialist at Georgetown University.
While the novel corona virus might be one that was originally carried by bats it is unlikely to have jumped from a bat to a human. The older SARS virus, which is somewhat similar to the novel coronavirus, originated from bats but first spread to other animals before mutating from there into a form that infects humans.
The only place where bats are regularly used as food is the Pacific island Palau which is more or less a U.S. colony. Videos showing Chinese citizens eating fruit bat soup were actually filmed on that island.
-MoA
Those reports are also nonsense.
Bio-engineers have confirmed that trans-species “jumping” and mutation of this virus is pretty much impossible.
According to the reports, there would be three kinds of species that would have to be involved. An African cobra (now a scaled anteater), a rare South Pacific bat, and some kind of sea-creature (or else, how did it get into a seafood market?).
Three (3x) species were involved.
We know that 96% of the genome resembles a rare South African bat. We know that "other" DNA from a secondary species is involved, this has tentatively been presupposed to be a cobra. We also know that it somehow mutated to be able to exist within fish or some other kind of sea creature.
Testing at the supposed point of "ground zero" showed high concentrations of this virus within the separate fish tanks throughout the area.So, not only are three species involved, but "somehow" the virus was able to "jump" out of one fish tank and enter others.
And not a snake, something rarer…
The pangolin, a scaly mammalian anteater, is the latest animal to be identified as an intermediate host of the novel coronavirus that has sickened more than 31,000 people worldwide.
According to local media reports, an analysis of genome sequences of viruses isolated from pangolins were a 99% match with those of 2019-nCoV, as the coronavirus behind the epidemic is known. Pangolins are a trafficked, critically endangered species whose scales are believed by some to have medicinal properties.
Scientists at the South China Agricultural University in Guangzhou, Guangdong province in southern China, reported findings Friday from research conducted jointly with the People's Liberation Army Academy of Military Science in Beijing and the research department of the Guangdong Zoo.
“This has major significance for the prevention and control of the novel coronavirus,” South China Agricultural said in a statement, though it did not elaborate on the research.
While there is general consensus among scientists that the new strain of coronavirus spread from bats to another host before making the jump to humans, previous research pointing to snakes as the culprit has been disputed.
- Pangolins Latest Animal Identified as Intermediate Coronavirus Host
Trans-species migration is very rare, but unheard of to involve three species. Especially ones as diverse as the ones being considered.
Bat
Pangolin
Fish
Then it was discovered that the genome contained “HIV insertions”. Thus they discovered that not only is this virus stealthy, contagious and lethal, but it also shuts down the immune systems of the infected person. WTF?
“Wefound 4 insertions inthespikeglycoprotein (S) whichareuniquetothe2019-nCoVandarenotpresentinother coronaviruses,” thereport’sAbstractsectionstates. “Importantly, aminoacidresiduesinallthe 4 insertshaveidentityorsimilaritytothoseinthe HIV-1 gp120or HIV-1 Gag.”
- Scientist Explains New Study Revealing Coronavirus May ...
These insertions are not random.
Their functions, all four of them, are to make the coronavirus [renamed to COVID-19] very lethal. (Read about it HERE.) Leading world experts in bio-warfare to conclude that this was an engineering pathogen.
And a rebuttal to this narrative…
Myth:
The virus is related to HIV, the virus that causes aids.
Facts:
Some Indian researchers found four genome sequences in the novel coronavirus that can also be found in the HIV virus. They self published their findings in a paper that was not peer reviewed. A few days later the paper was retracted by its authors after other scientists had pointed out that the lengths of each of the four sequences they had compared were way too small to be of statistical significance.
-MoA
So, according to the rebuttal, since the paper was retracted, it MUST be false.
That’s right. Nothing to see here. The paper has been retracted. It is as isf nothing happened.
It was a bio-engineered, bio-weapon that is intended for mass casualties on a grand scale.
Initially, Chinese officials stated that the virus appears to have originated at a seafood market in Wuhan, though the actual origin has not been determined nor stated by the authorities. This is still an open question primarily because viruses seldom jump species barriers without human assistance.
The odds of this being a natural viral agent is infinitesimally small.
After investigation, the subsequent cases of the illness had zero association with that particular market.
A virus outbreak in the city of Wuhan immediately prior to the Chinese New Year migration could potentially have dramatic social and economic repercussions. Wuhan, with a population of about 12 million, is a major transport hub in Central China, particularly for the high-speed train network, and with more than 60 air routes with direct flights to most of the world’s major cities, as well as more than 100 internal flights to major Chinese cities.
The odds of an accidental release of a bio-weapon inside one of China’s largest cities is infinitesimally small.
When we add this to the Spring Festival travel rush during which many hundreds of millions of people travel across the country to be with their families, the potential consequences for the entire country are far-reaching.
The odds of this event occurring naturally during the CNY eve is infinitesimally small.
The odds of this happening is the same as a COVID-19 outbreak on Christmas eve, AND Labor Day, AND the Fourth of July, AND Easter, AND Thanksgiving. Most Americans have absolutely no idea just how stunningly impossible the timing of this outbreak actually is.
Comparison with SARS
This is a novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), an entirely new strain related to the MERS (MERS-CoV) and the SARS (SARS-CoV) viruses, though early evidence suggested that it was not dangerous.
SARS was proven to be caused by a strain of the coronavirus, a large family of mostly harmless viruses also responsible for the common cold, but SARS exhibited characteristics never before observed in any animal or human virus, did not by any means fully match the animal viruses mentioned above, and contained genetic material that still remains unidentified – similar to this new coronavirus in 2019.
Virologist Dr. Alan Cantwell wrote at the time that “the mysterious SARS virus is a new virus never before seen by virologists.
This is an entirely new illness with devastating effects on the immune system, and there is no known treatment.”
Military Weaponization of the Virus by America
Dr. Cantwell also noted that the genetic engineering of coronaviruses has been occurring in both medical and military labs for decades.
He wrote that when he searched in PubMed for the phrase “coronavirus genetic engineering”, he was referred to 107 scientific experiments dating back to 1987. To quote Dr. Cantwell:
“I quickly confirmed scientists have been genetically engineering animal and human coronaviruses to make disease-producing mutant and recombinant viruses for over a decade. No wonder WHO scientists identified the SARS/coronavirus so quickly. Never emphasised by medical news writers is the fact that for over forty years scientists have been “jumping species” with all sorts of animal and human viruses and creating chimera viruses (viruses composed from viruses of two different species). This unsupervised research produces dangerous man-made viruses, many of which have potential as bioweapons. Certainly SARS has the hallmarks of a bioweapon. After all, aren’t new biological warfare agents designed to produce a new disease with a new infectious agent? As in prior military experiments, all it might take … to spread SARS is an aerosol can . . .”
Almost immediately upon receiving the genome sequence, several Russian scientists suggested a link between SARS and biowarfare.
No trust in America. But China is considered the most trustworthy nation.
Sergei Kolesnikov, a member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, said the propagation of the SARS virus might well have been caused by leaking a combat virus grown in bacteriological weapons labs. According to a number of news reports, Kolesnikov claimed that the virus of atypical pneumonia (SARS) was a synthesis of two viruses (of measles and infectious parotiditis or mumps), the natural compound of which was impossible, that this mix could never appear in nature, stating, “This can be done only in a laboratory.”
And Nikolai Filatov, the head of Moscow’s epidemiological services, was quoted in the Gazeta daily as stating he believed SARS was man-made because “there is no vaccine for this virus, its make-up is unclear, it has not been very widespread and the population is not immune to it.”
“...there is no vaccine for this virus, its make-up is unclear, it has not been very widespread and the population is not immune to it.”
- Nikolai Filatov, the head of Moscow’s epidemiological services
Russian and Chinese biochemists believe that this virus is man-made.
It wasn’t widely reported, but it seems the final conclusion of the Chinese biochemists was the same, that the SARS virus was man-made.
This conclusion wasn’t a secret, but neither was it promoted to the international media since they would simply have used the claim to heap scorn on China, dismissing this as a paranoid conspiracy theory.
What kind of evil person would unleash such a weapon?
The Western media totally ignored this aspect, except for ABC news who reported that the SARS “Mystery Virus” was possibly “a Chinese bio-weapon that accidentally escaped the laboratory”.
Nice of ABC to notice, but their story, if true, would be the first example of a nation creating and releasing a race-specific biological weapon designed to attack exclusively itself.
And a rebuttal…
Myth:
The virus originated from a military weapon research laboratory.
Facts:
There is zero evidence that the virus is from a Chinese or U.S. or other (weapon) laboratory and the claim actually makes no sense. The genome of the virus consists of more then 23,000 'letters'. It is significantly different than the genome of other known viruses. (Added:) It is not lab made:
We offer a perspective on the notable features of the SARS-CoV-2 genome and discuss scenarios by which they could have arisen. Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.
To artificially create such a complex entity and to test all its variants would have been a program of the size of the Manhattan project and would have cost billions.
Weapon researchers are sane people with a limited budget. They look for methods to defeat an enemy. A virus that affects all humans indiscriminately but kills mostly very old ones would have no military value.
-MoA
No arguments on the rebuttal. Except that germ-warfare is the only way to zero out a nations GDP short of wide-scale nuclear war. Is it really that outrageous that the neocons in Washington DC would want to do this instead of awaiting the entire American petro-dollar “house of card” to collapse?
Virus is tailored to attack Asians
Notable is that while SARS spread to about 40 countries, the infections in most countries were few and deaths almost zero, and it was exclusively (or almost exclusively) Chinese who were infected, those in Hong Kong most seriously, with Mainland China suffering little by comparison.
The Corona virus is a virus that, for whatever reason, East Asians are susceptible to but other races are not, just like SARS. None of our people are going to succumb to this condition. The MSM’s constant hyping is just a way of making people panic, because people are more susceptible to being indoctrinated when they panic. By not reporting the race of those who have caught this disease in Europe, unnecessary panic is being fomented among Europeans…so that they can be more easily inculcated with the message than “race differences don’t exist, because race is a social construct.”
-vDare
The SARS virus apparently much preferred Chinese to Caucasians, though it did attack Vietnamese health care workers (who may be similar to Chinese in their susceptibility).
This appears to be precisely the case with this new virus, in that all the infected persons are Chinese. News reports speak of infections appearing in Thailand or the US, but those (at least to date of writing) were all Chinese who had been to Wuhan. There have been no cases so far of infected Caucasians.
As with SARS, this new virus appears to be tightly-focused and race-specific to Chinese.
And a rebuttal…
Myth:
Asian people are genetically more receptive for the novel coronavirus.
Fact:
The virus enters human cells by binding to the ACE-2 receptor on the cells hull. There were assertions that people in Asia have more ACE-2 receptors than people elsewhere. But detailed studies of various genome sequence databases have found no statistical basis for such claims. People of Asian, Caucasian or African heritage all have the same numbers of ACE-2 building elements and receptors. The virus will effect them equally.
-MoA
This is a mute argument, as the virus has mutated and now seemingly affects just about everyone.
American bio-scientists caught by the police inside of China doing illegal acts.
We might in other circumstances pass this off as an unfortunate coincidence but for some major circumstantial events that serve to alter our focus.
One of these is the history of American universities and NGOs having come into China in recent years to conduct biological experiments that were so illegal as to leave the Chinese authorities enraged.
This was particularly true when it became known that Harvard University had surreptitiously proceeded with experiments in China. Experiments that had been forbidden by the authorities years earlier. And where they collected many hundreds of thousands of Chinese DNA samples and then left the country.
The Chinese were furious to learn that Americans were collecting Chinese DNA.
The government intervened and prohibited the further export of any of the data. The conclusion at the time was that the ‘research’ had been commissioned by the US military with the DNA samples destined for race-specific bio-weapons research.
So the American military was collecting Chinese DNA to develop bio-weapons.
Trademarks and indicators
In a thesis on Biological Weapons, Leonard Horowitz and Zygmunt Dembek stated that one clear sign of a genetically-engineered bio-warfare agent was a disease caused by an uncommon (unusual, rare, or unique) agent, with lack of an epidemiological explanation. I.e. no clear idea of the source.
They also mentioned an “unusual manifestation and/or geographic distribution”, of which race-specificity would be one.
Recent disease outbreaks that would seem to possibly qualify as potential bio-warfare agents are AIDS, SARS, MERS, Bird Flu, Swine Flu, Hantavirus, Lyme Disease, West Nile Virus, Ebola, Polio (Syria), Foot and Mouth Disease, the Gulf War Syndrome and ZIKA.
In fact, thousands of prominent scientists, physicians, virologists and epidemiologists on many continents have concurred that all these viruses were lab-created and their release deliberate. The recent swine flu epidemic in China has the hallmarks as well, with circumstantial evidence of the outbreak raising only questions.
Curious questions…
There was another curiosity in this case, in that additionally to the usual criticisms of China being inactive or secretive, several US media replicated accusations from “a senior US State Department official” claiming Washington was “still concerned” about transparency in the Chinese government on the Wuhan coronavirus.
This virus has a long incubation time, and the symptoms appear to be of no concern. Then it strikes suddenly with lethal affect.
Other articles claimed the US CDC was “concerned that Chinese health officials have still not released basic epidemiological data about the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak, making it more difficult to contain the outbreak.”
There is no substantial reason that officials at any level of the US State Department should concern themselves with a virus outbreak in a foreign country.
Their criticisms were surprisingly detailed, demanding specifics on the number of infections directly from contact with the Wuhan market, the number of person-to-person infections, the precise incubation period from exposure to the onset of symptoms, the point at which persons become contagious.
The questions were presented in benevolent terms of helping the Chinese medical authorities deal with the virus, though it was already self-evident China had no need to be lectured on such basics. I must say my sense from reading the articles in question was that the Americans were fishing for something unstated, very possibly the crucial details of their handiwork.
I must say my sense from reading the articles in question was that the Americans were fishing for something unstated, very possibly the crucial details of their handiwork.
As of the date of writing, details are still too scarce to form definitive conclusions but, in every such case, once the smoke clears there are many unanswered questions that challenge the official Western narrative, but it’s old news and the media have already staked out their ground so the matter dies in the Western public mind, but not in China.
Yet, why all this United States propaganda promotion?
As the coronavirus outbreak has come to dominate headlines in recent weeks, several media outlets have promoted claims that the reported epicenter of the outbreak in Wuhan, China was also the site of laboratories allegedly linked to a Chinese government biowarfare program.
However, upon further examination of the sourcing for this serious claim, these supposed links between the outbreak and an alleged Chinese bioweapons program have come from two highly dubious sources.
For instance, the first outlet to report on this claim was Radio Free Asia, the U.S.-government funded media outlet targeting Asian audiences that used to be run covertly by the CIA and named by the New York Times as a key part in the agency’s “worldwide propaganda network.”
Though it is no longer run directly by the CIA, it is now managed by the government-funded Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which answers directly to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was CIA director immediately prior to his current post at the head of the State Department. (How dubious, coincidence ??? - my view)
-LinkedIN Anonymous
The Argument for Bioweapon use to suppress China.
First of all Pompeo admitted that the COVID-19 was a “live exercise” on 30MAR20202.
Given the multiple and serious woes that China has suffered from during 2019, it comes as no surprise that the Western powers would continue to suppress China in an effort to regain global dominance.
HK “pro democracy” riots fully funded and instigated by the NED / CIA.
Swine Flu decimated the vast bulk of the Chinese pork industry.
Bird Flu decimated huge numbers of the Chinese chicken industry.
NED support and training of Uyghur Muslim extremists.
If there’s one last hit to the economy that China doesn’t need right now, it’s a global pandemic that ‘supposedly’ originated in Wuhan.
Wuhan is the capital of Central China’s Hubei province (see map below with the red marker identifying Wuhan). For those of you who are unaware, Wuhan is located right in the center of China’s highly productive southeast region—the economic powerhouse of the nation. It is the population center of China.
…But not the center of where the local Chinese eat strange critters. That is in the deep South, near Vietnam.
Map showing where Wuhan is located inside of China.
This strategic location is an ideal location to launch a biological attack because of the easily engineered vectors of disease dissemination. After all, isn’t that a staple of Hollywood Science Fiction movies like 12 Monkeys (1995)?
Scene from “12 Monkeys”. In a future world devastated by disease, a convict is sent back in time to gather information about the man-made virus that wiped out most of the human population on the planet.
The idea of paralyzing China’s economic and financial sectors is, after all, a primary goal of this essentially Anglo-American black operation.
Long Incubation Phase
The main concern for nCoV-2019 is relatively extended incubation phase of the virus, which can last from 5 to 14 days, during which a person is contagious. Moreover, there is already evidence of clinically silent cases (no symptoms), which will make prevention even more challenging.
In any case, full-scale quarantine to cope with Wuhan crisis seems to be a legitimate measure, supported both domestically and in the international community.
In light of the [1] US-staged Hong Kong protests, [2] U.S. tariff regime against China, [3] threat of economic sanctions against nations working with Huawei, [4] CIA-inflamed Xinjiang conflict involving the Muslim Uyghurs, [5] provocative sailing of US Navy warships through the Taiwan Strait, [6] transparent political prosecution of Huawei’s CFO, and the [7] ravaging of China’s pig farms by a bioengineered virus, etc., the Chinese government has been under withering attack since 2018.
When so many debilitating assaults are suspiciously happening at once, what can China do?
SARS conspiracy theory
The original SARS pandemic that took place in China after the turn of the millennium was also well-known in bio-medical circles as a naked act of biowarfare.
Like this year’s coronavirus bio-attack in Wuhan, the bioengineered SARS outbreak also involved a highly coordinated campaign of propaganda and disinformation.
However, the administration of Xi Jinping is much too concerned about the panic that would inevitably result if the populace was informed of a full-blown bioweapon attack.
The precipitating chaos would simply overwhelm the government in Beijing which is already on serious overload because of the seemingly endless interference by the Anglo-American Axis.
The SARS outbreak that occurred from 2002 to 2003 has already shown that China is not willing to release the hard scientific evidence that proves the existence a bioengineered coronavirus. This favors the antagonists.
The following excerpt from Wikipedia explains some of the background of SARS—the Severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic that took place primarily in mainland China and Hong Kong, but also in Canada and other countries.
The rapidly spreading Wuhan coronavirus, also known as Novel coronavirus, that was first reported in 2019 has all the hallmarks of yet another bioengineered virus in a U.S. Military laboratory.
What follows is a short description form Wikipedia of this Novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
Wikipedia on this Novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV)
Time will tell whether this deadly coronavirus was released into the Chinese population with the intent to kill and sicken, scare and intimidate. We really do not know what the actual purpose was.
However, given the lethal nature of this viral agent, the history associated with the American bio-weapons engineering, and public statements made by American neocon leaders, can can pretty much guess the intention;
Complete and utter devastation of the Chinese population and the collapse of the Chinese government.
The intimidation phase of such an ongoing black operation is certainly aimed at the government in Beijing which refuses to be coerced and threatened by the Trump administration.
Because the highly disruptive, Western-backed Hong Kong protests have yet to yield the result desired by the U.S. State Department, it was only a matter of time before the C.I.A. implemented Plan B…
…or is this Plan C?
…or D?
Why China?
The $64,000 question here is: Why is China always the epicenter for so many strains and variations of coronaviruses, influenzas, pneumonia viruses and other highly contagious infection agents that strike the major commercial centers on southeastern mainland.
What’s particularly suspicious about all of these outbreaks in China is that they are each described by the Mainstream Media as quite dangerous to human health. The mortality rate in the beginning of these eventual pandemics is especially high, as if by purposeful design of the bioengineers.
In this way, the whole world is eventually drawn into a pandemic melodrama that’s certainly designed to fear-monger.
Hence, more of these endless distractions serve the specific purpose of taking the attention away from real problems caused by governments everywhere. But it’s the numerous criminal conspiracies at work and shocking scandals that the elites seek to cover up by any means possible.
There are relatively few military bioweaponry labs in the world that have the capability to create such a fatal and infectious virus.
Thus, when the truth is confirmed about the Wuhan flu, there will be only a few culprits who are behind these assaults against the Chinese people. In reality, should this Wuhan coronavirus outbreak become a full-blown epidemic in China it could represent an attempt to commit genocide.
Likewise, if it becomes a bona fide pandemic, it could ultimately be labeled a crime against humanity.
“It’s really quite easy for any of the numerous U.S. military bioweapon labs to bioengineer a deadly super-virus and then release it in a city as large as Wuhan, China.
Acts of bioterrorism like this are carried out all the time. As a matter of historical fact, the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 actually originated at Fort Riley, Kansas where soldiers reported to the Army’s largest training facility during World War I.
The soldiers who were [DELIBERATELY] infected with the H1N1 influenza virus then served as countless vectors of dissemination for the pandemic that ultimately killed as many as 100 million people worldwide. That single US-executed biowarfare operation against humanity was arguably the deadliest depopulation event in human history.”
(See: Spanish Flu of 1918 Was Really a Bioterror Attack on Humanity)
THE DARK SIDE
This is from UNZ, a great website, worthy of visiting.
At Tuskegee, hundreds of American blacks were allowed to carry syphilis from the 1930s to the 1970s, to act as human petri dishes. This was to track the progress of the disease and observe the eventual macabre deaths that this bacteria is wont to inflict on its victims, in its final stages: insanity, nervous disorders, liver and heart disease.
The United States of America holds the exclusive patent on the Ebola virus: US patent number 20120251502, is owned by the American government. Ebola has been Uncle Sam’s bioweapon plaything since 1976, when it was discovered in Zaire and shipped 3,500km by America’s bio-warfare lab at Fort Detrick, Maryland, then to West Africa for cultivation and development (via the UK’s bio-warfare labs in Porton Down and with the help of the World “Health” Organization), specifically, to Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, the current epicenters of the Ebola epidemic on the Great Continent.
The 2014 Ebola outbreak came as a result of another rogue US Military operation in austral Africa from which the Soros/Gates-funded Kenema bioweapons lab in Sierra Leone was involved.
The US has a long history of biowarfare against China. The Report of the International Scientific Commission for the Investigation of Facts Concerning Bacteriological Warfare in Korea and China (ISC report) validated claims by North Korea and China that the US had launched bacteriological warfare (biological warfare, BW) attacks against both troops and civilian targets in those two countries over a period of months in 1952. This 667 page truth commission report has the dubious distinction of being the most vilified written document of the 20th Century. The report’s release in September 1952 brought a withering international attack. It was roundly denounced by American and British politicians of the highest rank, ridiculed by four star generals, accused of fraud by celebrated pundits, misquoted by notable scientists, and scorned by a compliant Western press. In subsequent decades, volumes placed in American university library collections were quietly and permanently removed from circulation. When the rare copy came up for auction, it was discretely purchased and disappeared from public view.
In March 2019, in a mysterious event, a shipment of exceptionally virulent viruses from Canada’s NML biological labs ended up in China. Canadian officials say the shipment was part of its efforts to support public-health research worldwide. They claimed that it was just normal procedure. What is unclear is why it was done in secret, and why the Chinese officials lodged a complaint. For certain, if this was just a routine transfer, the Chinese government would have been notified. In July 2019, a group of Chinese virologists were forcibly dispatched from the Canadian National Microbiology Laboratory (NML). The NML is Canada’s only level-4 facility and one of only a few in North America equipped to handle the world’s deadliest diseases, including Ebola, SARS, Coronavirus, etc.
On October 18th, 2019, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, in conjunction with the World Economic Forum assembled “15 leaders of business, government, and public health” to simulate a scenario in which a coronavirus pandemic was ravaging the planet. Major participants were American military leadership, and certain neocon political figures. The Chinese were not invited. The members took notes, and then returned to their day to day operations.
In Simulation Run 3 Months Ago, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Predicted Up To 65 Million Deaths Via Coronavirus.
300 US military personnel arrived in Wuhan for the Military World Games on October 19. The first coronavirus case appeared two weeks later, on November 2. Coronavirus incubation period is 14 days.
Two months later a very similar coronavirus pandemic hit China at Wuhan, a major transport hub in Central China and for the high-speed train network, and with 60 air routes with direct flights to most of the world’s major cities, as well as more than 100 internal flights to major Chinese cities right at the Spring Festival travel rush when hundreds of millions of people travel across the country to be with their families.
The Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is an entirely new strain related to the MERS (MERS-CoV) and the SARS (SARS-CoV) viruses, though early evidence suggested that it was not dangerous. SARS was proven to be caused by a strain of the coronavirus, a large family of mostly harmless viruses also responsible for the common cold, but
SARS exhibited characteristics never before observed in any animal or human virus, did not by any means fully match the animal viruses mentioned above, and contained genetic material that still remains unidentified – similar to this new coronavirus in 2019.
SARS had the hallmarks of a bioweapon. After all, aren’t new biological warfare agents designed to produce a new disease with a new infectious agent? As in prior military experiments, all it might take … to spread SARS is an aerosol can . . .” Several Russian scientists suggested a link between SARS and biowarfare. Sergei Kolesnikov, a member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, said the propagation of the SARS virus might well have been caused by leaking a combat virus grown in bacteriological weapons labs. According to a number of news reports, Kolesnikov claimed that the virus of atypical pneumonia (SARS) was a synthesis of two viruses (of measles and infectious parotiditis or mumps), the natural compound of which was impossible, that this mix could never appear in nature, stating, “This can be done only in a laboratory.” And Nikolai Filatov, the head of Moscow’s epidemiological services, was quoted in the Gazeta daily as stating he believed SARS was man-made because “there is no vaccine for this virus, its make-up is unclear, it has not been very widespread and the population is not immune to it.”
Virologist Dr. Alan Cantwell wrote at the time that “the mysterious SARS virus is a new virus never before seen by virologists, “This is an entirely new illness with devastating effects on the immune system, and there is no known treatment.” Dr. Cantwell noted that the genetic engineering of coronaviruses has been occurring in both medical and military labs for decades. When he searched in PubMed for the phrase “coronavirus genetic engineering”, he was referred to 107 scientific experiments dating back to 1987. To quote Dr. Cantwell: “I quickly confirmed scientists have been genetically engineering animal and human coronaviruses to make disease-producing mutant and recombinant viruses for over a decade.”
The virus outbreak coincides with the trade war on China.
The virus outbreak coincides with the HK “pro democracy” riots fully funded and instigated by the NED / CIA.
The virus outbreak occurred just after Swine Flu decimated the Chinese pork industry.
The virus outbreak occurred just after Bird Flu decimated the Chinese chicken industry.
The virus outbreak occurred just before NED support and training of Uyghur Muslim extremists.
This month, CNN published a gleeful (and untrue) report, “China’s economy is slumping and the country is still suffering the effects of the trade war with America. An outbreak of a new and deadly virus is the last thing it needs.”
What will America do next?
Nuclear plant meltdown?
Mysterious deaths in the Chinese leadership ranks.
Armed fighting in Taiwan?
Collapse of a dam?
Sinking of cargo ships?
Mysterious disappearance of a passenger plane or ship?
Launch of 50 ICBM’s that annihilate China completely?
Do not be under the mistaken assumption that America will stop, or that China will continue to accept this status quo. It can only proceed so long before all fucking Hell breaks loose.
I’ve said this over and over … please listen for once.
Americans have no FUCKING idea how bad things can get. Do not believe that fighting for “Oligarch ruled global democracy” is worth the ultimate “push back”.
Contrary Opinions
I do not have all the answers. All I did was sleuth though public, but forgotten articles, and stung things together into a thesis. There are other opinions, of course.
[1] It’s natural, but the bad timing is coincidental.
Of course, this theory omits a number of "elephants in the room".
[1] These markets date back 5000 years. Why would there be an out break now? Why not during the time of King Nebuchadnezzar?
[2] If it is natural, then why would the United States patent it?
[3] Why are all these viral outbreaks against Chinese people and livestock? Why nothing else? Why no dogs and cats, donkeys and horses and birds? Why so darn selective?
[4] Why Wuhan; the geographic nexus of the Han race? Why not Guangzhou which is bigger, has more such markets, and has a year-round environment that is conducive to viral growth?
[5] Species jumping is rare. Tri-species jumping is unheard of, and the HIV inserts are not a natural occurrence.
[6] Why did China, a nation of merit, immediately treat this as a bio-weapon and go into immediate DEFCON ONE lockdown? To believe the "natural" origination of this virus is to assume that the Chinese are idiots, stupid, and moronic. Or, at best, over-reacting.
To accept this narrative, you must also accept that the world is filled with coincidences that should not be explained.
Bats? Really?
... many in the U.S. appear to believe bat-eating Chinese people caused the current COVID-19 pandemic. Since the epidemic first started in Wuhan, Western social media have been lit up by links to several videos of Chinese citizens eating bat soup, with not so subtle racial insinuations that it is the Chinese people and their culture that have caused the COVID-19 epidemic.
But Chinese people do not have a tradition of eating bats.
Journalists from France 24 TV recently tracked down the makers of five of the six most-shared videos. They found that none of these videos were filmed near Wuhan, or in China, as many had claimed. Instead, all videos were filmed in Palau or Indonesia, in locales where bats have traditionally been consumed as food,[4] and where adventurous visitors from around the world would be welcomed to sample local, traditional cuisine.
- Will COVID-19 be Known as “the Chinese Virus” or “the Trump Virus”?
This narrative accepts the idea that the virus is man-made. However, it argues that the Chinese are not smart enough to develop weapons on their own, and are too inept to handle them.
The Chinese are the most merit-driven people on the world. This is true whether they are in school or working in a company. This narrative is something that does not fit with any Chinese that I know about. It's like that narrative the Trump hired low-class strippers and asked them to pee on a hotel bed. You might not like Trump, but this does not fit his personality.
[3] It’s a biological weapon, but it’s China’s fault. They had a biological weapons lab in the middle of one of the largest centrally located Chinese cities and it somehow escaped.
This is also the narrative that is also being pushed by the American propaganda organ “Voice of America“, and disseminated throughout the American Alt-Right outlets.
But…
The facility in Wuhan is NOT a military or development facility. It is a civilian diagnostic facility.
The difference between a military development facility and a public diagnostic facility is stark. It is the difference from a factory that makes automobiles, and a local automotive service center.
"One of the goals was to build a BSL-4 laboratory that meets the national and international standards for diagnosing, researching, and developing antiviral drugs and vaccines while additionally preserving highly pathogenic BSL-4 agents for future scientific research."
It is a diagnostic facility. It is used to develop antiviral drugs. Read for yourself.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6478205/
Civilian viral research facilities are registered with the UN. Here is a List of BSL-4 Facilities.
https://www.liquisearch.com/biosafety_level/list_of_bsl-4_facilities
Military viral research facilities are secret. While in the United States there MIGHT be some shared use facilities, I remain very skeptical about that concept. Knowing what I know about severely classified programs, it's just not going to happen.
There is a fundamental difference between top-secret military warfare development, and civilian diagnostic facilities.
Military facilities do not need to be registered with any agency. Certainly, unless specified by treaty, military development complexes are not identified as they operate outside the public domain. You will notice that no North Korean labs or facilities are listed, nor are any Chinese military facilities.
If the Chinese were developing a militarized viral agent, they would not use a monitored diagnostic facility. They would use a classified military base, and they would not advertise it's location. It would be in one or more of these facilities...
https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/china/army-fac.htm
What most people do not understand is that most of the "dirty global politics" that this Wuhan event signifies occurs outside the public domain. Like the movie "Men In Black", the public is kept ignorant intentionally. In America that is why there are Special Access Programs, and branches that are "waived" and "unacknowledged".
Now, all that being said, the argument against an accidental release from the BSL-4 Wuhan facility is that it is a new viral agent. It's new. It's militarized.
It cannot come out of a diagnostic facility.
That's silly. That's like asking your local automobile clinic down the street to build you a new car with custom details and new type of engine and custom transmission. Silly.
Comparison between the Wuhan diagnostic facility and an American R&D weapons facility. Note the difference in the number of buildings, the campus size and distance from public roads.
And…
Editors’ note, January 2020: Many stories have promoted an unverified theory that the Wuhan lab discussed in this article played a role in the coronavirus outbreak that began in December 2019. Nature knows of no evidence that this is true.
-Inside the Chinese lab poised to study world's most dangerous pathogens
And of course, you have my conclusion…
Conclusion
America is waging biological warfare with China.
This time, it was really, really serious. Far worse than what started World War I, and World War II.
It is being done without an Act of War, and Congressional approval.
Luckily China took immediate steps, but the net-citizens, the world, and the people of Asia are on alert.
This is very, very dangerous, as the moment it is proved, both China and Russia will be forced to retaliate. Their people will not tolerate passive acceptance of a WMD attack on their nation.
It does not matter if it is nuclear, chemical or biological. It will not be permitted to pass without consequence.
For there HAS to be some consequences. If there isn’t any, things will only get worse.
Who ever thought this up was pure evil. It follows the same story-line as the movie “12 Monkeys” where a a bio-weapon was released directly in front of the Christmas holiday in all the major cities of the world.
Not only was the Wuhan coronavirus surreptitiously disseminated to serve as a major distraction from a rapidly collapsing Global Economic & Financial System…
…this state-sponsored black operation also represents the worst of predatory capitalism conducted as a means of generating revenue.
It occurred and peaked during the one most important day in the year in China; CNY eve. The odds of this occurrence being natural is rather small.
Look at the dissemination and propagation visually.
Look at the dissemination and propagation visually.
In China, CNY eve is roughly equivalent to a combination of Christmas eve, the fourth of July and Labor day. This is THE most critical time of the year for the Chinese people. It is a time when the “great migration” begins and everyone returns home. And there are many many public and private parties. It’s a time when drunken buddies hug each other splash alcohol all over each other and spend times with everyone. It is a time where everyone is interacting with everyone else.
The odds of this happening is 1 in 365.
Think about that! A release of a bio-weapon when the vast majority of Chinese are traveling and enjoying time together at parties.
What kind of evil person would unleash such a weapon?
Meanwhile, the narrative that this is an escaped bio-weapon is being heavily promoted by the Indian mainstream media (an individual funded by grants by an American institution). As well as some Australian news and opinion pieces (also funded by American interests).
Except, for one thing…
The bio-warfare labs are located in Xinjiang. Not in Wuhan… a city more than twice the size of New York City.
If you want to believe that a bio-warfare development lab is placed in a major city, then I have a bridge to sell you. No nation, especially not one run by merit, will put such a dangerous and lethal development center in the middle of such a large and important city.
Key Points...
American military members apparently unleashed an American patented, and Canadian engineered Biological Weapon in the major city of Wuhan designed to coincide with the yearly CNY mass migration. We know their names, and where they stayed and their actions. ALL Chinese cities are wired with video recording systems pipe-lined to the local police.
Like HK was able to record the Trump Administration cutting deals with separatist radicals, the Chinese have full documented evidence of what occurred.
China is now coping with this situation.
Once the situation settles, China will continue with negotiations with the soviets in Russia. They will conspire on a solution to reduce or to protect Asia from the American "pro democracy" internationalism.
All Americans should take note. Nothing ever goes unpunished.
Lastly, the timing of the deadly virus that ravaged China’s pig farms last year quite predictably triggered a call for the development of a preventative vaccine. What the following news report neglected to state was that the mass slaughter of pigs, in a society that demands LOTS of pork, was cynically planned to manufacture the urgent need for yet another vaccine.
The Fake News kings: Western media about China:
Xi Jinping is not the president but the "paramount leader" of China...
Chinese media don't bring news because they're the "mouthpiece" of the Party...
China doesn't fire officials, it "purges" them...
China doesn't requisition private hospitals during a health
emergency by passing laws, it "seizes" them ...
Chinese leaders don't strengthen laws, they "concentrate power"...
China doesn't give out loans, they "trap" countries in debt...
China doesn't punish corrupt officials, they "net" them...
Chinese media doesn't report news, it reports "propaganda"...
China doesn't revise counting methodologies, it "under-reports" cases ...
Chinese companies don't innovate, they "steal IP" ...
Chinese people are not patriotic, they're "brainwashed" ...
Chinese provinces don't win PISA tests, they "selectively nominate the best schools". . .
-Maitreya Bhakal on Twitter @MaitreyaBhakal Feb 13. 2020
On a personal note…
There are various comments sent to me by enraged readers. They do not like what I have written.
I do not post comments I do not approve up. This is my blog and I am God here.
They claim that I am America-bashing and that all that I am saying is an attack on the great American “democracy”. They argue that China is a Communist Dictatorship (it isn’t, it’s a Republic nearly identical to the setup in America in 1776), and that everything I write is a lie.
I am an American expat. I am also a former Navy “brown shoe” and as patriotic as can be. Check out my other SHTF posts. I am a proud gun-toting, Trump loving “deplorable”.
The desire for the United States to maintain it’s grip on the world should not be in question. That is understandable. What should be, however, is how it is being handled.
You should not try to raise yourself up by pushing others down.
This course that the United States is on is dangerous and fool-hardy. I worry that it will eventually result in a “push back” that America, the nation that I love, can never recover from.
I know things that most average Americans do not know. DO NOT PLAY AROUND WITH THE THREAT OF DANGER. It’s foolish.
Be careful in your actions.
When I was in High School I used to hang out with my friends and go to parties in the woods. We called these events “keg parties” and it was an every night affair. However, sometimes people would drink too much and insist on driving.
They were our friends, and buddies that we loved and cared about. But, things being as they were, eventually the sloshed friend would end up behind the wheel.
The others, with no other way to get home would be trapped in this death machine as our drunk buddy drove all over the road and in and off it. We were trapped while the good-meaning but absolutely incapable friend risked all of our lives.
That is what is going on… RIGHT NOW… in the United States.
Chinese messaging all over Wechat
The following is a message from the government of China to everyone. Read it. The Chinese government is treating this as a major event similar to that of a war. Read the translation and come to your own conclusions.
What is a first response?
The first-order response is the highest level of national response in the face of war and major disasters. None of the 2003 SARS initiated a first-order response; Wenchuan earthquake in 2008 killed more than 100,000 people did not start a response level.
This time, Zhejiang and Guangdong took the lead in initiating the first-level response, and now the whole country has launched the first-level response.
This shows that the seriousness of the situation is far beyond peoples boldest imagination.
Therefore, we must not take it lightly.
Can let Wuhan Fengcheng, Beijing all temple fairs canceled, Shanghai Disneyland closed, New Years film all off shelves, national guard hundred cities airport!!
The outbreak must be worse than we thought!
Please put down your blind confidence. Please take good care of yourself and your family and be responsible for yourself and your friends.
Stay at home and ride out this disaster safely!
Once again popular: This is war is not a game, win, every day is the Spring Festival! Lose, this is your last Spring Festival!
Put away your blind self-confidence and luck, but also put away your attitude that you have nothing to do with yourself, there is no outsider in this battle!
Stay at home and don't go out!
You're protecting yourself!
Is responsible for the whole family!
Responsible for the front-line medical staff!
Responsibility to society!
The way that China is treating it differs substantially from the way the American and British mainstream media is reporting it.
The American mainstream media is completely out of touch. A nation with a population many times that of the United States locks down everyone inside their homes for three weeks, and this is NOT news? It’s like the flu? Only not as bad?
What.
The.
Fuck?
So the flu is far deadlier than this?
Chinese Government releases are curious statement…
Just now, the Chinese government has sent a message to everyone NOT to TRAVEL during the NEXT holiday sometime in April. That’s four months in the future…
Why?
What do they know?
Take Aways
American / Canadian bio-weapon scientists have engineered similar germ-weapons; of the same type, the same class, and the same nearly identical properties.
We know this because they have filed patents on this viral type with the United States patent office.
[1] Canadian bio-weapons scientists were caught “red handed” trying to sneak a similar Cat-4 viral pathogen into China in March 2019. The Chinese government lodged a complaint.
[2] American bio-scientists have also been caught “red handed” collecting Chinese DNA for their biological experiments.
Both events are well documented, and formal complaints by China have been lodged.
The profile, characteristics of this strain are are indicative of a bio-weapon. Especially the stealth nature of contamination, the deceptive nature of transmission, and the sudden and fatal results. All are hallmarks of a militarized biological weapon.
The launch of this sickness occurred at a time and place indicative of a biological attack. The odds of this occurring randomly is small.
Neocon John Bolton attended a high-level discussion with the Gates foundation about the transmission of a biological pathogen two months before this event.
Since 2018 the Chinese at all levels, have been “closed out” of American and “allied” biological weapons research, and pandemic studies.
American military personnel were in Wuhan at the precise moment of the first release of the virus.
Then all military staff were directed NOT to watch Chinese social media applications, videos and photos.
Chinese authorities are acting swiftly and proactively. They are not pointing fingers, or laying accusations.
However, the Chinese government and their military are treating this as a biological attack.
American mainstream media is treating this as a harmless flu.
Other thoughts…
There are some 100-plus CIA / Pentagon-sponsored clandestine and semi-known laboratories spread throughout the world – laboratories to fabricate and test agents for biological warfare.
A few years ago, one such laboratory was discovered and reported on in Ukraine. They were working on a virus affecting the “Russian Race”. Since there is no homogenous Russian Race – their initial trials supposedly failed. Since the empire never gives up in its evil attempts to dominate the world, we can assume that research on race directed bio-agents continues.
This western, especially American (CIA, Pentagon, NATO) project to develop biochemical weapons to kill people by disease rather than bullets and bombs – it is much cheaper! And less obvious – does exist.
You may draw your own conclusion on whether SARS and the new 2019-nCoV fits that pattern. The timing of the appearance was especially curious. It was first reported on 31 December 2019 in Wuhan – and then expanded into a proportion, so that it interfered with China’s most important holiday, the Lunar New Year. It could, of course, be just coincidence.
One of Washington’s “low-grade” warfare models is destabilizing China (and Russia for that matter) with any means. With the objective of destabilization, China is constantly being harassed and aggressed – see Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, Tibet, the tariff wars – and why not with a contagious virus, a trial for a potential pandemic?
What can be observed and even the west must notice to their chagrin and frustration – is China’s extreme resilience and capacity to adapt and resist – to resist with powerful minds and ingenuity that saves her people. And that without counter-aggression, without even an accusation and never a threat.
This is China’s way forward: a steady flow of endless creation, avoiding conflict, no dominance, but seeking harmony by building bridges between people and among countries and cultures – creating understanding and wellbeing, towards a multi-polar world. A model for mankind? – If only the west would open its eyes and wake up.
- The Coronavirus Epidemic: Chinese Resilience and Silent, Simple and Steady Resistance – A Model for Mankind
Why is America doing this?
Why America is doing this…
And the American government wants China to be reduced, they are openly announcing their glee that Chinese people are hurting…
Yeah. As if America still had factories that can employ skilled people, as well as still had people that had the ability to manage and supervise factories…
Keep in mind that Pompeo admitted that the COVID-19 Coronavirus was a “Live Exercise” at the White-house. It was NOT a natural virus. It was NOT a Chinese-developed and deployed bio-weapon. It was an American “system” that was deployed as a “Live Exercise.
China was ready and expecting the attack
The United States carpet bombed China with bio-weapons from 1950-1952, after the disasterous losses that the United States experienced from the Chiense. When Mr. Mao made this quote most people discounted it, but today, we understand the TRUE and REAL situation much clearer.
What a quote!
He got the date and time, and reasoning quite clear.
Mao quote on USA bioweapons and the fall of imperialism bilingual
Update 1
Coronavirus: The Plot Thickens
From Reports:
Indian researchers have found HIV-derived inserts in the coronavirus genome that compound the infectious potential and greatly bolster the argument this virus was developed as a bioterror weapon. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/coronavirus-contains-hiv-insertions-stoking-fears-over-artificially-created-bioweapon
This 2016 Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community lists China as a major potential “terror actor” (p.2) and genome editing (p.9) as a major terror risk. https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/SASC_Unclassified_2016_ATA_SFR_FINAL.pdf
Before jumping to conclusions, let’s assume for argument’s sake that the paper published in India on the makeup and likely evolution of this virus passes peer review. What then? The international community will likely conclude the virus was bio-engineered and will condemn China with major implications for sanctions and global trade/travel.
But consider: it is the agenda of USA to contain the rise of China. Cui bono?
Is it far-fetched that having fingered China as a major terror actor and terror risk that US agents would have created this epidemic in the epicenter of Chinese virology experimentation?
It is easier in this instance to identify the crime than the criminal. Western intel agencies are associated with false flags.
- Coronavirus: The Plot Thickens
Update 2
Apparently, people are actually dying in the streets. WTF?
Do not let the soundtrack fool you. This is serious business.
And this…
Dead in the streets being attended to.
Update 3
Americans to the rescue!
The holiday started on CNY eve, and ended just as abruptly when the government ordered everyone to stay inside. Now, on the eve of the first day of work after the holiday we get this message floating around Chinese social media…
Big Benefit!!!
Gullit is a very powerful American company that studies viral drugs. There are few in the world, and some of the drugs it studies are not available in the world today.
This time the expert that China invites to study virus is this companys boss, academician Zhong Nanshan goes to airport personally to meet him!
Because the companys antiviral drug Red Seaway cured 35-year-old patients from Wuhan, China to the United States, China and the United States have signed a contract to buy the companys antiviral Red Seaway import agreement!
This anti-virus medicine has arrived in China today! Tomorrow will be used in Wuhans patient body!!!
The important thing is that after you take the medicine, you can get better in a day! It will all turn around soon! The seriously ill are saved!
I do not know if this message is true or not. Typically, the Chinese tend to be very pragmatic, they usually don’t post hoaxes or lies. It can land them in a Chinese gulag if they do.
Imagine that, if true!
An [1] American company, suddenly has the [2] cure, and it’s a miracle cure! It works nearly [3] instantaneous! The world is saved, and it’s the Americans who did it.
Well… we will see.
In the world of politics, and global diplomacy it’s a high stakes game of push, thrust, parry, retreat, fancy foot work, and parry.
The idea that it is isolated to far away China only, and that it’s not so bad as the flu is falling apart.
With the alternative media promoting the idea that this is a bio-weapon stolen by the Chinese and released accidentally …
… and Tictoc and Chinese social media showing men, women, children and complete families, dressed like Americans, dying on the street…
And the American military being forbidden to watch this.
And the very non-confrontational (smiling and nodding) Chinese reaction…
While China and Russia are having meetings…
Perhaps, it’s time for the USA to pull back from this operation.
We will see.
All I do know is that according to the American mainstream news, “China has not accepted help from America”, from the article titled “China has not yet accepted US help with the coronvirus epidemic “. This article is what the White House adviser Robert O’Brien has to say.
And Senator Tom Cotton (R) chimes in and demands that China be “more transparent”, yet he offers no suggestions how that is possible. HERE.
Sen. Tom Cotton, who has repeatedly chastised the Chinese Communist Party for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, said, "I have very low confidence in the state of Chinese politics because their government is still lying to the world about this deadly matter," during an interview Friday on Fox News.
Update 4
Turns out the news in Update 3 about the medicine was out of Thailand, not the United States. Thailand did the research. The United States just owns the drug that the studies were based upon.
After the outbreak, the team of Dr. Cao Bin of the famous Beijing Sino-Japanese Friendship Hospital conducted clinical trials on Remdesivir in the early hours of February 3rd through a series of studies, which showed good results! ——
Within 17 hours of the drug, 96% of the lung function was restored! By February 4th, all 270 patients who participated in the clinical trial were recovering their lung function!
Moreover, the big news from Thailand the day before yesterday also confirmed the effectiveness of the drug!
12 hours to get better! 48 hours from yang to yin!
On February 2nd, at 14:00, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Anutin announced Thailand's progress in the current treatment of the new coronavirus pneumonia - the use of AIDS-suppressing drugs and anti-flu virus two combination therapies, to re-develop a new medical program.
The results showed that the hospital received the treatment of the new case of coronary pneumonia, after 12 hours of improvement, 48 hours test results were negative.
Patients from Wuhan have been more than 70 years old, to Rajavithi Hospital, the lung inflammation has been very serious, pulmonary congestion, need to borrow equipment to assist breathing, and the patient himself has high blood pressure and heart disease and other carry-on disease history, in general, the patient's infection is a more serious column.
Thai medical expert group, through comprehensive consideration and clinical trials, through HIV antiretroviral drugs and anti-flu drugs combined drug protocol program: daily morning-night HIV antiretroviral drugs, while taking anti-flu virus oseltamivir early-to-late daily anti-flu virus Oseltamivir, patients should be completely descarbexed!
What's more, the U.S. has promised not to introduce China for the drug without any hindrance! U.S. President Donald Trump and the U.S. Public Health Administration have approved:
If the results of clinical trials in China are OK, China can try the drug for free until April 27!
Just in the clinical trial effect of good news came, the high-level immediately made the corresponding, can be said to be fighting day after night! Just this afternoon, the Ministry of Science and Technology has announced that a batch of Redsiewe drugs arrived in the country this afternoon.
And just like that…
A patented American drug cures a patented American virus.
American media reports two types of stories… for two types of audiences;
It’s natural, and is pretty harmless. The flu is much worse.
It’s a biological weapon released by the communist dictatorship on the Chinese people. Either intentionally or accidentally.
Update 5
This is a serious virus that contaminates so very easily and quickly.
Infected in 15 seconds while he bought vegetables at the market.
GIC Team GICexpat 6FEB20
A 56-year-old man in Ningbo was recently confirmed as a newly found case to have contracted the novel coronavirus after visiting a food market in the city’s Jiang Bei district on January 23. The confirmation was released to the public on February 4 by the district’s official social media account.
What’s especially surprising about this case is how fast the man contracted the virus.
Video surveillance revealed that it only took 15 seconds for him to be fully exposed, as neither he nor the 61-year-old woman standing next to him while picking out vegetables at the same stall were wearing protective masks.
The woman is believed to have had contracted the virus a few days prior while attending a blessing ceremony.
The man and woman, now both affected by the 2019-nCoV, did not know each other before crossing paths at the Shuang Dongfang market.
Unfortunately, 19 people who subsequently came into close contact with the newly-infected 56-year-old patient have already shown positive signs of infection. All of them have been put under isolated medical observation for further examination.
Update 6
Police are forcefully taking sick people into quarantine. Many refuse to go along, and have to be carried out of their homes.
Forcefully removed from their home.
Update 7
The Western American mainstream narrative is that this is nothing, just a “natural” virus. It’s not so lethal or worrisome. It’s not as bad as the flu. Though, I have yet to see any person with the flu act like this…
Not as bad as the flu they say.
Update 8
A good laugh. Written in the middle of a lethal American bio-weapons attack on China, The Washington Standard defends United States global actions, eight simultaneous wars and bio / economic warfare. Is America Now “The Evil Empire”? .
Their conclusion; no, not at all.
Communism is.
Well, because of history. Mao, Stalin, Hitler, and many others, such as Pol Pot killed millions of their countrymen.
Except China is Communist in Name only, just like America is a Republic in name only.
America is an Oligarchy. It was started as a Republic. Changed into a Democracy with the passage of the 12th and 17th amendments, and the progressive “improvements” of President Wilson et.al. solidified the oligarchy we know of today.
China is a Social Republic. It follows the same model as pre-political party United States. Pure communist construction was discarded in the early 1970’s. It was replaced by Capitalism but with a single political party that keeps the “Communist” name.
Update 9
February 10th, a group of companies will try to resume work, if you happen to be employees of these enterprises, please be sure to take a hard look at the following 10 recommendations:
1, carry your ID card with you
2, at least 3 masks.
3, vial alcohol 1 bottle (but please note keeping, do not smoke)
4, 1 phone sealbag
5, pen 1
6, home-cooked meals
7. Don’t touch colleagues
8, wash your hands frequently
9, cycling to and from work
10. Looking for a new job (don’t ask why, this time to let you go to work company, must not be a good company ( tears) #职场达人说#职场进化论 #
First, the Chinese government has treated the epidemic as an act of war, deploying all the means at its disposal, including the military, in order to contain its spread, building several large new hospitals, putting entire huge cities under quarantine and extending the national holidays. The response as been far beyond what this virus seems to warrant, with its low mortality rate.
Second, the Western media response has been an exemplary effort to produce a panic and to smear China, making what is happening there into a horror story. Not only did the mass media outlets do their best to stoke mass hysteria about all things Chinese, but various bloggers and independent “experts” pitched in to produce a panic.
Third, the White House has recently requested that experts look into the possibility that 2019-nCoV has been genetically engineered... I suspect that the next move will be to declare that this virus is indeed an engineered biological weapon developed by Russia, of course.
- Dmitry Orlov has his suspicions about the 2019-nCoV flu, at Club Orlov
Arab media accuse US, Israel of coronavirus conspiracy against China
One report claimed that it was no coincidence that the coronavirus was largely absent from the US and Israel.
Numerous reports in the Arab press have accused the US and Israel of being behind the creation and spread of the deadly coronavirus as part of an economic and psychological war against China, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reported.
One report in the Saudi daily newspaper Al-Watan claimed that it was no coincidence that the coronavirus was absent from the US and Israel, though this is despite America having 12 confirmed cases at the time of writing.
“A ‘wonder’ virus was discovered yesterday in China; tomorrow it will be discovered in Egypt, but it will not be discovered either today, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow in the US or Israel, nor in poor countries such as Burundi or the Comoro Islands,” the report said.
It also went on to accuse the US and Israel of being behind other outbreaks over the past several years in China and in the Arab world.”As soon as Egypt announced, a few years ago, that it would rely on poultry , and that it would even export [poultry] abroad – that is, that it no longer needed poultry from the US, France, and so on – [suddenly] there appeared, from underneath the ground, the avian flu virus… with the aim of nipping [Egypt’s economic] awakening in the bud,” the report said.”
Even before this, the same thing was done in China… when in 2003 [the country] announced that it had the [world’s] largest dollar reserves they [the Americans] introduced coronavirus’ cousin, SARS, into [the country].”
At the beginning of February, Syrian daily newspaper Al-Thawra also claimed the coronavirus and other outbreaks were part of a US-China war.
“From Ebola, Zika, SARS, avian flu and swine flu, through anthrax and mad cow disease to the corona[virus] – [all these] deadly viruses were manufactured by the US and threaten to annihilate the peoples of the world,” the report alleged.
“[The US] has turned biological warfare into a new type of war, by means of which it intends to change the rules of play and shift the conflict with the peoples [of the world] away from the conventional path.”A report on the Egyptian news site Vetogate.com built on this theory even more, specifying why Wuhan was supposedly chosen as the epicenter of the current outbreak.”
American factories are the first to manufacture every kind of virus and bacteria, from the virulent smallpox virus and the bubonic plague virus to all the viruses we saw in the recent years, such as mad cow disease and swine flu,” the site claimed.
“Wuhan, the city that has now been struck by the corona[virus], is an industrial town, but it is nevertheless the eighth-richest city in China after Shanghai.”Guangzhou, Beijing, Tianjin and Hong Kong, are the country’s major cities.
[Wuhan’s] place at the bottom of the list [of China’s major cities] is what makes it a suitable [place] for an American crime… for it is not a focus of attention, and the level of healthcare there is surely lower than in the larger and more important cities.”
The news site adds that there is a theorized economic motivation for the outbreak, as the supposed masterminds behind it will reap the billions of dollars spent by China on emergency treatments and medicines, “which, by the way, will be manufactured by an Israeli company.”
Over 37,000 people around the world have been infected with the coronavirus as the outbreak continues to spread. The current death toll is over 800 people.
Update 12
For some reason, of which we can only speculate, this coronavirus was renamed to COVID-19. Thus making it difficult to associate any earlier names (and associated articles) with the current virus news.
But by the looks of it, this disease is a bioengineered weapon of mass destruction that has either been accidentally or purposefully released (either way the cat is out of the bag) so a vaccine isn't happening any time soon.
-ALS
Irrefutable; The coronavirus was engineered by scientists in a lab using well documented genetic engineering vectors that leave behind a “fingerprint”.
Article is in Chinese, and the Chinese pretty much established this as a bio-weapon event. The article was picked up by German scientists that’s been distributing the data along scientific and technical social media channels.
The R-0 value for Coronavirus is still being debated. It has been estimated around 2.x – 6.x . Link Posted February 11, 2020.
The novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is a recently emerged human pathogen that has spread widely since January 2020. Initially, the basic reproductive number, R0, was estimated to be 2.2 to 2.7.
Here we provide a new estimate of this quantity.
We collected extensive individual case reports and estimated key epidemiology parameters, including the incubation period.
Integrating these estimates and high-resolution real-time human travel and infection data with mathematical models, we estimated that the number of infected individuals during early epidemic double every 2.4 days, and the R0 value is likely to be between 4.7 and 6.6.
Update 15
The CDC has restated (Feb 13) the virus is contagious when symptoms do not show – Link
Coronavirus can be spread through people who aren’t exhibiting symptoms of the illness, the director of the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention said Thursday.
Update 16
This falls in line with Japans researchers who estimate 1 in every 2 people were infected from people not showing symptoms Link
At least one of every two instances of human-to-human transmission of the new coronavirus is believed to occur while the first patient is not yet showing symptoms
Update 17
The incubation period was initially thought to be 14days, this has since been revised to 24days – Link
New research from a group of Chinese scientists suggested the virus’ incubation period – the time between exposure and the onset of symptoms – could be as long as 24 days.
And this…
The more we learn about this mysterious new coronavirus, the more alarming this outbreak becomes. When the virus first began to spread, authorities insisted that it was very unlikely that human to human transmission was taking place. Of course we soon found out that this virus spreads from person to person incredibly easily. Initially we were also told that we shouldn’t be afraid to touch a surface that an infected person may have touched because the virus cannot be spread in that manner. But as you will see below, scientists have now discovered that the virus can actually live for quite a few days on a smooth surface. Based on what we now know, this outbreak is going to be exceedingly difficult to contain, and that has very serious implications for all of us.
- End of the American Dream
Update 18
The UK Government has stated the virus as a imminent threat – Link
Coronavirus poses a serious and imminent threat to public health in the UK, the government declared as it introduced new powers to forcibly quarantine people for their own safety.
Update 19
China is still refusing US health officials to be involved and the US are voicing their disappointment – Link
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow Thursday said the Trump administration was "disappointed" with China's response to the coronavirus and the fact that no United States health officials have been invited in to help with the outbreak.
Update 16
Professor Dennis Etler of San Francisco: Covid-19 is turning out to be much like the H1N1 influenza virus in its rate of infection and severity. The death rate is higher, but that is probably an artifact of its concentration in Wuhan and the fact that most people who get the virus have only mild symptoms or none at all and are therefore not counted. When that is factored in the death rate will lessen.
Currently the death rate is most similar to the Spanish Flu of 1918, but with time it may reduce to levels comparable to the H1N1/9 American Flu (aka swine flu) of 2009.
China has taken Covid-19 seriously and has taken a big hit as a result. The US did nothing for 6 months, resulting in its global spread and hundreds of thousands of deaths.
Please pray tell. Which government is responsible and which government truly has the concern of it's people and the people of the world at heart?
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/coronavirus-covid19-lawrence-wong-sars-h1n1-12436330
Update 17
All February there has been a massive ant-China propaganda campaign launched by the neocon elements inside Washington DC, and the “deep state”.
Here’s an excellent article in the on-line magazine Veterans Today;
This insecure passive aggressiveness shined with blinding intensity on February 8 during an annual National Governors’ Association event which saw 44 American state governors come together from Feb. 7-10 in Washington, DC.
During his speech, Pompeo’s niceties quickly ended in order to launch into his main agenda behind speaking at this venue: To threaten all participants to stay away from China because “China is watching you. Working you.”
Pompeo warned the attending governors not to make bilateral deals with China “that could undermine national policy”, and stated: “Whether you are viewed by the CCP as friendly or hardline, know that its working you, know that its working the team around you. Competition with China is happening inside your state and it affects our capacity to perform America’s vital national security functions.”
Faced with Trump’s often re-stated desires to build positive relations with China and achieve a trade deal, the deep state has gone on overdrive pushing to sabotage this dynamic by promoting the support of Taiwan and Hong Kong independence, while working hard to shut down as many American-based Confucius institutes which had grown to 90 at their max.
In recent months, FBI and CIA pressure has resulted in the closing of 29 of the 100 Confucius institutes in the past 6 years. Most recently, under pressure of the new National Defense Authorization Acts of 2018 and 2019, 22 Institutes have been forced to shut down with sinophobe senators Mark Rubio, and Ted Cruz leading the charge on the republican side and sinophobe democrats like Seth Moulton running the pressure campaign for the democrats. On top of this, hundreds of Chinese scholars, and scientists have been fired from their positions as professors and researchers in universities, and slandered as espionage agents by the new McCarthyite Witch hunt run under the Christopher Wray’s FBI. The policy is blunt and simple: Sever as many intellectual and cultural connections between America and China as humanly possible to prevent any alliance from forming.
Pompeo’s deployment to the Governors’ conference was a major part of this fanatical campaign since the oligarchy is aware that American governors like Matt Bevin of Kentucky, Bill Lee of Tennessee, Nebraska’s Pete Ricketts, and many others see China’s desire to invest in American infrastructure and agricultural products as a life line for survival where no federal relief appears visible and an economic meltdown looms overhead.
The irony which leading deep state operatives managing the anti-China/Russia campaign refuse to acknowledge is that America’s oncoming economic collapse can only be stopped by a FDR-styled bankruptcy reorganisation of Wall Street and a new alliance with actually viable nations like Russia and China who wish to help America rebuild its decayed agro-industrial foundations.
ctm posted my longish scientific commentary written last Sunday on Monday. The situation is still rapidly evolving. Much more is now known than last Sunday. This updates my previous commentary and the general knowledge about Wuhan, adding new factual information plus additional research. For those interested, the WSJ online (paywalled, but I am a subscriber) has added a new coronavirus section tracking Wuhan daily news because of the importance to China and global supply chains. I rely on it here using today’s WSJ noon update.
A special h/t to previous commenters Robert of Texas and Nicolas McGinley, who added much to my previous post with many erudite comments.
Origins and precedents
Wuhan is the third known transmission of a respiratory tract coronavirus infection from bats via an intermediary mammal to humans:
SARS 2003: The following information is derived from a special WHO report. 916 deaths from 8422 total infections, mortality 10.9%. Not transmissible prior to onset of symptoms (cough, fever); main transmission days 4 and 5 after symptom onset. Mode of transmission mainly contact, with an R0 about 3. Bat corona via live civet intermediate to humans in a Chinese wet market.
MERS 2012: 779 deaths from 2229 total infections, mortality 35.5%. Not transmissible prior to symptom onset. Bat corona via live camel intermediate to humans in a Saudi Arabian camel market.
Wuhan 2020: to today at noon (2/13/20), about 1300 deaths in about 59000 diagnosed cases, with about 5000 full recoveries. The implications are discussed below. Bat corona via live pangolin to humans in Wuhan’s Huanan wet market (since permanently closed) in December 2019.
Wuhan transmission and clinical progression
Many more case reports are now giving a clear clinical picture.
Transmission route is either contact or inhalation (of real concern, because more flu like than cold like—even with annual flu shots influenza R0 remains about 2 because of flu vaccine issues covered in the previous post).
Based on SARS and influenza, this means the likely Wuhan R0 is 3ish, so very contagious. The significant inhalation route is now shown by both the Diamond Princess cruise ship experiment (more below) and by the fact that ordinary surgical masks proved ineffective in the Wuhan hospital setting (JAMA, previous post).
Incubation period is 7-10 days from initial infection. The good news is that the 14-day quarantine adopted pretty much universally last week should therefore be effective (with a margin of safety) at Wuhan containment. But in most of Southeast Asia outside China, Japan, and Singapore, or in Africa should Wuhan spread there, 14-day quarantine will be difficult or impossible to maintain so the possibility of a pandemic remains.
The bad news is that Wuhan IS transmissible during some later part of the symptomless incubation period. The definitive clinical proof (there was comment debate about the reliability of previous post evidence from Japan and Germany) is an age 50’s UK male who attended an about 100 person sales conference in Singapore 1/20-1/22 2020.
The bad news is that Wuhan IS transmissible during the later part of the symptomless incubation period.
A single individual from Wuhan also attended this conference and was–per Singapore Wuhan containment policies– symptomless on arrival (no fever, no cough).
That either symptomless or very early symptomatic individual transmitted Wuhan to the UK citizen in Singapore. The UK individual then flew to France for a 4-day family ski vacation 1/24-1/28 at Le Contamines-Montjoie. During the 4-day vacation the UK male remained symptomless (entire incubation time Singapore plus France at most 8 days) but transmitted Wuhan to 11 other individuals, 5 later diagnosed in UK (family and friends), 5 later diagnosed in France, and 1 later diagnosed in Spain. Clearly this case is NOT family close proximity contact transmission.
This case may be a “super spreader” outlier, BUT it means a symptomless R0 as high as 11 cannot be ruled out, with a symptomless transmission period of several days. By comparison, the R0 for measles (absent vaccination) is 12-18, so a horrific Wuhan symptomless R0 of 11 is within the realm of actual possibility
A horrific Wuhan symptomless R0 of 11 is within the realm of actual possibility.
This is VERY bad news, as the formal CDC guidance on URI’s is that transmission risk is highest with peak symptoms (equating to peak virion shedding)–as was the case with SARS. Not so with Wuhan, reinforcing the public health necessity of strict 14-day quarantine.
Disease progression is standard common cold symptoms for 7-10 days with one exception–used since yesterday for clinical diagnosis in Hubei Province, as both the Chinese and the experimental CDC US test kits are showing significant problems with a high rate of false negatives.
Common colds from over 120 distinct serotypes from all three viral families (RNA naked Rhino, RNA enveloped Corona, and DNA enveloped Adeno) all evidence the same three symptoms: runny nose, sore throat, and cough.
Influenza adds two: fever and muscle ache.
Wuhan clinically shows four: runny nose, sore throat, cough, AND fever—but NOT muscle ache.
As of today, Hubei switched to clinical diagnosis and today’s ‘new’ diagnosed Wuhan cases were 14840. Yesterday, using only test kits, it was 1638. This is not a leap in cases; it is a leap in diagnostics.
Unfortunately, this new fact means Wuhan has previously (as suspected but now proven) been severely under diagnosed and reported. And that unfortunately means the 1300 attributed deaths were also severely underreported. More on presently inferable mortality comes in a following section.
Wuhan then makes a now well-established clinical bifurcation. In 75-80% of cases, by symptom day 10 there is a normal ‘corona cold’ recovery lasting a few days. (In my own case last week, 3 recovery days in total, days 9-12 from symptom onset.)
In 20-25% of cases, by symptom day 10 Wuhan progresses to lower respiratory tract pneumonia, where death may occur with or without ICU intervention. The percentage of these deep pneumonias that are viral as opposed to a secondary bacteria infection is not known, but the NEJM clinical case report from Washington State discussed in the following paragraph strongly suggests viral (like SARS), not secondary bacterial treatable with antibiotics.
The new NEJM case report is so important it is summarized here because it leads to a hopeful culminating section below. The Seattle Wuhan case evidenced x-ray diagnosed lower respiratory tract pneumonia from days 9-11 from symptom onset. Supplemental oxygen was started day 9. IV antibiotics were started day 10 to no effect, so discontinued after one day.
Importantly (more below), experimental antiviral remdesivir started day 11 by IV under a compassionate use exception, and the deep viral pneumonia fully resolved (per x-ray diagnosis) within 24 hours!
Diamond Princess ‘lab’ experiment
On Sunday, reported cases were 69 out of about 3700 total ship passengers and crew. Japan was removing people from the ship to hospital isolation as soon as symptoms (fever) showed, so the cruise ship became a somewhat artificial (close quarters) symptomless R0 experiment.
As of today, the ship’s website reports that 218 passengers have been positively diagnosed from 713 tested, all removed to hospital isolation. About 3500 passengers and crew remain on board as the ‘experiment’ continues. This suggests symptomless Wuhan R0 is greater than 2 (37 new cases per day for four days among a symptomless about 3500- 3600) and could be, like SARS, 3ish. Except SARS transmission was after symptom onset; this is before.
Per its website, ship offered today to begin removing symptomless passengers to shore quarantine at their expense, or to remain quarantined on the ship at Princess expense. In either event, full cruise refunds have been made.
Inferable Mortality
The news here is not good. We have mostly very poor data; both Hubei incidence and mortality were now provably severely under reported.
But we do have one piece of usable comparable information. 1300 mortalities and 5000 recoveries amongst those who tested positive from the false negative test kits used until yesterday (the majority of cases have not yet resolved one way of the other).
In the end, when the disease has run its course, there are only two outcomes: recovery or death.
On the test kit basis, the mortality could be as high as 26%. That is horrible but not impossible since MERS was almost 36%.
On the test kit basis, the mortality could be as high as 26%.
Migration of lethality / contagiousness of the WuHan Coronavirus.
Statement from Beijing claims the emergency is over. Going from “black” into “orange”.
16FEB20 Beijing statement.
Update 20 – 22FEB20
Why was University of Rochester recruiting medical subjects, when the baseline requirement was they had to be 100% ethnic Chinese? Looks like DNA collection to me. China Rising Radio Sinoland 200222
Collect Chinese DNA flier.
It is more evidence of the US collecting Chinese and Slavic (Russian) DNA, likely to be used to develop race-specific microbes that only kill that group.
Mr. Jose took the photo the winter of 2018-2019, just a year ago. It is one of those announcements seen all around schools and on grocery store public bulletin boards, with the little tear-off contact tabs below. Angela Mim’s email was on the tabs, as well as the phone number of the Flaum Eye Institute, which is part of the School of Medicine at the University of Rochester in New York. Dr. Michael DePaolis was conducting this study.
...
The University of Rochester, Flaum Eye Institute and Dr. DePaolis may have been willing participants in DARPA’s (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Chinese DNA collection program to develop race specific bioweapons, or were just innocent dupes, sending tissue samples on to a fake-named laboratory with a P.O. Box. We’ll never know. But, it’s safe to say that no matter the excuses, this is clear evidence of Chinese citizens being used as guinea pigs to collect their DNA.
I can smell the germ warfare from here.
Update 21
The American anti-China propaganda war has been relentless.
Swooping in on a castle’s weak point, robbing the victim of a fire, throwing stones at someone drowning in a well – a range of Chinese proverbs have been coined to make the same point: not to kick a person who is already down.
These sayings have been popping up in recent weeks in the coded phrases used by Chinese diplomats. That’s because – just when the ink was drying on the first phase of a long awaited trade deal between China and the United States – there has been a new souring in relations.
Beijing focused on fighting the coronavirus outbreak at home, Washington has seemed to be turning up the heat on the Chinese on several fronts this month.
With some Chinese believing that their American foes are trying to take advantage of the Covid-19 crisis, the subsequent bad feeling doesn’t bode well for future trade talks.
-Week in China
Update 22
Well, I have always suspected that the food market wasn’t the source or cause for the virus. So many things just didn’t add up. Now things are getting clearer with each passing day.
First off, the videos of the authorities cleaning up the Animal Market are all over the Chinese Internet. QQ, Wechat and Tictoc has literally thousands of videos detailing the cleanup efforts and the discarding of the animals. Alive and / or dead, they are captured by men in haz-mat suits, put into pink plastic containers. Shoved into a hole in the ground. Set on fire, and then buried under three yards of soil.
You know what is missing?
Bat cages.
There just aren’t any bird cares. There are those plastic cages for ground fowl like ducks, chicken, geese and quail. But not the specialized cages for bats. They need special cages.
Now, I thought it was curious that there were videos of people eating bat soup. But these were out of Indonesia and Burma. You could see by the writing used in the background. Nothing in Chinese.
So, unless someone is going to show me the cages where they kept the rare and unusual bats, I am going to stick to my belief that the Animal Market is just a ruse and a cover for nefarious American activities.
How convenient. America patented the conoravirus, and now America has the vaccine. Amazing how that works.
Update 24
"A 20-year-old woman from Wuhan, China, transmitted the coronavirus to her family members without ever showing any symptoms, a new study found.
The woman tested positive for the virus, but her CT scans were clear and she never became physically ill. Five of her family members, however, came down with a fever. Two developed severe pneumonia. The case is evidence that the coronavirus can be transmitted when someone is asymptomatic".
Update 25 – 24FEB20
This is a very long article with some good things. It discusses the DARPA experiments, and the propaganda war.
A pull-quote…
... upon further examination of the sourcing for this serious claim,(That the Chinese biological lab in Wuhan released this bioweapon)...
... these supposed links between the outbreak and an alleged Chinese bioweapons program have come from two highly dubious sources.
For instance, the first outlet to report on this claim was Radio Free Asia, the U.S.-government funded media outlet targeting Asian audiences that used to be run covertly by the CIA and named by the New York Times as a key part in the agency’s “worldwide propaganda network.”
Though it is no longer run directly by the CIA, it is now managed by the government-funded Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which answers directly to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was CIA director immediately prior to his current post at the head of the State Department.
In other words, Radio Free Asia and other BBG-managed media outlets are legal outlets for U.S. government propaganda.
(But why not the CIA directly?)
Notably, the long-standing ban on the domestic use of U.S. government propaganda on U.S. citizens was lifted in 2013, with the official justification of allowing the government to “effectively communicate in a credible way” and to better combat “al-Qaeda’s and other violent extremists’ influence.”
The article…
Bats, Gene Editing and Bio Weapons: Recent DARPA experiments Raise Concerns Amid Coronavirus Outbreak
Link to Article: https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/top-news/bats-gene-editing-bioweapons-recent-darpa-experiments-raise-concerns-amid-coronavirus-outbreak/
DARPA RECENTLY SPENT MILLIONS ON RESEARCH INVOLVING BATS AND CORONAVIRUSES, AS WELL AS GENE EDITING “BIOWEAPONS” PRIOR TO THE RECENT CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK. NOW, “STRATEGIC ALLIES” OF THE AGENCY HAVE BEEN CHOSEN TO DEVELOP A GENETIC MATERIAL-BASED VACCINE TO HALT THE POTENTIAL EPIDEMIC.
WASHINGTON D.C. – In recent weeks, concern over the emergence of a novel coronavirus in China has grown exponentially as media, experts and government officials around the world have openly worried that this new disease has the potential to develop into a global pandemic.
As concerns about the future of the ongoing outbreak have grown, so too have the number of theories speculating about the outbreak’s origin, many of which blame a variety of state actors and/or controversial billionaires. This has inevitably led to efforts to clamp down on “misinformation” related to the coronavirus outbreak from both mainstream media outlets and major social media platforms.
However, while many of these theories are clearly speculative, there is also verifiable evidence regarding the recent interest of one controversial U.S. government agency in novel coronaviruses, specifically those transmitted from bats to humans.
DARPA.
...continued...
Update 26
In order to prevent World War III, the Chinese government “bit the bullet”. It is well known that [1] this is a biological weapon [2] the profile is that obvious, and [3] China did go into DEFCON ONE in response.
The next step is what? World War III?
So China, suggests that perhaps the bio-weapon was an accidental leak from a weapons facility. So they made a statement to this effect, and everything calmed down.
There! Everyone is happy.
The neocons can breathe a little better knowing that World War III will not be on their shoulders, and China is given some “breathing room” to strategize…
But wait…
This explanation does not really fit the actual observed situation. And others are taking note of that;
This is also of interest…
I urge you to put up with Jones and listen to the whole interview, but to sum it up: A 2015 document Boyle unearthed fingers the Level 4 bio-lab (BSL 3) at the University of North Carolina as the U.S. participant in the engineering of the ‘COVID 19’ virus. Names are named, including the Chinese scientist from the Wuhan lab who bought and then transported the pathogen back to China. The deal was sponsored by the NIH (National Institute of Health) and the FDA (Federal Drug Administration), aside from the university bureaucrats. As Professor Boyle says, all involved should be prosecuted under the Bio-terrorism Act of 1989, which, again, Professor Boyle wrote.
.
Smoking guns don’t come any hotter than this.
.
An interesting observation was Boyle’s assurance that the official claim that bats were involved in the transmission to humans is ‘balderdash’, and that, given The Bug’s HIV gene envelope, animals of any sort are ruled out as spreaders. That the mainstream is outed on this provenance-related prevarication is extremely significant, for its implications. We obviously cannot trust them on any Bug-related matter.
.
My only bone to pick with Professor Boyle is his theory that the virus leaked from the Wuhan lab accidentally. I spent half the weekend looking into the protocols used by Level 3 and 4 labs and can assure you that an accident is no more likely here than in the Baxter scandal from 2009, which I described in a recent post. (For those who want to check my facts on this, see the quotes and links in the end notes to this post. It is quite important!)
.
Although Boyle is an exceptional man, one of the few amongst top level scientists, he doesn’t understand the long range plans of those in power, nor does he realize the lengths they have and will go to. Boyle has shown courage in airing his views before: From his position as professor of international law he spoke out against the war in Afghanistan, a risk to his job and maybe his safety after 9/11, so I tend to doubt he (in effect) would false-champion the official story on the outbreak. It could be that — like most of us — he just cannot imagine ‘colleagues’ letting loose such devastation upon the world. As I say, he has some smartening up to do.
.
See, the official story is slowly becoming ‘an accidental release’ from the Wuhan lab. This was inevitable, given the robustness of the evidence that it is a bio-weapon. (Listen to the goddamn link!)
The paper, written by a large group of Chinese researchers from several institutions, offers details about the first 41 hospitalized patients who had confirmed infections with what has been dubbed 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). In the earliest case, the patient became ill on 1 December 2019 and had no reported link to the seafood market, the authors report.
“No epidemiological link was found between the first patient and later cases,” they state. Their data also show that, in total, 13 of the 41 cases had no link to the marketplace. “That’s a big number, 13, with no link,” says Daniel Lucey, an infectious disease specialist at Georgetown University.
Highlights:
*Wuhan Seafood market may not be the source of COVID-19
*Though virus first showed-up in China but the source of the virus may not be in China
*The possibility that virus may have originated abroad can’t be ruled out
*The theory that virus originated in December 2019 has been contested.
*According to new theory, human-to-human transmission may have started in November 2019 or even earlier.
*The people in the Wuhan Seafood may not be the first one to transmit it.
*The scenario that someone bought it to the market is one of the three scenarios that is still consistent with the data
Another study published on a Chinese open repository for scientific researchers, reveals the new virus was introduced to the seafood market from another location, and then spread rapidly from market to market. The findings were the result of analyses of genome-wide data, sources of infection and the route of spread of 93 samples of the virus collected from 12 countries across four continents, reported by VOV World. Thus, their conclusion supports one of the scenarios built by Kristian Andersen.
According to the researchers, the new coronavirus experienced two sudden population expansions, including one on January 6, 2020, which was related to the lunar New Year holiday. An earlier expansion occurred on December 8, 2019, implying human-to-human transmission may have started in early December or late November, and then accelerated when it reached the Huanan seafood market.
Update 30
• Creator Of BioWeapons Act Says Coronavirus Is Biological Warfare Weapon
Here we have a lawyer who drafted up some biological weapons legislation. They asked him what he thought, and he believes that China stole the technology, and accidently released it in Wuhan because they were developing weapons in the middle of the 11 million people city of Wuhan…
Francis Boyle is a professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law. He drafted the U.S. domestic implementing legislation for the Biological Weapons Convention, known as the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989
But the bottom line is I drafted the US domestic implementing legislation for the Biological Weapons Convention that was approved unanimously by both Houses in the United States Congress signed into law by President Bush Sr. that it appears the coronavirus that we’re dealing with here is an offensive biological warfare weapon that leaped out of Wuhan BSL-4. I’m not saying it was done deliberately.
Finally, we have this…
Uncanny similarity of unique inserts in the 2019-nCoV spike protein to HIV-1 gp120 and Gag
Prashant Pradhan , Ashutosh Kumar Pandey , Akhilesh Mishra , Parul Gupta , Praveen
1111 Kumar Tripathi , Manoj Balakrishnan Menon , James Gomes , Perumal Vivekanandan* and
Bishwajit Kundu*1
1Kusuma School of biological sciences, Indian institute of technology, New Delhi-110016, India. 2Acharya Narendra Dev College, University of Delhi, New Delhi-110019, India
$Equal contribution
* Corresponding authors- email: bkundu@bioschool.iitd.ac.invperumal@bioschool.iitd.ac.in
Abstract:
We are currently witnessing a major epidemic caused by the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019- nCoV). The evolution of 2019-nCoV remains elusive. We found 4 insertions in the spike glycoprotein (S) which are unique to the 2019-nCoV and are not present in other coronaviruses. Importantly, amino acid residues in all the 4 inserts have identity or similarity to those in the HIV- 1 gp120 or HIV-1 Gag. Interestingly, despite the inserts being discontinuous on the primary amino acid sequence, 3D-modelling of the 2019-nCoV suggests that they converge to constitute the receptor binding site. The finding of 4 unique inserts in the 2019-nCoV, all of which have identity /similarity to amino acid residues in key structural proteins of HIV-1 is unlikely to be fortuitous in nature. This work provides yet unknown insights on 2019-nCoV and sheds light on the evolution and pathogenicity of this virus with important implications for diagnosis of this virus. [my emphasis]
Update 31
COVID-19 May Have Originated from the US? Japanese TV Broadcast
This immediately went viral on Chinese social media, with speculation that the coronavirus may have originated in the US. It had already been widely discussed that the virus may have been released at the time of the Military World Games.
“Perhaps the US delegates brought the coronavirus to Wuhan, and some mutation occurred to the virus, making it more deadly and contagious, and causing a widespread outbreak this year.”
In the same article, a professor at Fudan University stated that global virologists were working to track the origin of the virus, “including the intelligence agencies”.
Update 32
Harvard Genetic Research Team Collected and Transferred China Blood and DNA Samples Back to the US
The study below pertains to a US initiative by an unnamed “renowned University” involved in collecting blood and DNA samples in China’s Anhui province in the 1990s. The unnamed university is Harvard University.
Blood samples were collected. In turn, the US scientists “acquired DNA samples of the target group for research purposes.
“The principal investigator himself admitted that for the asthma research alone, 16,400 DNA samples had been transferred to the US.“. These DNA samples collected by the Harvard research team were then shipped to the US. They are part of extensive data base.
According to Romanoff (in an earlier article) the number of DNA samples transferred to the US was much larger than the figures quoted in Zhang Yong and Zhao Wenxia’s chapter:
… it became known that Harvard University had surreptitiously proceeded with experiments in China that had been forbidden by the authorities years earlier, where they collected many hundreds of thousands of Chinese DNA samples and then left the country.
Update 33
In other news…
But when the time came, the bastards were prepared: The Weird Animal Market! The bat soup-slurping Chinese! And hey, if that didn’t work: ‘The Wuhan Level 4 Biolab!’, which was conveniently minutes away from the designated ground (or patient) zero, at the Market. (Talk about convenient! As is the coincidence that the outbreak occurred in the midst of the ultimate Chinese travel week, the Lunar New Year. Yes, the better to spread not only The Bug, but the panic; and to make sure both spread world-wide, via air travel.)
But blaming the bio-lab would be a fall-back position; ever the optimists, the real perps were hoping mother nature as patsy would hold water, at least for a few months.
–Bandito
Update 34
There are seven coronaviruses known to infect people. Four of them—229E, NL63, OC43, and HKU1—typically cause a cold and only rarely result in death. The other three—MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV, and the new SARS-CoV-2—have varying degrees of lethality. In the 2003 SARS outbreak, 10 percent of infected people died. Between 2012 and 2019, MERS killed 23 percent of infected people. Although the case fatality rate of COVID-19 is lower, the virus has already killed more people than the other two outbreaks combined, which some have attributed to the pathogen’s fast transmission.
See “How COVID-19 is Spread”
The cold-causing coronaviruses, as well as many other viruses that cause common colds, are typically restricted to the upper respiratory tract, that is, the nose and sinuses. Both SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, however, are capable of invading deep into the lungs, something that is associated with more severe disease.
One possible reason for this is that the virus binds to the ACE-2 receptor on human cells in order to gain entry. This receptor is present in ciliated epithelial cells in the upper and lower airway, as well as in type II pneumocytes, which reside in the alveoli in the lower airway and produce lung-lubricating proteins. “The type II pneumocytes are . . . important for lung function, so this is part of why the lower respiratory disease can be so severe,” notes Gralinksi.
The new coronavirus also appears to use the ACE-2 receptor, which may help partially explain why, like SARS, it is more deadly than the other four coronaviruses. Those pathogens use different receptors, except for NL63, which also uses the ACE-2 receptor but binds to it with less affinity, says Gralinski. (MERS is thought to use an entirely different receptor, which is also present in the lower airways.)
- Why Some COVID-19 Cases Are Worse than Others
Update 35
The Audio Archives of this radio show were hacked-into and destroyed sometime within the past 24 hours. Someone clearly did not want the free audio archive of Thursday's show about Coronavirus, to reach the public.
I do not yet know what entity did this. My technical people are investigating.
-Hal Turner Radio Show
Update 36
From John Paul Roberts...
It is difficult to get reliable information about coronavirus. The information difficulty is further complicated by interest groups using the outbreak for their own agendas.
For example, many both inside and outside China are using the spread of the virus to criticize the Chinese government. Others, both inside and outside China, claim the virus is a bioweapon unleashed on China by the US. Still others say the global elite has decided to implement a program to reduce the world population and that Bill Gates, one of the global elite, said some months ago that a global pandemic would break out at this time.
Some Internet sites attract traffic by posting reports of massive numbers of Chinese deaths and crematoriums running 24/7. The official Chinese story has been that the virus originated in a market that sold wild animal meat. The fact remains that Wuhan, apparently a city larger than any in the US, has been locked down for a month.
Francis Boyle (University of Illinois) is an expert on biowarfare weapon research. He wrote the Biological Weapons Anti-terrorism Act of 1989, which is the US implementing legislation for the 1972 Bio-Weapons Convention. In interviews (see for example, https://www.activistpost.com/2020/02/us-biowarfare-act-author-studies-confirm-coronavirus-weaponized.html )
Boyle says he has read four scientific studies that confirm beyond doubt that the coronavirus is an engineered bioweapon. The studies show that the virus has elements added to make it easy to spread and elements that reduce the ability of the immune system to resist the virus.
Boyle reports that the bio-engineering work that makes the virus easy to spread was done at the University of North Carolina, and that the work that allows HIV to be added was done in an Australian facility.
He shows that Chinese scientists from the Wuhan BSL-4 biowarefare lab were present in both the UNC and Australian labs and participated in the research. The Chinese scientists returned to Wuhan, each with an essential part that enabled the Wuhan lab to produce what we call the coronavirus, the official name of which is CoVid-19.
Boyle says that the virus’ escape was an unintended event, and that such escapes from biowar labs have happened before.
Update 37 – 3MAR20
It’s starting to hit the USA, and it’s not even prepared. Donald Trump calls it a “hoax” and “similar to the flu”. Vice President Pence is assigned to deal with it. Cases are popping up all over the nation, and Americans are flooding into the supermarkets without masks to stock up on supplies.
It appears to have mutated to accept non-Asians, and now it looks like generation four is multiplying in the USA.
The team at the Seattle Flu Study have sequenced the genome of the COVID19 community case reported yesterday from Snohomish County, WA, and have posted the sequence publicly, link below. There are some enormous implications here.
This case, which is referred to as "WA2," is on a branch in the evolutionary tree that descends directly from the case referred to as "WA1" the first reported case in the USA sampled on Jan 19, also from Snohomish County, WA.
This strongly suggests that there has been cryptic transmission in Washington State for the past 6 weeks.
Let's do some quick math, with an R0 of 15 and generation of two weeks:
This person should have spawned four generations or roughly 3500 people, the fourth generation should just be starting to show symptoms, so the person that died is likely from the second generation if dying now (death is four to five weeks after catching), meaning they didn't catch it from the original person but from someone the original person infected.
In another month, that one original spreader can be responsible for the infection of three quarters of a million cases. (R0, generations two weeks). Here is the Model being used by government entities inside the United States. It is utterly horrifying
-Hal Turner Show
Update 38
Now the Intenet has officially claimed that the idea that COVID-19 is a biological Weapon as a hoax.
The Wuhan coronavirus at the time of writing has caused the deaths of 563 people. The number of those infected stands at 28,256 with the outbreak showing no signs of slowing down. It was reported a short while ago that two newborn infants had been infected with the virus, which suggests the virus may be passed on to unborn babies.
Conspiracy theories on the coronavirus outbreak are all over the internet. Google, Twitter and Facebook are said to be taking steps to prevent fake news from spreading across their platforms.
While several scientists believe that bats may be to blame for the spread of the virus, the victims of this disease did not become infected after eating bat soup as some conspiracy theorists are trying to convince people. This misinformation seems to have spread after footage of a Chinese woman eating soup with a bat in it was circulated on social media. However, the footage is not of someone infecting themselves with the coronavirus, but instead of a travel blogger eating at a restaurant in Palau in 2016.
Once again, the biological weapon theory appears with theorists stating the virus ‘escaped’ from a secure lab. Others claim that Clorox or Lysol will kill the virus, which it definitely won’t. Neither will keeping your throat moist and drinking vitamin C supplements prevent you from contracting the virus. Some people are suggesting that those who have already been infected should drink bleach while others claim that avoiding ice cream or other milk products will help prevent infection. None of these claims are true, and the only advice and suggestions that should be followed are those provided by health professionals.
And because he has apparently not been blamed for enough disasters, anonymous anti-vaxxers are also spreading the rumor that Bill Gates created the coronavirus.
-List Verse
Notice how they omitted all the backround on the out-break.
So you can pretty much expect all the “unusual occurances” and mysteries regarding this out-break to be religated to the tin-foil-hat fringe.
Update 39 – 4MAR20
“Globally, about 3.4% of reported COVID-19 cases have died,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a press briefing at the agency’s headquarters in Geneva. In comparison, seasonal flu generally kills far fewer than 0.1% of those infected, he said.
The World Health Organization had said last week that the mortality rate of COVID-19 can differ, ranging from 0.7% to up to 4%, depending on the quality of the health-care system where it’s treated. Early in the outbreak, scientists had concluded the death rate was around 2.3%.
-WHO
The death rate from seasonal flu is typically around 0.1% in the U.S., according to The New York Times.
The death rate for COVID-19 appears to be higher than that of the flu.
-Livescience.
Ambitious, agile, and aggressive
The team began in Beijing and then split into two groups that, all told, traveled to Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chengdu, and the hardest hit city, Wuhan. They visited hospitals, laboratories, companies, wet markets selling live animals, train stations, and local government offices. “Everywhere you went, anyone you spoke to, there was a sense of responsibility and collective action, and there’s war footing to get things done,” Aylward says.
The group also reviewed the massive data set that Chinese scientists have compiled. (The country still accounts for more than 90% of the global total of the 90,000 confirmed cases.) They learned that about 80% of infected people had mild to moderate disease, 13.8% had severe symptoms, and 6.1% had life-threatening episodes of respiratory failure, septic shock, or organ failure. The case fatality rate was highest for people over age 80 (21.9%), and people who had heart disease, diabetes, or hypertension. Fever and dry cough were the most common symptoms. Surprisingly, only 4.8% of infected people had runny noses. Children made up a mere 2.4% of the cases, and almost none was severely ill. For the mild and moderate cases, it took 2 weeks on average to recover.
A critical unknown is how many mild or asymptomatic cases occur. If large numbers of infections are below the radar, that complicates attempts to isolate infectious people and slow spread of the virus. But on the positive side, if the virus causes few, if any, symptoms in many infected people, the current estimated case fatality rate is too high. (The report says that rate varies greatly, from 5.8% in Wuhan, whose health system was overwhelmed, to 0.7% in other regions.)
To get at this question, the report notes that so-called fever clinics in Guangdong province screened approximately 320,000 people for COVID-19 and only found 0.14% of them to be positive. “That was really interesting, because we were hoping and maybe expecting to see a large burden of mild and asymptomatic cases,” says Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “That piece of data suggests that’s not happening, which would imply that the case fatality risk might be more or less as we currently have.” But Guangdong province was not a heavily affected area, so it is not clear whether the same holds in Hubei province, which was the hardest hit, Rivers cautions.
Much of the report focuses on understanding how China achieved what many public health experts thought was impossible: containing the spread of a widely circulating respiratory virus. “China has rolled out perhaps the most ambitious, agile, and aggressive disease containment effort in history,” the report notes.
The most dramatic—and controversial—measure was the lockdown of Wuhan and nearby cities in Hubei province, which has put at least 50 million people under a mandatory quarantine since 23 January. That has “effectively prevented further exportation of infected individuals to the rest of the country,” the report concludes. In other regions of mainland China, people voluntarily quarantined and were monitored by appointed leaders in neighborhoods.
Chinese authorities also built two dedicated hospitals in Wuhan in just over 1 week. Health care workers from all over China were sent to the outbreak’s center. The government launched an unprecedented effort to trace contacts of confirmed cases. In Wuhan alone, more than 1800 teams of five or more people traced tens of thousands of contacts.
Aggressive “social distancing” measures implemented in the entire country included canceling sporting events and shuttering theaters. Schools extended breaks that began in mid-January for the Lunar New Year. Many businesses closed shop. Anyone who went outdoors had to wear a mask.
Two widely used mobile phone apps, AliPay and WeChat—which in recent years have replaced cash in China—helped enforce the restrictions, because they allow the government to keep track of people’s movements and even stop people with confirmed infections from traveling. “Every person has sort of a traffic light system,” says mission member Gabriel Leung, dean of the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong. Color codes on mobile phones—in which green, yellow, or red designate a person’s health status—let guards at train stations and other checkpoints know who to let through.
“As a consequence of all of these measures, public life is very reduced,” the report notes. But the measures worked. In the end, infected people rarely spread the virus to anyone but members of their own household, Leung says. Once all the people in an apartment or home were exposed, the virus had nowhere else to go and chains of transmission ended. “That’s how the epidemic truly came under control,” Leung says. In sum, he says, there was a combination of “good old social distancing and quarantining very effectively done because of that on-the-ground machinery at the neighborhood level, facilitated by AI [artificial intelligence] big data.”
Deep commitment to collective action
How feasible these kinds of stringent measures are in other countries is debatable. “China is unique in that it has a political system that can gain public compliance with extreme measures,” Gostin says. “But its use of social control and intrusive surveillance are not a good model for other countries.” The country also has an extraordinary ability to do labor-intensive, large-scale projects quickly, says Jeremy Konyndyk, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development:
“No one else in the world really can do what China just did.”
Nor should they, says lawyer Alexandra Phelan, a China specialist at Georgetown’s Center for Global Health Science and Security.
“Whether it works is not the only measure of whether something is a good public health control measure,” Phelan says. “There are plenty of things that would work to stop an outbreak that we would consider abhorrent in a just and free society.”
-ScienceMag
Coronavirus: there are 2 types, Chinese researchers find, while authorities say faeces and urine can transmit the infection. They found that one type, which they called the L type, was more prevalent than the other, the S type, meaning it was more infectious.
They also found that the L type had evolved from the S type, and that the L type was far more widespread before January 7 and in Wuhan, ground zero of the outbreak. https://lnkd.in/g-NrpBJ
Update 40
A Los Alamos National Laboratory analysis of the outbreak in China in December 2019 and January 2020 puts the unrestrained R0 of Covid-19 at between 4.5 and 6.6. (The R-naught figure indicates the contagiousness of a disease in a given environment. If the number is above one, it’s spreading.)
The Novel Coronavirus, 2019-nCoV, is Highly Contagious and More Infectious Than Initially Estimated[Excerpts:] Integrating uncertainties in the exponential growth rate estimated from the ‘first arrival’ approach and the uncertainties in the duration of latent and infectious periods, we estimated the values of R0 to be 6.3 and 4.7. The high R0 values we estimated have important implications for disease control.The 2019-nCoV epidemic is still rapidly growing and spread to more than 20 countries as of February 5, 2020. Here, we estimated the growth rate of the early outbreak in Wuhan to be 0.29 per day (a doubling time of 2.4 days), and the reproductive number, R0, to be between 4.7 to 6.6.How contagious the 2019-nCoV is in other countries remains to be seen. If the value of R0 is as high in other countries, our results suggest that active and strong population-wide social distancing efforts, such as closing down transportation system, schools, discouraging travel, etc., might be needed to reduce the overall contacts to contain the spread of the virus.
This shockingly high original Chinese R0 value meant a doubling of the number of cases every few days, and subsequently, regional hospitals were overrun by infected patients. The Chinese experience indicates how it may spread in the West and the 3rd world. Critically, the often-quoted case fatality rate (CFR) of “only” 2% for Covid-19 occurs when severely affected patients have access to first-class medical treatment, with teams of nurses and doctors caring for them in isolation ICUs. About 15% of people infected with the virus will develop severe symptoms (pneumonia, etc.) requiring intensive individual treatment in order to survive. Once hospitals are swamped and many of the medical staff become infected, the CFR can swiftly rise to above 15%. This is believed to be the situation inside the Wuhan City quarantine zone.
An infectious disease with an R-naught above five, and the number of cases doubling every two days, is like a biological atomic bomb chain reaction, particularly in the age of jet travel to all points of the globe.
Update 41 – 19MAR20
Scientsts are saying that this virus is natural, and discuss why…
The novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that emerged in the city of Wuhan, China, last year and has since caused a large scale COVID-19 epidemic and spread to more than 70 other countries is the product of natural evolution, according to findings published today in the journal Nature Medicine.
The analysis of public genome sequence data from SARS-CoV-2 and related viruses found no evidence that the virus was made in a laboratory or otherwise engineered.
“By comparing the available genome sequence data for known coronavirus strains, we can firmly determine that SARS-CoV-2 originated through natural processes,” said Kristian Andersen, PhD, an associate professor of immunology and microbiology at Scripps Research and corresponding author on the paper.
In addition to Andersen, authors on the paper, "The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2," include Robert F. Garry, of Tulane University; Edward Holmes, of the University of Sydney; Andrew Rambaut, of University of Edinburgh; W. Ian Lipkin, of Columbia University.
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that can cause illnesses ranging widely in severity. The first known severe illness caused by a coronavirus emerged with the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic in China. A second outbreak of severe illness began in 2012 in Saudi Arabia with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).
On December 31 of last year, Chinese authorities alerted the World Health Organization of an outbreak of a novel strain of coronavirus causing severe illness, which was subsequently named SARS-CoV-2. As of February 20, 2020, nearly 167,500 COVID-19 cases have been documented, although many more mild cases have likely gone undiagnosed. The virus has killed over 6,600 people.
Shortly after the epidemic began, Chinese scientists sequenced the genome of SARS-CoV-2 and made the data available to researchers worldwide. The resulting genomic sequence data has shown that Chinese authorities rapidly detected the epidemic and that the number of COVID-19 cases have been increasing because of human to human transmission after a single introduction into the human population. Andersen and collaborators at several other research institutions used this sequencing data to explore the origins and evolution of SARS-CoV-2 by focusing in on several tell-tale features of the virus.
The scientists analyzed the genetic template for spike proteins, armatures on the outside of the virus that it uses to grab and penetrate the outer walls of human and animal cells. More specifically, they focused on two important features of the spike protein: the receptor-binding domain (RBD), a kind of grappling hook that grips onto host cells, and the cleavage site, a molecular can opener that allows the virus to crack open and enter host cells.
Evidence for natural evolution
The scientists found that the RBD portion of the SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins had evolved to effectively target a molecular feature on the outside of human cells called ACE2, a receptor involved in regulating blood pressure. The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein was so effective at binding the human cells, in fact, that the scientists concluded it was the result of natural selection and not the product of genetic engineering.
This evidence for natural evolution was supported by data on SARS-CoV-2’s backbone – its overall molecular structure. If someone were seeking to engineer a new coronavirus as a pathogen, they would have constructed it from the backbone of a virus known to cause illness. But the scientists found that the SARS-CoV-2 backbone differed substantially from those of already known coronaviruses and mostly resembled related viruses found in bats and pangolins.
“These two features of the virus, the mutations in the RBD portion of the spike protein and its distinct backbone, rules out laboratory manipulation as a potential origin for SARS-CoV-2” said Andersen.
-Scripps Research
Update 42
It hit America hard in the middle of March 2020. Even with the mass riots in the stores (over toilet paper), and the total fuck-up on COVID-19 test kits… Americans still refuse to wear masks and Donald Trump is still saying that it’s a hoax or not as bad as the flu.
People(!) it has boomeranged back and hit the USA, and Ameria is not anywhere near as capable of dealing with it like the Chinese are.
Karma.
Update 43
America is overwhelmed. Everyone followed the nonsense about not wearing masks and now the entire nation is in trouble. The anti-China propiganda is relentless.
Harry Moroz @hrmoroz - 15:35 UTC · Mar 20, 2020
For the average American the best way to tell if you have covid-19 is to cough in a rich person’s face and wait for their test results
And this thought is interesting…
China and Russia have adopted a policy to contain and eliminate the Evil Virus, while much of the rest of the world has a policy of "Let 'Er Rip!". These two policies are fundamentally incompatible, with the result that China (and Russia) will have to seal itself off from the rest of the world. If Chinese people can not freely move around the world, their various development projects will be very difficult to manage.
Uncle Sam is always talking about "containing" those Evil Chinese and Dastardly Russians, and now it appears they have found a way to do that, at least for the moment. A little further along the timeline, China's partners will also adopt contain-and-eliminate and move firmly into China's "sphere of influence".
Eventually that will leave disease-ridden, poverty-stricken Uncle Sam completely isolated, and the rest of the world will breathe a sigh of relief.
Posted by: Trailer Trash | Mar 24 2020 16:22 utc | 9
And others are getting with the program…
... I would differ from you only in that I would say that what the US is engaged in is actual biological warfare. I don't think that there is much doubt that under international law the US guilt is easily established. As is that of its accessories.
Posted by: bevin | Mar 24 2020 16:39 utc | 14
People are noticing…
https://southfront.org/in-video-putin-visits-hospital-treating-covid-19-patients-in-moscow/
Putin, xi and non western world leaders, erdogan, orban, Netanyahu are actually showing what it takes during a crisis, if you live in us look to foreign more responsible governments during this crisis for news and updates. America just spits politicized garbage over its propoganda channels while Americans infect each other.
Anyone who is against lockdowns does not understand this disease.
GDP is everything in China, for it to sacrifice an entire city during lunar new year and to shutdown all schools and immobilize people shows the severity. Wuhan virus circulated nearly 2 months before lockdown was called, Chinese attempted everything before lockdown but was forced to lockdown and show the world once the situation got untenable, the level where wuhan locked down fully was 1000 deaths in a county of 1.5 billion.
If they weren’t afraid they wouldn’t shut down, if people could still interact commonly without mass infection they would be allowed to.
The problem is that this disease is undetectable without mass testing for the damage is done by the time you realize you have it, you’ve already ruined your lungs/organs permanently and may have infected your entire family and close contacts.
It appears to be spread easily due to surface contact, even the ground or walls, and does not die easily, countries around the world spray aerosols and disinfectants to combat it, even poor countries like Iran attempt a wide general disinfectant or public walk areas.
This is what scares me the most, if the virus died on surfaces after days there would be no need for China to be spraying buildings and streets that have ALREADY BEEN CLOSED WEEKS unless this disease spreads WAY EASIER AND LASTS LONGER on surfaces then we know of, the only information out is on SARS which although similar, appears to have a longer life and easier spread.
I don’t feel safe Until America begins similar disinfectant missions in train stations, bus stations and airports and with the massive homeless population in the americas Covid epicenters, San Fran, Seattle, la, and New York street disinfectants may have no effect as these people go around shitting on the streets
Posted by: Garrett | Mar 24 2020 16:41 utc | 15
Update 44
The situation in America is very sad, and people are noticing.
Our government lacks basic competence, even in comparison to other governments: Everyone with half a brain knows that comparing the private sector to the government is like comparing flying cross country to driving cross country. That being said, if you are driving cross country, you’re much better off driving a new BMW than a 1987 Yugo.
When you see a worldwide crisis like the Coronavirus, you might think that the United States would be leading the way, but actually it’s Denmark and South Korea. Denmark is leading the way with their economic ideas for the crisis (offering to cover 75-90% of employee salaries in hard-hit industries to try to prevent mass firings) and South Korea has been the best at fighting the virus (mass testing including widely available drive-thru testing, thoroughly tracing & quarantining individual cases and letting the public know where they’ve been, hand sanitizer everywhere).
Depending on your political leanings, you might blame our problems on Trump’s verbal gaffes or Democrats trying to use the virus as an excuse to push their pet projects for our less than stellar performance, but those are symptoms, not the disease.
We have a hidebound, legalistic bureaucracy that’s almost uniformly incompetent and our political culture is centered around politicians saying things we want to hear, not getting results or achievements. Until we demand more, we’re going to be stuck with a Burger King quality government even though we’re paying enough to have Gordon Ramsay make us a 5-course meal.
- 5 Long Term Lessons We Have Already Learned From the Coronavirus Crisis
Update 45
People are starting to see the reality for what it is.
Though, people are beginning to see the obvious propaganda. Check out this post at MoA; "China Did Not Deceive Us - Counting Death During An Epidemic Is Really Difficult".
Americans are waking up, and just read the comments. All of them are pretty much seeing America as the "King without any clothes on". Maybe this pile on propaganda onslaught will ease up soon. But don't get too soft and comfortable. It will just change form.
"The fact that China had an outbreak of corona virus dose not mean it originated in China ! This virus came from a USA /UK bio warfare lab."
Update 46
Ten Questions About Covid-19
Why did the President fire the entire US Pandemic Response Team in May, 2018? “The White House’s National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense’s job was to be the smoke alarm — keeping watch to get ahead of emergencies, sounding a warning at the earliest sign of fire — all with the goal of avoiding a six-alarm blaze.” [Washington Post, March 13, 2020]
Why did this 2019 simulation not cause America to prepare for such an outbreak? “From last January to August, America’s Health and Human Services ran a simulation, code-named “Crimson Contagion,” that imagined an influenza pandemic: the outbreak of the respiratory virus began in China and was quickly spread around the world by air travelers, who ran high fevers. In the US, it was first detected in Chicago, and 47 days later, the World Health Organization declared a pandemic but, by then, 110 million Americans were ill, 7.7 million hospitalized and 586,000 dead.” [New York Times].
Why did CDC Director Robert Redfield not reveal the dates or locations of Americans whom he said were diagnosed as dying from influenza but later tested posthumously as positive for Covid-19?
Why will our CDC not reveal when patient zero was detected in the US? This helps determine the time of initial infection, estimate the scope of transmission, the scale of the epidemic, and location of the intermediate host.
Why will our CDC not reveal the earliest positive test result confirmed by a tissue samples? Epidemiologists, pathologists and public health authorities need this.
Why will our CDC not reveal the names of the US hospitals where they were first detected?
Why are tests so few? Tiny South Korea tests more people in one day than we test in a month. Why?
How many people are currently infected in the US? It has been almost three months since we learned of Covid-19 yet we have no idea how many of us are infected??
Covid-19 TIMELINE
As of April 2, 2020
By: Godfree Roberts
September 2008: Though the first cases of H1N1 swine flu were reported in California and Texas in late March, 2009, genetic analysis suggests that it began six months earlier This is significant because the CDC now admits that early Covid-19 cases went undetected.
May 28, 2015 More than 200 US biosafety level 3 and 4 labs working with dangerous pathogens and keep their safety records secret. Fort Detrick, Virginia is one of twelve in that state.
May 16, 2018: The White House Fires the entire US Pandemic Response Team.
May 2nd, 2019– The chemical and biological defense unit of USA Defense Fort Detrick, VA announced its bid to develop SARS and MERS virus inhibitors.
June 14, 2019– CDC finds US Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, VA non-compliant with its pathogen control agreement.
June 30, 2019– Unidentified pneumonia in Springfield, Virginia nursing home near Fort Detrick, VA, 15 minutes from Fort Belvoir, VA, where the US team trained for the Wuhan Military Games.
July 9, 2019–The White House withdraws its only US epidemiologist embedded with China’s CDC. Why?
July 9th, 2019 Report of vape pneumonia 100km southeast of Fort Detrick, VA. The lung images showed the Covid-19 ground glass shadow. Still unexplained.
July 12th, 2019–Respiratory outbreak at Springfield, Virginia assisted care facility, near Fort Detrick, kills 2, sickens 54. A third patient dies four days later. Deaths remain unexplained to this day.
Jul 14, 2019–Chinese researcher escorted from infectious disease lab amid RCMP investigation. Public Health Agency of Canada describes it as a possible ‘policy breach,’ no risk to Canadian public. Did she discover the Covid-19 outbreak?
July 17th, 2019–A pneumonia epidemic report reported at a nursing home in Burke, VA,56 minutes from Fort Detrick, VA. It remains unexplained to this day.
July 26, Virginia State Health Bureau takes measures to prevent the spread of the pneumonia epidemic, including stopping collective activities, screening residents, and extra cleanliness.
August 5th, Media widely reports that the CDC’s closure of Fort Detrick, VA was for national security.
August 6, 2019–CDC shuts down America’s main biological warfare lab at Fort Detrick, VA, an unheard-of civilian intervention in military affairs. A senior scientist describes the atmosphere there as one of “fear and mistrust.” The CDC refuses to provide details.
August 19th, CDC expands patient detection system with the same symptoms as existing patients.
Aug 26, 2019 – The Virginia Department of Health confirms three cases of severe lung illness associated with the use of e-cigarettes, known as vaping.
September 2019–A nationwide outbreak of a mysterious pneumonia causes severe respiratory problems in hundreds of people, kills 54. So-called ‘vaping-associated lung disease’ shares same symptoms as Covid-19 and images invariably show the same bilateral ground-glass opacities.
Sept 14-October 10–US military team trains for Military World Games at Fort Belvoir, near Fort Detrick, VA.
Oct. 18, 2019–The Deputy Director of the CIA participated in a Johns Hopkins, WEF, and the Gates Foundation hosted a pandemic tabletop exercise codenamed Event 201 modeling a fictional coronavirus pandemic.
November, 2019–Coronavirus identified in Italy after laboratory tests isolated a strain of the virus from an Italian patient with genetic differences from the original strain isolated in China. Massimo Galli, professor of infectious diseases at the University of Milan said, “Very strange pneumonias” circulated in Europe as early as November last year (2018).
December 5, 2019. A Chinese medical researcher is arrested in Boston trying to take biological samples back to China. Zheng Zaosong, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, confessed to taking material from a lab in Boston. FBI Special Agent Kara Spice found 21 wrapped vials containing a “brown liquid” that appeared to be “biological material” (samples of post-mortem lung tissue look like ‘brown liquid’). Zheng’s roommate, also a researcher, told FBI agents that two labmates of Zheng had succeeded in getting specimens to China. China, presumably, now went on high alert.
Dec. 27, 2019 – Dr. Zhang Jixian, ICU doctor at Hubei Hospital reports to Wuhan Municipal Health Commission on pneumonia patients with an unknown cause.
Dec. 28, 2019– Three more patients arrive at the hospital, all related to Huanan Seafood Market.
Dec. 30, 2019 – Wuhan Municipal Health Committee issues notice of an unknown viral illness.
Dec. 31, 2019–Beijing receives virus genome results, informs WHO of Wuhan pneumonia with unknown cause. Wuhan announces virus on CCTV and CGTN.
Jan. 1, 2020– Chinese CCDC researchers publish an article on the suspected outbreak. Seafood market shut down.
Jan. 3, 2020–CDC first learns of coronavirus from Chinese colleagues, according to Health and Human Services Director Alex Azar.
Jan. 3, 2020–China reports 44 suspected patients with the mystery pneumonia. National Health Commission classifies it as a highly pathogenic, orders all labs without high pathogen licenses to destroy or transfer samples to secure labs.
Jan. 9, 2020– Chinese labs confirm the existence of the new virus, begin genetic sequencing. China reports the death of a 61-year-old male in Wuhan with several underlying medical conditions.
Jan. 9, 2020–Chinese officials announce coronavirus outbreak with 44 confirmed cases.
Jan 11, 2020–China uploads the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus to an international database but it was unclear how serious this was or if serious actions should be taken: winter, flu and pneumonia are common, but discerning a novel, serious outbreak is no simple matter.
Jan. 15, 2020.– Oxford University’s Evolutionary Ecology of Infectious Disease group says Covid-19 reached the UK no later than mid-January and may have infected half the population by March 21.
Jan. 18, 2020–US HHS runs a 6-month, “Crimson Contagion” scenario of a respiratory virus pandemic that begins in China and quickly spreads around the world.
Jan. 21, 2020 – WHO confirms human-to-human transmission of the virus.
Jan. 23, 2020 – Complete cordon sanitaire (not quarantine) around Wuhan.
Jan. 24, 2020–Slate op-ed by the New America Foundation proclaims, “Many of China’s actions to date are overly aggressive and ineffective in quelling the outbreak.” The Los Angeles Times calls President Xi’s efforts to rally the country, “Shoddy propaganda.” The Economist depicts China as an authoritarian plague threatening the world more than any pandemic.
Jan. 28, 2020– First confirmed coronavirus case at Seattle clinic.
Jan. 29, 2020–WHO rejects accusations that China was responsible for the global spread of COVID-19. Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says, “[China’s] actions actually helped prevent the spread of coronavirus to other countries.”
Jan. 30, 2020– US State and Federal officials refuse permission for Dr. Chu, UW infectious disease expert permission to use ongoing flu tests to monitor for coronavirus.
Feb. 3, 2020–US CDC refuses to adopt a WHO test and ships 200 test kits.
Feb. 15, 2020–CDC announces that its tests were flawed and recalls them.
Feb 16-24, 2020–2020 Said the WHO’s chief executive director for health emergencies, Michael Ryan of Ireland, “I have never seen the scale and commitment of an epidemic response at this level in terms of all of government. The challenge is great, but the response has been massive, and the Chinese government deserve huge credit for that response and for the transparency in which they have dealt with this.”
Feb. 25, 2020 – Without government approval, Dr. Helen Chu and University of Washington colleagues begin coronavirus testing and get an immediate positive Covid-19 result. By then, the virus has contributed to the deaths of two people and would kill twenty more in the Seattle region over the following days.
March 3, 2020–CDC announces it will distribute diagnostic kits to test 75,000 people by March 17. The CDC decided not to adopt a test approved by the World Health Organization and instead forged ahead with its own test.
March 9, 2020–HHS staffers often weren’t informed about coronavirus developments because they didn’t have adequate clearance. A source familiar with the meetings said he was told that the matters were classified “because it had to do with China.”
March 11, 2020–White House classifies all coronavirus deliberations and shifts HHS meetings to a secure area called a “Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facility,” or SCIF, usually reserved for intelligence and military operations during biowarfare or chemical attacks.
Mar. 11, 2020–US announces it has tested 5,000 people suspected of C-19 infection.
March 11, 2020–White House fires the National Security Council Pandemic Response Directorate. “We worked very well with that office,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the NIH Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Congress, “It would be nice if the office was still there.”
Mar. 12, 2020– CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield testifies to Congress that some early fatalities attributed to flu have been attributed to C-19 after post-mortem analysis. Dr. Redfield does not identify their dates or locations.
March 12, 2020–Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian says the United States that lacks transparency. “When did patient zero begin in the US? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be the US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! The US owes us an explanation!”
March 13, 2020–“If I get COVID, I’m going to China,” said Dr. Bruce Aylward, the WHO’s Assistant Director-General and head of the agency’s COVID-19 mission. “They know how to keep people alive. What I saw was a tremendous sense of responsibility, and of duty, to protect their families, their communities, and even the world, from this disease,” reflected Aylward. “I left with such a deep sense of admiration for the people of Wuhan and for Chinese society in general.”
March 18, 2020–Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vows to increase crushing sanctions on Iran though it is already preventing the country from purchasing vital medicine and ventilators. In Venezuela, meanwhile, U.S. sanctions have increased the cost of a coronavirus test to three times more than in non-sanctioned countries.
March 19, 2020–China declares victory over coronavirus, the U.S. achieved a milestone of its own: it boasted the sharpest increase in deaths and new infections per day of any country in the world.
March 19, 2020–The United States announces the sharpest daily increase in deaths and new infections of any country in the world.
March 19, 2020 –US doctors run out of N95 masks.
March 19, 2020 –A bipartisan group of 130 lawmakers write the Pentagon, demanding 98 new F-35 stealth fighters at a cost of $94 million each.
March 20, 2020–US State Department cables all officials: “NSC Top Lines: [PRC] Propaganda and Disinformation on the Wuhan Virus Pandemic. Chinese Communist Party officials in Wuhan and Beijing had a special responsibility to inform the Chinese people and the world of the threat, since they were the first to learn of it. Instead, the… government hid news of the virus from its own people for weeks, while suppressing information and punishing doctors and journalists who raised the alarm. The Party cared more about its reputation than its own people’s suffering. “These talking points are all anyone is really talking about right now,” one official said. “Everything is about China. We’re being told to try and get this messaging out in any way possible, including press conferences and television appearances.”
March 24, 2020–Three-quarters of China’s workforce was back on the job.
March 27, 2020–The U.S. military stops providing some of the more granular data about coronavirus infections within its ranks, citing concern that the information might be used by adversaries as the virus spreads.
March 27, 2020–China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to 52, above the 50 threshold signifies expansion.
March 30, 2020–The US Defense Department orders commanders at all of its installations worldwide to stop announcing publicly new coronavirus cases among their personnel, as more than 1,000 U.S. military-linked people had been sickened by the virus.
April 2, 2020–US has the most Covid-19 infections of any country in the world.
9SEP20 Update
Apparently, the China Government agrees with my appraisal. From a message group that I belong to…
Chinese propaganda getting good. Unlike West propaganda, Chinese includes evidence. exactly consistent with Uriah Heep's version. Thanks Jeff, but Kevin it may be a conspiracy that Heep told it in real time and official docu youtubed 8 months later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEo3qk-4yx8
Finally…
America has a very long history of using germ warfare to suppress it’s enemies. The idea that they would continue to do this is hardly radical. It is an accurate and natural progression of behavior.
To deny this is to be ignorant in the face of facts.
“The Chinese are DISGUSTING, souless frauds. I hope Coronavirus wipes out EVERY last one.”
- @melpol posted on Unz.com
I doesn’t matter what you think; what you believe. I doesn’t matter what CNN, FOX or MSNBC says.
All that matters is what China (and by extension, Russia) thinks.
China is convinced that this is a biological weapon.
They went to DEFCON ONE and mobilized their entire military, and locked the entire nation down. You do NOT do this with a flu, even if it is a bad flu. You do this ONLY if your entire nation is under attack.
This entire article supports the narrative that the Chinese government, the Chinese military are treating this outbreak as;
A WMD attack by a bioweapon,
As part of the on-going Trump Trade-War,
Designed to inflict damage on China to slow it’s growth,
Like the Chicken flu…
And the swine flu, propagated by drones, were.
So rather than waste your time trying to tell me that I am wrong, how about contacting Xi Peng and tell him yourself, instead. Tell the President of China that he is wrong. That it’s all just coiencidences. That China is over-reacting. You tell him yourself. Don’t waste your time telling me.
Mark my words, there WILL be repercussions over this.
Now, READ this… This is part two of this article….
Here’s some HK links in English. There shouldn’t be any question that drones were used to spread swine flu during the heat of the trump trade wars. That is all well documented.
Whether they worked in behalf of the USA government is speculation. Most articles claim that they are working independently as part of a “criminal element”.
As far as the design of the drones, most commercially available drones are manufactured in Guangzhou. So, getting some drones and having them modified professionally, locally within China isn’t too much of a stretch. I do that all the time myself for other “projects”.
What is the question that people should be asking is HOW the “criminal elements” got a hold of “swine flu”, and learned how to handle it, use it, and disseminate it. Because, boys and girls, the virus dies once it is removed from a live host…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
While it is the “fashion”, perhaps to have the latest in prepper and para-military gear. Much of it relies on batteries and other electronic means to operate. This includes reticle lighting, laser sighting, range finders, and night vision goggles. They will all be inoperable, and worthless junk, were World War III to actually occur.
For during World War III, the USA will be attacked, and an EMP burst can be expected.
The fantasy that America can attack either Russia, China or one of their aligned states without nuclear retaliation on American soil is a neocon fantasy. So listen up and take heed. If you play with matches, don’t go lighting them inside a kerosene soaked barn.
The neocon party is going to get America “bitch slapped” and it ain’t gonna be pretty.
Here we discuss this issue.
Introduction
The American propaganda engine is fully geared up to garner support for a major war. They (the oligarchy) wants war. And since President Donald Trump has pledged not to get involved in a new war, they want him out, and a Democrat elected to power.
This should not be news to anyone. Democrats pull Americans into wars. This follows the same pattern used with Kuwait, Syria, and Afghanistan. The American oligarchy NEEDS a war. Because they are doing an absolutely horrific job managing America domestically.
A war is expected to distract Americans away from domestic problems.
And they are telling everyone that there will NOT be any consequences…
They are serious, serious nations with centuries of warfare ON THEIR OWN SOIL. They are not going to tolerate America turning their nation into Syria, Libya, Yemen or any one of numerous American exploratory ventures “for democracy”.
This is especially true for modern China and modern Russia. Heck! Chinese cities look like they belong in a scene from the Jetsons for Pete’s sake!
Shanghai, China.
Now, maybe you have heard some of these propaganda talking points…
Hong Kong wants democracy. All they need is a little help from America.
Taiwan wants America to intervene and chase the mainland Chinese away.
Russia needs to be punished for the Ukraine.
China has 11 million poor Muslims in concentration camps. The USA must do something!
Poor Tibet needs to break away from China!
Russia is fostering war in Turkey.
China is prosecuting Christians. We must do something.
Etc, etc.
The Jetsons is a prime-time animated sitcom that was produced by Hanna-Barbera for Screen Gems (and later Worldvision Enterprises). The original incarnation of the series aired Sunday nights on ABC from 23 September 1962 to 3 March 1963. It was Hanna-Barbera’s space age counterpart to The Flintstones.
Yes, and you probably believe all this nonsense. Most Americans do. If you check the comment sections on these types of articles, it is along the lines of “bring it on“. Not realizing just what this term will actually imply…
For simplicity’s sake, let’s just say that America is planning to get involved in a major war with a major superpower in the next ten years or so.
Nothing destroys your day like global-wide thermonuclear war.
The American leadership is convinced that America will prevail, and that the American heartland will be unscathed. They are not even bothering to think it through.
I beg to differ.
One attack by America on any major superpower will be a disaster. It will result in full-scale nuclear response. This will not be a few nuclear weapons.
It will see ALL of the fuckers launched.
Nuclear war will be a nightmare for Americans. It will unleash domestic turmoil, and embolden the radical elements in society to wreck havoc on the remaining infrastructure.
And…
… and detonated in such a way that America will get a “double tap”, and a second and third one for good measure. This will be nuclear, EMP and neutron bombs all at once.
Russia and China don’t play.
America will be sent back to the stone ages, and the survivors will be fighting each other with blood filled blisters on their eyes, and foaming puss out of their anuses.
Nuclear war, radiation, starvation and social unrest will be the least of worries for the American survivors. Bio-warfare will be the real nightmare.
Americans will be too busy fighting each other for moldy turnip remains.
In this nightmare scenario…
… not at all unreasonable…
… no electronics will work.
Those nice cell phones, and GPS systems will be useless. All automobiles from old cars to new Teslas will not work. Wristwatches will not function, and even battery powered flashlights will be trash. EMP will have burned out everything and drained all batteries turning them into nice handfuls of slag.
Every product that uses electricity will be useless.
If you think that the millennial youth of today will panic, you haven’t seen anything yet. Wait until every single piece of electronics is fried beyond use. All social media is gone. Gone. Gone.
Panicked and crazed people will take on mob behaviors and they will not be easy to control.
Nuclear Weapons
The nuclear weapons fielded by both Russia and China are dangerous and nasty designs. Make no mistake about that. They are designed to kill in the most horrible way possible.
Chinese nuclear armed MIRV.
Were America try to conduct anything other than a remote proxy war on either of the nations, the consequences would be horrific. DO NOT THINK THAT they will not press the red button. It’s a rookie mistake.
EMP
During a hearing on October 12th, experts warned the U.S. House of Representatives that a single EMP bomb could kill as many as 90% of all Americans within a year.
It’s a bit of a stretch.
But it is a very dangerous weapon.
EMP stands for electromagnetic pulse, which is considered a short burst of electromagnetic radiation. This kind of burst can come from a variety of sources, including our own sun, but in this case we’re talking about a pulse from a nuclear detonation that occurs at an extremely high altitude.
When a nuclear explosion occurs in space above a target, three types of electromagnetic pulses follow: E1, E2, and E3.
An E1 pulse involves high-energy gamma rays colliding with air molecules nearly 20 miles above, then raining down electrons that get pulled in by Earth’s natural magnetic field.
An E2 pulse comes from high-energy neutrons that get fired in every direction.
A E3 pulse occurs due to the size of the nuclear fireball itself affecting the Earth’s magnetic field.
These pulses affect everything in line of sight of the nuclear blast. For example, a blast at 60 miles up can affect a 700-mile radius on Earth.
EMP bombs do not cause casualties directly.
EMP detonations will render all electronics on ALL systems inoperable.
The blast happens much too far away from people. Their power comes from interfering, disrupting, or damaging electronic equipment. That could mean power grids going down, cars and planes losing power, computer systems going berserk, and possibly even losing emergency backup power at facilities like hospitals. It’s sort of like the Y2K nightmare come to life.
The three different types of pulse—E1, E2, and E3—affect various types of electrical systems in different ways.
E1 affects local antennas, short cable runs, equipment inside buildings, integrated circuits, sensors, communication systems, protective systems, and computers;
E2 is similar to a lightning strike (so not as damaging since we know how to deal with it), and affects longer conductive lines, vertical antenna towers, and aircraft with trailing wire antennas;
E3 affects power lines and long communications lines like undersea and underground cables, which could wreak havoc on commercial power and landlines.
Overall, most of the damage would come from E1 and E3 pulses disrupting the technology we’ve come to rely on. Post-blast, generators may be able to still provide power, but for the most part, people would not have access to electricity. Thus, cars and communications would no longer work and every battery would be turned into a pile of slag..
SHTF
The SHTF in this scenario is truly horrific.
Large-Scale Attack Simulator (USA)
What would happen to the United States during a nuclear war?
Using unclassified documents on nuclear targeting and open data on the physics of modern weapons and fallout patterns, this simulation models what would happen if approximately 1,100 warheads (~7% of the world's arsenal) hit the United States. This is a realistic simulation based on hard science and known targeting strategies. That said, it should be treated as an approximation of a single scenario - a real attack could take a myriad of forms, some less destructive than this model and some far more. This particular simulation might be considered a medium-level strategic attack.
The attack lasts two hours and strikes hundreds of military, government and economic targets. It comes in two waves, a first wave that destroys government and military installations followed by a broader second wave against population centers.
One second in the model is equal to one real-time minute, thus the total runtime is 120 seconds. As the simulation runs, you can click any marker icon to expand the map and see more detail, including summary of damage per state and google streetview images of ground zero impact points.
Because it requires some heavy math, this simulation might not run to completion on older iOS devices. Beyond that it should function on any device, but it's easier to view on larger screens (pads or desktops).
Run Simulation
Nuclear detonations of 30MT magnitudes, grouped in a ringed array of three warheads detonated in clusters of three would take out all the cities. Satan II undersea nuclear detonations would create radioactive tidal waves that would wipe the coastal areas completely clean. High altitude EMP bursts would fry out all electronics, disable all communication (and internet) and wipe out everything beyond repair. Neutron bombs would eviscerate America’s global military bases and germ warfare would be seeded throughout the rural areas.
Nuclear detonations of 30MT magnitudes, grouped in a ringed array of three warheads detonated in clusters of three would take out all the cities.
No one will know what is going on.
Essentially, the entire United States Federal government will be reduced to glassy slag within five minutes of launch. The survivors would not know what to do and how to handle the situation.
And then would come the bio-weapons, and germ warfare…
How to deal
In this kind of nightmare scenario, how can you deal? Everything that we use is somehow connected to the cloud, the main electrical grid and batteries. Even solar power systems, wind power systems, and hydroelectric systems will be reduced to garbage.
I argue that this situation might really actually occur.
A scenario from Hell
Let’s imagine that America decides to place a unit of Marines on Taiwan soil…
According to the American mainstream media, it’s just for “advisory purposes” with the blessings of the Taiwanese government (supposedly). Just a few “advisors”. Not a big issue, says all the editorials out of Washington D.C.
The USA, in it’s arrogance, then orders China to “stand down”.
…
…
China AND Russia respond with a full-scale nuclear strike with hyper-SLBM MIRV’s followed up with their Satan II nuclear arsenal.
Nuclear attack on New York City is pretty much an established “given”.
In five minutes, from launch, every major coastal American city is a glowing fireball.
These are based on the latest hyper-glide technology after all. Something that the USA doesn't have. We have been too busy with diversity and sensitivity training, and funding Muslim outreach programs for the last two decades.
Within an hour, all second, third and fourth tier sites are rubble, and the largest remaining intact American city is Chatsworth, Georgia.
Map of the major nuclear strike targets within the United States.
American news is all white out.
No news. No electronics. No one knows what happened to all the 14 American carrier fleets. No one knows what happened to the rest of the world, or if America struck back.
You also don’t know that a nuclear detonation hit mono lake and evaporated the entire water supply for California. What water remaining is radioactive and all farmland, useless. Survivors streamed out away from the cities on foot like locusts. They devoured everything in their path and all local and state police are overwhelmed.
Within days, deaths from radiation start to occur. Starvation begins to raise its ugly face. Though, real starvation will not yet occur for another thirty days. It is obvious that there are some very hungry people about, and the urban poor, accustomed to food-stamps, are out searching for ways to fill their stomachs. They aren’t taking “no” for an answer.
After a nuclear detonation, there will be mass confusion and initially the police and military will arrive to restore order. That will start to follow the standard preparation procedure. Then, the second and third waves will hit…
But…
All of this is unknown to you.
You live in a small, isolated rural community.
You, living in a small community are an ardent prepper and have a “bug out” bag and the necessary foodstuffs to survive the trek to your “safe haven”.
Your situation
You don’t know any of this background.
All you know is that there was a series of “earthquakes”, and “sonic booms”, and now all the electricity is off. You do not know when it will return.
Initially, you worried about the food in the freezer spoiling, but as time goes on, there are some things that are truly disturbing to you.
…
Firstly there is nothing on the radio.
Nothing. Nothing at all. It’s all static. AM, FM, all up and down the bands. The police scanner is also just white noise.
Along with the earthquakes was a terrible wind storm, and the trees on the tops of some of the distant hills seem to be toppled over. The air is filled with fine dust and it is settling everywhere. No computer. No internet. No phone. No GPS. No electricity.
No water. No natural gas.
Even the compass doesn’t work.
The street lights don’t work.
Nor does the construction roadblock with the big flashing yellow light. Even it stopped flashing.
Nothing works. No electricity. Not even the flashing yellow construction lamps.
You look out your window and all seems normal, if a bit quiet.
The sky, however has a kind of yellow / greenish tinge to it.
You cannot find your cats, and your dog is acting peculiarly.
After a half day of this, you notice that some people are out and about and waiting to get some word from the government. A few people started to walk towards the center of town and started to mingle with others. Rumors were flying, but most revolved around some kind of earthquake that took out the energy grid.
There is an odd, bunt-sickly smell in the air, it feels “sticky”, and all the neighborhood dogs are terribly agitated.
No no one can explain all the dust in the air.
Your brain… your guts… your very being screams! Your partner, on the other hand is telling you that you have an active imagination and not to worry. That things will settle down and be all right in a few hours.
…
Never the less, just to be on the safe side, you pull out your gear by candle light.
You go to your “bug out” bag. You perform an inventory check. Your cell phone doesn’t work. Nor does your watch. Your small aluminum flashlight will not work either. You check your firearm, holster and kit.
You notice that you have not prepared a dust-mask or filter kit. So you take a bandana off the clothes line outside, brush the dust off and tie it around your face stagecoach-robber style.
The laser sight on the pistol will not work, nor will the lighted reticle on your rifle.
The TA31RCO is an Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight (ACOG) designed for the USMC’s M16A4 weapon system (20” barrel). It incorporates dual illumination technology using a combination of fiber optics and self-luminous tritium.
But, that doesn’t matter. You had prepared for this. You go to your motorcycle and it will not start. EMP, you figured. After all no electronics work at all. You don’t know the news, but you have a very, very bad feeling.
In fact, this feeling is the worst thing about it all. It is like you ate a tube of lard, and you have this horrible feeling inside, and your brain and emotions are all screaming dark thoughts.
…
No internet. No radio. No news, and at night the sky is glowing red in the distance. Not only to the East, but in the South, and the North-East as well. Those “earthquakes” that seemed to go on and on yesterday were certainly ominous, and your neighbors are acting really strangely. The air is terribly dusty and gritty and a thin layer of dust covers everything.
The dust seems to come in big brown clouds that settle down on everything.
You wipe the dust off the handle to the garage and pull out the bicycle from the tarp in the back of the garage. You pump the tires full of air, and wheel it out.
You feel a little queasy. Your stomach feels “sour”.
So you hop on your bicycle and try to follow your “bug out” route.
Cars are stopped in the middle of the road. Not even pulled over to the side. This includes a big 16 wheeler truck and a Greyhound bus.
It’s been two days since the “earthquakes” began and things are really, really odd.
Your beard is starting to shed hair.
You notice that the local 7-11 is all empty. Nothing are on the shelves. Nothing.
You notice that people are going up and down the streets pushing grocery carts full of food and supplies, and a number of windows are broken in the local hardware store’s door. No body takes notice of you, but you don’t stick around.
You hoped to use Google-maps to chart your course, but without internet it is pretty much useless. Lucky for you that you had an old 1980’s highway map book in the garage that you stashed in your “go bag”.
You try to get out of the area as fast as you can…
Key Points
If things go full-on SHTF, nothing will work and no one will know anything. It might appear to be a natural disaster.
The unprepared will try to prepare. It will be too late.
Everything will be dangerous. From touching the dust on the door-knobs, to the irrational woman down the street. Nothing will be safe.
The aggressive will take advantage of the situation within short order and you will only have a few precious days before things get out of control.
Police, government and social services will not work, be functional, or be of assistance.
While, in general, most people in your community will be kind and helpful folk, the world will be “turned on it’s head”. Unless a strong positive leader takes control, they will collapse into a frightened mob. As such, the worst individuals in society would create all sorts of problems and confusion.
Avoid crowds.
Do not stream into any city for any reason. You do not know what is going on there, but it cannot be good. When in doubt, it is better to starve alone in the middle of the woods then be crowded into a pen with angry, frightened strangers.
Americans will be very, very irate. We are accustomed to electricity, electronic media, electronic social media and communication. The silence and lack of news would be terrifying, and people will react to it.
If it is any sort of nuclear war, all electronics will be fried and will not work.
All dust is dangerous and you need to assume that it is radioactive.
Conclusion
Finally, everything in America is tied electronically to electrical systems in some form. From simple optical systems, to vehicles, and water hydration systems. The only communities that are divorced from these addictions are the Amish and Mennonite communities. Take a good hard look at your preparations and isolate those which rely on electricity. Consider them useless during a nuclear bug-out exchange.
Remember that any war with Asia will be against a modern-day Genghis Khan with nuclear weapons. You don’t even toy around with that idea.
If you enjoyed this post, you can find others of a similar nature on my SHTF index. Here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
This is part of my SHTF – Practical skills posts. Most of what I post (in this section) are lost skills; skills that Americans have forgotten though the centuries of disuse. So, now, as the fourth turning is rapidly approaching, these skills need to be dusted off and updated to fit the modern American lifestyle. Here we discuss the practical methods of “tar and feathering” corrupt officials, progressive Marxists, aggressive social justice warriors, Wall street bankers and members of the elite oligarchy.
This is not written for historical interest, or in some kind of jest.
These are serious issues and should not be taken trivially. We can only hope that things do not ever get to the point where humans are seriously contemplating these kinds of actions. Let’s hope and pray that we all never have to deal with these matters.
We, as Americans have been (for the most part) isolated from them. America has lived a life of relative calmness and tranquility for the vast bulk of population. We erroneously believe that it will always stay that way and never change.
At worst, we somehow imagine climbing up on a hilltop near our home and shooting police as they approach our “stomping grounds”. Those thoughts are all fantasies. We are not talking about those childish dreams. We are talking about real issues that mean death and destruction. We imagine something out of a television series, or a movie. We cannot imagine what really happens during periods of societal reset.
We’ve been isolated and insulated from that harshness.
Meanwhile the rest of the world confronts these kinds of issues with far greater frequency than we are aware of…
Tar and feathering in contemporaneous Africa. This was in 2019.
I argue that the United States is going to go through a barbaric time, and it will be on par with the rest of the world. This reality is something that Americans have no concept of. We just cannot imagine it.
It’s a horror.
So buckle up and get ready. If you find yourself trapped within an area of conflict, such as Virginia, then be advised. Wars do not play by the Geneva Conventions, or Papal Decree. They are nasty, nasty affairs.
There are events where you would have a high 70% probability of one member of your family being killed or maimed in the process. War is very ugly. Loved ones, family die.
FILE – In this Friday, Nov. 18, 1994 file photo, seven year old Nermin Divovic lies mortally wounded in a pool of blood as unidentified U.S and British U.N. firefighters arrive to assist after he was shot in the head in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. More than 20 years after Bosnia’s war, Radovan Karadzic will learn his fate on Thursday when U.N. judges deliver verdicts in his genocide and war crimes trial. (AP Photo/Enric Marti, File)
Cliff Notes
Note, if the worst does indeed come to past, keep these points in mind…
You can never win a Defensive war. Do not “fortify” your territory to try to defend it.
You fight on the turf and territory of the enemy, on your terms.
You always spend most of your resources going after the enemy leadership, their confederate instigators and enablers. You hunt them out, you target their friends and family. You flush them out of hiding, you capture them and you apply horrors to them Genghis Khan style.
To be fully effective in war, you need to create horror. Real wars are not tea and biscuits. It’s an ugly, ugly business where objectives must be realized with finality and horror.
Introduction
At a Dec. 3 2019 meeting of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, U.S. Marine Corps Reservist Maj. Ben Joseph Woods addressed the board and admonished Commonwealth of Virginia lawmakers for their plans to pass sweeping gun laws after they gained the majority in 2020.
The Democrats in the Virginia House are poised to impose controversial, and likely unconstitutional, gun laws in that state, including a program to register firearms. Gun registration has historically been the first step in confiscation by extremis regimes worldwide. It also is a prelude to wide scale genocide.
As Maj. Woods addressed the meeting, he spoke of his time in the military and federal law enforcement and what he feared politicians were doing to the state:
“I’m not going to address the bills themselves. What I would like to address is the fact that at this point, so many people believe that these are unconstitutional or draconian that as of last night, 30 counties in this state which have voted themselves…to be Second Amendment sanctuary counties.
The ugly truth of our situation is that is just scratching the surface of what is happening…I work plainclothes law enforcement…I walk around without a uniform, people don’t see my badge, people don’t see my gun, and I can tell you:
People are angry.
And I am frightened to the point that I am looking at moving my wife and child…out of this state if these bills pass. The reason is because my fellow law enforcement officers…
Tell me that they would not enforce these bills regardless of whether they believe in them ideologically because they believe that there are so many people angry in gun shops, gun shows, at bars, we have heard it now, people talking about tar and feathering politicians in a less than joking manner…
That is a terrifying prospect and I have never seen people willing to speak about something like that publicly…As a law enforcement officer, I empathize with concerns people have over gun violence.”
...
“The legal precedent we would set by allowing the legislature to selectively ignore enumerated rights at will is the same mindset that 150 years ago let this country into a civil war.”
The progressive Marxists don’t even bother trying to follow the Constitution. They no longer try, nor do they even bother to pretend. They know, after decades of getting away with crimes, that they can continue to do so without consequence. Thus, they are going to pass unconstitutional laws and expect everyone to obey them. No matter what.
They write the laws and you obey. This is classic tyranny.
This is not acceptable to the vast majority of law-abiding citizens in the state of Virginia. And as such, they are openly considering invoking the anti-tyranny measures inherent in the second amendment to the Bill of Rights.
So, with the understanding that large numbers of extremely pissed-off conservatives are openly discussing [1] capturing, [2] torturing, [3] tar and feathering, and [4] lynching the politicians in Virginia, it might be a good time to discuss the practical fundamentals of a punishment method known as “tar and feathering”.
Discussion of the “ugly side” of things.
This is a truly distasteful post.
It discusses torture as a form of punishment. This is Genghis Khan type of stuff, and not for the uninitiated. For the record… I do not like writing about this.
No Such Thing as Limited War
Shall we go one step further? We're now watching the smoke rising over what amounts to a small-scale battlefield between the Virginia National Guard and the sheriffs and deputies of one or more counties along with however many gun rights advocates stream in from adjacent states to augment the flash mob.
Unlike the slaughter of 1861, this will be broadcast live and in living color.
Of course, the National Guard has tanks and most sheriffs don't. Odds are, they'll win, but only by slaughtering large numbers of Trump voters - and yes, obviously, it will be Trump voters lying dead at the hands of, ultimately, Mr. Trump's political enemies.
What would the President do?
Well, what could and should the President do? Legally, he can nationalize the National Guard and order them to stand down, but by that time the Guard officers who might have obeyed his orders to stand down would have long since resigned.
He could order in the regular army.
Now we have a battle between two trained, equipped armies - yes, literally, that is a Civil War by definition, assuming the regular army was willing to obey such an order and fire on their colleagues.
Would other governors stand idly by?
Dare we imagine what Congress would do? Might there be a 25th Amendmentcoup, as the media and the bureaucracy have been agitating for since before Mr. Trump took office? How would the half of the country that voted for Mr. Trump respond to that? Don't forget that Trump would either be in the midst of running for re-election, or recently re-elected to office.
Or, he could just suck it up and let the Democrat National Guard destroy "his" people and the Constitution by force. This, too, has happened before. Paul Hindenburg, while President of Germany, let Nazi stormtroopers effectively take control of the country and suppress opposing voters and politicians until, in short order, Germany was a Nazi one-party state.
Does this sort of passive compliance seem characteristic of what we've seen of Donald J. Trump thus far? Let's just say it doesn't seem yuuuuugely likely that he'd let his supporters be gunned down without doing something about it.
Beyond this point, there are far too many unknowns to make any sort of solid predictions. Wars never go the way people who start them intend, and the end result is almost always something nobody predicted and few wanted at the beginning.
Novelists could write any number of vaguely plausible scenarios, and we'll leave that job to them.
- Virginia's Rampup to Civil War
I argue that it’s going to get ugly. Very, very ugly. It will be a horror of unimaginable magnitude, and most people will have a difficult time coming to terms with it.
You all shouldn’t.
Instead, you should read a history book or two. This is what always happens. It’s never pretty.
The Siege Of Sarajevo. One can well imagine a similar situation in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Framington, and Tampa.
History
Tarring and feathering is a form of punishment which was developed in 12th century England. It spread across feudal Europe, and was also practiced in many European colonies, once Europeans began exploring and colonizing the globe. In this punishment, the victim was stripped, painted with hot tar, and then covered in feathers which stuck to the tar.
They were then released running about and flailing their arms in pain. They would look like some kind of demented crazed bird, running around all over the streets in circles.
The primarily goal of this was physical intimidation and humiliation, with people being tarred and feathered in an attempt to run them out of town. The term “tarred with the same brush” in reference to guilt by association appears to be derived from this practice.
This practice appears to have been practiced primarily among mobs and vigilantes, rather than being an officially sanctioned form of punishment.
Depending on the temperature of the tar and the attitude of the crowd, it could sometimes become quite violent and rather dangerous. Hot tar could cause significant burns, and removing the tar would pull out hair and pieces of skin, potentially putting the victim at risk of infection. Theoretically, covering the skin in tar would also prevent it from breathing, potentially causing death.
However, the goal of tarring and feathering was humiliation, not death, and not many deaths as a result of this practice have been recorded.
More commonly, people were scarred for life by the hot tar and resulting injuries from removal, marking them to other members of the community as victims.
People also died as a result of lynchings, in which they were tarred and feathered, marched around town, and then hung.
Tar and feathering is often used as humiliation prior to being lynched in the town square.
Several variations on tarring and feathering have been recorded. In the British military, for example, people once practiced pitchcapping, in which a soldier’s head would be covered with hot tar.
Removing the tar involved being willing to lose much of your hair and scalp along with the tar, leaving ugly scars. Sometimes the bodies of people who had been hung or beheaded were also tarred and feathered, to add humiliation, and to hold the bodies together when they were hung on the gibbet as a warning for other citizens.
Many people associate tarring and feathering with the American West, where the practice endured until a surprisingly late date, with recorded instances dating to the 1900s.
In fact, people were tarred and feathered recently enough for there to be photographic examples of tarring and feathering, in which streaks of tar and feathers can be clearly seen, suggesting that the practice involved less of a careful painting of the body, and more of a streaking with lines of hot tar.
Fundamentals
The goal of tarring and feathering was humiliation, not death, and not many deaths as a result of this practice have been recorded. More commonly, people were scarred for life by the hot tar and resulting injuries from removal, marking them to other members of the community as victims.
To conduct a “tar and feathering” punishment, the two (primary) ingredients are [1] Tar and [2] feathers. These used to be quite common back in the day, as all bedding, pillows and insulation used feathers. Today, feathers are relatively difficult to obtain and you need to procure them in advance. Additionally, you need to produce a container, or caldron to cook the tar to boiling, and a heat source.
You need a rack or device to securely bind the victim to. Do not expect to hold him / her steady while applying the tar. They will be very difficult to manage.
You need to strip, and bind the victim on a metal or wooden frame.
Substitutes
You can substitute other materials in the event that you are unable to produce tar or feathers. For instance, maple syrup, glue, water proof sealants for mobile homes, coal-tar epoxy and Lacquer might be considered suitable materials. Just make sure that the tar substitute is well heated to a temperature that would generate painful first-degree burns.
Tar
Ordinary roofing tar can be procured at any hardware store and DIY chain. Make sure that you follow the heating instructions and make sure that you do not detonate the tar over a fire.
Expert tip; Watch for the flash point.
Typically, you can pour the tar into a large 55 gallon drum that is sitting over an open fire. Then, using ladles, you can pour the tar over the victim.
Henry brand roofing tar.
Other techniques with the tar include simply heating the metal bucket that the tar comes in over a fire, or a propane stove.
Application
When applying the tar, you can either pour it over the victim or brush it on. Make sure that the victim is nude. They must be fully nude for a proper tar and feathering. Also, they must be bound securely. You can use handcuffs or wire ties. Just make sure that they are securely bound. A well welded frame with attachment points for the wore ties works best.
The idea is to fully cover the victim from head to toe with hot scalding tar. The victim must be fully bound for this to happen, and you must be very thorough in the application. No area of skin can be ignored.
Then you can apply the “feathers”.
Tar and feathers and being rode out of town on a rail.
Feathers
Feathers are rather difficult to come by in the quantities necessary for a decent tar and feathering. Sources of feathers are down coats and jackets, and bedding. You can also go to poultry farms such as chicken and geese and collect the dander and feathers there.
If gathering feathers are problematic, you can certainly use commonly available substitutes. Here are some suggestions…
Used cat litter.
Styrofoam peanuts.
Dryer lint (you need to collect enough of it).
Broken glass bottle fragments.
Cut hair (from a barbershop).
Alternatives
Let’s see what the Marxists do when they take power…
Necklacing is a preferred method of torture and execution under the Marxists in South Africa.
In South Africa, the Marxists implement a similar kind of punishment. They only problem is that the victim tends to die, instead of being maimed for life. It’s known as “necklacing” and the survivors are scarred for life. It’s really nasty.
In South Africa, the Marxists implement a similar kind of punishment. They only problem is that the victim tends to die, instead of being maimed for life. It’s known as “necklacing” and the survivors are scarred for life. It’s really nasty.
They would take a tire and put it around the neck of a victim. Then they would chain it in place, place a highly flammable liquid in the tire well, and set it on fire. It’s a horrible way to die.
Necklacing was the primary form of torture under Nelson Mandela in South Africa.
It’s more work, but far easier to procure and implement.
It’s coming. That’s for certain.
Here’s a quote from one of my “must see” blogs called Busted Knuckles. He’s a word-smith that can say things far better than I can. Listen up!
Who the hell knows what is going on for sure?
Being the Realist I am, Rose scented Unicorn farts and Magic Rainbows don’t enter my world view.
Then we have Virginia.
Every truly patriotic American is watching that like a hawk.
The very real possibility of another Shot Heard Around The World is but one stupid mistake away from becoming a reality.
A lot of people have decisions to make.
On both sides of that whole scenario.
Everyone has their own personal convictions and I most certainly have mine.
I am hoping against hope that we have turned a corner at this point in time.
We as in the kind of people who think like I do.
There are a lot more of us than the media would lead you to believe.
A vast majority as a matter of fact.
It’s time we started acting like one.
Push back.
Come together as a united front against these Socialists.
Spicy Time is coming, get ready for it, the party is about to start.
Conclusion
The images are horrible, right?
You want to avoid all this, right?
You want to live a calm and peaceful life where your families can live in peace and harmony… right?
This horror is what happens when bad, evil and dangerous people are permitted to come to power, change the world around them, subvert the law, and rule over others. Once they gain control of your weapons of defense, it’s all over.
Climb into the boxcars.
Game over!
Game over, man. Game Over!
Human nature is predictable.
Those progressive Marxists believe in a stable life where they are always in control and that the systems that they have put in place can overwhelm the most basic of human emotions. They believe that through incremental steps, over a long time, their (long desired) changes to the American State and Federal Constitutions would be accepted without incident.
They believe that change is gradual. Conservatives believe that change in an on/off switch from acceptable to unacceptable.
Can you blame them? It’s been this way for at least 100 years if not longer.
But, they are wrong.
If the National Guard gets involved, it is not merely imaginable but inevitable that a televised bloodbath would ensue.
What will happen when National Guard units encounter the county sheriff in uniform, backed up by a throng of deputized, armed citizens, many of whom are former military who took a solemn oath to defend the Constitution with their lives, their liberty, and their sacred honor? What would happen when they start breaking down doors and confiscating guns?
It is inconceivable that the defenders of the Second Amendment would peacefully back down - that's the whole point of the Second Amendment, after all - and thus far, Democratic rhetoric doesn't seem to leave much room for backing down either.
- Virginia's Rampup to Civil War
Rage, anger, disgust, fury and horror are real emotions that no amount of Prozac can suppress. It’s been pent up for decades, and it’s gonna blow.
In the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, conflict between the three main ethnic groups, the Serbs, Croats, and Muslims, resulted in genocide committed by the Serbs against the Muslims in Bosnia. Bosnia is one of several small countries that emerged from the break-up of Yugoslavia, a multicultural country created after World War I by the victorious Western Allies. Yugoslavia was composed of ethnic and religious groups that had been historical rivals, even bitter enemies, including the Serbs (Orthodox Christians), Croats (Catholics) and ethnic Albanians (Muslims).
The objects of this anger should consider themselves lucky to be killed off humanely. A shot to the head, a lynching, burning down a union hall with the radicalized members all trapped inside…
Quick, easy death.
More often than not, however, it looks like extreme forms of torture are going to be the norm. It’s gonna be truly horrific. And if you are on the side “balancing the equation” back to Constitutional law as opposed to progressive Marxism, you had best know how to torture properly.
Let’s pray that the Marxists stand down and give up their assault on America. Because “Sunset” is coming and it’s going to be spectacular in it’s ferocity.
How do we know?
Read your history.
An archaeological team in France has unearthed a Gallo-Roman necropolis in Saintes, France, in which the remains of a group of adults and a child were found with iron shackles around their wrists, ankles, and/or necks. Archaeologists are trying to unravel the story of these individuals’ lives, their origin, and the circumstances of their death.
I so pray that we all can avoid this fate.
Final comment
Where are all those activist judges? You know the ones that are putting everything that President Trump does on hold. Why aren’t they issuing injunctions on these blatant anti-Constitutional actions?
Maybe its’ because the country is too far gone to matter.
I have other posts on this subject matter. You can check out my SHTF index here…
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
This is an interesting interview with Andrei Martyanov. He is a Russian military expert who emigrated to the United States. In it he argues that the stranglehold of American propaganda by the mainstream media has created a dangerous situation – one in which the “fake news” is believed by the American leadership.
ANDREI MARTYANOVisanexpertonRussianmilitaryandnavalissues. HewasborninBaku, USSRin 1963. HegraduatedfromtheKirovNavalRedBannerAcademyandservedasanofficerontheshipsandstaffpositionofSovietCoastGuardthrough 1990. HetookpartintheeventsintheCaucasuswhichledtothecollapseoftheSovietUnion.
- Losing Military Supremacy: The Myopia of American Strategic Planning
He explains that the American leadership, knowing full well that the media is a propaganda tool, actually believes much of the propaganda that they create. This is true on all levels.
The American leadership actually believes this “news”. Not only the “fake news” from CNN, MSNBC an WaPo but also from the conservative and alternative “Right wing” media.
He argues that this is extraordinarily dangerous.
Andrei Martyanov.
This belief in American propaganda is dangerous because it creates a situation where foolish men in leadership positions can make some very serious mistakes.
The majority of travelers I have met see foreign lands entirely through the filter glasses of their home front. Their worldview is shaped by government schools, Hollywood actors, television programming, mainstream pressing, and the resulting illusion of “us being the good guys.” When they travel, they carry a lifetime supply of brainwash shampoo with them. A backpack full of sheep’s wool over their eyes. And a dumbed-down uniform of sweatshop t-shirts, shorts and sandals that sores the eye of the beholder.
-Doug Casey, International Man
Mistakes, Leadership mistakes, that could absolutely devastate the United States. The leadership of a healthy and functioning nation needs good and accurate intelligence. It cannot rely own it’s own propaganda to base decisions upon.
History is full of stories of the destruction of cities, nations and empires that fell due to the bad Intel, and decisions by the top leadership. Read about the destruction of Hungary by Genghis Khan, if you don't believe me.
Or, consider the Marketing strategy of Gillette with their "Men are inherently foul pigs" campaign (to sell razors).
Or, consider Hollywood and their bevy of all-female re-writes of famous movies. Movies that no one will watch. Like "Oceans 8".
Or, consider what happened to NFL football, when the team owners permitted the players to protest against America.
Now, consider what might happen to America if it believes the narrative that both Russia and China are backwards, third-world shit holes and are no match for the United States military...
Ah. Andrei . You do not need to believe him. You just need to consider that he has some good ideas and makes some valid points.
Now, I find that he has some good points, especially his appraisal on the ignorance of the Washington “insider” class. His ideas are able to explain much of the strange decision processes that originate out of Washington DC today.
Andrei wrote…
Time after time the American military has failed to match lofty declarations about its superiority, producing instead a mediocre record of military accomplishments.
Starting from the Korean War the United States hasn’t won a single war against a technologically inferior, but mentally tough enemy.
Vietnam
Syria
Lybia
Somalia
Yemen
Lebanon
Iraq
The technological dimension of American “strategy” has completely overshadowed any concern with the social, cultural, operational and even tactical requirements of military (and political) conflict.
With a new Cold War with Russia emerging, the United States enters a new period of geopolitical turbulence completely unprepared in any meaningful way—intellectually...
... economically,
... militarily...
...or culturally
... to face a reality which was hidden for the last 70+ years behind the curtain of never-ending Chalabi moments...
... and a strategic delusion concerning Russia, whose history the US viewed through a Solzhenitsified caricature kept alive by a powerful neocon lobby, which even today dominates US policy makers’ minds.
The book Losing Military Supremacy: The Myopia of American Strategic Planning explores the dramatic difference between the Russian and US approach to warfare, which manifests itself across the whole spectrum of activities from art and the economy, to the respective national cultures;
Losing Military Supremacy: The Myopia of American Strategic Planning illustrates the fact that Russian economic, military and cultural realities and power are no longer what American “elites” think they are by addressing Russia’s new and elevated capacities in the areas of traditional warfare as well as cyberwarfare and space;
Losing Military Supremacy: The Myopia of American Strategic Planning studies in depth several ways in which the US can simply stumble into conflict with Russia and what must be done to avoid it.
Martyanov’s former Soviet military background enables deep insight into the fundamental issues of warfare and military power as a function of national power—assessed correctly, not through the lens of Wall Street “economic” indices and a FIRE economy, but through the numbers of enclosed technological cycles and culture, much of which has been shaped in Russia by continental warfare and which is practically absent in the US.
-Amazon
Indeed, a point that I have “hammered” over and over again, is the idea that the most dangerous propaganda is the news reports that we WANT to believe.
Propaganda works best when we WANT to believe the lies told to us.
Such as 11 million Uighur Muslims are in reeducation concentration camps in Xinjiang China. That America must "do something" to free the poor Muslim innocents! All, yes ALL of conservative news is full of these stories and the figure of 11 million is bantered about without question.
Except...
No one can point out where these concentration camps are.
You cannot find them on Google Earth. And you should. After all, the population of New York City is 6 million people. So a concentration camp housing 11 million people would be over twice the size of New York city. It would be pretty fucking big. Bigger than the largest city in America, and then some.
You would be able to see it from the Moon.
If there were 11 concentration camps in Xinjiang, China, (each one million people in size) then you would be able to easily locate all eleven Atlanta, Georgia sized complexes on Google Earth. Where are all these concentration camps?
Simple math.
Simple thought process.
... Propaganda. Don't fall for it.
Anyways, he makes a great point.
Our American leadership has taken to actually believing what is being repeated day in and day out by the lying American mainstream press. And this is very dangerous.
Some minor Russian Naval ships.
You might not like his opinions, but please just view his point of view as something that you will not hear from the mainstream, or alt-conservative news. As such it is a valuable alternative view point.
One that should be taken seriously.
The interview.
Yvonne Lorenzo interviews Andrei Martyanov …
Yvonne Lorenzo: I’d like to discuss the central thesis of your first book, Losing Military Supremacy. Aside from a civil war in the late 1800s, the United States has never experienced the effects of a devastating war fought on its own soil by foreign nation and believes it is invulnerable and won’t be attacked. To the contrary, Russians to this day know the price of war. If you would be so kind to summarize, if possible, the key points you wished to make known about Russia.
"America believes that it is invulnerable and won’t ever be attacked."
The Severodvinsk, the first of Russia’s multirole Yasen K-560 submarines, by the pier of the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk Region.
The difference is that I get more in depth into the tactical, operational and technological issues—to a degree that is possible in what amounts to a geopolitical study—to demonstrate and drive my point home…
… that the current American political elites are utterly delusional on the nature of modern warfare…
Crew of the Alexander Nevsky nuclear submarine topside at a welcome ceremony for the Navy’s new Borei-class project 955 vessel at Kamchatka’s Vilyuchinsk base.
… especially in a peer-to-peer scenario of which the United States hasn’tfaced since WW II.
My point is very simple…
…the ignorance of the American ruling class of modern warfare is such that it has become a clear and present danger for the world…
John Bolton neocon in the Trump administration.
… since, while improbable at this stage, it is totally plausible to see at some point of time someone in the US political top losing it…
…and unleashing a confrontation with Russia, or China…
…being fully convinced, mostly by Hollywood or [Tom] Clancy-esque pseudo military fiction…
…that the United States and NATO can attack Russia and survive.
That, America could attack Russia or China and it would remain unscathed and devastate the rest of the world and America would not suffer at all.
That’s the danger…
…especially in a country whose elites completely lost their mind and are delusional…
Rulership class in America are bat-shit crazy.
…or reside in what I define as a Perpetual Chalabi Moment.
American leadership, on both sides of the political spectrum, plus the oligarchy that controls them are completely delusional and out of touch with the American citizens, the rest of the world, and the comparative technological strengths of America.
The arms race.
The US did lose the arms race.
The arms race was not lost in 2018 or even 2015, however; it was lost much earlier and it was mostly due to the US media-propaganda machine…
… which kept it secret from the US public.
It still continues to do so but it is increasingly difficult to keep it under wraps when information, including imagery of what Russia does in this field becomes increasingly available.
Ships from Russia’s Caspian Flotilla launching Kalibr-NK cruise missiles against Daesh targets in Syria.
But that is just part of the issue: I write about predictors—the real economy, scientific development, education, etc.—for war’s outcomes [are] non-stop.
Other people have written about these predictors. Not once do they agree with the narrative coming out of the American mainstream media.
In the end, when I state that the US elites have no clue about the size and complexity of Russia’s economy, it is one thing…
…but when I state that they basically have no clue about their own economy, not Wall Street’s cooking of books, I can rely on some serious American professionals in the field.
President Trump, right, talks with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, on July 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
The report was prepared by an Inter-agency Task Force in September 2018 and reads as an epitaph to the US machine-building complex…
… and the issue is not just massive de-industrialization…
America has still not recovered from the de-industrialization of the last forty years. It is not going to recover in only one or two years.
… or the lack of a labor force which can fill in for departing old-timers…
…with many in the new generation of Americans being mostly interested in pot and drugs or in avoiding any productive labor…
…nor money alone can solve the problem of America’s declining military strength, which was always overstated to start with.
It is the culture, an institutional one, which is responsible for this decline.
Russia presents new MiG-35 fighter jet to the public.
The decline of American culture
The United States is very good at building extremely expensive and dubiously effective (against a competent enemy) power projection forces, which by definition are offensive and aggressive.
Once one gets into the issues of actual defense, the picture changes dramatically for the United States.
It is enough to mention the whole non-stop hysteria about Turkey buying and activating the S-400 complex, with India already having a 5 billion dollar contract signed with Russia, and many Arab states lining up for Russian-made air and anti-missile systems, not to mention combat aircraft, such as a contact for SU-35s between Egypt and Russia signed, following next.
S-400 complex launching system.
All of it creates an extremely emotional reaction in the United States, but the fact that Russian military technology is in some key defense fields better than anything out there was never in doubt.
S-400 complex launching system with potential targets that it is designed to strike.
It is enough to recall Vietnam, but in the time of radio and printed media it was easier to control narratives.
The American media blitz on this subject is constant and unyielding.
Today it is extremely difficult.
Russia always built weapons to effectively kill the enemy—such is Russia’s experience with warfare, much of which being invasions of foreign powers.
The United States has zero historic experience with defending the US proper against powerful and brutal enemies.
While the Revolutionary war had some moments of brutality, as did the American civil war, neither wars EVER approached the level of absolute depraved scorched earth devastation that Russia, Europe, and China have experienced.
It is something that America has NEVER experienced.
Mexico never invaded. Canada never invaded. Russia never invaded. Cuba never invaded. Bermuda never invaded.
It is a cultural difference, a profound one and it manifests itself across the whole spectrum of activities, not just the respective military-industrial complexes.
In other words, Russians MUST build top of the line weaponry, because the safety of Russia depends on it.
Dr. Matthew Alford of the University of Bath, author of National Security Cinema: The Shocking New Evidence of Government Control in Hollywood, told MintPress that the new Amazon product is a “disgrace of a series,” unfairly demonizing a nation at a time when the United States has its boot on the throat of Venezuelan society.
Russian SU-30SM.
“The new Jack Ryan series comes in the context of four movies stretching back decades that have all had Department of Defense and/or CIA support at the scriptwriting phrase,” he noted, labeling Jack Ryan as a classic “national security entertainment product”.
The character of Jack Ryan first appeared in Cold War era Clancy stories such as The Hunt for Red October and The Cardinal of the Kremlin, where the heroic Ryan battles the dark forces of the Soviet Union.
The series was put on hiatus but has recently returned, bringing with it much of the same Cold War mentality and rhetoric.
Ryan has been previously played on screen by Hollywood stars such as Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck.
Alford’s book, which he co-wrote with Tom Secker, describes the enormous influence that the national security state has on popular culture.
Based on Freedom of Information requested documents, the two calculated that between 2004 and 2016, the Department of Defense was directly involved in the production of 977 Hollywood movies or television shows, many of which were carefully scripted, edited and curated by government agents in order to present a certain viewpoint of the world to the public.
For example, the writers of Homeland were revealed to have private meetings with ex-CIA officials before each season.
From big budget movies like Ironman and Transformers to surprisingly banal television productions like The Biggest Loser, Mythbusters or American Idol, virtually every movie or television show featuring the military or intelligence figures has been edited, scripted or funded by the Department of Defense in order to cast the government in the best possible light.
Those that do not comply with the Department of Defense’s requests are not given privileged access to, or use of, military resources and may be attacked by the state as being unpatriotic or deceptive.
The constant flow of pro-security state messages has an effect on the public.
Researchers found that respondents who were shown torture scenes from the television series 24 were more likely to subsequently support the government’s policies of torture in sites like Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib.
This held even for liberal college students.
Andrei Martyanov: The first person of repute who challenged Tom Clancy’s fantasies was professor Roger Thompson in his seminal 2006 book Lessons Not Learned, in which he correctly asked a question how an insurance agent who never served a day in uniform and had undergraduate degree in English can write competently on any issue related to modern combat and technology.
In Clancy’s case it was clear that he was promoted, he openly writes about it in his book, by former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman, for purely propaganda reasons.
Secretary of the Navy John Lehman swearing in Grace Harper.
Most of what Clancy wrote was cringe-worthy pop-literature, which could be described as incompetent military-intelligence porn.
Ouch!
Clancy never made it a secret that his Jack Ryan character was written from…Tom Clancy himself. A good testimony about late Clancy himself.
Why Jack Ryan was written as a spy as opposed to as insurance agent remains a complete mystery to me, but, I guess, whatever sells books for the late Tom Clancy.
These digs… oh, boy!
In Soviet/Russian military environment Clancy’s “literature” overwhelmingly was treated with ironic smile at best, and with Homeric laughter at worst.
Yup. How the rest of the world feels about this kind of literature, and movies.
But that pretty much describes the “level” of American “knowledge” and awareness of Russia in general and her military in particular—a caricature.
It is, however, one thing to promote caricatures in pop-art, totally another when a caricature becomes a working model for decision making at the top political level.
That is dangerous.
And his point is very, very valid…
As General Latiff of DARPA correctly noted—most of what the US public and political class know about war is from entertainment, from Hollywood to the literature of such “professionals” like the late Clancy.
The Generals won’t save us.
Yvonne Lorenzo: I quoted (retired) Major Danny Sjursen earlier. He wrote a piece title, “The Generals Won’t Save Us From The Next War”
for the American Conservative. I want to reproduce an excerpt and then
ask you to comment. Your disdain for the political class is well known
but what about the generals in power? How capable and knowledgeable are
they? How competent?
Why should any sentient citizen believe that these commanders’ former subordinates—a new crop of ambitious generals—will step forward now and oppose a disastrous future war with the Islamic Republic?
Don’t believe it!
Senior military leaders will salute, about-face, and execute unethical and unnecessary combat with Iran or whomever else (think Venezuela) Trump’s war hawks, such as John Bolton, decide needs a little regime changing.
John Bolton. Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor John Bolton said that it would be great if the United States could get their hands on that Venezuelan oil, and that statement alone tells you everything that you need to know about why the US is trying so hard to interfere in Venezuelan affairs.
Need proof that even the most highly lauded generals will sheepishly obey the next absurd march to war? Join me in a brief trip down an ever so depressing memory lane.
Let us begin with my distinguished West Point graduation speaker, Air Force General and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Richard Myers.
He goes down in history as as a Donald Rumsfeld lackey because it turns out he knew full well that there were “holes” in the Bush team’s inaccurate intelligence used to justify the disastrous Iraq war.
Yet we heard not a peep from Myers, who kept his mouth shut and retired with full four-star honors.
Air Force General and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Richard Myers .
Then, when Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki accurately (and somewhat courageously) predicted in 2003 that an occupation of Iraq would require up to half a million U.S. troops, he was quietly retired.
Rummy passed over a whole generation of active officers to pull a known sycophant, General Peter Schoomaker, out of retirement to do Bush the Younger’s bidding.
It worked too.
Schoomaker, despite his highly touted special forces experience, never threw his stars on the table and called BS on a losing strategy even as it killed his soldiers by the hundreds and then the thousands.
Having heard him (unimpressively) speak at West Point in 2005, I still can’t decide whether he lacked the intellect to do so or the conscience.
Maybe both.
General Peter Schoomaker.
After Bush landed a fighter plane on a carrier and triumphantly announced “mission accomplished” in Iraq, poor Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the newest three-star in the Army, took over the hard part of conquest: bringing the “natives” to heel.
He utterly failed, being too reliant on what he knew—Cold War armored combat—and too ambitious to yell “stop!”
Soon after, it came to light that Sanchez had bungled the investigation—or cover-up (take your pick)—of the massive abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison.
Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez.
General John Abizaid was one of the most disappointing in a long line of subservient generals.
It seems Abizaid knew better: he knew the Iraq war couldn’t be won, that it was best to hand over control to the Iraqis posthaste, that General David Petraeus’s magical “surge” snake oil wouldn’t work.
Still, Abizaid didn’t quit and retired quietly.
He’s now Trump’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, which is far from comforting.
General John Abizaid .
Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster was heralded as an outside-the-box thinker.
And indeed, he was a Gulf War I hero, earned a Ph.D., taught history at West Point, and wrote a (mostly) well-received book on Vietnam.
Yet when Trump appointed him national security advisor, he brought only in-the-box military beliefs with him into the White House.
He then helped author a fanciful National Defense Strategy that argued the U.S. military must be ready at a moment’s notice to fight Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and “terror.”
Perhaps at the same time!
No nuance, no diplomatic alternatives, no cost-benefit analysis, just standard militarism.
These days, McMaster is running around decrying what he calls a “defeatist narrative” and arguing for indefinite war in the Middle East.
Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster .
Then there was the other Washington insider and “liberal” favorite, one of a trio of “adults in the room,” General Jim Mattis.
Though sold to the public as a “warrior monk,” Mattis offered no alternative to America’s failing forever wars.
In fact, when he decided his conscience no longer allowed him to stay in the Trump administration, his reason for leaving was that the president had called for a reduction of troops in Afghanistan after 18 senseless years.
U.S.-supported Saudi terror bombings that killed tens of thousands of Yemeni civilians? A U.S.-backed Saudi blockade that starved at least 85,000 Yemeni children to death? Yeah, he was fine with that.
But a modest troop withdrawal from a losing 18-year-old war in landlocked Central Asia, that he couldn’t countenance.
General Jim Mattis.
Then there’s the propensity for politics and pageantry among senior military officers.
This was embarrassingly and unconscionably on display in the tragic cases of Private First Class Jessica Lynch and Corporal Pat Tillman.
When, during the initial invasion of Iraq, the young Lynch’s maintenance convoy got lost, she was captured and briefly detained by Saddam’s army.
Knowing a good public relations opportunity when they saw it, Bush’s staff and the generals concocted a slew of comforting lies: Lynch was a hero who had fought to her last bullet (she’d never fired her rifle), she’d been tortured (she hadn’t), her combat-camera equipped commando rescue had come just in the nick of time (she was hardly guarded and in a hospital).
Who cares if it was all lies, if this young woman’s terrifying experience was co-opted and embellished? The Lynch story was media fodder.
Private First Class Jessica Lynch.
More tragic was the Pat Tillman escapade.
Tillman was an admirable outlier, the only professional athlete to give up a million dollar contract to enlist in the military soon after 9/11.
Tillman and his brother went all in, too, choosing the elite Army Rangers. It was quite the story.
Rumsfeld even wrote the new private a congratulatory letter. Then reality got in the way. Tillman was killed in Afghanistan during a friendly fire incident that can only be described as gross incompetence.
Almost immediately, President Bush’s staff and much of the Army’s top brass went to work crafting the big lie: a heroic narrative of Tillman’s demise, replete with dozens of marauding Taliban fighters and a one-man charge befitting the hard-hitting former NFL defensive back.
Promoted to corporal posthumously, he was awarded the Silver Star. Some of his fellow Rangers were instructed to lie to the Tillman family at the memorial service regarding the manner of Pat’s death.
Corporal Pat Tillman.
Only Bush’s neophytes and the Army’s complicit generals didn’t count on the tenacity of Tillman’s parents.
They waged something nearing war with the U.S. military for several years until they found out the truth, unearthing a cover-up that implicated Bush’s civilians and many of the military’s four-star generals (including Stanley McChrystal, John Abizaid, and Richard Myers).
The Tillman family got their congressional hearing, but the sycophantic representatives on the Hill refused to seriously criticize the top brass and no one was seriously punished.
Andrei Martyanov:
I don’t know the exact answer to this question. I am positive that
there are many highly educated and competent people in US Armed Forces
but there is no denial of the fact that some segments of the US top
brass are more politicians than military leaders. It is not unique to
the United States Armed Forces, but the record of failures is in the
open and everyone can make their own conclusions.
Fighting Russia is the goal of the political class
Yvonne Lorenzo: Your latest book, The (Real) Revolution in Military Affairs provides further detail on Russia’s technological advancements. A layman, I see America as principally using bombing as artillery and proxy fighters (see Syria) on the ground—not too competent. I’ve read enough to be dangerous—having no military background—but wars can’t be won by bombing campaigns alone, even against a mediocre target (I think you called Iraq’s army third-rate).
Fighting Russia, which appears to be the goal of the political class, is not what they will expect, even if the confrontation doesn’t rise to a nuclear exchange.
I’d appreciate your summarizing some of the key points of this book but I have to ask, having read some of The Saker’s writings…
… can Russia be overwhelmed by thousands upon thousands of slow missiles, like the TLAMs…
… or will Russia use their “800 Pound Gorilla” in your parlance, that is…
A leaked memo confirms that Russia is developing Kanyon, the world's most powerful nuclear weapon, with twice the power of any ever tested.
This is 2x, or double the destructive power of the most dangerous and largest nuclear weapon ever designed; TheSovietRDS-202hydrogenbomb (codenameIvanorVanya), knownbyWesternnationsasTsarBomba.
Russia's New 'Satan' Nuclear Weapons System Could Wipe Out Texas orFrance. Russia hasformonthsbeentestingagiant nuclear weapons deliverysystemthatcancarry 10 heavyweightwarheads—enoughpowertowipeout Texas orFrance. This is theRS-28Sarmatintercontinentalballisticmissileknownin Russia as "Satan 2"Mar 06, 2018 · Russia announced it is about to test its Satan 2 missile, a nuclear weapon so powerful it could destroy a country size the of Texas or France in seconds. While its official name is RS-28 Sarmat, NATO officials have given the weapon the nickname Satan 2, the Mirror reports.
RS-28 Sarmat ICBM.
… does Russia have enough weapons, from cruise missiles, to defensive, to hypersonic, not to be overwhelmed…
… and are American generals aware of the risk if it does should they engage in hostilities?
Rumors of Kanyon (or Ocean Multipurpose System Status-6, as it’s known in Russia) first started swirling in 2015 following a leak on Russian television. Soon after, the nation confirmed the weapon’s existence, while claiming the leak was a mistake.
However, as defense analyst and military historian H. I. Sutton told Futurism, this leak of the latest nuclear posture review is the first official recognition of Kanyon by U.S. officials.
“The unclassified posture review document doesn’t really tell defense analysts anything new, but it does establish Kanyon as a military fact,” said Sutton. “Until now, many observers had regarded the system as ‘fake news.’ I think that this was partly because the stated specifications are so incredible and partly because it is hard to understand how it will be used.”
Incredible Devastation
“Incredible” is perhaps putting it mildly.
Based on leaked Russian documents, Kanyon is a nuclear-armed autonomous torpedo capable of traveling 10,000 kilometers (6,213 miles) with a 100-megaton thermonuclear weapon as its payload. That’s at least twice as powerful as any nuclear weapon ever tested. According to nuclear bomb simulator Nukemap, it would instantly kill 8 million people and injure an additional 6.6 million if dropped on New York City.
Kanyon’s weapon wouldn’t be dropped, though. It would arrive via the ocean and bring with it a massive artificial tsunami that would blanket the coastal area in radioactive water. If the warhead is “salted” with the radioactive isotope Cobalt-60, as some have reported, a detonation could render contaminated areas uninhabitable by humans for an entire century.
“Kanyon is unique in every respect,” said Sutton. “There really is nothing like it in any navy’s inventory.”
- US Report Confirms Russia Is Developing the World’s Most Powerful Nuclear Weapon. The 100-megaton thermonuclear weapon isn't "fake news."
The latest nuclear weapons that China and Russia field are smarter, more technically advanced, faster, and superior to their American counterparts in every way.
I noted your comments on Professor Cohen’s latest on Ukraine posted to Unz.com on November 14th but his most recent video in PushBack from The Grayzone he said that in all the years he studied Russia and America he’d never thought the two nations would go to war.
Yet now he fears this possibility. I’d appreciate your thoughts.
America WILL NOT survive World War III, and it is foolish to believe that it will.
It is a kind of Anglo-Saxon policy not to have cooperation on the European continent – mainly between the Russians, the French, the Poles and the Germans. They want to have a line of confrontation in this area and therefore are against all promises. [As a result] NATO was extended to the East.
I was responsible for the organization of the German Armed Forces on the German territory following reunification.
We did not want foreign troops in former East Germany.
We did not want to have British or French troops there; we wanted to have only German ones.
We wanted to explain to the world that there was no desire to enlarge NATO up to the new borders with Russia that were created in 1992.
It was against all the ideas we had after reunification.
What is happening now is some kind of Anglo-Saxon policy that was created even before WWI.
We are on the path of war again.
That is so much against the will of our people.
What is happening now is some kind of Anglo-Saxon policy that was created even before WWI. We are on the path of war again.
This is also against the will of the Dutch, the French, the Spanish and the Italians.
We see it as a disaster that a US president that is willing to cooperate with the Russian President Vladimir Putin – President [Donald] Trump – has to face such a disastrous policy organized by the US deep state, which is against our national interests and the national interests of all other western Europeans…
What is happening now is some kind of Anglo-Saxon policy that was created even before WWI. We are on the path of war again.
***
But, when you now come to Rostock, Dresden or Leipzig they are learning Russian again, they go to theaters to watch Russian performances and listen to Russian music.
They have re-established their links with Russia, and if they could do what they want to do, they would be the big economic partners of Russia these days.
Things have really changed for the Russian Federation and with regard to Russia.
People in Dresden, Saxony’s capital, are absolutely proud that Russian President Vladimir Putin once served there.
That is the reality these days, despite what the American mainstream media say.
Would Russia engage in tank battles and soldier-to-soldier combat if NATO attacked, or would they use stand-off weapons that you discuss just to obliterate command and control centers, the sources of munitions, etc.?
Mr. Wimmer clearly sees that some Germans, as opposed to the “vassal” government, want better relations with Russia as opposed to war, including cold war.
Andrei Martyanov: The issue of TLAMs: in a conventional configuration, I don’t think that they can do much damage to Russia, especially considering Russia’s unique anti-air and anti-missile defense.
A few possible leakers in conventional configuration will not do much damage; a few leakers in a nuclear configuration, however, is a completely different game. Hence Russia’s worry about Aegis Ashore installations in Romania and Poland. That’s the main worry.
"Leakers" missile weapons systems that are able to bore through national defenses.
In a
conventional scenario, Russia will not be overwhelmed and even
conventional response-head on (otvetno-vstrechnyi) strike will be
extremely damaging to NATO and the US.
Thatfirst strike (inRussianparlance, a retaliatory strike, or otvetno-vstrechnyi udar) followsRussia’smilitarydoctrine, whichmandatessuch strikes tocompensateforRussia’sconventionalinferiority vis-à-vis NATOandtheUnitedStates.
- Eastern European Missile Defense: Russia's Threat ...
Valeri Gerasimov was explicit couple of years ago in his interview about Russia having enough stand-off weapons at every strategic direction to provide a reliable deterrence.
Even in conventional exchange Russia can launch weapons at the US proper with Russian bombers not leaving Russia’s aerospace.
The X-101 cruise missile has a range in excess of 5,500 kilometers. Russia continues to increase her deterrence with 3M22 Zircon getting ready to be tested from Admiral Gorshkov frigate very soon, with Kazan SSGN of project 885 planned to launch the hyper-sonic Zircon from underwater early next year.
All this changes deterrence dynamics completely because the United States cannot defend her coasts and in depth against such systems.
In this photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency, officers and soldiers of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy hold a welcome ceremony as a Russian naval ship arrives in port in Zhanjiang in southern China’s Guangdong Province, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016
Russia can intercept the bulk of US and NATO cruise missiles; the US cannot do so against Russia.
Yvonne Lorenzo: As I write this on December 3rd, 2019, Vesti News posted this video on the Zircon: Putin Unveils Zircon Hypersonic Missiles! Stresses Importance of Beefing Up Russia’s Navy!
The brilliant Houthi military victory over the Saudis fulfilled the predictions in military doctrine made by America’s own De Gaulle, a retired US Army Colonel, Douglas Macgregor with an outstanding combat and command record who has been treated over the past 20 years by most of his own country’s four star generals and civilian theorists with contempt: Just as the French Army ignored DeGaulle’s armored warfare doctrines 90 years, when they were being read and applied passionately by the generals of Germany.
Macgregor observed after the Houthi victory in September that that there was no reason for surprise. Sure enough, two and a half years earlier, in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) on March 7, 2017, he stated:
“The skies over the battlefield will be crowded with loitering munitions, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones). These agile cruise missiles are designed to engage beyond line-of-sight ground targets. With proximity-fused, high-explosive warheads, these systems will remain airborne for hours, day or night. Equipped with high resolution electro-optical and infrared cameras, enemy operators will locate, surveil, and guide the drones to targets on the ground… When these loitering missiles are integrated into the enemy’s Strike Formations armed with precision guided rocket artillery that fires high explosive, incendiary, thermobaric, warheads including sub-munitions with self-targeting anti-tank and anti-personnel munitions warfare as we know it changes.”
Macgregor was even more prescient in predicting the previous Houthi precision missile strikes that wiped out half the production capacity of Saudi Arabia’s oil refineries earlier in September.
Those attacks humiliatingly exposed the ultra-expensive, endlessly praised US missile defense systems sold to Riyadh as worthless dinosaurs.
Yet, writing in his book “Transformation Under Fire” published back in 2003, Macgregor had said: “The idea is to link maneuver and strike assets through a flatter operational architecture empowered by new terrestrial and space-based communications throughout the formation… Long-range, joint precision fires and C4ISR [Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance] offer the possibility to reach over enemy armies to directly strike at what they hope to defend or preserve.
Precision strategic strikes closely coordinated and timed with converging Army combat forces would present a defending enemy with an insoluble dilemma.”
As you see, he’s retired and never became a general.
At least he appears to oppose war with Russia and Iran and China, from his appearances on Tucker Carlson that I’ve seen. Can you comment on the above piece and how Russia might respond if America used such techniques? It seems to me Russia would also be able to implement such techniques.
Andrei Martyanov: Douglas Macgregor is a brilliant man but his testimony is about…
… fighting an enemy which does not posses C4ISR [Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance] capabilities comparable to that of the United States.
Russia does and we have to be very clear on that distinction.
Fighting a modern combined arms war against such opponents as North Korea or even Iran the United States will have massive leverage, at least initially, before boots get on the ground, in terms of stand-off operations.
Once boots hit the ground, well, then it will change. But fighting peers, such as China, let alone Russia—…
…I simply cannot see how the United States will stay away from escalation to a nuclear threshold, because the scale of losses will be catastrophic both in men and materiel.
It’s EXTREMELY unlikely that the US can stop modern nuclear weapons from Russia. There is ZERO evidence that any of the US anti-missile technologies would be sufficient to stop a MIRV warhead – let alone multiple MIRV warheads – traveling at the speeds a modern missile can achieve. In a war with Russia, literally hundreds if not thousands of warheads would be heading towards the US. No missile defense system known can handle that.
- Richard Steven Hack on 09/19/2017 at 3:40 PM
In 110 days of fighting the German army in France during 1918, the U.S. Army Expeditionary Force sustained 318,000 casualties, including 110,000 killed in action.
That’s the kind of lethality waiting for U.S. forces in a future war with real armies, air forces, air defenses and naval power.
Only… on American soil.
Ignoring this reality is the road to future defeats and American decline. It’s time to look beyond the stirring images of infantrymen storming machine-gun nests created by Hollywood and to see war for what it is and will be in the future:
the ruthless extermination of the enemy with accurate, devastating firepower from the sea, from the air, from space and from mobile, armored firepower on land.
The United Sates is not in a position to take this scale of losses, not to mention having its rear, from staffs to munition depots and airfields being under relentless and devastating fire impact from operational to a strategic depth—a condition the US Army simple has no experience with.
As even RAND people admitted:
In war games with either Russia, China or both, almost always, the United States loses.
I’ve been writing about this for years.
It’s good that some people are beginning to get it. I hope—although I don’t hold my breath—their opinions will be heard at the political top.
Yvonne Lorenzo:
Recent articles have posted on cooperation between Russia and China,
not just the well know business deals but cultural and Chinese students
coming to Russia. See these articles, “Top Russian nuclear university
eyes future cooperation with China” and “Film about WWII sniper ‘Lady
Death’ kicks off ‘2019 Russian Film Exhibition’ in Beijing” posted on
China’s Global Times.
I’d appreciate your thoughts about the Russian-Chinese relationship/partnership.
Andrei Martyanov: The answer is extremely simple—Russian-Chinese cooperation is not only natural, but it was inevitable, considering the state of the combined West and, especially so, of the United States.
Yvonne Lorenzo: Andrei, you posted this on your blog on November 26th, 2019, “New S-400 Contract For Turkey?” which I want to discuss not only because of your observations, but because in the past (and I’m not picking on him) Paul Craig Roberts wrote in effect that Russia must be more aggressive with America to avoid a shooting war, quoting him, “The Russian government’s failure to stand up to Washington’s bullying guarantees more bullying. Sooner or later the bullying will cross a line, and Russia will have to fight.”
However, in this post of yours I cited above you commented:
So, [the] Turks are already running, it seems, detection routines with F-16 and F-4 as targets.
Turks will, already do, want more.
The Turks know what comes next, and it is S-500—they want it.
The reason is simple: look at [a] map of Turkey and see how much [of the] Eastern Mediterranean she will be able to cover—pretty much all of it. Just in case.
And it is not just for reasons of Greece and gas fields, but for reasons of Israel. The Turkish path towards a leadership in [the] Islamic world lies through the fate of Palestine.
So, a lot of thing are riding on those systems for Turkey and, just a hunch, SU-35s will follow.
I’m surprised the Turks haven’t start testing against any F-35s, unless Turkey had to return them to America;
I’d love to see the reaction if they did, which so far has included this:
“‘Erdogan thumbs his nose at Trump’: US senator says Turkey crossed ‘another red line’ with S-400 test, calls for new sanctions.”
As
you also wrote recently: “How about State Department creating a new
Office of S-400 Weekly Complaints and Threats Towards Turkey (OSWCTTT).
Should be a pretty nice sinecure for some bureaucrat. Should pay well
too—rent and real estate prices inside the Beltway are atrocious. Foggy
Bottom especially.”
And I see in the way they’ve turned Turkey away from American dominance, or Western dominance, that Russia’s diplomatic team, of course under the leadership of President Putin, have performed a Jujitsu move against the West more effective than using force.
Andrei Martyanov: As a Russian proverb says: “Diplomacy is the art to say to your counterpart that he is an idiot in the politest manner.”
In reality, the Russian version is very profane, so I softened it a bit. Russians do not operate on the so called “values-based,” ideological that is, principle in foreign policy. Russians actually DO consider the other side’s interests and concerns and that is what makes Russian diplomacy so effective.
This, plus, of course, military power. As another Russian saying goes: “If you do not want to talk to Lavrov, you will talk to Shoigu.”
With Turkey, Russia does accommodate many Turkish interests; the Turks feel that.
This is as much as I can respond to, because I am not in the position to pass deep and knowledgeable judgment on Turkey’s policies since I do not know the region that well.
I am sure, however, that Turks have a very good idea about what Russia offers technologically and economically.
The Turkish officer crews for S-400 underwent an extensive training in Russia so they do not need any additional argumentation in favor of the system they were trained on.
The F-35 is irrelevant here, apart from the fact that Turks cannot use, I believe, from the top of my head, those two aircraft which they had and which will be returned to the US.
Question: You have worked for over five decades as a war reporter and documentary film-maker in Vietnam, elsewhere in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
How do you see current international tensions between the US, China and Russia?
Do you think the danger of war is greater now than in previous times?
John Pilger: In 1962, we all may have been saved by the refusal of a Soviet naval officer, Vasili Arkhipov, to fire a nuclear torpedo at US ships during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Are we in greater danger today?
During the Cold War, there were lines that the other side dared not cross.
There are few if any lines now;
The US surrounds China with 400 military bases and ...
...sails its low-draught ships into Chinese waters and...
...flies its drones in Chinese airspace.
American-led NATO forces mass on the same Russian frontier the Nazis crossed...
...the Russian president is insulted as a matter of routine.
There is no restraint and none of the diplomacy that kept the old Cold War cold.
In the West, we have acquiesced as bystanders in our own countries, preferring to look away (or at our smart phones) rather than break free of the post-modernism entrapping us with its specious “identity” distractions.
Question: You traveled extensively in the US during the Cold War years. You witnessed the assassination of presidential candidate Robert Kennedy in 1968.
It seems the American Cold War obsession with “communism as an evil” has been replaced by an equally intense Russophobia towards modern-day Russia.
Do you see a continuation in the phobia from the Cold War years to today? What accounts for that mindset?
John Pilger: The Russians refuse to bow down to America...
...and that is intolerable.
They play an independent, mostly positive role in the Middle East, the antithesis of America’s violent subversions...
...and that is unbearable.
Like the Chinese, they have forged peaceful and fruitful alliances with people all over the world...
...and that is unacceptable to the US Godfather.
The constant defamation of all things Russian is a symptom of decline and panic...
...as if the United States has departed the 21st century for the 19th century...
...obsessed with a proprietorial view of the world.
In the circumstances, the phobia you describe is hardly surprising.
Andrei Martyanov: As in any event, war between Russia and the US is possible, but how probable it is, is a completely different matter. Some probability of Russia and the United States actually fighting each other certainly exists.
It is not very high, I think, but it does exist.
We all have to do our utmost to prevent this scenario becoming a reality.
Paradoxically, Russia’s very real military strength today is a guarantor or, at least, a robust deterrent against such a nightmarish scenario.
As I said, the US military does understand the implications, even when American politicians don’t.
I always repeat that I feel much better when Gerasimov and Milley talk to each other than when Lavrov is forced to explain basic things to Pompeo.
Mike Pompeo.
Yvonne Lorenzo: Hypersonic weapons, impressive as they are, rely on Newtonian physics. There was—to me—a term that you would call “Runglish”, Russian-English, discussing “New physical principles” which I finally understood to mean “new principles of physics” relating to the new Peresvet laser, which I think you’ve speculated on its purpose but is highly secret.
Peresvet laser complex.
However, all this technology is used for military purposes; what I find it sad about deteriorating relations with Russia because the best of the West and Russia could accomplish a great deal sharing and developing non-military technology.
I’m
reminded of this wonderful video of a Russia cosmonaut’s interactions
with an American astronaut and seeing the world below they have disdain
for politicians.
I Need More Space: Russian Cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin’s long road to the stars
What are your thoughts and how can Russians and American in this environment of “Russophobia” which is a polite, diplomatic word for hatred of Russians, cooperate as we two are doing now for peaceful and good purposes?
I worry both your doors and mine, for simply communicating with one another, will be kicked in one day by someone from the government, as happened with Max Blumenthal.
Andrei Martyanov: As I stated repeatedly, the combined West committed cultural suicide in Russia.
Yes, Russians are open to mutually beneficial cooperation, with space being one of those exhibit A cases where international cooperation manifests itself in the most profound and positive way.
Primary military targets that would be obliterated by first nuclear strikes.
Sadly, with the current US political “elites” who are Russophobic in the extreme, any prospects of serious Russian-American cooperation look very grim.
The world is in the process of unprecedented geopolitical realignment which increasingly degrades the position of the United States and Russia is at the center of this process.
The Obama Administration destroyed Russian-American relations totally and I don’t see any improvement, bar some symbolic gestures, such as, I hope, President Trump visiting Moscow on May 9th next year, because the American political class’s Russophobia is systemic and was nurtured for generations.
Plus, the United States is not an agreement-capable entity because it is ungovernable, as the last three years so dramatically demonstrated.
The first thirty cities to be attacked with nuclear weapons during a Russia or China first-strike event. Say, if America puts troops in the Ukraine, or conducts Naval operations near the Chinese coast.
Russia is aware of that—no agreement signed with the United States is worth the paper it is written on.
"... no agreement signed with the United States is worth the paper it is written on." I think that China would agree.
We can only hope that things will change for the better in the future but this change may come only through the United States reassessing its role in history and the world…
…a process which may take decades, serious tribulations and, hopefully, emergence of new American elites that would be able to formulate real American national interests.
Nuclear Targets Map in the United States.
***
After
I asked Andrei my last question, this Russian video posted on YouTube:
so much for future cooperation between America and Russia in space,
because of sanctions Americans cannot be carried to the space station by
Russians any longer:
US Will Be Stranded On Earth! Baikonur Cosmodrome Sends Very Last American Into Space!
I’d
like to thank Andrei for his kind answers to my questions and highly
recommend his books and his writings on his blog and on Unz.com for
those who wish to escape the Matrix and find a knowledgeable Russian
perspective on events and military matters; Martyanov is the antidote to
Tom Clancy disease.
Radioactive fallout map of America. Assuming a minor nuclear exchange using small, but accurate nuclear warheads.
I want to close by noting Andrei Martynov’s recent blog post “Ishenko Delivers” that referenced an article by Rostislav Ishenko entitled “In Bulgaria, a Russian Soldier” the title itself a reference to the song “Alyosha,” which I am familiar with from the album Wait for Me by the late exceptional baritone Dimitri Hvorsostovky. The below passage Ishenko wrote is moving, as is the song.
It was 1970. I was five years old.
I came to visit my grandmother. To the White Church. Near Kiev.
My grandmother is from the Urals.
My grandfather (on my father’s side) started the war near Stalingrad, and ended on the Dnieper (six wounds, four of them heavy, two shell shocks, medals “For Military Merit” and “For Courage,” the Order of the “Red Star” and “World War II” degrees).
The commander of a machine gun company. He fought for an incomplete year. From October 1943 he was no longer sent to the front (and his division arrived near Stalingrad in November 1942).
He died (in 1956) at 36 years old, from the consequences of a concussion (as a young major, in a colonel’s position).
In 1970, I was five years old (to be exact, then four and a half).
Grandmother was a teacher of French. At the same time and a class teacher. I came to visit her. Contrary to usual, I didn’t go straight home, but (for some reason unknown to me) I went to the school where she taught.
I think that she needed to complete the work with the class, and the school was five to seven minutes’ walk from home.
Here I am, as a future student, and they brought me to see how the children learn.
For about fifteen minutes I studied desks in an empty classroom (which at that time did not differ from the gymnasium at the beginning of the century) and read what was written on the board.
And then she went with her grandmother to the porch of the school, where her class (and other classes) performed.
Now I don’t remember what the holiday was, but I suspect it is May 9th. Because I went out onto the porch (they rather took me out, I was too small to go out myself), just as the girls from my grandmother’s class (8–10, already without pioneer ties and, as for me, adult aunts) sang “Alyosha.”
I haven’t heard the song so often since then, but I remember it well, because, in the words, “He doesn’t give flowers to girls, they give him flowers,” the entire female team of the school, which was standing next to me, wept.
It was the 70th year.
My grandmother was 48 years old.
Exactly at that age (in 2014) I left Kiev.
The city where four generations of my ancestors lived, in which my mother survived the occupation (and met the Red Army at the age of three), became not just a stranger, but a hostile one.
I can be forced to return there, but I cannot be persuaded or persuaded to do so voluntarily.
It’s like in a war.
All who survived and won are proud of the Victory, and while their fellow soldiers were alive, they met and remembered the days of old.
But they themselves did not dream of returning to the dugout under shelling, nor did they want to experience the “pleasure” of the attack (to their full height on the prepared defense) for their children.
Russians have in their collective memory the trauma of a war that killed millions, a subject Martyanov has discussed in depth especially in his first book;
…in that respect, they are different from Americans and I question the sanity of the rulers…
…especially the feckless political class…
…of the West who make the Russians foes.
Launch of American ICBM’s from the underground silos.
Perhaps only the people of the two nations—if they are enough in number in America—can prevent war from coming, because I am uncertain if the American military can reign in the powers that control them.
Or perhaps it is the fate for Russia to humble America, the way she did Nazi Germany, not necessarily by military might—at least I pray.
I suspect the process has started already.
Sadly, we know which side is most at fault for this deterioration of relations between our nations.
Reminders… China.
China and Russia will mutually work together militarily to counter American aggression.
As a history buff I must point out that ALL Major Wars started from misconceptions (they enemy is weak, cannot hit the broad side of the barn etc) AND starred new disruptive weapons (the Machine Gun in WW1 vs Calvary/Infantry charges, Aircraft carrier in WW2 vs the MIGHTY Battleship).
Will WW3 find the USA under EMP? Will Russian and Chinese high tech ECM systems shut off our High Tech Weapons? Ask the commanders of the two recent US Navy collisions if they think ECM jammed their Command and Control Systems. Both of the Ships were very high tech Aegis Warships, yet were rammed by slow moving clumsy Cargo Ships.
Will we get our heads handed to us like the Germans?
You know that in both world wars the Germans did not expect to lose you know.
Prepare for bad times my friends the petrodollar is almost done. The cost of everything is about to rise quickly.
-NH Michael
Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged Russia to strengthen bilateral comprehensive cooperation and mutual political support during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit in Hangzhou. This action has prompted political analyst Rostislav Ishchenko to assert that both countries are moving towards a political and military alliance.
"De facto a political and military alliance between Russia and China has existed for a long time and it is not a secret to anyone. Rumors have repeatedly surfaced that it could be formalized. But at the recent G20 summit the Chinese leader has for the first time mentioned the need to 'formalize relations' as openly as Chinese political and diplomatic traditions permit."
- Ishchenko, head of the Center for Systems Analysis and Forecasting, wrote for RIA Novosti.
Xi Jinping said that both countries should support each other in their efforts to protect national sovereignty and security. The Chinese president added that both nations should step up cooperation in such areas as infrastructure development, energy, aviation, aerospace and cutting-edge technology.
In addition, Russia and China should foster bilateral military exchanges and security cooperation.
Reminders… American Mainstream media
The US is likely to provoke a major war, partly in an attempt to unite a culturally divided country. But not just a sport war such as we’ve had in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. Probably with China, possibly Russia or Iran. Perhaps with all three. The US won’t do well, since it will find that its aircraft carriers, F-35s, and the like are equivalent to cavalry before WW1 and battleships before WW2.
- Doug Casey’s Top 7 Predictions for the 2020s
Americans, all jazzed up with the mainstream media news, and the mainstream pro-military movies, and a neocon government, is all but “chomping at the bit” to fight and (of course) win a war with either, Russia or China or both…
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because I just don’t care to.
This post describes contemporaneous American events in the light of the loss of liberty and freedom.
Most certainly, that once you have a two-tiered justice system, you actually have no rule of law. And without a Rule of Law, you cannot have either freedom or liberty.
Today, America does not have Rule by Law. It has Rule by selectively applied Brute Force.
There is no rule of law in the United States. And there hasn’t been one for some time. When you have a two tiered justice system, then you have no justice when the country is founded on “equality”.
Introduction
America was founded on the premise of liberty and freedom. We have all heard this, well most of us, anyways. (Who knows what they are teaching in schools these days.) This article makes the simple statement; freedom and liberty REQUIRES a robust rule of law applied evenly throughout the nation.
If you do not have a robust Rule of Law, evenly applied. You will not have either freedom or liberty.
America is toast.
Freedom and liberty REQUIRES a robust rule of law applied evenly throughout the nation.
When rules are bent in favor of one person over another, justice fails. Without justice, the nation fails. It might be a slow slide into the abyss, but fail it will.
In the beginning…
When In The Course of Human Events……
The Founders of this nation put forward a very basic premise:
"...to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them..."
That no government, no person whether royalty or not, King, Queen or Pawn, can take from one to give to another, to make one lesser than another, to being removed from one of the basics of humanity…
…all for the privilege of another.
This is America today. Where and what freedoms remain?
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness..."
That the very premise
of humanity is that one has a right to live, to be left alone to do as
one pleases, and to pursue — but not be guaranteed — happiness. The
only lawful and proper constraints arise when your exercise of same
prevents someone else from having that same peaceful enjoyment.
America was founded as a place where people could aspire to follow their dreams unencumbered by government interference. Sadly this is no longer the case, as the movie “Tucker – A man and his dream”, so clearly illustrates.
One cannot have a right to life if one cannot defend it using tools at least as powerful as those who would take it from you. You cannot have that right to life, that right of freedom and that right of liberty, if the rules of law are not evenly applied to everyone.
There is no freedom when the government can stop your pursuit of happiness.
Based on a true story. Shortly after World War II, Preston Tucker is a grandiose schemer with a new dream, to produce the best cars ever made. With the assistance of Abe Karatz and some impressive salesmanship on his own part, he obtains funding and begins to build his factory. The whole movie also has many parallels with director Coppola’s own efforts to build a new movie studio of his own.
There is no freedom when the government can stop your pursuit of happiness.
This is the story of entrepreneur Preston Tucker and the innovative car he designed in the late 1940s.
The car was attractive, economical, and safe, and had many features not found on the cars of that time -- an air-cooled rear engine, disk brakes, independent 4-wheel suspension, an additional center headlight that pivoted left and right for better vision when turning, a padded dash, seatbelts, and a popout safety windshield.
Tucker's promotional activities generated widespread public excitement and interest in the car, but the powerful auto industry blocked its production.
Only 50 cars were ever made.
The plan was to produce the car in the former Dodge B-29 engine plant on the far southwest side of Chicago. Many Chicagoans invested in the Tucker Motor Corporation, and some bought dealerships.
Even today, many people believe that then-Senator Homer Ferguson (R-Michigan) is the person most responsible for the loss of their investment in the revolutionary ahead-of-its-time "Tucker Torpedo".
- Tucker: The Man and His Dream
There is no freedom when the government can stop your pursuit of happiness.
This is a basic premise. It is a fundamental requirement for a nation to be one where people can live within an environment of freedom and liberty.
America today.
There is no freedom when the government can stop your pursuit of happiness.
The Constitution
The Founders put together a document called The Constitution. It established the Rule of Law that the nation would exist under.
The debate over it, and what needed to be added to it, is found in The Federalist and The Anti-Federalist; two books that are the chronology of the running debate of the time.
Anyone who claims to have an opinion on the foundations of our nation and why the Constitution is important ought to have read both, as should anyone who claims a right to run for elective office at any level — state, local or federal.
Duh! All elected officials NEED to be well-versed in both documents. The vast majority today are not.
Chief among the foundation of this nation is The Rule of Law and that it apply equally to everyone, all the time. It must be applied in each case evenly without exception.
Over time.
By various people, all for various reasons…
Laws grew, became confused, morphed into one thing or another, and their application distorted.
Today, functionally, the Rule of Law does not exist in America.
I can point this out, over and over, and over. And so I will, using examples that we read about every single day.
The law clearly states…
Not one illegal immigrant has a right to live and work, and have children in America. This is true under any circumstance; The Rule of Law says so.
It does not matter whether they personally intended to break said law; that merely encompasses whether they bear criminal culpability for the offense. It does not matter what you call them either. You can call them “dreamers”, “hopefuls”, “migrants”, “refugees” and “travelers”.
If they do not follow the law, they must be imprisoned, and then expelled.
Migrants ride on top of a northern bound train toward the U.S.-Mexico border in Oaxaca, southern Mexico, in March. Migrants crossing Mexico to get to the U.S. have increasingly become targets of criminal gangs who kidnap them to obtain ransom money.
Laws follow Due Process and are implemented, policed and structured fairly. Otherwise, they do not follow the Rule of Law. All laws must follow the Rule of Law, and that means that they are derived from the Bill of Rights.
Red Flag Laws
‘Red flag’ gun confiscation laws violate every principle of liberty upon which our country was founded. There is no due process associated with “red flag” laws. A judge’s order to seize the firearms from an American citizen who has not been accused of a crime, charged with a crime, convicted of a crime—or who never even threatened to commit a crime—based on the accusation of a single individual is anything but due process.
Our accuser could be a disgruntled employee, a bitter ex-spouse or relative, a vengeful neighbor, an anti-gun liberal or even an anti-gun policeman. By definition, “red flag” laws use mere suspicion of what one “might” do as justification to seize a person’s firearms. Tactics such as these have been used in virtually every despotic regime of history.
- Pastor Chuck Baldwin, quoted at Survival Blog
The key to having a Constitution, and a Bill of Rights… a strong organized structure from whence all other laws are derived, is that it becomes clear whether a law is constitutional or not.
Not all laws are constitutional.
Since the Rule of Law is derived from the Bill of Rights, any law that violates it is invalid.
How can you have an ATF who’s entire reason for existence is to infringe on the second amendment?
How can the IRS exist when it, by it’s own fundamental nature, violates the fourth amendment?
How can the FDA ban or arrest someone for using drugs when it violates the ninth amendment?
Now, the latest, in a long string of unconstiutional laws, the “red flag” law completely throws the “due process” scheme out the window. Where, an elected judge will make a determination of whether or not someone is guilty and action by the government needs to take place.
Once you remove judges from the equation…
You have no Rule of Law.
And…
And…
And it’s a big deal.
It’s a really, really, big deal.
If you do not enforce the Rule of Law, you do not have a nation.
The anti-gun movement.
Senators Richard Blumenthal and Mark Warner, both Democrats, have threatened legislation that is a rank violation of the First Amendment. They do so using the excuse of being necessary in response to the Christchurch live-stream.
The second amendment.
So…
Now we have 90% of the counties in Virginia turning into sanctuary enclaves that protects the Bill of Rights for the citizens of those counties. The Democrat reaction? Call in the military and increase funding to incarcerate everyone opposing them.
The Bill of Rights is not up for debate.
That’s right.
Pay attention.
Virginia under Democrat leadership.
The elected officials”, the new government has decided to openly violate the Rule of Law, and disarm citizens in direct defiance of the Bill of Rights.
This arrogance is what the founders of the nation fought against.
And it’s going to be fought again.
Americans fought the arrogant British government. They did not like being treated as a “cash cow” while the ruling class spent the money on frivolities.
90% of the counties in Virginia has declared themselves sanctuaries against government encroachment of their liberties and they will fight back.
Americans should pay attention.
Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better.
When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity.
To assent to obvious lies is to co-operate with evil, and in some small way to become evil oneself. One's standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control.
I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.
-Theodore Dalrymple
It is not possible to understand evil.
In contrast, the “American” empire acts like Genghis Khan on steroids without his military genius:
it appears to me Washington is intent on the wholesale obliteration of countries, their infrastructure, murdering the civilian populations by the millions, and so on.
Moreover, perhaps in the most memorable quote of Hillary Clinton in calling some Americans “deplorables,” it seems the entire class of rulers of America views its citizens as dispensable commodities and ill disguised contempt.
You cannot stop evil if you refuse to recognize it exists. You cannot accept that evil exists in this world if you close your eyes to it. You cannot see the evil. You cannot see the dangers if you fail to watch the errors others made that led them to their demise.
-UNZ
1st Amendment – Freedom of Speech. Means zero censorship of speech of any kind.
2nd Amendment – Ability to fight back against a tyrannical government.
Yet, these two elected Democrat officials want to violate a core tenet of law. Why?
Why?
The Democrats believe that they have achieved a strong degree of control over Americans and the only thing remaining to do is to disarm them. They are following a time-line and time-table laid out years ago, and if it seems like they over-played their hand it is because they did NOT expect a Donald Trump in the office of the President. They expected a Hillary Clinton.
Why the Democrats want to suppress freedom.
Governments are banning and attempting to ban guns and opinions related to keeping guns, not because they fear copycats:
They are banning that speech and literally burning books because faced with the gore, the nastiness and inhumanity of these acts the people may conclude that it was the government itself that sowed the seeds of these acts.
And that the government conspired with gave comfort to said people and groups…
…all the while rendering individual people powerless to stop it by infringing on The Right to Keep and Bear Arms…
…and did all of the above intentionally.
Were the people to reach that conclusion they’d be correct and in response they might revoke their consent to said government entirely and demand it depart.
When the citizens reach the conclusion that the government is corrupted and needs to be reformed, the second amendment is designed to facilitate that change.
America is resembling a slave camp.
A slave is not allowed weapons because he might use them to become free.
If, before undertaking some action, you must obtain the permission of society—you are not free, whether such permission is granted to you or not.
Only a slave acts on permission. A permission is not a right.
-Ayn Rand
A collapse of cultures…
Cultures collapse when there is no cohesion remaining.
Cultures collapse when the primary means to get ahead is to stomp on someone else’s head instead of innovating.
Cultures collapse when cheating is no longer punished and is celebrated instead.
Cultures collapse when cheating is no longer punished and is celebrated instead.
If that is not curtailed then collapse is inevitable — it is simply a matter of time.
Europeans dubbed it the Great War. Americans today remember it as World War One, and recall it as little more than a precursor of an even more violent Second World War. In reality, Democrat Woodrow Wilson’s justification for entering the war as a freedom crusade, as a “war to end all wars,” was, ultimately, little more than rhetorical cover for what amounted to a war in support of one group of empires, the British and French, against another, German and Austrian.
Indeed, in a certain sense, it was a bankers’ war. While the ostensibly “neutral” United States acceded to the British Navy’s starvation blockade of Germany, Washington simultaneously traded war materials with its Anglo brothers and floated London vital loans numbering in the billions of dollars. Clearly, by 1917, after three years of macabre massacre, Washington had a pecuniary interest in British victory.
That may not be the version of First World War history that most Americans learned in elementary or high school. Even less well known is the cynicism and civil liberties suppression of the “Progressive”-in-chief, President Wilson.
His strongman tactics: imprisonment of peaceful antiwar activists under the Sedition Act, detainment of pacifists in prison camps, and prosecution of critical journalists under the (still statute law) Espionage Act, are abhorrent enough. Worse still, however, was the reflexive manner in which the progressive “left” quickly fell in line with their president.
The left eats its own; maybe it always has. Immense majorities of “progressive s,”just like their socialist brethren in Europe, supported Wilson and the war in spite of past records of more dovish positions.
They then proceeded to attack, suppress, and often professionally ruin, or imprison, their former compatriots —relabeled as “radicals”—such as Randolph Bourne and Eugene Debs.
Nonetheless, for all of World War I’s horror, futility, absurdity even, the veterans of the war collectively emerged from the sodden trenches imbued with a vocal philosophy of never again. Indeed, they celebrated the moment the guns finally fell silent, the 11th minute, or the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month, 1918, as Armistice Day.
It was, romantic as it now seems, widely believed that theirs would be the last war. In fact, millions of lucky survivors left the war deeply dedicated to ensuring that be the case. Much of the finest Western literature of the 20th century, unsurprisingly, generated from the pens of disgruntled, damaged veterans—Hemingway, Graves, Fitzgerald, Sassoon, and many more—forever changed by the experience of needless war.
- The (Real) Revolution in Military Affairs: An Interview with Andrei Martyanov ... a long but fascinating read
Whether something is “hate speech” is in the eye of the beholder but irrespective of that The First Amendment protects it.
Why?
Because even the most-vile expression of dislike is one’s right to hold and have. To state otherwise is to state a right to control another person’s mind and thoughts — to not only enslave as to labor but to thought itself.
That is profoundly evil.
The facts are (and do facts matter in America any longer?) that on July 27th, 2014, when the East of Ukraine was already at war, a young woman and her little daughter—Kristina and Kira—were murdered from the shelling of Ukrainian forces. The mother then was named the “Gorlovka Madonna.”
What is evil?
Manipulation by others for personal gain? Why are the Democrats so focused on the Ukraine? Why do they want to start World War III with Russia?
America tomorrow.
Why is our government fighting eight simultaneous wars in far off lands? Lands like Yemen? Lands like Syria? Lands like Afghanistan? Lands like Libya?
Why does it want a pick a fight with Russia over the Ukraine?
Why does it want to pick a fight with China over Taiwan?
What the heck is the matter with these people?
Why is the American leadership so focused on fighting wars, and why do they want to challenge major nuclear armed nations? Can they not see the consequences?
Evil has occupied all American institutions for some time now.
All, not most, American institutions are not corrupted.
They are all beyond redemption. It need to be completely overhauled and that might mean burning them all down and building up out from the ashes remaining.
In contrast, the “American” empire acts like Genghis Khan on steroids without his military genius:
it appears to me Washington is intent on the wholesale obliteration of countries, their infrastructure, murdering the civilian populations by the millions, and so on.
Moreover, perhaps in the most memorable quote of Hillary Clinton in calling some Americans “deplorables,” it seems the entire class of rulers of America views its citizens as dispensable commodities and ill disguised contempt.
You cannot stop evil if you refuse to recognize it exists. You cannot accept that evil exists in this world if you close your eyes to it. You cannot see the evil. You cannot see the dangers if you fail to watch the errors others made that led them to their demise.
-UNZ
This very same act is what our government is now calling on “big companies” to do, it is what the left has repeatedly done to anyone who dares speak against their policies and desires.
This is true whether on college campuses, in corporate America or in the public square.
If this story was a movie plot,…the audience would walk out and want their money back. Way too unbelievable! hat’s right, – College Bribe Mommy has a JD from Harvard, Daddy has a JD from USC and was a prosecuting attorney for both Los Angeles and San Diego, – before going into high tech and becoming CEO of Wireless Telematics.
Celebrities with dim-witted children got them into colleges by paying bribes and cheating.
The claim that said students were “blameless” if their test scores were faked or they faked a “disability” to extend time and thus be able to cheat is a lie.
Another view…
Said “students” are fully culpable yet none of them have been charged;
Not only did every one of them know they didn’t compete on the rowing team (for example)…
Any of them who got an extra hour or two to take the SAT or ACT knew damn well they were cheating, whether they knew their answers were being modified or not.
Why did this happen and why aren’t the kids in the dock too?
Sad will be the day…
Universities do not obey the law.
We have no rules of law.
Colleges claim they need “diversity.”
That’s nonsense; in a meritocracy the best rise irrespective of skin color, race or religion.
The fact is that this “diversity need” is met by lowering standards and allowing unqualified people who cannot do the work into the school.
When you no longer follow the conventions established by merit, you end up diluting the value of your institution. Eventually, the lowest common denominator becomes the norm.
This was going on in the 1990s and it has only gotten worse — much worse — since.
There is, of course, no value in that to a person “selected” via “diversity” if they have to pay full price and will inevitably fail to be able to do the work.
America today.
This in turn means someone else gets screwed so they don’t have to pay full price and they also don’t have to do the work they are incapable of.
The alleged “degree” conferred by said school is thus rendered meaningless; it no longer denotes competence and to prevent that from being recognized and their “brand” destroyed said colleges conspire with employers and governments, both outwardly and not to “require” said “credentials” for an ever-expanding list of “professions.”
In short college is no longer about education.
Instead, it is about grift, fraud, bribery and slavery. It’s a racketeering enterprise writ large and ought to be prosecuted as a felony, starting with the “most-elite” schools.
Devolution of cultures.
Is it any surprise that a tiny bit of the bribery began six months earlier with so-called “standardized” testing that really isn’t and claims of being on a soccer team that were false?
Federal agencies do not follow the law.
We have no rule of law.
The Fed is prohibited from buying anything other than government backed securities.
Fannie and Freddie paper have on their face the statement that they have no such backing; go online and view any of their prospectuses.
That the government bailed them out does not matter.
Mount corruptmore.
The Fed’s transacting in same and their continued ownership is illegal.
Rather than change the law (which might provoke a debate over exactly what The Fed “prints”) they simply ignore the law and you let them.
You let them.
The Fed's legal mandate under the law is for stable prices.
The Fed’s chair and other governors make dozens of speeches a year and testify under oath before Congress to their intent to violate the law with their “2% inflation target.”
Inflation, is by definition, not stability.
Congress could change that law but doing so might provoke a debate over exactly what The Fed “prints” and so instead both Congress and The Fed ignore the law and you let them.
You let them.
The truth is that Money is a medium of exchange which you acquire by producing something of value to someone else. It facilitates trade because it is fungible — that is, you don’t need to transact in oranges, chickens or hours of programming a computer; all three can be reduced to money.
The truth is that Money is a medium of exchange which you acquire by producing something of value to someone else.
You cannot print money because it is impossible to materialize a television, a car, a piece of computer software, gasoline or electrical power out of thin air.
You can print credit, which spends like money.
But if you emit credit then what you are claiming is that someone in the future will produce a thing to legitimate what you did. If the people refuse what’s left?
Prosecuting him would have inevitably drawn those Democrats into what could have easily wound up being criminal culpability including spying for foreign nations. Which is treason.
So they let him go.
They let him go despite proof that he wired more than $280,000 to Pakistan — funds that very well might have been used to facilitate terrorism!
Outstanding…
Industry does not obey the law.
We have no rule of law.
Industry does not obey the law.
It is a felony to restrain trade, attempt to monopolize or fix prices among people who are supposed to be competing.
The medical industry does it every single day.
Neoliberal Economics Destroyed the Economy and the Middle Class ... credit-driven debt grows faster than the income that services it, and this impoverishes the 90%
- Paul Craig Roberts
Why not when the example set is that if you’re rich or powerful (and they are both) you could even spy for a foreign nation and get away with it.
We could literally dispose of the entire federal budget deficit, all of the Federal debt, all of the state and local pension problems and cut property taxes in half or more if we put a stop to this crap.
They do it because despite the law they have no fear of prosecution.
Why should they?
We certainly are living in dangerous times; I suspect it’s even dangerous to me to discuss the writings on his blog and his two recent books with Andrei Martyanov in an environment of omnipresent electronic monitoring and profiling of every individual American citizen, especially those who question the warfare state and challenge its goals, if only out of sense of morality and a perception—at least on my part—that the policies pursued will be destructive to America, which unfortunately seems hellbent on a path of no return.
-UNZ
You can, through hard work, earn a mid-six-figure income and have multiple business ideas that you can develop.
But given the above examples, along with the myriad things I’ve watched big business do in the last 20 years and get away with all of them — acts that were I to do myself I would be prosecuted criminally and go to prison…
So why would I?
If I was to undertake any of those risky ventures and put my capital and intellectual effort at risk any of those people could illegally undermine my product or service, putting me out of business or simply steal it.
Now we know how and why Google and Amazon and Facebook got so big, so fast. They were the corporate arm of the surveillance state.
- From Vox Day at Vox Popoli
Unless I was willing to personally kill the persons responsible there is nothing I could do about it and I’d go broke.
I will not undertake such a venture for as long as all of this crap exists, and that’s why.
I instead choose to hike, ski, run, drink beer and enjoy a much lower stress lifestyle.
There are those of us who choose to live a more relaxed and simpler life. One without stress and fighting to be the “top dog” in the barnyard.
I do not need any of the trappings of wealth; they’re options.
When my time comes to die those ideas, products and services intentionally left undeveloped will die with me instead of being produced.
Intelligent people decide to “tune out” and not fight the system.
We have no rule of law.
The Christchurch shooter, obviously nuts, wrote a “manifesto” which governments are actively trying to suppress your ability to read.
In it he pointed out an inconvenient truth — that there is no nation with a material white population percentage in which white women are reproducing at a replacement or better rate.
That is, unless this changes white people will eventually go extinct.
Know your history. Read up on it.
We bemoan a little fish, frog or bird disappearing but there is literally not one word in the media about this. The most-productive and innovative differentiated group of human beings ever to walk the planet is heading directly for extinction by their own voluntary decision.
Why are white women choosing not to bear children?
Maybe it’s because a goodly number of them have come to the same conclusion I have.
That there is no rule of law.
Think about this cartoon. Think about what it means. How can this be permitted to happen if the Rule of Law were being followed?
We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission.
-Ayn Rand
Thus unless they’re so rich they can cheat (like those who did so to get their kids into college) their offspring have no chance of success on a merit basis.
And they thus make the entirely reasonable decision not to create children at all.
After all why would you willingly and intentionally bring a child into this world if you believe they are going to be enslaved and mercilessly robbed for their entire lives?
After all why would you willingly and intentionally bring a child into this world if you believe they are going to be enslaved and mercilessly robbed for their entire lives?
Rather than correct that problem governments instead are importing people who have not yet made that determination.
Or even worse, believe (and are explicitly promised) that they can simply put their hand out and force others to provide whatever they want and need.
And…
And thus those people make the entirely reasonable decision to breed like rabbits!
The socialist ideal eventually goes viral, and the majority learns to game the system.
Everyone is trying to live at the expense of everyone else.
In the terminal phase, the failure of the system is disguised under a mountain of lies, hollow promises, and debts. When the stream of other people's money runs out, the system collapses.
-Kevin Brekke
WE HAVE NO RULE OF LAW.
Think about this tweet. Think about what it means. How can this be permitted to happen if the Rule of Law were being followed?
WE
HAVE NO RULE OF LAW AND WE ARE GOING TO LITERALLY EXTINGUISH WHITE
PEOPLE THROUGHOUT THE WESTERN WORLD AS A RESULT. AS FURTHER POPULATION
SEGMENTS ARE TAPPED TO BE THE VICTIMS OF SAID POLICIES THEY WILL CHOOSE
NOT TO REPRODUCE AS WELL AND INEVITABLY THEY WILL ALSO GO EXTINCT, ONE AT A TIME.
Our government is depraved.
We have no rule of law.
Our government has turned into a tyrannical monster. It is obvious to everyone.
We have in fact become so depraved that our own government is giving cats diseases on purpose. The excuse is to study them, and even though those diseases are easily curable and the animals could then be adopted out that takes a bit of effort and more than a a nickel in cost so they kill them instead.
That would be bad enough but our government is also importing cats and dogs from nations around the world for the purpose of meat to feed said study subjects, practicing animal cannibalism.
We can’t be bothered to use byproducts of human food production; you see, that might cost a bit more money.
In twenty-five years, we went from arguing that it must be legal to burn the American flag to punishing someone who burns an LGBTP flag with fifteen years in prison.
- From Brett Stevens at Periscope
I’m not the only one who recognizes this; here’s another article pointing out many of the same things.
America is extended, riddled with debt and too reliant on ever more debt, past its growth peak, incapable and unwilling to address structural issues.
Both political parties have given up on dealing with debt, illusory monetary policies such as MMT are invented to render structural issues as irrelevant.
Meanwhile wealth inequality keeps expanding from administration to administration no matter who is in charge with voters distracted by the ideological divisions of the day, not trusting their leaders or each other.
And all this with 3.8% unemployment. What will this all look like during the next downturn?
Nobody knows. Rome showed us to not take civilization for granted. It also showed us to not ignore structural problems before they become too large to tackle.
Sven may be hopeful but I am not.
The writing is on the wall.
When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing; when you see that money is flowing to those who deal not in goods, but in favors; when you see that men get rich more easily by graft than by work, and your laws no longer protect you against them, but protect them against you … you may know that your society is doomed.
-Ayn Rand
I’m not alone either. Charles Hugh Smith has written a number of columns on this same point, including just recently.
I challenge you to show me just one “grand idea” or modern stock market rocketship that is not a scam in some form over the last 10+ years.
America today.
Netflix, as just one example, effectively stole their entire distribution infrastructure, which is very expensive, through various forms of browbeating and when that was threatened they got the government to mandate their ability to force non-customers to pay for what they wanted during the Obama Administration.
Then, when Obama left, both he and his wife got a multi-million dollar contract from the company.
No justice in America today.
You don’t really think that was the kickback payment to the former President since the stock went from ~$5 when Obama took office to nearly $400 now….
Martyanov blogs about the political class, including Donald Trump, on his blog Reminiscence of the Future…. But I gave him, if you pardon the expression, a homework assignment, a recent piece by Whitney Webb describing the powers behind Washington’s politicians, be they “Democrats” or “Republicans.”
It’s hard to determine where the real power in Washington and the City of London lies, that is to say who the actual rulers are, but the greater power is evidently held by the central bankers and billionaires, operating in a mob like fashion as Ms. Webb described, in fact actually working with mobsters.
-UNZ
None of them would exist were there an even-handed enforcement of the law for the simple reason that all of them violate the basic law of business balance:
The more people who touch a transaction the more it costs -- always.
The reason for that is simple: Nobody works for free.
If you think you’ve found someone who is someone else is stealing from them because no rational person will perform work that benefits only someone else.
No reason to change. The justice system is beyond repair.
We have no rule of law.
This can’t — and won’t — change without Americans rising up by the millions and demanding that it stop and be willing to enforce that demand by whatever means are necessary.
Soldiers and armed civilians occupy the office of ousted Romanian leader Nicolae Ceausescu in the capital Bucharest on Dec. 26, 1989, the day after he was executed.
This does not mean violence is required.
However, until and unless, those who claim to be “our leaders” believe that any such demand has the force of the people behind it (and will be enforced)…
… should they stick up their middle finger toward common people (once again) as they have done for the last 30+ years…
… they have no reason to stop stealing…
…no reason to stop rigging the system…
…and no reason to stop screwing everyone else.
There’s no reason for me to be hopeful.
This is what I would look like if I was a cat.
This is because there is no reason to believe that Americans, say much less the people in any of the other developed, Western nations will in fact demand this crap stop.
While we have been indoctrinated to believe that “democracy” is the favored and best way to govern nations, the spectacular failure of what America has become is obvious to the world to see. America, that great, and grand experiment is a complete and total failure.
Coming soon to a State near you.
You, and I, and our families will now need to ride out the collapse to it’s conclusion.
Yvonne, I don’t think many in Russia view the United States as a “fascist” power per se—it is indeed difficult to do so for a country so ethnically and culturally diverse as the United States.
This diversity precludes the United States to define itself completely as a nation in an ethno-cultural sense, nor does the political system of the United States allow for the emergence of a dictator, a key element of the fascist state.
For all his bluster today and accusations in being a sort of a dictator, President Trump is an extremely weak president, as is generally the office of POTUS.
The United States is a classic oligarchy wrapped in a vast state bureaucracy a/k/a the Deep State which is increasingly dysfunctional.
If it is a fascist state in any sense, it is a very sad in a comical sort of way fascist state, as the three-years long Russia and Ukrainegate “investigations” demonstrated. Russians, however do use widely the term of “liberal fascism” to underscore the totalitarian nature of the so called “liberal” ideology of which the United States, together with subservient Europe, are the main drivers.
As I repeat ad nauseam for years now, the Western in general and American in particular so-called elites are incompetent. I observed a precipitous decline in the professional, the intellectual and the ethical levels of these elites for over twenty years.
Now it has reached truly grotesque forms from pedophilia inside the ruling class, to the media being utterly corrupt and incompetent.
I can only repeat my point about the US having no mechanisms anymore for producing real statesmen.
Russians know this, they observe this everyday and in my fifty-seven years of life on many continents I cannot recall a time period when Russians had such contempt for and rejection of the so called “democratic values.”
This is simply unprecedented in Russian history.
- Andrei Martyanov
America tomorrow.
Conclusion
There is no rule of law in the United States. A two tiered justice system is NOT rule by law. It is rule by power. As such, the nation will soon collapse. As the Rule of Law is a fundamental aspect of a thriving and successful nation.
There is no rule of law in the United States. And there hasn’t been one for some time. When you have a two tiered justice system, then you have no justice when the country is founded on “equality”.
A Rule of Law is important to suppress evil, and to keep the government under control and the nation stable.
Now, everyone, from all quarters and all points of view are starting to come together. All from different perspectives and are arriving at the same conclusion.
r/K theory
Generational turnings.
The rise and fall of nations.
Kala Rhythms
I pretty much covered this subject here, in numerous posts.
When there isn’t any rule of law, the people in power start to act tyrannical and dictatorial. Fundamental to this behavior is the disarming of the population. As that is the last remaining resistance to them.
Failure to obey the Constitution is treasonous.
You can expect to see an acceleration of disarmament efforts all over the Western sphere of influence. With major efforts in the United States taking place irregardless of the consequences. The progressive Marxists do not believe that people will rise up and fight back.
They DO NOT believe that it will happen, or if it does, that they can effectively suppress the actions and spin the events in their favor.
You all can decide on how to handle the elements that are certain to transpire. Just be quick about it, why don’t you.
We don’t have any control over the coming storms- but what we do control is our own abilities and what we bring to the table.
- NC Scout at American Partisan
Some areas will be very “hot”, while others will escape unscathed.
Some areas will be very “hot”, while others will escape unscathed.
Plan ahead, and be smart about it. If you have any questions, check out this post…
If you enjoyed this post, then please check out the SHTF master index. You can access it here…
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
This article discusses neocons and their manipulation of American politics for Geo-political advantage.
The problem with this is that the stakes are dangerously high. We are not talking about a small country with a few cities. We are talking about technologically advanced first-world nations with state of the art weapons and nuclear, biological, and germ warfare technology.
Further, most Americans are so dumbed down that they have no idea just how advanced China and Russia are. That robots, facial recognition, 5 and 6G systems, and high speed trains are the norm. And have been so for half a decade. America has fallen terribly behind, and our military as well trained and experienced as it is, is not a match for the kinds of swarm drone germ warfare that China and Russia possess.
It'll be very difficult to shoot your rifle while your eyes are foaming with blood and puss.
I did take the liberty to make editing changes. I edited the run-on sentences to make it easier to read. I also added images, and commentary in dialog boxes, and provided supporting links. The conclusions, photo narratives, and associated editing are my own.
Donald Trump is in a painful bind.
The China-bashing traitors within his own party trying to pass themselves off as American patriots have done everything imaginable to destroy the one chance the President has to save America from the policies of economic and social decay which have mis-shaped the past 50 years of world history.
Before breaking under the pressure to pass the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act on November 27, Trump attempted desperately to push against the hard liners stating a day earlier:
“I stand with Hong Kong, but I also stand with President Xi. He’s a friend of mine, he’s an incredible guy. We have to stand, but I’d like to see them work it out, OK? We have to see them work it out. I stand for Hong Kong, I stand for freedom, I stand for all those things we want to do. But we are also in the process of making the largest trade deal in history.”
Of course, Trump’s desire to use protective tariffs, rebuild decayed infrastructure and industries while reversing the regime change wars abroad are good things.
They are very good things.
Risk of confrontation is high.
However, the ugly fact is that the Trans-Atlantic financial system is also set to crash, and a serious military confrontation between the US military and the Russia-China alliance is both very real and very dangerous.
This is also why the passage of the anti-Beijing Bill on November 27 is so tragic, since the desperately needed economic alliance which Trump has desired may have suffered a wound from which it cannot recover.
A serious military confrontation between the US military and the Russia-China alliance is both very real and very dangerous. It will NOT be America plinking away at a third world “shit hole”. It will instead, be nuclear, bio-weapons, germ weapons, and using the most modern technologies available to man ON AMERICAN soil.
Not only this, but those anti-China hawks pervasive across Washington are now emboldened to go even further starting with Sen. Ted Cruz’s new bill.
The use of pests and biological warfare is almost a given if World War 3 is to take place. With the advancement made by biotechnology in the 21st century, strains of viruses capable of eliminating the entire population of the rival country are a reality.
-Listsurge
America to interfere with Taiwan.
For it is a bill to recognize Taiwan’s sovereignty, thus undoing the 1972 ‘One China’ agreement which established Beijing as the capital of China, and OPENLY threatening to drag mainland China into a nuclear confrontation.
I’ll say it again.
China has repeatedly stated that if you mess with Taiwan, you mess with China. It is one and the same.
If you mess with Texas, you mess with the USA. It's one and the same.
So any war, or provocation involving Taiwan, will involve China.
So, any war involving Texas, will involve the United States.
But this war or conflict or skirmish…
…will NOT be limited to China. But, will instead, include the American cities of Los Angles, Chicago, New York and many other enormous civilian population centers.
The basis of nuclear warfare in future was established when America dropped the two bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the end of 2nd World War. The rush to develop nuclear weapons by France, USA, Soviet Union and China following the 2nd World War resulted in the extremely tension ridden period known as Cold War.
It is theorized that a nuclear war will cause ten times more casualties than a military war. Some analysts suggest that the nuclear fog after a war will result in the entire humanity starving to death.
The political standoff between USA and China over Taiwan is thought to be a situation that could easily spin out of control if these two nuclear super powers do not behave rationally.
-Listsurge
Here’s Chicago…
Neocons believe, incorrectly, that nuclear warfare will never occur on American soil. That any war that they promote will be limited to the geographical areas that they define. They are wrong. Any war with either China or Russia will result in nuclear destruction of most of urban America.
Any large scale conflict today (or in the near future) will seriously affect America’s status as a global superpower. Whether America “wins” or “loses”, it will change, and the likelihood is that it will not change for the good.
The rise of USA as a superpower during the end of the Second World War and the disintegration of Soviet Union after the Cold War is proof of the rearrangement of powers at the end of major wars. It can be theorized that the Third World War will see the emergence of a new super power. Many think that China can be the superpower which changes the dynamics of the next war to come.
-Listsurge
Perhaps this is what Washington, D.C. might look like after a cluster of MIRV SLBM hyper-glide swarm nuclear missiles are launched.
Dancing with danger…
Cruz’s Taiwan Symbols of Sovereignty Actaims in Cruz’s words to “peel back some of the extreme insults of the Taiwanese that are inflicted by the One-China policy protocol”
including the banning of Taiwan officials from visiting US government
agencies, and Taiwan students studying at West Point military academy
from wearing the Taiwan flag.
Hum. Are "extreme insults" reason enough for your entire family to be bleeding out of their anus, and your home a smoking black radioactive waste?
Already, the US-military have vastly amplified their presence on China’s border ever since Obama’s “Pivot-to-Asia” and “Air-Sea Battle” were put into practice in 2011-2012. This presence heavily relies on a militarized anti-China force in Taiwan ready to do the US’s bidding.
Any one who is delusional to think that American soil will not be affected by these decisions should have their head examined.
This is not 1913. Wars can get radioactive "hot" within seconds.
Here’s San Francisco…
Neocons think nothing of getting involved in the affairs of other nations. Today, America is fighting eight simultaneous wars. They argue that a ninth war would be easy. That China for all it’s technology, is no match for the United States military and is willing to bet YOUR life and YOUR family’s lives on that belief.
Everyone seems to want a fight…
Many leading figures in Taiwan are stuck in a Cold War traumatized mindset established 60 years earlier, and still see their life’s mission and Taiwan’s destiny through the outdated lens of their Kuomintang forebears- as the only rightful leaders of China, destined to reconquer the mainland lost to the Communist Party in 1949.
The G series of nerve gases is so named due to their origin, with all of them originally discovered in Germany in the 1930s and 40s. Their discovery was actually a complete accident; Gebhardt Schraeder, a German researcher, was investigating the potential use of organophosphates as pesticides in 1936 when he synthesised the first of the G series nerve gases, tabun. He also played a part in the discovery of sarin in 1938. The other member of the G series, soman and cyclosarin, were discovered during the course of research funded by the German army into the pharmacological action of tabun and sarin.
These groups would do anything to fulfill that quasi-religious sense of purpose. Thus making them the perfect puppets for the Deep State.
What the heck is America doing? Why is it so involved in far away places, blowing the shit out of buildings and leveling cities flat? Doesn’t anyone realize that sooner or later America will pick on the wrong nation.
Here’s Houston, Texas…
Nuclear weapons launched by Russia or China will be SLBM’s with MIRV multiple warheads many, many times larger than what was used in Japan during World War II. These SLBM MIRV’s are all hype-velocity weapons and the city would be obliterated within five minutes of launch. The doctrine calls for multiple warheads for city, thus guaranteeing complete and absolute devastation.
An ugly and overlooked example of this operation includes the renewed effort by China-basher Steve Bannon who Trump rightly booted from his team in August 2017.
Bannon has been a dangerous character attempting to coral Trump supporters in America and the European right into a new anti-Chinese united front. He is doing this while reviving the neo-con “clash of civilizations” doctrine with a vengeance.
Steve Bannon.
One of the main conduits Bannon chose to unleash this assault was the Committee on Present Danger-China. This is an organization which he founded alongside a group of raging neocons in March 2019.
Labeling China’s Belt and Road as a new empire threatening to undo America and enslave the world, Bannon’s think tank stated:
“As with the Soviet Union in the past, communist China represents an existential and ideological threat to the United States and to the idea of freedom – one that requires a new American consensus regarding the policies and priorities required to defeat this threat.”
He just doesn’t get it.
This could be Thanksgiving day, two years after the United States is struck with a nuclear salvo of AI robotic nuclear swarm missiles in hyper-velocity glide platforms.
China doesn’t give a rat’s ass about America. Anyone who attacks it will be glowing nuclear rainbows for the next two hundred years.
Here’s Boston…
The neocons, such as Bannon, do not believe that the nuclear on/off switch will ever be depressed. They believe that a conflict with China will be a conventional affair. With American Naval forces firing curse missiles at leisure, and launching drones at will to an unarmed, and America-leaning China.
Bannon has also found himself working ever more tightly with the anti-Beijing CIA-funded cult Falun Gong. This radical group has been banned from China since 1999. It is readily and consistently used by the CIA as a propaganda weapon against China.
In these propaganda attacks they routinely claim anecdotal evidence of Beijing-sponsored organ harvesting and killing of religious minorities. Though pushing itself as a meditation group, its leader Li Hongzhi is based in the USA. He promotes the idea that he has magical powers that keep the forces of evil from destroying the world.
Bannon most recently produced the Falun Gong-funded film “Claws of the Red Dragon”. This kind of action put him into the same boat as his left-handed mirror image George Soros who also supports the Falun Gong. He does so through Open Society Foundation’s Freedom House.
Of course, Soros wants World War III on American soil. He said so many, many times in public.
Here’s New York City…
The rest of the world “does not play”. Expect any toying around with the internal affairs of a major superpower will result in nuclear detonations up and down the American coastline.
The contradiction arising from this alliance of pro-Trump sociopaths working with anti-Trump sociopaths only makes sense when you look at the anti-human game from the top down rather than the bottom up.
It is here, that we start getting a fuller picture of the nature of the false ‘left vs right’ game being played. We look at a City of London-based think tank which Bannon leads. It is called the Dignitas Humanitae Institute. And it operates alongside 5 other highly connected figures which were recently exposed in a powerful expose . This expose by journalist Stan Ezrol described Bannon’s four other co-patrons of this Catholic group as…
“Archduke Otto Von Habsburg, successor to the throne of the Holy Roman Emperor when it was dissolved; His Royal Highness Charles of Bourbon Two Sicilies and Duke of Castro, a leading figure in the anti-Renaissance wing of European nobility; Field Marshal the Lord Guthrie GCB (Knight of the Grand Cross), LVO (Lieutenant of the Victorian Order), OBE (Order of the British Empire); and Father Matthew Festing.”
The forces managing this international battle are desperately afraid of the fact that western and eastern renaissance traditions may be awakened in the face of the existential crisis facing the human species today.
These groups are very much aware that the essential character of any society fit to survive is rooted on certain moral principles that are found in both Christian and Confucian cultures alike, making the USA and China potentially very strong and organic allies.
When one reads the writings of such founding fathers of either great nation as Dr. Benjamin Franklin or Dr. Sun Yatsen, the common moral worldview and sense of human nature as a species made in the image of the creator endowed with inalienable rights is electric.
Both Dr. Benjamin Franklin (USA) and Dr. Sun Yatsen (China) believed that governments are made by man to serve under Rights given by the divine creator.
This is a concept which Hong Kong rioters, Taiwan militarists, Open Society ideologues and right wing Bannonites know nothing about.
George Soros, through his Open Society network, is actively pushing for the United States to be involved in wars domestically and globally. He intends to destroy America completely and that is why he is funding and supporting Neocon efforts to entangle the United States into global warfare with nuclear armed nations.
Today, Xi Jinping and President Putin exemplify this common outlook wonderfully. As their alliance has transformed the international rules of the game on every level. If Trump wasn’t constrained by such bigoted agents as Cruz, Bannon or the rabid hive of leftist hacks frothing at the mouth for impeachment, then the USA would make an organic ally in this new multi-polar alliance.
If not, it will be China and Russia that will align, and the USA will be on it’s own.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is issuing a warning, one Americans need to pay attention to before US politicians take us past the point of no return, if they haven't done so already.
While the media in Russia is "state-run," meaning that one never knows how much is true or how much is propaganda, the flip side of that particular coin is that nothing goes out over it without the express permission, or instigation of Russian leadership, so it is clear that when their articles are written or news spoken, it is exactly what Putin wants the world to know.
With that said, the very first paragraph of Russia Today's editorial titled "America tuned out as Congress bangs war drum against Russia," which states that US House resolution 758 has "brought the nation one step closer to all-out-war with Russia," is a dire warning directly from Russia to the populace of the United States.
Future historians - that is, assuming there are humans still around to contemplate history - may one day point to House Resolution 758 as the single piece of legislation that sparked a global conflagration between two leading nuclear powers.
The article also goes on to take a look at House resolution 758, breaking it down, giving a birds-eye view of how Russian leadership views these actions on the part of the US Congress and it appears that things are about to get much uglier.
Read the whole article over at RT.
We need to take a fucking serious look at who we are picking fights with. Not everyone will stand by, bend over, and allow them to get fucked over.
Here’s Washington, D.C…
Nothing can quite ruin your day like global thermonuclear war can.
Conclusion
Both sides of the political spectrum (in the United States) are pushing President Trump towards war. It feeds the neocon agenda. It provides a great distraction of the public from domestic malfeasance, and allows the wealthy oligarchy to loot and profit from “American nation rebuilding efforts”.
Only this time, the stakes are higher and the nations selected will fight back.
They will fight back on American soil.
You know, it might be all Gung-Ho to say “Bring it on!”, the fact is no one wants to see America turned into a radioactive wasteland. But, that is exactly what will happen unless these neocons are corralled up and subdued.
I’m just a lone voice in the wilderness. But please listen to what I have to say. I am begging. I am pleading with you all.
400 kilometers northeast of Bombay there is a circular 2,154-metre-diameter crater, the Lonar crater. It has been dated at less than 50,000 years old, and could conceivably be related to a nuclear attack or mishap of antiquity.
No traces of any expected meteoric material has ever been found in the vicinity, and this is the world's only known "impact" crater in solid basalt. Indications of a tremendous shock exceeding 600,000 atmospheres combined with intense, sudden heat has been determined.
In Rajasthan, India ten miles west of Jodhpur -there is a heavy layer of radioactive ash ,it covers about three-square miles. Scientists investigated the site. It has been noted that has always been a very high rate of birth defects and cancer in the area. The levels of radiation there registered so high on investigators' gauges that the Indian government cordoned off the region.
- Nuclear Warfare in Ancient India
Nuclear war would send America back to the stone age. It might never recover.
If you enjoyed this article, take heart that more articles of a similar nature can be found here:
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
Here’s an on-going post that collects what amounts to “sign posts” to a second American civil war.
The gathering storm, so long denied, is now so strong as to be uncontainable. The quarter from which it will break is in doubt, that it will break is not. We'll discover who the real preppers are after the first hard blasts roll across the land. In war this is known as "first contact with the enemy", the violent unraveling of faulty imagining that exposes the viable core, if any. -The Woodpile Report 24DEC19
Oklahoma Republican state Sen. Jonathan Nichols was found dead Friday, making him the second GOP state senator to be shot to death in the last two days.
Police reportedly found Nichols, 53, dead by a gunshot wound in Norman, Oklahoma, Wednesday night. His death comes two days after police reportedly discovered former Arkansas Republican state Sen. Linda Collins-Smith dead from a gunshot wound and wrapped in some kind of blanket.
Republicans start to speculate…
Ya think?
Some people are suggesting that since everything is so polarized in
the USA today, that a conflict could break out any moment. Uh. Maybe.
It’s just that conflicts are NOT organic. They are planned.
They anticipated Nationwide gun confiscation by the second year into
her term. And, the start of genocide against their opposition in 2020 –
2021 time frame.
Hillary Clinton Elected in 2016.
Gun related Massacre in 2017 (Los Vegas)
Gun collection and restrictions 2018 through 2019.
Hillary Clinton Reelection 2020
Ramp up of “White Privilege” propaganda. 2020.
Round-ups of people 2021.
Genocide to begin 2021 through 2025.
I argue that the plans are still in play, simply because there is every evidence that the preparations are still in place.
The progressive socialists and their leadership; the oligarchy, are
just “biding their time” until they can obtain Obama-level control over
the government again.
Let’s see what happens, and please ignore the news as it’s just all
speculation. The situation is in flux and “our side” is losing.
Names like Comey, McCabe, Ohr, Brennan, Clapper, Rice, Yates, Strzok, Page, Clinton, Abedin, and Lynch have now been emblazoned in the minds of most Americans.
Not only because they are or were powerful, but because they are members of the ruling elites who have allegedly committed crimes for which none of them have been prosecuted.
-Townhall
Civil wars happen when the victimized are armed. Genocide happens when they are not. Take care. Know your history.
Conservatives start to realize that a hot war is in the making…
13AUG19
In
short, minions of Leftardia and Stupidia, you have blundered into a
minefield, on a pogo stick. Stop what you’re doing, tiptoe out, and pray
to whatever deity you think appropriate that you get away with your
skins.
Because if you insist on pushing your revolution, you’re going to get
the war of which you cannot grasp, and the results of which you cannot
even conjure in your wildest fever-swamp nightmares.
Mainstream conservatives start to arm up.
Which brings me to the main point of this piece. It’s imperative those of us who can see the bigger picture stay as focused and as humane as possible while things fall apart.
It’s possible to fight for what’s right without dehumanizing other people. We must resist all efforts by the media, pundits and even those around us to suck us into the collective insanity vortex infecting people across the political spectrum.
After all, if we don’t, who will?
Things falling apart is never fun or safe; it never has been. Something else will surely replace that which is going away, and the best we can do is try to ensure the world of the future builds upon the best of what came before, while discarding the destructive and unethical.
It means being honest about what’s good about the current system and what’s rotten to the core. It’s not all bad, but it wasn’t the end of history either.
Yes, we’re entering a period of increased turmoil on a global basis, but the future is still ours to make. Let’s make it a good one.
-Liberty Blitz
Conservatives Wake Up
The base is woke and the Establishment’s a joke. I speak to a lot of conservative groups of various types and flavors: hardcore tea partiers, patriotic vets, loyal radio listeners, besieged students, brass New Yorkers, even rich country club types who you would think were into Jeb! – you know, diversity. And lately, I’ve tended to start off my talks by posing this question:
“Okay, who here agrees with me that the left wants us enslaved or dead?”
Every hand goes up.
Every single one of them.
That’s our base.
Folks, our base is hella woke.
And they love Trump, because Trump has delivered the oven-fresh, piping hot conservatism they ordered.
- The GOP Base Is Done Tolerating RINO Collaboration With The Democrats
Most conservatives realize that a tipping point has been reached.
October 12, 2019
We Have Reached The Tipping Point
Posted on October 12, 2019
I’m just an average guy, seriously.
I’m no brilliant historian/scholar/military strategist/political guru.
Just a working stiff.
But I try to stay abreast of what is going on around me.
What I am noticing lately is a very clear departure from the views from the Right that I saw even a couple of years ago.
Even though I claim to be just another Joe Sixpack, I want you to stop and go read what I wrote over two years ago.
If I really wanted to do some digging, I could go back even farther and point to where I was telling people that we were already in the easily identifiable early stages of a Civil War.
People scoffed at my thoughts at the time.
That nervous laughter has evolved into mutterings and now open recognition of that state of affairs.
Some people are finally catching up.
As a matter of fact, over the time span from then to now, I am seeing more and more, that actual violence is being called for from those perpetual cheek turners who previously denied any such thing was even possible.
All in Self Defense of course. (Wink wink, nod nod)
This low level Cold Civil War is getting ready to go Hot people.
The Left has lost it’s collective fucking mind and thinks it actually has the stroke to win such an unimaginable horror.
The Right has finally figured out these cretins are dead serious.
The Right is now openly spreading the word to arm ourselves and prepare for battle in the streets and from the roof tops.
Just through my usual casual skimming of my Blogrolls I see post after post from Conservative authors spreading that message.
All it is going to take is a spark to light off an unstoppable slaughter of incomprehensible magnitude.
The Left has a handful of Bic lighters and are thumbing the wheels every day now.
What was not too long ago incomprehensible is now a reality.
These people are going to keep escalating until someone or something stops them dead in their tracks.
There will be no Gimme’s and no quarter.
There will be death and misery for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner until the conflagration runs out of fuel to burn.
It is too late to stop it now.
May God forgive us for what we are about to do.
May God forgive us for what we are about to do.
Conservatives get the message out, War is Coming.
Think of what they would do with real power…
Do you think that a leftist Supreme Court majority won’t construe the First Amendment to exclude protection for “hate speech,” by which I mean any thoughts you might wish to express that they object to?
Do you think they won’t turn the federal bureaucracy – including law enforcement – against their political enemies a thousand times harder than before, having been rewarded for the last decade of doing so?
Do you think they won’t start tossing dissenters into prison? They do in England. You can go to jail for a tweet there – and do you think the left thinks that’s a bad thing, or a creative European innovation that needs to be imported?
How about the Second Amendment? Are you kidding? The idea that our citizenry maintains the ultimate veto over tyranny drives them bonkers.
Do you think they won’t use violence to make you conform? Hell, Democrat presidential candidate Eric Swalwell is willing to nuke you for not giving up your guns. We know that because he said so.
It’s time to stop pretending that people who hate our guts don’t hate our guts, and that given the chance they won’t act exactly like people who hate our guts would act.
The time to stop them is now, while we still can peacefully, before they quit tweeting about killing and start doing it beyond the occasional Bernie Bro at a ball field. We need to purge the weakhearts and Fredocons from positions of authority in our movement and be all-in for victory in 2020. In the meantime, we need to aggressively push our campaign to remake the courts. And it sure would not hurt to follow the Founders‘ advice to exercise our Second Amendment rights to reinforce the deterrent to tyranny that is an armed citizenry.
- What Will It Take To Make You Understand And Accept That They Hate You?
Others start to notice and agree…
Thoughts On Our Collective Civil Insanity
Posted by El Borak | Oct 12, 2019 | Culture | 1 |
Every now and then, a nation goes crazy. For whatever reason – it might be collective humiliation or extreme poverty, it might be boredom or despair – an entire people becomes unmoored from reality. It says and does things that in any other time or place would be immediately dismissed as foolishness or even fever dreams. In its confusion and hunger, it turns upon itself, devours itself, rips itself to shreds.
Examples that immediately come to mind are the Weimar Republic in the 1920s and the various revolutionary governments in France in the 1790s. In reading accounts of the period, one will note that people outside of the insanity could scarcely believe what they heard coming from inside it*. One will also note how horribly the regular people caught inside the system suffered.
In both cases, increasing political turbulence led to political violence. Violence led to recrimination. The government, unable or often unwilling to stop it, fell upon itself in coup and intrigue. Men took to the streets. Regular people locked their doors and hid or fled the nation altogether.
Eventually the people had suffered enough and a reactionary strongman arose. The suffering endured by regular people in the interim led them to welcome both Napoleon and Hitler, if only to restore order. Both led them straight into more suffering.
Raise a child up in the way he should go…
There can be little doubt America has gone similarly insane. The highest court in our land is arguing in all seriousness whether a man who thinks he’s a woman deserves employment rather than a strait jacket. Our intelligence services and parts of our legislative branch persist in their extra-legal struggle to remove the sitting executive. Our press lies to us with impunity, and when caught, simply moves on to the next big lie. We print trillions of dollars from nothing to buy ourselves collective comfort. And the people are not horrified; rather most of us are entertained.**
It’s a bad road that goes to a bad place. While conservatives are powerless to even slow this clown car, millions of your fellow citizens are cheering our Progress into insanity. And there’s likely nothing you can do to change that.
That last sentence is a hard statement for most Americans to accept. We are a people made up of doers and problem solvers, entrepreneurs and go-getters. Surely there is something we can do.
There is something you can do: get the hell out of the way. Get your family and whomever else God has put under your authority the hell out of the way. Pray and prepare. Because this road leads to national suffering.
People like to throw the word “coup” around because it’s politically powerful. But they don’t believe that’s truly what we’re seeing. Or they don’t understand all it means. Because if they did, they would realize how many of the functions of modern life, how our financial markets and our web of gas stations and supermarkets, rely on a government that is able to keep peace. A government truly at war with itself cannot keep peace for long. A society that cannot define the word “woman” cannot perpetuate itself for long.
Whether the coup succeeds or not, we have reached a point at which the likelihood of America returning to domestic peace is small. With every university colloquium on the evils of whiteness, with every third world colony planted on our soil, those odds drop further. That means the insanity will grow until the people have suffered enough to bring an end to it by violence***. Be prepared.
* Ambassador Governeur Morris’ dispatches from Paris during the French Revolution are a good example. President Jefferson and his administration almost wholly disbelieved a “republican” government could act as the French one did.** Unless it’s our power that’s turned off. Then we drive from station to darkened station looking for gasoline.*** Those who subscribe to the Fourth Turning thesis (as I do), understand the options for this occurring are legion.
The Democrat Marxists openly drop the facade. They call for the open disarming of all Americans.
Gov. Ralph Northam confirms Virginia already 'working on' gun confiscation now that Democrats are in control ... Democratic Party controls Virginia's legislature, the governorship, lieutenant governorship, attorney general, and both U.S. Senate seats
-The Blaze
Open calls for the Genocide of White Conservative Males…
The progressives are signaling that if you are white and male very bad things are going to happen to you. The cuckservatives are starting to signal that if you are a Trump supporter, then when term limits remove Trump, or the next massively rigged election removes Trump, very bad things are going to happen to you. The cuckservatives hope that if they signal hard enough, it is only going to be white male Trump supporters.
Out of one side of their mouths cuckservatives say that it is absurd to suggest that progressives are proposing the extermination or expulsion of white males, and out of the other side of their mouths they say that if you are a Trump supporter, come the end of the Trump era, you are going to pay.
This is not necessarily a good way of removing Trump. Not in 2020, and not in 2024. In the impeachment vote, every Republican voted party line, which is an extraordinary and startling turn around. This is a vote that signals a hope that Democrats will never be allowed to return to power, and an expectation that such a return may well be prevented.
The Republicans, faced with increasingly dire threats from the enemy have united behind Trump. With the threat in front of them that from henceforth politics is going to played for keepsies, they are going with keeping. And Trumpism is increasingly moving to the position “screw the constitution, if we are ever removed from power, the constitution is dead anyway. Lets grab on to power and hang on for our dear lives.”
White males and white Christians cannot continue to win elections, and cannot afford to lose them.
- Politics played for keeps.
White culture and white history is being demonized and erased. Historically, demonizing a group is usually a prelude to attempting to physically exterminate the group, to physically erase them after culturally erasing them.
Progressives, or at least some progressives whose superior holiness is such that progressives, and even conservatives, are unable to criticize them, are now piously advocating the next step, in the august pages of the New York Times, among other places.
These calls for extermination are couched in ambiguous language. But when someone ambiguously tells you he means to kill you, and fails to clarify that ambiguity, he means to kill you.
If you don’t intend to kill someone, and it sounds like you do intend to kill someone, you are going to clarify. The New York Times and the rest are not clarifying.
The usual terrified cowardly cuckservatives piously tell us that these terrifying threats are “clearly” intended merely to advocate our erasure from the culture and from history, but it is not clear at all. Rather, what is clear is that these terrifying threats are deliberately ambiguous, like the “Liquidation of the kulaks as a class”
...
I read the article as calling for racial violence, but maybe it means something else. If it does mean something else, neither I nor the cuckservatives have any idea what that something else is. It does not say “Time to exterminate the white race” in so many words, but neither did Hitler say “Time to exterminate the Jews” in so many words. If the article is not saying “Time to exterminate the white race” it is profoundly unclear what it is saying. What the article does, however say clearly is that whites simply by existing unavoidably and incurably oppress other groups. What the author proposes to do about this problem is unclear, but she does seem to be implying the obvious solution and denying the possibility of other solutions.
Bronze Age Pervert lists a pile of exterminationist screeds.
The anti-male and anti-White rhetoric of the new left is extreme. The racial attacks on whites in particular approaches exterminationist propaganda seen only in, e.g., the Hutu against the Tutsi in 1990’s Rwanda.
The cuckservatives reply that these screeds are not calling for extermination. Well, they are certainly calling for something, though what they are calling for is not totally clear. If it is not extermination they are calling for, what are they calling for? Nobody calling for extermination ever says plainly what they mean. These sound mighty like past calls for extermination, and they surely do not sound like anything else. If it is not extermination they propose, what are they proposing? They are obviously proposing something. The lack of clarity is par for the course whenever monsters propose monstrous deeds. These are all calls to action. If the action is not “exterminate whitey”, what is it?
...
The Khmer Rouge were full of wrath at foreign educated intellectuals, notwithstanding the fact the Khmer Rouge cadre were composed of foreign educated intellectuals, and very rapidly the Khmer Rouge cadre wiped out the Khmer Rouge cadre. I expect that when Scott Aaronson is informed, somewhat to his surprise, that he is white, he will agree that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. If you are a progressive, and white genocide is on the table, then the way to postpone your execution is to be twice as enthusiastically in favor of it as everyone else. Observe the response of the cuckservatives.
- Genocide on the way.
As everyone who considers themselves to be a Patriot in this
country is very well aware of, the new State Government in Virginia went
Blue and then insane with power.
The Anti Gunners have dropped all pretense of being coy about their
lust for gun confiscation, registration and basically disarming the
general population completely, up to and including making even
practicing illegal if they decide there is intent to train for civil
disobedience.
Outlawing militias, hand to hand self defense training and all manner of insanity manifested via Lawfare.
Rumors of calling in the National Guard to facilitate disarming the population have flown around the internet.
I believe there are over seventy Virginia counties and towns now that
have declared themselves to be Second Amendment Sanctuaries.
Almost all passing unanimously.
Matt also passed on in the video that there is a massive rally
planned in the State Capitol of Richmond on January 20th, 2020 to
protest these new laws and to send a message to the wannabe tyrants in
office.
I found this in the comments under the video, Regarding the mass
rally in Richmond, Virginia January 20th, 2020 that Matt mentioned at
the 16:32 mark – The Virginia Citizens Defense League (https://www.vcdl.org)
will be holding their big Lobby Day Rally on Monday January 20th, 2020
(which also happens to be Martin Luther King Day). Mr. Bracken very
astutely pointed out that if these new laws go into effect and the
Governor feels froggy enough to try and send troops or police around to
implement confiscation, that there will be a bloodbath.
He compared our governments 18 year hubristic adventures in
Afghanistan to what would very likely happen in rural Virginia just to
make a point. What I can see happening is more of a nightmare for
these tyrannical cucks than even they could possibly imagine in their
worst fever dreams.
I can see God Fearing and completely fed up rural Virginians going on
the offense. As Bracken pointed out what we and they already know, they
don’t have enough people to accomplish this Confiscation wet dream. On
their best day.
Add all of the National Guard that Virginia and even possibly a few
other states could muster, all of the State and Local police, remember
most of the Sheriffs have already told them to go pound sand, plus any
Feds they might possibly be able to round up and then put that number
next to the population of seventy counties and towns full of heavily
armed and fighting mad Virginians and start doing some division on
paper.
If I was this dumbass Governor they got, I would be thinking real
hard about sitting the fuck down and shutting the fuck up while I was
ahead. All of these laws they rushed to pass violate the Constitution
without even a hint of legitimacy.
I do believe one of he best visual images I ran across that puts this into perspective is the one I saw over at A Nod To The Gods ,which I swiped fair and square for the purpose of making my point here.
People, this is the law.
So while this Rat Fucker of a Governor, Ralph Northam and his
equally reprehensible accomplices may think that they can just run amok
over peoples God Given rights to defend themselves, our Founding
Fathers were far sighted enough to see his ilk coming a couple hundred
years away and made arrangements to give We The People the ability to
reign that kind of shit in up front and from the back too if necessary.
Virginia is shaping up to be the ultimate test of those decisions
made way back in the late 1700’s. Because I can absolutely guarantee one
thing as sure as the Sun rises in the East, the majority of those
people in those seventy counties and towns are not going to surrender
their guns.
Period.
Whether Governor Ralphie thinks he has the balls to try and take
them remains to be seen but I would bet a weeks paycheck that if he ever
actually tried to force the issue with government guns and enforcers,
he wouldn’t be around to see how it ends.
Most of Virginia sets up enclaves to protect them from the Marxist government.
Tazewell County is taking this threat to the Second Amendment very
seriously. Not only did they pass a Second Amendment Sanctuary
resolution, but they’ve also officially begun to form a militia
With Michael Bloomberg’s help, the Democrats took over the Virginia state congress.
There’s an anti-paramilitary bill that would disallow armed people
to gather or teach others how to use firearms or any technique that
could cause injury or death.
There’s a bill that would make semi-automatic weapons illegal.
Nearly the entire state (aside from the highly populated areas that
elected these yahoos) has balked and formed Second Amendment
sanctuaries.
A legislator threatened the sanctuaries with the National Guard.
The sanctuaries responded by activating an organized militia.
The only real way to prevent bloodshed and save face for the congress and governor is for these bills not to pass.
That would be difficult, though, given the fact that Bloomberg dumped
millions of dollars into getting people elected who promised to pass
strict gun control bills. If they suddenly vote against the bill, they
will have to face their angry constituents and the wrath of Bloomberg.
Rural Virginians seem unlikely to back down and are willing to fight.
They have another month to get organized to defend their communities.
Marxists double down.
[1] Conservative news outlets reporting on the Virginia situation are being threatened and being warned to stop reporting;
“Your reporting about the growing numbers in the militia create a clear and present threat to America. As part of Congress, I’m giving you fair warning that this is the equivalent of shouting ‘fire’ in a movie theater. If your reporting incites violence, or can even be tied to it, we will make sure to charge your editors with felonies,” wrote the person.
[2] They are also being hit by cyber attacks designed to shut down their communication.
The first article we dropped about the growing militias was on Monday. Within two hours, we were hit with several massive cyber attacks. The same happened following articles on Tuesday and on Wednesday.
-Law Enforcement Today
Marxists in other states move forward on the disarming…
Virginia counties considering leaving the state. 16JAN19.
The West Virginia Senate adopted a resolution to remind Virginia residents from Frederick County that they have a standing invite — from 1862 — to become part of West Virginia.
West Virginia freedom fighters broke away from Virginia Democrat slave owners during the Civil War. This week West Virginia has once again invited persecuted Virginia pro 2-A counties to come join their state. LINK.
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This article discusses the current preparations for war on going in the state of Virginia. This is a war between conservative patriots, and progressive Marxists. It’s a war between then the urban cities and the rural areas. In many ways, it is shaping up to resemble the Bosnia civil war in general scope with elements of the Rwandan genocide being planned for in the urban areas.
It is my sincere hope that things can be diffused shortly. However, the build up of tensions is proceeding unabated, and it appears to be intentional.
America today. We are at a point of no return.
First, the sides
The sides have already been established early on. One one side you have the conservative, traditional patriots. They reside in the predominantly rural areas and typically vote Republican and voted Trump into office. They fiercely defend free speech, free association, and the right to bear arms. They are very, very tired of progressive Marxism being rammed down their collective throats, and it appears their angst has reached a breaking point.
They follow and believe in the Constitution, both State and Federal, as written.
“It is the responsibility of the patriot to protect his country from its government.”
—Thomas Paine
Advertisement catering to the American patriot.
On the other side you have the progressive socialist Marxists. They voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. They have been funded from enormous cash donations out of state, and even out of country. They have big business, and big government, and big landholders and the big oligarchy on their side. They pretty much reside in the urban areas and the richest and wealthiest counties.
The progressive activists come in different shapes, sizes and an amazing array of names. They go from democrat socialists, to communists, to liberals, to progressives, to social activists. They have armed groups that range from the Black Panthers, to the BLM and the Antifa. They all believe in replacing the United States Constitution with a more malleable document where they can control everything.
The break down between these two groups can easily be illustrated on the 2016 election map, by country, for Virginia in 2016.
The break down between these two groups can easily be illustrated on the 2016 election map, by country, for Virginia in 2016.
Second, the violations of Rights
Expert Tip – Never hand in your weapons to the government.
Well, after intense funding from outside the state, and a lack of interest in the Republican “wishy-washy” candidates, the progressive socialist democrat Marxists took control of all the levers of power in Virginia.
This newly elected democrat majority wants to ban the majority of firearms in the state. They want to ban everything about firearms. They want to ban ownership, transport, training and even mentioning having a gun.
The German genocidal events are well known to most Americans over the age of 40. Not so well known to the younger generations. The Nazi Germans "purged" the German society of "undesirables" which included just about EVERYONE except the "chosen" Arian race.
Hitler gun ban meme.
As such the newly elected socialist / Marxist democrats wasted no time “rubber stamping” pre-written anti-gun legislation…
Four
years after the government passed the anti-gun ownership legislation,
the Christians were all collected and rounded up by armed militia,
soldiers and local police forces. They were collected in the schools,
town centers, and formed into groups. Then they were either killed
outright, or sent on death marches into the hot barren desert.
They want people to turn in their weapons, New Zealand style, and barring that go house to house to search and confiscate the weapons. Those that do not comply will be arrested and given felony convictions.
It’s a scene right out of the 1984 movie “Red Dawn”.
FEMA camp scene from the 1984 movie “Red Dawn”. Where people were rounded up because of their association with weapons. Here, Harry Dean Stanton gave the legendary line, “AVENGE ME!”
Why this is contentious.
The political “talking points” is that all this is “common sense gun control”.
However, the real reason is to wrest control of the United States from the people. This is a long-duration effort that has been on-going for over a century, and now the only thing standing in the way of this takeover are clusters of armed citizens.
The idea is to disarm the citizens and begin the standard socialist takeover of the nation. Already, [1] the socialist Marxists have gained control of almost every government institution, and has molded it in their image. They have also [2] taken over many of the largest private institutions as well. In addition, they have also [3] been funding and arming socialist Marxist agitators.
Everything is falling into place.
Antifa receiving weapons, logistics and strategy training under the CIA alongside the ISS fighters in Syria.
For those of you that don’t know what this means, I’ll tell you. It means complete and utter genocide of the opposition.
It’s “common sense” genocide.
Like this… (Opens up in a different tab.)
In case you, the reader, think that I am exaggerating, read up on this subject. I have a six part study of this, and it is very important to read. The first post will take you into the series. Click on the link below, and it will open up in a different browser tab.
Oh, and don’t think that you will be able to sit this one out…
Ahhh, but don’t listen to me. Listen and get a second opinion, like this…
Gun Control “wet dreams”. Here is a second opinion on this subject.
Our protections…
Aside from a direct violation of the second Amendment in the Bill of RIGHTS…
Right to Bear Arms
Passed by Congress September 25, 1789. Ratified December 15, 1791. The first 10 amendments form the Bill of Rights
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
It is also a violation of the Fourth Amendment to the Bill of RIGHTS. For these laws talk about going house to house, searching for firearms and seizing them, and arresting the people in the house for good measure.
Search and Seizure
Passed by Congress September 25, 1789. Ratified December 15, 1791. The first 10 amendments form the Bill of Rights
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Another opinion…
There isn’t any “due process” in any of these Democrat actions on gun control.
To these people, it’s as if the Bill of Rights does not exist, and that elected officials can make what ever rules and laws they want, selectively enforce them and the people; the citizens have absolutely zero say in the matter.
The American Bill of Rights does not exist if the government does not protect it.
This subject is also covered here (opens up in a separate tab.)…
Tazewell County has formed an official active militia.
Tazewell County has formed an official active militia as per the Second Amendment to the Constitution. This is in response to the actions of Virginia lawmakers that (immediately upon election) passed a very draconian gun control bill. A bill that is in violation of both the Federal and the Virginia Bill of Rights.
Tazewell County has formed an official active militia as per the Second Amendment to the Constitution.
The foundation and the authority for Tazewell County to take this action is the Constitution itself;
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
"To all of those who like to mock gun owners and ask if they’re going to fight tyranny in a militia, Virginia’s answer is a clear and adamant “yes.” That’s exactly what they’re planning to do."
Background
Daisy Luther has been tracking this issue aggressively on her website The Organic Prepper. I can find no source finer and better researched than hers on this issue…
After the most recent election, the state’s House and Senate are both Democrat majorities and they haven’t wasted a moment in attempting to gut the gun laws in what has historically been a permissive state.
The so-called “assault weapon ban” is SB16 and has that perilously vague wording we all know to be incredibly dangerous. In some interpretations, this law, if it passes, could make illegal the ownership or transportation of any semi-automatic gun because extendable magazines are available for it – and you don’t even have to have the extendable mags. (source)
I personally do not know if the progressive Marxist democrats in the United States realize that they are going to experience some “push back”, or if the “triggers” are intentional to start open warfare. I just don’t know.
Maybe they just think we are all stupid, dumb hicks that will obey what ever they tell us because we are not as bright and enlightened as they.
The Reaction
In a series of rapidly changing developments, Virginia is undergoing wholesale rebellion by rural and even suburban counties, rejecting the oppressive gun control agenda recently revealed by the new incoming Democrat-controlled legislature.
Gun owners all across Old Dominion have been up in arms since anti-gun forces took the House and Senate in the recent election and are now preparing to resist having their arms taken from them in any way possible.
-Gun Rights Watch
That’s pretty much it.
You can chip away at every Right in the book , but when you start taking away the 2nd amendment… the very last roadblock to mass slaughter, genocide and tyranny, patriots will put their foot down.
And they have.
Counties across the state quickly organized into Second Amendment sanctuaries.
The speed at which they reacted is a testament to how furious they are that their state government now wishes to infringe on their rights.
An even dozen counties have passed gun owner sanctuary resolutions already, with new ones coming on a near-daily basis.
-Gun Rights Watch
The idea behind this is that the counties, as Second Amendment sanctuaries, would disregard any law that violates either the Federal or State Rights protecting firearm ownership, use and training.
The county-level defensive tactic that began originally in Oregon close to a decade ago, then popularized in Illinois, has spread to over a dozen states. It comes as no surprise that with few other options and little to lose, many communities in the state are vowing not to take part in any gun confiscation schemes or enforcement of unconstitutional laws designed to make private citizens less able to defend themselves.
Now, compare this map to the 2016 election map at the first part of this post. Obviously the battle lines are forming and the progressive tyrannical democrat Marxists want to disarm all traditional conservatives.
Then they have other things that they intend to do. It’s the historical norm. Don’t you know.
Other things…
South Africa. Once the socialist Marxists gain control, they purge all opposition by using military armed police. Do you think that those dead bodies on the ground had firearms? Do you think that they were trained in how to shoot, and oppose the ruling Marxists in power? This is what a Marxist progressive socialist utopia looks like. It is South Africa today. The disarmed people are turning over their farms, vehicles, and property for an increasingly hungry Marxist government.
The Reaction from the Tyrannical Marxists…
This reaction of taking proactive steps, as opposed to the nearly uniform sheep-like behavior of the past few centuries took the Marxists by surprise. Their reaction was totalitarian.
What?!?!
The sheep (serf-slaves) won't obey us? Well, that just won't go. Jeeves, please fetch me my jewel-encrusted phone. Yes. Now, quickly, don't you know, my masseuse is due in five minutes...
George. George Soros, please. Yes.
What should we do? The plantation is in open rebellion. What would you advise?
Oh, yes. That's right.
Kill the fuckers. Show them who's boss...
State Representative Donald MacEachin (D) was the first to suggest calling up the National Guard to squelch the rebellion…
McEachin also noted that Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam could call the National Guard, if necessary.
“And ultimately, I’m not the governor, but the governor may have to nationalize the National Guard to enforce the law,” he said. “That’s his call, because I don’t know how serious these counties are and how severe the violations of law will be. But that’s obviously an option he has.” (source)
This reaction was historical.
Which is to say, it follows the model of a tyrannical takeover predictably and unequivocally. It’s historical and follows the same tried and true application of seize, suppress, repress and implement tyranny.
There is no fucking way that Americans are going to allow the government to take away their rights, and implement genocide on them and their families.
There is no fucking way that Americans are going to allow the government to take away their rights, and implement genocide on them and their families.
No. Fucking. Way.
The progressive Marxists are delusional to believe that it will ever happen without a fight.
So they began to contemplate calling in the military to disarm, arrest, and subjugate the citizens of Virginia.
Adolf Hitler addressing his military telling them that they need to round up Jews, and undesirables, disarm them all for the good of the nation.
The National Guard’s Response
Maj. Gen. Timothy P. Williams, the Adjutant General of Virginia’s National Guard responded rather vaguely via Twitter.
We have received multiple questions regarding proposed legislation for the 2020 General Assembly session and the authority of the Governor of Virginia to employ the Virginia National Guard in a law enforcement role.
We understand and respect the passion people feel for the U.S. Constitution and 2nd Amendment rights. We will not speculate about the possible use of the Virginia National Guard.
— Va. National Guard (@VaNationalGuard) December 13, 2019
The responses in the Twitter thread were very interesting and suggest a firestorm is brewing…
A militia is forming in Virginia
Tazewell County, a county on the mountainous West Virginia border, is taking this threat to the Rights of citizens very seriously. In their minds, the government has completely failed them that that the time has long past for passive acceptance of tyranny. They believe that they need to take strong, unequivocal, and proactive measures to assure that their Rights will remain intact and in place.
The militia is constantly made fun of by the mainstream American media, however there is nothing wrong with demanding that people obey the Constitution. When the government stops following it, and then starts to break every single law in the book, true patriots will not allow it to pass. They will fight back and wrest control back to them.
So, not only did they pass a Second Amendment Sanctuary resolution, but they’ve also officially begun to form an armed, and active militia.
Just this past Tuesday, on December 10th, the Board of Supervisors from Tazewell County passed two different resolutions in light of controversy circling those who are pro-gun.
The first resolution declared the county to be a second amendment sanctuary. This is not at all surprising to see, as 76 out of 95 counties, 9 out of 38 independent cities, and 13 towns have adopted second amendment sanctuary resolutions.
The second item on the agenda was the proposition of establishing a militia in the county. When both of the resolutions passed, the crowd cheered loudly in support of the decisions.
Also, the resolutions didn’t exactly pass by a small margin; the votes were unanimous, with more than 200 citizens standing by in support.
-Law Enforcement Today (source)
County Administrator Eric Young explained why the county has opted to form a militia.
“Our position is that Article I, Section 13, of the Constitution of Virginia reserves the right to ‘order’ militia to the localities.
Therefore, counties, not the state, determine what types of arms may be carried in their territory and by whom. So, we are ‘ordering’ the militia by making sure everyone can own a weapon.”
Thus, if anyone from the state (government) tries to remove the Sheriff from their elected office because they refuse to enforce unjust laws, those state officials will be faced with a lawful militia composed of citizens within the state.
- Tazewell County Administrator Eric Young (source)
Arming up and readying for battle
This article explains the extensive training being offered by Tazewell County to its citizens. This is being done in order to make sure everyone is acting safely and responsibly.
“Coincidentally,” there’s an anti-paramilitary bill on the table.
It’s probably no coincidence that at the same time militias are forming, there’s also a bill to make them illegal. The anti-paramilitary bill SB64 has thrown kerosene on an already brilliant inferno.
This bill, once it becomes law, will make learning how to shoot a weapon a felony. It will be equal to that of rape of a child, or selling hard drugs to infants.
The future of anyone who has any association with guns, gun organizations, shooting, shooting clubs, or hunting. This is a scene from the Bosnia conflict. Take note that all these rounded up men, every single one in this picture, was killed and found buried in a mass grave five years later.
Obviously, the radical progressive Marxists want a conflict. They do so, obviously in the belief, that they will persevere and win this conflict.
Here’s some of the text of that bill.
§ 18.2-433.2. Paramilitary activity prohibited; penalty.A person shall be is guilty of unlawful paramilitary activity, punishable as a Class 5 felony if he:
1. Teaches or demonstrates to any other person the use, application, or making of any firearm, explosive, or incendiary device, or technique capable of causing injury or death to persons, knowing or having reason to know or intending that such training will be employed for use in, or in furtherance of, a civil disorder; or
2. Assembles with one or more persons for the purpose of training with, practicing with, or being instructed in the use of any firearm, explosive, or incendiary device, or technique capable of causing injury or death to persons, intending to employ such training for use in, or in furtherance of, a civil disorder; or3. Assembles with one or more persons with the intent of intimidating any person or group of persons by drilling, parading, or marching with any firearm, any explosive or incendiary device, or any components or combination thereof.
-(source)
Obviously, this is not a coincidence.
They predicted how rural Virginians would respond to their gun-grabbing actions. Their plan all along was to confiscate guns and turn any organized resistance into a felony.
The “fall back” position is to “register the guns” instead of an outright seizure. But that is just buying time. The truth is that history tells us that ALL registration of weapons WILL result in collection efforts, followed by the obligatory genocide of the disarmed. Gun registration is the “Albanian method” of genocide.
The Virginia Legislators are committing treason.
There could hardly be anything more unconstitutional than SB64. When you violate the Constitution you commit treason.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
They are violating their oath.
This is the pledge these legislators swore:
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge all the duties incumbent upon me as ………. according to the best of my ability, (so help me God).”
-(source)
Every person in the government who has sworn this oath yet supports these unconstitutional bills should be immediately recalled as well as tried criminally. This is long overdue, and because of this lack of policing of the elected officials, we have found ourselves within this mess.
When the government stops policing the very structure of the national Constitution, the door opens wide for the usurpation by people with evil intent.
This strategy was orchestrated by someone with a lot of money and power.
Daisy Luther framed this situation quite presciently. She said…
This is something that has been thought through, perhaps even by gun control advocate and presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg. The reason I’m suggesting Bloomberg specifically is that his PAC donated millions and millions of dollars to turn the legislatures of 24 states to a Democrat majority.
His millions worked in 21 of those cases, and Virginia is one of them. Packing the state legislatures with allies would help his agenda should he actually become the next president. Records filed so far show that organizations controlled and funded by Mr. Bloomberg spent more than $41 million on 24 House races, much of it on eye-catching ads rolled out on social media and broadcast on television in the crucial final days of the campaign.
And while it’s impossible to conclude that any one factor tipped the balance in a race, Mr. Bloomberg appears to have reaped the benefits of his millions in giving.
Democrats won 21 of the 24 races he sought to influence. Of those, 12 had been considered either tossups or in Republican districts. “The mission was to flip the House. Success or failure would be defined by that,” said Howard Wolfson, a senior adviser to Mr. Bloomberg. (source)
Bloomberg is rabidly anti-gun and has said that ending “the nationwide madness of U.S. gun violence” is the impetus behind his run for the White House. If he were to be elected, may God help America, because he will destroy everything for which our nation has ever stood.
Here’s the summary on what’s happening in Virginia
It’s funny because it is so very true. Girls and guns. So very funny.
Let’s look at all these facts together.
With Michael Bloomberg’s help, the Democrats took over the Virginia state congress.
There’s an anti-paramilitary bill that would disallow armed people
to gather or teach others how to use firearms or any technique that
could cause injury or death.
There’s a bill that would make semi-automatic weapons illegal.
Nearly the entire state (aside from the highly populated areas that
elected these yahoos) has balked and formed Second Amendment
sanctuaries.
A legislator threatened the sanctuaries with the National Guard.
The sanctuaries responded by activating an organized militia.
The only real way to prevent bloodshed and save face for the congress and governor is for these bills not to pass.
What happens when only the government has guns.
That would be difficult, though, given the fact that Bloomberg dumped
millions of dollars into getting people elected who promised to pass
strict gun control bills. If they suddenly vote against the bill, they
will have to face their angry constituents and the wrath of Bloomberg.
Rural Virginians seem unlikely to back down and are willing to fight.
They have another month to get organized to defend their communities.
Remember that in situations such as these, the rumor mill works overtime. There are a lot of reports that are exaggerated.
The truth is bad enough that we don’t need to add far-fetched theories to the mix.
History is terrible enough and crazy enough that all you need to do is read the “lessons learned” from the handful of survivors of Socialist / Marxist genocides.
This article is a very good, common-sense breakdown of fact vs. fiction, although some vehemently disagree with the assessment that the government will not turn off communications and power for the sanctuary areas.
It’s certainly not impossible to imagine that drastic measures could be taken.
Very Puzzling.
What will happen next remains to be seen, but it is no exaggeration to say that the future of our country is now riding on the response of Virginians, should these unconstitutional laws pass.
Conclusion
These articles will either pass or not.
If they pass, there will be “push back” from the conservative patriots against the Marxist democrats.
If they do not pass, then there will be a short (perhaps two to three years) while the progressive Marxists regroup and rethink a strategy that will enable them to attain their goals to their benefit.
And that is the way it is.
This is when the bullet meets the bone.
Thus, the first volley into CWII and SHTF is in progress. Make sure that you have achieved all your prepper goals, mapped out strategies and have back-up plans in the event that things do not go in your favor.
There
is a direct link between gun collection and genocide. It is the
historical norm. However, most people are ignorant of history, and
others don’t care. They openly want genocide… against their neighbors.
They never think that it could be used against them.
Best of luck, and God’s grace.
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because I just don’t care to.
Here we look at the protests in Hong Kong and who is funding and training them. For they are using sophisticated urban combat techniques, as well as creating very sophisticated bombs, and handmade weapons. Obviously, some agent wants this group to cause damage and trouble in Hong Kong.
Who are they, and who funds them?
I pretty much sat down and wrote most of this after reading the onslaught of negative news reporting out of the USA after the Senate passed an anti-China resolution regarding HK and American businesses operating inside of China.
U.S. Senate Passes Hong Kong Democracy Bill, Drawing …
I don't like lies and characterizations in general, but this affects me personally, and it thus pisses me off.
To quote Q;
Control of narrative = control of public opinion
Control of public opinion = power
How do you control the narrative?
Information warfare.
Q
Well for starters, for the most part, the most radical instigators are not Hong Kong citizens. The instigators are NOT the “figureheads”, they are educated agitators, with knowledge in urban warfare, and close combat strategies.
Those “leaders”, “trainers” and “agitators” that have been captured by police are neither students, nor (in most cases) Hong Kong residents. While the vast bulk of the protestors are indeed, HK residents, their leadership is not.
What’s going on?
The demonstrations in Hong Kong, now an open confrontation with the People’s Republic of China, have a global impact. So, as such, what are the forces behind this movement? Who provides the funds and who stands to benefit?
Who?
Protests in Hong Kong routinely carry the US flag and photos of Donald Trump.
The increasingly violent demonstrations in Hong Kong are completely embraced and enthusiastically supported by the United States government, including Donald Trump, the US Congress and the Senate. The American news media is having a near feeding frenzy over all this news, and the U.S. corporate media is eating it all up.
This should be a danger sign to everyone fighting for change and for social progress. U.S. imperialism is never disinterested or neutral. It’s always for a objective.
The protesters now use the same violent methods that were used in the Maidan protests in the Ukraine. The U.S. seems to hope that China will intervene and create a second Tianamen scene.
That U.S. color revolution attempt failed but was an excellent instrument to demonize China.
A repeat in Hong Kong would allow the U.S. to declare a "clash of civilization" and increase 'western' hostility against China. But while China is prepared to intervene it is unlikely to do the U.S. that favor. Its government expressed confidence that the local authorities will be able to handle the issue.
-Moon Over Alabama
That objective is almost always to institute a “puppet government” taking the form of a dictatorship under the disguise of “fighting for democracy”. It’s a model that has worked for many decades, and should be so well known by now to everyone…
The Vietnam war was for democracy.
The Kuwait war was for democracy.
The Iraq war was for democracy.
The Grenada war was for democracy.
The Panama war was for democracy.
The Libyan war was for democracy.
The Yemen war was for democracy.
Now, the war drums are for what? Democracy?
A war in Hong Kong for democracy…
Only this time it isn’t against a long tiny third-world back-water nation. It will not be Libya, Yemen, Syria, or Grenada. This would be a war against China, on Chinese soil.
And China will fight back…
…in a nuclear fashion.
Why does China want Hong Kong?
Well, Hong Kong was always a part of China. The English seized the city during the Opium Wars, as part of a treaty that put an end to one of the steps of English aggression against China. Even then, the English only got a 99 year lease. That expired towards the end of the 20th century.
China was of course happy to see a part of their country that had been stolen by the English returned to them.
Can't really think of an example where the USA has had a portion of its nation stolen from them, but it isn't hard to imagine that they'd want it back. They were certainly willing to kill a lot of people just to get back a part of America that seceded and tried to tell the Yankees that they weren't all that into them anyways.
-Posted by: Who Dat | Aug 14 2019 15:51 utc | MOA
And make no mistake about it, parsing the details to confuse Americans will not work on the global audience. You would be dealing against a nuclear-armed global super-power. How do you seriously think it’s going to pan out? Are you willing to engage in nuclear war with Russia and China simultaneously? Because, that’s what’s going to happen…
And make no mistake about this either, China (even if alone) is no slouch in the ICBM, MIRV nuclear arena. They would “kick some ass” and have enough left over…
For decades, the United States has taken China’s ballistic missile capability for granted, assessing it as a low-capability force with limited regional impact and virtually no strategic value. But on October 1, during a massive military parade celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Beijing put the U.S., and the world, on notice that this assessment was no longer valid.
In one fell swoop, China may have nullified America’s strategic nuclear deterrent, the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and U.S. missile defense capability. Through its impressive display of new weapons systems, China has underscored the reality that while the United States has spent the last two decades squandering trillions of dollars fighting insurgents in the Middle East, Beijing was singularly focused on overcoming American military superiority in the Pacific. If the capabilities of these new weapons are taken at face value, China will have succeeded on this front.
Nothing is what it appears. It’s all manipulations and lies to mask the true purposes.
Those that want confrontation with Beijing are delusional, and you are, in a few short years, going to pay the price of their idiocy.
The official statement of the Chinese Embassy in the Russian Federation regarding the events in Hong Kong (in Russian).
The words at the end of the statement are very revealing, given the recent intentional provocations and riots of a bunch of marginals (aka "Russian liberal opposition") in Moscow:
A comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction have been established between China and the Russian Federation in a new era. Both countries have been unjustly charged for their level of freedom, democracy, and human rights. We are confident that we will meet the same attitude among the general public of the Russian Federation on the issues of Xiangang. We are confident in the understanding by the Russians of the determination and perseverance of China in protecting state prestige and sovereignty.
- Posted by: alaff | Aug 14 2019 16:23 utc | MoA
Manipulation in Hong Kong
One of the most significant examples of US aggression against China is the instigation of a color protest or color revolution in Hong Kong. The aim is to provoke China into reacting harshly and violently, which would reinforce the Western perception that China is heavy-handed, tyrannical and totalitarian. China has already moved troops to its southern mainland border, just across the water from Hong Kong. It is possible that another US objective is to push the protestors into declaring Hong Kong independent of China. There are some who say the Hong Kong protests are a grassroots affair. There is usually a grassroots element to many of these protests, but almost always the bigger factor in the shadows is US interference (or US-UK, or US-UK-Israeli, interference). Here is a very telling comment about the Hong Kong protests found under the article Violent Protests In Hong Kong Reach Their Last Stage on the MoonOfAlabama.org website.“The Extradition Law revision that started this was only a convenient proxy for those wanting chaos in HK to create chaos. The instigators behind the initial protest march are the same ones who started Occupy Central five years ago. They are the ones who huddle with operatives from US/UK Consulates, who travelled to the Washington/London/Brussel/Taipei, etc. to see politicians and plot strategies, to arrange for funding, and to recruit dare devils for the carnage. Lucky for them that HK was ripe for such shenanigans because HKers in general are sullen over their loss of superiority complex against mainland Chinese, brainwashed subconsciously through schools and churches about CCP wickedness, and desperately stressed under HK’s economic realities. Most of the protesters don’t even know what the Extradition Law is all about …”“The instigators, however, are well versed in all the intricacies. They know who they can easily recruit and order to do violence … they know the fifth column within the government and business … If large casualties result what do they care? … [T]hey know their foreign backers are only too glad to see Chinese killing Chinese …”“By the way, the US Consulate in HK has over 1,000 on payroll (an estimated 200 CIA agents), UK’s is over 500 (among them MI6 agents). That size of consulate in a city of less than 400 sq. miles of land (over half of which mountainous) is a laughable anomaly, wouldn’t you think? What are they all there for?”
-The Freedom Articles
The disruptive actions involve helmeted and masked protesters using gasoline bombs, flaming bricks, arson and steel bars, random attacks on buses, and airport and mass transit shutdowns.
HK protestors are set on burning down the entire city.
Among the most provocative acts was an organized break-in at the Hong Kong legislature where “activists” vandalized the building and hung the British Union Jack flag. As well as burning down a university campus.
U.S., British and Hong Kong’s colonial flags are prominent in these
confrontations, along with defaced flags and other symbols of People’s
China.
A man inspects a Bestmart store which was vandalised during Sunday’s anti-government protest in Hong Kong, China, October 21, 2019. REUTERS/Umit Bektas
The New York Times described the airport shutdown:
“The protests at the airport have been deeply tactical, as the largely leaderless movement strikes at a vital economic artery. Hong Kong International Airport, which opened in 1998, the year after China reclaimed the territory from Britain, serves as a gateway to the rest of Asia. Sleek and well run, the airport accommodates nearly 75 million passengers a year and handles more than 5.1 million metric tons of cargo.” (Aug. 14)
U.S. media have consistently labeled these violent actions “pro-democracy.”
But are they?
HK protestors are set on burning down the entire city.
Even if the leaders of these reactionary actions decide to pull back from the brink and re-calibrate their tactics, there is pause for concern. For based on the Chinese government’s unequivocally strong warnings, it is important to understand a movement that has such strong U.S. support.
The protestors want “freedom”
This is a rally cry that evokes strong emotions with Americans.
Though it shouldn’t. Most Americans haven’t tasted freedom for at least one hundred years, and have no concept of what it actually is.
The cognitive dissonance has been overwhelming these past months. "Pro-democracy protesters" who use black bloc tactics of arson and vandalism. "Students yearning for freedom" who organize Molotov cocktail factories. Complaints of excessive "police brutality" when by objective international standards the police were remarkably constrained.
"Hong Kong is a repressive police state" says Joshua Wong, and yet it is consistently near the top of the list in the Cato Institute world freedom index.
The protesters are "fighting for democracy" even though Hong Kong is democratic, and demand a "universal suffrage" that in practice very few jurisdictions, least of all their beloved US/UK, enjoy.
Add a dollop of uninformed virtue-signalling from the usual clueless western cheerleaders, and it has been a festival of delusion which somehow ends with the image of a petrol-bomb-wielding black bloc protester as the new face of "freedom" (as seen on twitter).
-Posted by: jayc | Nov 22 2019 21:14 utc | 19
People, freedom is being able to drink booze, and smoke, and plop your dog Fido next to you in a public restaurant. It means that you can ride in a car without a seat-belt, drink large size coke’s and have sunny-side up eggs whenever you want. It means that you can hunt and fish without a permit, and buy most medicines without a prescription.
America had freedoms, but when FDR and Wilson removed the SCOUS defense of the ninth amendment, American became a nice, safe, gulag.
Today, most Americans can only have small brief glimpses on what freedom used to be like…
The Fitzgeralds arrived in New York in the early autumn of 1922—after a rocky start working as an ad man in his bachelor days, Scott was finally making headway as a celebrated author. They checked into the Plaza and began partying, not even sobering up to go house hunting, but then what was the point, they weren’t going to be sober while they lived there. Zelda was an incorrigible flirt when drunk and she also had a habit of taking her clothes off and dancing naked in fountains or parading down railway tracks. Scott, although less of an exhibitionist, was equally out of control. In December of the same year the couple’s ‘house rules’ for weekend guests at their home in Great Neck, Long Island included a polite directive “not to break down doors in search of liquor, even when authorized to do so by their host and hostess,” and warned that “the invitation to stay over Monday, issued by the host and hostess during the small hours of Sunday morning, must not be taken seriously.”
They needed the occasional sober Monday, if only to write the letters of apology they constantly had to send excusing their drunken antics and bad behavior, but in many ways the Fitzgeralds could do no wrong. They were young, beautiful—Dorothy Parker described them as looking “as though they had stepped out of the sun”—and fast. In a complex case of life imitating art, and vice versa, they both typified and immortalized the Jazz Age—their extravagant lifestyle funded by the handsome payments Scott received from the magazines that published his flapper fictions and the publishers who bought his novels.
So, I find it very curious, and you the reader should as well, that a nation-state that is #1 in personal and economic freedom would want to be more like a nation that is #25 at best in the same category.
For the past 25 years, including this year, Hong Kong has been ranked No. 1 in the Heritage Foundation’s list of countries with the “greatest economic freedom”—meaning the least restraints on capitalist profit taking.
Why do the HK protestors want less democracy and freedom? The answer is that this is not really their goal. It is instead the mechanism from which they can instigate disruptions.
Hong Kong’s ranking is based on low taxes and light regulations, the strongest property rights and business freedom, and “openness to global commerce and vibrant entrepreneurial climate … no restrictions on foreign banks.”
That has not changed. No where has the mainland placed new laws, regulations or changes to that model of governance. When the HK local government wanted to open up extradition to other nations, the protests erupted, and the government backed down.
So what the heck is going on? The protestors are not asking for more. They are demanding less.
WTF?
China has a right to intervene
It must be strongly stated that China is not invading Hong Kong if it
moves against these violent disruptions. Hong Kong is part of China.
This is an internal matter, and the call for independence for Hong Kong
is an open attack on China’s national sovereignty.
Hong Kong is a part of China.
The idea that any American military force will come to “liberate” or “save” Hong Kong is an invasion of China.
Any attempted invasion of China will result in the nuclear destruction of most major United States cities.
As it stands today, and what is NOT being reported in the United States media, is that under Hong Kong’s Basic Law, the constitution for the city, the government is legally allowed to request help from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
China is not Syria.
China is not Bolivia.
China is not Venezuela.
China will fight back. They will not permit this, and frankly, I am quite surprised that they have permitted this to go on so long. They have been very polite and have kept causalities to a minimum. Were this kind and level of damage to have taken place in the United States, people would have been killed.
Here is an article that explains one key way that Washington is meddling in the affairs of Hong Kong:
https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2019/08/how-washington-is-meddling-in-affairs.html
While the ideals of democracy are admirable and desirable, Washington's version of democracy is tainted by big money and has developed into a system where politicians are for sale to the highest bidder.
-Posted by: Sally Snyder | Aug 14 2019 16:10 utc | MoA
China has announced that it will take action if things escalate.
The Chinese government has announced that it will intervene militarily to defend China’s sovereignty.
Top government officials have labeled the most extreme acts as “terrorism” and denounced U.S. support.
Several times officials raised the analogy to the Western “color revolutions” that violently overturned governments in Serbia, Ukraine, Libya and Haiti and were attempted in Venezuela and Syria.
China is aware of what is going on and they will take appropriate and measured action. the problem is that the United States people, haven’t seen measured and appropriate responses since the 1940’s.
Americans are not expecting military push-back. For if they were, they would be terrified of all the war-drum beating by the American press.
“The ideologues in Western governments never cease in their efforts
to engineer unrest against governments that are not to their liking, even though their actions have caused misery and chaos in country after country in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
Now they are trying the same trick in China,”
-China Daily explained on July 3rd, 2019
Liu Xiaoming, China’s ambassador to Britain, told reporters that
their country was still acting as Hong Kong’s colonial master.
(nbcnews.com, July 4)
“A spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry claimed Tuesday that
recent comments from American lawmakers [Nancy] Pelosi (D-Ca.) and
[Mitch] McConnell (R-Ky.) demonstrate that Washington’s real goal is to incite chaos in the city,” according to CNBC.
“By neglecting and distorting the truth, they whitewashed violent crimes as a struggle for human rights and freedom.” (Aug. 14)
Where is U.S. support for other resistance?
Hong Kong police are denounced in the U.S. media for violence, but actually have shown great restraint. Despite months of violent confrontations, with flaming bottles constantly thrown, no one has been killed by the police.
That is NOT going to last for long.
There are rumors that some Hong Kong oligarchs were originally behind the protests to prevent their extradition for shady deals they made in China. There may be some truth to that.
China's president Xi Jingpin is waging a fierce campaign against corruption and Hong Kong is a target rich environment for fighting that crime.
The former British colony is ruled by a handful of oligarchs who have monopolies in the housing, electricity, trade and transport markets:
The book to read is Land and the Ruling Class in Hong Kong (2010) by Alice Poon, which explains how the lack of competition law created outrageous wealth for the tycoons. It’s a complex subject but the key point is that in Hong Kong all land is leasehold and ultimately owned by the government, which uses it as a means of raising revenue.
This goes back to the days of empire when British policy required colonies to be self-funding. The system kept taxes down and attracted business – but one side-effect was that it gave the government an interest in rationing land to keep it expensive. That didn’t matter much when the local economy comprised a few traders but, in the modern technological world of 2012, it puts the government at odds with every person and business wanting affordable space.
Indeed, it induces the government to distort and damage the economy, and indeed society. This system paved the way for a handful of Hong Kong families to become unimaginably wealthy by getting their hands on cheap land back in the days before the city started to boom.
Rents and apartment prices in Hong Kong are high. People from the mainland who buy up apartments with probably illegally gained money only increase the scarcity. This is one reason why the Cantonese speaking Hong Kong protesters spray slurs against the Mandarin speaking people from the mainland. The people in Hong Kong also grieve over their declining importance. Hong Kong lost its once important economical position. In 1993 Hong Kong's share of China's GDP was 27%. It is now less than a tenths of that and the city is now more or less irrelevant to mainland China.
-Moon over Alabama
Demonstrations in Honduras. Americans haven’t a clue or idea that any of this is going on. They only care what they are told to care about, at that time. Nothing else.
There is no such favorable media coverage or support from U.S. politicians for demonstrations of desperate workers and peasants in Honduras, Haiti or the Philippines, or for the Yellow Vest movement in France.
There is never an official condemnation when demonstrators are killed in Yemen or Kashmir or in weekly demonstrations in Gaza against Israeli occupation.
Demonstrations in Haiti. Americans haven’t a clue or idea that any of this is going on. They only care what they are told to care about, at that time. Nothing else.
These struggles receive barely a mention, although in every case scores of people have been killed by police, targeted for assassination or simply just disappeared.
Demonstrations in the Philippines. Americans haven’t a clue or idea that any of this is going on. They only care what they are told to care about, at that time. Nothing else.
Hong Kong has always been part of China. It was seized by the British in order to facilitate the illegal drug traffic of the East India Company. The Chinese government, concerned at the social and economic mayhem caused by imported opium, paid for in silver, banned its import. The British government, which relied on the revenues it got from exporting cheap Indian opium, grown on stolen land, insisted that China allow the trade to continue. And enforced its demands militarily-the Opium Wars. Within fifty years of these wars and Hong Kong's occupation by the British on a 99 year lease, a significant proportion, close to 20% of China's men were addicted to opium.
That is why China wanted to regain sovereignty over Hong Kong. As to the assertion that the local people don't want Chinese rule but long for the British-now under US rule- to return, that is simply untrue.
As b has been pointing out the troubles in Hong Kong are almost certainly organised by the US government.
Laguerre suspects that the same is true of the gilets jaunes. Does anyone else believe that Macron is being attacked by the US government?
-Posted by: bevin | Aug 14 2019 16:18 utc | MoA
Demonstrations in Malawi. Americans haven’t a clue or idea that any of this is going on. They only care what they are told to care about, at that time. Nothing else.
While Hong Kong protests receive widespread attention, there is no similar coverage of or political support for Antifa, Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the U.S. or the masses protesting racist Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and roundups of migrants.
It seems to be a narrow focus on China, and only on China.
U.S. pressure continues
Months of violence and chaos in Hong Kong have US dirty hands all over them.Orchestrated by the CIA in cahoots with other anti-democratic US agencies and anti-government Chinese hooligans, there’s nothing spontaneous about what’s going on endlessly.
Days earlier, the Trump regime’s State Department (up to its ears in what’s happening) expressed phony grave concern about violence and chaos in the city — ignoring US responsibility for what’s ongoing.
Pompeo threatened China, saying all options are on the table, including direct US intervention, if Beijing’s military intervenes to quell what’s unacceptable and must be stopped.
Over the weekend, masked hooligans clashed with police at Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University.
On Sunday, police surrounded the campus, warning elements involved in rioting and vandalism to leave or be dealt with harshly.
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that a “sedan without license plates tried to ram a group of police officers,” a live round and rubber bullet fired at the vehicle.
“(M)asked radicals” occupying the campus clashed violently with police, dozens arrested, hundreds more involved.
Highly inflammable “dangerous materials” that can be used for explosives were seized from elements arrested — “stolen” from the university’s labs, adding:
“(R)adicals shot arrows and hurled petrol bombs and bricks (at police) – sometimes from catapults mounted on the roof of campus buildings.”
“Police fired a large quantity of tear gas and deployed two water cannons and armored vehicles.”
Clashes raged for hours, a police statement saying: “Anyone who enters or stays on the campus and assists the rioters in any way will risk committing the offense of ‘taking part in a riot.’ ”
Hooligans arrested were not university students.Police called them outsiders. On Monday, classes at all Hong Kong universities were suspended — a Polytechnic Univ. statement saying in part:
“All classes have been forced to be suspended and all operations on the campus have been halted,” adding:
“The University is gravely concerned that the spiraling radical illicit activities will cause not only a tremendous safety threat on campus, but also class suspension over an indefinite period of time.”
“They are concerned about the safety on the campus, and they do not want to see the campus being destroyed further.”
A commentary published by Beijing’s official People’s Daily broadsheet on Monday said ending months of violence and chaos in Hong Kong “is a critical matter,” adding:
In multiple parts of the city, “rioters have been rampantly committing acts of vandalism and arson, paralyzing public transport, trashing rail tracks, hurling petrol bombs at running trains, indiscriminately causing bodily harm to civilians and even turning campuses into battlefields.”
If what’s going on isn’t stopped and the rule of law restored, “there would be no guarantee for the peaceful life of residents, to say nothing of Hong Kong’s future development.”
On Monday, SCMP’s deputy executive editor Zuraidah Ibrahim said the following:
“Hardcore mobs upped their violent game when they took over tertiary campuses last week, as bureaucrats came under fire for doing little and the police warned the city was on the brink of total breakdown,” adding:
“In the north, radicals occupying Chinese University took over the Tolo Highway. At Polytechnic University, they have shut down the Cross-Harbour Tunnel for five days, the longest forced closure ever.” “The mobs broke into the campuses’ chemical laboratories and set up petrol bomb mills overnight and practiced throwing fire bombs with catapults and arrows.” “Fiery battles between protesters and police spread across several universities, as mainland and international students evacuated.”
“The radicals finally withdrew, except at PolyU where a stand-off continues as I write this. Last week, the People’s Liberation Army soldiers took to the streets with brooms – not guns – to clean up, as did volunteers fed-up with the violence and their pockmarked streets. We still don’t see an end in sight.”
US dirty hands are all over months of violence, vandalism, chaos in the city, attacking China’s soft underbelly, trying to destabilize and weaken the country.
Beijing knows what it’s up against — US imperial rage challenging China’s sovereign independence.
- US Dirty Hands Escalate Hong Kong Violence
Despite China’s warnings of possible martial law, strict curfews and military intervention to restore order, protesters have shown no signs of retreat.
The U.S. and Britain are determined to propel forward those hostile political forces they have cultivated over the past two decades.
This is really, really dangerous.
What a fucking mess the Empire has made over the last century.
Trying to reconcile my belief in democracy with non-intervention makes this one tricky. I have no desire to support the fascist United States in attempting to subvert another country's government.
The cultural gap (and therefore lack of knowledge and understanding) between the west and China is so vast it makes attempting to separate genuine journalism from McCarthy-ist era style propaganda about the country very difficult, thus making a merits based comparison between the 2 spheres of power almost impossible.
Most of the stories I hear about Chinese repression are obvious pro-western propaganda, which makes it tempting to dismiss other pieces of information out of hand.
I can only wish the best for the people of Hong Kong and China, whatever they decide that may be.
Laguerre hints at an interesting point I'd not considered with regards to the yellow vests in France - are they US aided? I'm still inclined to lean towards it being a more genuine grass roots movement from the limited bits I've seen, though I'd be intrigued to see what connections could be verified there. US state department attempting to push Frexit would certainly be a new angle to think about for a lot of us.
-Posted by: Northern | Aug 14 2019 16:22 utc | MoA
Methodology
The escalating demonstrations are linked to [1] the U.S. trade war, [2] tariffs and [3] military encirclement of China.
Four hundred—half—of the 800 U.S. overseas military bases surround China. Aircraft carriers, destroyers, nuclear submarines, jet aircraft, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile batteries, and satellite surveillance infrastructures are positioned in the South China Sea, close to Hong Kong.
Media demonization is needed to justify and intensify this military presence. And it is ongoing and ruthless.
John Reed at Foreign Policy describes “how the U.S. is encircling China with military bases.”
The U.S. military is encircling China with a chain of air bases and military ports. The latest link: a small airstrip on the tiny Pacific island of Saipan. The U.S. Air Force is planning to lease 33 acres of land on the island for the next 50 years to build a “divert airfield” on an old World War II airbase there. But the residents don’t want it. And the Chinese are in no mood to be surrounded by Americans.
…In addition to the site on Saipan, the Air Force plans to send aircraft on regular deployments to bases ranging from Australia to India as part of its bulked up force in the Pacific. These plans include regular deployments to Royal Australian Air Force bases at Darwin and Tindal, Changi East air base in Singapore, Korat air base in Thailand, Trivandrum in India, and possibly bases at Cubi Point and Puerto Princesa in the Philippines and airfields in Indonesia and Malaysia, a top U.S. Air Force general revealed last month.
As I’ve written in the past, these Pentagon plans are part of the Air-Sea Battle strategy. The idea is to have enough US bases and Air Force capabilities peppered throughout the region so that China would be too surrounded to safely attack in the event of a conflict.
“Stealthy American bombers and submarines would knock out China’s long-range surveillance radar and precision missile systems located deep inside the country,” reports the WashingtonPost. ”The initial ‘blinding campaign’ would be followed by a larger air and naval assault.”
Not surprisingly, Beijing is none-too-pleased with the fact that Washington is planning contingencies to “battle” China, and militarily encircling China in the Pacific. Imagine the calls for war in Washington if China was backing various Latin American countries with money and weapons and building air and naval bases in the Caribbean with the explicit aim of bombing United States to smithereens.
I haven’t seen such demonization since World War II against the Nazi Germans.
Encouraging the demonstrations goes hand-in-hand with international efforts to bar Huawei 5G technology, the cancellation of a joint study of cancer and the arrest of Chinese corporate officers.
All these belligerent acts are designed to exert maximum pressure on China, divide the leadership, destabilize economic development and weaken China’s resolve to maintain any socialist planning.
The Trump Admin has come out with all guns blazing against Huawei, China’s telecommunications giant, which is now the 2nd biggest smartphone producer in the world, second only to Apple and within striking distance of them.
The USG has accused Huawei of assisting Chinese Intelligence by placing backdoors in its software and hardware that allow surveillance by Chinese authorities (but not the NSA).
Trump has even pressured allies like the UK to stop using Huawei altogether, despite the fact that Britain relies heavily of Huawei for its infrastructure.
The attacks against Huawei escalated on December 1st 2018, when the US orchestrated a totally illegal kidnapping and illegal detention of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s CFO (Chief Financial Officer). Wanzhou is still being held against her will in Canada on US orders.
-The Freedom Articles
Martial law in Hong Kong, a major financial center, especially for international investment funds coming into China, would impact China’s development.
And that, my friends, is the objective.
Capitalist economic “freedom”
British imperialism, in the 155 years it ruled Hong Kong, denied
rights to millions of workers. There was no elected government, no right
to a minimum wage, unions, decent housing or health care, and certainly
no freedom of the press or freedom of speech. These basic democratic
rights were not even on the books in colonial Hong Kong.
The British were ruthless when they owned Hong Kong, and treated the native Chinese there with scorn and dismay.
For the past 25 years, including this year, Hong Kong has been ranked No. 1 in the right-wing Heritage Foundation’s list of countries with the “greatest economic freedom”—meaning the least restraints on capitalist profit taking. Hong Kong’s ranking is based on low taxes and light regulations, the strongest property rights and business freedom, and “openness to global commerce and vibrant entrepreneurial climate … no restrictions on foreign banks.”
For this Hong Kong is well considered the “freest society in the world.”
This “freedom” means the world’s highest rents and the greatest gap
between the super-rich and the desperately poor and homeless. This is
what Hong Kong youth face today. But the youth are consciously being
misdirected to blame the city administration for the conditions Hong
Kong is locked into under the “One Country, Two Systems agreement.”
Ah, if only HK was independent, free of China, would everything become equal, fair and just. Only if...
An unequal colonial treaty
Hong Kong is stolen land.
This spectacular deep water port in the South China Sea at the mouth of the Pearl River, a major waterway in south China, was seized by Britain in the 1842 Opium Wars.
Hong Kong was seized by Britain, and used as a staging platform to get the Chinese addicted to Opium so that the wealthy in Britain could profit.
After negotiations with Britain had dragged on through the 1980s, the British imposed another unequal treaty on the People’s Republic of China.
Hong Kong under British rule in the 1970’s.
Under the 1997 “One Country, Two Systems” agreement that officially
returned Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories to the PRC, Britain
and China agreed to leave “the previous capitalist system” in place for
50 years.
China, determined to reassert its sovereignty over land stolen by the British, also needed funds for development.
Most money in Asia moved through the Hong Kong banking system. So in 1997 China was anxious to reach a smooth transition that would not destabilize the transfer of investment funds into the 99.5 percent of China that had previously been denied development funds.
To understand this situation, you must realize that ever since the Chinese Revolution in 1949, China had been sanctioned and blockaded from accessing Western investment and technology.
China had been denied development funds for many years. The plan was to keep them backwards and primitive. So that they could continue to be a low-cost resource for the Western nations.
U.S. and British imperialism took full advantage of the 1997
concession that maintained their economic control of the former colony.
Their hope was that Hong Kong could serve, as it had in the past, as an
economic battering ram into China.
Their hopes were not realized.
In 1997 Hong Kong’s gross domestic product was 27 percent of China’s gross domestic product. Today it’s a mere 3 percent and falling. Much to U.S. and British frustration, the world’s largest banks are now in China and they are state-owned banks.
What confounds the capitalist class, far more than China’s incredible growth, is that the top 12 Chinese companies on U.S. Fortune 500 list are all state-owned and state-subsidized. They include massive oil, solar energy, telecommunications, engineering and construction companies, banks and the auto industry.
-Fortune.com, July 22, 2015
U.S. corporate power is deeply threatened by China’s level of
development through the Belt and Road Initiative and its growing
position in international trade and investment.
U.S., Britain built a network of collaborators
When Britain and China signed the One Country, Two Systems agreement,
all foreign intervention and colonial claims on Hong Kong were supposed
to end. Full sovereignty was to return to China.
However, U.S. and British efforts to undercut Hong Kong’s return began in advance of the signing.
Just before the transfer of sovereignty, Britain hastily set up, after 150 years of appointed officials, a partially elected, although still mainly appointed, government. They quickly established and funded political parties, composed of their loyal collaborators.
Millions of dollars were openly and secretly funneled into a whole
network of protected social service organizations, political parties,
media and social media, student and youth organizations, and labor
unions established to undercut support for China and the Communist Party
of China.
Think about it. Of course this would happen. Neither the USA nor the UK were stupid.
The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKFTU) receives U.S. National Endowment for Democracy (NED) funding, along with British support. It promotes “pro-democracy, independent unions” throughout China. The HKCTU was established in 1990 to counter and undercut the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions founded in 1948, which is still the largest union organization with 410,000 members.
The HKFTU suffered years of brutal repression under British colonial rule as it fought for basic protection of workers’ rights. A strike organized by the HKFTU shook British colonial rule in 1967. The strike became a citywide rebellion sparked by mass layoffs of workers from the plastic flower factory.
"They seem to want a Tiananmen Square outcome as success."
The Tiananmen Square outcome was–media accounts to the contrary–that the kids all left the square safely by 7:20 am, just as all the HK demonstrators are unharmed.
There was a riot led by professional thugs elsewhere in Beijing, in Chang'An Avenue, but that was a different matter entirely and one with an interesting sequel. The leader of that riot was exfiltrated to the UK by MI6 and subsequently convicted of robbing and murdering an elderly Londoner. Sweet.
- Posted by: Godfree Roberts | Nov 22 2019 23:23 utc | 34
British colonial authorities harshly suppressed the uprising, resulting in 51 deaths and hundreds injured and disappeared. The HKFTU supports China and opposes the reactionary demonstrations.
NED funding = CIA support
Allen Weinstein, a founder of the NED, told the Washington Post in 1991;
“A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” (Sept. 21, 1991)
The NED funds, coordinates and weaponizes nongovernmental organizations and social organizations with the capacity to put tens of thousands of misdirected, idealistic and alienated youth on the streets.
Funding from the NED, the Ford, Rockefeller, Soros and numerous other corporate foundations, Christian churches of every denomination, and generous British funding, is behind this hostile, subversive network orchestrating the Hong Kong protests today.
While you would NEVER hear about this in the mainstream American media, it of course makes sense. All you need to do is follow the money trail.
In HK, for instance, when the protestors receive payments through the NED, or NID, they get a tattoo on their arm (to prevent multiple payouts),a nd you can see this clearly on the exposed skin of rioters.
The NED bankrolls the Hong Kong Human Rights Movement, the Hong Kong
Journalists Association, the Civic Party, Labor Party and Democratic
Party. They are members of the Civil Human Rights Front that coordinates
the demonstrations.
This role of the NED in China is increasingly harder to obscure.
Alexander Rubinstein reported in “American Gov’t, NGOs Fuel and Fund Hong Kong Anti-Extradition Protests” (mintpressnews.com, June 13):
“It is inconceivable that the organizers of the protests are unaware of the NED ties to some of its members.” (tinyurl.com/y6nhmapz)
The goal is to promote a hostile and suspicious attitude toward China and toward communism and to foster the false concept of a past democratic Hong Kong with a distinct identity.
China Daily warns:
“In recent years, there have been warnings that color revolutions are emerging as a new form of warfare employed by the West to destabilize certain countries.” (Aug. 12)
Which system works better?
The Aug. 13 New York Times refers to Hong Kong as a “bastion of civil
liberties” to counter “Beijing’s brand of authoritarianism.”
British colonial past is deeply mythologized. Twenty-two years of constant nostalgia for this past, supposedly glorious time has influenced increasingly impoverished youth.
The most violent rioters, amongst them those who hold the US flag, have obviously the order or to kill somebody, better a policeman ( as the clear intend on the GT journalist shows... ) or to provoke some killing of a protester, or by accident of a journalist ( who, btw, astonishingly, remain in the middle of the melee always...
I find this very suspicious, which is their insurance company? I want it for my travels...Most probably not journalists themselves but rioters in disguise ), as these intends of assassination happened very timely, almost simultaneously with or consecutive to Trump´s Twitter on that he expected nobody will result with any harm.... obviously from his terrorists side...
BTW, this behavior have time ago passed from ghastly to straight criminal, under any country´s law.
In the US, none of these terrorists would still remain alive, they would never had been able to get so close to any policeman so as to grab his batton leaving him unarmed. They would had been shot in place, the whole bunch of them...as we so usually watch happens with black people there....
Why The Donald ( and Bannon, the Pepe Frog exposes him all the way, they already do not even try to conceal anymore...) thinks any country in the world would have to allow this?
I posted some of these videos yesterday in the week review thread ( and I am glad "b" gave them some greater visibility..) and to my view, some of these rioters, especially those who talk with the travelers seem to be on drugs....
It´s an appreciation on how their tongue slide so much plus the slowness with which they talk, in such stressant situation, very contrasting with, for example, the elder summoning the rioter in the subway. See the very thin guy talking with the Australian businessman in the video i posted in the week and review thread....
I wonder whether these could be people taken from jail or correstionals, as they were part of the ISIS recruits who flew to Turkey to be tarinned and then to Syria, their behavior is clearly antisocial, no wonder any real complaint they could have ...
In the video on "strangers" supplying the rioters, there are two totally masked and covered women ( all the way the ISIS handlers style...) who, by their physical complexion and hair, seem to not be Chinese women at all, but Westerners...at 2:21 footage....Most probably NED/CIA operatives...
-Posted by: Sasha | Aug 14 2019 16:06 utc | MoA
Listen up. Much of what you read is a myth.
Despite decades of multimillion-dollar Western funding, Hong Kong has
a poverty rate of 20 percent (23.1 percent for children) compared to
less than 1 percent in mainland China. In the past 20 years, mainland
China has lifted countless millions of people out of poverty.
Poverty rate in HK = 20%
Poverty rate in mainland China <1%
Just across the river from Hong Kong sits the city of Shenzhen.
It is one of the Special Economic Zones established to lure Western technology. These zones, originally with thousands of labor-intensive factories and millions of workers earning low wages, were centers of capitalist exploitation and enormous profits for U.S. and other global capitalists.
Shenzhen grew from a city of 30,000 in 1979 to a megacity of 20 million, with the largest migrant population in China.
Shenzhen had a population three times the size of Hong Kong. With investments via Hong Kong, this new city became a massive polluted factory town with sweatshops spewing out clouds of dark toxic smoke.
In the past five years, through city and national urban planning, Shenzhen is today one of the most livable cities in China, with extensive parks, tree-lined streets and the largest fleet of electric buses in the world (16,000), along with all-electric cabs.
Shenzhen aims to have 80 percent of its new buildings green-certified by 2020. It is full of apartment blocks, office towers and modern factories with advanced equipment manufacturing, robotics, automation and giant tech startups.
For the last 10 years wages have been stagnant in Hong Kong while
rents have increased 300 percent; it is the most expensive city in the
world. In Shenzhen, wages have increased 8 percent every year, and more
than 1 million new, public, green housing units at low rates are nearing
completion.
United States Demands
The U.S. is demanding that China abandon state support of its
industries, the ownership of its banks and national planning. But
contrasting the decay, growing poverty and intense alienation in Hong
Kong with the green vibrant city of Shenzhen across the river shows that
there are two choices for China today, including the angry forces
mobilized in Hong Kong: modern socialist planning or a return to the
super-exploitation and imperialist domination of the colonial past.
For decades Britain and the U.S. used the people of Hong Kong for
cheap labor. Now they are using the same population for cheap political
propaganda. This cynical maneuver is just one more weapon in a desperate
effort to disrupt China’s further development.
U.S. corporate power is incapable of meeting any of the desperate needs for housing, health care, education and a healthy environment for people here. Instead, in a relentless drive for profits, enormous resources are squandered on militarism to threaten countries around the world.
Today…
The Hong Kong protests are escalating, just as the US-China trade war is also escalating. None of this is out of the blue.
For quite some time now, the US has been shifting the focus of its hegemonic and imperial ambitions towards China, recognizing it – even more than Russia – as its main rival superpower.
Author Graham Allen published his 2017 book entitled Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? addressing growing US-China tension and the potential for a future US-China war.
The term Thucydides trap is derived from ancient Greece to describe a situation when a rising power gains enough strength to challenge and disturb the existing ruling power. With this phenomenon in mind, let’s take a look at the background to the current US-China trade war (which is becoming more bitter and intense by the week) and the Hong Kong Protests.
Identifying the Enemy
Quotes from top US officials, military and non-military alike, show that China has gradually been replacing Russia as the #1 enemy, although this is not clear cut; there is still a lot of hatred towards and fear of Russia.
In 2018, the USA changed its official defense strategy.
Terrorism was no longer the #1 threat and was replaced by Russia and China.
The DoD report accused China of wielding predatory economics and building fake islands in the South China Sea to intimidate nearby countries.
“China remains our biggest long-term challenge. Without focused involvement and engagement by the United States, and our allies and partners, China will realize its dream of hegemony in Asia.”
- Admiral Harry Harris, former commander of the US Pacific Command, said this about China in 2018.
“China’s intent is crystal clear. We ignore it at our peril. I’m concerned China will now work to undermine the international rules-based order … China’s impressive military build-up could soon challenge the United States across almost every domain.”
Earlier this year, DNI (Director of National Intelligence) Dan Coats said:
“[The] rule of law, international norms, and fairness in trade and international engagements is not the Chinese model … Chinese leaders will increasingly seek to assert China’s model of authoritarian capitalism as an alternative—and implicitly superior—development path abroad, exacerbating great-power competition that could threaten international support for democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.”
- DNI (Director of National Intelligence) Dan Coats said:
Previously in 2018 Coats had followed Trump’s lead by blaming China
for interfering in US elections (where have I heard that one before?).
He stated:
“[China is targeting] state and local governments and officials … It is trying to exploit any divisions between federal and local levels on policy, and uses investments and other incentives to expand its influence.”
- DNI (Director of National Intelligence) Dan Coats said:
All this rhetoric comes against a backdrop of intertwined economies, where many US companies have outsourced and offshored their labor to China.
Targeting Chinese Institutions, Initiatives and Projects
The US has taken a dim view of practically every Chinese effort to develop itself in the last decade.
The US has opposed China’s gigantic OBR (One Belt, One Road) Initiative which has been dubbed the New Silk Road.
The US has directed propaganda against BRICS, China’s SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization), its development bank and many other trade initiatives.
The US accuses China of trying to control the world, yet such accusations must be difficult to receive with a straight face given that the US routinely threatens both its allies and enemies with economic warfare, sanctions, trade wars, governmental overthrow, invasion or even nuclear annihilation if they don’t toe the American line.
Funding and Training Muslim Uyghurs – Sometimes as Part of ISIS
You may not have heard of them, but there is a Chinese minority group known as the Uyghurs or Uighurs. Many are Muslim and of Turkic ethnicity. They live in the semi-autonomous region of north-west China in a province called Xinjiang.
Well, guess what?
The United States government has been funding them to aggressively fight against the Chinese government.
The funny thing is that a little bit of effort and the whole thing becomes apparent even through the traditional media reports. Recall that early media reports said there were 1.7 million protesters "according to the organiser's estimates". Once you remember that, then every time you hear millions is a hint to look up the Police estimate (150k) and estimates of maximum numbers in space available - also 150k or thereabouts.
More stories hint of high protester numbers but don't mention numbers -so check the accompanying pictures and videos - we a few thousand (ie well down on ever factual early numbers) and more recently just a few hundred. Police violence - yet every picture or video show large numbers of police acting very very peaceably (compare Paris). HK democracy - yet all the pictures recently have been exclusively of masked blackshirts and if you dig deep most of the violence has been blackshirt on passers by.
There must be picture editors who are stunned by the reports they run.
And obviously the story they are all looking for is the China overreaction that was never going to happen.
The whole thing runs in parallel with the obvious Ujghur 1 million in prison lie (it would be equivalent to every male aged 16-29) where the only witnesses to speak to western journalists have been fed to the press in Istanbul. We all know that Chinese muslims in Istanbul are going to or already in ISIS. James Le Mesurier doing a little extra press feeding in his spare time.
- Posted by: Michael Droy | Nov 22 2019 22:17 utc | 29
So when ever you hear, or read about the Chinese concentration camps and the imprisonment of those “poor” Uyghur Muslims, keep in mind that it is the Untied States that has the largest prison population in the world. China doesn’t even come close.
The United States is THE prison nation, and locks up more citizens than any other nation on the surface of the earth, and has put more people in prison behind bars than Hitler did in Nazi Germany, Stalin did in the Soviet Union, and Pol Pot did in Cambodia. Compared to China, it’s not even on the “radar screen”.
So America is great because of “freedom” and “liberty” and protections afforded by the “Bill of Rights”, Eh?
The White House has asked the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals to place an emergency stay on a ruling made last week by a federal judge so that the president’s power to indefinitely detain Americans without charge is reaffirmed immediately.
On Wednesday, September 12, US District Court Judge Katherine Forrest made permanent a temporary injunction she issued in May that bars the federal government from abiding by the indefinite detention provision in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, or NDAA.
Judge Forrest ruled that a clause that gives the government the power to arrest US citizens suspected of maintaining alliances with terrorists and hold them without due process violated the Constitution and that the White House would be stripped of that ability immediately.
- White House demands military prisons for Americans under NDAA
The bullshit is amazing to me!
In America, you can get incarcerated for the tiniest of reasons, or commit enormous crimes and be totally immune from prosecution.
We all need to look at things objectively and at the “big picture”. Just why is the United States government pushing the anti-China narrative? Why are they making a big deal of “concentration camps for Muslim terrorists” when the largest number of inmates are in the USA itself? What is going on?
Follow the money trail…
Neocon Marco Rubio, and warhawk, sponsored this 2018 bill pushing the US to get involved.
Rubio, for those who don’t recall, was the very same guy itching for war with Venezuela earlier this year in 2019. War is so great with these people. They think that America will forever be isolated and protected and war can never come to roost inside the United States.
Hong Kong’s opposition unites with Washington hardliners to ‘preserve the US’s own political and economic interests’
While claiming to fight for “self-determination,” Hong Kong opposition leaders are collaborating with regime-change neoconservatives in Washington to “preserve the US’s own political and economic interests.” A new DC lobbying front has become their base of operations.
The Grayzone piece linked above misses the real man behind the lobbying. Andrew Duncan who is a main sponsor of Senator Marco Rubio who is the main promoter on the hill for "activist" and U.S. darling Joshua Wong. Duncan is also one of the producers (financiers) of a film about Wong.
Watchdog group files complaint in shadowy gift to super PAC aiding Marco Rubio
An election watchdog organization filed a complaint Friday with the Federal Election Commission over a $500,000 donation to a super political action committee aiding Marco Rubio from a mystery firm headed by a New York investor.
...
The complaint from the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, seeks an investigation into IGX LLC for masking the donation and to determine whether the Conservative Solutions PAC was aware of the origins of the contribution. The actual donor, Andrew Duncan, of Brooklyn, New York, acknowledged to the Associated Press earlier this month that he had routed his contribution through IGX, a business entity registered last year in Delaware.
- Posted by: b | Nov 22 2019 20:17 utc | 12
However, much of the funding is done under-the-table by the soft power network of NGOs, illustrious among them the National Endowment for Democracy of NWO (New World Order) insider George Soros.
The UHRP (Uyghur Human Rights Project) admits on its website that it was “founded by the Uyghur American Association (UAA) in 2004 with a supporting grant from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).”
Got the following email today from my "representative" U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (for whom I have never voted) on the reason for his vote: "The world is watching, and we must step up to hold the Chinese government accountable. Please know that I will continue to fight for an America that brings moral leadership to the international stage."
Merkley remains the darling of self-styled Oregon "progressives", who have no clue about the real meaning of moral leadership. He pulled a stunt a year ago trying to get into an immigration gulag and was refused entry. He conveniently forgot to mention that privatized corporate immigration gulags were established by Democrats under President Obama.
I used to call his office to express my opinion, but no longer bother, he's just another war party flack.
- Posted by: Trisha | Nov 22 2019 22:22 utc | 31
Since when does the USG deeply care about oppressed minorities in
other nations? It’s a rhetorical question, but I’ll answer it this time:
if – and only if – US interests are aligned with that minority, and for
the (usually short) time period the interests are aligned.
“The alleged “struggle” by the Uyghur people in Xinjiang, referred to by the terrorists and their foreign sponsors as “East Turkistan,” consists of two essential components – a foreign harbored political front including the Washington D.C. and Munich-based World Uyghur Congress (WUC) and a militant front clearly backed by the US and NATO through intermediary groups like Turkey’s Grey Wolves … Encouraging separatism in China’s western Xinjiang region, if successful, would carve off a substantial amount of territory. In conjunction with US-backed separatism in China’s Tibet region, an immense buffer region stands to be created that would virtually isolate China from Central Asia.”
So, just as the US funded and trained Operation Gladio warriors to fight communism in Europe, Mujahideen fighters to battle the USSR, ISIS to battle Syria, it is also preparing for war with China by funding and training the ‘separatists’, whoever they may be, in this case the Uyghurs.
“Chinese militants from the western region of Xinjiang have fled from the country to get “terrorist training” from Islamic State group fighters for attacks at home, state media reported on Monday.”
Initiating a Trade War
There is no doubt that it was the US under Trump who initiated the US-China trade war. As such, these series of HK protests are part of the negotiating strategy.
Even before he took office, Trump took to twitter bashing China for its supposed economic exploitation of the US. Trump says the objective is a better trade deal with China to benefit all Americans, but this trade war is producing a massive fallout and host of negative effects for American consumers, farmers and manufacturers.
“How about China’s economy? Are Trump’s tariffs crushing the Chinese economy? Not really. During Jan-May 2019, China’s exports to the US fell about 5%, but China’s exports to the EU rose more than 14%. And, guess what, EU is China’s #1 trading partner (and ASEAN is the #2 trade partner), while the US is #3. So, China keeps growing at a healthy pace — even the IMF predicts a healthy 6.2% real GDP growth for China this year!
But here’s the kicker. While China’s exports to the US fell 4.8%, the reverse — US exports to China — fell by a whopping 24% (for the first five months of 2019). So, US exporters and farmers are hurting real bad. And Trump cannot win re-election without the support of those “great soybean/corn/pork farmers.””
Instigating a Color Revolution by way of the Hong Kong Protests
One of the most significant examples of US aggression against China is the instigation of a color protest or color revolution in Hong Kong. The aim is to provoke China into reacting harshly and violently, which would reinforce the Western perception that China is heavy-handed, tyrannical and totalitarian.
China has already moved troops to its southern mainland border, just across the water from Hong Kong. It is possible that another US objective is to push the protestors into declaring Hong Kong independent of China. But, you know what, they are going to hold back. They will not give the USA what it so obviously wants.
The idea behind the protests and the rioters In Hong Kong was all along to provoke another Tian An Men incident. This was quite obvious since the start of the protest. It now gets publicly acknowledged:
BBC Newsnight @BBCNewsnight - 11:00 UTC · Nov 19, 2019 “Some of the protesters seem to have an objective to provoke a military confrontation with China. They seem to want a Tiananmen Square outcome as success.”
Fmr Foreign Sec @Jeremy_Hunt says he is “concerned with the tactics” with some of #HongKong’s protesters.
Had China moved troops to Hong Kong, or allowed more force to be used against the protesters, the U.S. would have used that to press its allies to put strong sanctions on China. The protesters' violence was designed to achieve that outcome. The plan was part of the larger U.S. strategy of decoupling from China.
The plan failed because China was too smart to give the U.S. what it wanted. Now it is Trump who is under pressure. He needs the trade deal with China because the current trade war is doing harm to the U.S. economy and endangers his reelection.
Which is probably the real reason why the protests have died down.
- Posted by b on November 22, 2019 at 19:02 UTC | Permalink
There are some who say the Hong Kong protests are a grassroots affair. There is usually a grassroots element to many of these protests, but almost always the bigger factor in the shadows is US interference (or US-UK, or US-UK-Israeli, interference).
“The Extradition Law revision that started this was only a convenient proxy for those wanting chaos in HK to create chaos. The instigators behind the initial protest march are the same ones who started Occupy Central five years ago. They are the ones who huddle with operatives from US/UK Consulates, who travelled to the Washington/London/Brussel/Taipei, etc. to see politicians and plot strategies, to arrange for funding, and to recruit dare devils for the carnage. Lucky for them that HK was ripe for such shenanigans because HKers in general are sullen over their loss of superiority complex against mainland Chinese, brainwashed subconsciously through schools and churches about CCP wickedness, and desperately stressed under HK’s economic realities. Most of the protesters don’t even know what the Extradition Law is all about …”
“The instigators, however, are well versed in all the intricacies. They know who they can easily recruit and order to do violence … they know the fifth column within the government and business … If large casualties result what do they care? … [T]hey know their foreign backers are only too glad to see Chinese killing Chinese …”
“By the way, the US Consulate in HK has over 1,000 on payroll (an estimated 200 CIA agents), UK’s is over 500 (among them MI6 agents). That size of consulate in a city of less than 400 sq. miles of land (over half of which mountainous) is a laughable anomaly, wouldn’t you think? What are they all there for?”
And yes, there is proof. The senior US consulate member Julie Eadeh
was photographed secretly meeting with the top 2 leaders of the Hong
Kong protests, Joshua Wong and Nathan Law.
The senior US consulate member Julie Eadeh was photographed secretly meeting with the top 2 leaders of the Hong Kong protests, Joshua Wong and Nathan Law.
Remember – the NED now does overtly what the CIA did covertly decades ago. Allen Weinstein, one of the founders of NED, confessed that “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”
NED has been equipping the HK protestors out of CIA enclaves inside of Hong Kong.
To an American, I sound like some kind of Chinese lover / Communist sympathizer. But the difference between myself and Joe and Suzy average is that I LIVE HERE. I see the changes and the differences FIRST HAND.
I can compare things directly, and I don’t need to be told what to believe by an actor playing a newscaster on television.
I'm a Hongkonger, so allow me to inject some perspectives here as a very concerned onlooker to what is happening. I'd admit my views are in the slim minority among fellow Hongkongers, and likely be laughed off as a conspiracy-theory monger or a Commie groupie.
The Extradition Law revision that started this was only a convenient proxy for those wanting chaos in HK to create chaos. The instigators behind the initial protest march are the same ones who started Occupy Central five years ago. They are the ones who huddle with operatives from US/UK Consulates, who travelled to the Washington/London/Brussel/Taipei, etc. to see politicians and plot strategies, to arrange for funding, and to recruit dare devils for the carnage. Lucky for them that HK was ripe for such shenanigans because HKers in general are sullen over their loss of superiority complex against mainland Chinese, brainwashed subconsciously through schools and churches about CCP wickedness, and desperately stressed under HK's economic realities. Most of the protesters don't even know what the Extradition Law is all about, but what the heck, it seemed like a good party to participate in, no?
The instigators, however, are well versed in all the intricacies. They know who they can easily recruit and order to do violence; they know the Basic Law and its fuzzy edges; they know the influences of clergy/university,high-school teachers; they know the fifth column within the government and business; they know HKers' irrational sensitivity towards so-called world opinions; they know that the foreign judges (which consist of 95% of the court) and foreign press are solidly behind them. Thus, they wanted to sock it to China; the more direly the better. If large casualties result what do they care? None of their own children were among the crowd and casualties would surely enlarge that blackeye they were to deliver. And they know their foreign backers are only too glad to see Chinese killing Chinese.
Like someone said in posts before mine, this incident is more similar to Maidan than any other color revolution prior. US/UK/Taiwan/Oz/Japan are enjoying their 5-minutes of glory and celebration at this point. The blowback, however, will come years and decades later.
By the way, the US Consulate in HK has over 1,000 on payroll (an estimated 200 CIA agents), UK's is over 500 (among them MI6 agents). That size of consulate in a city of less than 400 sq. miles of land (over half of which mountainous) is a laughable anormaly, wouldn't you think? What are they all there for?
-Posted by: Oriental Voice | Aug 14 2019 19:22 utc | MoA
The USA is collapsing, and like a snarling, rabid dog is snapping and thrashing about as it plummets further and further into the black, black abyss. The idea that somehow, the USA can wrestle back some of it’s old “greatness” by stalling the rise of China is a chimera.
America the nation that was founded as a republic no longer exists. it has been replaced with something different. First a “democracy”. Then after untold number of amendments, “mob rule”. Then with the consolidation of the mainstream press, an oligarchy.
It’s just an illusion. It’s not going to happen.
Evil Outlaw US Empire planners in their hubristic zeal to decouple from China's economy erred massively in thinking China would be the one harmed and come begging for a trade deal. Instead, China's geoeconomic strategy is clearly working and is more potent than what the Empire can bring to the table--Oops! China can now play Trump.
- Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 22 2019 21:16 utc | 20
But in the meantime, these are dangerous times we live in, and Nuclear warfare is nothing to trifle with.
What the American media is showing are distortions and lies. They are dangerous.
To understand what is going on you need to see the FULL picture. Not only what the “deep state” wants you to see to the exclusion of all else.
Links about China
Here are
some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader,
might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.
China and America Comparisons
As an
American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United
States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.
The Chinese Business KTV Experience
This is
the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the
British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal
press. This is the reality. Read or not.
Learning About China
Who
doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what
China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in
China.
Contemporaneous Chinese Music
This is a
series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It
is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I
am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series
of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and
enjoyment.
Parks in China
The parks
in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very
mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.
Really Strange China
Here are
some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem
odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events,
while others are just representative of the differences in culture.
What is China like?
The
purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world,
outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they
might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank
you.
And while
America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources,
and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has
done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and
you can see this in their day-to-day lives.
Summer in Asia
Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…
Some Fun Videos
Here’s a collection of some fun videos taken all over Asia. While
there are many videos taken in China, we also have some taken in
Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and Japan as well. It’s all in fun.
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
Globalists Wanted to Exploit Asia, but China Surprised Them.
So, here I am, checking out my various social media feeds and see all sorts of chaos and tumult. And, as I get past the sensationalism, and the horror, I see a common thread. Some how and in some way, the United States, through various agents, agencies, or funding venues, lie at the root of all the unrest.
Is this what it seems to be?
The kicking, thrashing, and screaming of a dying empire? Or is it something else? In my mind, it seems an awful lot like the American empire is dying, and it is NOT going away quietly in the night. It is going down, and thrashing about everywhere in shrieking pain.
Thus…
This post.
This post is about an ingenious plan that went awry and altered the trajectory of history. And we, well, we are living during this fourth most Tumultuous period in American history.
The previous three periods were…
The Revolutionary War
The American Civil War
World War II
This plan was doomed to fail from the get-go, simply because it relied on far to many assumptions about non-Americans. And now, well, we are starting to witness that failure in all it’s ugly glory.
What do all these presidents have in common? They all believed that they could take control of China and annex it just like they did to Japan in the 1980’s.
The plan was conceived and implemented over a century by many of my colleagues and (or course) their predecessors. These people were, collectively, the smartest and the most visionary people in the world.
A mere 25 years ago, the plan seemed to have come to fruition, and western intellectuals talked not only about the end of the Cold War, but the “end of history.”
The first stage implementation of the NWO – The New World Order, where the Earth would be divided into shared “estates”.
We were all so excited about the imminent New World Order (which is now referred to as the “international rules-based order”). Everything was lining up and falling into place.
Then Asia happened.
The Big Grand Plan
After WWII, we Americans, established an unprecedented system to control half the world. As such by 1992, we were confident about bringing in the other half.
We were so close to total global control and domination.
So close…
After WWII, we Americans, established an unprecedented system to control half the world. As such by 1992, we were confident about bringing in the other half.
In the early 1990s, China and India represented not only 40% of world’s population but also a vast pool of consumers and diligent workers. At the same time, my colleagues also appreciated the opportunity to make trillions of dollars.
It was win-win.
Unlike the average westerner who saw Asia only as a land of poor and
uneducated people, we understood its potential. After all, for the first
1800 years of the last 2000 years, the two largest economies in the
world were … China and India.
The gross world product (GWP) is the combined gross national product of all the countries in the world. Because imports and exports balance exactly when considering the whole world, this also equals the total global gross domestic product (GDP). According to the World Bank, the 2013 nominal GWP was approximately US$75.59 trillion.
Of course, bringing more than 2 billion people into our system would also mean sudden loss of jobs, drastic reduction in wages, and a painful drop in the standard of living for many Americans and Europeans.
No matter, however.
We deliberately ignored or downplayed these inevitable ramifications. We all figured that we would deal with the complexities of these issues later on… down the road.
So, how did our plan turn out? Let’s look.
First, the original plan for the New Global Order. This is the blueprint that was established and how it was intended to be set up as.
This is the original plan for the New Global Order. It was drawn up in the 1940’s. 1942 to be exact.
India
India worked out splendidly, just as we planned. Although India was hesitant about opening up their economy — understandable, given their experiences with British colonialism — we gained their trust by helping millions of Indians emigrate to the West.
In return, India privatized most of their major industries, including their media, and allowed us to become major shareholders. Now, India is tightly integrated into our system.
China
But then there’s China.
The biggest prize slipped away from our fingers. Most people don’t realize that the Tiananmen Square uprising in 1989 was actually a “color revolution”. It was manufactured by the CIA, MI6 and social engineering experts, Gene Sharp and George Soros. Indeed, we even had recruited China’s Gorbachev – Zhao Ziyang, the top leader of the Chinese Communist Party.
Alas, the strategy failed, and Zhao Ziyang ended up spending the rest of his life in house arrest.
After that, we decided to pursue a patient approach, since we didn’t
want to lose China’s efficient and cheap factories. Furthermore, we
assumed that:
As China got richer, its people will NATURALLY get rid of the communist party, and replace it with “democracy”.
Western products will ALWAYS dominate the Chinese consumer market
Chinese manufacturing will FOREVER remain stuck in the low/medium-end of the value chain, since (everyone knows) innovation is impossible in an authoritarian society
China will become, at the best, only a regional power. After all, throughout its history, China had never demonstrated much desire in foreign relations.
Americans are seemingly looking more and more like a parody of idiocracy.”
Well, guess what?
Yup. Every one of our assumptions turned out to be wrong. China’s GDP grew 27-fold from 1989 to 2017, and yet 84% of Chinese are happy with their socialist government. Also, what was supposed to be just a factory for the West, became the largest trading partner for more than 130 countries.
Confounding our expectations, China has become #1 or #2 in many areas of hi-tech industries including solar energy, electric vehicles, smartphones, supercomputers, Artificial Intelligence and mobile payments. 9 out of the top 20 most valuable internet companies are now Chinese.
Most Americans have no idea that there is prosperity in China. China’s GDP grew 27-fold from 1989 to 2017, and yet 84% of Chinese are happy with their socialist government.
The fact that a Chinese company, ZTE, made the world’s first 5G phone call earlier this year should be a “Sputnik Moment” for us.
Worst of all, China has proved the benefits of public banking.
Without the government getting into debt, Chinese public banks give massive long-term loans for infrastructure at extremely low interest rates. This has enabled China to build 25,000 Km of high-speed railway systems, modern cities and other infrastructure projects that benefit the Chinese people.
Such socialistic model makes our private banking system look bad!
America is trying to grapple with a changing global power base. In order for us to control the rest of the world, we need to invest that money in military might around the world to control others, other nations, and obtain advantage for the American way of life! Yessur! We shouldn’t spend tax money on Americans in America. No! The money should be spread out all over the globe to fight for Democracy! Yessur!
Finally, we never thought that China would develop a grand vision such as the Belt and Road Initiative (the modern Silk Road).
While we build military bases around the world, China is building high-speed railways, highways, seaports, airports, power plants and pipelines in 65 different countries. If this continues, there’s no doubt who’s going to have more global influence in the near future.
The biggest threat to western dominance is the Made in China 2025 plan. If they achieve expertise in semiconductor chips and a few other industries, we Americans will lose our global hegemony.
“China must be stopped” is the rallying cry of the oligarchy elite.
Hows Stuff Works is for fags. Electrolytes are what plants crave. Duh.
Rest of Asia
Something remarkable has been happening all over Asia (I will narrowly use the word here to refer to only Asia Pacific. Technically, Asia extends all the way from Russia to the Middle East).
After WWII, Japan succeeded in a brilliant way, which inspired the Asian Tigers – South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. However, the wild fire of enthusiasm really caught on when China lifted 700 million people out of extreme poverty and created the world’s largest middle class.
No. 66 Middle School in Urumqi, northwest China is home to 2,400 children from 13 different ethnic groups. They are all part of a Chinese government programme helping ethnically diverse students in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to receive higher quality of education.
Known as the Xinjiang Class, the programme was introduced in 2000 to offer children living in the region’s remote areas the possibility to attend a top junior high school (ages 12-15), preparing students to then attend a senior high school in one of 17 cities across the country.
Now, every country from India to Indonesia to Vietnam feels optimistic and confident that they can succeed as well, and many of them are consistently growing at breakneck rates of 6-7% per year. Economists say that 88% of the next 1 billion people to enter the global middle class will be from Asia. Thus it’s no wonder that Asians are now far more optimistic than westerners about the direction of their countries.
Asian countries – including even North Korea – have realized that
wars and conflicts only get in the way of prosperity. This is, of
course, very bad for our divide-and-rule strategy — we were hoping to
use Taiwan, Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and India to contain China.
Map of China and Japan. Showing the location of the “contested” Senkaku / Diaoyu islands. If Japan can control these islands, then the United States can place a military base there, right next to China. Therefore it is a critically important location from which America can control China.
If Asia continues to enjoy peace and cooperation, the geopolitical
center of gravity will shift dramatically. Many people don’t realize
that, in terms of purchasing power, China is already larger than the US.
In nominal GDP, by 2030, China will be bigger than the US, India will
be bigger than Germany, and Asia will account for 40% of global GDP.
By 2050, the top five world economies might consist of four Asian countries.
While the rising Asian middle class is a lucrative consumer market for our corporations, we dread the rise of multi-national Asian corporations in a decade or two.
In other words, we want Asians to be rich enough to buy Colgate and Pampers, but not too rich to mass produce toothpaste and diapers; we don’t mind Asians becoming the CEOs of Google and Microsoft, we just don’t want them to develop their own search engines and operating systems. We want to be in control. Us, and us alone.
Who knows what this will lead towards, if the rest of the world is prosperous?
For this reason, China must be stopped. The New Silk road must be thwarted. China needs to be put back into it’s rightful place as a servant to the American consumer and puppet to the global leadership.
Steps are being taken.
We have Hong Kong “fifth column” actions in progress.
We also have radical Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. Both of these efforts will stymie the development of the Silk Road and enable the United States to maintain a global leadership role.
Conclusion
In the early 1970s, David Rockefeller and Henry Kissinger convinced the Chinese elites to open up their economy.
Then we created the WTO in 1995 and enlisted 128 countries, knowing very well what it would do to American/European manufacturing.
Letting China into the WTO in 2001 accelerated the outsourcing of jobs from Europe and the US. To hide the devastation, we created the housing bubble on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Now, we’re also effectively using mass immigration and other social engineering tools to keep people distracted.
I will admit that, blinded by hubris and greed, we misjudged the rise of Asia, especially China.
America will still be able to control the world, it’s just a slight setback while the superior knowledge and skills of the American leadership arrange the globe to fit our needs.
However, let me remind you that we have brought down many empires over the last 250 years. We’re not going to simply sit back and let revisionist powers rewrite the world order. This is why the next decade will be both fascinating and dangerous.
China’s Silk Road.
A Final Note
I wrote this “tongue in cheek” from the point of view of someone in favor of the United States maintaining global control. But, this is not the 1960’s and the world is indeed a dangerous place. The United States is going through “death spasms” and if we are all not careful, it could bring the rest of us down with it.
I do not like this situation. I am fearful of it. If there is anything that I could advise, it would be for people to calm down, have a few beers and stop trying to control other people. Let everyone else prosper. If they are doing well, good for them. It’s not your problem. Stop trying to fight, fight, fight.
There’s enough to go around for everyone.
This is what New York City will look like if America tries to initiate another proxy war with a major nuclear-armed superpower. They are a serious, serious nation. They DO NOT PLAY.
Links about China
Here are
some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader,
might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.
China and America Comparisons
As an
American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United
States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.
The Chinese Business KTV Experience
This is
the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the
British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal
press. This is the reality. Read or not.
Learning About China
Who
doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what
China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in
China.
Contemporaneous Chinese Music
This is a
series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It
is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I
am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series
of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and
enjoyment.
Parks in China
The parks
in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very
mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.
Really Strange China
Here are
some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem
odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events,
while others are just representative of the differences in culture.
What is China like?
The
purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world,
outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they
might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank
you.
And while
America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources,
and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has
done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and
you can see this in their day-to-day lives.
Summer in Asia
Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…
Some Fun Videos
Here’s a collection of some fun videos taken all over Asia. While
there are many videos taken in China, we also have some taken in
Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and Japan as well. It’s all in fun.
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
At a press conference held by the government of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Saturday, Elijan Anayit, a spokesperson for the Information Office of the Xinjiang government, condemned the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, which in September published a report titled "Documenting Xinjiang's Detention System," falsely claiming that China is persecuting ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.
Anayit said the claims are totally fabricated and don't hold water. He explained that from 2010 till the end of 2018, the Uygur population in Xinjiang increased by 25.04 percent, rising from 10.1715 million to 12.7184 million, whereas the Han population increased by just 2.0 percent, rising from 8.8299 million to 9.0068 million.
-Former Xinjiang trainees share their training center experiences
news.cgtn.com
This article takes a comprehensive and serious look at the abuse of the Uyghur Muslims at the hands of the dastardly Chinese Communists. We look at who this group of people are, and their culture, and what is going on regarding their relationship with the Chinese central government in Beijing. We also take a good hard look at how they are being used as pawns in a global wide game of geopolitical politics.
“1 million Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps!” ...
“Ethnic Cleansing and Cultural Genocide!” ...
PBS NewsHour: Inside China's brutal persecution of Uighur Muslims - Season 2019 Episode
Yikes! These emotional phrases are very effective in geopolitical arguments. Often they are used as excuses to acquire money and funding out of the United States Congress towards one or more "efforts at spreading democracy".
You know, just like the (so called) "successful" pro-democracy movements in Libya, Iran, Cuba, Syria, Iran, and now Venezuela. Look at just how successful American tax-dollars are promoting democracy around the world!
It's a better way to spend the money, don't you know, than rebuilding Baltimore... Right?
Why rebuild Baltimore?
We shouldn’t spend tax money on Americans in America. No! The money should be spread out all over the globe to fight for Democracy! Yessur!
So what’s the real story about the Chinese Uyghur Muslims? Let’s look at this issue in detail. Let’s go beyond exaggeration, distortion and sensationalism.
But let’s first review the propaganda.
You know. The propaganda that is directly aimed at YOU, the American reader. It’s all that propaganda to justify your Congressman throwing lavish parties, and hauling pallet-loads of “Benjamins” to far-away shadowy entities to spend as they see fit.
You know… for “democracy“.
After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the George W. Bush administration flooded the conquered country with so much cash to pay for reconstruction and other projects in the first year that a new unit of measurement was born. Pentagon officials determined that one giant C-130 Hercules cargo plane could carry $2.4 billion in shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills. They sent an initial full planeload of cash, followed by 20 other flights to Iraq by May 2004 in a $12-billion haul that U.S. officials believe to be the biggest international cash airlift of all time. The only thing is that once the money was handed over to the American military forces for “safe-keeping” it disappeared.
After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the George W. Bush administration flooded the conquered country with so much cash to pay for reconstruction and other projects in the first year that a new unit of measurement was born.
Pentagon officials determined that one giant C-130 Hercules cargo plane could carry $2.4 billion in shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills. They sent an initial full planeload of cash, followed by 20 other flights to Iraq by May 2004 in a $12-billion haul that U.S. officials believe to be the biggest international cash airlift of all time.
This month, the Pentagon and the Iraqi government are finally closing the books on the program that handled all those Benjamins. But despite years of audits and investigations, U.S. Defense officials still cannot say what happened to $6.6 billion in cash — enough to run the Los Angeles Unified School District or the Chicago Public Schools for a year, among many other things.
-Long War Journal
The Uyghur propaganda serves a purpose.
It is to support regional CIA activities within China. Create a war where allocated funds can be easily diverted. And, in so doing, channel the allocated tax dollars back to Washington and into the pockets of the oligarchy. That is why the neocons love war so much. The war zone is all confused and it is very easy to siphon money into their wallets.
It’s an enormous racket.
The Uyghur propaganda serves a purpose. It is to support regional CIA activities within China. Create a war where allocated funds can be easily diverted. And, in so doing, channel the allocated tax dollars back to Washington and into the pockets of the oligarchy. That is why the neocons love war so much. The war zone is all confused and it is very easy to siphon money into their wallets.
I recall, as probably most people don’t, that the Central Intelligence Agency, with assistance from some of China’s neighbors, put $30 million into the destabilization of Tibet and basically financed and trained the participants in the Khampa rebellion and ultimately sought to remove the Dalai Lama from Tibet–which they did.
They escorted him out of Tibet to Dharamsala.
There were similar efforts made with the Uyghurs during the Cold War that never really got off the ground. In both cases you had religion waved as a banner in support of a desire for independence or autonomy which, of course, is anathema to any state.
- US Ambassador Chas. H. Freeman.
Anti-China propaganda focusing on the Uyghur Muslims
The propaganda can get pretty ridiculous, and it often is…
Role Reversal:
Washington is reportedly sending white men to sleep in the same beds as black Detroit women while their husbands are serving time in prison. It's a racist racket against women of color.
Yes. It is that ridiculous.
You’ve got to be shitting me. That people actually believe this nonsense. But there you have it. American press reporting on a statement made by…
Yup, the United States funded propaganda mouth piece for Asia.
Radio Free Asia is a CIA front organization.
Nah, you might say. It just can’t be CIA! There must be a mistake, you argue. The CIA doesn’t get involved in these kinds of things. Right? But…
The International Broadcasting Independent Grantee Organization grant program provides funding for projects that support freedom and democracy by enhancing an understanding about America and the world to overseas audiences. Grant funding is limited to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks.
-United States Grants for Radio
And the connections are everywhere. All you need to do is a mere five minutes of research to connect the dots.
The CIA and all this meddling is friggin’ everywhere. And, it’s not the only one…
"Eminent scholar Jerry Cohen likens to the situation in Xinjiang to that of Nazi Germany, where dozens of his relatives were detained, tortured and killed under a similarly totalitarian regime. The connection between the totalitarian ideology of the Chinese Communist Party and modern-day surveillance technology has resulted in a terrible degradation of human rights for the Uyghur people."
- China’s Escalating Repression of the Uyghurs
My goodness!
Who is this “expert” who is equating China with Nazi’s? Well, a quick search on the internet identifies him as a “venerable expert on Chinese affairs“. Where he is found working and writing for the American publication “National Review”. (A Conservative “Hawkish” Neocon Publication.) He is considered to be “a skilled and talented advocate for world-wide “democracy””.
This organization is a true war-mongering alliance, that uses the cover of “American Conservatism”, for substantive reputation.
But, you know, this no longer flies true in the latest iteration of American Conservative thought. Since 2016, the American conservative movement has had a major shake-up. Americans are sick and tired of Democrats calling themselves Conservatives, just because they love to fight proxy wars.
"Their unceasing agitation against a compromise peace in the Middle East, coupled with their lobbying for America to endorse to Sharon’s ongoing humiliation of the Palestinians, has managed to make America hated in parts of the world where it used to be admired, even loved.
Some of that hatred has been turned—should we be surprised?—into anti-American terror.
Now, as it prepares to occupy Iraq against the will of much of the Middle East while facing a rejuvenated al-Qaeda, America has fewer real friends and more ill-wishers than ever in its history.
This is in considerable part the “accomplishment” of America’s neocons..."
- Among the Neocons
So what is going on, eh?
Since the start of the Iraq War, the United States has sent tens of billions of dollars in assistance to Iraq, a large portion of which has been squandered or simply disappeared.
So we know [1] that a major United States publication that supports Conservative Neocon ambitions; global proxy wars, is writing the anti-China Uyghur Muslim narratives.
We also know that they [2] have an “expert” that writes about the Muslims in China.
Further, [3] by “connecting the dots”, we know that the CIA, via the NED and NID funds this effort; the author and the publication.
Finally, we can see [4] the target is CIA directed to use the Uyghur Muslims as pawns in America-instigated revolution within China.
And as such…
[5] American tax-payer funds can be rerouted to other destinations. Destinations where the neocon sponsors can extract enormous profits.
They sent an initial full planeload of cash, followed by 20 other flights to Iraq by May 2004 in a $12-billion haul that U.S. officials believe to be the biggest international cash airlift of all time. The only thing is that once the money was handed over to the American military forces for “safe-keeping” it disappeared. All 21 plane-loads.
Who is this “expert” who reports these issues?
"Eminent scholar Jerry Cohen likens to the situation in Xinjiang to that of Nazi Germany..."
OK. Fine. We have a name rather than “sources”, or “it was reported”… We have someone that we can investigate.
Then, as such an “expert“, he should have lived in China for a few years, and should travel back and forth between China and the United States quite often. Right? He’s an expert… right? He has first-hand information that has affected his thoughts, emotions and attitudes. He must have tons of experience to ignite the (apparent) rage inside of him to write such a flood of articles about the Muslims in China. Right?
Nope.
Jerome A. Cohen has never lived in China.
NEVER.
N-E-V-E-R.
Never, as in doesn’t even speak Chinese. Never, as in doesn’t know what a Chinese license plate looks like. Never, as in has zero Chinese friends. Never, as in does not know the difference between Tianjin, and Dangguang.
Never.
Never, as in “knows Jack-shit.”
Never.
Yet… Yet, here he is instructing and “educating” Americans on how to think, and getting their emotions all riled up. Eh.
Out of the spotlight, active U.S. interference takes place through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
The NED is bankrolling Hong Kong "pro-democracy" and anti-Beijing groups such as the Solidarity Center (SC), the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor to the tune of millions. In 2018 alone the NED reports giving 155,000 U.S. dollars to the SC and 200,000 U.S. dollars to the NDI.
The NED is a sham NGO founded in 1983 to replace functions previously carried out by the CIA.
Philip Agee, a former CIA agent and author of "Inside the Company: CIA Diary" details how the CIA would set up front organizations and funnel money into destabilization campaigns.
After destabilization would come the coup-d'etat. The Brazilian 1964 coup that overthrew President João Goulart and the Chilean 1973 coup against Chilean President Salvador Allende were both backed by the CIA. In both instances, left-wing parties were deposed and replaced by right-wing military forces compliant to U.S. interests.
- Why is the National Endowment for Democracy fueling Hong Kong protests?
In particular, he (used to be) a member of the Uyghur Human Rights Project. Which enjoys full generous (taxpayer) funding out of the United States to institute regime changing efforts inside of China.
From 1984 to 1990 the NED received $15–18 million of congressional funding annually, and $25–$30m from 1991 to 1993. At the time the funding came via the United States Information Agency (USIA).
- National Endowment for Democracy - Wikipedia
That is CIA meddling to a “T”.
Since the start of the Iraq War, the United States has sent tens of billions of dollars in assistance to Iraq, a large portion of which has been squandered or simply disappeared.
Government auditors say some $61 billion was spent on reconstruction projects in Iraq from 2003 to 2012. At least 10 percent of the money cannot be accounted for. Some 15 percent of the money spent, or roughly $8 billion, was wasted.
-Fiscal Times
How about the Slave message inside Christmas cards?
A British girl discovered a message inside of a box of charity Christmas cards bought from British grocery giant Tesco saying it had been packed by inmates. (Screenshot from CBS News)
China on Monday denied accusations of forced labor at a Shanghai prison after media reported that a British girl found a message hidden in a Christmas card saying it had been packed by inmates, a piece of news later proved to be a “prank”.
Yeah. Sure.
“A prank”
The allegations came to light when The Sunday Times reported that six-year-old Florence Widdicombe from Tooting, south London, discovered a message inside of a box of charity Christmas cards bought from British grocery giant Tesco, reading…
“We are foreign prisoners in Shanghai Qingpu Prison China. Forced to work against our will. Please help us, notify human rights organization and contact Mr. Peter Humphrey.”
The news suddenly captured worldwide attention, while many doubt its authenticity.
Coincidently, or maybe not, Peter Humphrey mentioned in the message is exactly the writer of the article, a British former journalist who was imprisoned in Qingpu Prison in Shanghai for over two years for trafficking personal data.
Peter Humphrey is a British former journalist who was imprisoned in Qingpu Prison in China. (Screenshot from The Globe and Mail)
In his report, Humphrey said he contacted several members of
ex-prisoners in Qingpu Prison, who confirmed they had been packing
Christmas cards for Tesco for at least two years, and were “being forced
into mundane manual assembly or packaging tasks” for other Western
companies. However, he didn’t mention the identity of these prisoners
and the names of those Western companies.
On Monday, Zhejiang Yunguang Printing, the Chinese firm that supplies greeting cards to Tesco, slammed these “unfounded claims”, adding that they don’t have labor from Shanghai Qingpu Prison, according to Global Times.
This relationsip would be well documented and easy to prove,
China’s Foreign Ministry also dismissed the allegations, saying it was “just a drama choreographed by Mr. Peter Humphrey”. “After verifying with relevant departments, we know for sure that there is no forced labor of foreign prisoners in Qingpu Prison in Shanghai,” noted Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang.
The news has also received wide attention from netizens, many of whom questioned whether it was credible. (Screenshot from comments under BBC News’ official Facebook account)
The news has also received wide attention from netizens, many of whom questioned whether it was credible.
Something fishy out of the UK.
“There is so much misinformation, it’s almost impossible to say with any certainty where it came from,” reads a Facebook user’s comment.
The news has also received wide attention from netizens, many of whom questioned whether it was credible. (Screenshot from comments under BBC News’ official Facebook account)
This is not the first time that Humphrey has popped out into the spotlight with a headline or two.
In 2018, after he confessed to charges he illegally bought and sold the personal information to clients, he asked Britain’s media regulator to revoke the broadcast license of China’s state television for helping to stage his allegedly forced confession and subsequent jailing in China.
In response to Humphrey’s accusations, China’s Foreign Ministry
spokesman Geng said in a regular press briefing in November 2018 that
China hoped Britain can support and facilitate the reporting work of
international media in the UK. “China’s judicial departments handle
cases according to the law, and safeguard the legal rights and interests
of foreigners in China,” he added.
Fake stories concerning China stitched up by Western media is not unusual over these last few years.
Last month (November 2019), a piece of seemingly explosive news was reported by Australian media about a self-proclaimed spy Wang Liqiang who sought asylum in Australia, claiming to have reportedly given authorities information about operations in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia, which incurred heavy criticism from Australian media and politicians that China has interfered in the country’s politics and universities.
Ironically, Wang later confessed to fraud, making the story into a farce that put Australian media to shame.
Similarly, it is not surprising that Humphrey came back to the spotlight after one year of silence with a fake story, to which spokesman Geng replied by providing him with the advice that “if you want to grab more eyeballs, at least come up with some new tricks.”
Complete and absolute nonsense! Remember, boys and girls, any pronouncements (such as this) comes out of Beijing and is super-dooper well-documented.
I used to post on FreeRepublic. Then they sold out, just like Matt Drudge did. Now FR is something else. It is a mouth-piece for the oligarchy.
Now FR is something else. It is a mouth-piece for the oligarchy.
The CIA regime changing apparatus.
People! A recitation of the “talking points” of any CIA directive and regime changing apparatus should always be suspect.
No matter how much of a patriotic person you might be, the CIA, and the NED / NID have a terrible track-record of regime change. In almost every case resulting in death, bloodshed, and the implementation of an American-friendly dictatorship at the loss of freedom for the nations so targeted. As well as a mysterious loss of the allocated billions of dollars that was their charge.
Here’s some articles in case you don’t know what I am talking about…
America is currently fighting 8 simultaneous wars today. We have been in Afghanistan for almost 20 years. That is obscene.
World War II American involvement was three years.
World War I was four years.
The American Civil War was four years.
The first gulf war was one year.
What’s with all the wars?
In the past three years, over $3 billion in CASH was flown out of Kabul reports the Wall Street Journal. Officials don’t know exactly who got what, but have a general idea: “U.S. investigators believe top Afghan officials and their associates are sending billions of diverted U.S. aid and logistics dollars and drug money to financial safe havens abroad.” That’s still $9 billion less than what was lost in Iraq.
Why are Americans dying in far-away third-world nations? Why are we paying for it? Why is America trying to fight everyone?
Why are we the policeman for the world, and what’s all this nonsense about spreading “democracy“…?
Why are we flying pallet loads of untraceable cash to the regions and not using (observable) bank transfers? Why are the billions of dollars vanishing? Why is it all being done so surreptitiously?
American money began to disappear almost as soon as the Iraq War began. In 2004, $19 billion in reconstruction assistance was provided to Iraq. From 2005 to 2009, $26 billion was sent to Iraq for the same purpose.
A Congressional Research Service (CRS) report published in 2009 said much of this money was lost to waste, fraud and abuse. Stuart W. Bowen, Jr., then Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR), testified to Congress in 2009 that 15 to 20 percent of this money was wasted.
-Fiscal Times
On top of that, consider that the Uyghurs in Xinjiang are not living in a third world shit hole. The “proxy-war model for personal financial gain” can have dire consequences!
Picking a fight with nuclear-armed, merit-ruled China is like dancing on top of a fuel-soaked mattress while sparking the flint on a lighter. It’s idiotic!
Meanwhile, Detroit, San Francisco and Baltimore are absolute "shit holes". There is something seriously wrong when Americans are willing to throw money away on nonsensical regime change, while ignoring the festering rot in their very own backyard.
Really! What is America today?
It is crazy and absolutely NOT sustainable.
What does China think about all this?
China is fully aware of what is going on.
Though the American (manipulated) public might not be. As such, they are proceeding cautiously with a smile on their faces. We should not ever be under the illusion that they are oblivious to the Neocon interest in regime change within China.
Most Americans haven’t a clue about China. Many think that it is a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee. I am not at all kidding.
I remember talking to a woman at the checkout line in Conway, Arkansas. We ended up talking about China and how different it was. She sincerely thought that it was a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee.
Arkansas…
Most Americans do not know where China is located at relative to their hometown. In fact, polls have indicated that is is actually some confusion whether it is a separate nation, or another state residing within the United States. This extreme level of ignorance allows those in Washington D.C. to manipulate and control the thoughts and decisions of the average American citizen.
And when you talk about a subject specific to China, they act like a radical progressive democrat and shout loudly back at you. Often it is a canned phrase that they acquired off FOX news, or CNN. You know what I mean.
Canned phrases that can be repeated without thinking…
Communist!
Concentration camps.
Mind-control.
Religious prosecution!
Pretty amazing.
Brawndo – The Thirst Mutilator.
Knowledge Test
So one of the first things that I do when I end up getting sucked into a subject like this, is to pull out a map and ask the person which whom the discussion revolves, to point out where Xinjiang is.
If they are unable to locate it on a map, then I know that they are just a member of the mindless, manipulated American (and British) public.
You try. Give it a spin.
Where is Xinjiang on this map? Can you find it?
Blank simple map of China, no labels.
So, do you know where Xinjiang is? Point to it.
When I have run this little exercise… using a printer, and not allowing anyone to cheat using the internet, I am always surprised by the ignorance. (In fact, I actually carried up a folded printout in my backpack, for a spell.)
Initially, the person shrugs it off.
They won’t do it, and are insulted that you are trying to get them to show how ignorant they are. They do not like to be shown to be a fool. No one does, and so I cannot blame them. Can you?
I can't blame them. Most Americans can't point out Nebraska on a map, either.
It’s human nature, you know. We all want to think that we are brighter, smarter, and more intelligent than other people. So when we get into arguments, and it is pointed out that we are ignorant and manipulated, we resent it, and revolt against it.
OK.
Well, here is where Xinjiang is…
Map of China showing Xinjiang.
BRAWNDO’S GOT WHAT PLANTS CRAVE!Brawndo’s got electrolytes. And that’s what plants crave. They crave electrolytes. Which plants crave. they crave electrolytes. Which is what Brawndo has. And that’s why plants crave Brawndo. Not water, like from the toilet.
Don’t try to make sense of it, because you can’t. Just take note of the fact that Brawndo has electrolytes and does not come out of the toilet, I guess.
Brawndo’s got electrolytes. And that’s what plants crave.
What is Xinjiang like.
First of all, the media will never show the peaceful, prosperous parts of Xinjiang. Heck. They won’t show much of anything. It is extremely important for those in power to keep Americans ignorant of life outside of America.
An April 2005 audit concluded that CPA managers of [reconstruction] funds distributed in the South-Central region of Iraq could not account for more than $96.6 million in cash and receipts. An October 2005 audit found that South-Central personnel could not account for more than $20.5 million in Rapid Regional Response Program funds and made $2.6 million in excessive payments.”
Waste was not limited to mismanagement, however. Sometimes it was criminal, the report found.
“In late 2005, several U.S. citizens were criminally charged with respect to the handling of these funds—and have since pled guilty. In February 2007, five more were indicted, of whom four were convicted and one pled guilty,” CRS reported.
-Fiscal Times
American media is just one lie after the other. It’s all manipulation propaganda. Take heed.
So this is the kind of images that the media uses when discussing the Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang…
Human rights observers and independent experts said Tuesday that China seems to start massive DNA collection work from residents of a volatile region, where most Muslims are under strong security crackdowns.
What they omit is that everyone in China has their DNA collected. I have my DNA collected in China, and I’m not even a citizen. Such selective reporting, and then presented with a negative spin is common in Western reporting of the Uyghurs.
The NGO reported that, while the government was not confiscating passports, however, acquiring a passport as an ethnic minority was near impossible. Beijing has dedicated significant effort in the past five years to curbing the freedoms of Xinjiang’s majority Uighur population, who are largely Muslim and whose state is home to a major separatist movement, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) .
This article comes on the heels of reports that China was confiscating passports. Which was proven false, and China demanded an apology.
Now, rather than retract the narrative, they rewrote it as “difficult to obtain a passport“. Not true either. But the march of propaganda must roll. Couple that with picture of army soldiers and you have an effective propaganda onslaught.
Here’s another example…
The Uighur Muslim community in China’s Xinjiang region are facing arbitrary detentions, daily restrictions on religious practice, and “forced political indoctrination” in a mass security crackdown, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.
“The Chinese government is committing human rights abuses in Xinjiang on a scale unseen in the country in decades,” said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch. “The campaign of repression in Xinjiang is a key test of whether the United Nations and concerned governments will sanction an increasingly powerful China to end this abuse.” In its 117-page report, “‘Eradicating Ideological Viruses’: China’s Campaign of Repression Against Xinjiang’s Muslims,” Human Rights Watch presents new evidence of the Chinese government’s mass arbitrary detention, torture, and mistreatment, and the increasingly pervasive controls on daily life.
The way it reads sounds like the Muslims are being arrested and imprisoned because of their religion. That’s not the case. They are being imprisoned because they are [1] residents of Xinjiang and [2] they have committed crimes. Crimes like theft, murder, rape, and abductions.
Criminals exist all over the world.
That’s how propaganda works. It never provides the entire full and true situation. But, rather, it provides selected reports presented in a way to arouse emotions.
You know what? This is what Xinjiang really looks like…
Grand Bazaar in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang
Yeah. This is what it is really like, you all.
And Western media won’t talk about the billions of dollars that China has invested in Xinjiang, modernizing the cities, building 21 airports, linking with region with bullet trains etc.
This is hardly ever reported, but when it is, it is reported in a negative way. As if investing in things, buildings, constructions and hiring people is bad, terrible and unhealthy…
Having eliminated poverty and solved basic subsistence problems, the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang have now set their eyes on more prosperous lives, along with marked improvement in their standard of living.
In 2008, the per-capita net income of farmers in Xinjiang was 3,503 yuan, which is 28 times more than that of 1978, and 1.2 times more than that of 2000 when the western development campaign was launched; the per-capita disposable income of urban residents reached 11,432 yuan, which is 35 times more than that of 1978, and double that of 2001. The per-capita deposited savings of urban and rural residents averaged 14 yuan in 1955, 52 yuan in 1978, 4,913 yuan in 2000, and 11,972 yuan in 2008. Per-capita consumption was 122 yuan in 1952, 181 yuan in 1978, 2,662 yuan in 2000, and 4,890 yuan in 2007.
- Development and Progress in Xinjiang
Let’s compare the Chinese investment in Xinjiang with similar investments that the United States makes in America…
Uyghur High-Speed Rail in Xiajiang, China.
I’d try to compare it with the United States High Speed Rail, but I cannot. America doesn’t have high speed rail. Nor is America investing time and money to improve cultural minority enclaves. It is instead throwing money elsewhere.
Meanwhile, China is investing in Uyghur.
High-Speed Railway in Xinjiang
Ugyhur State-of-the-art Airports
I’d also like to compare the Uyghur airports with American airports, but I cannot do this either.
The latest international airport in the United States was built decades ago. At that time, people were still wearing bell-bottoms and wore afros.
The latest international airport in the United States was built decades ago. At that time, people were still wearing bell-bottoms and wore afros.
Anyways, the amount of monetary investment in Xinjiang is astounding, and the Uyghur workers who are all involved in building these projects are all making a decent life for themselves and their families. The Chinese, as a traditional conservative society, believes that people need a “hand up” to improve their social mobility. That means jobs for the men, opportunities for the children and community for the women.
Thus all the new and modern airports and public works.
International airport in Xinjiang, China.
In 2018, the 21 airports in Xinjiang handled 33 million passengers
And there are also thousands of mosques in Xinjiang, whose recorded
history goes back more than 2000 years when the ancient Silk Road linked
China to Italy and Greece. In China, there are mosques that were built
in the 10th century, which demonstrates the tolerance and respect for
religious rights in Chinese society.
Uyghur Religious Freedom in Xinjiang
If you read the American and British media, you would think that China is terribly repressive. Squashing free thought, and religious beliefs at will. It’s not true, not even remotely true. In fact, it’s absolute and complete nonsense.
You need to understand what is actually going on.
Xinjiang is the largest autonomous region in China, located in the Northwestern zone of the country. It is also where you will find the largest population of Muslims in China. Although the Hui Muslims make up the majority of Muslims in all of China, it is the Uyghur Muslims that are the largest in number when it comes to Xinjiang.
The Uyghurs are a Turkic Ethnic Group living in East and Central Asia, specifically the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China. They are a group of racially diverse people, including a variety of ethnicities ranging from Caucasians to Mongoloids. As the area with the largest concentration of Muslims in China, there is no need to worry about finding nearby mosques and prayer places in Xinjiang.
This is the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China.
There are about 20,000 mosques in Xinjiang
Also to remember are two nuggets of information: [1] Xinjiang is a really vast region — it’s four times as large as California(!); and [2] Uyghurs make up only about 40% of Xinjiang’s population. It is the truth and is not something that all the anti-Chinese propaganda broadcasts.
Learn something for a change instead of accepting the mindless manipulations…
Since ancient times, Xinjiang has always been a region with a number of religions existing side by side. The major religions in Xinjiang today are Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, Catholicism and Daoism. The Chinese government enacts a policy of freedom of religious belief, which the government of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region has thoroughly implemented. It protects citizens' rights of freedom of religious belief in accordance with the law, safeguards the legitimate rights and interests of religious circles, and promotes healthy and orderly development of religion.
Freedom of religious belief is a basic right bestowed by the PRC Constitution on all its citizens. It is stipulated in the Constitution as follows: "Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief. No state organ, public organization or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens who believe in, or do not believe in, any religion. The state protects normal religious activities." In addition, the State Council promulgated "Regulations on Religious Affairs," which stipulates: "Citizens enjoy freedom of religious belief. No organization or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens who believe in any religion or citizens who do not believe in any religion. Citizens who believe in religions and those who don't shall respect each other and coexist in harmony, as shall citizens who believe in different religions." Other relevant laws and regulations have specific provisions on the protection of citizens' freedom of religious belief. The state emphasizes that all citizens are equal before the law; that the citizens have the freedom to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion; that the citizens enjoy the rights of freedom of religious belief and at the same time must carry out corresponding responsibilities; that anyone who violates others' rights of freedom of religious belief shall bear the legal liability; and that both religious citizens and non-religious citizens shall bear the same legal liability for breaking the law.
In Xinjiang, people of all ethnic groups fully enjoy the right of freedom in religious belief. The people's freedom to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion is protected by the law, and no state organ, public organization or individual may interfere with their choice. By the end of 2008, the autonomous region had 24,800 venues for religious activities, including mosques, churches and temples, in addition to over 29,000 clerical personnel, 91 religious organizations and two religious colleges. Since the 1980s, more than 50,000 people from Xinjiang have made pilgrimages to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. In recent years, the number of people from Xinjiang who make the pilgrimage each year has been around 2,700. By 2008, over 1,800 religious personages in Xinjiang had been elected to posts in people's congresses and committees of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference at all levels. They have actively participated in deliberation and administration of state affairs on behalf of religious believers, and in exercising supervision over the government in respect to the implementation of the policy of freedom of religious belief.
The state and the government of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region administer religious affairs and protect the legal rights and interests of believers, religious organizations and venues for religious activities in accordance with the laws. The State Council promulgated the "Regulations on Religious Affairs." The Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region formulated and promulgated the "Regulations for the Administration of Religious Affairs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region." The government of the autonomous region formulated the "Provisional Regulations for the Administration of Religious Activity Venues in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region," "Provisional Regulations for the Administration of Clergy in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region" and "Provisional Regulations for the Administration of Religious Activities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region." These regulations further clarify that the citizens enjoy the right of freedom in religious belief, and the country protects normal religious activities, as well as the legal rights and interests of believers, religious organizations and venues for religious activities in accordance with the law; that believers, religious organizations and venues for religious activities should abide by the Constitution and related laws and regulations, and safeguard national unification, ethnic unity and social stability; that no organization or individual may make use of religion to engage in activities that disrupt public order, impair the health of citizens or interfere with the state educational system, or in activities that harm state and public interests, as well as citizens' legal rights and interests; and that no one should use religion to interfere in the performing of administrative and judicial functions by the state.
According to corresponding laws and regulations, the autonomous region protects all normal religious activities held either at venues for religious activities or in believers' own homes in accordance with customary religious practices, such as worshipping Buddha, reciting scriptures, burning incense, worshipping, praying, preaching, attending Mass, being baptized or ordained, celebrating religious festivals, observing extreme unction, and holding memorial ceremonies, which are all protected by law as the affairs of religious bodies or believers themselves and may not be interfered with. However, the autonomous region shall ban, in accordance with the law, activities that make use of religion to intervene in the performing of administrative and judicial functions of the state, as well as education, marriage or civil lawsuits.
Religious affairs are developing in a normal and orderly manner in Xinjiang. Religious classics and books and magazines have been published, including the Koran, Selections from Al-Sahih Muhammad Ibn-Ismail al-Bukhari, Koran with Annotations and Selected Works of Waez, in Uyghur, Han, Kazak and Kirgiz languages, as well as the New Collection of Waez's Speeches series and the magazine China's Muslims in Uyghur and Han languages, the later with a circulation of over one million. Large numbers of mosques in Xinjiang have been designated as key cultural relics sites under the protection of the state, the autonomous region and the various counties. In 1999, the central government allocated 7.6 million yuan for the reconstruction of the Yanghang Mosque in Urumqi, the Baytulla Mosque in Yining and the Jamae Mosque in Hotan. The government has also, on several occasions, allocated special funds for the maintenance and repair of the Idkah Mosque in Kashi and Tomb of the Fragrant Imperial Concubine (Apak Hoja Mazzar), and Sulayman's Minaret in Turpan. In 2008 alone, 33 million yuan was allocated by the state for the maintenance and repair of Idkah Mosque and the Tomb of the Fragrant Imperial Concubine.
Now, most people of Xinjiang's 10 major ethnic minority groups, with a total population of over 11.3 million, believe in Islam. The number of Islamic mosques has soared from 2,000 in the early days of the reform and opening-up drive to 24,300 now, and the body of clergy from 3,000 to over 28,000. Since its founding, the Xinjiang Islamic Institute gives lessons in Uyghur and other minority languages and has trained 489 Imams, Hatips or other teachers for religious schools in the autonomous region. It currently has 161 students. From 2001 to 2008, the Xinjiang Islamic School trained more than 20,000 clerics. In addition, 3,133 Talips were trained by religious personages, in Islamic schools and classes operated by Islamic associations in the various prefectures and prefecture-level cities. Among them, 1,518 have graduated and 803 taken up clerical posts. In an attempt to cultivate high-caliber clerical personnel of Islam, since 2001, the regional government has sent 47 clerics for training in colleges and universities in Egypt and Pakistan.
Historically, the region witnessed many conflicts between different religions and between different sects of the same religion. In the mid-10th century, the Islamic Karahan Kingdom waged a religious war against the Buddhist kingdom of Yutian, lasting for more than 40 years. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, religious battles continued for several hundred years within Islamic circles. These wars between and within religions seriously jeopardized the unity between different religions and between different sects, as well as general social harmony and stability. Since the founding of the PRC, the implementation of the policy of freedom in religious belief and administration of religious affairs in accordance with the law have promoted peace and harmony between different religions in Xinjiang, as well as mutual respect and understanding between religious and non-religious citizens and between citizens believing in different religions. There have been no modern conflicts or clashes caused by differences in religion or religious sect.
- Development and Progress in Xinjiang
The American reaction…
Hows Stuff Works is for fags. Electrolytes are what plants crave. Duh.
Hows Stuff Works is for fags. Electrolytes are what plants crave. Duh.
Types of Uyghur Muslims
Now, let’s break down the facts. There are four types of Uyghur Muslims:
Well-educated Uyghurs who are moderate/secular Muslims
Poor and lower middle-class Uyghurs
Nomads
Separatists and terrorists
And let’s talk about them one by one. OK?
Moderate/Secular Uyghurs
These are middle or upper middle-class Muslims who enjoy normal lives, have good jobs, and integrate easily with the mainstream Chinese culture. There are even popular Uyghur musicians, TV hosts, rappers (!) etc. in China.
Here are two famous Uyghur actresses — Guli Nazha and Dilraba Dilmurat.
Guli Nazha’s Fashion Look on Instagram on May 2, 2019.
The beauty of the Uyghur Muslims is stunning.
Dilraba Dilmurat is a famous Uyghur Xinjiang, Chinese actress that is beloved all over China.
Uyghur kids from educated families go to schools, live normal lives and have a lot of fun on social media like Tik Tok (“Douyin” in China). Women post selfies and have followings. Many of which are wealthy Chinese elites from the East Coast.
A not-famous young Uyghur woman who posts on Chinese media and who has a rather large following of Chinese followers. You go Girl!
All through China, whether it is in Xingjiang or in Dongguang, the Chinese government supports education, and harmony though peaceful pursuits. Yes, I know, I sound like a propagandist. But, it is true.
The raising of children in a happy and secure world is the goal of the Chinese government, and the last four decades has proven this to be their objective.
Chinese football may have long been mostly known for its underachieving national team and their dismal record against rivals South Korea and Japan, but there is a football team in China that is without doubt the best in Asia, if not the whole world. Known as Wuxiao in Chinese, the team were crowned champions at the National Youth Campus Football Championship Finals four times in a row from 2012 to 2015, the only four years the national tournament has been held. On the continental stage, they won all four under-13 titles at the international Weifang Cup in Weifang, East China’s Shandong Province since they were invited to play in 2011. And they repeatedly beat teams from South Korea and Japan with a winning margin of nearly 10 goals during their run of success at the tournament.
Most Americans have no idea that there is prosperity in Xinjiang. All that they know is that China is bad and eats dogs. China is communist and represses everyone, and the Muslims in Xinjiang want “freedom” and “democracy” most urgently.
And Brawndo is what plant’s crave. It’s got electrolytes.
Most Americans have no idea that there is prosperity in Xinjiang. All that they know is that China is bad and eats dogs. China is communist and represses everyone, and the Muslims in Xinjiang want “freedom” and “democracy” most urgently. Oh, and Brando is good for you. It has electrolytes.
Working Class Uyghurs
There are also many working class Uyghurs who may own restaurants and gift shops or work as artists and craftsmen in touristy places. Their lives aren’t bad and most of them don’t get into trouble with the government.
Like anywhere in China, the families try to be upwardly mobile. That means, in China, through achievement and scholarship. The best students are granted the ability to move to the best schools and doors of opportunity open up for them and their families.
Thousands of kilometers from home, in a strange city with a sometimes loose grasp of the language, teenagers from the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region find themselves homesick, lonely and struggling to communicate.
But their dreams of a better education help them to persevere through the tough beginnings at one of the pilot schools in Beijing that have been recruiting Xinjiang students since 2000, when the central government started a program to help improve their education.
"Although the school is 3,000 kilometers away from home, it's still worth studying here," said Dilara, a senior from Hami, who is now studying at Luhe High School in eastern Beijing's Tongzhou district.
Students apply for the program and those who pass entrance exams organized by local governments are admitted to 93 inland city schools in Beijing, Shanghai and 43 other cities. So far, 80,200 students have participated. They study for free and receive a 650 yuan ($100) monthly living allowance.
"It's really attractive to me that the included schools are located in developed cities like Beijing and Shanghai," said Dilara, a Uygur student who had lived with her grandmother since she was a child.
"We don't have to pay any tuition and even get monthly subsidy. That's quite a relief for me and my grandma."
Arriving in Beijing at the age of 14, Dilara initially was bothered by homesickness and the challenge of communicating." I felt ashamed to communicate with teachers here because of my poor Mandarin," she said.
The school provides one year of training to help the Xinjiang students improve their language skills and offers psychological advice before they start their high school curriculum.
Early on, Dilara turned to Ayturan, a teacher from Ili who joined the students at the Beijing school, but she soon adapted and made friends with local students.
Sometimes she and other students from Xinjiang are invited home by local students, especially during winter vacations, when most of them would rather stay at school than take the 30-hour train ride back home.
Dilara recalled a recent visit to the home of her classmate Cui Xi.
"His mother cooked mutton chops for us, which is exactly what I missed so much, and his father encouraged me, just like my own father does," she recalled.
Cui Xi said daily life became more fun after the Xinjiang students joined the class.
"We celebrate Eid al-Adha, the traditional festival, usually celebrated by the Uygur in September, a fancy day filled with the aroma of roast lamb and the ecstasy of carnival," Cui said.
Now an 18-year-old senior, Dilara plans to further her education at Beijing International Studies University. "I always hoped to study tourism and promote my hometown to the world one day," she said.
Li Tongshu, director of students at Luhe, said the success of the graduates over the past 16 years gives her confidence that Dilara's dream－and the dreams of the other students－will come true.
"Nearly 1,400 Xinjiang graduates have been admitted by universities at home and abroad, and among those, 800 have devoted themselves to further building their hometowns," Li proudly said.
-China Daily
Really Poor Uyghurs
Then there are really poor Uyghurs who live in slums.
Like anywhere else in the world, these are prime targets for recruitment by jihadists. Many of these Uyghur kids work on the streets and shine shoes or help their families with menial jobs like taking care of donkeys or other animals.
Like anywhere else in the world, these are prime targets for recruitment by jihadists. The promise of meaning, value and worth and a bigger plan that includes spiritual involvement is very alluring.
When the Chinese government mandates that these children go to school, the Western media scream bloody murder…
If these Uyghurs come to the US, the children will be forced to attend schools as well. In fact, in America the parents would be arrested if they tried to home-school their children.
Here is a school that the “evil Communists” forces the Uyghur kids to attend:
No. 66 Middle School in Urumqi, northwest China is home to 2,400 children from 13 different ethnic groups. They are all part of a Chinese government programme helping ethnically diverse students in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to receive higher quality of education.
Known as the Xinjiang Class, the programme was introduced in 2000 to offer children living in the region’s remote areas the possibility to attend a top junior high school (ages 12-15), preparing students to then attend a senior high school in one of 17 cities across the country.
The state is committed to the cultivation of high-caliber professionals from minority backgrounds, sending promising students for overseas studies and through programs such as Specialized Training for Xinjiang Minority Sci-Tech Personnel and the High-Level Minority Talents Program.
To develop education for ethnic minorities, it encourages the use of minority languages in classroom teaching. For ethnic groups with their own written languages in Xinjiang, school education is conducted in their own languages.
Over the years, special state funds have been earmarked for the compilation and printing of textbooks in Uyghur, Kazak, Mongolian, Xibe and Kirgiz languages, satisfying the needs of minority students for textbooks of major courses.
In Xinjiang, test papers for the annual national college entrance examinations are printed in Uyghur, Han, Kazak and Mongolian languages.
- Development and Progress in Xinjiang
Some of these kids don’t even speak Chinese, which greatly limits their abilities to find jobs later on as adults. So when they learn Chinese in school, the western propaganda screams, “cultural genocide.”
Sheer idiocy!
The BBC admits that the “communist” (gasp!) government has spent $1.2 billion in the last five years on upgrading and building new schools for children in Xinjiang. How many billions of USD has the American government spent on schools lately?
Oh, yes, the Department of Education is funded lavishly.
But I am not talking about salaries for bureaucratic cronies of whatever administration is in power. I am talking about the brick and mortar schools. Not being funded properly, and certainly not being managed well. Or haven’t you noticed?
This should be applauded, not demonized!
The Chinese government has done a phenomenal job by lifting 1.85 million Uyghur Muslims out of poverty between 2014 and 2017. Of course, the western media will never talk about it.
Before the founding of the PRC in 1949, Xinjiang had but one college, nine secondary schools and 1,355 primary schools. Only 19.8% of school-age children attended primary school, and the overall illiteracy rate was a shocking 90%.
Unprecedented changes have taken place in education in Xinjiang after 1949.
At present, Xinjiang has basically made the nine-year compulsory education universal and eliminated illiteracy in the young and middle-aged population. Adult and vocational education started from scratch, and has been developing steadily.
Since 2006, with the introduction of a new mechanism that guarantees rural education funding, Xinjiang's primary and secondary school students have enjoyed free compulsory education.
In 2008, the government granted living subsidies to all underprivileged students who live at school and exempted urban students from tuition fees during their compulsory education period. Since 2007, the state has initiated an annual budget of 129 million yuan for the education of 51,000 very poor university students and 95,000 secondary and higher vocational school students, 70% of whom come from ethnic minorities.
In 2008, the Xinjiang autonomous region government invested a total of 18.77 billion yuan in the region's education system, representing a year-on-year increase of 32.3%. Statistics from that year show that Xinjiang had 4,159 primary schools with 2,012,000 students, and a 99.6% enrollment rate for school-age children. There were 1,973 secondary schools with 1,722,000 students, and 32 institutions of higher learning with 241,000 undergraduate and 10,300 graduate students in total.
- Development and Progress in Xinjiang
Nomadic Uighurs
Then there are Uyghurs who are herders and nomads in the vast Xinjiang region.
The Changing World of the Yugur Nomads. Chinese scholars say both the Uighurs and the Yugurs (sometimes called the Yellow Uighurs) are descendants of an ethnic group called the Huihu, a Turkic-speaking nomadic people who had an empire in the eighth to ninth centuries on the steppes of present-day Mongolia. Western scholars use the term Uighur or Uyghur to describe that earlier group.
-New York Times
Although it seems romantic, their lives are not compatible with modern days. Most of them are stuck in extreme poverty and their kids also grow up completely illiterate. Sometimes the Chinese government relocates tens of thousands of these people into the cities and gives them jobs, free housing, health care etc.
Of course, US media will spin this as “ethnic cleansing.” (The government has helped millions of Chinese people in other areas get out of extreme poverty by similar relocation projects as well).
Relocation of nomads into cities = “Ethnic Cleansing”.
Many of these nomads appreciate the new life:
“With central heating, gas, running water, Internet and cable TV, we no
longer need to worry about things that troubled us in the past.”
Many of these nomads appreciate the new life: “With central heating, gas, running water, Internet and cable TV, we no longer need to worry about things that troubled us in the past.”
Sometimes, if the parents don’t want to give up their nomadic lives, the government may move the children to boarding schools, where they get free lodging, meals and education.
The primary concern of the government is that unless the nomadic Uyghurs are educated, they will be stuck within a terrible cycle of poverty. And poverty breeds crime and social unrest.
Separatists and Terrorists
What is not mentioned in the mainstream media is that the West has been stroking separatism in Xinjiang since the 1950s!
Addressing the National Press Club in Australia's capital Canberra on Tuesday, the chairwoman of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) lied again, right to the reporters' faces.
Kadeer accused Chinese authorities of removing Uyghur-language lessons from schools and forcing the Uighurs to learn Chinese.
"I think the Chinese government should stop its invasive policy of single-language (Chinese) education and allow students and their parents to choose whatever language they aspire to learn," she said through an interpreter.
Interestingly though, Kadeer made her remarks in Uyghur, the language she would not have been able to speak should the Chinese government have deprived her of her right to learn it.
China, Kadeer said, has adopted "biased policies towards ethnic minorities" in the past 60 years, exploited the Uyghurs and pushed all of them into a "state of extreme poverty."
But she herself was once a "millionairess" in Xinjiang and stood as a strong testament to China's preferential policies toward ethnic minorities there.
Starting from a small business in the 1980s, Kadeer worked her way up to become the richest woman in Xinjiang before she broke Chinese law and was sentenced to jail.
Still, during her appearance at the press club, Kadeer continued to tell lies in a vain attempt to cover the bare facts and her separatist intentions.
Throughout her "speech," Kadeer called China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region "East Turkistan," and publicly proclaimed that Xinjiang was an "independent country" before 1949 and that Chinese troops "invaded" and "annexed" the region.
Books compiled by Western historians never said Xinjiang was an independent country before 1949, not to mention that there was no such ridiculous record of it in Chinese history.
- Rebiya Kadeer lies again
When the Chinese communists won in 1949 (by defeating US-supported faction, which went on to establish Taiwan), the US started arming/funding separatists in Tibet and Xinjiang.
Notice the signs. Who do you think the signs are directed towards? The Chinese government? Or, Americans? And why are they in American English, and not (say) British English. Who wrote the signs, when they are supposedly illiterate? Why aren’t the signs in Chinese, the national language? Who are the signs directed towards?
The US brought in a lot of these extremists into Germany in the 1970s and helped them foment a movement for “East Turkestan.”
Currently, the so-called “World Uyghur Congress” (WUC) is funded and glorified by the US government through NGOs such as National Endowment of Democracy (NED) — which also played a major role in the Tiananmen Square clashes in 1989 (see this article).
By the way, the story of “1 million Muslims in concentration camps” (sometimes it’s 2 or 3 million!) comes from testimonies of WUC members.
However, to the dismay of propagandists, no Muslim country is buying the “concentration camps” narrative. They are ALL on the side of China.
In 2005, Rebiya fled to the US after being released on bail for medical treatment and now lives in Fairfax, Virginia, south of Washington DC. Before going abroad, she had repeatedly promised the Chinese government that she would never participate in any activity that might jeopardize national security.
Once she arrived in the US however, she has been committed to "Xinjiang independence" activities. In the same year, she founded the US-based International Uyghur Human Rights and Democracy Foundation (IUHRDF). In 2006, she became president of the Uyghur American Association (UAA) and was elected as president of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) at its Second General Assembly in the same year.
As soon as Rebiya arrived in the US, the "renowned" National Endowment for Democracy (NED) came to visit her, expressing a willingness to offer financial support. The sponsor behind the foundation is the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
It has been disclosed that the NED annually grants 200,000 USD to the UAA. In 2007, East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) organizations, including the WUC and IUHRDF led by Rebiya, received a total of 520,000 USD of financial support from the NED.
In addition, some anti-China US congressmen have become guests of honor for Rebiya, and frequently invited her to deliver speeches at the so-called "Congressional Human Rights Caucus Meeting."
Even former president George W. Bush met with Rebiya twice in 2007 and 2008 prior to the Beijing Olympics, calling her a freedom warrior. Members of the CIA often disguised as reporters and non-government organization (NGO) volunteers expressed their concerns to her, keeping close touch with her on the issue of ETIM prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.
Since the beginning of 2009, the WUC had prepared for its third General Assembly, which also received support from American congressmen and the NED.
Rebiya once said they would plan some penetration and sabotage activities at the third General Assembly targeting the grand celebration for the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China; and formulate a plan of "three phases for Xinjiang independence in 50 years."
The WUC website impressively showed that the WUC Third General Assembly was unexpectedly held in the South Congressional Meeting Room with the participation of nearly 10 US congressmen. Most of these congressmen are veteran anti-China politicians.
On the second day following the July 5 incident, Rebiya made a speech at a press conference held at the National Press Club, saying that the Chinese government's accusations were "completely false." However, the club is an institution under the US Department of State.
Some US-based media have also become a "megaphone" for Rebiya. On June 1, US-based WPFW Pacifica radio interviewed Rebiya, in which she even claimed that historically, Tibet and Xinjiang were not part of China, and stated that "repression, imprisonment, and executions" in Xinjiang "had actually increased dramatically since 9/11."
She claimed that the best way to make the outside world understand the situation in Xijiang was to inform foreign officials, especially those of the US, "Because they had always been very concerned with the human rights situation in China. The Uyghur people always have this strong faith in the United States."
The New York Times disclosed on April 23 that Rebiya had said, "Politicians and human rights organizations from all over the world were active on behalf of Tibet. The conditions in the Uyghur nation were much the same. But interest from abroad in the two...could not have been more dissimilar." Rebiya also tried to smear China by writing articles for the Washington Post, attempting to gain sympathy from the West by means of the so-called pursuit of democracy and human rights.
- Rebiya Kadeer's funding sources
Turkey is the closest to Uyghurs, who are of Turkic origin. Turkish leader Erdogan was in China few days ago and said that the Uyghur re-education centers won’t affect China-Turkey relations.
Turkish leader Erdogan was in China few days ago and said that the Uyghur re-education centers won’t affect China-Turkey relations.
Indonesia — the largest Muslim country in the world —has also said that it understands China’s predicament of dealing with separatists.
Similarly Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and even Saudi Arabia have dismissed the sensational stories. Many diplomats and reporters have visited these camps and have come out reassured.
One more historical perspective: After the Mujahideen war in Afghanistan ended in 1989, many of those fighters went to Central Asia. And the disease of Wahhabism spread to Xinjiang as well.
One more historical perspective: After the Mujahideen war in Afghanistan ended in 1989, many of those fighters went to Central Asia. And the disease of Wahhabism spread to Xinjiang as well.
From 2009 to 2015, there was a significant number of terrorist attacks by the Uyghur jihadists (here’s an example). That’s when China decided to really crack down.
In the 1980’s, when China first opened up to the West, the two points of entry were Taiwan and Hong Kong. Of that, Hong Kong was the primary entry point to the Chinese resources and market. Thus, from the 1980’s to today, Hong Kong grew exponentially. It went from a small, forgotten, British back-water colony to the major financial and banking center that it is today.
You can attribute it’s rise to the role that it had as the entry port for trade with the mainland.
In a like way, the Chinese government is planning a similar role for their “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI). Those people who now live in Xinjiang are completely poised to become the next generation super-wealthy of China. It will benefit the local Xinjiang people, the neighboring nations, and the Chinese nation as whole.
To this end, the existing global structure is being bypassed, and they do not like that
Thus, the future of Xinjiang also has a lot of economic implications.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has 1000s of freight trains and trucks carrying goods between China and Europe every year; and most of these trains and trucks go through Xinjiang. There are also many oil/gas pipelines from Central Asia that go through Xinjiang to power China’s industrial economy.
The Uyghur people are expected to become “Dubai Wealthy” in the next few decades. Provided of course, that the United States stands aside and let’s them live in peace and prosperity.
An unstable Xinjiang will wreak havoc on the Chinese economy.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has 1000s of freight trains and trucks carrying goods between China and Europe every year; and most of these trains and trucks go through Xinjiang. There are also many oil/gas pipelines from Central Asia that go through Xinjiang to power China’s industrial economy.
The Chinese government is trying to help the poor people and fight the jihadists at the same time.
The US really needs to fix its foreign policy, which is now based on chaos, confrontation, wars, Machiavellian divide-and-conquer strategies, and endless propaganda. The US needs a positive approach that’s based on cooperation, friendly competition and ethical policies.
Statement that the UN supports China on Xinjiang
Valentin Rybakov, center, permanent representative of Belarus to the UN, makes a joint statement on behalf of 54 countries in firm support of China’s counter-terrorism and de-radicalization measures in Xinjiang during the discussion on human rights at the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday at the UN headquarters in New York. Liao Pan/CNS
Belarus made a joint statement Tuesday on behalf of 54 countries in
firm support of China’s counterterrorism and de-radicalization measures
in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
During a discussion on human rights at the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York, Belarus made the statement on behalf of countries including Pakistan, Russia, Egypt, Bolivia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Serbia. It praised China’s people-centered development philosophy and development achievements.
The statement spoke positively of the results of counterterrorism and de-radicalization measures in Xinjiang, noting that these measures have effectively safeguarded the basic human rights of people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang.
The statement said that terrorism, separatism and religious extremism have caused enormous damage to all ethnic groups in Xinjiang, which has seriously infringed upon human rights, including the right to life, health and development.
“China has undertaken a series of counterterrorism and de-radicalization measures in Xinjiang, including setting up vocational education and training centers,” the statement said, adding that safety and security have returned to Xinjiang now and “the fundamental human rights of people of all ethnic groups there are safeguarded”.
The statement also supported China’s commitment to openness and transparency, mentioning it has invited a number of diplomats, international organizations, officials and journalists to Xinjiang to witness the progress of the human rights cause and the outcomes of counterterrorism and de-radicalization.
“What they saw and heard in Xinjiang completely contradicted what was reported in the (Western) media,” it wrote.
The statement expressed opposition to relevant countries politicizing the human rights issue and called on them to stop baseless accusations against China.
“We express our firm opposition to relevant countries’ practice of politicizing human rights issues, by naming and shaming, and publicly exerting pressures on other countries,” it wrote.
“We call on relevant countries to refrain from employing unfounded charges against China based on unconfirmed information before they visit Xinjiang,” it wrote.
At the meeting, more than 30 countries, including Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Cuba and Nicaragua, voiced support for China’s position and measures on human rights.
The Kyrgyzstan representative said the Kyrgyzstan Republic considers Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region affairs to be purely an internal affair of China and “appreciates the efforts of the government of China to preserve the Uygur culture and religious freedom and freedom of nationalities of Xinjiang and supports the measures taken by the Chinese side to ensure Xinjiang’s security, stability and development”.
“The measures taken by China to address the situation and continue the economic development in Xinjiang are fundamental for the people of China, which is supported and appreciated by the international community,” said the Cambodia representative.
“We commend China’s efforts to combat terrorism and extremism in Xinjiang in accordance with the laws. We would like to reiterate our opposition to any countries to use human rights as an excuse to interfere any country’s internal affairs and attempts to put pressure in the name of human rights should be avoided,” said the representative from Myanmar.
Zhang Jun, permanent representative of China to the UN, refuted the “baseless” comments on Xinjiang made by the United States and some other countries.
Zhang said that the US and a few other countries made “groundless accusations” against China, which is “gross interference in China’s internal affairs and a deliberate provocation of confrontation”.
“China firmly opposes and rejects it,” he said.
He reiterated that Xinjiang’s preventive measures of counterterrorism and de-radicalization are based on law and consistent with the will of the people.
“This is not about human rights and has nothing to do with racial discrimination,” he said. “China wants to tell the United States and other countries not to confront the international community and not to go any further on the wrong path.”
“This is not about human rights and has nothing to do with racial discrimination,” he said. “China wants to tell the United States (and other countries) NOT to confront the international community and NOT to go any further on the wrong path.”
The CIA declined to comment.
Godfree Roberts Study
Here is the complete write up on this issue by Godfree Roberts. It’s terribly long, but full of outstanding details. All credit to the author…
Many
Chinese consider Uyghurs the descendants of a marooned, white
imperialist army living on land that was China’s long before they
arrived. Edgar Snow[1]
visited Xinjiang in 1937 and reported, “Especially in the ninth
century, when vast hordes of Ouigour Turks (whose great leader Seljuk
had not yet been born) were summoned to the aid of the T’ang Court to
suppress rebellion, Islamism entrenched itself in China. Following their
success, many of the Ouigours were rewarded with titles and great
estates and settled in the Northwest and in Szechuan and Yunnan. Over a
period of centuries the Mohammedans stoutly resisted Chinese absorption
but gradually lost their Turkish culture, adopted much that was Chinese,
and became more or less submissive to Chinese law. Yet in the
nineteenth century they were still powerful enough to make two great
bids for power: one when Tu Wei-hsiu for a time set up a kingdom in
Yunnan and proclaimed himself Sultan Suleiman; and the last, in 1864,
when Mohammedans seized control of all the Northwest and even invaded
Hupeh.”
Islam
is neither the Uyghurs’ native religion nor their only one but, in its
Wahabbi form, it has caused problems around the world, for which we can
thank to two fervent Christians, Jimmy Carter and Zbigniew Brzezinski,[2] who considered a united Eurasia, “The only possible challenge to American hegemony.”
In
1979, months before the Soviet entry into Afghanistan, Brzezinski
drafted and Carter signed a top-secret Presidential Order authorizing
the CIA to train fundamentalist Muslims to wage Jihad against the Soviet
Communist infidels and all unbelievers of conservative Sunni Islam and
the Mujahideen terror war against Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan became
the largest covert action in CIA history.[2]
Brzezinski’s ‘Arc of Crisis’ strategy inflamed Muslims in Central Asia
to destabilize the USSR during its economic crisis and, when Le Nouvel Observateur
later asked if he had any regrets, Brzezinski snapped, “What is most
important to the history of the world? Some stirred-up Muslims or the
liberation of Central Europe?”
The
Uyghurs had collaborated with the Japanese in WWII and Rebiya Kadeer,
‘Mother of the Uyghurs’ and a US Government client, after kissing the
ground at Yasukuni Shrine, called Xinjiang’s postwar reversion to
Chinese administration a ‘reconquest.’ Ms Kadeer’s connections are
interesting. In the late 1990s Hasan Mahsum, founder of the East
Turkestan Islamic Movement, ETIM, moved its headquarters to Kabul and
met with Osama bin Laden and the CIA-trained Taliban to coordinate
action across Central Asia. In 1995 Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
then mayor of Istanbul declared, “Eastern Turkestan [Xinjiang] is not
only the home of the Turkic peoples but also the cradle of Turkic
history, civilization and culture. To forget that would lead to the
ignorance of our own history, civilizati on and culture. The martyrs of Eastern Turkestan are our martyrs.” Under Erdogan Turkey became the transit point for international terrorists destined for Syria and Turkish airports were filled with Uyghurs traveling on Turkish passports.
Twenty
years later, in 1999, the CIA’s Islam strategist, Graham E. Fuller,
announced, “The policy of guiding the evolution of Islam and of helping
them against our adversaries worked marvelously well in Afghanistan
against the Russians. The same doctrines can still be used to
destabilize what remains of Russian power, and especially to counter the
Chinese influence in Central Asia.”[3]
We will return to Mr. Fuller anon but, first, some background from F. William Engdahl,
“Today the West–and especially Washington–is engaged in full-scale
irregular war against the stability of China. In recent months Western
media and the Washington Administration have begun to raise a hue and
cry over alleged mass internment camps in China’s northwestern Xinjiang
where supposedly up to one million ethnic Uyghur Chinese are being
detained and submitted to various forms of ‘re-education.’ Several
things about the charges are notable, not the least that all originate
from Western media and ‘democracy’ NGOs like Human Rights Watch, whose
record for veracity leaves something to be desired.”
Tarring
China with the brush of intolerance will be hard work. The colophon of
the earliest dated, printed book in existence–a ninth century Chinese
translation of the Diamond Sutra–reads, ‘For universal free
distribution.’ Though two-thirds of Chinese are atheists in the Western
sense and one-fourth are non-religious Taoists, their Constitution
guarantees freedom of worship in government-sanctioned religious
organizations and their government supports seventy-four seminaries, one
thousand seven hundred Tibetan monasteries, three thousand religious
organizations, 85,000 religious sites and 300,000 full time Catholic,
Protestant, Buddhist, Ancient Chinese, Taoist and Muslim clergy. The
2000 census recorded 20.3 million Muslims: 1.25 million Kazakhs, 8.4
million Uyghurs and 9.8 million Hui. Neither the Kazakh nor the Hui
Muslims have caused trouble.
Mr.
Fuller is on a first name basis with Uyghur leaders. Ruslan Tsarni,
uncle of the Boston Marathon Tsarnaev brothers, was married to Fuller’s
daughter Samantha in the 1990s and was an employee of the CIA-contracted
RAND Corporation. In media interviews in the aftermath of the 2013
Boston bombing, ‘Uncle Ruslan’ gave an overdone performance condemning
his two nephews while verifying the FBI’s portrayal of them. The media
ignored the fact that Tsarni not only worked as a consultant for CIA
fronts like RAND and USAID and as a contractor for Halliburton but even
established an entity called the Congress of Chechen International
Organizations which supported Islamic separatist militants in the
Caucasus, using Fuller’s Maryland home as its registered address.
After deploying
Islamists in Pakistan in the 2000s to disrupt Chinese infrastructure,
in Myanmar to disrupt the China-Myanmar energy assets and across Sudan,
Libya and Syria to choke off China’s oil and gas Fuller said, “Uyghurs
are indeed in touch with Muslim groups outside Xinjiang, some of them
have been radicalized into broader jihadist politics in the process, a
handful were earlier involved in guerrilla or terrorist training in
Afghanistan, and some are in touch with international Muslim mujahideen
struggling for Muslim causes of independence worldwide.” Fuller assigned
them to capitalize on the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, weaken trust in
China’s government and provoke repression that Western media could
condemn as ‘human rights crimes.’ Three weeks before the Games he
sponsored a conference, “East Turkestan: 60 Years under Communist
Chinese Rule” and the National Endowment for Democracy, NED,[4] handled PR for the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) the emigré group headed by billionaire Rebiya Kadeer[5] and her husband, Sidiq Rouzi, a Voice of America employee. Their ideology[6] is familiar.
On
the eve of the Olympics an attempted suicide bombing on a China Southern
Airlines flight was thwarted but terrorists in Kashgar, Southern
Xinjiang, killed sixteen police officers four days before the opening.
The next year Uighur extremists murdered another two hundred in Urumqi
but Western media refused to characterize the attacks as acts of
terrorism and the violence continued:
October 2013: ETIM attack at Tiananmen Square in Beijing killed five.
February 2014: A knife attack at a train station in Kunming killed 30.
April 2014: A knife and bomb attack in Urumqi killed three and wounded 79.
May 2014: Two cars crashed into a market in Urumqi and the attackers lobbed explosives, killing 31 people.
September 2014: Suicide bombers and clashes left 50 people dead and 50 injured.
October 2015: A knife attack on a coalmine killed 50.
Then
came the Syrian War and, on the sidelines of a May 2017 meeting between
Syrian and Chinese businessmen in Beijing, Syria’s ambassador[7]
to China startled reporters with a surprising number, 5000, the number
of Uighurs he claimed were fighting in Syria for various jihadist
groups. Many have since returned to China and 12,900 (Uyghur families
insist on traveling and staying together, even in prison) have been
sentenced to up to two years, mostly for illegally entering the country
and are held in re-education camps. The NED is not hiding its
involvement:
NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY
China (Xinjiang/East Turkistan). ASIA China [Xinjiang/East Turkistan] Advocacy and Outreach for Uyghur Human Rights Project. $310,000.
To raise awareness about Uyghur human rights issues and to bring such issues to prominence globally. The grantee will research, document, and provide independent and accurate information about human rights violations affecting Uyghurs in China. It will also conduct outreach to Chinese citizens in an effort to improve the human rights conditions for Uyghurs. The grantee will organize leadership and advocacy training seminars for Uyghur youth; monitor, document, and highlight human rights violations in East Turkestan/Xinjiang; and strengthen advocacy on Uyghur issues at the United Nations and the European Parliament.
Faced
with an armed insurrection, most states impose martial law or a state
of emergency, as Britain did in Malaya from 1945 to 1957 and the US did
with the Patriot Act, but China decided–despite popular outrage–to write
off its losses and play the long game.
China founded The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO),[1]
a political, economic, and security alliance, with Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, who stopped funneling
money and providing corridors for Uyghur terrorists to move into and out
of China. The SCO has since expanded to include India and Pakistan and
Iran has begun the accession process, making it world’s largest security
pact in both area and population and the only one whose membership
includes four nuclear powers.
Forming
the SCO was easier than assuaging public outrage. An unheard-of lawsuit
by victims’ relatives accused the government of reverse discrimination
so they stepped up security and published their objectives:
restore law and order
prevent terrorists from inflicting more violence
use ‘high-intensity regulation’
contain the spread of terrorism beyond Xinjiang
purge extremists and separatists from society.
Neighborhood
community centres–labelled ‘concentration camps’ in the western
press–educate rural Uyghurs about the perils of religious extremism and
train them for urban jobs.
In
2013 President Xi toured Eurasia and proposed the Belt and Road
Initiative for three billion people, designed to create the biggest
market in the world with unparalleled development potential, and built a
gas pipeline to China from Turkmenistan through Uzbekistan, Tajikistan
and Kyrgyzstan which, like China’s other western pipelines, power lines,
and rail and road networks, runs through the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous
Region.
Beijing
then moved jobs to Xinjiang and opened vocational schools to train
rural youth in literacy and job skills and swore to protect its
neighbors from terrorism in exchange for their pledge to reciprocate. To
create jobs in the province Xi directed investment from forty-five of
China’s top companies and eighty Fortune 500 manufacturers to Urumqi.
Corporate investment increased from $10 billion in 2015 to $15 billion
in 2017 and infrastructure investments of $70 billion in both 2017 and
2018 lifted the annual goods shipments past 100 million tons with a goal
of hourly departures to fifteen European capitals. Half a million
Uyghurs have relocated from remote villages to cities and, as a reult,
600,000 Uighurs were lifted out of poverty in 2016, 312,000 in 2017 and
400,000 in 2018. The last poor Uyghurs will join the cash economy in mid-2020.
The
real war is being fought in our media and an engineer encountered a
classic example in the heartbreaking tale of savage destruction of
historic Kashgar Old Town, which The Washington Post called, “An Ancient Culture, Bulldozed Away,” The New York Times, “To Protect an Ancient City, China Moves to Raze It,” TIME, “Tearing Down Old Kashgar: Another Blow to the Uighurs.” Professor Patrik Meyer takes up the story:
As a tourist, those headlines resonate with me, too. I wish to keep the Kashgar Old Town untouched and to be able to wander along its narrow, shaded alleys lined by adobe houses. However, if I were responsible for the living conditions and safety of its residents, as well as for the modernization of Kashgar writ large, then I would see Beijing’s transformation in a more positive light. Given the almost unprecedented access I was granted between 2010 and 2013 to conduct ethno-political research in Xinjiang and my robust background in civil engineering, I consider myself well positioned to provide a broader perspective on the issues raised by Western journalists when criticizing the KOT renewal project. A simple survey of Western media outlets shows that harsh criticism of Beijing’s renewal of the KOT is built on four central arguments: demolition of Uyghur’s historical heritage, destruction of Uyghur’s social fabric, absence of Uyghurs’ voices in the project, and the sufficient seismic performance of existing houses. Moreover, Western journalists often argue that the goal of Beijing’s works in Kashgar is to weaken, or even erase, Uyghur identity, not to improve their living conditions.
KOT’s historical value is indisputable, but it is not as significant as assumed by the Western critics. While some houses are centennial, with charismatic courtyards and beautifully decorated wooden frames, the majority are a poorly built patchwork of old and new mud and masonry walls. Hence, while the old town as whole has significant historical value, many of its houses are not historically valuable. Kashgar is one of the few Chinese cities where the old town is being partly preserved and remodeled following traditional standards. There is indeed some damage being caused to the Uyghurs’ historical heritage, but it is far less significant than the Western critics claim and it is intended to modernize Kashgar, not to “Demolish the Uyghur History” as argued by the Smithsonian. The second dominant argument, the tearing apart the Uyghur identity, is also happening, but again, not to the extent or for the purpose that it is being reported in the West. China’s fast modernization results in numerous communities being reshaped and displaced, including the one in the KOT. However, when asked for their view about Beijing’s renewal of the KOT, most of its dwellers welcome it. And for good reasons. Their houses are often very small, poorly ventilated, dusty and dark, have no toilets, and are unpractical. It is those who do not live in the old town–Uyghurs, tourist, and Western journalists–who are most critical of the renewal project. Hence, I believe that the KOT project is causing Uyghur identity change, not its destruction, as argued by the West.
As for the third argument, that the Uyghurs have no say in the project, it is again only partially correct. Their voice is indeed absent from the upper levels of the project’s decision making process. However, the majority of homeowners decide whether to stay or leave the KOT and how to proceed with the repair of their houses. They are offered three options, the first being to permanently move to a free, new apartment larger their old house. Second, they can opt to let the government tear down the old house and replace it with a new structure for free, which does not included finishing works such as flooring, windows, and decoration. During the time that this work is being done, the families can rent an apartment subsidized by the government at about $900 per year. In case the house is deemed to be structurally sound, the homeowners are given a subsidy (about US$90/m2) to upgrade the house themselves. Additional subsidies are also offered for those willing to finish the façade using traditional Uyghur style. While there might be some irregularities within this system, most homeowners affected by the renewal of the KOT have the choice to stay or leave, which the Western critics seems to ignore.
Finally, a fourth dominant argument against Beijing’s KOT project is that the old town must be seismically safe because it has survived hundreds of years without being destroyed. Again, this is only partly true. There are a number of houses that were built properly over a hundred years ago, but the majority have been either poorly built or structurally modified in the last 30-50 years, making them prone to structural damage in case of a significant seismic event. Based on my expertise in seismic performance of adobe structures and my countless visits to the KOT, I can confirm that it is not feasible to retrofit most of its houses because of their deficient structural condition.
But
the destruction of KOT was small beer compared to the onslaught that
began in August, 2018, at the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination, then conducting its regular review of China’s compliance
with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Racial Discrimination. Gay McDougall, an American lay member of an
independent UN body, claimed that China was interning one million
Muslims. The OHCHR’s official news release
showed that its sole American member made the only mention of alleged
re-education camps and said she was “deeply concerned” about “credible
reports” alleging mass detentions of millions of Uighurs Muslim
minorities in “internment camps.” AP
reported that McDougall ‘did not specify a source for that information
in her remarks at the hearing’ and video from the session confirms that
McDougall provided no source for her claim. Though she failed to name a
single source Reuters reported, “UN SAYS IT HAS CREDIBLE REPORTS THAT CHINA HOLDS A MILLION UIGHURS IN SECRET CAMPS.”
China
then invited the UN, the EU and the World Muslim Congress to send
inspectors to for independent investigations. Eleven muslim nations
accepted while the EU and Turkey declined. The Muslim Council’s report commended China for its treatment of Muslims and one inspector, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, gave an interview to The Times of India:
“During this visit, I did not find any instances of forced labour or cultural and religious repression,” Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, the Charge d‘affaires, Pakistan‘s Embassy in China, told the state-run Global Times on Thursday.
“The imams we met at the mosques and the students and teachers at the Xinjiang Islamic Institute told us that they enjoy freedom in practicing Islam and that the Chinese government extends support for maintenance of mosques all over Xinjiang,” said Baloch, who visited Xinjiang as part of delegation of diplomats.
“Similarly, I did not see any sign of cultural repression. The Uighur culture as demonstrated by their language, music and dance is very much part of the life of the people of Xinjiang,” she said.
Asked about the security situation in Xinjiang, which has been “beset by terrorism”, Baloch said, “We learned that the recent measures have resulted in improvement of the security situation in Xinjiang and there have been no incidents of terrorism in recent months.”
“The counter-terrorism measures being taken are multidimensional and do not simply focus on law enforcement aspects. Education, poverty alleviation and development are key to the counter-terrorism strategy of the Chinese government,” she said.
Xinjiang‘s regional government invited diplomatic envoys as well as representatives from Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Afghanistan, Thailand, and Kuwait following reports about detention of thousands of Uighur and other Muslims in massive education camps.
The UN‘s Geneva-based Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination last year said that it was alarmed by “numerous reports of ethnic Uighurs and other Muslim minorities” being detained in Xinjiang region and called for their immediate release.
Estimates about them “range from tens of thousands to upwards of a million,” it had said.
China defended the camps, saying they are re-education camps aimed at de-radicalising sections of the Uighur population from extremism and separatism.
The US and several other countries besides UN officials have expressed concern over the camps.
China has been carrying out massive crackdown on the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) in Xinjiang province, where Uyghurs who formed majority in the region were restive over the increasing settlements of Han community.
Pakistan and several other Muslim countries faced criticism about their silence over China‘s crackdown on Muslims in Xinjiang.
China has about 20 million Muslims who are mostly Uighurs, an ethnic group of Turkic origin, and Hui Muslims, who are of the Chinese ethnic origin. While Uighurs lived in Xinjiang, bordering Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Hui Muslims resided in Ningxia province.
A recent report in the Global Times said China passed a five-year plan to ‘sinicize Islam‘ in a bid to make it compatible with its version of socialism.
“This is China‘s important act to explore ways of governing religion in modern countries,” the report said.
Baloch said the delegation was given full and open access to the three centres that they visited in Kashgar and Hotan.
“The training program includes teaching of national common language (Chinese), law and constitution and vocational skills. The students also participate in recreational activities like sports, music and dance. We witnessed several skill classes being offered in these centres,” she said.
“During the visits to these centres, we had the opportunity to interact with both the management and the students. We observed the students to be in good physical health. The living facilities are fairly modern and comfortable with separate dormitories for men and women. They are being served halal food,” she said.
She said the Uighur language is being used in official establishments, airports, subway stations, police stations or hotels.
“Even the copies of the Koran that we saw in the mosques and the Islamic centre were translated into the Uighur language. The most visible sign of protection of Uighur culture by the government is the government-run bilingual kindergarten schools where children learn Putonghua as well as Uighur language and culture from a very young age,” she said.
A Chinese friend, Xiao Zhang, writes,
“I have a friend who just came back from Xinjiang and he has visited some of the re-education camps and talked with people there. He told me that Uighurs really received vocational education inside, not kidding, and cannot get out until completion of courses. The government in Xinjiang simply kept all the potential “trouble makers” they could find in detention based on the reports they received from various sources, among which reports from communities make up a major part. The government has known for years that poorly-educated, unemployed people are more easily radicalized. Now they take actions to ensure they won’t make trouble. This is another example of Chinese style of government behaviour, just like one-child policy.”
Another wrote,
“I have personally been to Xinjiang for around 20 days this summer. I went totally on my own. I did not sign up in any travel agencies for any travel groups. I did not drive but took the train, the bus, or the car, or the horse. From my personal experience, firstly, the Uyghurs are not the only minority in Xinjiang. I saw Mongols, Kazakhs, Hui Muslims and many other minorities. Here I mean Xinjiang is not a place that is dominated by Uyghurs, even if we don’t take the Han Chinese into consideration. It is a far more diverse place. Secondly, Uyghurs keep their different habits, traditions, language, and religions that are exotic to most Chinese. But they also face westernisation in clothing and habits just like people in other areas of China. People worry about the preservation of their cultures across China.
Interestingly, people in Urumqi were hardly dressed in a very religious way, although there were a great number of Muslims. I was told that the local government regarded some of the religious clothing as extremism, for they were not consistent with the local tradition. Maybe what they meant was that the local Muslims should not be dressed like extremists following strict religious laws, since there was no such law in China. People were mostly dressed in a quite modern look, or in their traditional clothing, yet no women will cover their face with black silk.
Thirdly, there is distrust between different ethnic groups. I have to admit that, because I feel that even people of the same ethnicity do not trust each other, let alone the distrust between ethnic groups. In Urumqi, the security check is very strict and almost everywhere. At the gate of a park in the city, I passed the checkpoint within seconds, but a Uyghur-looking man after me took much longer time to pass. Even though the security guard herself also seems to be Uyghur, she still checked the man’s ID cards and computer profiles very carefully. In many other places, I also feel the ‘privilege’ of being a Han Chinese. In Ili, where the East Turkestan Republic is located, I was told that Uyghur police officers were killed in an ATM nearby a year ago by the Uyghur terrorists with long swords. The terrorists were hoping to acquire guns from the officer. So the city restricted all activity in late night. Anyone who are out after midnight will be considered suspicious and the police can check their ID in the street or in the office. Here I want to make further explanation, for in most Chinese cities, it is totally safe to hang out at night at any time you want, and the police won’t patrol in the street checking your ID unless someone complains about noise and etc.
Surely there is racism arising in the distrust. In Urumqi, I asked why ethnic minorities were treated in an unfriendly way and they tried to tell me that it was because of the very unique situations in Xinjiang. Sounds like the discrimination is natural but I cannot judge based on what I learnt. A taxi driver told me that it was the Islam belief that makes the Uyghur not in harmony with the recent society led by the Communist Party and that the religion was toxic. I thought he was referring to Islamic extremism but in a seemingly biased way.
Fourth, I tried to learn about people’s attitudes towards the 2009 riots and got similar responses from Uyghurs and Han. They both feared the riots and tried to tell me how horrible that day was. Some Uyghurs who were Urumqi locals claimed that all those terrorists were not local to the city and tried to kill all the citizens with regardless of ethnicity which made them dreadful. In my journey, most of the Uyghurs I met were friendly farmers, some of whom were even willing to accommodate me for free. On one time, I was taking a 6-hour bus, I talked with a Uyghur guy sitting next to me. We almost talked about everything, including our hometowns, our families and so on. The guy was very talkative and friendly, leaving me a very good impression towards the Uyghur.
Lastly, I mean, I never heard of the re-education camp. So I guess this was not related to normal people’s life. The minorities I met were usually very talkative and complained to me about many things including the policies, the government, the relation between the Han and the minorities, except the camp. I think most Chinese people just want to live a peaceful life no matter in Xinjiang or outside Xinjiang. I was so lucky to travel in Xinjiang, because the scenery I spotted was so great that I would probably pay another visit in the future.
“Xinjiang appears to have no criminality whatsoever and the police in the streets are unarmed. The checkpoints aren’t too time consuming if you have a Chinese ID card and know the security guards from daily contact. At the checkpoints we visited, on the other hand, annoyed police or security guards struggled with the protocol on how to handle foreigners. We all drank until late and went home without the slightest issue. Our group was coming from many places in the West where stumbling out of a bar late at night can often be quite dangerous. We had to admit that you feel safe at night in Xinjiang. Completely safe. Most places just asked for our passports, took a look, and let us through, sometimes asking which country we came from. A few guards didn’t want to deal with the hassle and just told us to bypass the metal scanner and get out of their sight. As everything in China, enforcement is sometimes spotty. But those were the exceptions; discipline in the surveillance apparatus was generally quite high. We walked leisurely through the city, and while we attracted some attention, we were neither stopped, nor stared at, nor (I think) followed. As I mentioned, there are police everywhere; standing, walking, and driving. They’re not aggressive, or intimidating, or stopping people at random. They’re just there making themselves present.
One big difference between Turpan and Urumqi was that, again, most people were Uyghur. But the police were Uyghur, too. The people manning the checkpoints and the “convenience police stations,” and driving the patrol cars were all Uyghur. It’s worth emphasizing that whatever is happening in Xinjiang is not just an invasion by a foreign army hell-bent on annoying the locals. The locals are quite annoyed, indeed, but it’s their fellow tribesmen doing the grunt work. Or most of it, anyway. I must say that the Uyghur police we saw were more easy-going than the Han police we saw in Urumqi. More chill. Less zealous, you could say. At any rate, they never gave us a hard time, and we got plenty of smiles and easy treatment. Meanwhile France has soldiers, not police, patrolling the streets of Paris. Considering his post-resignation declaration about radical Islam replacing the Republic, I have to wonder what the former French Minister of the Interior, Gérard Collomb, would make of Xinjiang?
China’s Ambassador to Kazakhstan talked to local journalists:
Since the 1990s, the three evil forces – terrorism, religious extremism and separatism– have been a scourge in China’s Xinjiang and implemented a series of appalling terrorist attacks, including the incident in Urumqi on July 5, 2009. What should we do? Aside from taking strong measures, we also need to remove the soil for the three evil forces. All these measures aim to help people who were instigated by the three evil forces or influenced by extremism to come back to reason and to return to society to live a normal life. In order to achieve this purpose, China set up the training centers in accordance with China’s Constitution, the Counterterrorism Law and the Regulations of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region on De-radicalization and by referring to the successful experience on counterterrorism from other countries.
The training centers in Xinjiang do not target any ethnic group or certain religion and all people there are treated equally without discrimination. There are two criteria for whether an individual should be in the centers – whether they participated in illegal activities of the three evil forces and whether they pose a threat to the society.
For example, some individuals used social media, such as WhatsApp to promote jihad online or spread videos on violence in circumstances that were not serious enough to constitute a crime. These people go to the training centers. Some people, who received prison sentence for participating in terrorist or extremist activities but refuse to abandon extremism and plan to take revenge, also need to go to the training centers.
To put it simply, people who obey laws and regulations and commit no wrong deeds do not need to worry about “going to the training centers” no matter which ethnic group they are from and whatever their religion is. The training center is not prison, but a school for the public. There is only one goal for the school – to educate people and to stop good people becoming bad. What do people learn in the center? They learn Putonghua to make sure that all Chinese citizens can understand, can speak and can write the national common language. This is the basic requirement and responsibility for a citizen from any civilized country.
Trainees learn knowledge on laws so that all Chinese citizens understand that they live in the 21st Century where laws are put in place and strictly enforced and anyone who violates the laws will be held accountable. The trainees should have the basic awareness of laws so they are not so easily tempted by extremism. They also learn vocational skills at the centers, including pastry making, weaving and textile printing, shoes-making and fixing machinery, hairdressing and make-up and e-commerce. Trainees can choose one to two skills to learn based on their interests. There will be more chance for them to get employment and less risk of becoming involving with the three evil forces.
With the work of these training centers being implemented in order, more and more trainees have graduated from the centers and returned to society and earned a better life. There is no torture in these training centers but only protection and respect for human rights. In contrast to the fake news, trainees’ religions and traditions are fully respected – all the centers offer various kinds of food, including halal food for them to choose. There are different entertainment activities, including singing songs, dancing, chanting or playing basketball for their physical health. Speaking of human rights, let me ask a question, if a modern person could not understand or write the country’s common language, has no idea about modern marriage or zero vocational skills and only enslaves his wife at home or is mistreated by her arranged husband and are used or brainwashed by the three evil forces, how could you say he or she understands human rights?
All the facts have told that the work of training centers has been effective and helpful. For now, the stability and situation in China’s Xinjiang has been improved and there have been no violent incidents in the region for more than two years. It is not only a positive influence on Xinjiang’s work on maintaining security but also makes a great contribution to safeguarding the stability of the adjacent Central Asia area.
Shohrat Zakir, Chairman of the Government of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region:
Xinjiang has established a training model with professional vocational training institutions as the platform: learning the country’s common language, legal knowledge, vocational skills, along with de-extremization education as the main content, with achieving employment as the key direction. The vocational training institutions have set up departments of teaching, management, medical care, logistics and security, and allocated a corresponding number of faculty, class advisors, medical, catering, logistics and security staff. In the process of learning and training, the trainees will advance from learning the country’s common language to learning legal knowledge and vocational skills. Firstly, the trainees will take learning the country’s common language as the basis to improve their communication abilities, gain modern science knowledge and enhance their understanding of Chinese history, culture and national conditions. The teaching follows standardized plans, textbooks, materials and systems. The trainees are taught in various methods suited to their literacy to raise their abilities to use the country’s common language as soon as possible. Secondly, the learning of legal knowledge is taken as a key part of cultivating the trainees’ awareness of the nation, citizenship and rule of law. Legal experts are hired to lecture on the Constitution, the criminal law and the civil law, etc., and judges, prosecutors and lawyers are invited to teach the criminal law, the law on public security administration, the anti-terrorism law, the marriage law, the education law and Xinjiang’s de-extremization regulations. Thirdly, vocational learning is taken as a key way to help trainees find employment. Courses on clothing and footwear making, food processing, electronic product assembly, typesetting and printing, hairdressing and e-commerce have been set up to suit local social needs and job market. Multi-skill training is provided to trainees who have the desire and capability to learn, so that they acquire one to two vocational skills upon graduation. Businesses in garment making, mobile phone assembly and ethnic cuisine catering are arranged to offer trainees practical opportunities. In the meantime, they are paid basic incomes and a bonus. The mechanism has taken shape in which the trainees can ‘learn, practice and earn money.
In daily life, vocational institutions and schools strictly implement the spirit of laws and regulations, including the Constitution and religious affairs regulations, and respect and protect the customs and habits of various ethnic groups and their beliefs in diet and daily life. Faculties of the institutions and schools also try their best to ensure and meet the trainees’ needs in study, life, and entertainment on the basis of free education. The cafeteria prepares nutritious free diets, and the dormitories are fully equipped with radio, TV, air conditioning, bathroom and shower. Indoor and outdoor sports venues for basketball, volleyball and table tennis have been built, along with reading rooms, computer labs, film screening rooms, as well as performance venues such as small auditoriums and open-air stages. Various activities such as contests on speech, writing, dancing, singing and sports are organized. Many trainees have said that they were previously affected by extremist thought and had never participated in such kinds of art and sports activities, and now they have realized that life can be so colorful.
Moreover, the vocational institutions and schools pay high attention to the trainees’ mental health and helped them solve problems in life. They not only provide professional psychological counseling services, but also duly deal with complaints from the trainees and their families. All this shows that the management of the vocational institutions and schools are people-oriented.
China’s censor banned
the use of ‘anti-Islamic’ words on social media after a clash that
involved Muslims fighting at a toll booth went viral. Weibo blocked
phrases disrespectful to Muslims and search engines block insults,
mockery and defamatory terms, “It’s time to remove radical phrases that
discriminate against Islam and are biased against Muslims to prevent
worsening online hatred towards them. Those phrases severely undermine
religious harmony and ethnic unity,” said Xiong Kunxin, a professor at
Beijing’s Minzu University of China in Beijing. “China closes streets
for Eid prayers, pays for Muslim Chinese to make the hajj and
censors the internet and social media to prevent criticisms of Islam
that might inflame social tensions. The idea that they should suddenly
demand that the Muslims turn over their Qurans and Prayer mats is
classic fake news and state propaganda. As a result, peace may break out
and the recent deluge of fake news from Western corporate media paints
the Chinese government as a gross violator of human rights while the
Empire has droned, bombed, starved and killed millions of Muslim
children, women from Afghanistan to Yemen and displaced millions more.”
Translation: “The center provides professional training in clothing making, food preparation and IT. The guy named Ailijiang Masaidi said he received RMB 2800/month and sending RM2600 home. His family is very happy. The 2nd guy named Ahbulaihaidi is now working in a shoe making factory. He said he has mastered most skills and would get RMB 4000-5000/month soon, that would means RMB 60-70k a year. His technical manager says his company fully supports the factory’s effort in Hetian. The 2nd guy says that clothing factory has been set up in Yutian. The lady named Humakuli says she now work in a factory near her home Kashgar. She is working and learning at the same time. Training includes cultural learning about history about Xinjiang and about Zhonghua civilization. The narratives then says the center provides cultural and sports activities including painting, dance and Peking opera etc. The guy who dress as consort Yang is Abdula. He said every one admires him now because he is the best singer. Before he attend the center he was told that all sort of entertainment including singing and dancing is sinful. He said his life used to be gray and now is colorful. Then Kashgar National Congress Deputy Chairman Mijidi said he wants the people to learn about the traditional culture of the Uighur people. Singing and dancing are all acceptable.” The program was implemented in 2014, and since then no terrorist attack has happened in China. So it was considered a major success and was expanded greatly.
Notes
[1] Red Star Over China. Edgar Snow. 1937. Atlantic Books.
[4]
In 2017 the American government funded 48 anti-China groups and
organizations through the National Endowment for Democracy, NED, to
oppose and harm China’s reputation and to create social and ethnic
tensions and conflicts within China. https://www.ned.org.
[5]
A Chinese friend provided her background: She had 11 children, which
confirms that Uighurs were not subject to China’s One Child Policy.. She
was born to a family with no background. She started her business with a
roadside convenience store and worked her way to be THE richest person
in the province of Xinjiang. This proved Uighurs can earn their business
success through hard work. She was a senior member of the People’s
Congress of Xinjiang, and a senior member of the National People’s
Congress of China. This shows Uighurs were not excluded from political
life in China. She was arrested because she provided funding to Eastern
Turkestan Independence Movement, labeled as terrorist organization by
the US.
[6]
“We have to conquer our own country and purify it of all infidels.
Then we should conquer the infidels’ countries and spread Islam. The
infidels who are usurping our countries have announced war against Islam
and Muslims, forcing Muslims to abandon Islam and change their
beliefs.” Abdullah Mansour, leader of the Uyghur ETIM. “The Duty of
Faith and Support,” Voice of Islam/al-Fajr Media Center, August 26,
2009.
[7] “ISIS militants from China’s Muslim minority group vow to return home and ‘shed blood like rivers’ in the terror group’s first video to target the country By GARETH DAVIES FOR Daily Mail Online PUBLISHED 08:39 BST, 1 March 2017.
Conclusion
The Uyghur “situation” in the Xinjiang state of China is a “red Herring” designed to create friction in that area to destabilize China. It is a way to interfere in the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative that is creating a strong and unified Asia.
Chinese President Xi Jinping six years ago launched New Silk Roads, now better known as the Belt and Road Initiative, the largest, most ambitious, pan-Eurasian infrastructure project of the 21st century.
Under the Trump administration, Belt and Road has been utterly demonized 24/7: a toxic cocktail of fear and doubt, with Beijing blamed for everything from plunging poor nations into a “debt trap” to evil designs of world domination.
Now finally comes what might be described as the institutional American response to Belt and Road: the Blue Dot Network.
Blue Dot is described, officially, as promoting global, multi-stakeholder “sustainable infrastructure development in the Indo-Pacific region and around the world.”
It is a joint project of the US Overseas Private Investment Corporation, in partnership with Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.
Now compare it with what just happened this same week at the inauguration of the China International Import Expo in Shanghai.
As Xi stressed:
“To date, China has signed 197 documents on Belt and Road cooperation with 137 countries and 30 international organizations.”
This is what Blue Dot is up against – especially across the Global South. Well, not really. Global South diplomats, informally contacted, are not exactly impressed. They might see Blue Dot as an aspiring competitor to BRI, but one that’s moved by private finance – mostly, in theory, American.
They scoff at the prospect that Blue Dot will include some sort of ratings mechanism that will be positioned to vet and downgrade Belt and Road projects. Washington will spin it as a “certification” process setting “international standards” – implying Belt and Road is sub-standard. Whether Global South nations will pay attention to these new ratings is an open question.
- A “Blue Dot” Barely Visible from China’s “New Silk Roads”
As China’s only threat to the current global power-balance is economic, the United States is threatened by China’s rise. Thus there are numerous efforts made to create strife and destabilize Asia.
Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.
Millennial youth in Hong Kong.
Pork producers in Guangdong.
Western markets for Huawei products.
Taiwan “independence”.
To this end, neocons have been active with the CIA and NED / NID to create strife in the region. This includes a full-on propaganda onslaught, where most Americans are becoming conditioned for yet another proxy war in a far-off land.
This is welcomed by the neocons as [1] a magnificent source of personal (tax free) revenue, and [2] it’s “just” another in a long series of proxy wars. The thing is, China is not a third-world country and they will only accept CIA “pro-democracy” regime change activities only for so long.
It is possible that continued CIA psyops within China could result in a backlash of Nuclear Armageddon on American soil.
This is what New York City will look like if America tries to initiate another proxy war with a major nuclear-armed superpower. They are a serious, serious nation. They DO NOT PLAY. Do not be under the misguided impression that an American nuclear armed cruiser could sit off the coast of Taiwan and lob nuclear tipped missiles into China. China and Russia would both team up to bitch-slap America into the stone age. Take heed.
Another great link showing just who is behind this CIA narrative…
Claims that China has detained millions of Uyghur Muslims are based largely on two studies. A closer look at these papers reveals US government backing, absurdly shoddy methodologies, and a rapture-ready evangelical researcher named Adrian Zenz.
By Ajit Singh and Max Blumenthal
Here are
some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader,
might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.
China and America Comparisons
As an
American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United
States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.
The Chinese Business KTV Experience
This is
the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the
British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal
press. This is the reality. Read or not.
Learning About China
Who
doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what
China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in
China.
Contemporaneous Chinese Music
This is a
series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It
is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I
am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series
of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and
enjoyment.
Parks in China
The parks
in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very
mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.
Really Strange China
Here are
some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem
odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events,
while others are just representative of the differences in culture.
What is China like?
The
purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world,
outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they
might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank
you.
And while
America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources,
and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has
done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and
you can see this in their day-to-day lives.
Summer in Asia
Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…
Some Fun Videos
Here’s a collection of some fun videos taken all over Asia. While
there are many videos taken in China, we also have some taken in
Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and Japan as well. It’s all in fun.
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
There is a sizable majority of the American (and by extension, globalist) oligarchy believe that they will be able to “ride out” the coming “shit-storm” of societal upheaval slated for America. They have bought land, and established residences, and constructed mini-fortresses in far away lands for precisely this purpose. Well, I am going to be the first to lay out the truth; you all will not be able to avoid your comeuppance.
It’s coming.
It’s heading and barrelling right down upon all of us, and this time, the oligarchy will be not be spared.
The American second civil war will not be like Bosnia, Rhodesia, Rwanda, or any other revolutionary messes. You know the ones. Where the wealthy creates a situation, and then skedaddles off to a “safe haven” to wait out the societal reconstruction.
Take note. This time is different.
We are coming after you.
The world is connected. There’s a Burger King and Pizza Hut on Tutuila island, for goodness sakes! Internet is everywhere. We know where your “hidy holes” are, and who built them, and when, and what mechanical systems you utilize. We know which planes you fly, who pilots them, and where the pilots families reside.
We know a lot more than you think we know, and (drop the bullshit) you know that us “deplorables” are not at all the under-educated white racists that you so loudly proclaim. We are watching you all with seething anger.
I met Lloyd Blankfein at a Super Bowl. It was the New England Patriots and the New Jersey Giants. And Blankfein came up to me, “I know who you are, but you don’t know who I am.” And I said, “The hell I don’t! You run Goldman Sachs. I know who –” and he was stunned that I knew who he was. He said, “I know who you are,” like, “I know who you are. Ha-ha. I know what you’re up to, but you don’t know who I am.” “Oh, yes, I do.”
-Rush Limbaugh
We are chomping at the bit for an excuse to come after you all. It’s gonna be glorious.
Factory
workers, with their company name badges, in the parking lot of their
employer. Two dead and one dying with his legs shot off. He and his
co-workers had no idea that “world war III” would break out while they
were trying to clock in at work. When one group of people identify
another group, and target them with hate, and violence, it only
escalates. It gets worse. Eventually there is whole-scale blood shed. Do
not be under the illusion that it will never happen in America. There
are enormous groups of people just chomping at the bit to attack
conservatives and traditionalists. All in the name of a progressive
utopia.
See how easy it was to find this information, on just a three key-word search. Very easy.
But you know, escape anywhere will be fraught with problems. We, as humans, are all interconnected. He have histories, associations, and ties. And, it’s not all “black and white” internet data streams either. It’s personal. It’s visceral.
It's not going to be like you all think. With some kind of race genocide, on top of political machinations, with overtures of hicks riding around like some scene out of Mad Max.
There are going to be elements of WWIII, and WMD. There's going to be a great deal of political and sociological changes, and you are right to realize that "blue areas" in America will not be safe.
But you are wrong to think that you all can sneak away and go somewhere where you will be forgotten. You will NOT be forgotten.
Let that sink in.
And, it’s all going to come back and haunt you.
What? You think that you don’t have siblings, who are married with kids? You think that they are immune from the consequences of your evil machinations? You think that you are NOT on watch lists? You think that your behavior is not tracked? You think that your “connections” in whatever government entity will protect you?
Listen up.
The world is not a new “enlightened”, and “progressive” reality where wars are long behind us. Where citizens will turn in their weapons willingly to be serfs under a wise Kingly leader. Nope. Those are all imaginary fantasies that many of you all believe.
They are not true.
Most of human history has been fraught with terrible, terrible battles and conflicts. Where entire blood lines were executed. Where women, if they were lucky, were enslaved as sex slaves, while everyone else were killed. Know your history. Entire cities were decimated. Men, women, children, even the dogs and cats. All killed and the ground salted afterwards.
The time has come that you all must start to live like the Kings of old. With poison testers, thrice-tested body guards, and loyalty oaths that are rock solid. You will not be able to hole-up behind strong stone walls. You will not be able to escape to a land where you will be unknown and untraceable. You will not be able to escape the wrath of your fellow citizens who have spent decades watching you cart your weight around and lord over us.
We are coming for you.
Know your history. This is what really happens when a particular group comes to power and their enemies are disarmed. It is never pretty. Know your history.
You think that your accents, behaviors, and lifestyle won’t give you away. You think that being a flabby old white dude walking on the beach of Mahebourg on Mauritus will be overlooked? Is that what you think? Do you actually believe that an extensive underground lair in Dunedin will protect you? Hey! Am I being specific enough for you? Or, perhaps you think that you will be different…
We are coming for you.
No, you do not have to worry about one singular person. Personally, I not going to do Jack Shit. But what you will need to worry about is the consequences of your support… in all the myriad of ways… for the coming Shit Storm that is going to engulf the United States into a conflagration of an unparalleled magnitude.
Read your history books. You cannot simply take on a defensive posture and hole up like some hermit in a monastery while Rome burns, or the Huns sack your city, rape your women and torture everyone else.
The “bubble” of civility is coming to an abrupt end.
Graphic photograph of a capture and subsequent rape of a young girl by German soldiers. Know your history. This will be common. Know your history.
It had a good run. At least in America, it did. Eighty years. That’s long enough to assume that things will always be a certain way, and full danger is really only the stuff of nightmares. Well, it is ending.
In large part because of your actions.
As such, the historical “normal” is returning. Buckle up. You and yours are all in the cross hairs.
Greek authors rarely go into any detail when describing the fall of a city, so if we want to know what this really means, we are to some extent forced to use our imagination. However, it's clear from what little we hear that Xenophon's 'universal law' usually meant 3 things:
All movable property was taken
All adult men were killed
All women, children and elderly men were sold into slavery.
The first of these points is least well attested, but probably most widespread. Every warrior who was sent against an enemy settlement would hope to come away with a profit.
Homes could be stripped of furniture and metal objects; temples could be robbed of their dedications and temple treasuries emptied. If there was time, even the rooftiles and wooden fittings of houses could be torn off and carried away.
The simple fact that large amounts of ancient coinage and jewellry was preserved in its hiding place (buried, thrown into wells, etc.) shows that people were quite concerned to keep their valuables out of the hands of greedy invaders.
The second point is better known, because it was a matter of justice and pride. When a city was attacked, it could choose to surrender; if it did not, it forfeited any claim to mercy. Those who had decided to resist their enemies would get what they deserved. The most explicit example of this is the fate Agamemnon desired for Troy:
Not a single one of them must escape sheer destruction at our hands. Not even if a mother carries one in her belly and he is male, not even he should escape. All together they must be exterminated from Troy, their bodies untended and invisible.
-- Iliad 6.57-62
There are loads of examples from Greek history of sieges ending with the slaughter of all adult men. These massacres removed the defeated community's ability to fight and ensured that there would be no further resistance.
The third point arises from the fact that the Greeks seem to have considered it barbaric to kill captured women and children as well as men. The few examples of this in Greek history were condemned as savage. Once the needs of revenge had been satisfied, the remaining population was instead considered a potential source of profit:
When they were delivered to her by the Persians, Pheretime took the most guilty of the Barkaians and set them impaled around the top of the wall; the breasts of their women she cut off and planted around the wall in like manner. As for the rest of the Barkaians, she told the Persians to take them as plunder.
-- Herodotos 4.202
There was substantial money to be made from this, which is why commanders sometimes tried to restrain the bloodlust of their victorious troops. Even if it was just, as well as satisfying, to kill the defenders, it still amounted to the destruction of a source of income:
Dionysios' entire army burst into the city (...) and now every spot was a scene of mass slaughter; for the Sicilian Greeks, eager to return cruelty for cruelty, slew everyone they encountered, sparing without distinction not a child, not a woman, not an elder. Dionysios, wishing to sell the inhabitants into slavery for the money he could gather, at first attempted to restrain the soldiers from murdering the captives, but when no one paid any attention to him and he saw that the fury of the Sicilian Greeks was not to be controlled, he stationed heralds to cry aloud and tell the Motyans to take refuge in the temples which were revered by the Greeks. When this was done, the soldiers ceased their slaughter and turned to looting the property.
-- Diodoros of Sicily 14.53.1-3
The beginning of this passage is unique in actually describing a scene that must have been typical when a city fell to a Greek army. Most successful siege assaults were not the result of elaborate circumvallation, but of a surprise assault or betrayal.
As a result, rather than bottling up the helpless enemy from all sides, the attackers usually entered the city from one point and began their rampage from there.
Those left in the city therefore had two choices: either to resist or to flee. The former would result in the brutal fate sketched above - but the latter explains how Greek communities often seem to have survived a lost siege despite the genocidal intent of their attackers. It was often possible for a substantial part of the population to get away.
Their ultimate fate would then depend on what the victorious enemy intended to do with the settlement. Sometimes (especially in the Archaic period) their intent was to seize the territory for themselves; in these cases the town would be razed, and the fugitive population cast adrift. Fear of this outcome was supposed to keep the Spartans in the fight against the Messenians early in their history:
The most wretched of all things is for a man to leave his city and its fertile fields, reduced to the life of a beggar, wandering with his mother and aged father, his little children and wedded wife. Wherever he ends up, he will be as an enemy dwelling among them. He will succumb to need and detestable poverty, bring shame upon his family, disgrace his splendid looks. All forms of dishonour and misery will dog him. Since this is how it is and no one cares for or respects a wanderer or his offspring at all, let us fight hard for our land and die for our children without sparing our lives.
-- Tyrtaios fr. 10.3-14
If they had friends elsewhere, they might be able to obtain a temporary home, or even gain resident status and a home away from home, as the Plataians did at Athens when the Spartans razed their settlement in 427 BC.
In the Classical period, the intention was often rather to plant settlers on the conquered territory in order to expand the victorious city's number of land-owning citizens. This is what Athens did with the land of most of its defeated enemies from 506 BC onward. In such cases, the captured city might be reinhabited - at times by the new settlers along with the old population of women and children, whom they took as wives or slaves.
Alternatively, once due vengeance had been exacted, the remnants of the city's population could simply be allowed to return to it, often subjected to tribute and an imposed political regime. When the Athenians finally lost their fleet at Aigospotamoi in 405 BC, fear washed through the city, because the Athenians fully expected to meet the same fate that they had inflicted upon other Greeks throughout the decades of their Empire - the eradication of their community, the death of their men, and the sale of their women into slavery. However, for reasons that are still debated today, the Spartans decided to spare them. They got away with "only" a sack, the destruction of their walls, and the imposition of the tyrannical yoke of the Thirty.
- What actually happens when a city is sacked?
You should have paid attention to history class. The historical normal is one where no one is ever safe. It is always a short bubble of time, no more than one or two generations in length where people can live together in some sort of sanity.
But that bubble always pops, and the people living their nice safe lives are often overtaken by the shock and brutality of the reality that will overwhelm them.
We
know what will happen. It has been well documented. People will be
collected. They will be rounded up into urban areas, or centers. The men
will be separated out from the group. They will be led to an isolated
area, a cellar, a warehouse, a cluster of tree, an area behind a
bulldozer. They will then be held down by two people and shot dead.
We are coming for you.
It’s going to be historical. It will be Biblical, and it will consist of many elements that are not at all “enlightened” and “progressive”. It will be raw and unbridled.
Who are “we”?
We
have learned all about the great con game, and we are fed up. We know
know what is going on and we are pissed, and desire real, substantive
change. Now, for those of us who have awakened from the con, it is time
for a clean break – a refusal to accept that anything over the past 60
years was any good…a desire, that is, to move forward in an entirely
new way, unshackled to whatever we might have said or done in the past.
Like water, we are not one set person, but rather a very lose and amorphous collection of many well-educated people that will not allow instigators, and criminals to scurry away unscathed. It won’t be me, but I’m telling you that it will be others. And they won’t have any set plans, no set maps, no coordination. But they will see you all for what you actually are; big, plump, juicy, lush, targets to seize and use for purposes that you do not want to read about.
Yet…
Yet, there is still time. You can alter your future and atone for your sins. Your future does not need to be that of fertilizer spread out upon a glassed-over barren wasteland. You can change. You can start taking action to prevent the crisis that is barrelling straight down the Pike for us all. You can make a difference.
Yes, YOU!
Well… listen NOW.
But let’s speak frankly to each other. I’m not the smartest guy you’ve ever met, or the hardest-working. I was a mediocre student. I’m not technical at all—I can’t write a word of code. What sets me apart, I think, is a tolerance for risk and an intuition about what will happen in the future. Seeing where things are headed is the essence of entrepreneurship. And what do I see in our future now?I see pitchforks.
- On Friday Jun 27, 2014 at 12:04 pm Michael Krieger posted an article where he offered up a warning for thouse oligarchs about the coming shit-storm and what you can do about it.
He and others have warned you.
Once
a political ideology takes power, they are ruthless in their treatment
of opposition. They will kill you, and if you are a woman, they will
rape you and then kill you. There will not be any mercy. It is better to
die fighting when they come to your house, than to accept the lies that
they will put you into “protection” for your own best interests.
If we don’t do something to fix the glaring inequities in this economy, the pitchforks are going to come for us. No society can sustain this kind of rising inequality. In fact, there is no example in human history where wealth accumulated like this and the pitchforks didn’t eventually come out. You show me a highly unequal society, and I will show you a police state. Or an uprising.
There are no counterexamples. None. It’s not if, it’s when.
-From Nick Hanauer’s excellent Politico Op-Ed: The Pitchforks are Coming…For Us Plutocrats
The is something about money, wealth and power that corrupts. It corrupts everyone it touches, and no one is immune. If you are wealthy then you are corrupted. There are no exceptions.
You might not think that you are corrupted.
You might, somehow, think that you are different. “Just one of the guys that got lucky.” You are deluding yourself.
The “freedom from need” corrupts the soul. Thus, the individual finds other pursuits to occupy the void in their being.
"What I do care about is the kind of power that such money can buy, and how that power is then abused to purchase politicians and run roughshod over entire societies. I have also been disgusted with the fact that the 0.01% as a class seem self-absorbed, apathetic and delusional when it comes to the catastrophe the current economic and financial system is reaping upon the planet. So busy are they patting themselves on the back and scrambling to acquire that next billion to see what is rapidly unfolding beyond their moats."
- Michael Krieger
And that is where you are all.
You might consider yourselves smart, intelligent, lucky, fortunate, or whatever.
But you are not.
You have forgotten so much.
The
progressive liberal communists rounded up anyone who could possibly be a
threat to them. They loaded them into trucks. They tied their hands
behind their backs, and they killed them.
You have forgotten, or maybe never had the experience of being a most valued employee; working 14 hour days for months in a row, earning the company millions of dollars and then you suddenly being let go on Christmas eve. Coming home to a shocked wife, with the baby screaming for food, and you being forced to go into your meager savings… savings that will be depleted in a week… to buy some day-old vegetables, and on-sale food-stuffs.
That’s America for the last fucking three decades you God damn son-of-a-bitches!
You think that we are going to turn the other cheek and not find a scapegoat to roast over some burning embers? Maybe you weren’t the the person who handing out the pink-slip, or the manager that approved it, or the VP that authorized it, or the President that demanded it. But all of you… EVERY… FUCKING… ONE… contributed.
We will never forget.
Your time is coming.
At the same time that people like you and me are thriving beyond the dreams of any plutocrats in history, the rest of the country—the 99.99 percent—is lagging far behind. The divide between the haves and have-nots is getting worse really, really fast. In 1980, the top 1 percent controlled about 8 percent of U.S. national income. The bottom 50 percent shared about 18 percent. Today the top 1 percent share about 20 percent; the bottom 50 percent, just 12 percent.
-From Nick Hanauer’s excellent Politico Op-Ed: The Pitchforks are Coming…For Us Plutocrats
Yes.
Inequality is one aspect of it. There are “haves” and “have nots”. But that’s not the point. Many of us watched our life fall apart before our very eyes, not because we were lazy while we toiled in the company, but rather instead to make the bottom-line look better to the investors of the companies where we were employed.
We see pictures in history books and say, “nah that could never happen here”. The roads are dirt. The people are wearing military clothing. There isn’t anything that looks like a part of America in the pictures.
This attitude… one of us being just a useful tool… like a broom or a toilet brush… has altered the emotional fabric of America. And, yes, part of the turmoil that you see all over America today is a direct result of this arrogant behavior.
But the problem isn’t that we have inequality. Some inequality is
intrinsic to any high-functioning capitalist economy. The problem is that inequality is at historically high levels and getting worse every day. Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society.
Unless our policies change dramatically, the middle class will
disappear, and we will be back to late 18th-century France. Before the revolution.And so I have a message for my fellow filthy rich, for all of us who live in our gated bubble worlds: Wake up, people. It won’t last.If we don’t do something to fix the glaring inequities in this economy, the pitchforks are going to come for us. No society can sustain this kind of rising inequality.
-From Nick Hanauer’s excellent Politico Op-Ed: The Pitchforks are Coming…For Us Plutocrats
Oh, do not be under the illusion that the situation and the contributors can all be quantified on some sort of chart. They cannot. Like the school kid relentlessly bullied by the school-hall bullies, an anger has been pent up for decades.
You do not want to be on the losing end of that stick.
During
these times and types of conflicts it is NORMAL for women, and girls to
be abducted, raped repeatedly and then killed. This is a historical
norm.
The only way that you avid this fate is to confront it.
Face on. Right now.
Do good works, and stay out of politics. Help people.
In fact, there is no example in human history where wealth accumulated like this and the pitchforks didn’t eventually come out. You show me a highly unequal society, and I will show you a police state. Or an uprising. There are no counterexamples. None. It’s not if, it’s when.Here’s what I say to you: You’re living in a dream world. What everyone wants to believe is that when things reach a tipping point and go from being merely crappy for the masses to dangerous and socially destabilizing, that we’re somehow going to know about that shift ahead of time. Any student of history knows that’s not the way it happens.
-From Nick Hanauer’s excellent Politico Op-Ed: The Pitchforks are Coming…For Us Plutocrats
You know that this is coming. Its not a surprise.
You all are not fools. Indeed, you all are investing in property, safeguards and insurance plans.
ISIS
sex slave at a slave auction in an occupied region of Syria. During
periods of change, the plight of women is always a dangerous one.
What I am saying is that clutching your bags of gold and scurrying off to your rat-hole in some remote location is not the answer. Historically it will not end up like you think. This will not be like a Hollywood movie.
Instead, it will (more) be like a barricaded city that tries to deal with an overwhelming and vicious Mongol horde.
Revolutions, like bankruptcies, come gradually, and then suddenly. One day, somebody sets himself on fire, then thousands of people are in the streets, and before you know it, the country is burning. And then there’s no time for us to get to the airport and jump on our Gulfstream Vs and fly to New Zealand. That’s the way it always happens. If inequality keeps rising as it has been, eventually it will happen. We will not be able to predict when, and it will be terrible—for everybody. But especially for us.
-From Nick Hanauer’s excellent Politico Op-Ed: The Pitchforks are Coming…For Us Plutocrats
Imagine that you and your family are living in one of those cities, one thousand years ago.
It’s a very large city for the time. With large stone walls that tower up many, many stories high. You have a great life, based on trade along the “silk road”. You are wealthy. You have a large spacious home. You have a beautiful family, servants, fine clothes and a home filled with fine arts, laughter and parties.
You are aware of the coming Mongols.
You have discussed this matter with your other wealthy friends. They all have strong political connections and everyone reassures you that there is nothing to worry about. Most of the Mongols are over-rated they say. Plus they have provided reassurances that our military, with the best fighters in the world are more than a match for them. They even took you on a tour of the military barracks and you saw first hand how well organized they were.
Rather than agree to the demands of the Mongols, the most intelligent in the city advised that the rulers confront the Mongols with their superior military.
And so a strong force of 20,000 of the best warriors in the city left the city gates and marched forward with trumpets blowing to confront the horde.
You don’t know what will happen. But you have been reassured that your military will be victorious. After all, they have never lost a battle for at least four decades.
Still you worry.
All you know is that the military went out one week ago and never returned. The King gave you every assurance that things are proceeding well, and that you need not worry. But the truth is that you feel very uneasy.
This is a joint suicide by a Burgermeister and his family upon news that the Americans were entering the town.
The wife says that people are beginning to talk and rumors are starting to fly about what happened at the battle last week.
You cannot put your finger on it, but there is this feeling of dread and gloom that you cannot shake. yet, the sky is blue. The birds are fluttering in the trees, and the boys are playing in the yard. Your daughter just bought a nice silk dress that she is going to wear to a religious celebration in two days. Yet, that dread persists.
“Maybe I should flee?” you ask yourself.
Maybe.
At Politicon 2019 in Nashville on Saturday, during a "conversation" with Never Trumper MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace, James Comey said, "Our leaders must reflect the glue that holds us together. They can’t be people who lie all the time. They just can’t. And I hope people see that’s true whether they are Republicans or Democrats.
Wallace then asked, "What if he wins again? Will you still believe that?"
Comey said, "I will be, from my new home in New Zeland, I will still believe in America."
-Townhall
Do you want to place a bet that what Comey says will come true? That he will be safe and forgotten in New Zealand?
Do
not think that in today’s “modern” and “enlightened” society that we
are beyond mass genocide against a particular race, or group of people.
Here are people who were seized out of their homes at the dead of night
by militarized police (the Federal Police), handcuffed with wire-ties
(behind his back) and then killed and dumped in a mass grave. Like this
poor fella. I am quite sure that the person putting the wire-ties on his
clasped wrists was very polite and nice about it. Cool and
professional, most certainly. Then he was handed over to others. Those
others then killed him like one would step on cockroach. And, with just
as much care. What? You think America can’t relive the Bosnia
experience?
Or do you think that he will be in chains before he can ever reach an airplane? Or, barring that, seized by the NZ authorities upon the direction of the American government?
All of you are delusional.
Raped and then killed. This is the fate for most targeted women from the ages of 10 to 40. Those outside will probably just be killed.
You keep on dancing near the fire, unaware that you are dowsed in kerosene and that a single spark can set you, and those around your alight.
Because here’s an odd thing. During the past three decades, compensation for CEOs grew 127 times faster than it did for workers. Since 1950, the CEO-to-worker pay ratio has increased 1,000 percent, and that is not a typo. CEOs used to earn 30 times the median wage; now they rake in 500 times. Yet no company I know of has eliminated its senior managers, or outsourced them to China or automated their jobs. Instead, we now have more CEOs and senior executives than ever before. So, too, for financial services workers and technology workers. These folks earn multiples of the median wage, yet we somehow have more and more of them.
-From Nick Hanauer’s excellent Politico Op-Ed: The Pitchforks are Coming…For Us Plutocrats
Grbavica where a huge complex was set up for the mass internment and rape of women. This is what it looked like at the tail end of the war. 1996.
People! You have jumped over the turnstiles, and gobbled up all the money that you can. Then you set up systems to keep it all for yourself. And somehow you think that the rest of us hasn’t noticed.
Well, we have, and we are royally pissed off over it.
Wal-Mart is our nation’s largest employer with some 1.4 million employees in the United States and more than $25 billion in pre-tax profit. So why are Wal-Mart employees the largest group of Medicaid recipients in many states? Wal-Mart could, say, pay each of its 1 million lowest-paid workers an extra $10,000 per year, raise them all out of poverty and enable them to, of all things, afford to shop at Wal-Mart. Not only would this also save us all the expense of the food stamps, Medicaid and rent assistance that they currently require, but Wal-Mart would still earn more than $15 billion pre-tax per year. Wal-Mart won’t (and shouldn’t) volunteer to pay its workers more than their competitors. In order for us to have an economy that works for everyone, we should compel all retailers to pay living wages—not just ask politely.
-From Nick Hanauer’s excellent Politico Op-Ed: The Pitchforks are Coming…For Us Plutocrats
All of you are fucking guilty.
And if you live in an upscale neighborhood, YOU WILL BE TARGETED.
There will be no avenues of escape. You are FUCKED.
While Donald Trump is undoing many terrible things, nothing is being done about the pre-genocidal conditions already put in place. Unless action is taken by the President or Congress, it is just a matter of time before they will be mobilized against YOU and your family. Take notice.
We rich people have been falsely persuaded by our schooling and
the affirmation of society, and have convinced ourselves, that we are the main job creators. It’s simply not true. There can never be enough super-rich Americans to power a great economy. I earn about 1,000 times the median American annually, but I don’t buy thousands of times more stuff. My family purchased three cars over the past few years, not 3,000. I buy a few pairs of pants and a few shirts a year, just like most American men. I bought two pairs of the fancy wool pants I am wearing as I write, what my partner Mike calls my “manager pants.” I guess I could have bought 1,000 pairs. But why would I? Instead, I sock my extra money away in savings, where it doesn’t do the country much good.
-From Nick Hanauer’s excellent Politico Op-Ed: The Pitchforks are Coming…For Us Plutocrats
Back to the wealthy man living in his villa in the upscale part of the city-state that he inhabits…
Last night over some chicken and some fine vintage wine, you discussed what was going on with a fellow trader friend of yours. He had entered the city and was planning on leaving in the morning. He said some worrisome things.
He said that he used to trade to numerous cities to the East. But he no longer trade with them any more. They no longer exist.
When we went to visit them, they were abandoned. Some still had the walls intact, but most of the homes were empty. Some wild dogs and a goat or two were all that remained. He said that most of the homes no longer had roofs and it looked like the entire city was sacked and set ablaze.
Some had piles of bones blowing in the sand and trapped under broken stone, bricks and walls. Farm fields of plants weren’t harvested and allowed to go fallow. The trees were ripe with apples, but no one collected them.
He couldn’t tell what happened.
All he said was that it looked like it came upon everyone suddenly and no one was spared. Even the churches were burned to the ground. What was not looted, was intentionally destroyed.
He said that he was going to leave in the morning and wanted the family to leave and accompany him.
960403-A-2407B-008
Photo of a suburb in Sarajevo Bosnia after the fighting that took place
between the Serbians and the Muslims,taken by Specialist Nadine Byrnside
from the 55th Signal Company Combat Camera team, in a place called
Grbavica on 3 April 1996.
In Conclusion.
I tip my hats off to Mr. Hanaeur and Mr. Krieger. I think you all should listen to them. But if you choose not to, that is fine. Then listen to me. Your fucking days are numbered, and if America burns, then do not rest easily, for you will be searched out. Located and slaughtered.
It will be historical.
Heed my words. There will be no place for you to hide.
I am talking about the annuals of history and the role that you will play in it. It will not be pretty. But there are things that you can still do about it. You can still make a difference. And running away to hide is not one of them.
This
is what happens to people who do not “go along” with the “new” way of
doing things. It is never pretty. You are rounded up. You are
handcuffed, and you are killed. That is the way it has been for
thousands of years. It never stopped. It will continue.
It is time to atone for your sins. Do not put it off.
Now, you are probably wondering what happened to the family that was awaiting the news of the battle between their city and the Mongol hordes…
Large Urban Cities…
Worse was to come in 1221 — ‘a year to live in infamy’. While Genghis’s other armies had been busy in the east, threatening Tbilisi in Georgia and terrifying the Christian world, Tolui, one of Genghis’s equally reprehensible sons, took Merv (in modern-day Turkmenistan), one of the largest cities in the world.
Promised safety, the citizens surrendered and emerged from behind their walls. Tolui ‘surveyed the masses dolefully gathered with their possessions, mounted a golden chair and ordered mass executions to commence’.
They took four days and nights to complete.
Genghis’s rotten fruit did not fall far from the tree. Terror — and the certainty of its visitation — was a major weapon in Genghis’s arsenal: decapitated women, children and even cats and dogs were reputedly displayed.
- Was Genghis Khan the cruellest man who ever lived?
Complete devastation…
Incursions into Southeast Asia were largely successful, most factions agreed to pay tribute, and only the Invasions into Vietnam and Java failed.
Europe was devastated by the Mongols.
They destroyed near enough every major Russian city, and invaded Volga Bulgaria, Bulgaria, Poland, and Hungary.
If rumours spread that the Mongols were coming, then it would cause a mass panic, and some would run to safety.
There was no guaranteed way to defeat the Mongol hordes, they continuously defeated much larger armies, so numerical strength couldn’t protect you.
Mongol conquests would leave once populous and flourishing areas as wastelands, with little to no people, those remaining would be slaves.
-ESKify
The Women…
Genghis Khan had so much power that he could do whatever he wanted.
For instance, when Genghis occupied some new area, he would kill or enslave all the men and share all the women amongst his tribe.
Genghis Khan would even make beauty contests of captured women to decide which woman is the most beautiful one.
Yeah, he was having his Miss Universe competition before it was cool. So, the queen of those beauty competitions would win the privilege to become one of many Genghis Khan's women.
Rest of the Mongolian army would share all the other contestants.
-The Richest
The Wealthy…
Genghis Khan was the most feared human of the 13th century, who could destroy dynasties just by moving his little finger. He created the Mongol Empire all by himself and earned his eternal spot in the history books.
However, a lot of people had to suffer for Genghis Khan to succeed. Oh yes, the Mongolians were known for their horrendous torturing techniques.
One of the most popular was pouring molten silver down the throat and ears of a victim. Genghis Khan also liked bending his enemy's back until the backbone snapped. If that sounds barbaric, skip this next part.
So, the Mongols once celebrated victory over Russians in a very bizarre way. They picked all the Russian survivors, dropped them on the ground and put a heavy wooden gate on top of them.
Then, Genghis Khan and the entire Mongol army had a huge banquet on that wooden gate. They ate, drank, and watched how Russians were dying one by one from the suffocation, pressure, and wounds.
-The Richest
A return to the old ways…
“The greatest joy for a man is to defeat his enemies, to drive them before him, to take all they possess, to see those they love in tears, to ride their horses, and to hold their wives and daughters in his arms.”
-Genghis Khan.
SHTF Related Index
This is a collection of my posts related to prepping, SHTF (Shit Hit The Fan), CWII (American Civil War 2), Fourth Turning (Strauss–Howe generational theory)
and other posts related to the very sad and sorry tatters that America
is today. Actually, I am a little stunned that I have written so much
about these matters. But America today is very ill and there are things
that really should be said.
Here are the posts.
SHTF and Related Index
Some prepper humor…
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
I believe that it is time for all Americans to take a serious re-look at what America stands for; our “democracy”, and our way of life as it exists today. Is it really all that great?
Is America living up to the grand ideals set forth in the “Great Experiment of 1776”?
Or, it is just going to be yet another big mistake heading towards the “great collapse” of society?
I think that a serious reappraisal of [1] what America is, [2] what notions it is founded upon, and [3] how it is structured needs to be re-thought out. It is time to take a good long hard look at [4] what America has become, and [5] how we got here. And [6] what needs to change once [7] corrective measures have been put in place.
I ask this.
Really, is democracy; “rule by popularity” ideal for Americans?
A typical American, inappropriately dressed (obviously), shopping at Wal-Mart. Really, is democracy; “rule by popularity” ideal for Americans? Or should America be run by talented people who earned their role through merit rather than popularity? Think about it.
Can the Constitution be protected from “well meaning”, or “the greedy”, or “evil” such as President Wilson, or FDR, or Obama from rewriting and re-interpreting it to fit their various nefarious ends?
Well, can it?
Because if we cannot, using the current governmental structure, then we must change it into something different.
Indeed, simply hoping that our progeny will be “ever vigilant” is just wishful thinking, and history has proven, for certain, that it does not work. And at that, we must well understand that it will NEVER WORK in the future.
Can the Constitution be protected from “well meaning”, or “the greedy”, or “evil” such as President Wilson, or FDR, or Obama from rewriting and re-interpreting it to fit their various nefarious ends?
What’s going to stop another Wilson, another FDR, another Obama, another Bush from rewriting the Constitution, or reinterpreting it to fit their nefarious ends? What’s it going to take?
What is it going to take?
But my thoughts are this matter are perhaps a little too harsh to the general American public. No one wants to hear that a democracy is flawed, or rather so flawed that America will collapse upon itself within a decade. No one wants to hear this.
Americans have a Pavlovian response to the phrase “freedom and democracy,” and it’s no surprise that so many of them are rooting for the protesters in Hong Kong.
-World Affairs Blog
Well, others, better word-smiths than myself have some things to say about this subject. One of the best comes from Mr. Noonan in his article titled “A Clean Break“. He wrote this article on 29 September 2019, and I personally think that it is brilliant. He isn’t so prone to offending people as I am.
For I earnestly believe that America has neither "democracy" nor "freedom". We just parrot the words without talking a good look around us at what America has devolved into.
Here I present it for your viewing pleasure.
This article is copied as written without much editing aside from some paragraph formatting and the fonts used in this template.
I added some "pull away" text for highlighting and maybe interjected on or two personal comments along the way (though you will be able to easily see that they are from your's truly.)
I have added my own pictures to help illustrate some of his fine points.
After reading the article, I would suggest the reader go to his original article and read some of his other works. This fellow is brilliant and a word-smith.
All credit to the author Mr. Noonan writing in Blogs for Victory.
As the last few weeks have played out in politics, it has forced me to do a complete re-assessment of how I’ve looked at the world for my entire adult life.
To be sure, this reconsideration has been ongoing for about a decade, or maybe a little more, but it has really crystalized out recently. It is time for a complete, clean break with what went before and to chart a new path forward.
As the last few weeks have played out in politics, it has forced me to do a complete re-assessment of how I’ve looked at the world for my entire adult life. It is time for a complete, clean break with what went before and to chart a new path forward. Maybe the American Constitution is flawed in some very serious ways, and it is up to use to seek out those flaws and eliminate them completely.
What Hunter Biden did is nothing new; it isn’t in the least remarkable.
He was merely the recipient of what people in his position routinely receive: a special deal which allows him to be very rich for little or no effort.
Hunter Biden was merely the recipient of what people in his position routinely receive: a special deal which allows him to be very rich for little or no effort.
This way his life can be devoted to what really matters: hanging around with other rich people, attending conferences and galas and generally having a swell time.
And if he decided to follow in Daddy’s political footsteps, the way would be cleared for him in some safe (Congressional) seat.
If you start looking into it – as Matt and I did in our 2007 book, Caucus of Corruption – you just see that it is everywhere. In that book, for political reasons, we concentrated on the Democrat side of the aisle (given that our goal was to show the absurdity of the Democrats 2006 campaign against a so-called “GOP culture of corruption”), but we could easily have written it about politics, in general.
If you start looking into it – as Matt and I did in our 2007 book, Caucus of Corruption – you just see that it is everywhere. In that book, for political reasons, we concentrated on the Democrat side of the aisle (given that our goal was to show the absurdity of the Democrats 2006 campaign against a so-called “GOP culture of corruption”), but we could easily have written it about politics, in general.
Corruption is everywhere in the United States.
What it really shows is that people who go into politics – with a few very rare exceptions – are in it for themselves.
The advent of legalized corruption launched by the Supreme Court empowers the superrich to fund their own presidential and congressional campaigns as pet projects, to foster pet policies, and to represent pet political enclaves. You have a billion, or even several hundred million, then purchase a candidate from the endless reserve bench of minor politicians and make him or her a star, a mouthpiece for any cause or purpose however questionable, and that candidate will mouth your script in endless political debates and through as many television spots as you are willing to pay for. All legal now.To compound the political felony, much, if not most, campaign financing is now carried out in secret, so that everyday citizens have a decreasing ability to determine to whom their elected officials are beholden and to whom they must now give special access. As recently as the 2014 election, the facts documented this government of influence by secrecy: “More than half of the general election advertising aired by outside groups in the battle for control of Congress,” according to the New York Times, “has come from organizations that disclose little or nothing about their donors, a flood of secret money that is now at the center of a debate over the line between free speech and corruption.”Of this handful, the largest by far is WPP (originally called Wire and Plastic Products; is there a metaphor here?), which has its headquarters in London and more than 150,000 employees in 2,500 offices spread around 107 countries. It, together with one or two conglomerating competitors, represents a fourth branch of government, vacuuming up former senators and House members and their spouses and families, key committee staff, former senior administration officials of both parties and several administrations, and ambassadors, diplomats, and retired senior military officers.WPP has swallowed giant public relations, advertising, and lobbying outfits such as Hill & Knowlton and BursonMarsteller, along with dozens of smaller members of the highly lucrative special interest and influence-manipulation world. Close behind WPP is the Orwellian-named Omnicom Group and another converger vaguely called the Interpublic Group of Companies. According to Mr. Edsall, WPP had billings last year of $72.3 billion, larger than the budgets of quite a number of countries.
– From the Gary Hart article, Gary Hart: America’s Founding Principles Are in Danger of Corruption
Corruption is part of democracy.
They want power and money and attention and fame and praise and so they go into politics – and almost invariably, if they are even modestly successful at winning office, wind up richer than they did when they started.
And it has been going on for a long time, folks; throughout all the Western democracies.
When you study the motivations of those in politics, you discover what drives them. They want power and money and attention and fame and praise and so they go into politics – and almost invariably, if they are even modestly successful at winning office, wind up richer than they did when they started. And it has been going on for a long time, folks; throughout all the Western democracies.
There are, I believe, some who still deny that England is governed by an oligarchy.
It is quite enough for me to know that a man might have gone to sleep some thirty years ago over the day’s newspaper and woke up last week over the later newspaper, and fancied he was reading about the same people.
In one paper he would have found a Lord Robert Cecil, a Mr. Gladstone, a Mr. Lyttleton, a Churchill, a Chamberlain, a Trevelyan, an Acland.
In the other paper he would find a Lord Robert Cecil, a Mr. Gladstone, a Mr. Lyttleton, a Churchill, a Chamberlain, a Trevelyan, an Acland.
If this is not being governed by families I cannot imagine what it is. I suppose it is being governed by extraordinary democratic coincidences.
…extraordinary democratic coincidences.
Funny, huh? How people from the same family can keep winding up on top. Either they are families of geniuses, or someone is making things happen.
What are the odds that the son of an American Senator would be just the person an oil company needs to pay $50,000.00 a month to?
But, it just keeps happening and happening because, well, that’s just the way it is. And it wouldn’t be so bad if they were at least any good at being an oligarchy!
But they aren’t.
After you study this issue, you discover that it just keeps happening and happening. And the reason why, is because, well, that’s just the way it is. And it wouldn’t be so bad if they were at least any good at being an oligarchy!
Back in Chesterton’s day, there was the cold, hard reality that Winston Churchill was at least as talented as his father, Randolph. There was something there – there was, that is, a justification for Winston getting a leg up (and he did) to enter politics based on his father’s previous efforts.
These days, you get to benefit even if the previous person in line was a complete, rotten failure. And rotten failure is all we’ve gotten – and I’m getting very ecumenical in that, by the way. I’m not excusing anyone on partisan grounds any longer.
To be sure, the Republicans I voted for in the past were at least better than the Democrats I voted against (with the exception of McCain: knowing that I’m the co-author of Worst President, please understand that I believe McCain would have been even worse than Obama proved to be).
But they were only better in degree, not in kind.
Republicans are corrupt.
I mean, let’s face some cold, hard facts here: President Bush the Younger was re-elected with 51% of the vote in 2004 and came into his second term with high approval ratings and a Republican Congress.
With all this, he couldn’t even manage to de-fund Planned Parenthood or NPR!
I mean, let’s face some cold, hard facts here: President Bush the Younger was re-elected with 51% of the vote in 2004 and came into his second term with high approval ratings and a Republican Congress. With all this, he couldn’t even manage to de-fund Planned Parenthood or NPR! He did not care for the conservative cause(s), he only campaigned on them to hood-wink all of us for voting for him. He knew which levers to push, and which buttons to push.
It could have been done, easily, in a budget reconciliation between House and Senate and there would have been nothing the Democrats could have done about it.
On a more personal level, how can public service be promoted as an ideal to young people when this sewer corrupts our Republic? At this point in early twenty-first-century America, the greatest service our nation’s young people could provide is to lead an army of outraged young Americans armed with brooms on a crusade to sweep out the rascals and rid our capital of the money changers, rent seekers, revolving door dancers, and special interest deal makers and power brokers and send them back home to make an honest living, that is, if they still remember how to do so.Our ancestors did not depart Europe and elsewhere to seek freedom and self-government alone. They came to these shores to escape social and political systems that were corrosive and corrupt. Two and a quarter centuries later, we are returning to those European practices. We are in danger of becoming a different kind of nation, one our founders would not recognize and would deplore.In addition to the rise of the national security state, and the concentration of wealth and power in America, no development in modern times sets us apart more from the nation originally bequeathed to us than the rise of the special interest state.There is a Gresham’s law related to the republican ideal. Bad politics drives out good politics. Legalized corruption drives men and women of stature, honor, and dignity out of the halls of government. Self-respecting individuals cannot long tolerate a system of election and reelection so dependent on cultivating the favor of those known to expect access in return. Such a system is corrosive to the soul.
– From the Gary Hart article, Gary Hart: America’s Founding Principles Are in Danger of Corruption
This was “better” than a President Kerry who probably would have increased PP funding, but not really better in that the taxes of pro-life Americans were still going to fund something they consider abhorrent…and which Bush and the entire GOP campaigned on getting rid of.
I know some will say that this is just our GOP screwing it’s base and that the Democrats don’t do that. But, they do.
Both the republicans and the democrats are corrupt to the core. They only care about themselves and their little tribe of corrupt underlings. No one else.
Democrats are corrupt.
Obama was elected in 2008 with 53% of the vote and came into office with a Democrat Congress and a filibuster-proof Senate majority…and he couldn’t even get the single payer health system Democrats say they want.
It would have been easy.
The GOP could have done nothing to stop it. Enact a 10% payroll tax to fund it and just start passing out the cash to people who need health care.
A former senator from Colorado, Gary Hart, has written an extremely powerful and accurate critique of the unfathomably corrupt and crony state of the U.S. government in 2015. It covers several very important angles, including how appalled and disgusted our founders would be at the current state of affairs. How a once great republic has devolved into a thieving oligarchy in which the pursuit of money at power at the expense of the public good has been elevated into something that’s not just tolerated, but actually celebrated and encouraged amongst an ethics deprived status quo.
-Liberty Blitzkreig
That you and I know it would have been a disaster is neither here nor there – our side had lost the election and the Democrats won all the power they could possibly need to make all Democrat dreams come true…and they couldn’t do something like that.
Once you are in politics, it’s all on for party-on good times. You swindle and funnel money left and right and no one gives a damn about the American people. This includes both sides of the Congress, and all their cronies from the war-mongering generals to the intellectuals pushing climate change, and radical social change down our collective throats.
They instead wound up with the abomination known as Obamacare which even if it had worked as planned would still have left millions out in the cold and cost like the devil – but they couldn’t even write something that worked!
Meanwhile, not only did Obama not end the wars they campaigned against in 2008, he started new one’s…
droning the living sh** out of every poor, brown skinned person they could target (well, those they weren’t letting in as unvetted refugees, that is).
A public works bonanza that didn’t create any public works.
A slew of new spending which improved nothing.
This is what the Democrat voters get for investing their time and effort? Yep – in other words, nothing: but lots and lots for whomever is the crony. Democrat cronies made out like bandits. But your average purple-haired Democrat wanting more safe spaces? Not much.
This is what the Democrat voters get for investing their time and effort? Yep – in other words, nothing: but lots and lots for whomever is the crony. Democrat cronies made out like bandits. But your average purple-haired Democrat wanting more safe spaces? Not much.
By that standard, can anyone seriously doubt that our republic, our government, is corrupt? There have been Teapot Domes and financial scandals of one kind or another throughout our nation’s history. There has never been a time, however, when the government of the United States was so perversely and systematically dedicated to special interests, earmarks, side deals, log-rolling, vote-trading, and sweetheart deals of one kind or another.What brought us to this? A sinister system combining staggering campaign costs, political contributions, political action committees, special interest payments for access, and, most of all, the rise of the lobbying class.Worst of all, the army of lobbyists that started relatively small in the mid-twentieth century has now grown to big battalions of law firms and lobbying firms of the right, left, and an amalgam of both. And that gargantuan, if not reptilian, industry now takes on board former members of the House and the Senate and their personal and committee staffs. And they are all getting fabulously rich.Frustrated, irate discussions of this legalized corruption are met in the Washington media with a shrug. So what? Didn’t we just have dinner with that lobbyist for the banking industry, or the teachers’ union, or the airline industry at that well-known journalist’s house only two nights ago? Fine lady, and she used to be the chairman of one of those powerful committees. I gather she is using her Rolodex rather skillfully on behalf of her new clients. Illegal? Not at all. Just smart . . . and so charming.There is little wonder that Americans of the right and many in the middle are apoplectic at their government and absolutely, and rightly, convinced that the game of government is rigged in favor of the elite and the powerful. Occupiers see even more wealth rising to the top at the expense of the poor and the middle class. And Tea Partiers believe their tax dollars are going to well-organized welfare parasites and government bureaucrats.
– From the Gary Hart article, Gary Hart: America’s Founding Principles Are in Danger of Corruption
And as far as the social disintegration we’ve seen over the past 60 years – we’ve been blinded by the Democrats pushing the disintegration that we haven’t noticed the Republicans letting them do it.
And when they have power to roll it back, doing nothing of the sort.
And as far as the social disintegration we’ve seen over the past 60 years – we’ve been blinded by the Democrats pushing the disintegration that we haven’t noticed the Republicans letting them do it. And when they have power to roll it back, doing nothing of the sort. They just smile for the cameras, enjoy their high-priced meals in fancy restaurants, free hookers, and retire for their closed “boys clubs”.
The Administrative state and its regulators, a creation of previous congress’s, have grown into a bureaucracy so entrenched that worker’s can’t even be fired. They lurk in the darkness of their own regulations and use their powers to punish those who fail to comply. Regulators are great for making and executing rules and regulations, and taxing, but not so good at designing those regulations to advance unproven political theories, that most often come undone.
The unrealized dangers of delegating rules and regulations making, is that Congress removes itself from accountability. Legislators govern by theory, proposing ideas that are then delegated to an agency charged to “make” it work. To ensure their schemes work, Congress politicized the Federal judicial benches, including the Supreme Court, to support their legislative agenda regardless of the unconstitutionality, through judicial activism. Judges don’t make laws!
- Why Should We Accept Corrupt Government?
Their actions are disgusting.
And now we see in the Epstein case the reason why it might have all been allowed to happen: Lord only knows how many of the high and mighty are caught in that web…
…but what better way to get out from under that rock than by making the rock legal?
Hey, Paul Ryan, you’re the guy in charge of the House. You’re the Speaker of the House. [1] You had half a decade to figure out what to REPLACE Obamacare with and you came up with … bupkis? [2]. Hey, Paul Ryan, you had more than a hundred days to fashion a piece of legislation after you knew President Trump won — even with all the “budget resolution”, three tranche, inside baseball baloney and it came as a surprise that the Freedom Caucus wasn’t on board? [Pro tip: Check with your own caucus first. OK, that’s better.] Hello, America, Paul, babe — that was your job. We gave you one stinking job — to fashion a clean repeal and replacement of Obamacare — and you were surprised the Freedom Caucus wasn’t genuflecting and kissing your ring? A week out, you tell the President you “have the votes” and the day of the vote you come to the White House and say, “Uhhh, maybe not. Maybe not, Mr. President. Poorly played, Paulie. Very poorly played. [3]. Hey, Paul Ryan, this shit is on you not the President. You suck at your job.
By making you, a normal person, the bad guy if you point out some of the disgusting actions?
Illegal immigration to provide votes for Democrats and cheap labor for Republicans.
Wars which don’t end in victory or defeat.
Enforcing immorality against popular wishes.
Providing government sinecures to anyone who will toe the line – and who won’t be got rid of no matter how corrupt or stupid they prove.
Accepting money from foreign entities who want the United States destroyed.
Will you fucking Republicans stop criticizing President Trump for following through on his campaign promises?
He ran on them. He told you what they were. He won on them. He is delivering on them and you snowflakes act like you just discovered them.
Both sides, all the time – and on top of being this stupidly destructive, raking it in for themselves, their families and their friends. It is time to bring an end to all that. By peaceful means if possible but, ultimately, by any means necessary.
Our peaceful means are “President Trump”.
President Trump is the hero of the common man.
Trump isn’t part of the system, you see.
Dimwits look at his billions and go, “he must be one of them”. But, the bottom line is that he’s not.
He’ll hang out with them. Be friends with them. But he never was of them. He made his own way and got his pile of money…and then looked around and saw, from the 1980’s, what was happening to his country and started to wonder why, and if there were anything he could do about it?
He essentially first let Bill Clinton have his chance.
Then Bush the Younger.
Then even Obama.
But he found out something – it didn’t matter who was in charge, they were all in on it, together. That is, regardless of stated political philosophy, the primary goal of nearly everyone in politics was personal enrichment and making sure no outsider pushed his or her way in.
Trump found out something – it didn’t matter who was in charge, they were all in on it, together. That is, regardless of stated political philosophy, the primary goal of nearly everyone in politics was personal enrichment and making sure no outsider pushed his or her way in.
Trump decided to push his way in.
And now he’s there – and outside of a precious few (Cruz, Paul…and, oddly, McConnell), he’s nearly alone fighting for one thing: us.
The United States of America.
We, the people.
And everyone inside is furious and terrified and so are lashing back as much as they can hoping that something, anything will turn up to get rid of Trump.
And, make no mistake about it, they are already planning on punishing us for electing Trump. They don’t propose to allow this sort of thing to happen again.
And, make no mistake about it, they are already planning on punishing us for electing Trump. They don’t propose to allow this sort of thing to happen again.
And everyone inside is furious and terrified and so are lashing back as much as they can hoping that something, anything will turn up to get rid of Trump. And, make no mistake about it, they are already planning on punishing us for electing Trump. They don’t propose to allow this sort of thing to happen again.
The “big con game” is up.
I’ve mostly stopped arguing with liberals these days – first off, it is pointless but, secondly, I’m starting to pity them; nearly as much as I pity that shrinking number on the right who still stand aloof from Trump: they simply can’t shake free from the line they’ve been fed.
And none of us can get high and mighty about that: to one degree or another, all of us were suckered at one time or another.
No other government is as corrupt as the United States government.
All of us believed in some aspect of the con being used to keep us confused, frightened and divided while the Ruling Class stays fat and happy.
All of us. Including myself.
But for those of us who have awakened from the con, it is time for a clean break – a refusal to accept that anything over the past 60 years was any good…a desire, that is, to move forward in an entirely new way, unshackled to whatever we might have said or done in the past.
We have learned all about the great con game, and we are fed up. We know know what is going on and we are pissed, and desire real, substantive change. Now, for those of us who have awakened from the con, it is time for a clean break – a refusal to accept that anything over the past 60 years was any good…a desire, that is, to move forward in an entirely new way, unshackled to whatever we might have said or done in the past.
We can see what happened; we can see what needs to be done – we can’t trip ourselves up (nor allow our opponents to slow us down) by fussing over what views we might have expressed previously.
Our desire is a Constitutional Republic of free people – our means of getting there must be “whatever works”, not adherence to a dogma which might, upon review, only have been a means whereby the con artists kept us in line in the past.
I, for one, will only defend what I find defensible and will attack whatever I see as wrong.
Republicans Are Terrified Because Their Candidates Are So Fucking Lazy. As a number of Democrats win high-profile special election victories in deep red districts, fewer and fewer safe Republican strongholds seem to be off limits.
We still have a magnificent window to win this thing and fix our nation – naturally, the first requirement is protecting President Trump.
We need a complete review of EVERYTHING and ask “is it good”
But the next step is just as important: a complete review of everything and asking the question, “Is this good?”.
We’ve already learned that so-called “Free Trade” wasn’t what many of us thought it was – take that as your template and ask yourself, “is this thing I’ve adhered to really in the interests of a free people? Or is it something which only serves the well-connected?”.
As Lincoln once said, it is time to think anew and act anew: not to create something different (nothing can be more magnificent than the United States, as far as human effort allows), but to recreate what we had, but even better than before.
It is time to think anew and act anew: not to create something different, but to recreate what we had, but even better than before.
And if that mission requires us to knock a few off their pedestals, then that’s just what will have to happen.
The problems of government are systemic. The reason for government should be a primary concern of anyone wanting a better government but this cannot be accomplished with people of socialist persuasion who scream, yell and interrupt other speakers in an effort to kill free speech.
Trump has thrown a wrench into the gears of socialisms advancement. Socialists are reeling in confusion but don’t count on them staying there. A revolution is coming. The question is, who’s going to lead it, them or us?
- Why Should We Accept Corrupt Government?
SHTF Related Index
This is a collection of my posts related to prepping, SHTF (Shit Hit The Fan), CWII (American Civil War 2), Fourth Turning (Strauss–Howe generational theory)
and other posts related to the very sad and sorry tatters that America
is today. Actually, I am a little stunned that I have written so much
about these matters. But America today is very ill and there are things
that really should be said.
Here are the posts.
SHTF and Related Index
Some prepper humor…
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
This article suggests that of the numerous forces tearing America apart, one such force is an out-of-control legal system. No, we are not talking about the US Prison system that incarcerates a full 25% of the inmates on the planet. Though, yes it is a problem. We are instead going to talk about laws and regulations in the United States and the damage to liberty that they have forged. This article argues that when the laws and regulations have become so numerous and complex, that the entire system devolved into lawlessness.
Now, of course, there are numerous forces that are tearing the United States apart, and eventually (sure as shit) it will crumble and die, and a New America will rise up from the ashes. What it will look like, no one knows.
Though, I have painted some pretty dark and gloomy pictures of what could happen in other posts. Don’t you know.
These forces are numerous and include such things as…
The socialists Marxist movement started 100 years ago by President Wilson.
The greedy oligarchy that is gobbling up everything that they can lay their hands on.
The upper middle class which is following the (winning) strategy of the oligarchy.
A collapsing culture and morals.
A decaying infrastructure.
A collapsed educational system churning out imbecile serfs ready to work on “the plantation”.
And, many more.
Here is an article that was written by Alec Orrell . I think that is is really very good. He mapped out how we devolved into orderly lawlessness. His article is titled Legitocracy in America, and it is worth the time to read.
This article is copied as written without much editing aside from some paragraph formatting and the fonts used in this template.
I added some "pull away" text for highlighting and maybe interjected on or two personal comments along the way (though you will be able to easily see that they are from your's truly.)
I have added my own pictures to help illustrate some of his fine points, but there are a couple of decorative "splash" pictures on his originally posted venue.
After reading the article, I would suggest the reader go to his original article and read some of his other works. This fellow is brilliant and a word-smith. (Though he tends to write on a university level, where I tend to be far more plebeian.)
All credit to the author Alec Orrell writing in Human Events.
The commentariat across the political spectrum have recently reveled
in predicting imminent authoritarianism and the “literal death of
democracy” unless sundry bugbears are stopped.
As Murray sees it, the United States’ hyper-complicated and outrageously voluminous law is much the same as no law at all for the ordinary citizen.
The catastrophizing is quaint.
Perhaps they are too terrified, distracted, or dissembling to utter the truth obvious under closer examination: the United States ceased to operate as a constitutional democratic republic at least 100 years ago. Democracy isn’t “in peril”—it’s dead and buried.
The United States ceased to operate as a constitutional democratic republic at least 100 years ago. Democracy isn’t “in peril”—it’s dead and buried.
How did we get here?
How did we get here? Social scientist Charles Murray (The Bell Curve) penned a fascinating but little-remarked book titled By The People in 2015. There, Murray argued the United States has become, in effect, a lawless society.
His assertion may strike some as odd, because lawless usually calls to mind a breakdown in order, like in Afghanistan or Somalia.
But countries maintain order without righteous law all the time.
Dictators the world over regularly keep the peace using suppression and intimidation. There’s no shooting in the streets, but there’s no sense of justice or predictability, either.
Dictators the world over regularly keep the peace using suppression and intimidation. There’s no shooting in the streets, but there’s no sense of justice or predictability, either.
LAWS, LAWS, AND MORE LAWS
As Murray sees it, the United States’ hyper-complicated and outrageously voluminous law is much the same as no law at all for the ordinary citizen. The oppressor isn’t a dictator but an incomprehensible and unpredictable justice system passed from one set of leaders’ hands to another, from one political party to another.
Murray writes:
[L]et’s talk about the legal system not as it looks from thirty thousand feet to law professors, where everything can be fit together and rationalized, but how it looks at ground level to ordinary law-abiding citizens …
I am reminded of science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke’s famous observation that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
From ground level, our encounters with today’s legal system as it actually functions are often indistinguishable from lawlessness.
Consider that, between federal, state, city, county, and judge-made
law—along with truckloads of regulations and codes by state and federal
agencies which carry the full force of law—an American today lives under something like 100 times as much law as his or her great-great-grandfather. That’s a chilling comparison.
An American today lives under something like 100 times as much law as his or her great-great-grandfather.
Further, consider that the average American thoroughly understands few or none of the laws governing him.
Sure, he possesses a vague sense of the basics and some traffic law, but that’s all.
Should the internal functions of the miraculous device go awry, the average citizen is helpless. He usually cannot afford skillful lawyers to interpret the laws or to defend him when he is forced to confront the legal system. A lawsuit or a criminal prosecution ruins him, regardless of his culpability.
Washington, D.C.; April 29, 2019: A study released today shows that the vast majority of Department of Health and Human Services regulations issued over a recent 17-year period are unconstitutional. The first-of-its-kind study reviewed 2,952 rules issued by HHS and found that 71% of final rules from 2001 through 2017 were issued by low-level officials and career employees who lack constitutional authority to do so.
Such rules are unconstitutional. The Constitution requires that significant government decisions must be made solely by “principal officers” appointed by the president after Senate confirmation. Issuing a regulation with the force of law is one of those actions that only principal officers can perform.
The majority of unconstitutional rules were issued by the Food and Drug Administration. Just 2% of FDA rules were issued by principal officers, while 1,860 rules were finalized and issued by career employees.
“In a democracy, those who make the rules need to be accountable to the people,” report co-author Thomas Berry, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, explained. “That’s why the Framers included the Appointments Clause in the Constitution. Only properly-appointed officers in the executive branch may issue regulations that are binding on the public. This preserves democratic accountability for significant executive branch actions.”
One such rule is the controversial “Deeming Rule,” which classifies tobacco-free vaping products as tobacco products. The rule prohibits Steve Green, a California vape shop owner, from telling his customers his story about using vaping to stop smoking and recover from early signs of emphysema. PLF filed three lawsuits challenging the rule last year.
“Among the hundreds of illegal FDA rules, 25 rules were classified as significant because they had an impact on the American economy of at least $100 million or had other significant economic impacts,” said Angela Erickson, PLF’s strategic research director and co-author of the report. “Congress and the White House should ensure that this practice ends and agencies comply with the law.”
The full report is available at pacificlegal.org/HHSreport.
He usually cannot afford skillful lawyers to interpret the laws or to defend him when he is forced to confront the legal system. A lawsuit or a criminal prosecution ruins him, regardless of his culpability.
The law is like an iPhone: a miraculous device at which he glances all the time and uses for simple tasks without knowing the first thing about how the internal functions perform their magic.
Should the internal functions of the miraculous device go awry, the average citizen is helpless.
He usually cannot afford skillful lawyers to interpret the laws or to defend him when he is forced to confront the legal system. A lawsuit or a criminal prosecution ruins him, regardless of his culpability.
In the United States, Federal drug defendants who won’t plead guilty pay dearly, according to our new report, “An Offer You Can’t Refuse.” Prosecutors use their ability to vary the charges to seek longer mandatory sentences for people who turn down plea bargains. Defendants who go to trial receive sentences that, on average, are three times as long. Not surprisingly, 97 percent of drug defendants are convicted by pleas, not trial.
The wrongfully accused regularly plea bargain to avoid being crushed by the legal process.
The vast majority of criminal cases in the United States end not in courtroom trials but in negotiated agreements between prosecutors and defense lawyers. Plea bargaining dates to the 1800s and has often been controversial. Law-and-order advocates say the practice lets criminals get lower sentences, while some defense lawyers and civil libertarians say it coerces defendants to give up their legal rights. Most prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges, however, say the practice helps produce justice while reducing strains on the court system. Defense lawyers last year cheered a court ruling that would have barred prosecutors from offering leniency in exchange for a defendant’s testimony against accomplices. But prosecutors celebrated last month when the ruling was overturned.
The citizen is told that ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it, but he cannot correct his ignorance himself nor pay to have others supplement it.
It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be to-morrow.
Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known, and less fixed?
Madison’s sketch of run-amok law bears an uncanny resemblance to the United States today.
He highlights a fundamental truth Americans have forgotten amidst the partisan bickering over which byzantine laws to pass:
Representative lawmaking does not produce democracy when demos (“the people”) cannot grasp the laws, either to express their disagreement with them or to follow them.
In Madison’s view, such edicts aren’t real law, just dressed-up tyranny divorced from the ethos of a constitutional republic.
Taxation of Social Security benefits. The complicated formula and the 20 step worksheet used to determine the percentage of benefits (up to 85%) subject to tax aren’t new, but they are affecting more Americans as the number receiving Social Security grows. Here is the equation as i stood in 1997.
Were Madison alive to witness the present debacle, he might opine:
The United States possesses no authentic law, only enforced order.
A tyrant who inflicts his will with rifles and a legal priesthood who inflict their will with occult laws are functionally equivalent. In both cases, citizens lose all confidence in a coherent moral order of their own design underlying their day-to-day existence.
The United States possesses no authentic law, only enforced order.
RULE BY LAWYERS
The United States today might be better called a legitocracy—a government by the legal priesthood for the legal priesthood.
Judges, lawyers, prosecutors, regulators, law schools, bar associations, and legal-activism conglomerates like the ACLU and GLAAD use their specialized knowledge to function as gatekeepers of society’s rules, politics, and culture.
Nothing is accomplished without the involvement of the legal priesthood.
Judges, lawyers, prosecutors, regulators, law schools, bar associations, and legal-activism conglomerates like the ACLU and GLAAD use their specialized knowledge to function as gatekeepers of society’s rules, politics, and culture. Nothing is accomplished without the involvement of the legal priesthood.
Armies of lawyers draft the bills for elected lawmakers, who enact their recommendations with only a vague understanding of their mandates.
Then lawmakers turn the laws backover to prosecutors, regulators, and jurists for implementation and enforcement. More often than not, lawmakers come from the ranks of the law-schooled themselves.
Representative lawmaking does not produce democracy when demos (“the people”) cannot grasp the laws, either to express their disagreement with them or to follow them.
Thus the legal priesthood operates in a closed system, disconnected from the populace and unaccountable in practice to anyone but themselves.
Thus the legal priesthood operates in a closed system, disconnected from the populace and unaccountable in practice to anyone but themselves.
To be sure, the priesthood declaims with great eloquence about “democracy,” a “nation of laws,” and “the people”; but they amount to an insular social class—the card carriers in a one-party state.
The rest of us are merely along for the ride.
One is reminded of the famous maxim:
“Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything.” In this case, one might say: “Those who enact the laws and vote for lawmakers decide nothing. Those who interpret and enforce the laws decide everything.”
Much like the aristocracies and theocracies of bygone days, the chieftains of the legitocratic class have fallen into warlording over which of them gets to make the rules that control the society and the state.
They bicker over bizarre ideologies and disrupt elected government at every turn with nuisance lawsuits and politically-motivated prosecutions. They divert political and cultural issues from legislatures and elections into courtrooms.
They divert issues away from legislatures and elections and into the courtrooms instead.
For example, Americans recently were treated to the groaning spectacle of a federal judge deciding how the President may operate his personal Twitter account, and whether biological men must be allowed in women’s locker rooms when they identify as women.
As in all warlordism, the resulting instability destroys the average citizen’s peace, predictability, and trust.
He may not be able to articulate the government’s devolution into feuding legitocracy; nevertheless, he senses that he lives in a failed state.
He sees no sacred or impartial justice emerging from the legal system anymore. Virtue and common sense have no place and no reward. All he sees are wizards in tailored suits hurling thunderbolts at one another and terrorizing his day-to-day existence with their staggering litigiousness and self-righteous culture crusades.
He senses that he lives in a failed state.
He sees no sacred or impartial justice emerging from the legal system anymore.
Virtue and common sense have no place and no reward.
All he sees are wizards in tailored suits hurling thunderbolts at one another and terrorizing his day-to-day existence with their staggering litigiousness and self-righteous culture crusades.
The average citizen hesitates to publicly speak his mind, defend his person, establish a business, worship openly, or seek redress for real injuries.
Should anyone bother to ask him, the citizen will declare that the words chiseled on the Supreme Court building (“Equal Justice Under Law”) have turned to bitter irony.
He watches with ballooning cynicism as the legal priesthood deploys word games to exonerate one another’s heinous manipulations, then turn and damn ordinary citizens like him to years of legal hell for standing up to their diktats.
He watches with ballooning cynicism as the legal priesthood deploys word games to exonerate one another’s heinous manipulations, then turn and damn ordinary citizens like him to years of legal hell for standing up to their diktats.
Justice is no longer a sacred right grounded in fear of God and His mystery. It is something you hire or receive as a reward for loyalty.
Justice is no longer a sacred right.
The legitocratic class has changed the motto of the United States from “In God, We Trust” to “There Is No God—Trust Us.”
Thus, the average citizen hesitates to publicly speak his mind, defend his person, establish a business, worship openly, or seek redress for real injuries.
He fears to resist the legal system’s incessant cultural bullying, lest he gets sucked into the vortex and land in Oz for years pursued by flying monkey lawyers.
Thus, the average citizen hesitates to publicly speak his mind, defend his person, establish a business, worship openly, or seek redress for real injuries. He fears to resist the legal system’s incessant cultural bullying, lest he gets sucked into the vortex and land in Oz for years pursued by flying monkey lawyers.
He can’t say how it happened, but the citizen knows he dwells at the bottom of a multi-tiered, politically corrupt, unchecked cabal of a legal system that cares nothing for his well-being.
Will the legal priesthood reform themselves?
Will activist judges voluntarily give up their arrogated and unconscionable power of nationwide injunction?
Will the Supreme Court allow voters and lawmakers to address questions of culture and politics through elections and legislation once again, rather than dictating both from the bench?
Will law schools cease to operate as seminaries of progressive social engineering, imperious elitism, state-enforced credentialism, relativism, nihilism, identity politics, and other ever-shifting philosophies?
Will the legal priesthood stop terrorizing the unanointed and favoring their own, demanding with one voice that the law revert to a form comprehensible and accessible to the average citizen?
Of course they will, right after unicorns fly out of Chief Justice John Roberts’ robes.
He can’t say how it happened, but the citizen knows he dwells at the bottom of a multi-tiered, politically corrupt, unchecked cabal of a legal system that cares nothing for his well-being. Happiness has been replaced by trinkets and freedom by tax rebates, and liberty… well, it just doesn’t exist.
Americans live in denial of their rationalized, systemic oppression.
Over the last five or so generations, legalistic authoritarianism has progressively choked the average citizen’s pursuit of happiness, like a slow garroting in a collar of recondite laws.
Americans live in denial of their rationalized, systemic oppression. Over the last five or so generations, legalistic authoritarianism has progressively choked the average citizen’s pursuit of happiness, like a slow garroting in a collar of recondite laws.
If one doubts this, it’s only because he hasn’t experienced the extremities of the legal system’s insanity himself yet—the Kafkaesque horror of an endless, politically motivated IRS audit, or a court telling a father he must call his 6-year-old son a girl. The law and government do not serve the will of the people; it’s the other way around now.
The law and government do not serve the will of the people; it’s the other way around now.
Where does that leave the citizen?
He is reduced to hoping the orderly lawlessness of the legal system remains confined to the courts and the government, that disorderly lawlessness does not erupt in public.
He is right to be concerned.
Americans are quarreling with one another in frustration. A growing number of individuals and groups misidentify the root of the tyranny and endanger public order, blaming vague and simplistic concepts like “white supremacy,” “fascism,” “the patriarchy,” “capitalism,” etc. for the oppression they sense.
Americans are quarreling with one another in frustration. A growing number of individuals and groups misidentify the root of the tyranny and endanger public order, blaming vague and simplistic concepts like “white supremacy,” “fascism,” “the patriarchy,” “capitalism,” etc. for the oppression they sense.
Meanwhile, disturbed young male shooters at the end of their tether scapegoat women and minority groups for the proliferation of politically correct rules under which they feel smothered.
Tracing their anxieties back reveals a common source: alienation from the rules that govern them.
Tracing their anxieties back reveals a common source: alienation from the rules that govern them.
Unsurprisingly, the legal priesthood plays both sides to lengthen their reach and tighten their grasp: The root problem is not that the people toil under mountains of legal minutiae and can’t even breathe without violating at least five laws.
No, according to them the problem is always too much freedom requiring (you guessed it!) more laws.
Laws restricting firearms.
Laws restricting hurtful speech.
Laws restricting plastic straws.
Laws, laws, laws.
A violent response.
Rooftop Koreans taking matters into their own hands when the government failed them.
A militia-like civil defense response from ordinary citizens akin to the Roof Koreans of the L.A. riots seems well within the realm of possibility these days.
Scene from the television series “The Walking Dead”. Americans are getting ready for the conflict that lies ahead. They are “prepping” and make no mistake, it will happen unless drastic action takes place immediately.
American citizens must be brought to understand that the struggle gripping the country does not fundamentally pit liberals against conservatives or Democrats against Republicans.
The struggle pits average citizens who want to live under clear, predictable, and widely understood laws against the legal priesthood’s empire of complication and confusion.
American citizens must be brought to understand that the struggle gripping the country does not fundamentally pit liberals against conservatives or Democrats against Republicans. The struggle pits average citizens who want to live under clear, predictable, and widely understood laws against the legal priesthood’s empire of complication and confusion.
And that is the way it is.
One of the first things that you notice when you move to another nation is just how simple it is.
If there is a tax, it's only one singular tax. There are no regulations, and the things that you can do, from driving without a seat-belt, to having your five year old buying a beer for you is astounding.
Here in communist China, I am afforded so many, many MANY freedoms that Americans haven't a clue to what they have lost. That's a fact Jack. Deal with it.
If the public can grasp that their system of government has slowly
changed without their consent, the legal priesthood’s magical powers
will evaporate and the U.S. legal system will be seen for what it is: a
recondite abomination propped up by platitudes. At that time, rescuing
the democratic republic back from the pit of legitocracy stands a
chance.
Until that time, the wizards will continue to rule, and may God help us all.
SHTF Related Index
This is a collection of my posts related to prepping, SHTF (Shit Hit The Fan), CWII (American Civil War 2), Fourth Turning (Strauss–Howe generational theory)
and other posts related to the very sad and sorry tatters that America
is today. Actually, I am a little stunned that I have written so much
about these matters. But America today is very ill and there are things
that really should be said.
Here are the posts.
SHTF and Related Index
Some prepper humor…
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
This article looks at the political term “Gaslighting” and what it means. It is used in context in reference to the elected officials and their cronies in Washington D.C. with examples. This this case, we use a most excellent, and caustic biting article, by Kurt Schlichter.
It can also be applied to inner-personal relationships;
It’s important to distinguish between regular lying and gaslighting. A lie is just a falsehood and it can be told for many reasons.
Gaslighting are lies told with the specific intent to make the other person question their sanity/reality.
It is a form of manipulation to make the other person doubt themselves so much that they no longer trust their perception of events. If you no longer trust yourself, then you begin to think you are the problem and the other person is then off the hook.
-What is gaslighting
The article is presented as published, and all credit to the author. I personally like Kirts writing style, and I would recommend that reader go visit his presence on the internet on townhall.com once you all finish reading this article.
Bad Gaslighting Epidemic Sweeps The Elite
There are three questions that our terrible, terrible ruling class raises whenever it opens its collective kale-hole to lecture us: 1) Does the elite think we are really, really stupid, or 2) Is the elite really, really stupid, or 3) Is the elite all of the above?
The last week has been eventful, even by Age O’ Trump standards, and the one enduring takeaway is just how bad these people are at gaslighting us with inept lies that demand we disbelieve what’s happening right in front of us.
But it should come as no surprise that our alleged betters are no good at gaslighting because they have proven themselves to be no good at anything.
Here’s a fun test: can you name something – anything – major in the last two decades that our best and brightest have not screwed up?
I’ll wait.
Gaslighting is their default move because gaslighting is all these losers have. It’s not like they can sit back and let you read their CV of achievements. Iraq, Obamacare, their annoying millennial kids…all disasters. The members of America’s current ruling class are King Midases of failure.
Everything they touch turns to suck.
So, because they have no other way to deal with the damning evidence of their utter incompetence, our elite instead tries to convince us that we are crazy for noticing just how lame they are.
What Gaslighting is.
That’s called “gaslighting,” the straight-faced denial of what’s happening right in front of you that tries to leverage your politeness and deference to convince you that it’s not the elite that’s rotten. You’re just crazy for noticing, you crazed crazy person of craziness.
Gaslighting is lying “straight to your face” when there is obvious physical evidence in front of everyone that you are telling a lie.
An example of gaslighting.
Take the Northern Syrian crisis – please. I generally side with the non-commie Kurds over the Turks, but facts are facts and facts mean something.
We keep hearing how we “betrayed our allies,” but who promised the Kurds that we would fight Turkey on their behalf?
It’s a big jump from “Let’s both fight ISIS” to “Take that, NATO ally.” But our garbage media, and our garbage politicians, sort of hand wave away the fact that you can’t “betray” someone by not doing what you never promised to do, especially when no reasonable person could ever expect you to do it.
A second example of gaslighting.
And then there’s the Kurdish monolith issue – all Kurds are not created equal.
There are different Kurd factions and different Kurd groups, and some Kurds are communists. In fact, we’ve designated the very Kurds Turkey says it’s going after (the PKK) as terrorists based on their actual terrorism.
Certainly, at the start of the story you probably couldn’t have expected our reporters and our politicians to tell Kurd X from Kurd Y without a program (in a better world, though, we’d expect them to zip it until they could), but when we’re a week-plus into what is allegedly the greatest atrocity ever was (because they think they can pin it on Trump) and they are still pretending that all Kurds are sweet n’ cuddly, they are lying to you.
A Washington DC example of gaslighting.
How about the response on Capitol Hill? We’ve got a bunch of politicians posing and posturing and prancing about over this border incursion half-way around the world and we’re sitting here wishing they would devote some of that wailing and teeth-gnashing to the incursions over our border.
But once again, they act like we can’t see the truth sitting right there.
As for the Democrats, well, how long would their support have lasted if Trump had used force against…our NATO ally?
“You’re helping Putin!” they would shriek. Of course, they are currently shrieking, “You’re helping Putin!” when Trump doesn’t use force against Turkey.
And then there are the Republicans who holler and cry, raging over this terrible situation as if there wasn’t some way for our pols to influence events by, oh, I dunno, offering a resolution declaring war.
That’s a thing in the Constitution, I hear.
But taking votes means taking stands, and virtue signaling is no fun if that signal is, “I
want you to send your sons and daughters to maybe die to sort out this
latest 2000-year-old brawl between this latest bunch of strangers,” and the voters you signal it to are sick of stupid wars that never seem to end.
Gaslighting by Hillary Clinton.
An example of phony outrage gaslighting.
And then there’s the phony outrage over some silly meme where fake Donald Trump fights fake logos of the fake news.
They insist that this year-old YouTube clip is going to spark terrifying violence against…I guess, CNN and MSNBC logos. Of course, these trademarks have remained unassaulted since this silly, fakey vid was created, but never mind that – this is the worst thing ever!
Also, you must ignore the fact that the original movie scene the meme was based upon featured the hero massacring a church full of conservative Christians in Kentucky.
Weird how that realistic cinematic bloodletting matched the seething hatred of traditional Americans we’ve come to expect from our poisonous popular culture, but the Blue Check Mafia has an explanation about why the Christian slaughter was A-OK.
See, in the movie, Beanie and Cecil had a magic crystal and the mind control lasers made it so Zippy and Zoopy were actually good guys and shooting a bunch of Jesus people actually means we love Christians and stuff and don’t you see that when they shoot a church full of Christians it doesn’t mean they are shooting Christians, and that if you think it does you are craaaaaazzzzzyyyyyyy?
Just don’t pay attention to the real violence outside Trump’s Minneapolis rally.
Gaslighting Summary
It’s bad enough that they lie to us, directly and by omission, all the time. But what makes it worse is how their lies are such glaringly obvious fabrications and/or dissimulations that the deepest insult is that they think we might believe them.
The article is presented as published, and all credit to the author. I personally like Kirts writing style, and I would recommend that reader go visit his presence on the internet on townhall.com once you all finish reading this article.
A good example of gaslighting is when your husband comes home late from work for the 10th time in a row. You ask him why he keeps coming home late. “What?” He says, in shock. “I haven’t been coming home late! Are you sure you aren’t just losing track of time?”
And you doubt yourself.
The next day it happens again, but you checked the time. “You’re late!” And he said “what? No I’m not. I always come home at this time.”
And you try to argue that it’s only been the last ten or even times he shows up at this time, he insists that you must have been confused, maybe in the past he got off work early once but he definitely always just comes home at this time.
You wonder if you’re really that unobservant. Honestly, that is so like you to be kinda airheaded. You’re not too smart, or you’d know for sure what time he gets home. The fact that you doubt it is not a good sign, he seems pretty sure that he always got home at this time. You shrug.
You move on.
He goes on screwing the secretary. Some day you find a pair of underwear in your laundry and it’s not yours. You ask him about it. He says he got you those two years ago for your anniversary, what the fuck, why don’t you remember? You apologize because you feel bad for being inconsiderate, forgetting something that mattered to him. You wear the women’s underwear to dinner as a make-up surprise.
It’s beyond simple lying, it’s lying that makes you doubt your reality and makes you docile, easy to control because you no longer trust which way is up, you have to depend on them to tell you which way is up.
-What is gaslighting
SHTF Related Index
This is a collection of my posts related to prepping, SHTF (Shit Hit The Fan), CWII (American Civil War 2), Fourth Turning (Strauss–Howe generational theory)
and other posts related to the very sad and sorry tatters that America
is today. Actually, I am a little stunned that I have written so much
about these matters. But America today is very ill and there are things
that really should be said.
Here are the posts.
SHTF and Related Index
Some prepper humor…
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
Here is a fantastic article that I discovered. It is written by Victor Davis Hanson, and he asks the most basic question. Why are we no longer able to build things like we used to? And he is absolutely right. America no longer has the ability to build, create, construct, reason or operate in any way like a normal functioning government.
This article discusses how America (and by extension, Americans) hold on to the title and respect that they inherited from their forefathers. America inherited being the world’s leader militarily, socially, economically, culturally, and spiritually.
However, those that took over, during the last 60 years, squandered what they were given. In many cases destroyed what was built up, created, and established. And replaced it with something else. (If you don’t know what I am talking about, look up “culture wars”.) As America crumbles, people naturally try to hold on to what is no longer healthy and viable. That is what we are witnessing today.
Thus this article.
His article is placed as written, and I added my own photographs for emphasis. As well as some links to related articles that I have written. These other articles open up in a separate tab for you viewing pleasure.
Many
of the stories about the gods and heroes of Greek mythology were
compiled during Greek Dark Ages. Impoverished tribes passed down oral
traditions that originated after the fall of the lost palatial
civilizations of the Mycenaean Greeks.
Dark Age Greeks tried to make sense of the massive ruins of their forgotten forbearers’ monumental palaces that were still standing around. As illiterates, they were curious about occasional clay tablets they plowed up in their fields with incomprehensible ancient Linear B inscriptions. Today, many of us find ourselves in the same situation.
Dark
Age Greeks tried to make sense of the massive ruins of their forgotten
forbearers’ monumental palaces that were still standing around. As
illiterates, they were curious about occasional clay tablets they plowed
up in their fields with incomprehensible ancient Linear B inscriptions.
We
of the 21st century are beginning to look back at our own lost epic
times and wonder about these now-nameless giants who left behind
monuments that we cannot replicate, but instead merely use or even mock.
We of the 21st century are beginning to look back at our own lost epic times and wonder about these now-nameless giants who left behind monuments that we cannot replicate, but instead merely use or even mock.
Does anyone believe that contemporary Americans could build another transcontinental railroad in six years?
Californians
tried to build a high-speed rail line. But after more than a decade of
government incompetence, lawsuits, cost overruns and constant
bureaucratic squabbling, they have all but given up. The result is a
half-built overpass over the skyline of Fresno — and not yet a foot of
track laid.
Californians tried to build a high-speed rail line. But after more than a decade of government incompetence, lawsuits, cost overruns and constant bureaucratic squabbling, they have all but given up. The result is a half-built overpass over the skyline of Fresno — and not yet a foot of track laid. Who were these people who built such magnificent structures, and gave them to us to husband? And why have we squandered their gift to us?
Who were those giants of the 1960s responsible for building our interstate highway system?
California’s
roads now are mostly the same as we inherited them, although the state
population has tripled. We have added little to our freeway network,
either because we forgot how to build good roads or would prefer to
spend the money on redistributive entitlements.
California’s roads now are mostly the same as we inherited them, although the state population has tripled. We have added little to our freeway network, either because we forgot how to build good roads or would prefer to spend the money on redistributive entitlements.
When California had to replace a quarter section of the earthquake-damaged San Francisco Bay Bridge, it turned into a near-disaster, with 11 years of acrimony, fighting, cost overruns — and a commentary on our decline into Dark Ages primitivism.
Yet 82 years ago, our ancestors built four times the length of our singe replacement span in less than four years. It took them just two years to design the entire Bay Bridge and award the contracts.
Yet 82 years ago, our ancestors built four times the length of our singe replacement span in less than four years. It took them just two years to design the entire Bay Bridge and award the contracts. Yet we are unable to do even a smidgen of effort on a similar modern structure, using the most modern technology and machinery at our fingertips. What went wrong?
Our
generation required five years just to plan to replace a single section.
In inflation-adjusted dollars, we spent six times the money on one
quarter of the length of the bridge and required 13 agencies to grant
approval. In 1936, just one agency oversaw the entire bridge project.
California has not
built a major dam in 40 years. Instead, officials squabble over the
water stored and distributed by our ancestors, who designed the
California State Water Project and Central Valley Project.
Contemporary
Californians would have little food or water without these massive
transfers, and yet they often ignore or damn the generation that built
the very system that saves us.
Contemporary Californians would have little food or water without these massive transfers, and yet they often ignore or damn the generation that built the very system that saves us.
America went to the moon in 1969 with supposedly primitive computers and backward engineering. Does anyone believe we could launch a similar moonshot today?
No American has set foot on the moon in the last 47 years, and it may not happen in the next 50 years.
America went to the moon in 1969 with supposedly primitive computers and backward engineering. Does anyone believe we could launch a similar moonshot today? Of course not. Our “advanced” spaceship; “The Orion”, is a near clone (carbon copy) of the Apollo crew module designed back in 1965. The only difference is that it now has LED screens instead of dials.
Hollywood
once gave us blockbuster epics, brilliant Westerns, great film noirs,
and classic comedies. Now it endlessly turns out comic-book superhero
films or pathetic remakes of prior classics.
Our writers, directors and actors have lost the skills of their ancestors.
But they are also cowardly, and in regimented fashion they simply parrot boring race, class and gender bromides that are neither interesting nor funny.
Does anyone believe that the Oscar ceremonies are more engaging and dignified than in the past?
Yes. America at one time was a place of greatness, where any thing could happen and a poor boy could become wealthy through hard labors. Not so today. We have squandered the legacy of our forefathers, and trampled upon it. Now, with the ignorance of a three year old, we trample and stomp on their precious presents as if we are deserving of that right to destroy.
We
have been fighting in Afghanistan without result for 18 years. Our
forefathers helped to win World War II and defeat the Axis Powers in
four years.
In terms of learning, does anyone believe that a college graduate in 2020 will know half the information of a 1950 graduate?
In
the 1940s, young people read William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald,
Pearl Buck and John Steinbeck. Are our current novelists turning out
anything comparable? Could today’s high-school graduate even finish “The
Good Earth” or “The Grapes of Wrath”?
We have lost our most important gift; the ability to build, to create and to enhance our life towards that of happiness. These buildings and structures were more than just functional. They were lovely and added to the atmosphere and the culture of the city. Instead, we wasted them, we destroyed them and replace them with bland parking lots.
True,
social media is impressive. The internet gives us instant access to
global knowledge. We are a more tolerant society, at least in theory.
But Facebook is not the Hoover Dam, and Twitter is not the Panama Canal.
Our
ancestors were builders and pioneers and mostly fearless. We are
regulators, auditors, bureaucrats, adjudicators, censors, critics,
plaintiffs, defendants, social media junkies and thin-skinned scolds. A
distant generation created; we mostly delay, idle and gripe.
Penn Station. Today all these railroad stations were town down and replaced with “progressive”, modern boxes that more resemble a all-night laundromat than any kind of public transit station. Not only that, but poor management, greed, and lack of maintenance has resulted in them all appearing to be decaying, run down and decrepit.
As we walk amid the refuse, needles and excrement of the sidewalks of our fetid cities; as we sit motionless on our jammed ancient freeways; and as we pout on Twitter and electronically whine in the porticos of our Ivy League campuses, will we ask: “Who were these people who left these strange monuments that we use but can neither emulate nor understand?“
In comparison to us, they now seem like gods.
All credit to the the author;
Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the author of "The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won," from Basic Books. You can reach him by e-mailing authorvdh@gmail.com.(C) 2019 TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.
SHTF and Related Index
Some prepper humor…
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
America is no longer a nation. It might still be the remains of a once great empire, sort of like Rome was after the Vandals sacked it, but as a functioning nation, it is no longer.
When you cannot enforce a border, enforce laws, and prosecute criminals, you no longer have a nation.
History doesn’t like vacuums anymore than nature does, and what we’re facing is a vacuum of authority that the USA has never experienced before. That’s the final consequence of a society in which anything goes and nothing matters.
Better check what you believe and who you believe in the days ahead, and recalibrate accordingly. This ain’t no foolin’ around.
-Kunsler
Here is an article written by Gordon Wysong titled “Will we ever prosecute?”. He makes the point that if the worst criminals can walk free, then (regardless of all the lesser crimes that are prosecuted) the nation does not enforce laws. And if laws are not enforced, there is no nation. For a nation without laws is pure anarchy.
It is presented as written, with little editing aside from the blogger-template on word-press. Any photos and commentary are set apart so that the reader can realize that it is not part of the article but rather designed to supplement it.
Links to other related articles are embedded in the text. You can click on them and they will open up in a new tab. That way you will not need to interrupt your reading of this article.
Enjoy.
Imagine that the local cops know that a gang member, named William, broke into the pawn shop and stole guns, jewelry, and money.
William’s fingerprints, film image, and DNA add to the hard evidence log. The owner knows it; the prosecutor knows it; William’s gang associates know it. But he is not arrested.
Nearby shopkeepers and neighborhood mothers are asking why he is walking the street. No one explains it; mum’s the word.
Could it be there is a grand plan to take out the gang’s leaders? No one knows; mum’s the word.
Shopkeepers and residents are about to give up and start moving away from the area, and no one asks them to stay the course.
Fast forward to today.
Fast-forward to today’s still vocal Obama gang. Why no indictments? Mum’s the word. Can anyone hold to the faith in American justice? Those who support the rule of law feel like Charlie Brown trying to kick a football.
It’s coming — oh, wait, it’s coming…oh, wait…
Without doubt, a criminal cabal is an extraordinarily complex organization, and understanding who did what, why, when, and how is a challenge to the mental faculties of anyone. But, what happens if the full scope of activities is never clear?
Does everyone get off? Does complexity confer immunity?
Is our government that incompetent?
In engineering, there is no perfect answer to anything, so changes are made incrementally, addressing the problems as they are recognized. Each step brings a clearer view of remaining problems, which are then addressed, each in its turn.
The completed project is still flawed, but the solution is practical and productive.
So it should be with a grandiose scheme like the Russia Hoax. The ringleaders don’t have to be handled with kid gloves. They don’t even have to be handled at all. Just start with the low-hanging fruit, and get as far (up the tree) as possible.
Those
old enough to remember My Lai, Vietnam, know that Lt. Calley and Cpt.
Medina were not alone in their actions. However, their prosecution
forever changed the game of passing the buck on war crimes.
So, too, can rabid prosecution of bit players in the Russian Hoax forever change the landscape in plots involving treason.
Those who would participate at the lower levels must know they are subject to prosecution, so they remain circumspect in such a re-enactment of the coup attempt. This would be the Achilles heel of another cabal — those who are intimidated by the prospect of prison. Those who realize they don’t have sufficient rank to escape punishment will be loath to participate in such a scheme. Without them, there will be no operational viability to an unlawful coup.
Admittedly,
there are always problems in pursuing a criminal case. It must be so
under our Constitution, but it cannot be impossible!
Prosecution should not be impossible.
Prosecutors don’t get all the information, but at a certain point, for each criminal, evidence accumulates that there is a real and provable crime.
It may not include every transgression of that person, nor is it the magic revelation, untangling the Gordian knot of the conspirators. It is a simple criminal act.
It is what it appears, and it need not be put in the context of the big picture — it is as plain as the nose on your face.
That stage is the stimulus for a prosecutor. It is the time to move. If the DOJ acts, many of the sins can never be prosecuted, because the prosecution of their lesser crimes may foreclose pursuit of other crimes under double jeopardy protection.
However, failure to move puts evidence and witnesses at risk of being lost. This point has passed for so many of the coup conspirators that it seems there will be no justice for many of them, like Lois Lerner.
Why?
Why no action yet?
A full recounting of all that is already known would be tedious, and to expound on the criminal conduct yet again seems shrill. It is not necessary to understand the intertwining of all the crimes before simply bringing the charges that are facially obvious.
But the deferral of prosecution, for whatever reason it is done, allows many of the cabal to walk free when they shouldn’t.
In fact, the indication is that they are continuing the very conduct for which they should be prosecuted.
Why
has McCabe not been charged with lying to the FBI, lying under
oath? Nothing more is needed to start the dominos falling. Who will
step forward to exonerate him? No one can, and no one will. That
omission — of a vigorously supported defense — will send a message to
the others in the coup conspiracy.
Why
has Samantha Power not been indicted for violating national security
requirements in unmasking or transferring her unmasking authority to
others? It doesn’t pass the smell test that she is too important to be
prosecuted.
Why
is Huma Abedin strolling around, free as a bird? She forwarded
classified emails to Anthony Weiner’s laptop. What else is needed to
demonstrate a crime?
Did Strzok do anything? Did Page? Which one lied to Congress? Their contradictory accounts mean at least one is a perjurer. Sure, there is more “there” there, but it isn’t necessary to keelhaul them; just send them to jail, and send others a message.
Listing all the cabal members, who are quite obviously criminal, is not easy — in fact, it is not doable.
It need not be the aim. A public that finds this whole thing partisan or tedious will not be easily impressed if a 2,000-count indictment naming 43 people is suddenly dropped. Bringing along the public is certainly part of sending the message for future conspirators.
It probably is better done gradually.
Suggested Action
Removing the context and simply prosecuting crimes is the method to educate both today’s and tomorrow’s citizens.
Selecting
single actors, and naming obvious crimes, will have a chance to
convince even skeptical partisans that something is wrong. The lack of
support from other participants will indeed remove most doubt.
The
full scope of what has gone on will never be known, but the lessons for
future participants in such a scheme is essential. The next time, the
prosecution will be more severe, more certain, and more
expedient. Protecting the Constitution is more important than perfect
justice. Some miscreants will escape, but they will never sleep well
again. The lesson must be taught.
A
DOJ that fails to move loses its credibility and its honor. The
foundation of the Republic is placed at risk. Without the rule of law,
what do we have?
At some point, deferral of prosecution is dereliction or abetting. Has it reached that point?
I argue that it has.
Watergate prosecuted Nixon within months. The prosecution of the assassination of Lincoln, and Reagan took months.
It's almost four years and there are ZERO prosecutions. ZERO.
Therefore, I argue that the United States is no longer a nation. Forget about being a nation that follows the Constitution. Rather, I argue that it is not longer a nation in the crudest, simplest, and most primitive terms. What it is is up for debate. But, a nation... no it is not.
Comment by John Paul Roberts
Trump is so far over his head in Washington waters that he is incapable of realizing that the criminal George W. Bush and Obama regimes put powers in the hands of the president that enable him to destroy the plotters of the coup against him. Instead, Trump “distances himself from Giuliani.”
In other words, his enemies have Trump on the run. Has it ever occurred to Trump that every real whistle-blower, people protected by statutory federal law, was completely destroyed by the executive branch, and no one said a word? Yet, here is Trump twisting in the wind on the basis of an unknown CIA agent who orchestrated the whistleblower complaint with Democrat House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff. In US law there is no such thing as an unknown whistleblower, much less one that has more power than the president of the United States.
We are going to lose a president, who intended to mend America and restore peace, and our country along with him, because American peace and prosperity does not comply with the agendas of the elite who rule us.
The American people are so stupid, having demonstrated their unlimited capability for utter and total stupidity by buying in to the Gulf of Tonkin, 9/11, Saddam Hussein’s “weapons of mass destruction,” “Assad’s use of chemical weapons,” “Iranian nukes,” “Russian invasions,” “Russiagate,” ad infinitum, that the Deep State and their media whores take for granted that the dumbshit Americans will equally accept the latest lie.
America is already in the trash bin of history. Most other countries will say, “good riddance.”
- Trump Is History and So Is the USA
This is a collection of my posts related to prepping, SHTF (Shit Hit The Fan), CWII (American Civil War 2), Fourth Turning (Strauss–Howe generational theory)
and other posts related to the very sad and sorry tatters that America
is today. Actually, I am a little stunned that I have written so much
about these matters. But America today is very ill and there are things
that really should be said.
Here are the posts.
SHTF and Related Index
Some prepper humor…
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
This is sarcasm. It comes from The Babylon Bee, and when I first came across the article I almost "shit my pants" it was so funny. If you are unaware of where the humor is in this, I would suggest you watch the movie "Aliens". It will put this meme in better context than I ever can explain.
All credit to the original posters.
Yeah. The United States is really, really messed up now. The government cannot function. Corporate big-wigs are pushing radical Marxism and a progressive socialist ideal that makes Pol-Pot look like a teeny-bopper, and hard core criminals are immune from justice. It’s all a massive cluster-fuck. Experts Now Recommend Nuking Everything From Orbit.
Experts Now Recommend Nuking Everything From Orbit – July 23rd, 2019
WORLD—In
the wake of a string of increasingly bizarre antics from a rapidly
declining western civilization, experts recommended nuking everything
from orbit.
Should world leaders approve the plan, the nukes will be launched sometime in the next week, weather permitting.
“Our new strategy for eradicating the potential for more of the absolute insanity as we have seen over the past weeks and months is to just wipe the whole thing out,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper declared in a press conference at the Pentagon.
“We explored plans ranging from releasing biological weapons into public areas around the world to just sinking everyone into the sea. But based on computer simulations, a barrage of orbital nukes from our defense satellites is the most effective plan for just wiping everything out in order to let someone else have a shot.”
Esper
went on to state the first barrage of nukes would include some 325
different ICBMs targeted at the world’s most densely populated areas,
while a second salvo would target more rural areas to wipe out any
survivors.
“It’s the only way to be sure.”
SHTF Related Index
This is a collection of my posts related to prepping, SHTF (Shit Hit The Fan), CWII (American Civil War 2), Fourth Turning (Strauss–Howe generational theory)
and other posts related to the very sad and sorry tatters that America
is today. Actually, I am a little stunned that I have written so much
about these matters. But America today is very ill and there are things
that really should be said.
Here are the posts.
SHTF and Related Index
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
World War II began September 1st, 1939, and lasted until September 2nd 1945. It lasted six long years. In total, 80 million people died in that war.
Since then, we have been living in the sweet calm of peace that dwells between the periodic madness that is the GREAT RESET. This period of calm quiet lasts for around 80 years. Then it all starts all over again.
We have been living in the sweet calm of peace that dwells between the periodic madness that is the GREAT RESET.
The quiet and calm lasts for 80 years.
1945 plus 80 years equals = 2025.
Today, I have a short warning from the great book The Fourth Turning by Howe and Strauss. For they, using the theory of generational cycles (or turnings), predict the same RESET to reoccur in our near future.
We know the climax of this Fourth Turning is slated for around 2025. This infers a high likelihood of a major war involving the U.S. in the foreseeable future.
We know the climax of this Fourth Turning is slated for around 2025. This infers a high likelihood of a major war involving the U.S. in the foreseeable future.
-The Daily Coin
What Should Have Happened after 2016
Strauss and Howe prophesied an election that changed everything sometime during the Crisis era. This era began with a start, with the colossal fall of Lehman Brothers.
And they were right. They were smack-dab absolutely correct.
The filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection by Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008 remains the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history, with Lehman holding over US$600 billion in assets. The bank and financial services firm had become so deeply involved in mortgage origination that it had effectively become a real estate hedge fund disguised as an investment bank. At the height of the subprime mortgage crisis, it was exceptionally vulnerable to any downturn in real estate values.
If the government were better managed, perhaps things might have turned out differently than they had. But it isn’t, and thus things turned out in such as way as what you see today.
The predictions called for a “change in governmental direction” that would have been triggered by this “event”.
The winners (in the election) will now have the power to pursue the more potent, less incrementalist agenda about which they had long dreamed and against which their adversaries had darkly warned.
This new regime will enthrone itself for the duration of the Crisis.
Regardless of its ideology, that new leadership will assert public authority and demand private sacrifice. Where leaders had once been inclined to alleviate societal pressures, they will now aggravate them to command the nation’s attention.
The regeneracy will be solidly under way.
Sides were formed. People migrated towards those sides. Many people, surprisingly diverse, chose the Republican leader; Donald Trump. Though, the prediction still held true whether the winner was Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton.
The Fourth Turning predicted an equal likelihood of Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump being President. Then they predicted that whomever won the election would define the direction the Country would take during the Fourth Turning.
We got the realigning election with Donald Trump. He did what H. Ross Perot could not. He united conservatives and blue-collar patriots to win the presidency.
But…
What did not happen.
But, Republicans in Congress did not advance Trump’s agenda.
The predictions assumed that the winner of the Presidency would be in full possession of the levers of power. That did not happen. The “Deep State Swamp” took over the leadership of the nation.
Donald Trump was considered an "outsider". One one of the elite. Not one of the blessed. Not part of the "club", or the "inner circle".
Republican Congressional leaders were either too timid to push, or they were political saboteurs (looking at you, Paul Ryan). Either way, Congress undermined the Presidential agenda, the mandate, that the people gave them. Then they tried to push him out with al kinds of claims related to Russia and sex. Finally, they just threw up their hands and tried to impeach him.
This is what the deep state does to outsiders Middle America sends to Washington to challenge or dispossess it.
- From Pat Buchanan
Oh, and about the impeachment…
When asked about the impeachment of President Trump, 100% of him answered, "If they convict it'll be like when the Germans dropped the A-bomb on Pearl Harbor and caused the fall of the Roman Empire."
-Woodpile Report #598
They did not permit President Trump to really implement much of his agenda. Congress, and the entire “deep state” (the unelected bureaucracy) opposed him in every way possible.
Congress and the deep state blocked President Trump from implementing any of his agenda. This was unheard of, and raised it’s ugly head fro the first time during the Trump Presidency. Since then, hundreds of blocking efforts were undertaken to thwart the Republican President’s agenda. They did not permit President Trump to really implement much of his agenda. Congress, and the entire “deep state” (the unelected bureaucracy) opposed him in every way possible.
While he was able to appoint some judges, and conduct some staffing realignments within the enormous Washington bureaucracy, he has been mostly ineffective.
President Donald Trump has been completely blocked by embeds inside the “deep state”. Thus he has been severely handicapped in running the nations and is incapable of many actions and activities that other presidents were able to get away with.
Like a wack-a-mole, judges stop implementation of any of his EO’s, hidden masked and nameless bureaucrats thwart every policy he makes. Meanwhile his most close advisors (such as John Bolton) undermine his foreign policy efforts.
Neocons hold a mid-1850s mindset. They think in terms of nations, wars, and geographical conquest. They do so at the expense of understanding the Earth as a living (kind of) organism that we all inhabit.
As a result, the House of Representatives, and their “troops” the supporting bureaucracy, are now firmly in the hands of the opposition. Which is essentially, the Bolsheviks. While a true Gray Champion of the Republic holds down the White House in a figurehead role.
A figurehead role, while his supporters have been targeted for assault…
The Left Has Declared War On You
There’s no need to worry about finding yourself in the center of a riot until a faction of society decides it’s okay to intimidate or kill people they don’t agree with you. So maybe it’s time to start worrying.
You probably saw the news of the riots in Berkeley, California. Social Justice Warriors shut down a conservative speaker’s presentation, set fires, looted, destroyed buildings, maced some conservatives and beat others mercilessly. The police stood by and watched. The mayor blamed the victims.
In Austin, Texas, a gay conservative was beaten unconscious for lighting his cigarette with a Donald Trump lighter. His assailant is at large. Don’t expect the Austin police to put in any overtime hunting him down.
Magazines openly call for Donald Trump’s assassination.
Feminists assault anyone who disagrees with them, even shoving bloody maxi-pads into pro-lifers’ mouths.
The Secret Service is investigating over 12,000 direct threats to assassinate the President.
And these are just a few of one day’s examples of leftist violence against anyone who disagrees with their worldview.
Meanwhile, CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, MSNBC, ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, Time Magazine, and everything else you would consider “responsible” journalism openly condones violence against Trump supporters. Academics and Democrat leaders justify violence and encourage leftists to attack their political opponents.
Having lost at the ballot box, having lost in the court of public opinion, the left has decided to intimidate or kill its adversaries. Just like the Nazis. Just like the Leninists. Just like the Maoists.
-Hennessysview
So what will happen now?
A Fourth Turning Prophecy
Chapter 10 of The Fourth Turning is a prophecy written in 1996 and published a year later. In every way it appears to be a complete reflection of the events unfolding all around us today.
Keep in mind that this work was published a full five years before the events of 9-11. It was written a long time ago, at a time when Bill Clinton was President of the United States. And yet, as long ago as that, the things that it has predicted and the trends that are manifesting are all… spot on target.
Movies of the year 1995.
And, I am sad to say, that this prophecy is getting to be quite frightening.
Even if the nation stays together, its geography could be fundamentally changed, its party structure altered, its Constitution and Bill of Rights amended beyond recognition.
History offers even more sobering warnings: Armed confrontation usually occurs around the climax of Crisis.
If there is confrontation,it is likely to lead to war.
This could be any kind of war—class war, sectional war, war against global anarchists or terrorists, or superpower war.
If there is war, it is likely to culminate in total war, fought until the losing side has been rendered nil—its will broken, territory taken, and leaders captured.
And if there is total war, it is likely that the most destructive weapons available will be deployed.
That total war could also be a combination or series of several types of war. Several.
Several… all at once.
Several things could implode all at once. Indeed, this is the likeliest scenario. As there are all sorts of trends and events just about to run “off the rails”, and all sort of “the opportunistic others” who have plans to take advantage of government collapse.
It could be a meltdown of government…
Congressional leftists are exploring the nuts 'n bolts of arresting and confining those insufficiently cooperative with the coup d'etat. And how many times have I said DC is well and truly imploding when they start arresting each other?
We're reenacting Sulla's Social War. Lists of the proscribed are being circulated, the walls have networked eyes and ears, and neighbors are exhorted to turn each other in. After years of hanging out in academia and the lower courts, the ghost of Roland Freisler now hears every appeal.
The elites saw this coming, consolidated their winnings and quietly decamped to more inaccessible redoubts. Bereft of expert supervision, the next tier down is looting the public weal with clumsy abandon. The tier below, even less sophisticated, will strip the fixtures and wiring from government buildings. Officialdom will demand we applaud their righteous resourcefulness. Because equality.
-Woodpile Report
It could be a violent readjustment of society…
All the usual “good people” assure us that violent revolution is not on the table. This means, simply, that it is.
- From Brett Stevens at Amerika
It could be everything and anything. It could be social upheaval in alignment with the Nazi takeover of Germany in the 1930’s, coupled with the genocide of the Cambodians under Pol Pot. It could be a mixture of George Orwell, and the worst elements of THX1138. It could be every nightmare that you could possibly dream of.
‘THX 1138’ is a chilling look at a 25th-century totalitarian state where mankind is stripped of any individuality. People are numbered drones, and a government-enforced program of sedating drugs controls the populace. The story’s title character, THX, is a factory worker whose life is irrevocably changed when he stops taking his mind-numbing drugs.
It could be domestic guerrilla warfare…
When the violence comes—and it will come—the military and militarized police forces will face domestic insurgents who are better armed, trained, supplied, coordinated, and technologically proficient than the foreign insurgents the military has heretofore been unable to defeat.
- From Robert Gore at Straight Line Logic
It could be a polarization of society…
Breitbart - Calif. Police Chief Cancels Event to Honor Fallen Officer Because Republicans Were Invited ... "this is not Trump country, we don’t want Republicans here"
Indeed, all this anti-white propaganda is geared towards genocide. It is not geared to any objective regarding healing. It is an out of control manipulation by the oligarchy to pit Americans against each other.
You cannot purify white people through the healing magic of diversity if they are not actually part of diversity.
-Z Man
Let’s just clear out all the nonsense and get to the basics…
When Progressives talk about diversity, they mean blacks.
We can put the upper bound on diversity as 20%. Any more than that and white crime victimization and awareness of it begins to soar. This sets off white flight.
Baltimore is a great example. Once its black population crossed the 25% level, it began a rapid decline into chaos.
As Rhodesia, Baltimore and now South Africa show, there is some minimum number of whites required to keep the lights on, so everyone can enjoy the wonderfulness of diversity.
In the case of Rhodesia, the number fell below the minimum and it became Zimbabwe. In Baltimore, they have hovered along the critical number for decades. South Africa staggers on, but they too are approaching the inflection point.
-Z Man
Someone, or some group, is organizing a campaign leading towards the genocide of “white people”. This will absolutely manifest during the crisis period. Look, just because the mainstream media isn’t covering the obvious does not mean that that it doesn’t exist.
Fighting Is Under Way
And leftist blood-lust is not limited to a fringe. A very intelligent and gentle acquaintance of mine, someone with whom I once enjoyed a cordial and friendly long-running debate, believes that Trump sent federal troops into Berkeley the other night to conduct mass arrests of protesters, trigging the riots. It’s completely untrue and she had no idea where she heard it, but she believes it as much as she believes in gravity. And her false belief, what psychologists would call a hallucination (h/t Scott Adams), allows her to justify anything the rioters did, up to and including murder.
Here’s the thing. You’ve probably heard the word “privilege” so much you could puke when you hear it. The idea of white privilege is central to the leftist hallucination. And the idea of a privileged race led Germany to the Final Solution.
Adolf Hitler wrote in 1919:
"But an anti-Semitism based on reason must lead to a systematic legal elimination of the privileges of the Jews. The ultimate objective of such legislation must, however, be the irrevocable removal of the Jews from civil and cultural influence."
In fact, the Nazi propagandists worked overtime to defame Jews for their privilege. Hitler claimed Jews avoided physical labor of any kind, preferring work in finance, mercantile, and the arts. He lamented that Jews wrote and produced 90 percent of German movies despite being only one percent of the population. His propaganda depicted Jewish women as fat and lazy, yet wealthy, feeding off the labor of the German people.
Substitute “working class whites” for “Jews,” and Nazi propaganda sounds a lot like CNN commentators and UC Berkeley professors. Even so-called conservative Bill Kristol says it’s time to replace America’s white working class with immigrants.
It’s pretty clear that the left uses the same rhetoric and scapegoating against conservatives as the Nazi used against Jews. So we have to ask if these leftists use the propaganda techniques to the same end.
The Nazis wanted to vilify and dehumanize Jews so the German people would be conditioned for the Final Solution: extermination.
When you hear the speeches of campus protesters, you have to conclude that the left has a final solution in mind for people like you and me. You don’t have to take my word for it. Here are the words of a school teacher in Seattle protesting against Trump and his supporters:
"And we need to start killing people. First off, we need to start killing the White House. The White House must die. The White House, your fucking White House, your fucking Presidents, they must go! Fuck the White House.
Pay the fuck up, pay the fuck up. It ain’t just your fucking time, it’s your fucking money, and now your fucking life is devoted to social change."
Democrats, establishment Republicans, and the supposedly “responsible” media ignored this story. They ignored it because they are afraid of attracting the mob’s attention. Like Germans in the 1930s, some people value their own survival too much to stop bloodshed and brutality.
-Hennessysview
It could be an exodus of the wealthy from the urban centers…
All those pricey urban meccas could become crime-ridden ghost towns. How could such a reversal occur? Everyone who lives outside protected enclaves will reach a point where the "urban lifestyle" is no longer worth the sacrifices and costs. Once enough of the top 10% leave, the food/beverage service industry implodes.
Service employees are renters, paying sky-high rents that unemployment can't cover. Vacant apartments pile up. As the exodus gathers momentum, all the reasons people clung so rabidly to urban meccas decay. Local government jacks up fees, tickets, permits and taxes, accelerating the exodus.
That's how pricey urban meccas turn into ghost towns inhabited by those who can't leave and those living on public services.
-Of Two Minds Blog
It could be another mindless war…
Those in power could start beating the war drums again. You know, to unify the nation, and distract us from the problems at home. It worked during both Iraq wars.
But right now the United States is mired in eight simultaneous wars. Can you name them all? I can’t. I have to look them up.
Now, luckily Donald Trump has pledged not to get us involved in more wars. This has cost him some political capital. Notable fatalities are General (Mad Dog) Mattis, John McCain (deceased and good riddance), and John Bolton (Neocon on steroids).
Donald Trump came into office promising to not start any new wars and to get us out of the old ones our feckless elite had dragged us into, and now that he’s doing it in Syria the usual suspects are outraged. How dare he actually deliver on his promise not to have anymore of our precious warriors shipped home in boxes after getting killed on battlefields we can’t even pronounce, while refereeing conflicts that began long before America was a thing, in campaigns without any kind of coherent objective?
- Critics Aghast As Trump Keeps Word About No More Wars
Yet, his successor might not be so careful about husbanding our military might. This could have dire consequences. As the world is getting to be technologically advanced, and nuclear weapons are getting increasingly easy to make.
It could be World War III…
And what would happen if a civil war, a CWII or SHTF event were to occur? America would be in chaos. Everything would be a mess, and the central governments from the Federal to the State, and Local levels would be very busy trying to maintain order.
Would other nations sit by and watch from afar? Would they decide to help and roll in the UN to restore order? Or would they just be content to watch America burn?
Thus, if a civil war broke out in the United States, would China, Russia, and Iran not jump in to finally render America helpless? To take advantage of the situation, to cripple the United States to a point where it could never ever, ever EVER fully recover?
Why NOT do a “double tap” and castrate America back into oblivion from which it would take a full 100 years to recover from?
Nuclear war, one initiated by America in order to control the American mobs, could easily reverse America’s fortunes in a nanosecond. The idea that a war out here, or over there, would be created and have no consequences is a very dangerous belief. The world is not the 1960’s, and not every nation is a third world tiny splat of land. Major nations are now getting involved in the global scene, and they do not take kindly to Americans throwing their weight around.
If America has gotten fat, plump and comfortable, being the bully on the global stage, throwing “regime changing” wrenches (via the CIA, NED, and NID) to everyone from Venezuela, Syria, the Ukraine, Hong Kong and China, won’t other nations resent it?
And, if an opportunity presents itself, would not another nation take advantage of that opportunity. An opportunity to “de-fang” the United States, and “neuter” it’s ability to project global influence (read; power) in the world?
I would say yes.
“Hours after the bombs go off in cities, these fires continue to build up and they create firestorms that feed on themselves. They get so hot that everything in the city becomes fuel for its own destruction. The energy released becomes much greater than the weapon itself,” Dr. Mills explained, drawing parallels to the way fire consumed the city of Dresden during the World War II.
From each of these 100 detonations, massive firestorms would engulf whole cities and churn five million tons of black carbon into the stratosphere.
By nuking the major American cities, all industry would grind to a halt. Banking and savings would be non-existent. Everything would collapse and the survivors would flee the cities into the countryside.
Americans should never be under the impression that the rest of the world views us with favor. In fact, it is quite the opposite.
America is viewed as an out of control bully by the rest of the world.
Today is not the 1960’s. It’s no longer “just” a small world after all. It’s a complex and complicated stew of various interests all colliding together for personal advantage.
In the midst of this backdrop the United States is viewed as an out of control empire, a bully, and now (seemingly) with Mr. Donald Trump at the helm, run by an apparent “mad man”.
Right or wrong, perceptions are everything.
Any civil strife in the United States will open the door for other, more powerful nations, to perform the “kill strike”, the “double tap”, on the American nation.
The next turning could have the worst elements of everything known to man. This could be nuclear war, chemical, biological and germ warfare high technology spying and swarm drone weapons. All of which could happen simultaneously while the USA government might to enact genocide against its citizenry.
Oh, and by the way, a fellow by the name of John Titor claimed to be from the future. Yes, he claimed to be a time traveler from the future. He described just this exact scenario, where there was a rather long period of civil unrest and then Russia nuked all the cities. Whether you believe him or not is immaterial. He has some interesting things to ponder.
The link below opens up into a new tab for your reading pleasure.
From the post…
' The blogger suggests this because he questions what actually occurred did not match all the conflicts that John Titor predicted. Perhaps the events he mentions will actually still occur, only they will actually occur 10 years later.
Maybe, instead of a civil war in 2013, there is one in 2023? Nuclear war in 2025, instead of 2015. '
Remember those two dates; 2023 – Civil War, and 2025 – Nuclear War.
With or without war, American society will be transformed into something different.
The emergent society may be something better, a nation that sustains its Framers’ visions with a robust new pride.
Or it may be something unspeakably worse.
The Fourth Turning will be a time of glory or ruin.
It will be a turning point. It will be a point of inversion, a point of change. A point where things go one way or the other, and everyone in the middle is killed.
Glory or Ruin.
It will be the us vs them. The patriots vs the Red Coats. The grey vs the blue. The yanks against the Nazi’s.
So what will happen?
Consider the Millennials, how they were raised (Power Rangers, Captain Planet, Animal Planet, school uniforms, and conformity against human nature). To them, conformity, and control via electronic media is as natural as breathing air. To them, it is normal to demand conformity, conformity in everything, even in thought and speech.
Consider the Millennial’s, how they were raised (Power Rangers, Captain Planet, Animal Planet, school uniforms, and conformity against human nature). To them, conformity, and control via electronic media is as natural as breathing air. To them, it is normal to demand conformity, conformity in everything, even in thought and speech.
This youthful hunger for social discipline and centralized authority could lead Millennial youth brigades to lend mass to dangerous demagogues.
The risk of class warfare will be especially grave if the 20 percent of Millennials who were poor as children (50 percent in inner cities) come of age seeing their peer-bonded paths to generational progress blocked by elder inertia.
Unraveling-era adults who are today chilled by school uniforms will be truly frightened by the Millennials’ Crisis-era collectivism.
It’s exactly these millennials, and their behaviors, that have created the NPC meme.
“Unraveling-era adults who are today chilled by school uniforms will be truly frightened by the Millennials’ Crisis-era collectivism.”
An opportunity came and passed.
So with all these issues, all of them coming to maturity at the same time, we have a situation where a real leader should take the helm of the American government. Then cultivate the civilian population, and provide rules, and outlets to blow off some steam.
But this was not permitted to occur.
Instead, we have the situation we see today. A president that is unable to do much of anything. An entrenched bureaucracy that operates in direct opposition to his policies, and an opposition that is chomping at the bit to install radical Pol Pot style Marxism.
Meanwhile the “fox is running the hen-house” and blatantly behaving like they are untouchable, because they actually are. President Nixon was impeached within months. The people who assassinated Lincoln were arrested and hung within weeks. Yet, Hillary Clinton has been running around freely for over three years and nothing is being done. Let’s never forget Lois Learner, and the rest of the cabal.
Hillary Clinton’s guilt is so obvious and spectacular that it is considered a joke.
It’s true.
An opportunity came and passed. The Presidential mandate of the American people was not implemented. Indeed, the only way for the President to communicate is via twitter. The news media is a complete train wreck.
It seems America is seriously out of alignment.
And, like a car badly out of tune, the vehicle shutters, rocks, starts and stops. It sputters, gasping for air or gas, then collapses.
Hillary Clinton meme. Nobody has 56 dead friends.
Republicans failed to fulfill their mandate with the House and Senate. And then what happened… Well, the people turned, instead, to the other side. The Bolsheviks now run the House. And people, this is not good. Not at all. Not in the least.
And this is who’s running the House:
These four women, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, are 4 of the most radical, hardcore Socialists you will ever meet. On top of that, they all advocate for open borders, they all advocate for illegal immigrants, they all advocate for the Palestinians, and 3 of them are anti-semitic and against Israel. Now you know a little bit more than you did about ‘The Squad’ of these four freshman congresswoman who are, by their own actions, dominating the news cycle at this moment. No one that I know has any problem at all with women in the Congress, or women of color in the Congress, but have a huge problem with radical activists like these who are pushing to collapse the system.
Look at them. They would arrest you, strip you, hang you by a hook and gut you before you could utter your Bill of Rights protections. They do not run on reason. They are incapable of it. They operate on emotion. And right now, it is unbridled rage.
Think of it as a small “toe hold”, a small start, for something much larger on the horizon.
And people, these individuals HATE YOU. They hate you with a passion and they do want to see you, your families, and everything that you stand for killed, eviscerated, and the ground you walk upon salted for centuries to come.
And if given the opportunity, they will transform your world into something very, very awful.
And people, these individuals HATE YOU. They hate you with a passion and they do want to see you, your families, and everything that you stand for killed, eviscerated, and the ground you walk upon salted for centuries to come.
It Gets Worse
It needs to be clear that 2025 is the date of the climax, not the end, of the 4T.
The end of the 2020s is the date at which the 4T will end.
We have much more to go through first, and it will take a few years. It cannot end during the current regime, and correcting it will take some years in addition. The current situation in which the hard right dominates our country cannot continue; it must be displaced.
That might require violent confrontation, not to achieve a leftist takeover, but to curtail a hard right rebellion that might break out against the policies of a soft-left regime that needs to replace today's hard-right regime.
-Generational Theory Forum Comment written by an obvious leftist.
If the Crisis catalyst comes on schedule, around the year 2005, then the climax will be due around 2020, the resolution around 2026.
What will America be like as it exits the Fourth Turning?
History offers no guarantees. Obviously, things could go horribly wrong—the possibilities ranging from a nuclear exchange to incurable plagues, from terrorist anarchy to high-tech dictatorship.
We should not assume that Providence will always exempt our nation from the irreversible tragedies that have overtaken so many others: not just temporary hardship, but debasement and total ruin.
Since Vietnam, many Americans suppose they know what it means to lose a war.
Losing in the next Fourth Turning, however, could mean something incomparably worse.
It could mean a lasting defeat from which our national innocence—and perhaps even our nation—might never recover. As many Americans know from their own ancestral backgrounds, history provides numerous examples of societies that have been wiped off the map, ground into submission, or beaten so badly they revert to barbarism.
This is not a new observation.
Leading up to the major crisis in the Fourth Turning, the police will find themselves becoming more and more militarized. It will reach a point that it will be difficult to tell the difference between a police officer and a soldier.
Do you think that I am perhaps exaggerating a little? Well, I am not.
Having lost at the ballot box, having lost in the court of public opinion, the left has decided to intimidate or kill its adversaries. Just like the Nazis. Just like the Leninists. Just like the Maoists.
-These People Want You Dead
Of course it is. The United States doesn’t resemble anything like what it was intended to be. Instead, greedy, and selfish men rewrote it to be “progressive”. Which means “subject to change”.
And they changed it.
And changed it.
And changed it.
Now, today, it is a complete and absolute nightmare.
Well, let’s get back to the Fourth Turning. Of course, they cannot predict the future specifically. They can only predict trends.
These predictions are based on previous turnings and the historical record.
“An impasse over the federal budget reaches a stalemate. The president and Congress both refuse to back down, triggering a near-total government shutdown. The president declares emergency powers. Congress rescinds his authority. Dollar and bond prices plummet. The president threatens to stop Social Security checks. Congress refuses to raise the debt ceiling. Default looms. Wall Street panics.” – The Fourth Turning – Strauss & Howe
Strauss and Howe wrote their book in 1996. They were not trying to be prophets of doom. Instead they were observers of history able to connect events through human life cycles of 80 or so years. Well how close were they? Look at the headlines today on Drudge…
Drudge Report splash 9OCT19.
We have gotten so accustomed to this new “normal” that we forget how obscene it is. Functional governments do not act like this. Dysfunctional ones do.
"The president and Congress both refuse to back down, triggering a near-total government shutdown."
Using critical thinking skills and identifying the most likely triggers for crisis: debt, civic decay, and global disorder, they were able to anticipate scenarios. Scenarios which could drive the next crisis. And which they warned would arrive in the mid-2000 decade.
A polarization of the community.
Elements of civil strife, followed by physical strife.
The possibility of war and conflict.
The scenario described above is fairly close to the current situation, driven by the showdown between Trump and the Democrats regarding everything from the border wall to the endless stream of impeachment level attacks.
As we enter the twelfth year of this Fourth Turning, the fourth Crisis period in U.S. history, the mood of U.S. citizens and citizens around the globe continues to darken.
As we enter the twelfth year of this Fourth Turning, the fourth Crisis period in U.S. history, the mood of U.S. citizens and citizens around the globe continues to darken.
Fourth Turnings are driven by generational configuration and the emotional reaction to events by the Prophet generation leaders, Nomad generation spearheads, and Hero generation cannon fodder.
What’s going on now…
Do I need to list all the discomfort?
Discomfort is what happens as the population waltzes towards disaster. It happens each and every time. Consider the years leading up to the first American Civil War…
William J. Cooper has written a magnificently researched account of the political atmosphere that prevailed in the United States immediately after the election of Abraham Lincoln and through the first shots of the Civil War at Fort Sumter. What individual elements made up the call to arms on both sides of the Mason Dixon line? Which persons were conciliatory and which were belligerent? What contribution did the nuances of the several political parties play in the mood of the population? Was the Civil War inevitable no matter what action was taken by Lincoln?
Many eminent American Civil War historians tend to move quickly throughout the three year period preceding the onset of the War, as they move on the War itself, however Wm. Cooper's work has has been devoted entirely to a study of this critical era, and provides significant insight as to the period's ultimate result-- namely, the War itself.
Cooper has devoted much effort to a study of the era's significant and influential caste of characters, including an newspaper editor, abolitionists, radical Republicans,, members of both houses of Congress,and each of the Presidents---both sitting and newly -elected..
-Amazon reviews of "We Have the War Upon Us: The Onset of the Civil War, November 1860-April 1861" by Cooper, William J. (2012) Hardcover
Examining the three prior Fourth Turnings may give us a window into where we stand and what may happen in the coming year.
We are in the eleventh year of this Crisis. (The eleven-year anniversary was in September 2019.) Here we look at the three previous events.
The American Revolution Crisis
The Civil War Crisis
The Great Depression/World War II Crisis
A comparison of the last three “Fourth Turnings” in the United States. Full-scale war is shown in black.
The American Revolution Crisis
The American Revolution Crisis was catalyzed in 1773. This was when the Boston Tea Party forever changed the colonial mood towards revolution.
After eight years of struggle and desperate measures, the climax was reached with the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781.
The American Revolution Crisis was catalyzed in 1773. This was when the Boston Tea Party forever changed the colonial mood towards revolution. After eight years of struggle and desperate measures, the climax was reached with the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781.
But there was still thirteen more years of crisis as the new states forged a Constitution, elected Washington its first president, and he withstood the Jacobins, put down the Whiskey Rebellion and finalized a treaty with England.
In year ten of the crisis, two years past the climax, the Treaty of Paris was signed, British troops left the continent, and Washington resigned as commander of American troops. The Articles of Confederation had been ratified in 1781 and remained in place until succeeded by the U.S. Constitution in 1789.
In year ten of the crisis, two years past the climax, the Treaty of Paris was signed, British troops left the continent, and Washington resigned as commander of American troops. The Articles of Confederation had been ratified in 1781 and remained in place until succeeded by the U.S. Constitution in 1789.
The Civil War Crisis
There was no tenth or eleventh year of the Civil War Crisis. Lincoln’s election with only 40% of the popular vote, prompting the attack on Fort Sumpter.
Lincoln’s election with only 40% of the popular vote, prompting the attack on Fort Sumpter. As well as the subsequent secession of Southern states. It triggered the bloodiest conflict in world history. It was a fiasco, with 8% of all white men aged 13 to 43 killed in the war, including 6% in the North and 18% in the South.
Lincoln’s election with only 40% of the popular vote, prompting the attack on Fort Sumpter. As well as the subsequent secession of Southern states. It triggered the bloodiest conflict in world history. It was a fiasco, with 8% of all white men aged 13 to 43 killed in the war, including 6% in the North and 18% in the South.
More death and decay. Two per cent of the United States population was wiped out because of the war.
The acceleration of this Fourth Turning into a five-year window from 1860 to 1865 was not a positive development.
The extreme intensity of the conflict resulted in 700,000 tragic deaths. The catalyst occurred five years too soon and the resolution a generation too soon.
Perhaps, a more extended crisis may have allowed tempers to moderate and the conflict to end in a more constructive manner. Instead, with the surrender at Appomattox and assassination of Lincoln, the resolution felt more like a defeat than a victory.
Turmoil continued for at least a decade after the resolution.
The Great Depression/World War II Crisis
The Great Depression/World War II Crisis saw its tenth and eleventh years as the most ominous, dangerous and destructive for Great Britain, as they bore the brunt of the German onslaught.
World War II will always be known for the mass genocide of Jews, the use of atomic weapons to destroy complete cities, and the wholesale slaughter of innocent people. When the people who started this entire fiasco started to lose, the followers of Hitler and the Nazi’s, they killed themselves with cyanide rather than face their crimes against humanity.
1939 saw the Nazi invasion of Poland and the official start of World War II.
A year and a half after the invasion of Poland by the Germans, the Nazis evacuated the Jews from my home town, Krakow, and resettled us in very cramped quarters in the most dilapidated part of the city. On March 13, 1941, my family of six people was forced to relocate from our comfortable 3-bedroom home at Retjana # 5 to a cramped one bedroom apartment at Targowa # 1, which we shared with several other families.
Life was difficult in the ghetto. Jews were routinely abused, assaulted, and even murdered by the Nazis, who patrolled the streets with pistols, rifles, and whips. We were prisoners at the hands of an abusive force that had prompted a world war, but we were totally unprepared for the obscene horrors and large-scale genocide that our captors were about to execute on us.
The date was October 28, 1942. The Nazis were about to implement their second deportation of Jews from the Krakow ghetto to the extermination camps. We were told that the ghetto would be liquidated, that we all were to be transported to labor camps, and that everybody had to go to Plac Zgody square with their most important belongings.
Fear could be seen on the faces of every Jew in the ghetto. Everyone felt that something horrible was about to happen. On my way to our family’s apartment, I met my parents, my sister Greta, and my brother Leszek inside the corridor of their building. My parents had come out of the bunker where they were hiding, and I wanted to warn them to stay inside.
They didn’t have any working papers (Arbeits-bescheinigungen), so I thought that their lives could be in danger. But, it was too late to tell them to go back into hiding. From all sides, the SS Gestapo appeared before us and pushed us into the street.
Leszek and I had working papers indicating that he was a toolmaker and I was an auto mechanic for the German SS. We thought that these papers would save us and our family from the deportation. We presented the papers to SS Obersturmfuhrer Martin Fellenz, {1} a Gestapo
officer who was in charge of the deportation.
On Mr. Lewis’ return to Krakow 43 years after the second liquidation of the ghetto, Plac Zgody was eerily quiet. Fellenz ripped up our papers, began to beat us with his club, and ordered us to go with all of the other prisoners to Plac Zgody. At Plac Zgody, I noticed many familiar faces, including my girlfriend Regina’s mother, Ida, and her two sisters, Tosia and Gienia.
I wanted to talk to them but I was not permitted to do so. I had to sit on the ground and remain still. The Germans ordered us not to move an inch. To prove their point, they began to kill anyone who got up or moved around. At that point I decided that I had to escape, no matter what might be the consequences.
I told Leszek my plans, and he said he would try to escape, too. I told my parents and sister what I intended to do, and they told me to go ahead and run. Soon, we were ordered to line up, four in a row.
I told my family not to look for me if I tried to escape. Passing Wieliczka Street, I tried to run into a house, but I was unsuccessful. I was stopped by an SS guard and forced back onto the line. I was lucky that guard did not kill me right then and there for trying to escape.
- The Story of Victor Lewis
In May of 1940 Germany launched its blitzkrieg offensive through Holland and Belgium, defeating the French and British forces in a matter of weeks. Chamberlain resigned as Prime Minister, replaced by Churchill, as France surrendered in late June.
The Battle of Britain raged from July through October as Hitler relentlessly bombed England, trying to force their surrender.
Germany, Italy and Japan signed the Tripartite pact in September, setting the stage for the U.S. eventual participation in the war. Einstein informed FDR of the potential for an atomic bomb during 1939 and the Manhattan Project was born. The climax of the crisis occurred with the successful D-Day invasion. The dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan and successful demobilization of military forces marked the end of the crisis.
Smoldering ruins of Nagasaki, about 700 meters from the hypocenter. The United States detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively, with the consent of the United Kingdom, as required by the Quebec Agreement. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians.
Learning from History
History may not repeat, but human nature never changes, so the 80-year cycles of man-made crisis will repeat. The length of time from the American Revolution climax in 1781 until the Civil War climax in 1863 was 82 years.
The next climax in 1944 was 81 years after the Civil War climax.
History may not repeat, but human nature never changes, so the 80-year cycles of man-made crisis will repeat. The length of time from the American Revolution climax in 1781 until the Civil War climax in 1863 was 82 years.
Therefore, we can expect a climax to this current Crisis sometime in the 2025 range. The question is what events will transpire between today (the tail end of 2019) and 2025 before a climax is reached.
80 years = 2025
81 years = 2026
82 years = 2027
A study of the years ahead…
There’s a few precious years ahead before these fateful target dates. However, you the reader should please take note, the event and the turning can occur earlier or later than the historical norm. It is just an average target date obtained through extrapolation.
Here are the next few years before the Fourth Turning is expected to reach a crisis point. The astute reader should realize that the event is scheduled immediately after the 2024 election. Historically, this will mean that a progressive democrat will take over the Presidency. In that event, we can expect a full-on gun confiscation effort that would be the result of a mass-shooting event. Democrat presidents always have mass-shooting events in the first six months of their presidency. Then they unleash the anti-gun narrative to a fever pitch. The event that was supposed to really work this last time was the 2016 Los Vegas shooter, but of course it wasn’t Hillary Clinton at the Helm it was Donald Trump..
My guess, for what ever reason, is that Donald Trump will win the 2020 election. The nation would continue to go bat-shit crazy and the opposition forces, with the oligarchy-controlled “deep state” will have all sorts of options on the table for the 2024 election.
I anticipate that there will be numerous things that will occur after the 2024 election. One of which would be a progressive democrat become president with the support with the brain-dead youth vote.
This president, predictably, will [1] unleash full scale gun confiscation efforts, [2] new military expansionism all over the globe, [3] higher taxes along with [4] instituted (pro-black, anti-white) institutionally supported racism leading towards [5] deplorable genocide.
It's what "Democrats" always do. Name one democrat that hasn't raised taxes, banned guns or used the military as a global police force.
Thus, it is my guess that there will be a push-back.
Some “heavy hitter” nations might slam-dunk the USA military and cities. They would “hit back” using overt state of the art WMD weapons.
Rural “deplorables” might resist federal gun collection efforts.
The already dysfunctional government would become a true and real “train wreck”. With more corruption, more inefficiency and expanded theft.
What we can expect…
We can expect…
There will be an increase in “False Flag” events, and paid protestors, and actors crying, screeching and pandering to a well positioned media. This will be broadcast over all the media outlets, seemingly providing justification for the government to take radical action.
Here’s American NED “regime change” (color revolution) efforts in Hong Kong, China…
HK chop on a paid protestor. There will be an increase in “False Flag” events, and paid protestors, and actors crying, screeching and pandering to a well positioned media. This will be broadcast over all the media outlets, seemingly providing justification for the government to take radical action.
Aside from paid protestors, there will be talented actors and actresses that will cry and sob for the cameras. Here’s a typical child actor sobbing for media promotion…
Aside from paid protestors, there will be talented actors and actresses that will cry and sob for the cameras.
Institutions that we historically rely upon to be corrupted beyond usefulness. This will mean everything from the FBI, to the IRS, to the FDA, the FCC, and the military.
This is our “improved” military…
The promotion of diversity makes the American military strong because that is something that the armies of China and Russia do not have.
There will be a retreat in technological, educational, and manufacturing leadership. The attempts by Donald Trump to thwart the global strategic trade supply chain has not been successful, and only aggravates an already dire situation.
There will be a retreat in technological, educational, and manufacturing leadership. The attempts by Donald Trump to thwart the global strategic trade supply chain has not been successful, and only aggravates an already dire situation.
It will not be peaceful. Based upon history, the resolution will not be based on compromise, civility, reason, or peaceful means. The opposition forces who follow “progressive thought” will not longer need to follow the Constitution. They will write their own rules as they go along.
It will not be peaceful. Based upon history, the resolution will not be based on compromise, civility, reason, or peaceful means.
It will be a dark and dangerous time. The combustible combination of unpayable debt, civic anarchy, and global chaos are set to detonate, creating an era of maximum darkness, death, destruction, and decisions.
People will die, and the police and the government will be complicit.
It will be a dark and dangerous time. The combustible combination of unpayable debt, civic anarchy, and global chaos are set to detonate, creating an era of maximum darkness, death, destruction, and decisions. People will die, and the police and the government will be complicit.
Read this it’s a six-part series. I suggest you read all the parts, as each one says something unique. It opens up into another tab.
We will have to be strong. Making America Great Again will require personal sacrifice, dreadful choices, survival skills, intelligent decisions, and the courage to win at all costs. We will have to accept that there are people who want to disarm us, then herd us into cattle cars and gas us wholesale.
We will have to be strong. Making America Great Again will require personal sacrifice, dreadful choices, survival skills, intelligent decisions, and the courage to win at all costs. We will have to accept that there are people who want to disarm us, then herd us into cattle cars and gas us wholesale.
Check out the link below. It opens up in a separate tab.
We are leaving the “quiet” period of simmering unrest. The first ten years of this Crisis were the early Winter solstice period when public order began to pass its nadir.
Things will go from “rumblings in the distance” to whole-scale Shit Hit The Fan!
Normally peaceful and quiet people will start to fight back. Those people who have never had to deal with “push back” will be unprepared. Initially it will be glorious…
Normally peaceful and quiet people will start to fight back. Those people who have never had to deal with “push back” will be unprepared. Initially it will be glorious…
…but it will be short lived.
Then…
All Hell will break loose.
Factory
workers, with their company name badges, in the parking lot of their
employer. Two dead and one dying with his legs shot off. He and his
co-workers had no idea that “world war III” would break out while they
were trying to clock in at work. When one group of people identify
another group, and target them with hate, and violence, it only
escalates. It gets worse. Eventually there is whole-scale blood shed. Do
not be under the illusion that it will never happen in America. There
are enormous groups of people just chomping at the bit to attack
conservatives and traditionalists. All in the name of a progressive
utopia.
America could be unrecognizable afterwards. These events always change the social, political, and personal landscape.
Zimbabwe, the former Rhodesia, was modern, prosperous and a net exporter of food.
In the end, Africa won.
Basic services have collapsed, tyranny and privation are their new rulers, apparently by preference.
-The Woodpile Report
The changes can be really good, and long overdue. Or, they could be just absolutely awful. It will be all or nothing, and everything will be affected.
Everything will be affected.
Everything.
The changes can be really good, and long overdue. Or, they could be just absolutely awful. It will be all or nothing, and everything will be affected. Everything will be affected. Everything.
The Storm Approaches. The coldest days of Winter beckon with the harshest years of the Crisis ahead. Many melancholy days lie ahead, as bitter winter winds and blizzard like conditions sweep the bleak landscape, testing the mettle of even the bravest souls.
The catalyst for the Crisis was the Wall Street created global financial meltdown in 2008.
The election of Trump marked the beginning of the regeneracy, with Trump as the Gray Champion.
The last four years have certainly marked a new more volatile phase of this Crisis, setting the stage for the fireworks to come.
The catalyst will unfold according to a basic Crisis dynamic that
underlies all of these scenarios: An initial spark will trigger a chain
reaction of unyielding responses and further emergencies.
The core elements of these scenarios (debt, civic decay, global
disorder) will matter more than the details, which the catalyst will
juxtapose and connect in some unknowable way.
The regeneracy is less like FDR’s New Deal initiated unification of the country. Instead it is more like the Lincoln regeneracy after the First Battle of Bull Run. This was when he ordered the enlistment of a half million men to fight against a like number of fellow American men.
Both American factions were unified in their cause.
The chain reaction of emergencies and unyielding responses will continue unabated until a final resolution is achieved.
“In retrospect, the spark might seem as ominous as a financial
crash, as ordinary as a national election, or as trivial as a Tea Party[1].
The catalyst will unfold according to a basic Crisis dynamic that
underlies all of these scenarios: An initial spark will trigger a chain
reaction of unyielding responses and further emergencies. The core elements of these scenarios (debt, civic decay, global
disorder) will matter more than the details, which the catalyst will
juxtapose and connect in some unknowable way. If foreign societies are also entering a Fourth Turning, this could accelerate the chain reaction. At home and abroad, these events will reflect the tearing of the civic fabric at points of extreme vulnerability – problem areas where America will have neglected, denied, or delayed needed action.” – The Fourth Turning– Strauss & Howe
[1] Written over ten years before the Conservative Tea Party came into existence.
About these predictions…
Strauss and Howe foresaw the core elements which would surely propel the next Fourth Turning.
Life was quite different before the American Civil War.
They, of course, weren’t the only ones. But they were able to formulate a hypothesis based on their observations that others could apply in their own individual cases. All of these observations were plain to see for people who chose to see the world with eyes wide open.
Debt, civic decay and global disorder are on center stage as we enter the fateful next decade of 2020.
Syria before and after the Syrian civil war. America will also look like this as well. Stay out of the urban areas. Prepare yourself and your family.
A madness seems to be gripping the nation, a melancholy realization all is not right.
Everything has a chaotic feel, as financial markets are falling, politicians threaten and attack each other. The government dysfunction is laid bare for all to see. Meanwhile the Deep State snakes slither behind the scenes trying to bring down Trump. Yes, and racial tensions grow as they are being inflamed by agitators. And the CIA / NED instigate changes where foreign governments topple. Meanwhile, both Russia and China challenge U.S. hegemony, and the global debt Ponzi scheme is entering its collapse phase.
It’s all collapsing like a house of cards.
America is polarized
There are no moderates, only pro-Trump and anti-Trump factions.
Compromise and workable solutions to our deep-seated problems are off the table. The mood of the populace ranges from frustrated and angry to depressed and stressed. The aroma of conflict wafts through the air as battle lines are being drawn.
The initial spark of a global financial meltdown created by greedy
Wall Street banks, the feckless Fed, and corrupt government officials
was driven by bad debt, outright control fraud by the financial
industry, captured rating agencies, easy money provided by the Wall
Street owned Fed, and utter contempt for properly regulating the Wall
Street cabal by the Fed and SEC.
This emergency was met by an unyielding response from the
establishment, with the easiest money policies in world history, bailing
out criminal bankers with taxpayer funds, increasing global debt by $80
trillion to $250 trillion (318% of global GDP), running fiscal deficits
exceeding $1 trillion per year, and pretending all that debt will be
repaid. Pretend and extend has been the solution.
The Deep State has taken extraordinary measures to try and retain their stranglehold on the wealth of the nation and control of the political, financial, social and media levers of society.
They have utilized a combination of propaganda disguised as news, social media distractions, technological surveillance, misinformation campaigns, welfare to keep the poor sedated, and the continued issuance of debt to keep the masses satiated with consumer goods as their wealth dissipates.
But the teetering edifice of debt, delusion and deception is poised to topple sometime in the next decade starting in 2020.
Can you feel it?
It’s like vibrations that you feel in your car as you drive past a very loud rock concert. It’s a gathering storm, an increasing in pressure, a cooling of temperature, and a raising of pressure…
As we enter 2020, year twelve of this ongoing Crisis, you can sense the panic and distress permeating from the pores of the establishment figures. As well as their rich shadowy benefactors trying to maintain their unseen presence behind the curtain as they pull the strings. As they continue operating as the invisible government running the show for their own benefit.
It seems the unanticipated election of Trump has thrown a monkey wrench into their well- oiled pillage machine. It is forcing them to reveal themselves as they attempt a not so subtle coup against a sitting president.
Fourth Turnings always sweep away the existing social order in a torrent of violent upheaval and the blood of young men.
But that doesn’t mean the existing establishment will give up their wealth, power and control without a fight. And the fight is underway. The volcano has erupted and the molten lava could flow in numerous pathways over the next six or so years.
“Imagine some national (and probably global) volcanic eruption, initially flowing along channels of distress that were created during the Unraveling era and further widened by the catalyst. Trying to foresee where the eruption will go once it bursts free of the channels is like trying to predict the exact fault line of an earthquake.
All you know in advance is something about the molten ingredients of the climax, which could include the following:
Economic distress, with public debt in default, entitlement trust funds in bankruptcy, mounting poverty and unemployment, trade wars, collapsing financial markets, and hyperinflation (or deflation)
Social distress, with violence fueled by class, race, nativism, or religion and abetted by armed gangs, underground militias, and mercenaries hired by walled communities
Political distress, with institutional collapse, open tax revolts, one-party hegemony, major constitutional change, secessionism, authoritarianism, and altered national borders
Military distress, with war against terrorists or foreign regimes equipped with weapons of mass destruction” – The Fourth Turning– Strauss & Howe
The ingredients of distress in the next phase of this Crisis could include any or all of those pondered by Strauss and Howe twenty-two years ago.
I thus can make the case for multiple levels of distress breaking free from their channels, making 2020 as historic a year as 1939 or 1940.
My prognosis for the decade starting in 2020 follows:
Economic Distress
Economic distress is mounting, as the machinations of the Fed, Wall Street and the U.S. government prove to be nothing more than debt financed illusions.
Once the easy money spigot is turned off and the tide of zero interest debt for Wall Street and mega-corporations recedes, you realize everyone was swimming naked.
The national debt grew by $1.4 trillion in 2018 during “the best economy ever”, according to Trump.
We added $12 trillion to the national debt and have generated a historically weak recovery, especially for the working class.
We’ve gone nine years without recession and the longest period in U.S. history between recessions was ten years. Without the tax cut stimulus, interest rates higher, corporate profits flagging, global trade waning, and central bankers withdrawing liquidity, recession is likely ahead of us. When it happens it could end up driving deficits towards $2 trillion.
The number of zombie companies (GE, Sears, JC Penney, Chesapeake, all fracking companies) propped up by cheap junk bond debt is astronomical.
National debt default is still a ways off, but a tsunami of corporate debt defaults will inundate the economy once the recession knocks the legs out from beneath this faux recovery.
Corporations and consumers have never been more indebted. Stock valuations have never been higher.
An economy that begins to self destruct when interest rates approach 3% proves the “solutions” implemented by those in power did nothing for the average American, while further enriching the parasitical class pulling the strings.
At this point, a specific triggering event is unnecessary to provoke the economic conflagration.
The unbearable weight of unpayable debt is going to cause the structure to collapse at free fall speed, like the Twin Towers pancaking everyone in the floors below.
Collapse of the South Tower on 9-11.
With a recession inevitable in the future, we know the stock market declines 30% to 40% during recessions, on average. When a stock market is this overvalued, based solely on Fed easy money and corporate buybacks (Apple has lost $9 billion on their buybacks this year), the withdrawal of liquidity combined with recession and declining profits will knock 50% to 60% off current prices. I wonder how many middle-class 401k contributors expect this to happen. Well this will be the third time in 18 years, so you would think they’d learn by now.
Recession means job losses, consumer debt defaults, less tax revenue for the government, more wasteful spending by politicians pretending to care, soaring deficits, currency gyrations, and the potential for rising interest rates as no one will be willing or able to buy the newly issued debt.
Will we have massive deflation or hyperinflation? Anything is possible in a collapse scenario.
What is certain will be millions of angry Americans looking for someone to blame and politicians seeking to distract them with some foreign “threat” to their safety and security.
People! This is when trade wars morph into real wars.
Social Distress
The social distress sweeping the country gets the majority of attention on the left-wing corporate media propaganda machines as they purposely fan the flames of divisiveness.
Keeping the sheeple angry at each other keeps them distracted from the continued pillaging of the national wealth by the Deep State scum operating in plain sight. As they loot and pillage, and then leave for greener pastures. Leaving their underlings to clumsily fight for the remaining scraps.
Before and after views of Syria after the Syrian civil war.
The daily war against the normals has reached new heights of hypocrisy and idiocy.
It’s all building up towards a major catastrophe.
The unceasing mantra of diversity, trying to normalize the lifestyles of the mentally ill…
Glorifying socialism as Venezuela implodes due to socialism…
Promoting the climate change agenda to abscond with more taxes…
Trying to force left wing agendas down the throats of white traditional family-oriented people….
All of this is on the verge of starting civil violence. It’s so close that you can taste it.
This is what a civil war did to Syria. Not a pretty sight.
The ruling class has gone too far in accumulating the wealth of the nation through the capture of regulatory, political, financial, and communication structures.
They know what is coming. They are not pretending that all is fine. They have their very own safe houses all set up far, far away from the strife that is barrelling down towards them.
Wealth inequality arisen through fraud, deception and corruption will lead to class warfare – highly likely after the next financial collapse.
The ruling class has gone too far in accumulating the wealth of the nation through the capture of regulatory, political, financial, and communication structures. They know what is coming. They are not pretending that all is fine. They have their very own safe houses all set up far, far away from the strife that is barrelling down towards them.
The current government shutdown over funding for a border wall is essentially a showdown over the racial makeup of the country. It goes forward allowing unfettered access to welfare benefits to illegal invaders. And who are allowed to come so that they will loyally illegally vote for their Democrat benefactors for eternity.
Come in – get your free stuff – now move into the ghetto.
Ah yes …Racial politics is what has kept blacks enslaved on the welfare plantation in decaying urban ghettos run by Democrat politician plantation owners.
A black uprising led by Kanye West has struck fear into the hearts of Democrats, giving them further incentive to keeping the southern border open to new Democrat voters.
With gun grabbing liberal politicians attempting to disarm the deplorables in flyover country. Meanwhile supporting antifa and black lives matter terrorists, and thwarting efforts to keep criminals and terrorists from illegally entering the country,
People! a violent showdown is inevitable.
America is messed up way past the point of redemption. For many Americans, they would be just happy to watch the cities burn and let the survivors fend for themselves.
Political Distress
The political distress since the 2016 election has reached levels not seen since the Civil War Crisis period.
The Deep State controllers’ next hand-picked figurehead president – Hillary Clinton – inexplicably lost the election to a NYC reality star real estate mogul (who boasted about grabbing pussies and had a weakness for strippers and Playboy bunnies no less).
Clinton’s arrogance and hubris were her downfall as the deplorables she ridiculed and a majority of white women in the country gave Trump a slim victory. This, of course, drove millions of pussy-hat wearing feminazis into a blind furious rage.
We’ve all heard of the “end-of-days” scenarios where the government finally passes through enough “gun control” laws and mounts a full-scale attack on democracy, running through houses with gun sniffing dogs to confiscate guns, running concealed carry permits, etc. The general fear held by most anti-gun confiscation groups (which should probably include any and all gun owners) is the idea of the US government announcing martial law during an “emergency” and seizing all firearms to “maintain peace”.
They are still living that rage.
College students across the land sobbed in their safe spaces and missed their Queer Theory or Pick your Gender classes.
But not only were snowflakes across the land melting, but the surveillance state spooks who attempted to rig the election in Clinton’s favor went into a frenzy of fear. It is understandable as fear of their traitorous machinations being revealed forced them to begin a coup attempt against Trump.
The Mueller, Comey, Clapper, Brennan, Obama, Clinton reactive coup attempt is ongoing and will never be permitted to come to a head. It will just fester. Like an infected scab that poisons the host to a point where an arm or two needs to be amputated.
America today is a seriously sick nation that is more akin to having a festering sore getting worse and worse until amputation becomes an absolutely necessary.
The outcome of this epic struggle between the Deep State and the non-approved upstart president could create civil war like conditions.
How will Trump supporters react if they believe their leader is removed through impeachment, based on false charges?
Will they take to the streets in armed insurrection?
Will the police and military fire on their fellow citizens?
What if Trump refuses to step down, creating a Constitutional crisis?
What if he is assassinated?
Do you know how to take down a tank, an APC, or a technical armed by roving groups of armed urban youth? You should. Do not think that you can ride out the Fourth Turning unscathed. It will affect everyone, and you need to be prepared for the worst.
On the other hand, what if Trump’s allies within the DOJ and Military present evidence of collusion against the Obama administration, Clinton and top officials in the FBI, DOJ and CIA?
How would the left wingers react to military tribunals with their beloved leaders in the docket?
Even if these earth-shattering events don’t come to fruition, a Democrat controlled House will thwart everything Trump attempts to accomplish as they position themselves for the 2020 presidential election. The anger and disillusionment of the masses will deepen.
Military Distress
The potential for catastrophe on the military front hasn’t been higher in decades.
Putin and Xi are essentially dictators who have no fear of elections every two years. They are serious men in possession of nuclear missiles, capable of destroying the world. They are both serious, serious people. They are in their positions of power through merit. Not though mob rule. They will tolerate the CIA / NED interference with Hong Kong, and the Muslims only so far. If the United States decides to push too hard, they WILL strike back… at American cities. IN FULL FUCKING FORCE.
The linear thinking lemmings dismiss the possibility of a global conflict because they are just as obtuse as “experts” before them throughout history.
Since World War II we have only experienced proxy wars where the outcomes would not change the course of world history.
There have been no “total wars”, where the loser is utterly shattered and complete victory is attained. As we continue on our path of just another righteous war, be advised that the rest of the world is getting awfully tired of this war-mongering.
They want it to STOP.
As we continue on our path of just another righteous war, be advised that the rest of the world is getting awfully tired of this war-mongering. They want it to STOP.
Those who practice revisionist history act as if the previous two Fourth Turning total wars were completely predictable before they began. They weren’t.
In 1858 no one believed a Civil War taking the lives of 700,000 Americans was just over the horizon.
Exactly 80 years later in 1938, few believed a global conflict which would kill 65 million people in six years was imminent.
Here we are exactly 80 years later and anyone predicting a global conflagration killing millions is declared a loon.
Every previous Fourth Turning has ended in total war with victory of the “good guys” always in doubt. Every total war has ratcheted up the level of death and destruction, as technological “advancements” enhance our war making abilities.
Every previous Fourth Turning has ended in total war.
This means nuclear World War III…
Human nature DOES NOT change.
We are not smarter, less war-like, more humanitarian, or less arrogant than our predecessors throughout history. Hubris, power, and miscalculation by egomaniacal leaders leads to war.
We know the climax of this Fourth Turning is slated for around 2025.
“[W]e should ban possession of military-style semiautomatic assault weapons, we should buy back such weapons from all who choose to abide by the law, and we should criminally prosecute any who choose to defy it by keeping their weapons,” Rep. Eric Swalwell wrote, adding that law enforcement agencies and shooting clubs should be exempted.
This infers a high likelihood of a major war involving the U.S. in the foreseeable future.
Will it ignite in 2020? All the combustible elements are present. The onset of a global depression, trade wars, China & Russia feeling pushed into a corner and the volatile political situation in the U.S. and EU provide a potential pathway to global conflict.
It will, contrary to what everyone expects, absolutely affect America. It will be a war that will “come home”. It will somehow (in ways that we do not know) become entangled with the American citizenry. Be frosty. Be alert. Any foreign war will manifest as trouble on the “home front”.
It will, contrary to what everyone expects, absolutely affect America. It will be a war that will “come home”. It will somehow (in ways that we do not know) become entangled with the American citizenry. Be frosty. Be alert. Any foreign war will manifest as trouble on the “home front”.
Immigration chaos in Europe, Brexit, Ukrainian nazis provoking Russia, South China Sea territorial disputes, the Syria, Turkey, Iran, Israel ticking time bomb, Saudi anarchy, socialist South American regimes imploding, and U.S. political pandemonium have created a perfect storm of domestic and international disasters.
QUESTION: What do low-life politicians do when faced with terrible domestic issues?
ANSWER: They seek to distract their citizens with a foreign threat. See “Blame Russia for Everything” as an example of this tried and true propaganda technique.
Desperate politicians do desperate things to retain power.
After every high-profile shooting in America, Leftists immediately, and predictably, begin their calls for gun control. With the measured constraint and careful consideration of Bill Clinton in the Champagne Room at Fuzzy Holes Gentlemen’s Club in Little Rock, they self-righteously and repeatedly demand that we “do something!” You can probably list some of the meaningless blather they shout at us reflexively, such as “If not now, when?,” “The NRA has blood on its hands!,” “Nobody needs an assault rifle to shoot a deer!,” and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Despite all their hysterical nonsense, they usually have enough presence of mind to also say, because they have been trained to so do, that “nobody wants to confiscate your guns,” or “no one is talking about banning guns.” If you’re really lucky you’ll hear one of these would-be authoritarians say the following (and this is my personal favorite): “I support the Second Amendment, BUT…”
Desperate Deep State actors care not one wit for their fellow countrymen.
They are willing and able to sacrifice the youth of their nation to fight wars which will further enrich themselves and their fellow traitorous benefactors.
They do not care about us. For they follow the Marxist model; we are cattle to be used as they see fit.
We are nothing but cannon fodder to this psychopathic scum.
Putin and Xi are essentially dictators who have no fear of elections every two years. They are serious men in possession of nuclear missiles, capable of destroying the world.
They are both serious, serious people.
They are in their positions of power through merit. Not though mob rule. They will tolerate the CIA / NED interference with Hong Kong, the Ukraine, and the Muslims only so far. If the United States decides to push too hard, they WILL strike back… at American cities.
IN FULL FUCKING FORCE.
Putin and Xi are essentially dictators who have no fear of elections every two years. They are serious men in possession of nuclear missiles, capable of destroying the world. They are both serious, serious people. They are in their positions of power through merit. Not though mob rule. They will tolerate the CIA / NED interference with Hong Kong, and the Muslims only so far. If the United States decides to push too hard, they WILL strike back… at American cities. IN FULL FUCKING FORCE.
Blaming others for all the ills in your own country is a fool hardy tactic. And do not fall for the non-stop mainstream media narrative that they are evil and a war is needed to put them in their place. It’s all propaganda aimed at YOU.
Blaming others for all the ills in your own country is a fool hardy tactic. And do not fall for the non-stop mainstream media narrative that they are evil and a war is needed to put them in their place. It’s all propaganda aimed at YOU.
The ever- increasing American saber rattling, whether in the Ukraine, Syria, South China Sea, or during antagonistic trade negotiations can easily lead to unintended consequences. All leaders have enormous egos and are prone to over-confidence and miscalculation regarding how their opponent will react.
Listen to me. Someone, somewhere, somehow is going to do something stupid and then all hell is going to break loose.
American military in Taiwan = Radioactive California.
NED coaching in China = Glassed over Washington, DC
American ships launching missiles in the black sea = Texas sized crater.
The danger is REAL.
To Bolton, the support of allies is proof of US military weakness, not diplomatic strength and he is yet to meet an arms control agreement he likes. The latest casualty amidst their wreckage of the pillars of the US-crafted global order is the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
There is No Escape
“The risk of catastrophe will be very high.The nation could erupt into insurrection or civil violence, crack up geographically, or succumb to authoritarian rule. If there is a war, it is likely to be one of maximum risk and effort – in other words, a total war.Every Fourth Turning has registered an upward ratchet in the technology of
destruction, and in mankind’s willingness to use it.History offers no guarantees.Obviously, things could go horribly wrong – the possibilities ranging from a nuclear exchange to incurable plagues, from terrorist anarchy to high-tech dictatorship.We should not assume that Providence will always exempt our nation from the irreversible tragedies that have overtaken so many others: not just temporary hardship, but debasement and total ruin.Losing in the next Fourth Turning could mean something incomparably worse. It could mean a lasting defeat from which our national innocence – perhaps even our nation – might never recover.” – Strauss & Howe –The Fourth Turning
There is no escape from the Fourth Turning.
There is no escape from the Fourth Turning.
We are midway through this crisis and the existing social order retains tenuous control over the levers of finance, government and the legacy media.
History tells us our society will be reshaped and transformed before this crisis resolves itself sometime between now and 2029.
That’s ten LONG years.
It would be the utmost of arrogance to believe our nation will be protected from destruction by an all-powerful God.
Face it.
Face the hard slap of reality.
We’ve made bad choices, deferred hard decisions, squandered our financial resources, allowed our educational system to be corrupted and valued all the wrong things.
Face it. Face the hard slap of reality. We’ve made bad choices, deferred hard decisions, squandered our financial resources, allowed our educational system to be corrupted and valued all the wrong things. The United States is in a complete mess and the Marxist progressives are just about ready to take over and convert the entire nation to a Marxist version of Detroit. When in all actuality everything should be nuked from orbit and it should be rebuilt from the ground up.
A just God would allow us to learn through suffering.
This is your life – Buckle up!
There will be consequences.
The overt last- ditch financial debt schemes concocted by the entrenched establishment, to prolong their power and control, are unraveling. This will result in a death and rebirth of the social order through a chaotic cleansing. It is all in the offing.
I believe the real fireworks will begin during the up coming decade starting in 2020.
It’s gonna be nasty.
What ever you do, do not panic. Plan. Keep your wits about you. Be steady. Be prepared. Be flexible. Be adaptable. Be safe. Do not trust anyone, and what ever you do.
What ever you do, do not panic. Plan. Keep your wits about you. Be steady. Be prepared. Be flexible. Be adaptable. Be safe. Do not trust anyone, and what ever you do.
Avoid crowds.
Do NOT turn in your guns.
Do NOT allow yourself to be collected and relocated to “safe” areas.
Do NOT advertise your beliefs. Lie low.
I don’t eagerly await the terrible storms headed our way.
What ever you do, do not panic. Plan. Keep your wits about you. Be steady. Be prepared. Be flexible. Be adaptable. Be safe. Do not trust anyone, and what ever you do.
The Bolsheviks are younger, angrier, and more ruthless than the patriots. Something far worse than Venezuela or Cuba is probably the future for America.
Sorry.
Millennial leftists don’t want to win elections; they want to exterminate people who disagree with them. Like Stalin. Like Mao.
Like Pol Pot.
Millennials who are active in politics tend to be radicals and atheist. They have no moral restraints. Anything goes.
Anything goes.
When Marxists come to power, they often arm children and youth. For they are the easiest to control ideologically. They teach them how to shoot weapons and let them loose on the countryside. This is a picture from Cambodia under Pol Pot, who curiously enough believed in the same sort of Marxist utopia that is in favor in places like San Francisco, Detroit and Baltimore today.
I wish we didn’t have to withstand the brutal gales of this coming winter, but we have no choice.
You have to survive Winter to experience the blossoming Spring.
The coming decade will try our souls and force everyone to make choices that will make a difference. The specific events are unknowable, but how we react and who we support during the events will be the decisive factor in whether this Fourth Turning is resolved in a positive way.
Having it resolved in negative way could be an unimaginable tragedy.
When Pol Pot and his merry band of Marxists came to power in Cambodia, they disarmed the military, the police, the agencies and all the civilians. Then they collected them. Often still wearing their uniforms. Like this poor soldier. They interviewed them to list their crimes against social Marxism, took their pictures and then executed them on the spot. This is what is coming to America. It is coming. Look into his eyes. He knew that he had minutes to live. What do you think was going through his mind? Was it how he wished that he didn’t listen to his leader when he was told to hand in his weapon? Do you think it was regret for turning around and having his hands handcuffed? Was it when he was told to climb onto the truck?
Patrick Henry made his famous “Give me liberty or give me death” speech during the first American Fourth Turning. His words ring true today.
We are already at war.
Sides have been drawn.
You are on one, whether you like it or not.
We are going to have to fight whether we like it or not. Our only other choice is chains and slavery. The other side(s) are armed, well equipped financially secure and operating on a level far, far above us “normals”.
We are going to have to fight whether we like it or not. Our only other choice is chains and slavery. The other side(s) are armed, well equipped financially secure and operating on a level far, far above us “normals”.
Follow the money trail. There you will find the instigators and the crooks that are playing the role of the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain. They transfer huge amounts of money through “art” and “book deals”, like how “someone” gave former president Obama a $60 million dollar advance on a book that would at most make $25,000.
Who was the one who coughed up all that money? And why?
Follow the money trail. There you will find the instigators and the crooks that are playing the role of the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain. They transfer huge amounts of money through “art” and “book deals”, like how “someone” gave former president Obama a $60 million dollar advance on a book that would at most make $25,000.
The time to choose has arrived. Welcome to 2020.
“The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
– Patrick Henry – 1775
Millennial activists hate science. They have been fed scientism since
birth and lack the intellectual training to discern the difference.
Therefore, the advances humanity has made thanks to science will quickly
reverse as cures for things like global warming turn out to be distress
for man and beast.
If the Bolsheviks don’t turn America into a giant, barbaric, communist prison camp, the divisions in our country will leave us vulnerable to military attack.
Iran, Russia, China, even the European Union could feel emboldened and attack. While we might be able to repel the attack, society would further disintegrate. The will to fight a protracted war just isn’t there. We would move quickly to the most lethal weapons in our arsenal.
If these dire prophecies come to pass, my impulse will be to fight. To choose a side and fight to the death. To the death. Yes, that death. That cold darkness that you never wake up from. It’s that rock-cold serious.
We are rapidly approaching that climax.
It’s soon. One to four years away. Buckle up.
The Prophesy
In The Fourth Turning, Howe and Strauss warned us that these Crisis eras end in a climax. That means the worst is yet to come.
The Crisis climax is human history’s equivalent to nature’s raging typhoon, the kind that sucks all surrounding matter into a single swirl of ferocious energy.
Anything not lashed down goes flying; anything standing in the way gets flattened. Normally occurring late in the Fourth Turning, the climax gathers energy from an accumulation of unmet needs, unpaid bills, and unresolved problems. It then spends that energy on an upheaval whose direction and dimension were beyond comprehension during the prior Unraveling era.
The climax shakes a society to its roots, transforms its institutions, redirects its purposes, and marks its people (and its generations) for life.
The climax can end in triumph, or tragedy, or some combination of both. Whatever the event and whatever the outcome, a society passes through a great gate of history, fundamentally altering the course of civilization.
Yet one generation—Generation X2, aka, “13ers”—holds the key to surviving the climax:
The 13ers’ gravest Fourth Turning duty will be their society’s most important preseasonal task: to ensure that there can indeed be a new High, a new golden age of hope and prosperity.
For the Crisis to end well, 13ers must keep Boomers from wreaking needless destruction and Millennials from marching too mindlessly under their elders’ banner.
They will not find it easy to restrain an older generation that will consider itself far wiser than they, and a younger one that will consider itself more deserving.
For this, 13ers will require a keen eye, a deft touch, and a rejection of the wild risk taking associated with their youth.
Warning us in 1997, Howe and Strauss said:
From now through the end of the Fourth Turning, 13ers will constantly rise in power.
From 1998 until around the Crisis climax, they will be America’s largest potential generational voting bloc. As the years pass, their civic contributions will become increasingly essential to their nation’s survival.
They will have to vote more and participate more, if they want to contain the Boomers’ zealotry. They will have that chance.
Their own elected officials will surge into Congress as the Crisis catalyzes, eclipse Boomers around its climax, and totally dominate them by the time it resolves.
As they go one-on-one with history, 13ers should remember that history is counting on them to do whatever hard jobs may be necessary.
If 13ers play their script weakly, old Boomers could wreak a horrible apocalypse, and 13er demagogues could impose a mind-numbing authoritarianism— or both.
If 13ers play their script cleverly but safely, however, a new golden age will be their hard-won reward.
As they age, 13ers should remember Hemingway’s words: “Old men do not grow wise. They grow careful.”
Even luckier, Generation X is already hardened. We grew up with hard
rock and hard drugs and hard breakups and hard attitudes. We were eager
fans who made Nirvana and Pearl Jam possible. And it’s an honor. History
has handed us the keys to survival.
Those haters in Berkeley are largely Millennials. They’re following
the bad examples of destructive, reckless Boomers. If America is to
survive the coming climax, history will note that the Slackers, the McFlys, the generation nobody watched overcame our recklessness to rescue civilization itself.
But Generation X cannot win the battle for America’s survival alone.
We need to attract soldiers from the Millennial generation. And we need
to follow the lead of the Gray Champion, about whom more in future
posts.
It’s Going to Be Okay
In the meantime, cut out carbs, eat more healthy fat,
practice dry fire drills, stock up on ammo, and be ready for the
inevitable climax. You, my friends, are the first and last line of
defense in our battle for self-government. We won’t go down without the
fight of the millennium.
For your planning purposes
Taking note of “The Fourth Turning” and the Strauss and Howe generational theory of predictive behavior in America, we note that their dates are close but seem to be off by a few years. In our case, the “Crisis catalyst” did not occur in 2005 as predicted. It occurred in 2008 with the Wall Street “too big to fail” debacle. That is three years later.
Adjusting the Strauss and Howe dates to account for the delay in the catalyst, messes things up a bit. They predicted…
If the Crisis catalyst comes on schedule, around the year 2005, then the climax will be due around 2020, the resolution around 2026. What will America be like as it exits the Fourth Turning? History offers no guarantees. Obviously, things could go horribly wrong—the possibilities ranging from a nuclear exchange to incurable plagues, from terrorist anarchy to high-tech dictatorship. We should not assume that Providence will always exempt our nation from the irreversible tragedies that have overtaken so many others: not just temporary hardship, but debasement and total ruin. Since Vietnam, many Americans suppose they know what it means to lose a war. Losing in the next Fourth Turning, however, could mean something incomparably worse. It could mean a lasting defeat from which our national innocence—and perhaps even our nation—might never recover. As many Americans know from their own ancestral backgrounds, history provides numerous examples of societies that have been wiped off the map, ground into submission, or beaten so badly they revert to barbarism.
There is a nice graphic that I composed for your purposes of planning out the next few years. I hope that it is helpful. Adding three years, gives us…
“Crisis catalyst” in 2008.
Climax in 2023.
Resolution in 2029.
.
Of course, you could argue the 2020 was the “climax” simply because it was one Hell of a shitty year. But you all know, it was a shitty year for everyone on the globe. Not just Americans. I argue that it was just foreplay for bigger stuff to come.
Summary
I know that I tend to be a little long in the tooth. Yes, my articles are long. I try to cram a lot in them, and sometimes it can get confusing. Here’s a quick summary.
The Fourth Turning is proceeding on schedule.
The major tripping point is scheduled for 2023 +/- 2 years.
It will involve all manner of conflict.
Oligarch-instituted cultural changes, and genocides will be initiated.
A total clamp down on freedoms via electronic means will take place.
Total gun bans, one way or the other, will take place.
The USA will get involved in some sort of war. The idea is that it will be just another distraction.
One or two, or even three super-powers, will side with the attacked nation.
A strong possibility exists for nuclear weapons to be detonated on United States cities.
My suggestions.
For what ever it is worth, here are some suggestions. You have three years. Start now. Start today. (If you do nothing else, try to do the points in bold. It will give you advantage.)
Leave the cities. Move. Buy property in a small town, a rural area, or some other place about a three days walk from a major city.
Start now. Do not put it off.
Have firearms. Use the rule of three. [1] One or two in the open for ready use. [2] Some hidden, and you can tell your wife (but not your children the location). [3] Hidden and known only to you.
Have multiple lethal knives. Do not be afraid to use them.
Take a class in basic first aid and know how to stop bleeding, provide basic health care, mend a broken bone, and perform emergency surgery. If not the YMCA, then via the internet. Start NOW.
Learn on how to make improvised explosives. Especially those that can be used to take down a bridge, disable an ATV, and create a minefield.
Stock up on prepper literature in the form of books.
Stock up on basic medical supplies including antibiotics.
Stock up on all manner of food supplies, and hide large quantities of them from random seizure by roaming groups of people..
Start going “x-ray” and do not advertise your plans, or anything about your life to anyone.
Have some sort of vehicle that does not require gasoline or electricity to operate. (Bicycle or horse.)
Make friends in your new location. Friendships are worth gold. Identify these friends on a scale of trust.
Start cutting down on the use of your cell-phone. Start leaving it at home when you go out.
Buy a Geiger counter, and iodine pills.
Set up a rain water collection system at your house.
Start a garden. Learn to grow potatoes.
Leave America. If you cannot, then live in a predominantly “red” state. The redder the county the better.
Move to a deep red colored area. Absolutely avoid cities and bright blue areas. Any area that has a shade of blue is to be avoided. Consider Alaska over Hawaii. Avoid Indian reservations. Avoid the border with Mexico. Avoid urban black enclaves.
SHTF Related Index
This is a collection of my posts related to prepping, SHTF (Shit Hit The Fan), CWII (American Civil War 2), Fourth Turning (Strauss–Howe generational theory)
and other posts related to the very sad and sorry tatters that America
is today. Actually, I am a little stunned that I have written so much
about these matters. But America today is very ill and there are things
that really should be said.
Here are the posts.
SHTF and Related Index
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
As I write this, the “Trump trade war with China” in on it’s third year. It has been one heck of a roller-coaster ride, and today I can definitely say that, contrary to what the mainstream American media reports, China is just happy as can be waiting the “trade war” out.
China is not starving, ready to collapse towards famine.
There aren’t layoffs of millions of people
Huawei hasn’t collapsed, and sitting by waiting for America to develop 5G technology
Here, we review the current state of affairs between the USA and China in the building “cold economic war”, and then investigate options that can move the trade war as a positive win for America. Because right now, it is just floundering. And the only ones really getting “dinged” by it are the Americans that have to pay higher prices for their manufactured products.
This article is all about making America #1.
But first, we need to see things as they actually are. Not as how we want them to be. In many cases that means that we must erase some preconceived notions that we might hold dearly.
To help a person that has collapsed in the street, you need to know WHY he collapsed. Was it heat stroke? A heart attack? A gun shot wound? Or, was he just sleepy. You need to know the TRUE situation in order to provide the proper assistance.
Please kindly note that this post has multiple embedded videos. It is important to view them. If they fail to load, all you need to do is to reload your browser.
The Lose-Lose scenario
At the start of the Donald Trump presidency, myself and others sincerely believed that the trade disagreements between the USA and China could be resolved. We believed in a win-win scenario. One in which both side so the table came back with something resembling success. A win-win for everyone.
But, unfortunately, that did not happen.
Instead, what developed was a policy of “lose – lose”. That is to say, that both sides would lose. However, the idea was for Chinese to lose much more than America would. Thus it would be a positive gain for America, and thus provide the USA with a greater amount of bargaining power.
The USA would lose a little bit, but recover quickly.
The Chinese would lose a lot, and maybe not recover for decades.
Personally, there is no doubt in my mind that this lose-lose strategy is a NeoCon strategy.
Because it is complete and utter nonsense, and has no bearing what so ever on reality.
As such, it is no surprise that it would be enforced, embraced and cultivated by Neocons within the trump administration. For every time it looked like the trade issues would be resolved, there would be some kind of problem. And each and every problem resolved around a Neocon-related issue.
I like to point my fingers at war-monger extraordinaire John Bolton, but I could be wrong.
To Bolton, the support of allies is proof of US military weakness, not diplomatic strength and he is yet to meet an arms control agreement he likes. The latest casualty amidst their wreckage of the pillars of the US-crafted global order is the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
How and Why
Why in the heck would anyone really want a lose-lose situation? Really, it’s crazy right? I mean, why go to a restaurant that has discount week-old meals for a cheap price when you know that you are going to get sick afterwards? Why do it?
Maybe on the HOPE that there is a CHANCE that you won’t get sick.
The understanding on how anyone would possibly want a lose-lose trade agreement is clear once you see the distortions of reality that neocons live under.
China is forever a third-world nation.
America is a long-term first-world nation.
China is dependent on the United States for labor, food, and status.
America doesn’t need China, and we can reopen all our factories again easily.
Each and everyone of these assumptions parrot the American mainstream press. And, as such, each and everyone is completely and absolutely wrong. It’s what Americans WANT to believe, not what is really going on.
China is not what the American mainstream press says it is. Instead it is something else. The mainstream American press produces “news” and “reports” that appeal to American emotions. Not to provide them facts and information. Remember, the only way that America can operate efficiently is with a just and well-informed populace.
People!
A healthy America requires an educated and well-informed populace. Otherwise, America is doomed to suffer through the mistakes of the mass-mob, as well as the manipulations by those that control them.
Changing things around.
Right now, the trade situation is at a standstill.
China is waiting everything out. They will let events play out. For they play “the long game’.
America is willing to suffer though events as they transpire. They believe that China is feeling the same kinds of pressures that Americana feel. For Americans believe that the Chinese, just like Americans, play the “short game”.
The only thing is… China just isn’t experiencing any kind of serious pressures.
In reality, for the Chinese owned businesses, it’s all just a slight down-tick in trade and a very slight increase in prices on imported goods. The ones that are hurting are the American businesses that operate within China. They are feeling the vast brunt of the trade-wars, as well as their support networks. Most of which are HK based.
"The Trump administration made a very serious miscalculation in launching the ‘trade war’ with China. It believed that either, or both, the leadership of China would submit to the Trump administrations threats or the Chinese population would not be prepared for a serious struggle with the US. Both calculations have proved entirely wrong. China’s leadership did not surrender to but hit back against the US attacks. Furthermore anyone who follows China’s domestic discussion, on what is now by far the world’s largest internet community, knows that this line was strongly supported by the Chinese population."
- China prepares for economic ‘prolonged war’ with Trump
The big issue in China today, and I can tell you this personally, is that there is a global slowdown going on. This slowdown was triggered by the Trump Tariff wars, but was not caused by them. The global slowdown was forecast for years, and China has long prepared for it.
The Chinese play the "long game" and plan in terms of centuries. American play the "short game" and plan on quarterly results (once ever three months).
Thus, as far as the tariff situation is concerned, they are just content to let things play out and allow America to eat itself alive…
China is playing the “long game”. America is playing the “short game” (quarter by quarter). In this situation, the “long game” favors China. The “short game” harms America.
One of the reasons why these authoritarian regimes like China are much more popular in the eyes of millennials around the world than among older generations, is that the younger people feel at least China focuses on the future, invests a huge part of their economic product into the future, and have a plan.
Look at the United States. Look at these countries today. They’re unable to focus on anything beyond next month. They can’t even formulate a budget. They can’t get anything through Congress. And all they’re doing is embarrassing themselves.
-McAlvanay
In the long run, the United States can be harmed immensely unless this situation does not turn around.
The very first thing that needs to happen is to do a deep purge of the neocons in the White-house.
President Trump's agenda is at odds at the neocon agenda. In many ways they are direct opposites.
These people do not want any kinds of win-win trade situation. Instead, their world view is one of “us vs. them”. They believe that there can only be two types of people in the world; The “hammers” and the “anvils”.
Neocons hold a mid-1850s mindset. They think in terms of nations, wars, and geographical conquest. They do so at the expense of understanding the Earth as a living (kind of) organism that we all inhabit.
Here’s my narrative on one of these neocons. Open it up, as it will open up in a new tab. Read it. All neocons are the same. They do not love America, American conservatism or tradition. They love power and empire building.
They believe that there can only be one leader in the world, and that is the United States. They believe this because we have “democracy!” (whatever the heck that is supposed to mean). The rest of the world is to live under our subjugation.
No other relationship is possible.
Now, Donald Trump did actually purge neocon John Bolton from his staff, and then immediately contacted Xi Peng in China wanting to resume trade talks.
The American media of course does not associate the firing of Bolton with China. To them, it's all just a coincidence. Bolton was fired for other reasons, like Saudi Arabia, North Korea, and Syria.
According to the mainstream American press, calling China and Bolton’s firing within minutes of each other was just a coincidence. Nothing more.
What China is
The way that Donald Trump tells it, China’s manufacturing sector is close to collapse, fatally wounded by Washington’s tariffs on Chinese imports.
Last month the American president was celebrating how China’s supply chain was “breaking up like a toy because companies are moving out”. A few days later he talked again about how Beijing was desperate to call a halt to the trade row. “You know why they want to make a deal?” he crowed. “Because they’re losing their jobs, because their supply chain is going to hell and companies are moving out of China and they’re moving to lots of other places, including the United States.”
But if Trump’s tariffs really are designed to torpedo China’s manufacturing base, he may have to think again.
Washington will have announced levies on about $550 billion of Chinese goods, when the full tariff quotas come into effect at the end of this year. That could affect up to 5% of China’s manufacturing capacity, according to calculations from Qu Hongbin and Jingyang Chen, two economists at HSBC.
But the impact of the tariffs isn’t going to be the same across the manufacturing sector at large. Much depends on the type of goods being made. Lower-end, more labour intensive industries such as furniture and textile production are taking the biggest hit, with companies shifting their factory lines to countries like Vietnam, Cambodia and Bangladesh.
-Week in China
China is many things. One thing it is not is what the neocons think. China has leap-frogged the USA in so many areas that it’s just too tiring to elaborate upon. Maybe one or two videos might help add some perspective in this matter.
Some facts. (Opens up in a separate tab.)
But maybe we can ignore the charts, tables and figures. Not everyone can follow them. (Given the really poor state of education in the United States today.)
Rather than the charts of facts and figures that I have in other posts, some informal quick peeks into what is going on in China might be refreshing. Here are things that are EVERYDAY sights in China, but that you will not see in the United States.
For starters…
One of the first things that people are beginning to see when they cross into China and go through Chinese customs is a robotic customs officer. They will instruct you to input your biometics into the Chinese data base.
The robots, named Xiao Hai, have state-of-the-art perception technology and are able to listen, speak, learn, see and walk. Ten robots have started working as customs officers at three ports in China’s Guangdong province, authorities said. They were the first batch of intelligent robots, to be used by Chinese customs at the ports of Gongbei, Hengqin and Zhongshan, Xinhua news agency reported.
The robots, named Xiao Hai, have state-of-the-art perception technology and are able to listen, speak, learn, see and walk. Based on a specialized customs database, the robots can answer questions in 28 languages and dialects, including Cantonese, Mandarin, English and Japanese.
There are some particular problems they cannot solve, and customs officials said they will link the robots to their customer service hotline in the future. With face recognition technology, the robots can detect suspicious people and raise an alarm, according to Zhao Min, director of Gongbei customs.
Then, once you leave customs, you walk out into the bright daylight and confront traffic. China has traffic galore as they are a very populous nation.
Check out this MICRO VIDEO of the amazing traffic technology being implemented in Chinese cities this year…
Chinese traffic lights. As 3D holographic laser light presentations. Meanwhile the USA is still using 1960’s technology in traffic control.
It’s not even funny how much the Chinese have pushed ahead of American technology. While American industry has been hiring “Diversity officers” to hire employees based on minority “disadvantage”, China doubled down and only hires and promotes on merit.
The Chinese are a serious people. They do not play around.
Their products are excellent. For instance, when President Trump shut off all the Huawei 5G products and development in the United States, China said fine. You see most of the Apple, Motorola, and LG products are all designed in China. (Aside from some leadership positions.) Not in the United States.
There will be a retreat in technological, educational, and manufacturing leadership. The attempts by Donald Trump to thwart the global strategic trade supply chain has not been successful, and only aggravates an already dire situation.
So all the Chinese workers, the engineers, the developers and the designers, they are all inside China. They live in China. They are Chinese, and are paid Chinese wages and salaries. So when the United States government started to crack down on this outsourcing, they politely bowed, and left. They left the American owned companies. They walked across the street. And then they joined the Chinese owned companies. No problem.
With this influx of American-trained talent, China just took off.
They sprinted ahead and are now galloping forward at a healthy clip. The American companies are now in a kind of funky planning stage on how to react to the disruptions in their supply chains.
Check out this MICRO VIDEO of the latest wrap-around visual technology in the new Huawei phones. Pretty darn impressive.
Almost all communication products are designed in China. So if American companies cannot hire the Chinese engineers to make the products, the Chinese companies would instead,
And of course, there is there growing drone and robotics industries. Both of which has dwarfed anything in the United States.
For instance, today all public fireworks displays in China come along with these lighted drone formations. These make an enormous three dimensional visual canvas. This is, I must admit, quite visually stunning. When I first saw this in 2014 I was stunned. And today, it is so very commonplace that no one seems to give it a second thought.
Check out the impressive swarm drones in this MICRO VIDEO below…
Chinese swarm drones.
It’s like those super modern high-speed trains everywhere. “Oh that thing? What you’ve never ridden in one before?”
High speed rail is fast, cheap, clean, economically and ecologically friendly. It is accessible, and a great way for getting from one point to another. There are no long TSA lines. The seats are big, roomy, and the ride is comfortable and smooth. And the cost. Well, the cost is about 1/6 the cost of an airline ticket.
Read more (opens in a separate tab) here…
People! Seriously, China got started about four decades ago, and kept on running. They are moving forward, and perhaps (from their point of view) it’s a good thing that people are oblivious just how quickly and far that they are advancing.
So you know they are advancing in robotics, and in synthetic memory and minds. How about sex toys? Are you aware of the quality and scope of the Chinese sex toy industry? It’s taking the world by storm, I’ll tell you what.
Off the shelf standard sex doll. This one is warm to the touch, can talk and converse (in multiple languages) and has some limited mobility circuits.
Here’s another sex doll.
They come in a wide range of styles, shapes, weights and performance. Personally, if you are desirous of purchasing a sex robot, I would advise getting the premium model. They come with additional features that help mitigate the price tag amount.
This sex doll has limited functionality, being more a doll rather than a robot. However, it is totally and completely customizable. You can select anything from eye color, skin tone, body softness, height, check size, and many other attributes.
The point here is that everything from custom genetic designed pets, electric vehicles, to yes, even sex dolls are made in China and they are made well in China.
No one in America is apparently aware of this.
Go ahead, ask an American “China expert” on [1] the gongbei robotic customs officers, the [2] holographic traffic gates at cross-walks, the [3] 5G integration of Shenzhen, or [4] to name all the different makes and models of electric cars debuting out of China this year. He can’t.
And thus… he’s no “expert”.
Just an actor, pretending. He found a nitch a few years back and has been milking it over the years. But, you know, China is not America it’s rate of change is about 20x that of America’s. You need to really pay attention to keep up with all the changes.
Or else you will just be regurgitating “sound box” echo chamber narratives from like-minded individuals.
One of the many, many new housing subdivisions in China.
John Bolton actually stated in late September 2019 that (I am paraphrasing) “… the tariff wars has sent China back twenty years…”.
Twenty years, eh?
Ah, the ignorance is great in this one. Either that, or he has a tumor in his head. It’s a typical characteristic of neocons, don’t you know.
Most of the companies in the US–China Business Council (an organisation of about 200 American firms that trade with China) think that investment will continue to flow. A full 97% of the council’s members say their operations in China are profitable, and 87% report that they have no plans to relocate any of their activities to other countries.
Some of the difficulties of ‘reshoring’ manufacturing jobs back to the US were brilliantly revealed by the recent Netflix documentary American Factory too (see WiC464).
In the meantime there is little sign that the Chinese supply chain is being eroded, because of the tariff pressure from Washington.
“Trump’s claim that an exodus of foreign firms will force China to capitulate to US demands to settle the trade war is wishful thinking at best,” Lardy concludes.
-Week in China
Knowing the trade situation as it is, what can be done to salvage it?
That’s what this article is all about.
It’s about us taking a pragmatic, realistic look at the way things are, not at how we wish them to be, and planning on implementation of changes for our own personal benefit.
Let’s look at each issue and figure out how we can reduce or ameliorate the situation successfully. In so doing, let’s tackle the American mainstream (conservative & liberal) narratives. Let’s do it one, by one, and see how we can migrate things into “our” favor.
It sure beats sitting in a dark closet and trying to shoot darts at a target that we cannot see. Eh? Or, to put it another way. We don’t want to go around to tree after tree, pissing indiscriminately.
American mainstream media reporting on the trade wars.
Here’s some Mainstream media issues, and what the “informed” American populace thinks about China. Let’s take each one, dissect it, and see what we can do about it. OK.
$500 B trade deficit.
Global Supply Chain.
Made in China is bad.
China is ripping the USA off!
Chinese are unable to buy American products.
Chinese products are poor quality, simple and break down.
Chinese workers are slaves that labor for nothing.
Fair Trade
Dumping products
Stealing IP
They are dirty Commies!
Tariffs will bring back jobs.
For starters let’s tackle the A-#1 reason why the trump Tariff Wars exist in the first place. It is because America is losing $500 billion dollars every year to China, and we (pretty much) need to reduce that amount in order for America to be vibrant, healthy and prosperous.
[Issue 1] We are losing $500 billion every year to China
This is based on the fact that we have a trade deficit in goods for about $500B. This is a fact, Jack.
But, what is the composition of that deficit? Where within that composition can we move things to our advantage, and what parts should we ignore as hopeless?
Well, when we study the deficit we note that it is only based on products. It doesn’t include services. And in this area we have a surplus with China. We export those services to China. There are things that they cannot do, but we can. It’s our strength.
I propose that we increase our strength in this area. Work on our strengths, not play to our weaknesses. No matter how good it sounds politically. Give and take.
We provide services. They give us products.
Why not put a tax on the services that we supply to China? That tax can then be used to offset the tariffs that Americans must pay in imported products.
Play on our strengths. It’s a win-win for Americans.
[Issue 2] The Global Supply chain.
Then there’s the global supply chain.
Today we have a global business environment, and no wishing for the “good old days” is going to put that “Genie back into the lamp”. That “train has left the station”.
China imports a lot of natural resources and components from other countries to manufacture and assemble the finished goods. China buys chromium from Africa, and that goes into the metal alloys in cell-phones, drone motors and automobile electronic chip-sets.
Now, China does import other raw materials.
And yes, they do import a lot of raw materials out of the United States. And, no, I’m not talking about wheat, rice, and barley. I’m talking about uranium, and other precious metals that we have. Not to mention coal. China wants our coal. China wants our natural gas. Why not give it to them?
…at a price, don’t you know.
Again, that little bit of extra cost to buy from Americans can be used to offset the imbalance in tariffs. It would be a win-win for the American consumer.
Continue our exports to China, only raise the prices on them. Not prohibitively high, but gradually over time. Another win – win for Americans. Be smart. Think long term.
[Issue 3] Made in China.
Not every product made in China is Chinese.
It’s not. Many Japanese, British, German, French, and yes… American products are made in China. Actually 40% of “Chinese” exports are actually products of foreign (multi-national) corporations based in China. Many of which are American owned.
You’d never hear that in the American mainstream media.
Like Apple and their iphone. Like all those hobby drones that you can buy in the stores. Like the automobile electronics found in all the Fords, General Motors and other American cars. They are all American, but manufactured in China.
They are all American products, manufactured, designed and built in China.
Check out this graph…
Chart of the Chinese exports of goods, broken down by resource type, over the last ten years.
Thus, all these “Chinese” goods, aren’t really Chinese at all. They may be American, Japanese, South Korean, German etc.
You see, it’s easy to consider trade as products from one nation to another. But the fact is that the way business, and manufacturing is conducted today does not resemble in any way the old “made here, stays here” formula.
We need to take that into account.
We could by law, force American companies to make their products in America. That is, forbidding them to manufacture parts and components outside of America. It would be a law specifically targeting “supply chain management” outside of the USA.
American products should be made in America. We can still buy from China, but those products that are made by American companies need to be made in America.
No tariffs that Americans need to pay. More jobs for Americans. Yet another win-win.
[Issue 4] China is ripping us off!
This is pretty much the narrative. It doesn’t matter if you are an American Conservative, a liberal, or a member of the American mainstream media, this is the mantra.
Cheap junk in Walmart – China’s fault!
High prices for iPhones – China’s fault!
Power tool breaks – China’s fault!
US oligarchs and corporations decided to move American jobs abroad not China.
China smiled and took the business. But, seriously, their attitude was "Meh, whatever!". You see, everyone was coming to China to manufacture their products. America had to stand in line.
They raked in the profits, and gave the American consumers some benefit in being able to purchase inexpensive goods.
They came to China with bucket loads of cash. They promised the Chinese the world and gave them blueprints, technical specifications and trained them how to make their products. Then they sat back, drank their chardonnay while the money poured in.
US oligarchs and corporations decided to move American jobs abroad not China. They raked in the profits, and gave the American consumers some benefit in being able to purchase inexpensive goods.
Yes.
Never forget, US consumers and businesses benefit from inexpensive Chinese goods and labor. So, let’s not blame China for the lost manufacturing jobs. If you want to do something about it instead of eternally complaining then…
…ONLY BUY AMERICAN.
What’s so darn hard about that?
So stop your moaning and groaning. Start today. Stop buying anything that even resembles something imported. Period. You cannot change the world, but you can change your little part of it. Begin now. Begin today.
[Issue 5] They don’t buy our products!
This is another outright lie that is somehow broadcast in the United States. The actual reality is quite different. The Chinese place a high value on American products. In fact, in terms of personal value, to a Chinese person, owning a Buick is about equal to owning a Lamborghini. Yes!
It’s one of those jaw-dropping things that boggles the mind of most Americans. For in America, a Buick is considered a robust typical family car. While in China, it is considered the height of luxury, good taste, while at the same time being fiercely loyal to one’s family.
In China, the Mary Kay company gives her top saleswomen pink Buicks.
Perhaps that’s all part of the reason why GM sells more cars in China than in the US.
Not to mention that Apple sells more iPhones in China than in the US.
For United States semiconductor giant, Qualcomm, 65% of their revenues come from China.
Boeing sold 1000 planes to China in the last five years.
In fact, most major US corporations consider China as their #1 or #2 market.
So, yes, China has a very open market and it buys a lot of American services and goods, but a lot of them happen to be made in China. Similarly, corporations such as Starbucks, McDonald’s, KFC etc. profit enormously from their thousands of branches in China.
Starbucks continues to open thousands of new stores each year, mainly outside of the North American market. The company has a five-year plan with several goals to continue driving growth. Starbucks wants to be the employer of choice and invest in those employees who continue to deliver superior customer service. Starbucks has always been on the forefront of valuing employees, especially its part-time staff. The company has stated it will grow to 30,000 locations globally and work on creating new reasons for customers to visit its stores throughout the day.
The Chinese love, just love American products. If you really want to offset the trade imbalance between the two nations, then sell more products to China. This means a retail presence inside of China and far greater social and industrial brands than what is presently established.
The Chinese end up buying more American products (especially if they are made in America) and the Americans take home more money. The Chinese are willing to PAY MORE money for an American product just by virtue of it’s reputation. Don’t squander this advantage.
Sell more products to China, they will be happy, and the Americans will be raking in the money. It’s a win – win for America.
[Issue 6] Chinese products are crap
If Chinese products are crap, why do Americans keep spending $500 billion a year on buying crappy things?
Are Americans stupid, or powerless to change things? Is it that the deplorable Americans are just uneducated simpletons. Not hip to the wily ways of the Chinese?
Is that the narrative?
This narrative makes no sense. Not really. Everyone seems to think that all China makes is the cheapest toys in Walmart, but it’s only Americans that makes the computers, iphones and drones that fly in the sky.
Wrong! The roles are actually the reverse.
Don’t forget that BMW manufactures most of their cars in China.
BMW debuted its Vision Future Interaction Concept, a Mirrorless i8 Concept and its Internet of Things concept. It’s a very large suite of new technologies and it’s all extremely impressive. However, BMW wants to make it disappear into the background and make it invisible to customers.
Also, iPhones, Nike shoes and Prada bags are all made in China.
And Chinese brands like Huawei and OnePlus are actually beating Apple. So it’s not as if Chinese can’t make high-end, high-quality products.
They can, and they do.
We need to recognize the true and real state of things. That way we can best be able to decide on courses of action that actually work.
Instead of the progressive liberal Marxist "feel good" legislation.
That said, if you pay someone $1 an hour, don’t expect amazing products that will last for a lifetime. You get what you pay for.
You can only pick two.
Also, Chinese corporations are working their way up the value chain. Chinese high-end smartphones (Xiaomi and OnePlus) are already #1 in large consumer markets such as India; and, within five years, Chinese electric cars will be globally popular as well.
Chinese electric vehicles dominate. More Chinese electric vehicles are made in China than in the rest of the world combined.
To understand how to take advantage of the global situation, you must first understand it as it exists. We need to see things as they are. Not as we want them to be. That way, we can leverage the situation towards our very own benefit. It will be a win-win for Americans.
A win-win for Americans.
LeEco announced its investment in a joint venture between Aston Martin and Faraday Future, a direct competitor of Tesla, further signalling its intentions in the space. The front of the car features an LED loop that can be lit in different spots such as indicators or fog lights. The rear passenger doors, known as ‘suicide doors’ open from a hinge at the rear, as opposed to the front. They’ve also waived a previous law that protected home-grown companies from being gutted by foreign competition, as long as they invest in electric technology.
That’s led to a boom in EV startups such as NextEV and CH-Auto who, along with LeEco, could turn the car industry on its head. Especially given the size of China’s domestic market has now surged past America’s to become the largest economy in the world. Chinese EV companies have also been poaching talent from the likes of BMW to help make China the electric car center of the world.
[Issue 7] Everything in China is made by slave labor
It’s not.
The Chinese have a much stronger work-ethic than Americans have. We might not want to hear it, but it is true.
There is nothing good or bad about it. It has do do with society. The higher percentage that Americans have for leisure transmits in more time to attend church, more time for personal education, and more time to spend with the family and making the best of the life that one has. Let the Chinese work themselves to the bone. Americans don’t need to as we have what is known as work-life-balance. It’s a good thing… for us.
Let others live their lives as they want. If they want to work 12 hour days and on Saturdays, let them. Live and let live.
They also have different laws, different customs, and different culture. Thus comparing labor in China to that of the USA is like comparing apples to oranges.
Here is a brief comparison between three factories. One is an American non-union factory. One is a union American factory. One is a Chinese factory. One of the first things that the astute reader will notice that, aside from the pay, there is little else of value that the union provides the employees.
The second thing that you will notice is that the Chinese employee is granted all kinds of things that an American would never, ever be provided with. Like free housing (as in a personal apartment), free internet, three free meals a day, and many other things unheard of in the United States.
This is a quick generalized comparison between factories in the United States compared to factories in China. It is a gross simplification on many levels. However there are some things that need to be taken into account. firstly, the Chinese make far less money than their American counterparts. On the other hand, they get many perks and things that Americans can only dream about.
If you want to buy a product at Walmart, and you like it’s price, then go for it.
Sears tried to compete against Walmart, and lost. They offered better quality, warranties, and (for a spell) better working conditions in the factories that supplied the products to them.
It didn’t work.
When I buy something made in Wisconsin, I do not know about the working conditions that the product was created under. What I do know is that I liked the product and so I bought it.
China’s electric vehicle start-up Nio launched its first mass-produced model over the weekend, in a home market marked by competition with companies such as Tesla. The ES8, which starts at 448,000 Chinese yuan ($67,765) is half the starting price of Tesla’s 836,000 yuan ($126,470) Model X in China.
Complaining about situations beyond your control, outside of your understanding, and trying to moan and groan about it is fruitless. If you think that the Chinese labor like slaves, then DON’T BUY CHINESE PRODUCTS, and shut the heck up.
It’s a win win.
[Issue 8] We want Fair Trade and China must lower their tariffs
It’s not as if the only thing that stands in the way of US progress is China’s tariffs. Consider that we imported 8 million cars last year.
We imported Eight Million cars.
Eight / Million / Cars.
Maybe we should buy American goods, before we demand that others buy American products. Eh?
Imported vehicles to the United States. Most of the vehicle imports to the USA come from Canada and Mexico. While China is certainly the leader in automotive manufacture by volume, type, and differentiation, it hardly exports any vehicles to the United States.
Also, even if China eliminates their tariffs on our exports, US corporations will find that it’s still cheaper to manufacture goods in China, rather than making them here and shipping them over.
It’s not about nations. It’s about the oligarchy and the companies that they control.
Let’s not forget that the US already has a lot of protectionist tariffs, quotas, barriers and subsidies for various products and business sectors. Every government in the world has to cater to its people and special interest groups.
Finally, since WWII, the US has enjoyed an extraordinary privilege of being able to easily print the global reserve currency and wantonly borrow from the rest of the world.
Be careful what you wish for.
For a true “level playing field,” all currencies must be equal, which Americans won’t easily accept. Yeah. Can you just imagine if China could sanction western countries and arrest western CEOs for violating Chinese sanctions! Like the USA does.
Be careful what you wish for.
Most Americans, American companies, and the company stockholders would be most unhappy if China began to play to the same rules that the United States have implemented over the last four decades.
I would advise that we get on the good side of China. With China as a friend we can merge with shared benefit. Treating them as an enemy does the opposite. Work together for the betterment of all. It’s a win – win for everyone.
[Issue 9] They operate at losses and dump products
It is true. There are some state-operated Chinese entities that keep operating while losing money and simply rolling over their debt. China allows that to create employment for its people and also, sometimes, to capture the global market.
However, US corporations such as Amazon, Uber, Netflix and others do the same as well.
Moneys flow toward utility. The Chinese fund factories. The USA funds institutions.
China is a nation that values work, labor and production. America is a nation that values medicine, social reconstruction and government, As such, China will make the products that Americans will use under regulation.
It’s just the way things are.
China is a nation that values work, labor and production. America is a nation that values medicine, social reconstruction and government. You can easily see where all the money is going in America. Just look at the top three items. As such, China will make the products that Americans will use under regulation.
Truthfully, the only difference being that the US corporations are subsidized by commercial banks and the Federal Reserve Bank. While the Chinese factories are subsidized by the Bank of China.
We need to recognize that within the framework of utility. When we do, and grasp the true nature of things, it becomes easier to accept the truth. China makes the things that Americans use. Embrace that reality. It will be a win – win for Americans.
[Issue 10] They steal our IP
IP = Intellectual Property.
Most of these accusations are unwarranted.
It makes for great arguments, and a pretty decent media platform from which to espouse upon, but really, it’s just nonsensical. No one is sneaking around “stealing things”.
The Chinese company just buys an American company fair and square. Then , since they own the patents and the equipment and the intellectual property, they can do with it as they wish.
Carpetbaggers
In general, the term “carpetbagger” refers to a traveler who arrives in a new region with only a satchel (or carpetbag) of possessions, and who attempts to profit from or gain control over his new surroundings, often against the will or consent of the original inhabitants. After 1865, a number of northerners moved to the South to purchase land, lease plantations or partner with down-and-out planters in the hopes of making money from cotton. At first they were welcomed, as southerners saw the need for northern capital and investment to get the devastated region back on its feet. They later became an object of much scorn, as many southerners saw them as low-class and opportunistic newcomers seeking to get rich on their misfortune.
If China is stealing our IP, how come Tesla just opened a new plant in Shanghai and Boeing just announced a new factory in China?
If China is a thief, how come Intel Corp. has funded Horizon Robotics, a Chinese startup?
If China is a threat, why does Warren Buffet own 10% of BYD, China’s biggest electric car manufacturer?
Every western hi-tech firm — Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Dell etc. — has branches in China and they wouldn’t do it if China is just stealing their IP. They are not stupid. Are they?
Yes, China required transfer of technology in many industries, but it was a voluntary, consensual business transaction. Driven by greed to conquer the Chinese consumer market, western corporations obliged. Also, arrogance made the West assume that Chinese copycats will never be good enough.
Fast-food giant McDonald’s is selling a controlling stake in its China business to a group of investors led by state-owned Chinese conglomerate Citic in a deal worth up to $2.1 billion, the companies said Monday. The transaction is part of a global business overhaul being carried out by the American company to keep up with changing tastes that have resulted in declining sales. Under the terms of the deal, Citic Ltd. and its investment management unit Citic Capital will acquire 52 percent of the business while another partner, Washington-based private equity firm The Carlyle Group, will own 28 percent.
There are definitely problems with Chinese espionage and those must be opposed and stopped. However, most people confuse blatant theft of intellectual property with it being given away. And for the last couple of decades, the American companies did just that. They gave the technology away so that the American company owner can make enormous profits in the transaction.
America lost it’s technical edge, so that a hand-full of individuals could profit from it. These Americans sold out America so that they could become filthy, filthy, rich.
For America to become great again, we need to arrest and imprison those that gave away our strengths, our knowledge, our technologies, our resources for their own personal profit. They should be in jail instead of drinking chardonnay in one of their many mansions. It’ll be a win – win for Americans.
[Issue 11] But they’re commies!
In spite of China’s “communist” party, CCP, what they have is a unique mix of socialism, capitalism and Confucianism. Don’t treat them as a cardboard cutout, a cartoon of something evil. They are not, and you should be ashamed to fall for the 1930’s-era propaganda template.
Chinese communism is NOT the same kind of communism that we Americans have come to think of. It is something all together different.
The private sector is vibrant — [1] 90% of new jobs are created by private enterprises, [2] venture capitalists are investing more in Chinese startups than in American counterparts, [3] the upper middle class is growing rapidly (200 million), [4] there are 3.5 million millionaires and [5] two new billionaires were created every week last year.
Two new millionaires every week!
China is not your textbook “communist” country.
While the Chinese government is certainly authoritarian, relative to western democracies, it has accomplished an economic miracle over the last four decades that’s unprecedented in human history.
800 million people were lifted out of poverty and the GDP grew 40-fold in 40 years.
That’s why 84% of Chinese trust their government and 68% say that the government is the best institution to lead the country to a better future.
To understand how we can “beat the other team”, we need to understand who they really are, what their tactics are, how they call their plays, and their strengths and weaknesses. It will be a win – win for Americans.
[Issue 12] Tariffs will bring back jobs
Tariffs can only bring back jobs if there are American alternatives to the Chinese products. That way the tariffs will price the Chinese products at a disadvantage to American products. And the consumers will want to buy American products.
But…
The vast majority of products under the Trump tariff schedule has no comparative American-made alternative.
Thus it will be the American consumer that will be paying the tariffs, as they will have no other alternatives.
This is a real big problem, and perhaps the real heart of the problem with the “trade wars” today. We need to realize how legislative actions produce unintended consequences…
In the 1990's Bill Clinton and his Democrat controlled Congress, single-handedly devastated the American ship-building industry. You see, they laid a "wealth tax" on boats. As they (incorrectly as it turned out) that only wealthy people could afford yachts, and small boats.
What happened, is that everyone stopped buying boats. As a result the entire ship-building industry collapsed. It took decades to recover, and even today it is just limping along.
You see, most of the products that Americans buy comes from China, and that there are zero alternatives. This is a problem. This is a really big problem.
Factories do not grow on trees.
You cannot snap your fingers and immediately start making televisions sets, drones, robots, kitchen appliances and shoes from nothing. You need talent, knowledge, machinery and a skilled and talented work force.
But, you do know, that most of the American work force does not have this background. Their background is in the service industries.
Thus creating a factory, or even moving it from China to the USA is a very difficult thing to do. Check out this link (opens up in another tab).
You see, Trump’s 10% or 25% tariff on Chinese goods won’t create enough incentive for most manufacturers to start building products in the US. At the most, US companies will simply move the manufacturing to other developing nations such as Vietnam, Thaliand etc. Moreover, Chinese Yuan has already fallen 10%, thus largely neutralizing the first round of tariffs.
Considering that every major business/lobbying group, corporation and economist is against tariffs and trade wars, it’s highly unlikely that jobs are going return from Asia, Mexico and elsewhere.
Tariffs and retaliatory tariffs can also lead to a big loss of jobs or even a recession. There have already been endless stream of stories about layoffs and lost sales.
While it’s true that some Japanese and German automakers who want to avoid confrontations may build new assembly plants in the US, others may be forced to relocate some existing factories from the US to Europe and China to avoid the cross-border tariffs.
Make a favorable environment for other nations to put their factories in America.
Reduce regulations so that the factories will want to move to America.
Limit the taxes on employers, and on workers so that the American factory worker has a chance to compete.
It will be a win-win for Americans.
Conclusion
There won’t be any winner in the trade war. China in 2019 isn’t China in 1990. We should stop treating it as such. That is crazy.
At the same time, the West should be mindful of history — the Opium Wars and the following Century of Humiliation are etched in the Chinese national psyche. China has worked very hard and sacrificed a lot in the last forty years; and they’re not going to give up their dreams. They are a nation of achievers.
The Chinese are a serious nation and do not play around. If this trade situation is not handled carefully, things can turn really bad for America. It’s not going to be anything like Americans expect.
(Aside from the total collapse of America at every level...) I think there are two other options.
One would be a crisis and defeat. That is something we have not experienced in America. What that would look like we can only speculate by looking at other examples of defeated nations, what has happened to them, and how they have adjusted to their post-defeat role.
You might look at the defeated Axis powers after World War II as an interesting test case, and we have written a little bit about that. One thing that might even be most disturbing of all, is that no real crisis ever ultimately expresses itself, which actually, oddly enough, may be the worst outcome of all.
That is to say, everything we see about our world today, the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer, democracy sort of ebbing away, people feeling powerless over their political lives, people feeling less and less a sense of civic participation or belonging, and we have kind of turned that up.
There is an interesting book by Tyler Cohen. He is a very popular writer now, he wrote Average is Over and The Great Stagnation. He wrote a recent book called The Complacent Class. If you want to read a book about America’s future in the absence of a fourth turning, read that book.
The real rate of return gets lower and lower, we kind of approach the stationary state, productivity growth kind of ebbs to nothing, we become a kind of nominal market society, but one in which all the markets are dominated by a few very large companies with enormous market power and concentration.
In that kind of society, highly stratified, not feeling at all like what we think of as being America, is, I think, the scariest one, one in which global problems, problems of global order are not rectified. And it is one that disturbs me the most.
-McAlvany
So, let’s get rid of the zero-sum mentality, drop the aggressive posture, come up with tangible goals, and negotiate with respect and a smile.
The tariffs have slowed China’s economy, which grew 6.6 percent in 2018, its slowest rate in almost three decades. Meanwhile the United States grew an amazing 1.7 percent. The most astounding growth in decades.
For goodness sakes. Everyone can win. We just need to stop playing the neocon war – war -war game. It’s going to really… REALLY harm the United States. And I do mean BIGLY.
So, let’s think smart. Address things as they really are, and work for a win-win for everyone. Now is the time to do it.
12OCT19 Update
Trump said the U.S. and China have "agreed in principle" on a preliminary trade agreement. Trump acknowledged that differences remain on major issues on which the two countries are divided, but the White House still decided not to push ahead with a planned increased to tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods next week.
The move would have raised those tariffs to 30% from 25%.
"There's too many factors at play for him to just issue threats to governments, China's or anybody else's, to just follow along with what he says," said Wang, referring to the U.S. president's previous threats to slap additional penalties on Chinese goods.
-USA Today; Senior China adviser: Trump to blame for delays in securing final trade deal, says China has been 'accommodating'
Links about China
Here are some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader, might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.
China and America Comparisons
As an American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.
The Chinese Business KTV Experience
This is the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal press. This is the reality. Read or not.
Learning About China
Who doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in China.
Contemporaneous Chinese Music
This is a series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and enjoyment.
Parks in China
The parks in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.
Really Strange China
Here are some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events, while others are just representative of the differences in culture.
What is China like?
The purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world, outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank you.
And while America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources, and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and you can see this in their day-to-day lives.
Summer in Asia
Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…
Some Fun Videos
Here’s a collection of some fun videos taken all over Asia. While there are many videos taken in China, we also have some taken in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and Japan as well. It’s all in fun.
Articles & Links
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
We often talk (and complain) about the bad side of the new Orwellian police state that all nations are morphing into. Yet, with all of our moaning, groaning, and complaining we neglect to look at the more positive aspects. No, this is not an article in praise of the Orwellian Police State. Instead, we look at how intense monitoring of enormous populations, using high resolution cameras and 5G networks enable full “real time” tracking of agitators and hooligans. Especially those from another nation. Ones that are intended to destabilize, and cause strife, for global political ends.
In particular, we will look at the tracking (by China) of the United States agitation in the (so called) “Free Democracy” movement in Hong Kong during the Summer of 2019.
Quick Review
The United States under President Donald Trump has been involved in difficult negotiations with China over trade. These negotiations began in 2017, and “heated up” in early Summer of 2019. During the Summer of 2019 mass “Pro Democracy” protests broke out in Hong Kong. The idea, of course, has been to put every type and means of “pressure” on China so that the trade negotiations would fall in favor of the United States.
I covered the Chinese reaction to all this here. The link below opens up into a separate tab so as not to interrupt your viewing pleasure in this article.
These “pressures” included such things as…
Increasing Tariffs on Chinese made products.
Protests and disruptions in Hong Kong.
Asking European Nations to stop or break trade with China.
Financial incentives to other nations.
Pressure on American companies to move back to the USA.
Time will tell just how effective they will all be.
What I do know, as of the time of this writing, at the tail-end of September moving forward into the 70th anniversary of China, the following is true…
[1] International Trade
There is a GLOBAL slowing of all international trade.
International trade, across the board is reduced by 30%.
Companies located in strong pro-USA nations (Australia, NZ, and the UK) are looking for alternative off-shore supply chain operations outside of China. But there just aren’t any.
[2] American Trade With China
China has also surprised Americans with the most complete supply chains in the world. "You need a thousand rubber gaskets? That's the factory next door. You need a million screws? That factory is a block away. You need that screw made a little bit different? It will take three hours," one former high-ranking Apple executive was quoted as saying in a New York Times report.
- Smaller US companies depend on Chinese supply chain
The clear majority of American companies are staying inside of China. This is out of financial necessity. They do not have the financial means to take on the enormous financial risks to relocate back to the USA.
Those American companies are passing on the tariffs directly to the American consumer (25% direct) or (10% through a “pass through” arrangement).
But all accounts, the tariff situation is hurting American consumers much more than it is hurting China.
Read about the reasons here. Opens in a separate tab.
[3] Cut in American Food Items for Export
The cut in importation of American foodstuffs has resulted in the increase in the price of food. But not in the availability of food. China has food galore and a-plenty.
This goes absolutely against the American media narrative. Which on some websites are even suggesting famine! It’s insane. Ah, but, it’s easy enough to check.
China has spent the last thirty years building up their self-sufficiency in food, technology and vital products. They have not forgotten the mistakes made under Communism under Mr. Mao.
Now, of course, there are all kinds of different cuts of pork. It would be like comparing apples and watermelons if we use different cuts of pork. But, you know what, we work with what we have to work with.
Here is a flier showing one of the more expensive cuts of pork (it’s the Chinese national holiday, after all, ) Never the less, you can clearly see that a pork roast costs 17.8 RMB / half a Kg in October. Where in January (before the trade embargoes) a cheap cut of pork shoulder costs 12.8 RMB / half a Kg.
At which I would like to remind the reader that China is a bacon-loving nation. They love their pork and out-produces pork products that makes America look like teeny-boppers.
China, with it’s enormous population, does not need food imports to exist. China is an enormous breadbasket. Farms exist everywhere. For instance, did you know that China has more pigs than the next 43 pork producing countries combined.
Yeah. America is a light-weight in pork production.
The Chinese love pork. This is a nation that loves bacon. They love pork chops, and all sorts of pork products.
China does not need any imports of food to feed it’s people. It is self-sufficient.
China feeds 22 percent of the world population with only seven percent of the planet's arable land. Land is heavily utilized for agriculture. Vegetables are planted on road embankments, in traffic triangles and right up the walls of many buildings.
China is the world's top consumer of meat and grain. As it becomes more affluent people consume more meat and cooking oil and this has lead to increased demand for soybeans as an oil source and feed for livestock. China also uses more fertilizer that any other country.
According to United Nations statistics, China's cereal production is the largest in the world. In 2003 China produced 377 million tons, or 18.1 percent of total world production. Its plant oil crops---at 15 million tons in 2003---are a close second to those of the United States and amounted to 12.6 percent of total world production.
Lauren Keane wrote in the Washington Post, “China has a long-standing policy of food self-sufficiency, growing 95 percent of the grain required to feed its people. The country's sheer size means that a major crop failure or other food emergency here could have international ramifications, overwhelming world food markets with sudden demand. "Were China to need to import a large amount of grain, it would have a very dramatic impact on world food prices," said Anthea Webb, director of World Food Program China. [Source:Lauren Keane, Washington Post, May 31, 2010]
-Facts and Details
The idea that China cannot feed it’s people comes from the late
1960’s when the Communist central government failed in the
implementation of policy. Taking advantage of that situation was a SJW
moment known as the Cultural Revolution. It collapsed when the military had to be called into to restore order and control.
[4] Discarding of the United States Dollar
For a full half a century, the world used the USD to conduct international business and trade. This was advantageous for the United States. As the value of the dollar could be artificially propped up as the entire world was using this currency, and it was able to “float” upon the stability of the economies of multiple nations.
Not so any longer. Each time a nation stops using the USD as a currency for international trade, the stability of the USD decreases.
Numerous nations are starting to conduct trade in the Yuan instead of the US Dollar.
Numerous nations are buying up gold and increasing their gold reserves.
America has countered to this by printing more money, and taking on more debt.
Maybe these nations know something that many Americans aren’t.
In the forefront of all these various issues, we have the (so called) “Pro Democracy” movement in HK. This is an effort that is designed to destabilize the region as a way to put pressure on China.
Indeed, Donald Trump himself tweeted to Xi Peng in September that all the protests in HK would end abruptly if China agreed to the USA trade concessions.
How could Donald Trump say that if he wasn't able to make that happen?
The “Pro Democracy Movement”
I covered this subject in great deal elsewhere. If you want to find out who the players are, the stakes involved, the money that changes hands, and the interests of the American “deep state” swamp you can clink on this link below. It opens up in a separate tab so as not to interrupt your reading pleasure here.
In order to put pressure on China, Donald Trump utilized a branch of the CIA known as the National Endowment for Democracy or NED.
This is all well known as the “paper trail” for the funding is public knowledge. Indeed, groups in the coalition reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars from the NED and NDI last year alone.
You know… for “democracy” around the world.
While
US lawmakers nominate Hong Kong protest leaders for peace prizes and
pump their organizations with money to “promote democracy,” the
demonstrations have begun to spiral out of control.
And the people used to [1] instigate the riots, [2] train the protestors, arrange and [3] organize the newsmen and cameras and [4] teach and instruct the rioters for “soft conflicts” used to [5] provoke violent actions by the HK Police all have LinkedIN profiles.
Don’t you know.
So, even a dweeb like myself can [1] track the funding, [2] see the names and addresses of the agitators, and [3] view where they are and what they are doing in Hong Kong.
Just imagine what the Chinese government can do.
But Hong Kong is not America. It is part of China.
As Americans, especially those who have never stepped foot outside of America, think of other nations, other people and other cities from our point of view. That is to say, we imagine the WORST outside the USA. And never give the other nations any credit for doing certain things well. We just assume that they are all blunder-head nincompoops.
When we think of Hong Kong, we think of New York city.
Night meal in Hong Kong. Yup. It’s pretty much like this. And, yes, I do love it. It’s glorious.
Which is sad.
We should be thinking of Tokyo. We should be thinking of High-Tech (though not nearly as high-tech as Shenzhen), and state of the art. China is advancing in so, so , SO many ways and NONE of it is being reported by the mainstream American media.
We think, maybe that there are a few cameras here and there. We think that maybe the video feeds are being monitored, or that the traffic police are checking things out.
We don’t realize that the entire city is under constant advanced surveillance. And that China knows exactly what is going on in great detail.
Here, we are going to talk about this.
5G networks in all the Chinese cities
In the USA, there is an active program to justify why America is still using obsolete technology. “We don’t want to be irradiated with that dangerous 5G radio waves”, we say to ourselves. “We don’t want our brains cooked”.
Yeah. We heard it all before.
We Americans don’t want or need High Speed Rail. We are just happy with boarding our cattle-car-airlines, and paying the enormous ticket prices. We like doing it. HST has no place in America. Besides we have Amtrak!
Who cares about fluoride in the water? It’s a great way to get rid of the by-products of aluminum production. Fluoride is good for us. It’s modern, don’t you know.
America is great!
And a wall on the border of the USA and Mexico. It’s been three years and America can’t even construct a simple, singular wall. You know you have a problem when illiterate goat-herders in Afghanistan can make a half-decent wall and the great United States can’t even start…
Well, while Americans are justifying living in a nation that is increasingly becoming a “time portal” back to the last century, the rest of the world is advancing at break-neck speed.
Most of Africa has a growing and vibrant middle class, with malls, toll booths, and high speed (5G) internet. The Middle East (outside of the American-sponsored war zones) are all prospering. Check out the photos, for goodness sakes!
America is still stuck in the 1970’s I guess.
You can tell.
People still write checks instead of scan QR codes.
AM radio has the largest listening audience.
Everything comes with a price tag. Nothing is free, including water.
Software still has the same functionality as it did in the 1990’s, only now it has a nicer interface, but you must pay for updates and it auto copies your work “to the cloud” for governmental purposes.
China is different.
They have implemented 5G everywhere. There are cameras everywhere. And instead of paying people to collect welfare, have free healthcare, and protest for more goodies, China puts them to work. They are employed. They build things, clean things, work on things and monitor things.
Yes, and Hong Kong is constantly being monitored.
China is aware of everything.
One of the mysteries that I had was why didn’t the Chinese just “take out” the agitators? I mean, it was public knowledge who they were.
The HK populace are getting increasingly pissed off with the Antifa-style interruptions, and they are actively unmasking (literally) the protester participants. And, of course, everyone knows that everything you do is tracked in China. HK is NOT an exception.
So why not “take out the agitators”?
And then they actually did…
On Wednesday 4SEP19, President Trump reached out to China’s President Xi in a tweet:
“I know President Xi of China very well. He is a great leader who very much has the respect of his people. He is also a good man in a ‘tough business.’ I have ZERO doubt that if President Xi wants to quickly and humanely solve the Hong Kong problem, he can do it. Personal meeting? ”
-Donald Trump
So what is Donald Trump saying?
That’s he’s ready to stop the HK protests if Xi Peng negotiates.
Or, perhaps that China can use their military to enter HK.
So.. the Chinese went forth and rounded up all the CIA related NED operatives in Hong Kong.
The video footage was pretty darn dramatic.
It’s all in 5G. You can even count the eyebrow hair on the American CIA agents. The Chinese had everything. From complete transcripts of the CIA instructing the rioters in “soft conflict” designed to provoke a military reaction, to a second by second, “walk through” where Trump advisors worked out planning with the protest leadership.
It’s all there.
Not televised in the USA, though.
Man! The Chinese knew everything!
People, it’s pretty obvious that Washington D.C. is involved in the HK protests, when you have photos of the protest leaders meeting with American presidential aides!
Check out the photo below. Notice the angle of the photo. Taken by an object on a dining room table. (Below belt level.)
People,
it’s pretty obvious that Washington D.C. is involved in the HK
protests, when you have photos of the protest leaders meeting with
American presidential aides in the HK Marriot hotel!
This is very very embarrassing. Julie Eadeh, a US diplomat in Hong Kong, was caught meeting HK protest leaders. It would be hard to imagine the US reaction if Chinese diplomat were meeting leaders of Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter or Never Trump protesters. pic.twitter.com/JfiU2O2HZq
— Chen Weihua (@chenweihua) August 8, 2019
Of course, this kind of nonsense won’t be tolerated by China.
The Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong submitted a formal complaint with the US consulate general, calling on the US …
“to immediately make a clean break from anti-China forces who stir up trouble in Hong Kong, stop sending out wrong signals to violent offenders, refrain from meddling with Hong Kong affairs and avoid going further down the wrong path.”
The Chinese knew everything.
Everything. And they expected the United States to realize (and expect it).
They didn’t.
From the moment that Julie Eadeh stepped foot in Hong Kong, to how many steps she took to the elevator. They knew her heart-beat as she rode in the elevator in the Marriott. They even knew the color of the bra and panties that she wore. (Well, at least that is the current joke on Chinese social media…)
They know everything she said with the young protestors.
Everything.
Everything. From, promises, various “guarantees”, words of support and hope for assistance. As well as implications and guarantees of a cushy future and financial support in all sorts of ways. Any outsider can clearly see the implied promises under the veneer of political jargon.
Promises of free high-end university schooling .
Promises that they will be backed politically and that they will become the future leaders of HK.
Promises of houses, cars, and lifestyle,
Promises of money, lots and lots of money.
As well as who they are, and what they told her. Then they used “Minority Report” style technology to back-track and see who all the connections and phone calls that the confederates made. They had full conversation records, don’t you know.
The Chinese knew everything.
Of Course the CIA instructed the protestors.
It’s all on video. It’s all recorded in audio, and transcribed in English, Cantonese and Chinese. And then, then… then, plastered all over social media for the Chinese to see. Woo woo. What ever the American media is saying, the videos that the rest of the world watch clearly show that the United States is LYING.
It makes the United States look like some kind of Keystone Kops.
The protestors were instructed by NED to take out cameras and video systems. They were told to use black cans of spray paint.
Yes, but every can of black spray paint purchased in Hong Kong is recorded with a video of the person buying the paint. The Chinese government knows the person who bought the paint, and can make reasonable assumptions on it’s use. (The Chinese do not need to prove intent in a court of law.)
They were instructed to post flyers on the walls, use glue to hold them in place, and make banners.
But, every printer shop is under surveillance. Every one has video cameras installed. They know who ordered the flyers. They even have the PDF artwork in digital file from which the flyers were made. They know who ordered the fliers, when they ordered, who they paid and from which bank account. They also know the moneys that went into that bank account and who deposited the money.
They were instructed to leave their phones at home. And, I am sure that this helped. Maybe.
However, every person in China has a profile of “normal” behavior. If you take your phone with you every day, and then suddenly on a day of protest, you phone is at you house of residence, when the video cameras show you leaving the house, the police pretty much assumes what you are up to.
They were instructed in what to do by the CIA under the assumption that the Chinese are a growing third-world nation. Maybe like Libya or Syria.
They are not treating China like a high-technology version of Japan. They are not treating China like a serious, serious, SERIOUS nation that does not play around.
Conclusion
All of China is wired as a high-technology surveillance center. The larger cities are all wired. The Western cities (Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing) pretty much follow the “London model” of domestic surveillance.
While America has been busy throwing money away …
In “NASA educational programs for elementary schools in the Sudan”.
War after war. Now, eight simultaneous wars.
And 15 miles of rail for a High Speed Train that was never intended to be anything other than a political slush fund to pay off people.
… the Chinese have been spending their money on their nation. Improving the roads, public transport, lines and means of communication, public works, buildings, and public health. Not to mention, planting trees, making parks, and increasing the amount of farmland.
And they are dead serious about it. These Chinese are very, very serious people. Those that oppose or try to siphon away money are seized, arrested and imprisoned by the corruption police.
The Chinese do not mess around.
Thus when the United States tried to use the same “play book” to agitate protests in Hong Kong in the Summer of 2019, the Chinese observed and leveraged that information. Then when the time was ready, they pounced.
Round #1 – China win. USA media oblivious.
I anticipate another series of protests that the Chinese will observe, and then quietly (behind the scenes) squelch. Maybe in the first week of October 2019.
They will do so and the American television viewing public will be confused. They will wonder “what is going on”? Why doesn’t China relent and allow HK to be just like America?
Round #2 – TBD
It’s because the main-steam media (both conservative and progressive) provides a skewed nonsensical narrative. One that has no bearing on the true and actual state of affairs. And that ignorance… will be what ultimately hurts and harms America.
People! Listen up!
America NEEDS a well-informed electorate to function properly. To think that the vast bulk of Chinese citizens, both on the mainland, and in Hong Kong want America “to save them” is ludicrous. Absolutely bovine excrement!
Looking at the big picture, it looks silly…
The truth about the HK pro-democracy movement and the tariff wars.
Just silly. It make the United States look… well… awful.
Predictions
I cannot predict the future. It has been my experience that the future will always certainly surprise. Anything can happen.
Anything.
Anything.
Donald Trump could be impeached.
Joe Biden or some other Marxist could become President.
Anti-gun house-to-house collection efforts might begin in earnest.
The USA could start a war with Iran.
Bacon could be banned all over America so not to offend Muslims.
Taxes could be raised 50% to fight global-warming.
Gender-neutral operations could be mandated in all American elementary schools.
I do not know what is going to happen. I am always taken by surprise, and I haven’t a clue as to what is going to happen in the future. Maybe some more of the old same-old same-old, eh?
The future will surprise…
I never expected “Joe Camel” to be banned in the United States “for the children”. Heck, by law, you had to be at least 16 years old just to be able to buy the cigarettes.
It has certainly surprised me. Time and time again, what I expected to happen, never came true…
I expected the United States to have a full colony on the moon by the year 2000. I never, in my wildest dreams, thought that the money would be funneled away for infrastructure investments in Russia! As well as some social re-engineering initiatives in Baltimore, Detroit and San Francisco.
Not just objectively, but socially as well, and on so many levels at that. Don’t you know.
I never expected that 007 James Bond would be replaced with a black woman. Never, in my wildest nightmares. It’s not yet released. I wouldn’t be surprised if she is some kind of transgender LGBT thingy.
The future cannot be predicted. Not by myself. Not by anyone.
I never, in my wildest dreams, expected companies to do away with free coffee and coffee services. That they would expect the employees to “chip in” and pay for the coffee that they would drink at work. Amazing, and completely unexpected!
The future will always surprise.
In the trade front, it’s all in flux. What I really hope for is a strengthening of relationships. I hope for balanced trade without influence by the greedy in Washington D.C. and a chance for American industry to recover from the devastation of the Marxist globalist agenda. I can see it being a win-win for both the USA and China.
Seriously! China is an enormous market. They would pay a premium (+50% more) for “Made in America” products. But that is never going to happen if China matches the Trump tariff scheme. It just will close American companies to the enormous Chinese consumer market.
Right now, and for the last three years, the tariff negotiations have been driven by the Neocon advisors to Trump. They have asked the impossible and set up road-blocks at every turn.
Jimmy
Lai (HK ultra-billionaire) meets with American VP Mike Pence. His goal
is to disrupt the relationship between the United States and China so
that he can have financial and economic advantage in Hong Kong. His
primary and sole goal is to INTERRUPT the relationship between China and
America.
This is actionable disruption, and while it might make some political “hay” in the short term, it will result in some real serious problems in America in the long term.
Donald
Trump fired John Bolton. He obviously felt that John Bolton was not
“on the same page” in resolving the issues with China at this time.
As I have previously stated, John Bolton is a war-hawk and a neo-con from the “deep state”. He has opposed every effort that Trump has made to negotiate with China, North Korea, and Iran. In his world view these are all dictatorial nations and America must stand firm in opposing them in every way possible.
Understand that the rest of the world does not think like Americans. They do not watch American media and do not care what Americans think. They will follow nations that seemingly benefit THEM in the future.
They will be selfish. They will work with nations that provide them with benefit.
That being stated, do not make dated assumptions on the inflated capabilities of the United States, and upon the out-of-date ideas about China. I said it once, I said it twice. I will say it again. China is a serious, serious nation. They DO NOT PLAY. We had best start treating them as such.
Finally.
Do not think that China is not afraid to kill a few people for the greater public good. They will do so in a heart-beat.
Do not judge China under the same criteria that you might judge America. It is like comparing apples to an oak tree.
Chinese Social Media
You do not need to rely on CNN, Fox or Rush Limbaugh for your news. You can [1] watch the videos of the CIA agents getting arrested yourselves. You can [2] read what the “Joe on the streets” thinks about the protests. You can [3] see what is going on in the other side of the world with your own two eyes.
America needs an informed electorate to function properly.
Here’s some links to Chinese social media. Warning, most are banned in the United States. You might need to use a VPN to use them. You do know that the Software moguls in California does not like competition.
I posted this article under “bloggers” in the Free Republic website, and was subsequently banned. I guess they do not like my opinions.
Never the less, immediately afterwards, it turned out the the United States government admitted that everything in this post is true, and that was posted on the well-known Washington Post.
Then they totally blocked me. Erased my 20+ years of articles and comments, and I became a non-person. That’s what “freedom of speech” is on Free Republic. You will conform to the Alt-Right narrative out of Washington DC, or you get destroyed.
Well, I was “killed”, but…
..everything I wrote was accurate, and real. And thus…
Here are
some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader,
might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.
China and America Comparisons
As an
American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United
States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.
The Chinese Business KTV Experience
This is
the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the
British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal
press. This is the reality. Read or not.
Learning About China
Who
doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what
China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in
China.
Contemporaneous Chinese Music
This is a
series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It
is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I
am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series
of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and
enjoyment.
Parks in China
The parks
in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very
mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.
Really Strange China
Here are
some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem
odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events,
while others are just representative of the differences in culture.
What is China like?
The
purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world,
outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they
might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank
you.
And while
America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources,
and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has
done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and
you can see this in their day-to-day lives.
Summer in Asia
Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…
Some Fun Videos
Here’s a collection of some fun videos taken all over Asia. While
there are many videos taken in China, we also have some taken in
Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and Japan as well. It’s all in fun.
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
The American civil war set the South on fire. There in the heart of the United States was endless desolation, death, crime, and violence on a very, very personal scale. It tore at the heart of America. In the midst of all this, was an exit of Americans who fled American for a life elsewhere. The confederates that fled the United States didn’t do so to set up a nation where slavery was legal. They went elsewhere to set up a state where they the people had more power than the local government there.
This is their story.
Lost but not defeated. The Confederacy left America and set up shop in Brazil.
History.
History is very interesting, and one of the most interesting things about it is that it is constantly changing. Our reality, our knowledge of history is under constant assault, and under constant revision.
I grew up being taught that Christopher Columbus discovered America, and that the native Indians entered via a Bering Sea “land bridge”. Today, it is pretty well established that there have been numerous explorations of North America by everyone from the Ancient Egyptians to the Vikings, and even the Chinese. And as time progresses we have a better understanding that ancient man, those who inhabited North America, had the ability to create boats and sail on the high seas in earnest without fear.
Surprise Discovery That Ancient Tin Ingots Found in Israel Came From England ... the British Isles had developed maritime trade routes with the rest of the world as early as the Bronze Age.
-Ancient Origins
But it’s not just that.
History is being rewritten to fit political narratives. Everything from “Islam is a nation of peace”, to “the Nazi Holocaust did not occur”. Everything is being rewritten. It’s a common theme, this reconstruction of history, and erasure of the past. We see it all the time, in every nation.
From the Taliban (and their friends the) ISIS destroying the statues of Buddha in Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq to the destruction of statues in America and the rewrite of the political narratives for political expediency. It is everywhere. Once the Internet made mass erasure of the past expedient (a re-writable “white board”, if you will), everything has become prone to being erased and a new narrative written over it.
Enter President Obama
"Barack knows that we are going to have to make sacrifices; we are going to have to change our conversation; we're going to have to change our traditions, our history; we're going to have to move into a different place as a nation."
-Michelle Obama
Up until 2013, under President Obama, every single textbook and history book in the United States stated that the primary cause of the American Civil War was related to abuses of the tenth amendment. (Don’t believe me? Go visit a used book store, why won’t ya?)
They all were in lock-step with this narrative.
In American political discourse, states' rights are political powers held for the state governments rather than the federal government according to the United States Constitution, reflecting especially the enumerated powers of Congress and the Tenth Amendment.
The enumerated powers that are listed in the Constitution include exclusive federal powers, as well as concurrent powers that are shared with the states, and all of those powers are contrasted with the reserved powers—also called states' rights—that only the states possess.
-Wikipedia
For political reasons, and to reinforce his base, President Obama (around 2009 through 2014) rewrote history. Changing all internet references to the causes of the American Civil War from “States Rights” to “Slavery”. Today, if you visit any internet website on the causes of the American Civil War, you will discover that the causes are not listed as [1] Slavery, with a selection of [2] other causes that include “States Rights”.
Fun exercise;
Go to Wikipedia "The causes for the Civil War". Then go to the Revision History page. Check out the activity there, and the dates of the changes, as well as where the changes originated from.
This is interesting on numerous levels.
I find it interesting simply because all of the States that joined the Confederacy wrote up “Documents of Succession” that gave their reasons for leaving the United States union. And in those reasons, the top-most, A #1, most important reason was ‘States Rights”.
I mean, it’s RIGHT THERE.
There is no ambiguity there. The documents of succession list the reasons in great detail. (If a bit wordy.)
It’s in black and white.
It’s there, as plain as day. Not to mention that all of the discussions on succession that took place in the State capitals, and in the Federal Senate and Congress clearly state… unequivocally, that they left because the Federal government was interfering on the local and state level.
We won’t get too far into the rewriting discourse. That’s a subject for another time. Anyways, you can read about this rewriting of history and the reasons for it below. Don’t worry, the link opens up in a new tab.
The rights of the people
This is the “States Rights” issue. Where the United States Constitution plainly stated that the Rights of the people shall be held by them, or by their States. Not by the Federal Government.
After all, the PEOPLE created the government. And it must answer to them.
The American Constitution placed the power of the people over that of the government. This is a non-debatable issues, as all; every single document during the founding made this point quite clear and pronounced.
This did not go well in Washington D.C. for absolute power corrupts absolutely. They wanted more power. They wanted centralized power. They wanted it all.
They wanted it so much, that they fought a war over it.
And many, many people died.
Governments are created by citizens. They answer to the people. When they start to ignore them, it is the duty for the citizens to take back their government from the tyrants in power. This will often be very dangerous, bloody and nasty.
“We the people” lost the Civil War
Those who lost, lost everything. They ended up losing the independence of their States, as well as many of their freedoms. They also discovered that they now answered to a singular centralized government located in Washington D.C..
After the American civil war, for the most part, the Bill of Rights was proven to be a sham.
If you negate one enumerated Right, you negate them all. It's only a simple matter of time.
Confederate Soldier.
Then, in 2013 President Obama, in one of his many efforts to rewrite history, started the narrative that the Civil War was fought over slavery. And that most “white people” still wanted slavery and that “white people” should be punished for their “privilege”.
You can see this narrative being reinforced in the mainstream American media, in the universities, and by “diversity officers” in the corporate board rooms.
"I've never owned, or was a slave, and a large percentage of our forefathers weren't wealthy enough to own one either. Please stop blaming me because some prior white people were idiots -- and remember, tons of white, Indian, Chinese, and other races have been enslaved too -- it was wrong for every one of them. "
-Ted Nugent
An Obama follower (Cashing in on the “community organizer” scam.) instructing “white people” on their privilege…
Rewriting history to demonize a particular demographic is necessary to create “race wars” that lead to democide. This is a very important first step in all genocides. You select a group of people. You demonize them relentlessly. You disarm them. Then you kill them in mass. It is a historical norm, and well documented. In fact, it is almost one of the crowning achievements of the Marxism in the 20th century.
Abruptly and suddenly all historical narratives on the internet were rewritten to embrace this idea. And of course, news, media and academia marched lock-step to promote it.
"Mr. Obama never missed an opportunity to sew racial divide.
During his term in the Oval Office, racial relations literally went off the cliff. Mr. Obama and first lady Michelle promoted the false narrative that white America was literally guilty of hunting down blacks with glee.
They whipped up resentment in minority communities against the police, even though a Harvard study found that blacks are no more likely to be killed by police than whites."
-L. Todd Wood
Ah. But what of history?
Yes.
History.
Looking at history as a thinking person…
If the American confederates were so enraptured with slavery, wouldn’t they try to escape from the clutches of the Federal government when it appeared that the war was ending? Wouldn’t they flee with their favorite slaves? Wouldn’t they they relocate elsewhere to promote the core ideas slavery based Confederacy elsewhere?
Well, yes. You would think so.
Only, history tells us a different narrative.
The confederates that fled the United States didn’t do so to set up a nation where slavery was legal. They went elsewhere to set up a state where the people had more power than the government there.
Surprise! It just doesn't fit that "deplorable, Nazi, white privilege" narrative being shoved down our collective throats by the mainstream American media and their handlers the progressive Marxist Democrats.
As such, a study of these people who fled the Confederacy would be able to tell us all a lot about the causes of the American Civil War, and the things that were important to the membership of the Confederacy.
Let’s take a look at that.
The Confederados
Today... even though most of the Confederado descendants, being mainly of mixed race now, have fanned out to other parts of Brazil.
Many of the descendants from the original Confedrados, with the typical Brazilian flair, have an affinity for and carry on the traditions from their homeland; Such as Confederate uniforms and it's flag, southern food and their protestant Baptist religion.
Even though they identify with their past, they do consider themselves loyal Brazilian citizens. Maintaining a headquarters, as well as memorials and museums of their original descendant organization at the Campo center in Santa Bárbara D'Oeste.
-Historum
Brazil is well-known for being a cultural hub of South American life with its unmatched love for football, its fun and sexy dances like the samba, and its Latin people. It in so many ways, no way resembles anything like the Confederate States of America in the 19th-century South.
The Confederacy is alive and well within Brazil. There a man can be a gentleman, he can smoke a cigar and have a fine glass of XO while addressing young lasses as they stroll along the venue.
So what kind of fiction do we have to invent to combine the two and make them fit together?
The answer is none.
Because that’s exactly what happened in Americana, a municipality of Sao Paulo, Brazil. There, the residents call themselves the Confederados. As they are descendants of the 19th-century residents of the Confederate States of America.
The descendants of the Confederate States of America, living as expats in Brazil By studying the Confederatados one can better understand the motivations of people who decided to leave America for another nation.
The Confederados carry on all the cultural artifacts of the Confederacy. This includes the Confederate flag, Confederate army uniforms, and Confederate-style dancing with its own Brazilian flair.
It’s their heritage.
So how did this come to be?
By mid-1865 the American Civil War was over and the South had lost—everything.
It was over.
Her cities and farmland were destroyed, political rights denied, the finest of her husbands, fathers, and sons dead or disabled. With Lincoln dead and Radical Republican revenge on the horizon, the occupied territory of the southern United States did not appear to be a promising place for the foreseeable future.
The Confederados are a proud people with a proud and just heritage. They are thriving and they have embraced Brazilian culture while embracing their history.
Can you visualize what it must have been like?
Can you, really?
After the Civil War, many families from the old South were left landless and destitute. They probably hated living under a conquering army of Yankees.
Brazilian emperor Dom Pedro II realized this group of disenchanted Americans could be a solution to one of his problems: how to develop the sparsely-settled areas of his country. He was especially interested in developing the cultivation of cotton, a crop well-known to the former Confederates. He provided incentives to people who knew how to raise cotton, offering land at twenty-two cents an acre with four years credit and passage to Brazil for thirty Yankee dollars. Each family was encouraged to bring a tent, light-weight furniture, farming supplies and seeds, and provisions to last six months.
Dom Pedro II sent recruiters into Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas in search of experienced cotton farmers for his country. Many southerners saw this as their only option for happiness, to build a community with southern values in the jungle of Brazil. They would become known as the Confederados.
-EOGN
Imagine today, in today’s polarized society. When the members of the OTHER political party gains the upper-hand and are Hell-bent on running things their way. Would you be willing to stay?
Would YOU?
Out-of-touch and insane liberal Rep. Maxine Waters has been in the hot seat over her calls for violence. Has she learned? Nope! In a recent interview, she demanded more liberals go after conservatives. he continued, “And I’m hopeful that even Democrats having seen the kind of outpouring of protests over 700 incidences of protests this weekend, seeing that they will be more forceful, more confrontational and more prepared to push back on this administration. I think that the people are showing them, this-this is what they would have us do.” [Source: Breitbart]
Given this level of politicized violence, a life as a second-rate citizen, and all your livelihood destroyed, with a Federally sanctioned attack on your culture, many Southerners decided to leave.
And so they did.
They skedaddled.
See ya! Bye!
The descendants of the expats of the Confederacy have embraced heir history, their heritage and their cuture without shame of sadness. They never had to endure the century of having their culture and their society belittled and made fun of.
Some resettled out west, others even relocated in the North, and some went as far as friendly England. But the most popular destination for expatriate Confederates was a country further south: Brazil, where summer is perpetual and the harvest year-round.
The colonists were ecstatic about what they saw, and one wrote back to the Mobile Daily Register:
“I have sugar cane, cotton, pumpkins, squash, five kinds of sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, cornfield peas, snap beans, butter beans, ochre [probably okra], tomatoes and fine chance at tobacco. I have a great variety of fruits on my place. I have made enough to live well on and am better pleased than other.”
-EOGN
Time to leave.
When the Civil War ended in 1865, many Southerners felt that they no longer fit in the United States. As such, they decided to go to a place where they could find cheap land to build new lives.
The Confederados all dressed up to reenact their history, their heritage and their society. When the Confederacy lost, they did not bow down to a tyrannical Federal government. They left. Today they are thriving, while their families who stayed behind now lives a life that is dictated out of Washington D.C. instead of locally managed.
In 1865, the Civil War ended with a Confederate loss and the Union abolishing slavery. The bloody conflict caused more than 600,000 military casualties and nearly depleted the Southern economy.
The North disbanded the Confederate army and began a period known as the Reconstruction. It wasn’t exactly welcomed in the South, and some decided to leave the United States for somewhere else.
-The Vintage News
Though General Robert E. Lee discouraged them from leaving, around 20,000 Southerners set sail for Brazil, the only time in American history where people left the country in large numbers for another one.
Square dances, Southern hospitality and fine Southern cooking are all traditions that are maintained and embraced inside of Brazil.
Accounts vary on how many left.
They vary from 10,000 to 20,000 families. We know that at a minimum of 10,000 boarded ships and went by sea. Those that took trains, or wagons down through Mexico are much more difficult to track.
Nor, do we do not know what happened to many of them. Obviously some died due to illness and sickness in the harsh tropics. Some just moved on elsewhere, and ended up in Argentina, and other South American nations. We do know that some of those who went to Brazil eventually sailed back to the US eventually. Well, because building a new life is surprisingly hard.
Today, we know that 94 of the original American families remained as their “blood lines” and “family names” are all predominant in the Americanized communities. These families became rich from growing cotton and sugarcane.
They are also the people from whom the modern-day Confederados are descended.
At least one shipload of Southerners docked in the port of Belém, set sail down the Amazon River and survived on berries and monkey meat, but perished from malaria. The only community of Confederates that survived was the group that got to the place they called Americana, which they chose because it most closely paralleled their home in Georgia.”
-News Punch
The saying “The South will Rise Again!” isn’t a fiction. It really has risen again. It rose in a place where there was liberty and freedom. And where talented Americans could thrive – Brazil.
They balkanized Brazil.
Those that arrived refused to integrate.
This group refused to learn Portuguese, built Baptist churches and their own schools, and made their own traditional meals like biscuits and gravy, pecan pie, and black-eyed peas. They believed that their ways of the Confederacy and their Southern lifestyle was superior to anything found in Brazil at the time.
Over the last 100 years, the original Confederate bloodlines were slowly diluted, resulting in today’s part-Spanish, part-Confederate descendants who speak mostly Portuguese but also speak English with a Southern drawl.
Brazil Welcomes the Confederacy
When the Confederacy was defeated in the US Civil War, Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil, a staunch ally of the Confederate cause, welcomed Confederate soldiers and sympathizers wishing to start a new life.
Thousands of Southerners, motivated by a hate of the wartime enemy and an instinctive urge to preserve Southern cultural values, flocked to Brazil.
They moved to a climate that in many ways resembled the American South. They moved to a place where they were permitted to keep their society, their culture and their heritage. They moved to a place where they were accepted as themselves.
Proud to be Confederate. Proud of their lifestyle. Proud of their heritage. Proud of their lifestyle.
“The Confederados, despite the usual problems of colonization, thrived in an environment that had defeated many settlers before them. Americana became an image of the antebellum period of the American south. Many of the first Baptist churches in Brazil were started there. They built public schools and provided education for their female children, something that was rare in Brazil. They flew the Confederate flag and enjoyed the traditional southern meals of biscuits and gravy, black-eyed peas and, of course, grits.The settlers had very European names like Stonewall and Butler. They would bake pecan pies, have debutante balls, and sing southern hymns. Only recently was the Confederate flag removed from the city’s crest. In 1906, US Secretary of State Elihu Root made a quick stop in Americana, but had little to say to the expatriates. Root later told his biographer that he left Americana weepy and had told the Confederados they’d never be welcome in the United States again.”
-News Punch
There was nothing random about the Southerners’ choice.
At the war’s end Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil, a Mason, began an extensive recruitment campaign. He did this primarily among his fellow Masonic brothers. He offered quite a bit. Indeed, he offered the world’s leading cotton-growing experts (American Southerners) some of the best cotton-growing land at twenty-two cents an acre, hoping to boost his own country’s developing economy.
Brazil Confederados showing the American stars and Bars with great pride.
The South’s most respected Robert E. Lee and other leaders throughout the South urged Southerners to resist the offers. They did not want to see a “brain drain” dilute the “strength of the South”. Indeed, the South had lost too many of her best men already.
Defeated and rejected in their own land, however, many Southerners responded to the warm welcome extended by the Brazilians, and Dom Pedro’s plan worked to the good of both parties.
Waves of Confederate immigrants
Over the next two decades as many as 20,000 Confederate refugees relocated to Brazil. We know that some of them eventually returned to the United States while others succumbed to deadly tropical disease. But several thousand brave pioneers remained permanently, not only forging a new life in a strange land but succeeding in it and making valuable contributions to their new country.
Proud Brazilian Confederados. They are the descendants of the expats who fled America over States Rights when the Federal government became far too large and trampled their lifestyle.
In 1866 an ex-senator from Alabama, Colonel William Norris, became the first American settler in Brazil. He purchased land near the Quilombo River in the state of São Paulo.
The William Hutchinson Norris from Alabama served in the Alabama Legislature as a member of the House of Representatives and later as a State Senator during the 1830's and 1840's...In 1861 he was the Grand Master of Masons in Alabama. No record has yet been found of him having served in the military during the Civil War period, or in any other period. During the 1820's he did serve in a Militia Unit in Wilcox County dealing with the Indians.
It should be noted that 6 of his sons served in the War and they were James Reece Norris, Robert Cicero, Francis Johnson, Henry Clay, Samuel Leonidas and Benjamin Harrison Norris. All except Francis Johnson Norris migrated to Brazil with the rest of the family. James Reece, Benjamin and Samuel returned to this country after several years in Brazil.
- The Alabama in the Civil War Message Board - Archive
A year later many more Americans followed. They came to settle in or near the “Norris colony” and in other areas throughout Brazil.
The Confederacy is alive and well in Brazil. Only they call it the Confederados.
When new arrivals saw 100% returns on their first two-year cotton plantings, the success stories brought new waves of Southerners fleeing worsening conditions (Please reference “Carpetbaggers & Scalawags“) back home.
In 1875 the Brazilian government built a railway station near Norris’s settlement—one hundred cars were needed to haul the popular watermelon crop alone in the late 1800’s—and the village that grew up around it soon became known popularly as Villa dos Americanos, “Town of the Americans.”
Confederados keeping their society and history alive. They are the only ones doing it. In America the South was lost and crumbled under the weight of the “new reformation” under the federal government.
Some of the families that settled
Many citizens of the Confederacy disappeared from public records at the end of the Civil War or soon thereafter. Of course, record keeping was spotty at best in the turmoil that followed the defeat of the Confederacy. If you can’t find your relatives during that time, you might be tempted to say, “Oh well, he (or she) probably died in the war.”
Don’t be so sure.
In 1868, a number of families from former Confederate states in the South fled the Reconstruction policies for Brazil. They settled in various regions of the country but, within a few years, concentrated near the current towns of Americana and Santa Barbara, Sao Paulo State.
These settlements were approximately 100 miles inland from the city of Sao Paulo. The family of Colonel William H. Norris was the first to arrive from Alabama. His son Robert C. Norris and daughter-in-law Martha Temperance [Patti] Steagall as well as his own daughter Angela Norris accompanied the Colonel, but son Saunders Norris remained at the family home of Mt. Pleasant, Alabama, 40 miles northeast of Mobile.
Robert Cicero Norris
Robert Cicero Norris was the son of Col. William Hutchison Norris. He was born in Perry County, Ala., March 7, 1837. His boyhood days were spent in Dallas County, Ala. From 1850 to 1856 he was a student at Fulton Academy, one of the best educational institutions of the State. Having finished the course there, he studied law under his father, though not intending to practice this profession; but he wished to inform himself concerning the laws of the country.
At the age of twenty he taught in a public school for a year, and then he went to Brundidge, Ala., where he studied medicine under Dr. J.H. Dewberry as preceptor. He matriculated in the Mobile Medical College (now University of Alabama). On January 28, 1861, his studies were interrupted when he went with other volunteers under Capt. Theodore O'Hara to Pensacola to seize the navy yards. He then returned to his studies.
On July 3, 1861, he enlisted in Company F, 15th Alabama Regiment, and went to Fort Mitchell for organization, and from there to Virginia, where his regiment served in Stonewall Jackson's brigade. In 1862 he was made sergeant major, serving in this capacity until 1864, and acted as adjutant much of the time. He was later assigned to Company A, 60th Alabama Regiment, and promoted to first lieutenant. In an engagement on Hatcher's Run he was captured and sent as a prisoner to Fort Delaware, where he was kept until June 17, 1865.
He arrived at his old home in Alabama on the 5th of July. During the four years' service he was wounded three times. He served in many battles and skirmishes, including Front Royal, Port Republic, Harper's Ferry, Cross Keys, Cold Harbor, Malvern Hill, Cedar Run, Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Brown's Ferry, Wilderness, Spottsylvania Courthouse, Second Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Darbytown Road, and Williamsburg Road.
At the end of 1865 he traveled to Brazil and settled in Villa Americana, State of Sao Paulo, being the first American to settle in that section of the country. Afterwards a flourishing American colony was established there. He returned to the Mobile in 1890 to study medicine. After completing his studies, he rejoined his wife and their 10 children in Brazil, where he established a successful practice. He retired from active life in 1911.
He was made a Mason in 1858 in the Fulton Lodge, Dallas County. In Brazil he took an active part in organizing a lodge, A.Y.M., in Santa Barbara, of which he was Senior Warden for two years, afterwards being elected to the position of Grand Master, which he held until his death. Dr. Robert C. Norris departed this life on May 14, 1913.
- see CONFEDERATE VETERAN, November 1913, Vol. 21, No. 11
Martha Temperance Steagall
Martha Temperance Steagall was born on February 4, 1850 in Union City, Obion County, Tennessee. She was the daughter of Henry Farrar Steagall and Delia Elizabeth (Peck) Steagall. She relocated with the rest of her family and her husband Robert C. Norris to Brazil in 1867. She and her husband had two daughters, Kennie and Julia and a son Robert Clay Norris. She died on September 16, 1933 in Washington, D.C.
- Special Collections & Archives Department Homepage
Robert Clay Norris
Robert Clay Norris was born January 5, 1872 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, Sao Paulo, Brazil. He studied dentistry in Sao Paulo and assisted in the practice of Dr. I. G. Baumgardner before his untimely death on December 10, 1906. He married Ana Candida Escobar 1895 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
- Special Collections & Archives Department Homepage
John Ridley Bufird
Prior to relocating to the American Civil War, John Ridley Buford was a resident of Eufaula, Alabama. He enlisted in April 1862, at Eufaula, Alabama and was appointed Sergeant in Captain Reuben Koulb's Battery of the Barbour Alabama Light Artillery. He was transferred on November 6, 1864, with the rank of private to the Eufaula Battery of Alabama Light Artillery. He was in St. Mary's Hospital at Union Springs, Alabama from September 29,1864, until November 6, 1864. Buford took part in the battles of Kentucky Campaign, Hood's Tennessee Campaign, and Chickamauga, and was paroled at Meridian, Mississippi, on May 10, 1865. At his parole, he listed his residence as Eufaula. In late February of 1867, Buford
moved to Santa Barbara, Brazil where he farmed tobacco. He was alive in 1913 at age of 72.
- Special Collections & Archives Department Homepage
While the Confederates that moved to Brazil came from all over the South, it does seem like the most notable ones originated out of Alabama for some reason. Curious.
I wonder why.
Alabama in one picture.
At the opening of the twentieth century officials adopted the name Villa Americana, and today the city begun by Confederate Americans, with a population of over 200,000, is called simply “Americana.”
Americana
A small town soon formed, and a train station was built when the first railroad line was constructed through the area in 1875. The train station was officially named “Villa da Estação de Santa Bárbara” (Santa Bárbara Station Town), but the nearby town became popularly known as “Villa dos Americanos” (Town of the Americans). The town was later officially named Americana.
-EOGN
Americana is still home to about 20,000 direct descendants of these original Southern planters. Though, Italian immigrants quickly moved in and eventually outnumbered them. However, there may be as many as ten times that number distributed all over, and throughout, all of Brazil.
Southern manners, gestures, and society is maintained and living well within Brazil. The expats who left the United States Confederacy set up a life inside of Brazil to maintain their culture and way of life.
The colonies remained a cloistered community for years to come. The Confederate refugees married among themselves and spoke only English. They also invested in separate schools, churches, and cemeteries, importing priests and teachers from the United States.
The colonists founded the first Baptist Church in Brazil, together with the Campo Cemetery in which members of the Protestant religion were buried, according to their tradition.
Alison Jones, who was a third-generation descendant of the original settlers, described her experience growing up in such an environment to the Seattle Times in a 1995 interview: “I remember when I was 4 years old, I was lost in a textile factory and I couldn’t tell the people anything because I only spoke English. I didn’t learn Portuguese until I started school.”
-The Vintage News
They are in their fifth and sixth generations now.
On the whole, despite English-sounding names and lingering Southern accents for some, these down-stream Confederados think, look, and act like other Brazilians.
Young Confederados keeping their history, their society, and their traditions alive.
New waves of immigrants settled in and near Americana, notably large numbers of Italians and Germans in the 1880s. The families intermarried over the years, and today Americana’s population is described as a mixture of Luso-Afro-Brazilians (Luso meaning Portuguese) and immigrants, mainly Italian, Portuguese, German, and Arabic. The name of Americana still survives, and because of intermarriages, almost all of today’s citizens of the area can claim some Confederados ancestry. Indeed, English (with a southern accent) is the unofficial second language of the area and is still spoken by many in the area.
Today Americana is a city of 120,000 people. The ties to the old South live on. Festa Confederada is a celebration that takes place in the cemetery where the old Confederates are buried. The food served includes southern fried chicken, vinegar pie, chess pie, and biscuits. Banjos are played and Confederate songs are sung. The men wear Confederate uniforms, and the women dress in pink and blue and wear matching ribbons in their hair. The festival often looks like scenes from “Gone With the Wind.”
-EOGN
Though, you know, holding on to heritage and traditions is a good thing. Today in the Untied States we have forgotten many traditions and our heritage. Instead, we have replaced our history with pale versions.
Instead of eating fine home cooked meals, we eat progressive and modern fake-meat at McDonald’s. Instead of having a good home made baked pie, we get a mocha caramel latte smoothy from Starbucks. Instead of having home-made sweet-potato pie, we eat a Oreo cookie from the local 7-11.
I think we are missing out.
Pecan pie done right. We have lost things that used to matter to us, and what made our lives special and important.
Slavery
The conventional (Obama era) narrative is that the Confederacy was all about slavery. The idea was that the Civil War was all about “white people” desirous of having and owning slaves. That is the causes of the American Civil War they say. They argue that a war needed to be fought not only to “free the slaves” but to teach a lesson to all those “white people” who have the deplorable notion that slavery can be institutionalized.
If this narrative is what is being portrayed as the reason, history says otherwise.
Of the 20,000 confederate immigrant families, only four people owned slaves.
Four People.
This held true, even though slavery was legal in Brazil. As well as legal in almost all of South America at that time.Why didn’t the survivors of the Confederacy create an expat Confederacy with slavery?
Why didn’t they?
It’s strange, and doesn’t fit the progressive liberal Obama-era narrative.
This has been born out by the work of Alcides Gussi, an independent researcher of the State University of Campinas, Sao Paolo. Who claims that only four families actually owned slave labor, with a total number of 66 slaves, in the period between 1868 to 1875.
Some cases were recorded in which the freed slaves decided to accompany their former masters. Most notable was the story of Steve Watson. Watson went to Brazil, together with Judge Dyer of Texas, his former owner, who assigned him to be an administrator of a sawmill. At one point, Dyer decided to return to the U.S., due to a combination of homesickness and financial failure. He left all his property in Brazil to Watson.
Judith McKnight Jones, a great-granddaughter of one of the original American settlers, tried to explain the reasons for her family’s departure from Texas during the migration to the Seattle Times:
“They came here because they felt that their ‘country’ had been invaded and their land confiscated. To them, there was nothing left there. So, they came here to try to re-create what they had before the war. I grew up listening to the stories. They were angry and bitter. When they talked about it, moving here, the war, leaving their homes, it was always a very sore subject for them.”
-The Vintage News
Proud to be a Confederado. How many Americans can be so open and brazen about their history, their society and their heritage? Not many. That’s why the confederates fled the United States. They yearned for Freedom and Liberty.
The Festa Confederada
Once a year, however, at the Festa Confederada, the South rises in their blood to celebrate their heritage.
The correct name for the celebration is FEsta Confederada (FIEsta is Spanish, not Portuguese): http://festaconfederada.com.br/.
Proud descendants, most of mixed races, fly the Confederate flag—there is no racial stigma attached to it in Brazil.
Some pretty Confederate lasses doing and living well inside Brazil.
Women deck out as Southern belles, complete with hoop skirts, while the men don uniforms of Confederate gray, dance with the girls, and drink over the War.
On the menu are Southern fried chicken, chess pie, and mouth-watering biscuits; “Dixie” plays in the background. Were it not for the Portuguese being spoken by participants, an observer might imagine himself in Mississippi or Alabama of a hundred and fifty years ago.
Southern belles of the Confederacy living fine and well in Brazil.
The meeting ground is Campo Cemetery near neighboring Santa Barbara d’Oeste, where most of their ancestors are buried. Confederados built the cemetery, near the first Presbyterian church in Brazil, when Catholics would not permit space for Protestant burial in their own churchyards.
An imposing memorial, boasting the stars-and-bars of the Confederate battle flag, stands in the middle of the cemetery, bearing the names of the early Confederados, the great-great-grandfathers and grandmothers of those who sing and dance and remember the land their families used to call home.
Today
Indeed, to this day, throughout towns in Brazil, the Confederacy and Southern US culture is celebrated annually. It is done so by the many thousands of descendants of these Americans, known locally as Confedorados. Now, after six or seven generations, many of whom now have non-white and African heritage.
The expats of the descendants of the American Confederacy are living well and good in Brazil.
Square dances are held, and confederate flags are flown proudly. Any racial connotations are long lost and remain tied to American special-interest groups fighting for political supremacy. Meanwhile, the Confederados maintain their society, one of many, amid the sea of racial diversity in Brazil.
The Confederados pay tribute to their history and their culture, deep within the forests of Brazil. For in many ways, it well resembled their homeland in Georgia and Mississippi.
Some Links for further study…
You can learn more about this settlement and the families who lived there by starting online. Auburn University has a large Confederados Collection; a guide to the collection may be found at http://www.lib.auburn.edu/archive/find-aid/958.htm.
A web site of the history of the Confederados may be found at http://www.confederados.com.br/. This web site also contains a list of Confederados families.
Much more information may be found in The Confederados: Old South Immigrants in Brazil,
a book by by Cyrus B. Dawsey (Editor), James M. Dawsey (Editor),
Michael L. Conniff (Foreword), & 9 more, available on Amazon at http://goo.gl/8IOgcs.
And now for my opinion…
Finally, my take on Obama rewriting history so that myself and others like me can be erased for our “white privilege” and a new Marxist society can be built upon our salted graves…
My relatives were too busy struggling with a potato blight in Ireland , and having to get drawn into servitude to escape it, and enslavement by the Russians in Poland. Don’t know about that, do you? It doesn’t fit the desired political narrative. Yeah. Just like your pampered baby who cries when it tosses it’s food on the floor. Life is hard. Get over it.
Get. Over. It.
What I opine about is not about the things that I personally experienced regarding the American Civil War. As I have no experiences, have you? Nope. The American Civil War ended a long, long time ago. Everyone who participated in it is now DEAD. They are dead. Long, long dead. If you did dig them up, you will see rotting flesh and foul odors.
Posts Regarding Life and Contentment
Here are
some other similar posts on this venue. If you enjoyed this post, you
might like these posts as well. These posts tend to discuss growing up
in America. Often, I like to compare my life in America with the society
within communist China. As there are some really stark differences
between the two.
More Posts about Life
I have
broken apart some other posts. They can best be classified about ones
actions as they contribute to happiness and life. They are a little
different, in subtle ways.
Funny Pictures
Be the Rufus – Tales of Everyday Heroism.
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Sunday had a call with President Donald Trump about gun control legislation. According to a statement from Democratic leadership, universal background checks are a non negotiable that must be included in any proposal Trump moves forward with.
People! A “universal background check” is a violation of the 4th amendment. Yeah, I know. It’s already violated left and right and every which way that you can think of. Indeed, the entire 16th amendment is a blatant violation of the 4th amendment on it’s face.
Fourth Amendment - Search and Seizure
Amendment Text | Annotations
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
And for all of you who are confused about the second amendment…
Second Amendment - Bearing Arms
Amendment Text | Annotations
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
All of this is silly.
The United States stopped being the land of the free the moment the 12th amendment was ratified. Good-by Republic. Hello to mob rule and manipulation by oligarchs. It’s just dying a long, slow death. That’s the way it is, and any protests from myself or others just fall on deaf ears. No one wants to hear all this. They want their feudal society, and us rabble had just better accept our place within that model.
From what I see, they are not giving up on this. They will push and push and push until something snaps. Though, I think that they have no fucking idea just how bad the snap will be. You have over three decades of rage built up inside of conservative patriots. They will not give any quarter.
And that, boys and girls, is the way it is.
About the picture, splash above…
Cambodian troops before they were disarmed by Pol Pot in 1970. Socialist Marxist Communist Pol Pot came to power in Cambodia in 1970. These troops were government military forces who were told by their leadership to hand in their weapons to the new government. They complied. They listened. They turned in their weapons. Every one of them were then systematically killed. Not one survived.
Not one person survived once they turned in their firearms to the new government. Not. One.
SHTF Related Index
This is a collection of my posts related to prepping, SHTF (Shit Hit The Fan), CWII (American Civil War 2), Fourth Turning (Strauss–Howe generational theory)
and other posts related to the very sad and sorry tatters that America
is today. Actually, I am a little stunned that I have written so much
about these matters. But America today is very ill and there are things
that really should be said.
Here are the posts.
SHTF and Related Index
Posts Regarding Life and Contentment
Here are
some other similar posts on this venue. If you enjoyed this post, you
might like these posts as well. These posts tend to discuss growing up
in America. Often, I like to compare my life in America with the society
within communist China. As there are some really stark differences
between the two.
More Posts about Life
I have
broken apart some other posts. They can best be classified about ones
actions as they contribute to happiness and life. They are a little
different, in subtle ways.
Funny Pictures
Be the Rufus – Tales of Everyday Heroism.
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
Here, in this article, we look at the United States involvement with HK. We [1] study how the United States uses Hong Kong to exert pressure on China for trade and geopolitical advantage. We also [2] take a look at the various people “behind the scenes” that are pushing for American involvement, for their own personal gain. Finally, [3] we study the role that the American media plays that the stereotypes that they cultivate in order to manipulate Americans. This is perhaps the most comprehensive overview of the USA / China involvement in Hong Kong that you will find on the internet.
For starters, you the reader should recognize that global politics are often complicated, and convoluted. People will say one thing and then do the other. That there are forces, all with their own agendas, manipulating, jockeying, and vying for positions of power and advantage. All of this takes place on a canvas that is painted by the media. Often, a picture that doesn’t at all resemble what is actually going on behind the scene.
Or has everyone forgotten the "Trump is going to prison for conspiring with Russia to steal the election" narrative from the mainstream media from 20016 though to 2019?
The HK / USA / China issue is typical in geo-political posturing. It is like an onion. It really is.
You look at the onion, and you see the outside as portrayed to you. Much like how you observe the news media reporting. Then, you peel away the first layer. There you see the actions, and turmoil behind the scene. Your eyes will often burn. Because the truth what is going on was unknown to you. You then peel away the second layer, and find out just how deep all this goes.
You continue deeper and deeper.
You peel each layer away, one by one. And then finally you reach the true truth of the matter and take a good hard look at what is involved. In this particular situation, there are nine (x9) levels or layers of this “onion”. Ah, yes, and in this article we will investigate each one.
The HK – China – USA “free democracy” protests during 2019, and their complexity relative to the comparison to that of the layers of skin in an onion.
Here, we will proceed forward and address this issue in all of it’s complexity. We will move forward from the outside inward, and study each layer in relative detail.
The layers in this issue are;
News media reporting and bias.
Constructed and cultivated stereotypes.
The actual physical events.
The people who caused the events.
The people who are driving the events forward and pushing.
The people who provide financial support, training, and logistics.
The rise of the risks involved.
Reactions and the casualties of war.
The root effects; the trade relationships between the USA, HK and China.
As such, we will begin here…
News media reporting and bias.
President Donald Trump tweeted on August 13 that he “can’t imagine why” the United States has been blamed for the chaotic protests that have gripped Hong Kong.
Donald Trump doesn’t understand how anyone could link the Summer of 2019 HK riots with the Summer of 2019 Trade Wars with China.
Trump’s befuddlement might be believable considering [1] the carefully managed narrative of the US government. As well as [2] the mainstream American media apparatus. Yeah, I get it. Even VP Mike Pence repeats this ludicrous narrative. But come on! Do you really think that the world believes this? After Syria? After Libya?
What? You think that the Chinese will believe that you are sincere?
This GIF pretty much sums up how it looks like to the rest of the world…
I am shocked! Shocked! That there is a connection between the Summer of 2019 HK riots and the Summer of 2019 trade wars.
I believe that the Hong Kong protest is influenced by the US.
The rioters are well-trained, organized and commanded, knowing what to do and when to do it, they have a united uniform, they know where the cameras are and they know how to disable them, they know how to fight against tear gas.
The violent protests are not simply targeting the extradition law amendment bill, but also aiming to throw Hong Kong into disarray, to drag down the SAR government.
- Ty Yang (Hong Kong , China)
You think that they do not have informants? You think that HK is independent and immune from Chinese mainland observation? You think China doesn’t have cameras, video surveillance, wiretaps on telephones, and are not monitoring their insurgents?
Of course they are. And of course, they know full well what is going on. They know.
Keep your hands off Hong Kong!
US has no authority to lecture China on our own sovereign territory. How can US warmongers like Mike Pence even have the legitimacy to talk about HK, when the US is still illegally militarily occupying Syria with their US bases. Syria gave no permission for the US to build bases in Syria. How can the US think they have any god-given right to smack to China?
- MrBudha888 (China)
And we shouldn’t take their (apparent) lack of action on these matters as a weakness. Instead, we should consider it with the upmost caution. They do not make decisions based on what they see on CNN. They make their decisions off other criteria.
So it would be the height of follow to assume that the Chinese are simpletons, backwards, inept, and foolish. They are not. They know the game, and how it is played. They have over 5000 years of political intrigue, and they most certainly will not base their decisions off of what they see on the news.
The suspicion of US manipulation behind the scenes is gaining traction in the online world.
The US has gained notoriety for using subterfuge to interfere with other sovereignty's affairs.
It's not like the world is oblivious to that.
- Joseph Kuan (US)
This reporting has been very “black and white”.
They report that the protests are some kind of organic “pro-democracy” expression of young idealistic grassroots youth. That they only want “freedom”, American style “democracy”, and a “slice of the American pie”. They just do not want to be considered Chinese, and they certainly don’t want anything to do with mainland China.
Oh. If only it were TRUE…
The protests have been staged and arranged for an American audience, because that is the insurgents’ primary funding source.
However, a look beneath the surface of this oversimplified, made-for-television script reveals the truth.
It’s all a stack of cards. It’s all an illusion. It’s all a manipulation. It’s all a line and nonsense. And the Chinese are all well-aware of this.
US is everywhere in other countries' affairs! What a joke!
Nothing will distract China from focusing on economic development and raising the standard of living for the 1.4 billion Chinese people.
The US should do the same, concentrating its resources and energy to improve American people's lives. There is so much more to be desired for the most advanced country of the world.
- Miyya Z (China)
The truth is that there is a small but extremely vocal and well-funded, ferociously anti-Chinese network behind the demonstrations. They hate China. They really, seriously do.
But, it’s more than just hating China.
They hate America as well. They also hate Britain. They are so filled with hate that you would think that they were members of the American terrorist groups Antifa, and BLM. I mean, after all, they look like them, they act like them, and they use the exact same strategies as their American counterparts, the Antifa.
What? You think the Antifa and BLM love America? That’s what you think?
When a masked radical is shouting and screaming at you and is telling you that they want you hurt, tortured, and killed, you should believe them. The mainland Chinese are listening to them, and as a result they are amassing military forces in the event that things spiral out of control.
But they will cover up and hide their hate. Most of the time they will put on masks and pretend to be something else. They will act nice and courteous, and seem and appear reasonable. Anything to obtain their goals.
Frangfang (Hong Kong, China)
The US is linking the current situation in Hong Kong to the US-China trade negotiations, using Hong Kong as leverage to pressure compromise from China. Such 'bargaining', in essence using Hong Kong as a 'trading chip', would be a gross insult to the Hong Kong people.
And their goals are simple ones. It’s what every dictator and tyrant wants. They want their own fiefdom; they want Hong Kong as their own, and then they want to join the rest of the world as global oligarchs.
And America plays along.
Jimmy Lai (HK ultra-billionaire) meets with American VP Mike Pence. His goal is to disrupt the relationship between the United States and China so that he can have financial and economic advantage in Hong Kong. His primary and sole goal is to INTERRUPT the relationship between China and America.
This network has been cultivated, funded, and trained with the help of millions of dollars from the US government. (Read on to see the funding amounts, the agencies, the American officials involved, and other particulars.) Not to mention a particularly vocal progressive globalist Washington-linked local Hong Kong media tycoon. (Jimmy Lai with dreams of his own nation, and a near religious cult of followers.)
Constructed and cultivated stereotypes.
The way that the events are portrayed in Hong Kong is to fit the appetite for the American news-consuming audience. In particular, to appeal to the emotions of two especially and diametrically opposed groups;
The Progressive, Liberal Democrat Marxists.
The Traditional, Conservative Republicans.
The protests in HK are staged to pander to the American consumer. They are designed most especially to trigger emotional responses from Americans. This is most especially true when the protestors sang the Star Spangled Banner. I ask the reader this, how many of you can sing the Chinese national anthem?
Let’s start with the appeals to the liberal democrat progressive Marxists in America. Look at the progressive media show DemocracyNow! (DN!) as one example. It is a prominent media outlet on the “progressive” end of the spectrum. They have been quite busy “reporting” on all the protests in Hong Kong. They report on them as if they are part and parcel of the same kinds of Antifa and BLM protests in the United States. So, of course, they would report on everything. Right?
From April through August 28, there have been 25 brief accounts (“headlines” as DN! calls them, each amounting to a few paragraphs) of the events in Hong Kong and 4 features, longer supposedly analytic pieces, on the same topic. Transcripts of the four features are here, here, here and here.
Democracy Now! is an hour-long American TV, radio and internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman, who also acts as the show’s executive producer, and Juan González. The show, which airs live each weekday at 08:00 ET, is broadcast on the internet and by over 1,400 radio and television stations worldwide.
There is not a single mention of [1] possible US involvement or the meetings of the various leaders of the protest movement with [2] Pompeo, [3] Bolton, [4] Pence, or [5] the “Political Counselor” of the US Hong Kong consulate. It’s almost like they ignore the news that doesn’t fit their narrative. Imagine that!
And this silence on US meddling is true not only of most progressive commentators but also most conservatives.
On the Left when someone cries “Democracy,” many forget all their pro-peace sentiment. And similarly on the Right when someone cries “Communism,” anti-interventionism too often goes down the tubes.
In fact on its August 12 program, DN! managed a story taking a swipe at Russia right next to the one on Hong Kong – and DN! was in the forefront of advancing the now debunked and disgraced Russiagate Conspiracy Theory.
Amy Goodman is an American broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter, and author. Her investigative journalism career includes coverage of the East Timor independence movement and Chevron Corporation’s role in Nigeria. Since 1996, she has been the main host of Democracy Now!, a progressive global news program broadcast daily on radio, television and the Internet.
Yes, on the other side of the political spectrum, is an appeal to American conservatives.
Protesters in Hong Kong waving the American flag and singing the American National anthem as they advocate for democracy. Wow! pic.twitter.com/CKyFstud22
— Kaya Jones (@KayaJones) August 12, 2019
Displays of pro-American “jingoism” in the streets of Hong Kong have been like catnip for the international traditional conservative right. Conservatives LOVE to hear that people are throwing down the chains of Marxist socialism and embracing liberty and freedom. Even though they are actually calling for “democracy”, instead.)
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III is an American radio talk show host and conservative political commentator. He resides in Palm Beach, Florida, where he broadcasts The Rush Limbaugh Show. According to December 2015 estimates by Talkers Magazine, Limbaugh has a cume of around 13.25 million unique listeners, making his show the most listened-to American radio station.
Conservative Joey Gibson
Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson recently appeared at an anti-extradition protest in Hong Kong, live-streaming the event to his tens of thousands of followers.
A month earlier, Gibson was seen roughing up antifa activists alongside ranks of club wielding fascists.
In Hong Kong, the alt-right organizer marveled at the crowds. “They love our flag here more than they do in America!” Gibson exclaimed as marchers passed by, flashing him a thumbs up sign while he waved the Stars and Stripes.
In Hong Kong, Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson marveled at the crowds. “They love our flag here more than they do in America!” .
Personally, I like to refer to these narratives a “two dimensional”, “black and white”, “cardboard cutouts”. It’s a simplified narrative useful for emotional manipulation of large groups of simple-minded people.
Boris and Natasha are card-board cut-outs (a two dimensional portrayal) of Russian Communists during the 1960’s and into the 1970’s.
The actual physical events.
Throughout the summer of 2019 the world has watched as protests shook Hong Kong.
A man in Taiwan murdered his girlfriend and then fled to Hong Kong. The Taiwan government wanted HK to extradite him to face justice. To facilitate this (and other similar cases), an extradition bill was proposed and about to be signed, when suddenly all Hell broke loose.
It turned out that (apparently, out of the blue), a large number of Hong Kong residents didn't like the idea of being forcibly extradited to another country to face legal charges.
As early as April they began as peaceful demonstrations which peaked in early June, with hundreds of thousands, in protest of an extradition bill.
That bill would have allowed Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region of China, to return criminals to Taiwan, mainland China or Macau for crimes committed there – after approval by multiple layers of the Hong Kong judiciary.
In other words, if you commit a crime in Taiwan and flee to Hong Kong, the Hong Kong police would no longer provide you with a safe-haven. They would return you back to the Taiwan where you committed the crime.
Ai! This was considered an assault in "freedom" and "liberty".
Protestors in Hong Kong protesting the passage of the extradition bill.
In the wake of those enormous nonviolent demonstrations, Carrie Lam, CEO of Hong Kong, “suspended” consideration of the extradition bill, a face-saving ploy. To make sure she was understood, she declared it “dead.”
The large rallies, an undeniable expression of the peaceful will of a large segment of the Hong Kong population had won an impressive victory. The unpopular extradition bill was slain.
But that was not the end of the story.
The protests continued.
Carrie Lam, CEO of HK, meets with Xi Peng the President of Mainland China.
They… continued.
They continued, even after their goals were met.
They continued, even after the head of the HK government admitted to bowing down to the demands of the protestors. Yes, it’s true. A smaller segment continued the protests. (The Hong Kong police at one point estimated 4,000 hard core protesters.)
They pressed on with other demands, beginning with a demand that the bill be “withdrawn,” not simply “suspended.” Well, it's all a matter of terminology. By “suspension” is every bit as terminal as death by “withdrawal.” The most recent news confirms that Corrie Lam has now formally withdrawn the bill.
But even at that, the protests are continuing by this group of hard-core radicals.
They still continued to protest.
The people who initiated, inflamed or caused the events.
On the surface, it seems very simple. An extradition bill was up for ratification. Protests against the ratification were initiated, and the bill was withdrawn. Victory, right?
Nope.
Radical elements are pushing for more protests. These are violent protests, and they pull at the heartstrings of American democrats who can see their faces behind the black-hoods and face masks of the protestors, as well as American conservatives who get "goosebumps" when they see their American flags being waved along side for calls for freedom and democracy.
Who are the public people who are getting everyone all riled up and agitated on both sides of this issue (oh, yes, there are two sides to this issue. Even though the mainstream America only shows one side.)?
As the summer passed, two iconic photos presented us with two human faces that captured two crucial features of the ongoing protests; they were not shown widely in the West. They are, apparently, not considered to be “newsworthy” enough for the American viewing public.
Fu Guohao
First, Fu Guohao, a reporter for the Chinese mainland newspaper, Global Times, was attacked, bound and beaten by the radical protesters. This occurred during their takeover of the Hong Kong International Airport.
FuGuohao, a reporter for the Global Times, a nationalistic Communist Party-run newspaper, has become an overnight sensation. He is being hailed as a hero on Chinese social media after he was tied up and beaten by protesters as Tuesday’s demonstrations at Hong Kong’s airport descended into violence.
- Chinese Reporter Assaulted at Hong Kong Airport
Fu Guohao, reporter of Chinese media Global Times website, is tied by protesters during a mass demonstration at the Hong Kong international airport, in Hong Kong, China, August 13, 2019. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
When police and rescuers tried to free him, the protesters blocked them and also attempted to block the ambulance that eventually bore him off to the hospital.
Protestors fought the police.
Protestors blocked the ambulance.
Protestors bound, taunted and tortured Mr. Fu Guohao.
The photos and videos of this ugly sequence were seen by netizens across the globe even though given scant attention in Western media.
Where were the stalwart defenders of the press in the US as this happened? As one example, DemocracyNow! (DN!) was completely silent as was the rest of the US mainstream media.
Fu’s beating came after many weeks when the protesters threw up barriers to stop traffic; blocked closure of subway doors, in defiance of commuters and police, to shut down mass transit; sacked and vandalized the HK legislature building; assaulted bystanders who disagreed with them; attacked the police with Molotov cocktails; and stormed and defaced police stations.
The protestors seem to be trying to provoke mainland China to take action. However, HK is standing firm and allowing the protestors a great deal of leeway in their actions and damage.
Fu’s ordeal and all these actions shown in photos on Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, a paper leaning to the side of protesters, gave the lie to the image of these “democracy activists” as young Ghandis of East Asia.
The South China Morning Post is based in Hong Kong and its readership is concentrated there so it has to have some reasonable fidelity in reporting events; otherwise it loses credibility – and circulation.
Similarly, much as the New York Times abhorred Occupy Wall Street, it could not fail to report on it.
Joshua Wong
A younger generation of political HK activists emerged during the 2014 Occupy Central protests with a new brand of localized politics. It is a brand that appealed to the American conservative (anti-Chinese) Right.
Joshua Wong was just 17 years old when the Umbrella Movement took form in 2014. After emerging in the protest ranks as one of the more charismatic voices, he was steadily groomed as the pro-West camp’s teenage poster child.
Joshua Wong meets with Sen. Marco Rubio (R) in Washington on May 8, 2017
Wong received lavish praised in Time magazine, Fortune, and Foreign Policy as a “freedom campaigner,” and became the subject of an award-winning Netflix documentary called “Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower.”
Unsurprisingly, these puff pieces have overlooked Wong’s ties to the United States government’s regime-change apparatus. For that is what he is. He is the face of the American conservative foreign branch.
For instance, National Endowment for Democracy’s National Democratic Institute (NDI) maintains a close relationship with Demosistō, the political party Wong founded in 2016 with fellow Umbrella movement alumnus Nathan Law.
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a U.S. non-profit soft power organization that was founded in 1983 with the stated goal of promoting democracy abroad. It is funded primarily through an annual allocation from the U.S. Congress in the form of a grant awarded through the United States Information Agency (USIA). It is an American agency that obtains funds directly from the American federal government.
National Endowment for Democracy’s National Democratic Institute (NDI)
To find out a little bit more about this “shadowy” and “well funded” machine for causing protests, turmoil, and discord in other nations, read this…
It’s a bit long. You can skim over it, or ignore it as you wish. It’s just some really interesting background information on how front organizations, funded by the United States government, can be used to create proxy protests, and turmoil for American geo-political advantage.
“They’re meddling in our politics!” That’s the war cry of outraged Clintonites and neocons, who seem to think election interference is something that Russians do to us and we never, ever do to them.
But meddling in other countries has been a favorite Washington pastime ever since William McKinley vowed to “Christianize” the Philippines in 1899, despite the fact that most Filipinos were already Catholic. Today, an alphabet soup of U.S. agencies engage in political interference virtually around the clock, everyone from USAID to the VOA, RFE/RL to the DHS—respectively the U.S. Agency for International Development, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Department of Homeland Security. The last maintains some 2,000 U.S. employees in 70 countries to ensure that no one even thinks of doing anything bad to anyone over here.
Then there is the National Endowment for Democracy, a $180-million-a-year government-funded outfit that is a byword for American intrusiveness. The NED is an example of what might be called “speckism,” the tendency to go on about the speck in your neighbor’s eye without ever considering the plank in your own (see Matthew 7 for further details). Prohibited by law from interfering in domestic politics, the endowment devotes endless energy to the democratic shortcomings of other countries, especially when they threaten American interests.
In 1984, the year after it was founded, it channeled secret funds to a military-backed presidential candidate in Panama, gave $575,000 to a right-wing French student group, and delivered nearly half a million dollars to right-wing opponents of Costa Rican president Oscar Arias—because Arias had refused to go along with our anti-communist policy in Central America.
A year later, it gave $400,000 to the anti-Sandinista opposition in Nicaragua and then another $2 million in 1988. It used its financial muscle in the mid-1990s to persuade a right-wing party to draw up a “Contract with Slovakia” modeled on Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America; persuaded free marketeers to do the same in Mongolia; gave nearly $1 million to Venezuelan rightists who went on to mount a short-lived putsch against populist leader Hugo Chavez in 2002; and then funded anti-Russian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko in Ukraine in 2005, and the later anti-Russian coup there in 2014.
What all this had to do with democracy is unclear, although the NED’s role in advancing U.S. imperial interests is beyond doubt. Rather than “my country right or wrong,” its operating assumption is “my country right, full stop.” If Washington says Leader X is out of line, then the endowment will snap to attention and fund his opponents.
If it says he’s cooperative and well-behaved, meaning he supports free markets and financial deregulation and doesn’t dally with any of America’s military rivals, it will do the opposite. It doesn’t matter if, like Putin, the alleged dictator swept the last election with 63.6 percent of the vote and was declared the “clear” winner by the European Union and the U.S. State Department. If he’s “expanding [Russia’s] influence in the Middle East,” as NED President Carl Gershman puts it, then he’s a “strongman” and an “autocrat” and must go.
America’s own shortcomings meanwhile go unnoticed. Meanwhile, the NED, as it nears the quarter-century mark, is a bundle of contradictions: a group that claims to be private even though it is almost entirely publicly funded, a group that says democracy “must be indigenous” even though it backs U.S.-imposed regime change, a group that claims to be “bipartisan” but whose board is packed with ideologically homogeneous hawks like Elliott Abrams, Anne Applebaum, and Victoria Nuland, the latter of whom served as assistant secretary of state during the coup in Ukraine.
Historically speaking, the NED feels straight out of the early 1980s, when Washington was struggling to overcome “Vietnam Syndrome” in order to rev up the Cold War. The recovery process began with Ronald Reagan declaring at his first inaugural, “The crisis that we are facing today [requires] our best effort, and our willingness to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds, to believe that together with God’s help we can and will resolve the problems which now confront us. After all, why shouldn’t we believe that? We are Americans.”
The U.S. was apparently not just a nation, but something like a religion as well. Additional input for the new NED in 1983 came from spymaster William Casey, CIA director from 1981 to 1987, who, after the intelligence scandals of the 70s, had swung around to the view that certain covert operations were better spun off into what the British call a “quango,” a quasi-non-government organization. “Obviously we here should not get out in front in the development of such an organization,” he cautioned, “nor do we wish to appear to be a sponsor or advocate.” It was a case of covert backing for an overt turn.
Others who helped lay the groundwork were:
Neoconservative ideologue Jeane Kirkpatrick, Reagan’s ambassador to the UN, famous for her argument that “traditional authoritarian governments” should be supported against “revolutionary autocracies” because they are “less repressive” and whose UN aide Carl Gershman would become NED president and serves to this day.
Human rights Democrats who believe that America’s job is to enforce democratic standards throughout the world, however idiosyncratic and self-serving they may be Old-fashioned pluralists who maintained that the power to succeed existed in different groups’ working separately toward a common goal, in this case, spreading democracy abroad .
The result was an ideologically lethal package that assumed whatever Americans did was democratic because God is on our side, that old-fashioned CIA skullduggery was passé, and that the time had come to switch to more open means. “We should not have to do this kind of work covertly,” Gershman later explained. “We saw that in the 60s, and that’s why it has been discontinued. We have not had the capability of doing this, and that’s why the endowment was created.”
In the interests of pluralism, the NED adopted a quadripartite structure with separate wings for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the AFL-CIO, the GOP, and the Democrats, each working separately yet somehow together.
Pluralism helped tamp down debate and also shore up support on Capitol Hill. Liberal Democrats were initially skeptical due to the NED’s neocon tilt. Michigan Congressman John Conyers Jr. tried to kill it in 1985, and The Nation magazine complained a few years later that the group served as little more than “a pork barrel for a small circle of Republican and Democratic party activists, conservative trade unionists, and free marketeers who use endowment money to run their own mini State Department.”
But when the House voted unexpectedly to defund the agency in 1993, beneficiaries sprang to its defense. Major-league pundits like George Will, David Broder, and Abe Rosenthal “went into overdrive,” according to The Nation, as did the heavy hitters of the Washington Post editorial page. Vice President Walter Mondale, a member of the NED board of directors, worked the phones along with Lane Kirkland, George Meany’s successor as head of the AFL-CIO.
Ronald Reagan wrote a letter, while Senators Richard Lugar, Orrin Hatch, and John McCain pitched in as well. So did prominent liberals like Paul Wellstone, John Kerry, Tom Harkin, Ted Kennedy, and Carol Moseley-Braun. These people normally couldn’t bear to be in the same with one another, but they were of one mind when it came to America’s divine right to intervene in other nations’ affairs.
The anti-NED forces didn’t stand a chance. Twenty-five years later, the endowment is again under attack, although this time from the right.
Gershman started the ball rolling when, in October 2016, he interrupted his busy pro-democracy schedule to dash off a column in the Washington Post accusing Russia of using “email hackers, information trolls and open funding of political parties to sow discord” and of “even intervening in the U.S. presidential election.” Since there was no question whom Russia was intervening for, there was no doubt what the article amounted to: a thinly veiled swipe at a certain orange-haired candidate.
Never one to forget a slight, Trump got his revenge last month by proposing to slash the NED budget by 60 percent. The response was the same as in 1993, only more so. Uber-hawk Senator Lindsey Graham pronounced the cut “dead on arrival,” adding: “This budget destroys soft power, it puts our diplomats at risk, and it’s going nowhere.”
Gershman said it would mean “sending a signal far and wide that the United States is turning its back on supporting brave people who share our values,” while Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin moaned that the administration was guilty of an “assault on democracy promotion.” The ever-voluble Democratic Congresswoman Nita Lowey accused the administration of “dismantling an agency that advances critical goals.”
“The work our government does to promote democratic values abroad is at the heart of who we are as a country,” added Senator John McCain. America is democracy, democracy is America, and, as history’s first global empire, the U.S. has an unqualified right to do unto others what others may not do unto the U.S. Only a “Siberian candidate,” “a traitor,” or “a Russian stooge” could possibly disagree.
- The National Endowment for (Meddling in) Democracy by Daniel Lazare
Julie Eadeh
In August, a candid photo surfaced of Wong and Law meeting with Julie Eadeh, the political counselor at the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong, raising questions about the content of the meeting and setting off a diplomatic showdown between Washington and Beijing.
Julie Eadeh
People, it’s pretty obvious that Washington D.C. is involved in the HK protests, when you have photos of the protest leaders meeting with American presidential aides!
People, it’s pretty obvious that Washington D.C. is involved in the HK protests, when you have photos of the protest leaders meeting with American presidential aides in the HK Marriot hotel!
This is very very embarrassing. Julie Eadeh, a US diplomat in Hong Kong, was caught meeting HK protest leaders. It would be hard to imagine the US reaction if Chinese diplomat were meeting leaders of Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter or Never Trump protesters. pic.twitter.com/JfiU2O2HZq
— Chen Weihua (@chenweihua) August 8, 2019
Of course, this kind of nonsense won’t be tolerated by China.
The Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong submitted a formal complaint with the US consulate general, calling on the US “to immediately make a clean break from anti-China forces who stir up trouble in Hong Kong, stop sending out wrong signals to violent offenders, refrain from meddling with Hong Kong affairs and avoid going further down the wrong path.”
The Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong submitted a formal complaint with the US consulate general, calling on the US “to immediately make a clean break from anti-China forces who stir up trouble in Hong Kong, stop sending out wrong signals to violent offenders, refrain from meddling with Hong Kong affairs and avoid going further down the wrong path.”
So the United States wants to get involved in Chinese affairs.
Well, then be prepared for some “push back”. The pro-Beijing Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao doxxed Eadeh. They published personal details about Eadeh, including the names of her children and her address.
But, Washington, D.C. is not used to “push back”.
State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus lashed out, accusing the Chinese government of being behind the leak but offering no evidence. “I don’t think that leaking an American diplomat’s private information, pictures, names of their children, I don’t think that is a formal protest, that is what a thuggish regime would do,”she said at a State Department briefing.
Totally ignoring the already issued formal protest from China.
State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus lashed out, accusing the Chinese government of being behind the leak but offering no evidence. “I don’t think that leaking an American diplomat’s private information, pictures, names of their children, I don’t think that is a formal protest, that is what a thuggish regime would do,” she said at a State Department briefing.
Aside from the official American government protests bout the doxxing, the leaked Mariott photo underscored the close relationship between Hong Kong’s pro-West movement and the US government.
There is ample proof that the United States government has been coaching, and supporting the protests in Hong Kong.
Since the 2014 Occupy Central protests that vaulted Wong into prominence, he and his peers have been assiduously cultivated by the elite Washington institutions to act as the faces and voices of Hong Kong’s burgeoning anti-China movement.
This has continued a pace.
In September 2015, Wong, Martin Lee, and University of Hong Kong law professor Benny Tai Lee were honored by Freedom House, a right-wing soft-power organization that is heavily funded by the National Endowment for Democracy and other arms of the US government.
In September 2015, Wong, Martin Lee, and University of Hong Kong law professor Benny Tai Lee were honored
by Freedom House, a right-wing soft-power organization that is heavily
funded by the National Endowment for Democracy and other arms of the US
government.
Freedom House
Just days after Trump’s election as president in November 2016, Wong was back in Washington to appeal for more US support. “Being a businessman, I hope Donald Trump could know the dynamics in Hong Kong and know that to maintain the business sector benefits in Hong Kong, it’s necessary to fully support human rights in Hong Kong to maintain the judicial independence and the rule of law,” he said.
Wong’s visit to Washington DC provided occasion for the Senate’s two most aggressively neoconservative members, Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton, to introduce the “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act,”.
Wong’s visit provided occasion for the Senate’s two most aggressively neoconservative members, Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton, to introduce the “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act,” which would “identify those responsible for abduction, surveillance, detention and forced confessions, and the perpetrators will have their US assets, if any… frozen and their entry to the country denied.”
Marco Rubio
Tom Cotton
Wong was given the “royal carpet treatment”. He was then taken on a junket of elite US institutions including the right-wing Heritage Foundation think tank and the newsrooms of the New York Times and Financial Times. He then held court with Rubio, Cotton, Pelosi, and Sen. Ben Sasse.
Heritage Foundation
Nancy Pelosi
Ben Sasse
Wong was given the “royal carpet treatment”. He was then taken on a junket of elite US institutions including the right-wing Heritage Foundation think tank and the newsrooms of the New York Times and Financial Times. He then held court with Rubio, Cotton, Pelosi, and Sen. Ben Sasse.
In September 2017, Rubio, Ben Cardin, Tom Cotton, Sherrod Brown, and Cory Gardner signed off on a letter to Wong, Law and fellow anti-China activist Alex Chow, praising them for their “efforts to build a genuinely autonomous Hong Kong.” The bipartisan cast of senators proclaimed that “the United States cannot stand idly by.”
Ben Cardin
Sherrod Brown
Cory Gardner
Rubio and his colleagues nominated the trio of Wong, Law, and Chow for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize.
A year later, Rubio and his colleagues nominated the trio of Wong, Law, and Chow for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize.
Honored to have met Joshua Wong, a student leader who led a big protest demanding universal suffrage in Hong Kong. pic.twitter.com/sSb46j7zIX
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) November 18, 2015
Washington’s support for the designated spokesmen of the “retake Hong Kong movement” was supplemented with untold sums of money from US regime-change outfits like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and subsidiaries like the National Democratic Institute (NDI) to civil society, media and political groups.
National Endowment for Democracy (NED)
National Democratic Institute (NDI)
Washington’s support for the designated spokesmen of the “retake Hong Kong movement” was supplemented with untold sums of money from US regime-change outfits like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and subsidiaries like the National Democratic Institute (NDI) to civil society, media and political groups.
As journalist Alex Rubinstein reported, the Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor, a key member of the coalition that organized against the now-defunct extradition law, has received more than $2 million in NED funds since 1995.
Other groups in the coalition reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars from the NED and NDI last year alone.
While US lawmakers nominate Hong Kong protest leaders for peace prizes and pump their organizations with money to “promote democracy,” the demonstrations have begun to spiral out of control.
The people who are driving the events.
25th August 2019 – (Hong Kong) The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has funded the 2014 Occupy Central in the past but many have begun to wonder if the Americans did indeed have a hand in the latest anti-extradition protests in Hong Kong. Numerous meetings between pro-democracy political activists, representatives from NED and top government officials have left us wondered if NED has funded the frontline protesters .
We have mentioned earlier in our previous article that, there are in principle two factions of protesters, the genuine protesters (90%) and the frontline protesters (10%). Only the 10% frontline protesters are potentially funded by the Americans as the mass of Hong Kong protesters fit naturally into their agenda.
What is NED? NED is a U.S. non-profit soft power organization that was founded in 1983 with the stated goal of promoting democracy abroad. In principle, NED is a grant-making foundation, distributing funds to private non-governmental organisations for promoting democracy abroad. NED does not directly fund any political party, as this is forbidden by law. According to NED, it funds election monitoring and also civic education about voting, such as student-led “get-out-the-vote” campaigns.
However, according to American Conservative, in 1984, the year after it was founded, it channeled secret funds to a military-backed presidential candidate in Panama, gave US$575,000 to a right-wing French student group, and delivered nearly half a million dollars to right-wing opponents of Costa Rican president Oscar Arias—because Arias had refused to go along with our anti-communist policy in Central America.
- Is United States involved in the current civil unrest in Hong Kong via its National Endowment for Democracy (NED)?
The protesters’ stated goals remain vague. No one now knows what exactly they are protesting for.
HK Riot police can only take so much violence before some serious accidents will occur.
Joshua Wong, one of the most well known figures in the movement, has since put forward a call for the Chinese government to [1] “retract the proclamation that the protests were riots,” and [2] restated the consensus demand for universal suffrage.
Wong is a bespectacled 22-year-old who has been trumpeted in Western media as a “freedom campaigner,” promoted to the English-speaking world through his own Netflix documentary, and rewarded with the backing of the US government.
Hey! This kid is doing really well for himself. He's getting millions of dollars from various political American movements. He was up for the Peace Prize, and has his own Netflix documentary. Pretty good for a a young unemployed Hong Kong millennial. It's nice to see where all our campaign donations and tax dollars goes to.
Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong released from prison, vows to continue actions of violence.
But behind telegenic spokespeople like Wong are more extreme elements such as the Hong Kong National Party, whose members have appeared at protests waving the Stars and Stripes and belting out cacophonous renditions of the Star-Spangled Banner. The leadership of this officially banned party helped popularize the call for the full independence of Hong Kong, a radical goal that is music to the ears of hardliners in Washington.
Xenophobic resentment has defined the sensibility of the protesters, who vow to “retake Hong Kong” from Chinese mainlanders they depict as a horde of locusts.
The demonstrators have even adopted one of the most widely recognized symbols of the alt-right, emblazoning images of Pepe the Frog on their protest literature. While it’s unclear that Hong Kong residents see Pepe the same way American conservatives do, members of the US far-right have embraced the protest movement as their own, and even personally joined their ranks.
Protesters in Hong Kong have adopted the popular “Pepe the Frog” meme as one of their symbols of resistance amid ongoing demonstrations against a proposed extradition bill.
The frog’s familiar face has appeared on signs in various protests calling out violent police crackdowns against demonstrators.
One meme showing Pepe with an injured eye focused on a police assault which left a first responder blind after being shot with a bean bag round at close range.
Which brings us to the second key photo of importance. It is much more important to US citizens. It clearly shows a “Political Counselor” from the US Consulate General in Hong Kong with radical anti-government protestors at the HK Marriot hotel.
The official was formerly a State Dept functionary in the Middle East – in Jerusalem, Riyadh, Beirut, Baghdad and Doha, certainly not an area lacking in imperial intrigues and regime change ops.
People, it’s pretty obvious that Washington D.C. is involved in the HK protests, when you have photos of the protest leaders meeting with American presidential aides!
That photo graphically contradicted the contention that there is no US “black hand,” as China calls it, in the Hong Kong riots.
In fact, here the “black hand” was caught red-handed, leading Chen Weihua, a very perceptive China Daily columnist, to tweet the picture with the comment:
“This is very very embarrassing. … a US diplomat in Hong Kong, was caught meeting HK protest leaders. It would be hard to imagine the US reaction if a Chinese diplomat were meeting leaders of Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter or Never Trump protesters.”
And that photo with the protest leaders is just a snap shot of the ample evidence of the hand of the US government and its subsidiaries in the Hong Kong events.
There is substantial and ample evidence that the United States government has been very active in funding, advising and supporting the anti-government protestors in Hong Kong.
Perhaps the best documentation of the US “black hand” is to be found in Dan Cohen’s superb article of August 17 in The Greyzone entitled, “Behind a made-for-TV Hong Kong protest narrative, Washington is backing nativism and mob violence.”
The article by Cohen deserves careful reading; it leaves little doubt that there is a very deep involvement of the US in the Hong Kong riots.
Of special interest is the detailed role and funding, amounting to over $1.3 million, in Hong Kong alone in recent years, of the US National Endowment for Democracy (NED), ever on the prowl for new regime change opportunities.
Perhaps most important, the leaders of the “leaderless” protests have met with major US political figures such as John Bolton, Vice President Pence, Secretary Pompeo, Senator Marco Rubio, Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel, Nancy Pelosi and others, all of whom have heartily endorsed their efforts.
This is not to deny that the protests were home grown at the outset in response to what was widely perceived as a legitimate grievance. But it would be equally absurd to deny that the US is fishing in troubled Hong Kong waters to advance its anti-China crusade and regime change ambitions.
People! China is a serious, serious nation. They do not mess around. If you think that they will not take this meddling as some kind of physical attack, then you are living in a fantasy world. They WILL take action. You all just have no idea what it will be.Nor will you know when they will take action.
The people who are activating the events.
As has been demonstrated so far, there are various individuals who are playing the "global high-power" politics role in all this. This includes American Senators, Congressmen, and various American sponsored "freedom" organizations.
But there are also others. Other people who have their own personal interests for "stirring up the pot". Here we look at others, who have a bigger personal stake in all of these protests.
Jimmy Lai
Among the most central influencers of the demonstrations is a local tycoon named Jimmy Lai. The self-described “head of opposition media,” Lai is widely described as the Rupert Murdoch of Asia.
The United States is intimately involved in the HK protests.
For the masses of protesters, Lai is a transcendent figure. They clamor for photos with him and applaud the oligarch wildly when he walks by their encampments.
Lai established his credentials by pouring millions of dollars into the 2014 Occupy Central protest, which is known popularly as the Umbrella Movement. He has since used his massive fortune to fund local anti-China political movers and shakers while injecting the protests with a virulent brand of Sinophobia through his media empire.
Sinophobia - definition of Sinophobia by The Free Dictionary
Sinophobia synonyms, Sinophobia pronunciation, Sinophobia translation, English dictionary definition of Sinophobia. n. 1. Fear of or contempt for China, its people, or its culture. 2. Behavior based on such an attitude or feeling. Si′no·phobe′ n. Si′no·pho′bic adj.
Jimmy Lai (HK billionaire) meets with American VP Mike Pence. Politically he is a progressive leftist who became one of the most powerful men in HK. He desires to leverage his relationship and power to have the USA perform proxy interceptions within China and HK relationships for his own personal benefit.
Though Western media has depicted the
Hong Kong protesters as the voice of an entire people yearning for
freedom, the island is deeply divided. This August, a group of
protesters mobilized outside Jimmy Lai’s house, denouncing him as a
“running dog” of Washington and accusing him of national betrayal by
unleashing chaos on the island.
Days earlier, Lai was in Washington, coordinating with hardline members of Trump’s national security team, including John Bolton. His ties to Washington run deep — and so do those of the front-line protest leaders.
John Bolton
John Bolton – National Security Advisor to Donald Trump.
Jimmy Lai has been working with President Trump's national security advisor John Bolton in how to work with China.
In this relationship, it is obvious that both Jimmy Lai and John Bolton want to take a very hard-line with China. As such, we can well expect John Bolton to sabotage any tariff agreement between Xi Peng and Donald Trump.
Personally, I believe that for there to be any kind of mutually-beneficial trade relationship and agreement between the USA and China, John Bolton would have to step down from being an advisor to Donald Trump.
Millions of dollars have flowed from
US regime-change outfits like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)
into civil society and political organizations that form the backbone
of the anti-China mobilization. And Lai has supplemented it with his own
fortune while instructing protesters on tactics through his various
media organs.
With Donald Trump in the White House,
Lai is convinced that his moment may be on the horizon. Trump
“understands the Chinese like no president understood,” the tycoon told the Wall Street Journal. “I think he’s very good at dealing with gangsters.”
Born in the mainland in 1948 to wealthy parents, whose fortune was expropriated by the Communist Party during the revolution the following year, Jimmy Lai began working at 9 years old, carrying bags for train travelers during the hard years of the Great Chinese Famine.
Inspired by the taste of a piece of chocolate gifted to him by a wealthy man, he decided to smuggle himself to Hong Kong to discover a future of wealth and luxury. There, Lai worked his way up the ranks of the garment industry, growing enamored with the libertarian theories of economists Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman, the latter of whom became his close friend.
Friedman is famous for developing the neoliberal shock therapy doctrine that the US has imposed on numerous countries, resulting in the excess deaths of millions. For his part, Hayek is the godfather of the Austrian economic school that forms the foundation of libertarian political movements across the West.
Lai built his business empire on Giordano, a garment label that became one of Asia’s most recognizable brands. In 1989, he threw his weight behind the Tiananmen Square protests, hawking t-shirts on the streets of Beijing calling for Deng Xiaoping to “step down.”
It was a year after the Communist Party of China, led by Deng Xiaoping, put forward the policy of reform and opening-up. Under the policy, individuals nationwide were encouraged to run businesses and set up private companies. That meant that family enterprises like the Nian’s sunflower seed business became legal. Deng’s visionary move fueled the growth of private enterprise and set a milestone for China’s market-oriented economy.
In other words, Mr. Deng introduced China to Reganomics. And while President Bush stopped all of the Reaganomics that he started, Mr. Deng continued, creating the China that exists today.
Lai’s actions provoked the Chinese government to ban his company from operating on the mainland.
A year later, he founded Next Weekly magazine, initiating a process that would revolutionize the mediascape in Hong Kong with a blend of smutty tabloid-style journalism, celebrity gossip and a heavy dose of anti-China spin.
The vociferously anti-communist baron soon became Hong Kong’s media kingpin, worth a whopping $660 million in 2009.
Today, Lai is the founder and majority stakeholder of Next Digital, the largest listed media company in Hong Kong, which he uses to agitate for the end of what he calls the Chinese “dictatorship.” His flagship outlet is the popular tabloid Apple Daily, employing the trademark mix of raunchy material with a heavy dose of xenophobic, nativist propaganda.
In 2012, Apple Daily carried a full page advertisement depicting mainland Chinese citizens as invading locusts draining Hong Kong’s resources. The advertisement called for a stop to the “unlimited invasion of mainland pregnant women in Hong Kong.”
(This was a crude reference to the Chinese citizens who had flocked to the island while pregnant to ensure that their children could earn Hong Kong residency, and resembled the resentment among the US right-wing of immigrant “anchor babies.”)
Ad in Lai’s Apple Daily: “That’s enough! Stop unlimited invasion of mainland pregnant women!”
The transformation of Hong Kong’s economy has provided fertile soil for Lai’s brand of demagoguery. As the country’s manufacturing base moved to mainland China after the golden years of the 1980s and ‘90s, the economy was rapidly financialized, enriching oligarchs like Lai.
Left with rising debt and dimming career prospects, Hong Kong’s youth became easy prey to the demagogic politics of nativism.
Many protesters have been seen waving
British Union Jacks in recent weeks, expressing a yearning for an
imaginary past under colonial control which they never personally
experienced.
Many protesters have been seen waving British Union Jacks in recent weeks, expressing a yearning for an imaginary past under colonial control which they never personally experienced.
In July, protesters vandalized the Hong Kong Liaison Office, spray-painting the word, “Shina” on its facade. This term is a xenophobic slur some in Hong Kong and Taiwan use to refer to mainland China.
The anti-Chinese phenomenon was visible during the 2014 Umbrella movement protests as well, with signs plastered around the city reading, “Hong Kong for Hong Kongers.”
支那(Shina) is Japanese word for China that became derogatory during Sino-Japanese War. Post-War Japan gov ban its use in Kanji form (Chinese characters) in official document. Yet some people in Hong Kong and Taiwan use it to insult people from Chinese mainland. It=“Chink” in Eng https://t.co/Oe8LCXgak8
— Carl Zha (@CarlZha) July 22, 2019
This month, protesters turned their fury on the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, spray-painting “rioters” on its office. The attack represented resentment of the left-wing group’s role in a violent 1967 uprising against the British colonial authorities, who are now seen as heroes among many of the anti-Chinese demonstrators.
Edward Leung
Besides Lai, a large part of the
credit for mobilizing latent xenophobia goes to the right-wing Hong Kong
Indigenous party leader Edward Leung. Under the direction of the
28-year-old Leung, his pro-independence party has brandished British
colonial flags and publicly harassed Chinese mainland tourists. In 2016,
Leung was exposed for meeting with US diplomatic officials at a local restaurant.
Edward Leung Tin-kei (Chinese : 梁天琦 ; born 2 June 1991) is a Hong Kong student and activist. He is the former spokesman of Hong Kong Indigenous, a localist group. He took a leading role and was arrested in the 2016 Mong Kok civil unrest.
Though he is currently in jail for leading a 2016 riot where police were bombarded with bricks and pavement – and where he admitted
to attacking an officer – Leung’s rightist politics and his slogan,
“Retake Hong Kong,” have helped define the ongoing protests.
A local legislator and protest leader described Leung to the New York Times as “the Che Guevara of Hong Kong’s revolution,” referring without a hint of irony to the Latin American communist revolutionary killed in a CIA-backed operation. According to the Times, Leung is “the closest thing Hong Kong’s tumultuous and leaderless protest movement has to a guiding light.”
Andy Chan
The xenophobic sensibility of the protesters has provided fertile soil for Hong Kong National Party to recruit. Founded by the pro-independence activist Andy Chan, the officially banned party combines anti-Chinese resentment with calls for the US to intervene.
"I ask President Trump to bring full-scale of sanction on to Hong Kong. The sanctions brought on China must [be] brought on Hong Kong because China can escape sanctions through Hong Kong. I would like to take the chance to reiterate my advocacy again: to revoke the 1992 Hong Kong Policy Act passed by the United States Congress. It allows Hong Kong to enjoy a special status apart from China. However, it turns out to be a back door of the free world that could be accessed and manipulated by China. Moreover, over 70% of foreign direct investment goes in to China through Hong Kong. Hong Kong is the main window that China obtains U.S. dollars from. Therefore, shut it down."
-Andy Chan
Images and videos have surfaced of HKNP members waving the flags of the US and UK, singing the Star Spangled Banner, and carrying flags emblazoned with images of Pepe the Frog, the most recognizable symbol of the US alt-right.
It is a very small group. With only a handful of members. While the party lacks a wide base of popular support, it is perhaps the most outspoken within the protest ranks, and has attracted disproportionate international attention as a result.
“I ask President Trump to bring full-scale of sanction on to Hong Kong. The sanctions brought on China must [be] brought on Hong Kong because China can escape sanctions through Hong Kong. I would like to take the chance to reiterate my advocacy again: to revoke the 1992 Hong Kong Policy Act passed by the United States Congress.
It allows Hong Kong to enjoy a special status apart from China. However, it turns out to be a back door of the free world that could be accessed and manipulated by China. Moreover, over 70% of foreign direct investment goes in to China through Hong Kong. Hong Kong is the main window that China obtains U.S. dollars from. Therefore, shut it down.”
Chan has called for Trump to escalate the trade war and accused China of carrying out a “national cleansing” against Hong Kong. “We were once colonized by the Brits, and now we are by the Chinese,” he declared.
The risks if this manipulation cannot be constrained.
Such xenophobic propaganda is consistent with the clash of civilizations theory that Jimmy Lai has promulgated through his media empire. It is useful. It has a proven record of success, and is useful to obtain his objectives at this time.
“You have to understand the Hong Kong people – a very tiny 7 million or 0.5 percent of the Chinese population – are very different from the rest of Chinese in China, because we grow up in the Western values, which was the legacy of the British colonial past, which gave us the instinct to revolt once this extradition law was threatening our freedom,” Lai told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo. “Even America has to look at the world 20 years from now, whether you want the Chinese dictatorial values to dominate this world, or you want the values that you treasure [to] continue.”
During a panel discussion at the neoconservative Washington-based think tank, the Foundation For Defense of Democracies, Lai told the pro-Israel lobbyist Jonathan Schanzer,
“We need to know that America is behind us. By backing us, America is also sowing to the will of their moral authority because we are the only place in China, a tiny island in China, which is sharing your values, which is fighting the same war you have with China.”
While Lai makes no attempt to conceal
his political agenda, his bankrolling of central figures in the 2014
Occupy Central, or Umbrella movement protests, was not always public.
To find out what is going on here, all you need to do is “follow the money”.
Leaked emails revealed that Lai poured more than $1.2 million to anti-China political parties including $637,000 USD to the Democratic Party and $382,000 USD to the Civic Party. Lai also gave $115,000 USD to the Hong Kong Civic Education Foundation and Hong Kong Democratic Development Network, both of which were co-founded by Reverend Chu Yiu-ming. Lai also spent $446,000 USD on Occupy Central’s 2014 unofficial referendum.
Lai’s US consigliere is a former Navy intelligence analyst who interned with the CIA and leveraged his intelligence connections to build his boss’s business empire.
Named Mark Simon, the veteran spook arranged for former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin to meet with a group in the anti-China camp during a 2009 visit to Hong Kong.
Five years later, Lai paid $75,000 to neoconservative Iraq war author and US Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz to organize a meeting with top military figures in Myanmar.
US Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz believes that supporting the HK protestors will not have any adverse actions and that America will continue to be the most powerful and “free nation” on the planet.
This July, as the Hong Kong protests gathered steam, Lai was junketed to Washington, DC for meetings with Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Advisor John Bolton, and Republican Senators Ted Cruz, Cory Gardner, and Rick Scott.
Bloomberg News correspondent Nicholas Wadhams remarked on Lai’s visit, “Very unusual for a [non-government] visitor to get that kind of access.”
Today: Hong Kong publisher and democracy advocate Jimmy Lai met National Security Adviser John Bolton in DC. After meetings with @SecPompeo and @VP, this is meant to send a signal to Beijing. Very unusual for a nongovt visitor to get that kind of access. pic.twitter.com/6rvqsGJzru
— Nicholas Wadhams (@nwadhams) July 10, 2019
Hong Kong publisher and democracy advocate Jimmy Lai met National Security Adviser John Bolton in DC. After meetings with @SecPompeo and @VP, this is meant to send a signal to Beijing. This continued as the proxy protests continued in HK. In this picture a protestor was arrested trying to sneak into the HK international airport.
One of Lai’s closest allies, Martin
Lee, was also granted an audience with Pompeo, and has held court with
US leaders including Nancy Pelosi and former Vice President Joseph Biden.
Among the most prominent figures in Hong Kong’s pro-US political parties, Martin Lee began collaborating with Lai during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
A recipient of the US government-funded National Endowment for Democracy’s “Democracy Award” in 1997, Lee is the founding chairman of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party, now considered part of the pro-US camp’s old guard.
Policemen arrest a protester during a demonstration at the Airport in Hong Kong, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2019. Chaos has broken out at Hong Kong’s airport as riot police moved into the terminal to confront protesters who shut down operations at the busy transport hub for two straight days. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
These latest groups of protests are not about HK law. They are about armed militarized conflicts against the HK government. They choose not to work with the government, instead they want to embrace violence.
After the extradition law was scrapped, the protests moved into a more aggressive phase, launching “hit and run attacks” against government targets, erecting roadblocks, besieging police stations, and generally embracing the extreme modalities put on display during US-backed regime-change operations from Ukraine to Venezuela to Nicaragua.
After the extradition law was scrapped, the protests moved into a more aggressive phase, launching “hit and run attacks” against government targets, erecting roadblocks, besieging police stations, and generally embracing the extreme modalities put on display during US-backed regime-change operations from Ukraine to Venezuela to Nicaragua.
AJE in position to cover HK protesters' "hit and run strategy."
Here's William Engdahl on Otpor!, the CIA-backed Serbian group that trained thousands of youth activists in countries around the world in color revolution swarming tactics: https://t.co/jvCk2QBNhKhttps://t.co/I8oGScbpsSpic.twitter.com/a3JZzGwDb9
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) August 13, 2019
The techniques clearly reflected the
training many activists have received from Western soft-power outfits.
But they also bore the mark of Jimmy Lai’s media operation.
In addition to the vast sums Lai
spent on political parties directly involved in the protests, his media
group created an animated video “showing how to resist police in case
force was used to disperse people in a mass protest.”
In addition to the vast sums Lai spent on political parties directly involved in the protests, his media group created an animated video “showing how to resist police in case force was used to disperse people in a mass protest.”
While dumping money into the Hong Kong’s pro-US political camp in 2013, Lai traveled to Taiwan for a secret roundtable consultation
with Shih Ming-teh, a key figure in Taiwan’s social movement that
forced then-president Chen Shui-bian to resign in 2008. Shih reportedly
instructed Lai on non-violent tactics to bring the government to heel,
emphasizing the importance of a commitment to go to jail.
According to journalist Peter Lee,
“Shih supposedly gave Lai advice on putting students, young girls, and
mothers with children in the vanguard of the street protests, in order
to attract the support of the international community and press, and to
sustain the movement with continual activities to keep it dynamic and
fresh.” Lai reportedly turned off his recording device during multiple
sections of Shih’s tutorial.
“Shih supposedly gave Lai advice on putting students, young girls, and mothers with children in the vanguard of the street protests, in order to attract the support of the international community and press, and to sustain the movement with continual activities to keep it dynamic and fresh.”
One protester explained
to the New York Times how the movement attempted to embrace a strategy
called, “Marginal Violence Theory”: By using “mild force” to provoke
security services into attacking the protesters, the protesters aimed to
shift international sympathy away from the state.
As I have repeated stated in this article, it seems like the protestors want the police and military forces to engage them. Per this quote in the use of "mild force", it seems obvious that this is their strategy.
As the protest movement intensifies, its rank-and-file are doing away with tactical restraint and lashing out at their targets with full fury. They have thrown molotov cocktails into intersections to block traffic; attacked vehicles and their drivers for attempting to break through roadblocks; beaten opponents with truncheons; attacked a wounded man with a US flag; menaced a reporter into deleting her photos; kidnapped and beat a journalist senseless; beat a mainland traveler unconscious and prevented paramedics from reaching the victim; and hurled petrol bombs at police officers.
A Hong Kong protester continued to attack Chinese reporter for @globaltimesnews with American flag even as Paramedics finally freed him from the crowd and tried to rush him to hospital pic.twitter.com/AIULKRW76t
— Carl Zha (@CarlZha) August 13, 2019
The charged atmosphere has provided a
shot in the arm to Lai’s media empire, which had been suffering heavy
losses since the last round of national protests in 2014. After the mass
marches against the extradition bill on June 9, which Lai’s Apple Daily
aggressively promoted, his Next Digital doubled in value, according to Eji Insight.
Meanwhile, the protest leaders show no sign of backing down.
Nathan Law, the youth activist celebrated in Washington and photographed meeting with US officials in Hong Kong, took to Twitter to urge his peers to soldier on: “We have to persist and keep the faith no matter how devastated the reality seems to be,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, the protest leaders show no sign of backing down. Nathan Law, the youth activist celebrated in Washington and photographed meeting with US officials in Hong Kong, took to Twitter to urge his peers to soldier on: “We have to persist and keep the faith no matter how devastated the reality seems to be,” he wrote.
Nathan Law
Law was tweeting from New Haven, Connecticut, where he was enrolled with a full scholarship at Yale University. While the young activist basked in the adulation of his US patrons thousands of miles from the chaos he helped spark, a movement that defined itself as a “leaderless resistance” forged ahead back home.
While there has been growing coverage of the unrest in Hong Kong, there has been minimal coverage of what may lie behind the pro-democracy protests.
As you will see in this posting, it is entirely possible that a
Washington-based and Congressionally funded institution is responsible,
at least in part, for the lack of calmness in Hong Kong.
American involvement in the affairs of other nations is well established. It should come as no surprise to anyone that America would fund and instigate protests and violence in China’s backyard.
American involvement in the affairs of other nations is well established. It should come as no surprise to anyone that America would fund and instigate protests and violence in China’s backyard. For more information, go to this posting on the National Endowment for Democracy or NED, America’s instrument of democratic promotion around the world, that is, democracy American style. NED was founded in 1983 during the Reagan Administration with the following Statement of Principles and Objectives:
“Democracy involves the right of the people freely to determine their own destiny.The exercise of this right requires a system that guarantees freedom of expression, belief and association, free and competitive elections, respect for the inalienable rights of individuals and minorities, free communications media, and the rule of law.“
NED is a unique institution. The Endowment’s nongovernmental character gives it a flexibility that makes it possible to work in some of the world’s most difficult circumstances, and to respond quickly when there is an opportunity for political change.
While NED touts itself as a “private” foundation, in other words, it
is independent of government. That could not be further from the
truth. Here’s what NED has to say about itself that belies its true
character:
“NED is a unique institution. The Endowment’s nongovernmental character gives it a flexibility that makes it possible to work in some of the world’s most difficult circumstances, and to respond quickly when there is an opportunity for political change. NED is dedicated to fostering the growth of a wide range of democratic institutions abroad, including political parties, trade unions, free markets and business organizations, as well as the many elements of a vibrant civil society that ensure human rights, an independent media, and the rule of law.
This well-rounded approach responds to the diverse aspects of democracy and has proved both practical and effective throughout NED’s history. Funded largely by the U.S. Congress, the support NED gives to groups abroad sends an important message of solidarity to many democrats who are working for freedom and human rights, often in obscurity and isolation….
From its beginning, NED has remained steadfastly bipartisan. Created jointly by Republicans and Democrats, NED is governed by a board balanced between both parties and enjoys Congressional support across the political spectrum. NED operates with a high degree of transparency and accountability reflecting our founders’ belief that democracy promotion overseas should be conducted openly.”
NED receives its funding through an annual appropriation from Congress through the Department of State making it little more than another mouthpiece for Washington’s agenda. NED promotes Washington’s global agenda through direct grants to more than 1600 non-governmental groups that are working for “democracy” in more than 90 nations around the world.
Despite its proclamation that it has a “nongovernmental
character”, NED receives its funding through an annual appropriation from Congress through the Department of State making it little more than another mouthpiece for Washington’s agenda. NED promotes Washington’s global agenda through direct grants to more than 1600 non-governmental groups that are working for “democracy” in more than 90 nations around the world.
Let’s look at NED’s activities in Hong Kong for 2018 according to its website. Here are the projects that were funded over the period from 2015 to 2018.
Notice that the 2018 funding to the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs was granted to “facilitate engagement on Hong Kong’s growing threats to guaranteed rights”.
Policemen clash with demonstrators on a street during a protest in Hong Kong, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2019. Hong Kong police have rolled out water cannon trucks for the first time in this summer’s pro-democracy protests. The two trucks moved forward with riot officers Sunday evening as they pushed protesters back along a street in the outlying Tsuen Wan district. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
That certainly sounds like promoting democracy to me. NED spent a total of $1,357,974 on grants to organizations that were promoting freedom, democracy and human rights in Hong Kong over the period from 2015 to 2018.
Unfortunately, we don’t know what NED spent on promoting democracy in Hong Kong in the time frame prior to 2015. While, in the grand scheme of what Washington spends this is not a great deal of money, it is the principle of what Washington is attempting to create in Hong Kong that is of concern.
This is a very clear example of meddling in the internal affairs of China and Hong Kong, actions that will only serve to anger China who is the also the recipient of a great deal of NED’s attention.
Protestors assault an international traveler near the subway in the HK airport.
It is also key to remember that there are likely other taxpayer-funded programs through which Washington is attempting to influence what happens in Hong Kong.
In my opinion, this tweet by the conservative-leaning Washington Examiner is a dead giveaway to the source of the unrest:
Video from Hong Kong shows pro-democracy protesters waving American flags and singing the American National Anthem. Demonstrations have shutdown the city's airport for a second consecutive day and put the entire Chinese city on edge. pic.twitter.com/ZrYE5DzZYU
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) August 13, 2019
While the ideals of democracy are admirable and desirable, Washington’s version of democracy is tainted by big money and has developed into a system where politicians are for sale to the highest bidder.
Meanwhile, the Chinese themselves are not falling for this (same old, same old) lie…
huaqiao (Expat in China)
The rioters are trying to force the police to act and then certain foreign media will report it as "police brutality" while ignoring the rioters' assault against the police. This is a planned, deliberate act to show the world China's system is not working.
But the fact is China's system is working and is the envy of many nations, but certain "free world" countries cannot accept that. The value of "democracy" is overstated and these rioters show the effect of being overdosed with "democracy" and act senselessly.
While the ideals of democracy are admirable and desirable, Washington’s version of democracy is tainted by big money and has developed into a system where politicians are for sale to the highest bidder.
This is not the democracy that most of the world wants.
Long-term Congressional meddling in other nations internal affairs through its funding of the National Endowment for Democracy is little better than the nation reengineering exercises undertaken by the Central Intelligence Agency since the end of the Second World War.
Reactions and serious attempts to control the situation
This situation is in the process of being resolved. Much of what is going on is behind the scenes, but we can get some glimmerings of the various events.
Point One
As of 10 September 2019, the United States president Donald Trump tweets out that he no longer needs the services of John Bolton. John Bolton, the national security adviser.
So, obviously Bolton has been fired. (paraphrasing) “I told Bolton I no longer need his services. I disagreed with many of the suggestions that he has made.”
The president is saying he asked for Bolton’s resignation; it was not Bolton’s idea. So now people are trying to speculate, “What is this about?” He’s the national security adviser, and there are any number of things it could be and there’s no way of knowing. We just have to wait. It will come out at some point.
Oh, I’m sure it will. Though, I’d be really surprised if they would address the truth. Which is the fact that he has been working personally with the key super-billionaire oligarchy opposition forces in Hong Kong against China, and against any resolution to the China – USA trade disputes.
The Friggin' idiot. That's not his job. His job is to assist President Trump, not to oppose his efforts. No matter how impassioned he might feel about Neocon-ism.
Donald Trump fired John Bolton. He obviously felt that John Bolton was not “on the same page” in resolving the issues with China at this time.
As I have previously stated, John Bolton is a war-hawk and a neo-con from the “deep state”. He has opposed every effort that Trump has made to negotiate with China, North Korea, and Iran. In his world view these are all dictatorial nations and America must stand firm in opposing them in every way possible.
Trump loves meeting with these people because he’s got dreams of ending disagreements with these people, bringing peace and tranquility to the humanity of earth. Bolton doesn’t see eye-to-eye with any of that. It could also be about troop withdrawals in Afghanistan. You know, there are factions in the White House that want to get us out of there. It’s been announced that we’re getting out of there. We’ve been over there for I don’t know how many years, and some people say we don’t even know why we are still there.
Trump loves meeting with these people because he’s got dreams of ending disagreements with these people, bringing peace and tranquility to the humanity of earth. Bolton doesn’t see eye-to-eye with any of that.
Bolton would not want to pull out of Afghanistan. Bolton would not want to withdraw from any presence in places like Syria. So it could well be that this is just the culmination of systemic policy differences that have led to this.
Bolton has a reputation as a hardliner, doesn’t take any guff, is not one of these touchy-feely, politically correct guys. He’s a war hawk and fully supports all eight (x8) proxy wars that the United States is currently mired in.
“Let’s try to make ’em like us. Let’s find out why they don’t like us and change.” That’s not Bolton. He don’t care that they don’t like us. We just gotta beat ’em. We gotta pummel ’em.
That might not be appropriate at this time when dealing with China. China is a serious, serious nation that would absolutely take meddling in their own affairs very, very seriously.
Point Two
On Wednesday 4SEP19, President Trump reached out to China’s President Xi in a tweet:
“I know President Xi of China very well. He is a great leader who very much has the respect of his people. He is also a good man in a ‘tough business.’ I have ZERO doubt that if President Xi wants to quickly and humanely solve the Hong Kong problem, he can do it. Personal meeting? ”
-Donald Trump
So what is Donald Trump saying?
That’s he’s ready to stop the HK protests if Xi Peng negotiates.
Or, perhaps that China can use their military to enter HK.
Point Three
China has begun arresting American advisors to the protestors and their aides to the protest movements in HK. You see, China does not mess around. They know who all these players are, they know the funding sources, and have surveillance cameras everywhere. If you want to stir up a hornets next, do not allow yourself to get stung.
China has identified all the leadership of these protest groups, and their subordinates. They have since followed them and watched them. They have all been under observation. They have filmed these advisors instructing the protestors in behavior, and strategy.
Then, independently they have targeted these individuals and collected them in public near the protests. It's all on film.
What?
You haven’t heard about this? You mean it’s not reported on the American mainstream media? Imagine that!
Here is a video of a “so called” reporter instructing the HK protestors on how to behave. It’s all on video, and how the HK riot police comes after him and carts him off for “processing”. The video praises the HK riot police for nabbing these “instigators”, and claims that 53 CIA-related advisory staff have been arrested.
They say he’s CIA, but he’s really probably a member of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) or the National Endowment for Democracy’s National Democratic Institute (NDI) . All American front organization that receives Federal Funding for the purposes of disrupting the stability in other nations.
Here’s some of the arrests. The video shows three Americans arrested and being detained. I am sure that there are many more.
The point is that China knows full well what is going on and THEY DO NOT PLAY AROUND. China is a serious nation that does not pretend that everyone is playing on the same playing-field.
The root effects – trade renegotiation with China.
Anonymous (Italy)
This sudden chaos without major motivation is indeed a sign of interference. As a foreigner, I am Italian and married to a local, I do fully support Chinese mainland on this matter. People in Hong Kong that are doing this are ignorant and do not even know their own history.
It began as a promise to the American people. Donald Trump, if elected would renegotiate trade with the Chinese in such a way that it would be a two-way street to mutual respect and fairness.
When things were looking favorable, suddenly everything went to sh@t. There were rumors that some of the negotiators were hard-line deep-state plants that informed the Chinese to wait Donald Trump out. That he would not be reelected.
So the negotiations stalled, and Trump put full pressure on China. Simultaneously when he raised tariffs on Chinese goods 30%, protests broke out in Hong Kong. It appeared that the pressure was enormous on China, and (according to the United States media) China was really suffering.
30% tariffs
HK protests
Banning Huawei
Diplomatic pressure on Europe
But, you know what? It’s all a big lie, or at the very most, an exaggeration. China wasn’t suffering like the American mainstream media reported.
Ah, it’s partially true. But, not as bad as most Americans believed. China’s exports are not 90% to the USA and 10% to the rest of the world. Nope. Its actually 11% to the Untied States. And 89% to the rest of the world. So China has dealt with it.
Meanwhile, the tariffs has pretty much put the global economy into a malaise and it has backfired and hit the American consumer. It will need to be resolved before the 2020 elections or else it is potentially feasible that it will effect the elections.
And China’s reaction?
Nothing. Ride it out. Don’t go on the offensive. Don’t go on the defensive. Let things sizzle for a while and ride it out. They realize that the present Trump strategy is to force China to agree to a range of demands.
Implement “democracy” in China.
Stop the reeducation of radical Muslim separatists.
Allow Tibet independence.
China said no, and won’t do anything. They want favorable trade but not at the risk of their national identity and global sovereignty.
The idea that liberal or Western-style democracy and the country’s long-term stability are incompatible is deeply entrenched in the Chinese mind. Most Chinese believe that the current level of maturity in Chinese society does not allow for a “one man one vote” system. It is broadly accepted that China will disintegrate if it recklessly adopts Western-style democracy.
- The construction of the Singapore Model in Mainland China
How would you feel, if China demanded that;
America implemented Communism?
Integrate Muslim extremists in key leadership roles in government?
Allow California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arazona and Texas to be an independent nation?
It’s all pretty silly. It’s obscene and an insult.
Well, that’s how the Chinese feels. They have plenty of trade relationships with other nations. Contrary to what the mainstream American news say, and they are healthy and chugging away just fine. You see, China realizes that they can under-price any American company on the global stage.
And so, they are just waiting everything out.
Thus the worst effects of the trade war backfired and are now squarely on the shoulders of America. John Bolton, of course is all happy about this. But there are far other considerations than the John Bolton Neocon narrative, and Donald Trump has a nation to take care of.
So, Donald Trump is regrouping and removing the Neocon planks from the trade demands and will continue to work with China on resolving this.
The end results…
The Trade war will end.
The HK protests will end.
Things will continue much as they had, only there would be more favorable trade terms for the United States.
Let’s see how correct my fortune telling ability is, shall we? Maybe I’m right or maybe I’m wrong. We will see. Eh?
Anyways about the video. He's going on in English about the "rule of law" and then switches in Cantonese. Anyways, his goose is cooked.
Once HK passed the insurrection law which permitted the arrest of agitators who forment revolution, regardless of nationality, and extration ot the mainland for lengthy prison sentences and organ harvesting… everything changed.
For months, if not years, the Chinese have documented everyting on video, and then seized the computers and technical data form the foreign newspapers operating inside of HK.
So it's over for this cat. He doesn't have a hope in Hell. In China, there isn't any court negotations between attorneys. Instead, they look over the documentation and evidence and assign punishment(s).
BTW. I don't know if I told you this. But a lot of retired men in HK and China participated in the protests because if they did so, they would get a $200 USD check. Well, of course, they all started to deposit it in their own individual bank accounts. Right? Guess what happened?
Every account that has a $200 USD deposit during a specific time period is assumed to be a paid-for-riot paycheck. So every person who got that money… young and old… suddenly has their social security balance set to zero and frozen for the rest of their life.
Finally, we conclude with a decent editorial
US fooling no one with claims of innocence in HK: Opinion
By Ian Goodrum
For no particular reason I’ve been thinking of Claude Rains in Casablanca
lately. You remember him; the Moroccan police captain who is “shocked,
shocked” to find gambling in Humphrey Bogart’s establishment during a
raid, only to be handed his winnings without missing a beat.
You might wonder at the relevance of that famous movie moment. I’ll explain.
Amid ongoing violence and turmoil in Hong Kong, Chinese media outlets
have brought up a few relevant facts: That “pro-democracy” opposition
heads had met with politicians in the United States, protest leaders had
been in contact with State Department officials and major figures like
Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi have issued statements supporting the
demonstrators. With all this in mind, it’s been suggested the US has
been inflaming tensions in the city and encouraging escalation in an
already heated environment.
To wit, the Claude Rains moment: Members of the diplomatic corps were
“shocked, shocked” by this news. Why, it’s unthinkable that the US,
that bastion of democracy and freedom, would ever attempt to interfere
in the affairs of another country! China was called a “thuggish regime”
for even bringing this up — naturally, the “free press” was all crickets
when it came time to do their purported jobs and speak a little truth
to power.
Safe to say none of these faux-outraged government functionaries or
their lapdogs in the media bothered to ask a Libyan what they thought of
the idea. The NATO intervention there in 2014 turned the African
country with the highest standard of living into a disaster zone,
complete with open-air slave markets.
They wouldn’t have asked an Iraqi, either. I’m sure the families of
the million-plus people killed by the US military since 2003 would have a
few things to say about their invaders’ good intentions.
Or a Haitian. Or a Syrian. Or a Venezuelan. Or a Honduran. Or an Iranian. The list goes on.
The truth is US “diplomacy” has never been that innocent, and
everyone knows it. State Department personnel — in league with military
and intelligence agencies — have spearheaded countless interventions
since the turn of the 20th century, destroying countries or political
formations they saw as counter to US interests. After the Russian
Revolution of 1917 and especially after the Cold War began, this meant
subverting communists or socialists and materially supporting
anti-communists and fascists.
Among the best-known examples of this skullduggery are the hundreds
of assassination attempts on Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro —
none successful; he died at 90, probably laughing at the US as he went —
and the overthrow of democratically elected Chilean Marxist Salvador
Allende. The US loved democracy so much in the latter case they replaced
Allende with a military dictator. These and many other interventions
were overseen by the same sort of “diplomats” who now act offended at
the notion they may be doing something untoward in Hong Kong.
But things are a little different now. These clandestine activities
used to be the sole purview of the Central Intelligence Agency, and when
word got out the US’ definition of “liberty” really meant “not being
communists”, quite a few people were furious. So in a long process which
began in the 1970s, the CIA delegated its regime change
responsibilities to a host of organizations, each given a degree of
separation with some legalese and clever accounting.
Though the Agency remains a potent force for subversion — and you
would have to be truly naïve to think their cloak-and-dagger era is over
— the interventional landscape has been somewhat diversified, with a
host of non-governmental organizations taking the place of traditional
spies. The National Endowment for Democracy, the largest among them, has
of course given a great deal of money to “pro-independence” forces in
Hong Kong. Nothing to worry about, I’m sure.
Allan Weinstein, an early leader of one such think tank, admitted it
outright when he said “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25
years ago by the CIA.” While this makes US influence operations easier
to track, it also gives them a veneer of respectability among the
general public. It’s a bigger deal when a government agency is funding
rebellious elements in another country; much less so if it’s some
“non-governmental” cutout with a bit of plausible deniability.
When news of CIA activity broke in the past, it was big news. That
was bad for optics. Somewhere along the way, powerful government figures
and capitalists realized by doing all their influencing in the open —
and with a media that had long since stopped pretending to question
motives — the scandal brought by secrecy would go away. This has worked
wonders on a browbeaten population fed a steady diet of propaganda. It
turns out if you’re told every other country on earth is inferior to
yours, you’ll start thinking intervention is great for everybody else.
Some people normally skeptical of official US narratives look back on
this sordid history and conclude it’s a thing of the past, the stuff of
ancients. But what’s changed between then and now? Why would any empire
stop consolidating its influence if it had the ability to continue? In
fact, the US’ capacity for interference has only grown more
sophisticated since the end of the Soviet Union. With that country’s
dissolution in 1991, the world lost a counterweight against imperialism —
and logic dictates things would get worse rather than better in an era
of unilateral hegemony.
So the question remains: Why would the US’ well-established,
well-funded campaigns of subversion suddenly cease? Well they wouldn’t,
of course. There’s an equally bizarre notion from otherwise
right-thinking people that intervention stops at certain countries’
borders. This is patently ridiculous. If it can happen in Venezuela,
Iran, Libya, Cuba or Syria, it can happen in Hong Kong — a
geographically small Chinese territory with longstanding ties to the
West. It is, in fact, perfectly positioned as a pressure point for the
rest of China.
And it’s not just a question of economic or political systems
anymore. The US doesn’t trust anyone, even its own imperial allies;
recall that the National Security Administration had German Chancellor
Angela Merkel’s phone tapped for years. There’s no telling how they’re
keeping tabs on other NATO members. Because the US has the largest
economy and military many times over, however, leaders who might
otherwise speak out against this treatment stay silent. Yet the idea of
US benevolence still has a hold on the world’s imagination. I encourage
anyone on the fence to think about it this way: If this is how the US
treats its friends, imagine what it tries to do to its enemies.
And make no mistake, the US considers China an enemy. It says so in
official statements and policy briefings, and academics and journalists
uncritically launder these claims for a mass audience on their enormous
platforms. No matter how many times China says it wants peace and to
handle its own affairs, the myth of the “China Threat” persists — stoked
by US “diplomats” and their lackeys in the press.
These inflammatory statements serve a twofold purpose. On a personal
level, they attract attention to the authors’ work and better position
them for career advancement. More broadly, they further US interests and
provide cover for narratives that wouldn’t get consideration by the
public if they came straight from the military-intelligence apparatus.
It’s a win-win for everyone — except the US’ victims.
None of this is to say that things in Hong Kong are perfect, or that
everyone in the city was happy as a clam before the State Department and
NED came along. Severe inequality plagues the city, and must be
addressed for the government to enjoy continued support from the people.
But bad actors take advantage of existing negative sentiments and
amplify them, turning issues that could be handled peacefully into
profound existential crises.
This playbook has worked for decades now, undermining countless
sovereign governments whose existence ran counter to the interests of
the United States; it’s the height of foolishness to think it can’t
happen here.
The author is a copy editor with chinadaily.com.cn.
28NOV20 Update
It is pretty well established that the CIA has been well involved attempting a “color revolution” inside of Hong Kong as part of the Trump Trade Wars of 2017 – 2020. There are all sorts of articles on this subject. Here’s a worthwhile read…
A secret high-level committee of Hong Kong senior activists worked with Western agents from the CIA to coordinate and amplify the leaderless protests against the fugitive law amendment last year, Nury Vittachi claims in his book The Other Side of the Story: A Secret War in Hong Kong.
Vittachi, a veteran journalist and a columnist for The Standard, accused the CIA of funding anti-government activities in the SAR. He said Hong Kong protesters have received practical training in street-protest strategy and media control from members of the professional revolution industry since January 2013.
The book named three US-based groups - the Oslo Freedom Foundation, the Albert Einstein Institute and the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies - which were directly involved in last year's social unrest.
He added that public records had shown that the National Endowment for Democracy, the CIA's regime-change arm, had sent HK$170 million to the mainland or Hong Kong since 2014 to "advance the cause of democracy."
https://lnkd.in/dwnSU-S
Here are
some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader,
might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.
China and America Comparisons
As an
American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United
States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.
The Chinese Business KTV Experience
This is
the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the
British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal
press. This is the reality. Read or not.
Learning About China
Who
doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what
China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in
China.
Contemporaneous Chinese Music
This is a
series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It
is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I
am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series
of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and
enjoyment.
Parks in China
The parks
in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very
mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.
Really Strange China
Here are
some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem
odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events,
while others are just representative of the differences in culture.
What is China like?
The
purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world,
outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they
might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank
you.
And while
America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources,
and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has
done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and
you can see this in their day-to-day lives.
Summer in Asia
Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…
Some Fun Videos
Here’s a collection of some fun videos taken all over Asia. While
there are many videos taken in China, we also have some taken in
Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and Japan as well. It’s all in fun.
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
Contrary to what the reader might be aware, “prepping” for a national disaster or upheaval is not a wholly American phenomenon. It is a global one, and it is something that has been practiced by various people time and time again, over the years. Here, in this article, we look at examples of what happened to other “preppers” when their nation underwent a period of upheaval.
Here we discuss how prepping (historically) helped out these people to avoid or reduce the amount of stress and turmoil during national turmoil.
Specifically, we will concentrate on political, social, and genocidal upheavals. Prepping to prepare for natural emergencies is pretty much well understood, and accepted, as a desirable and important part and responsibly of the family elders.
Thus, this article focuses on prepping for societal change.
The classifications of “political” prepping
For our purposes, we will refer to any prepping associated with a government, or a social upheaval as “political prepping”. You can refer to it by other names as you wish. You can call it “prepping as a hedge against an aggressive government outreach”, or perhaps “defensive prepping”.
Which means, in short, that the need to prepare for societal change is directly related your government’s behavior. Or, in other words, to the actions of one’s government or the members in the local society where you may live.
Here, we look at the purposes of prepping in this situation, and what the likelihood of success and survival may be. The purposes, or the reasons why someone may set up a prepper situation can be classified as…
“Buying time” to enable one’s family to escape from a conflict zone. These preppers “bug out” with the objective of moving to a safer place or a safer region. This is also known as a”safe house”. These preppers cling on to the “normalcy” vector. They hope that they can keep working on their day to day lifestyle, without interruption.
“Ride out the storm“. Long duration defense of one’s property and family in a fixed, stable location. This is the “traditional prepper” lifestyle, and the one most people associate with prepping.
“Fluidic survival“. The ability to float with your family in a general region in safety, but not be tied down to any fixed hard defensive location.
“Militia Membership“. Being part of a much larger group that in cooperation, defends a community, farms and region from outsiders.
“Hobbyist prepper” . A person who thinks that they are prepared for a SHTF event solely by reading, setting aside some provisions, and the purchase of some land in an isolated geographic location.
“Life Boat prepper“. This is what I did. Long before the start of any SHTF event, I figured to locating a safe haven way outside the USA. Then I relocated my entire life there. The key here is that this type of prepping occurs long before the rest of society catches on that “storm clouds” might be a brewing.
We will look at each one and compare the historical chances of success and endurance.
Buying Time
Firstly, let's look at the "buying time" option. Here, the prepper waits until the last possible moment and then bugs out.
I argue that if there is any possibility of a SHTF event, then you should immediately scram. Do not wait until your being shot at by some militia in your company parking lot.
Factory
workers, with their company name badges, in the parking lot of their
employer. Two dead and one dying with his legs shot off. He and his
co-workers had no idea that “world war III” would break out while they
were trying to clock in at work. When one group of people identify
another group, and target them with hate, and violence, it only
escalates. It gets worse. Eventually there is whole-scale blood shed. Do
not be under the illusion that it will never happen in America. There
are enormous groups of people just chomping at the bit to attack
conservatives and traditionalists. All in the name of a progressive
utopia.
Here, the prepper family realizes that SHTF and a situation is taking place. They may or may not have prepared a “safe house” or secure location outside of the conflict zone. What they need to do, and the sole and entire purpose of all their prepping activity is to create a safe avenue for egress outside of the conflict “hot zone”.
Truthfully, their personal use of situational intelligence caused them to be in the “hot seat”. They ignored the signs. They relied on everything continuing to be “normal”, instead of getting ready for abnormal events.
Often the father, or family head, would be slapping his forehead asking “why didn’t I leave earlier, I should have known better”!
Yeah, yeah. But that’s not really true. Genocides, democides and Policides, are always sprung on an unsuspecting populace. There are few things that a person can do to prepare, short of leaving the country and setting up a second home in a peaceful and tranquil country.
The living room with it’s new occupants after the Bosnian war was over. This is what the owners of the house found when they returned after bugging out at the start of the conflict.
These kinds of preppers should have a [1] bug-out bag, [2] a “safe house”, and [3] escape plan to leave their normal home and make it to the safe house in safety, avoiding crowds, the police, and opposition forces.
The "bug out bag" could very well be a backpack, or bag. But, it just as well be a large roomy trunk in a vehicle with extra cans of gasoline. The "bug out bag" must be specifically tailored for the mission; going from point "A" to your "safe house" destination.
They should also have studied the most basic prepping skills.
Not for a nuclear exchange or zombie attack, but for basic survival in a “scram and bug out” situation. Again, you need to be trained and ready to specifically the situation and scenario that you are prepping for.
The lesson: you have more to fear and are more likely to die from common, localized events than massive, spectacular catastrophes. Train and prepare accordingly.
First-aid skills, driving skills, empty hand-based self-defense. Those should be your trifecta starting out, considering you are far more likely to need to heal than harm, you are far more likely to need to dodge a drunk driver than a zombie, and you are far more likely to need to go hands on with someone than shoot them.
- 3 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started to Prep
The biggest problems that these “bug-out preppers” have to deal with are [1] crowds, [2] lack of reliable routes and transportation, and [3] roving bands of opposition forces. In a social upheaval situation, your biggest problem will be other people.
Also, please note. It is always assumed that they did their proper homework and the “safe house” is truly safe and secure.
During civil wars, and genocides, the local government will go house to house and collect people. They will separate the men from the women, and often they would be taken to bad situations. With rape and sexual slavery for the women, and death for the men. Do not allow yourself to be collected and taken to a “safe area”. Photo is from the Bosnian genocide. Collected men being led to a “holding area”. Most of them died there.
Remember; A "safe area" is one that is "safe" for your captors. Not "safe" for you.
In this prepping scenario, there is a direct link between knowing that the situation is actually SHTF, and when to actually “Bug Out”. The smarter preppers would scram as soon as the “trip wires” of SHTF are activated.
Some “trip wires”;
Roving bands of militia.
Outsiders investigating your property.
Police conducting house to house searches.
The sight of a dead person.
A house or building on fire with no firemen responding to it.
Open looting.
Favorite or often used websites down or seized.
Police standing down, or retreating to defense positions.
Blocked roads – due to accidents, natural events, or erosion.
Blocked roads – due to police check points.
Blocked roads – due to militia or armed groups, or bandits.
Sounds of gun fire, especially full automatic fire.
Bombings of buildings in the local region.
Internet, cell phone, or electricity outages.
Supermarkets and stores running out of food.
Farms not being harvested in time.
Friends, associates, and family all confused.
Local hospitals being short on staff.
Airport closed or protected by armed forces.
Organized convoys of any type.
Advice from loved ones.
Activation of the National Guard.
Close friends and families leaving the area.
Implementation of “special protection measures”, laws, or executive orders.
People in the open carrying firearms.
Groups of roving youth / young adults with firearms.
The sight of someone hung.
A state of “emergency” declared.
Being instructed to move to a FEMA camp.
Rumors of bad things happening.
Phone calls, emails of messages from concerned loved ones.
Everyone is different, and every region and situation is different.
However, the “bug-out prepper” should know what “trip wires” to watch out for, and to pack up and scram when the situation goes “hot”. I would suggest any three within a one week time period and you should recognize that you need to scram big time.
The “bug out prepper” will avoid crowds and main roads. They will take the well planned “safe route” to their destination, the “safe house”.
The “bug out” prepper would take the safe and secure back roads, and avoid people and crowds as much as possible. They would travel in isolation. Hide as much as possible. Keep fires and noise to a minimum. As well as be on the alert to any strangers or situations that they might encounter along the way.
This kind of prepper is one who fully expects to be a refugee.
The only difference between the prepper and the refugee is that the prepper would be far better prepared. They would avoid large groups of people. They wouldn’t trust the government or officials. They would avoid refugee camps, and “safe areas”, and they would have a set destination in mind that they were heading towards.
Refugees fleeing the ISIS in Syria. They gathered up their possessions and flee the battle and conflict zones.
Historically, the well prepared “bug out prepper” is also the successful refugee.
While there are, I am sure, instances of personal catastrophe for these individuals, in general, these preppers have perhaps one of the greatest chances of survival. (Provided they arrive to their “safe house” and not be directed to any FEMA camp or staging area.) Never the less, they do need to constantly be on the alert. Things can go dangerously wrong.
Provided, of course, that their “safe house” is truly out of the conflict zone.
As a quick reminder, whether you are in the rural areas, a small
town, or on the road. Avoid the cities. This is where your enemies want
you to stream towards. It’s a trap. It’s a snare.
The idea is to herd people into places where they are trapped and can
be easily controlled. There will be urban youth terrorizing the rural
areas, small towns and communities, and this will create a situation
where everyone will start to stream into the “safe” cities.
It won’t be safe.
Passport found in the remains of a Bosnian civilian who was trying to escape the genocide, but instead got caught up in a firefight and ended up getting shot and killed. Do not wait until the last minute.
Some lessons from history;
In the 1930's Hitler came to power in Germany.
During that decade he openly and politically declared war on Jews and other "undesirables". Many Jews chose to sit tight. They believed that things would go back to normal... some day. All they needed to do was stay out of the way of the Nazi Germans.
Other Jews; those that I call "bug out prepper" Jews, left Germany. They stayed as long as they could, but at some point in time, the "trip wires" were triggered, and they fled to "safe houses" in neighboring countries. One of which was Poland. There, they were able to live their lives in peace and free from the prosecution by the Nazi Germans.
These "bug out preppers" were successful. All except up to one point. They assumed that their "safe house(s)" would all be safe from the Nazi Germans.
But that is not what happened.
Germany invaded Poland in 1939. And once they obtained control of the nation, they continued their prosecution of the Jews there. Those that bugged-out from Germany discovered that their "safe house(s)" were not really safe at all.
This remained true for all those "bug out prepper" Jews that went elsewhere in Europe. The only ones that were truly safe were those that went to England, the Americas, and Africa.
Of course, it goes without saying that the “bug out prepper” would avoid conflict. They would be the rabbit and run and hide rather than engage any potential enemies or get entwined in any kind of situation. That being said, of course, were the need manifest itself, they would be fully capable of taking on anyone that came their way.
All preppers should be prepared to make the hard decisions if the need manifests to protect themselves and to defend their family.
Ride out the storm
In this scenario, the prepper believes that any SHTF event will be short-lived. Certainly no more than three to four years. They believe that they are isolated enough, equipped enough, and camouflaged enough to avoid the vast bulk of conflict during a SHTF scenario.
They just simply “hunker down” and ride the SHTF storm out.
An isolated cabin in the middle of the woods, and in the mountains. It’s a nice location to bug out to, and better if that is your home, and it is fully stocked with a few years worth of supplies. However, all preppers should realize that there might be strangers of friends that might be desirous of sharing your safe haven with you, uninvited. In fact, your “safe house” might already be on the bug-out list for others. You do need to be aware and secure in your domicile.
This prepper is more often than not, located in a rural or isolated location. Has supplies, a survivalist mindset, and is ready to defend his family aggressively. He does not feel that he would be considered in any way to be a threat to anyone, and so is ready to ride out the SHTF event, and defend his family where necessary.
This kind of prepper is perhaps the best prepared.
They have a lifestyle, and a way of living that is conducive to hiding out and surviving in one place. However, this kind of lifestyle does not happen overnight. Nope. You have to develop it over years.
Depending on the person, and their family, the “ride out the storm” prepper might have anything from a tiny isolated cabin on top of a rocky mountain, to a large farm nestled in an isolated valley. The prepper should keep in mind the importance in simplicity and in self reliance.
Thinking that you can just “jump in” and survive in a cabin that you purchased and stocked up with seeds is unrealistic. You are not prepared to live in that situation. You are not trained. You are not ready, and you are not prepared. You just think you are.
Also take heed. Just because you bought and stocked a home in the middle of the country somewhere does not preclude others from seizing it while you are away. Neglected "bug out safe zones" are always at the risk of use by others.
It would be a grand disappointment to discover that the pristine lake cabin that you bought for a SHTF scenario, and all the effort that you went into the solar cells, and provisioning it, was all for naught when a tribe of 100 Hell's Angels bikers took it over.
In this scenario, “ride out the storm” preppers are ones that not only [1] have an isolated “safe house” in [2] an isolated geographical region, BUT they also [3] have been practicing the “ride out the storm” lifestyle for [4] a minimum of three years or longer. Therefore, just owning property, a storm cellar, and reading a few books will not qualify you as a “ride out the storm” Prepper.
Instead you are a qualified “hobbyist prepper”.
In all cases, the “ride out the storm” prepper should be prepared for visitors, no matter how isolated they are. They should have secret rooms, and hideouts. They should have weapons available and other hidden and buried. They should have food supplies and others well hidden from roving bands of militia and “government” search expeditions.
Door to door searching in America with a blanket “search order” to search everyone, and everything. All “ride out the storm” preppers would expect visits from both government officials, military, as well as roving bands of militia, and opposition forces. These preppers should have a plan(s) on how to deal with each situation as it manifests.
Historically, the “ride out the storm” prepper has a mixed bag of success. It all depends on the type and duration of the societal conflict, as well as how absolutely fanatical the opposition forces are.
At one time Armenia was an independent nation. At that time, Armenia was a Christian majority nation. Then over time, their borders changed, swapped hands, and the majority of Armenians found themselves located within Turkey.
The first widely studied modern democide occurred in Turkey between 1915 and 1923, when the Turkish government decided to eliminate the country’s Christian minority. This group consisted primarily of ethnic Armenians and Greeks.
We do know that Turkey disarmed the populace in 1911, and for around three and a half years went door to door collecting the firearms and ammo from the entire civilian population. Then in 1914, they began rounding up all the disarmed Christians. They tortured them, they abused them, they marched them into the desert where they all died.
I am quite confident that there would be "ride out the storm" preppers who, by geographic location, luck, or fawning being a Muslim managed to escape the democide and purge of Christians. But we will never know how many of these people existed, nor their own individual stories.
What we do know is that Albania went from a 100% Christian majority nation to a 97% Muslim nation in a few very short decades.
"Christianity in Turkey has had a long history dating back to the 1st-century AD. In modern times the percentage of Christians in Turkey has declined from 20-25 percent in 1914 to 3-5.5 percent in 1927, to 0.3-0.4% today roughly translating to 200,000-320,000 devotees."
While it is indeed possible that "ride out the storm" preppers comprise this tiny, tiny minority, one has to wonder if they truly feel safe living in a nation that exterminated an entire society identical to what they believe in. Or in other words, was it worth it?
Raped
and killed. You need to either prepare to fight, or flee. What ever you
do, do not get snared into a collection area for your own safety. It is
not going to be safe. As this young lass learned. Do not trust refugee
camps. Do not trust the government. Do not trust ANYONE. And, finally,
do not allow yourself or your family to be disarmed. Learn to fight both
with guns and blades. Hide and protect yourselves, and take special
note where the progressive liberals live in your neighborhood. They have
the lists that your name will be on.
Fluidic Survival
In this prepping scheme, the prepper would not count on any fixed homestead, nor would they plan on “bugging out”. Instead, they would maintain a migratory movement within the hills, countryside and mountains of their familial “stomping ground”.
They would have advantage in knowing the terrain, knowing the people, and at the same time, being mobile.
Being mobile enables the prepper to inherently evade military, militia, and the government. As they rely on fixed homes, roads and geographical landmarks from which to work upon. Mobility is the fluidic preppers most important asset. They rely on isolation, movement and isolation for their protection.
The walking dead has various scenes that are suggestive of Fluidic prepping. In fluidic prepping the person tends to migrate within a specific and fixed geographic area and avoids people at all costs.
This kind of prepping requires a well-established knowledge of local geography. Obviously county-sized. It would require a well-established knowledge of friends, family friends, and relationships. For it to work, the prepper would be elusive and maybe visit friends as needed but tell them nothing.
The prepper would locate stashes of gear, supplies and equipment at various well-hidden locations for their periodic use. They would visit these sites on a rotating basis and would never stay at one for longer than a week at a time.
Christopher Knight was arrested, charged with burglary and theft, and transported to the Kennebec County jail in Augusta, the state capital. For the first time in nearly 10,000 days, he slept indoors.
News of the capture stunned the citizens of North Pond. For decades, they’d felt haunted by…something. It was hard to say what. At first, in the late 1980s, there were strange occurrences. Flashlights were missing their batteries. Steaks disappeared from the fridge. New propane tanks on the grill had been replaced by old ones. "My grandkids thought I was losing my mind," said David Proulx, whose vacation cabin was broken into at least fifty times.
Then people began noticing other things. Wood shavings near window locks; scratches on doorframes. Was it a neighbor? A gang of teenagers? The robberies continued—boat batteries, frying pans, winter jackets. Fear took hold. "We always felt like he was watching us," one resident said.
The police were called, repeatedly, but were unable to help.
Locks were changed, alarm systems installed. Nothing seemed to stop him. Or her. Or them. No one knew. A few desperate residents even left notes on their doors: "Please don’t break in. Tell me what you need and I’ll leave it out for you." There was never a reply.
Incidents mounted, and the phantom morphed into legend. Eventually he was given a name: the North Pond Hermit. At a homeowners’ meeting in 2002, the hundred people present were asked who had suffered break-ins. Seventy-five raised their hands. Campfire hermit stories were swapped. One kid recalled that when he was 10 years old, all his Halloween candy was stolen. That kid is now 34.
Knight’s arrest, rather than eliminating disbelief, only enhanced it. The truth was stranger than the myth. One man had actually lived in the woods of Maine for twenty-seven years, in an unheated nylon tent. Winters in Maine are long and intensely cold: a wet, windy cold, the worst kind of cold. A week of winter camping is an impressive achievement. An entire season is practically unheard of.
Though hermits have been documented for thousands of years, Knight’s feat appears to exist in a category of its own. He engaged in zero communication with the outside world. He never snapped a photo. He did not keep a journal. His camp was undisclosed to everyone.
There may have been others like Knight, whose commitment to isolation was absolute—he planned to live his entire life in secret—but if so, they were never found. Capturing Knight was the human equivalent of netting a giant squid. He was an uncontacted tribe of one.
-The Last True Hermit
“Fluidic prepping” is very similar to living like Christopher Knight. You live “on the move” in an isolated area. You avoid contact with people. You hide and you live like a rabbit.
This is the most successful prepping techniques, but it is also the hardest to prepare for and the most difficult to train for. The television character Daryl Dixon from the “Walking Dead” best embodies this kind of “Fluidic” prepping.
This is the most successful prepping techniques, but it is also the hardest to prepare for and the most difficult to train for. The television character Daryl Dixon from the “Walking Dead” best embodies this kind of prepping.
Militia Prepping
In militia prepping you are not prepping alone and for the survival of your family. Instead, you are part of a group that encourages prepping as a group. You share resources, you share defensive strategy, and you share intelligence.
In militia prepping, you join forces with others in your area and form a civilian militia for defensive purposes. You train together. You defend shared resources, and operate as a combat force.
This sort of prepping is the “bedrock” of American society. As such, the progressive liberal Marxists have declared war on these kinds of organizations and their membership.
Former President Obama was very active in having the DHS, the FBI, ATF, IRS, and the DOJ investigate and prosecute these groups and their membership. Often going as far as to spy on them, and consider them threats and arrest them long before they did anything wrong. Sort of like the science fiction movie “The Minority Report”.
The United States Constitution relies on the “citizen soldiers” to defend his local region, his family and his geography. This is the basis of militia prepping. It is a way for locals to defend their families, resources, and life from others.
Members, and the organizations should be expected to “be on the radar screens” of any government and Marxist organization when SHTF events occur. They can expect to have all their electronic media monitored, and to have paid informants within their ranks.
They should expect this.
Local militia defending their village and region from the movie “Blood Diamonds”. When the government broke down in Sierra Leone, it was up to the local villages and towns to defend themselves. This scene depicts one such intervention.
Historically, local militia groups from Syria, Bosnia, to the Ukraine have survived and thwarted combat, social upheavals and genocide. In general, radicalized armed youth riding technicals are loathe to risk organized civilian resistance. They prefer unarmed civilians.
This type of prepping is best suited against thugs, criminals, roving bands of ideologically motivated youth, and techinicals. They are not really all that effective against modern military forces using tanks and APC weaponry. Their strength lies at the local level and as such they can hold off large assaults by organized forces for organized retreats.
Not only were they effective against the British during the American independence in 1776, but against the Nazi Germans in the Ukraine and Poland.
Armed militia in the Bosnian conflict. The news media want to say that the conflict was over religion. That one side was against Muslims. But that is not wholly true. It was complicated. In some ways it was an ideological war, one that pitted the urban areas against the rural areas. A decade long period of ideological rhetoric predated the first attacks, and the mastermind of all the genocide was from an urban area.
While membership in a militia has a much higher incidence of conflict with others, and a higher risk of injury factor, it is also one of the safer options that one can have as a prepper. For in this way, the individual becomes part of a larger and thus stronger group. His support network increases, as does his ability to be fed, and support his family during tense times of crisis.
Hobbyist Prepping
Hobbyist prepping is “wanna-be” prepping. You study, you read, you dream, you purchase things. But, you don’t really prepare yourself for a serious SHTF event. You just simply believe that you are ready. You want to take on some zombies, and are ready to live in a bunker during a nuclear winter.
Many Americans are hobbyist preppers. They watch zombie movies, the read the news, and consume books on prepping, but take no serious actions towards actual prepping.
But it’s all Hollywood inspired dreams.
A true and real SHTF event is one where you are cold, and hungry. You itch, and you have been betrayed, and witnessed friends and family killed. Your world is upside down, and everything that you have of value is gone.
The
people, isolated and undefended, in the rural regions were dangerously
exposed. Large packs of armed “militia”, actually ideological youth
armed with military arms and on drugs and in an frenzy against perceived
slights (“privilege” and “advantage”) as promoted by the media prior to
the SHTF event. This is a scene in front of a “road block” that was set
up by local residents to slow down the roving bands of armed urban
youth. Their hope was that it would give them enough time to stream into
the nearby cities for protection. The only thing was that the cities
were all controlled by the very same people who set all the attacks in
motion.
Seriously, if you are not ready to pick up a knife and shove it with all your might into the skull of an enemy, you are not ready for the gritty and harsh reality of a true and real SHTF event. A real SHTF event is one with pools of black congealed blood, flies buzzing and the horrible smell of rotting human flesh. It’s one where you are constantly afraid of everything. Your body is hyper sensitive, and all you want to do is get the fu@k out of there.
Many hobbyists like to imagine a world where they are exploring ruins, and scavenging supplies from the ruins. They imagine themselves shooting others with extreme accuracy using a trusty AK-47 (as if that’s gonna happen), and carrying a large bore .357 magnum revolver on their hip. Yeah. It’s all Hollywood. Hollywood.
People, the bullets won’t magically hit a person. If you cannot aim, you cannot hit. Not only that, but one bullet might not do the job. You might have to open an entire clip into a person, and they will still be lunging towards you. No. Television is not real life.
America
will start to look something like this once the ideological “hounds of
war”; those armed packs of thugs from the urban strongholds are let
loose on the rural, undefended communities.
In sort, hobbyists concentrate on the tools and not on their abilities during SHTF situations.
Believe me, scavenging in wartime does not look anything like what Hollywood presents. The world is in ruin, and everything of value is gone. People who look like you, speak like you, dress like you, and act like you will turn on you in a heartbeat. They would steal from you, rape your wife and kids, and then kill you as if you were nothing more than an insect.
Rural Bosnia. No, CWII will not be anything like Hollywood is trying to portray. You won’t go scavenging for materials or hot-wire a car to drive. Things will be destroyed, dead, rusted and useless. War is very, very ugly. Note the un-harvested corn going to fallow in the background (to the Right).
Look, it is better to be a hobbyist prepper than a “caught by surprise sheeple”. But not by much.
The good news, is that the jump from hobbyist prepper to serious prepping is not a hard leap. It doesn’t take much. Some some steely resolve and a good hard look at the most likely scenarios that lie before you.
Hobbyist prepping has about the same survival rate as an unarmed civilian with two-days warning of an impending assault. It's not much, but it is an edge. It is up to the person to see how far they can take that edge and make some kind of real advantage out of it.
Lifeboat Prepping
Finally, we hit “lifeboat” prepping. This is what I did.
It is called "lifeboat" prepping because what the individual is actually doing is climbing on a lifeboat and sailing away from a sinking ship. As long as you leave early enough, the chaos and confusion of the final minutes of the ship will be completely avoided.
Lifeboat. Also known as Lifeboat Prepping.
You know that sooner or later there will be a SHTF event. You do not know when it will occur or at what kind of severity it would take on. You do not know it’s duration, or any of the particulars.
You just know that there is a likelihood of some kind of event occurring in the future.
As such you decide, often years in advance, to scram and “bug out” of the potential conflict area(s). You do not want to endure the strife, the horror and all the conflict escalations that goes with a sinking ship.
Many “lifeboat preppers” view the United States as a ship that is seriously in trouble. It is on fire, taking on water and sinking fast. These preppers believe that the most responsible thing that they can do in this situation is to scram and bail on to a lifeboat and row, row, row far away from the sinking American ship.
Of course, you wish that it would not happen. You wish that life would normalize. But, you know that wishful thinking is not going to help you if things go “belly up”. What’s going to help you is having a place to go to outside of the United States.
A big help in this matter is having a second passport.
In my case, I have been watching the encroaching progressive Marxism in the United States for decades. I learned a long time ago that that there is absolutely nothing that I could do to stem the tide and the tidal wave that will eventually engulf the United States.
I did not like it. In fact, I hated it. But, the America I was living in was an inherited one. Other Americans, long before I was born, gave me the IRS, the Federal Reserve, the CIA, the FBI, the DOJ, the FDA, and the ATF. And while it was obvious to me that their mere existence was an affront to the fourth, second and ninth amendments, there was nothing I could do about it.
To me, the United States was on an express elevator to Hell. As the situation around me deteriorated, and I began to see how seriously corrupt, inefficient and evil the government was, I realized that I need to bail and scam.
America used to stand for personal liberties, freedom, and self sufficiency. However, there is a very large and powerful group in the United States today that wants to go full-on Pol Pot. The evidence is that the Freedom-Fighter caucus are not fighting back. Therefore, progressive Marxism is destined to become the law of the land.
So I did.
I don’t want to hurt or harm anyone. I just want to live my life in peace. If the vast bulk of Americans want to live in a Marxist oligarchy, it’s not going to be me to dissuade them. It’s their life. Not mine. They can have that life. Not me.
So I bailed.
Being in another country has a lot of trade-offs. One of which is many things that we have taken for granted are no longer available to us. Things that I miss.
A well-made BLT might no longer be available to you.
There are all sort of trade-offs of moving out of the United States in this manner. It’s a new society and a new culture. You need to learn a new language and a new way of doing things. There will be things that you will miss, and new things that you will embrace. It’s not for everyone, but it’s a serious option for those of your preppers that don’t want to wait until the last minute to get out of the line of fire.
The overall success rate for this type of "lifeboat" prepping, is near 100%. But it does come at a cost.
Conclusion
If you are going to something… anything, then it is in your best interests to do it well. Otherwise don’t even bother.
If you believe, seriously believe in your heart that America is up for a major reset, then you need to start taking steps to deal with it. This is known as prepping.
Faced with a chance to move, be first. Nothing is worse than being in line for, well, anything. To avoid the rush, see threats before anyone else and take decisive action. If that means packing up and heading out of town based on knowledge of a specific threat, don’t waste valuable time reconsidering. Start moving.
You can always turn back if information changes. In the meantime, in the event of an actual emergency, being first out means lots of benefits. Stores will still have food, there won’t be lines at the gas station, water is still available.
- George Ure at Urban Survival talks about Continuous Escape Plans.
Depending on you, and your circumstance(s), there are different prepping options open to you. I would suggest that you plan on taking one of the options and prepare for it to the best of your ability. Best Regards.
SHTF Related Index
This is a collection of my posts related to prepping, SHTF (Shit Hit The Fan), CWII (American Civil War 2), Fourth Turning (Strauss–Howe generational theory)
and other posts related to the very sad and sorry tatters that America
is today. Actually, I am a little stunned that I have written so much
about these matters. But America today is very ill and there are things
that really should be said.
Here are the posts.
SHTF and Related Index
Other Blogs that you all should visit.
These blogs and sites have better information than I every could
compile. These people are experts in personal survival and preparedness.
I recommend them wholeheartedly.
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
This post looks into the role that (so called) “technicals” play in national upheavals. A “technical” is a pickup truck that has been modified into a mobile heavy weapons platform. These machines have been commonly used in just about every national conflict over the last two decades. Here, we look at the role that they have, and why there are used. As opposed to other vehicles constrained for other purposes.
There are many uses for a pickup truck armed with heavy arms. These uses can vary from a personnel supporting role to that of an anti-aircraft platform.
The
outcome of all state-sponsored genocide against a certain group of
people is well recorded and predictable. Here is a photo from the Sierra
Leone Civil War.
That being stated, over the last two decades the primary purpose of these “technicals” has been to collect, round-up, and secure unarmed civilians so that they can be easily herded into “Safe Areas” controlled by the insurgents employing the vehicles.
Important note. In order to illustrate some points, I have liberally sprinkled historical antidotes from various conflicts around the world and from different historical periods. When discussing Syria in 2014, for instance, please don’t get confused when a quote appears about what the Japanese did to the Chinese in Nanchang in the 1930’s. The point is that the events are similar independent of geography or historical episode.
A Personal Interest.
Personally, I was unaware of the term “technical” up until a few years ago. When suddenly I started seeing pictures of the ISIS in Syria riding in brand (spanking) new Toyota pickup trucks with heavy weapons attached. To me it seemed eerily familiar to other events which unfolded in Africa, Bosnia, and South America.
RUF
soldiers in Sierra Leone. Note how well armed they are. Government
forces working secretively set aside caches of weapons and ammunition
for use by ideologically motivated “regulars”. Who then sprung forth
when the time was right. They will be better armed than you. You had
best be better trained.
For me, I wondered three things. Firstly [1] WHY were these civilian vehicles pressed into military service? Secondly and [2] HOW did the ISIS (a radical outlier) manage to obtain all these new trucks? And finally, [3] HOW were they being used?
Well, it turns out that I wasn’t the only one wondering about these things. Others, many who were much smarter than myself pondered these questions, and after some “investigative journalism” came up with some answers.
The ISIS was a creation of Barrack Obama.
It turned out that the Toyota trucks were supplied by the United States State Department, and pressed into service by the CIA. This was under the watchful eyes of then-President Barrack Obama.
President Obama represented the Global Interests of a global socialistic community. He did not care for local Americans, as he viewed them as a part of an “old order” that must be discarded in favor of a new, more “enlightened” progressive way of doing things.
The ISIS was a front organization for the CIA who wanted to manufacture a very powerful trans-national force in the Middle East. We know this is true because of the financial paper trail that remains.
The architects of this scheme were President Obama, the Saudi Government, and elements within Iran. (Yeah, what a bunch of strange bed-fellows.) But there you have it.
Globalists just think differently than us “normals”. I attribute it to massive amounts of mind-altering chemicals, and a life of ease without punishment. You do know, after all, that Mr. Obama never had a “boss” that he ever reported to, signed a W-2 form, or went through the dress-down experience of a layoff. It’s a groomed life that he lived. Perfect for being a figurehead… or a puppet.
Personally, I believe that hardship and toil makes us better, stronger and more sympathetic people. It’s a shared human experience that you cannot isolate yourself from. People who never had these typical American experiences, end up living a life with the mentality of a ten year old.
Anyways, here’s the “smoking gun”. (Not that you would ever see this reported on the mainstream American media.)
Allocation of American taxation to fund the procurement of vehicles to be used by the ISIS. Looks so nice. Give to “Syria”. Except that the recipient was not the Syrian government, but rather the ISIS group within the Syrian government.
Who was affected by this “stoke of the pen” by Obama…
The people who paid for this were the American people through taxation.
The people who suffered for this were the Syrian citizenry, who found their homes, lifestyle, and culture obliterated.
The people who authored this, are now safe in their mansions. They are still partying, drinking chardonnay, and having a merry old time. (Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the various Middle Eastern interests.)
Moneys were diverted from the Afghanistan allocations toward the ISIS insurgents. This money was used to buy up equipment, weapons, and ammo to be used against the Syrian people in order to fun a new progressive wonderful all-Islamic national unity.
Let’s start with how I got interested in this scheme of things. Let’s look at Syria and the ISIS insurgency. In the process, let’s look at their use of technicals and how they obtained them.
The ISIS in Syria
I always thought of a pickup truck as something that you could fill up with a cord of wood, or transport a refrigerator in. Using it as mobile heavy machine gun platform seemed a little silly. For certainly the wheels would be shot out, and the engine destroyed within months of use. It is, after all an unarmored vehicle.
Out of the blue sometime during the Bush Presidency, the world became aware of the ISIS. It was never a serious threat, mostly constrained to being an outlier in that contentious region of hate, dust, and searing heat.
The ISIS mission was founded in 2004 to create a hard-line Islamic state crossing over the borders of Syria and Iraq. In the ideal manifestation, it would entail a huge swath of land including Iraq and Syria with political ties to Iran.
The objective of the ISS was to create a powerful national state that occupied the territories of Syria and Iraq.
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has emerged from radical Sunni jihadists in Iraq who fought under the banner “al-Qaeda in Iraq”. Their goal since being founded in 2004 is to create a hard-line Islamic state crossing over the borders of Syria and Iraq.
Were they to achieve their aim, the new state would be a caliphate led by a supreme religious leader called a “caliph”.
The nations that would belong to the Caliphate are predominantly Sunni Muslim. Yet Iran--which sees the so-called Arab Spring as a divine signal from Allah that the Caliphate, to be led by Iran, is on the horizon and that the Mahdi is near--is overwhelmingly Shia.
- Would Muslims Accept Iran as the Leader of a New Caliphate
In order to capture and subdue large sections of flat desert land, and to subjugate the people there, the ISIS adopted a system of convoys of armed technicals.
The technicals would be used in such a way as to cut off egress out from a targeted city or town, and allow foot soldiers to go house to house and room to room capturing and seizing civilians.
Thus the role of the technical was strictly defined. Firstly, to transport elements to a targeted area. Then, seize strategic portions which would in effect, surround the target, and finally to cut off egress or escape from the enclosed area through use of their mounted weapons.
ISS technicals armed with anti-aircraft weapons. Toyota-made pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles have been featured prominently in a number of ISIS propaganda videos used in Iraq, Syria, and Libya, according to ABC. Vehicles shown include the Hilux and the Land Cruiser. The weaponry appears to be Russian made L-70 or ZU-23-2B air defense systems.
Caliph means successor in Arabic, and a cleric with this title is
regarded by Sunni followers as an Iman chosen by Allah from the Family
of the House, direct descendants of the Prophet Muhammad.
One map (drawn up by ISIS as early as 2006) shows a region which includes much of north-east Syria and northern Iraq. The area, roughly the size of Belgium, contains many, many oil wells.
Obviously aside from all the religious attire, the purpose of this organization is to control access to oil and minerals in the region for personal profit. For a more pedestrian person such as my self, it seems like the motive is related to personal greed.
Yet, you just cannot draw lines on a map and make claim to them. You need to control and subjugate the people that live in those areas.
Control of a region for profit
ISS technicals used for personal transport, and fielding light machine gun weaponry. ISIS has used these vehicles in order to engage in military-type activities, terror activities, and the like, but in nearly every ISIS video, they show a fleet – a convoy of Toyota vehicles.
The Islamic world is complex, and in the political-religious sphere there were two groups at distinctly different objectives and behaviors.
Iraqi Shias (Conservative Muslim Nationalists.)
Iraqi Sunnis (The progressive ISIS fighters.)
The single most important factor in ISIS’s activities is the conflict between Iraqi Shias and Iraqi Sunnis. ISIS fighters themselves are Sunnis, and the tension between the two groups is a powerful recruiting tool for ISIS. Yet, let is be well known that they are a minority who wishes to become the majority.
The majority of Iraqis – between 60% and 70% – are Shias.
In order for a minority to become a majority in a given fixed reason, the civilian population must be purged. They must either be chased away, converted, or killed off. This, my friends, is known as genocide.
Genocide can occur when powerful people, often in leadership roles, and who contains the major media are able to convince the minority that they “deserve” to be the majority. In the case of Iraq, it was ex-dictator Saddam Hussein who was a Sunni and the absolute power of his Ba’ath party gave Sunnis the belief that they are the real majority and legitimate rulers.
The difference between the two largest Muslim groups originated a long, long time ago. It began with a controversy over who got to take power after the Prophet Muhammad’s death in 632AD. They have been fighting, killing, torturing, and raping ever since.
They have been fighting over this issue for 140 centuries.
There doesn’t seem to be any resolution of this issue in the near future. And for reasons, that I have difficulty in fathoming, then President Obama, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, felt it was the business of the United States to get involved in this conflict.
ISS technicals mounted with heavy machine guns. The heavy machine gun appears to be a DShK 1938 Soviet heavy machine gun. The vehicles shown in the ISIS videos are older Toyota models, according to ABC.Hyundais, Mitsubishis, and Isuzus are also depicted, though to a lesser extent. It’s possible some of the Toyota vehicles are being smuggled into the region, an Iraqi military spokesman told ABC.
The idea is to herd people into places where they are trapped and can
be easily controlled. There will be urban youth terrorizing the rural
areas, small towns and communities, and this will create a situation
where everyone will start to stream into the “safe” cities.
It won’t be safe.
About 500-thousand residents in Iraq's second biggest city of Mosul have fled after Islamist militants overran much of the city.
ISIL, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an offshoot of al-Qaida, launched the attack on the city today, seizing the governor's headquarters and rampaging through police stations.
Hundreds of detainees are reported to have been set free.
Roads across the city are now packed with cars as thousands of residents make their way to border crossings into the autonomous Kurdish province of Irbil.
There are no immediate estimates on how many people were killed in the assault.
- Thousands Flee Mosul after Militants Seize City
It will be a snare. It will be crowds of people trapped between tall stone walls with machine gun armed technicals at both ends of the street.
People will be collected, processed and used or killed. They will use lists.
Here is an ISIS truck parading captured, and “handed over” females to be either given to the soldiers, or sold off in the public square as slaves. This is from Syria, and the girls were most likely handed over to the “police” to spare their lives. The “police” then processed them and set them off to the market for their future roles within the community; sex slaves.
ISIS Leadership under the employ of the CIA.
US troops and allied Sunni militias defeated al-Qaeda in Iraq during the post-2006 troop surge, however the surge did not destroy its fighters completely. Peace was not obtained, no matter what the American media had to say about it in their “reports”.
In 2010, the US commander in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, described the group as “fundamentally the same.” In 2011, senior ISIS members regrouped following the freeing of high-profile members held by the Iraqi Government.
ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was in custody at a US detention facility in Iraq until 2009 when he was handed over to the Iraqi authorities. As he left Camp Bucca, near Iraq’s southern border with Kuwait, he told his captors: “I’ll see you guys in New York.”
He then disappeared from custody. The video cameras were turned off. The guards asleep. The watch lists missing.
ISS Technical with a platform mounted heavy machine gun. The weapon appears to be a Russian made 12.7mm NSV heavy machine gun. US itself has played a key role in arming, funding, and intentionally perpetuating the ISS terrorist army across Syria and Iraq. In 2014 it was reported that the US State Department had been sending in fleets of specifically Toyota-brand trucks into Syria to whom they claimed was the “Free Syrian Army.” But, who really were representatives of the ISS, and who immediately pressed the equipment into service for their cause.
And he was correct.
The CIA, under the direction of President Barrack Obama, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, shuffled him off to a “safe haven”, and there he rested and recouped.
It has been claimed that al-Baghdadi, who uses a variety of aliases, was only radicalized while in US custody. Imagine that.
According to his story, he was a simple farmer wrongly swept up and became a follower of bin Laden at Camp Bucca. However, it is more likely al-Baghdadi was an Islamic fundamentalist long before the US and Britain invaded Iraq.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is the nom de guerre of an individual who has had various names and epithets attributed to him, including Abu Du’a (أبو دعاء ʾabū duʿāʾ), Al-Shabah (the phantom or ghost), and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi al-Husseini al-Hashimi al-Qurashi (أبو بكر البغدادي الحسيني الهاشمي القرشي, )
There are only two known photos of the 43-year-old al-Baghdadi, who Iraqi military officials believe was hiding somewhere in Iraq’s eastern Diyala province.
In any event, he returned back to Iraq, and under the support of President Barrack Obama, and Hillary Clinton he was able to consolidate and recruit armed forces, receive CIA training and weapons, and amass a large enough military force to seize huge sections of Syria.
And yes. The key to the seizure of land was through the use of armed technicals.
Seizing sections of Syria.
ISS truck with a RPG crew for specialized assault tasks. Specific equipment like the Toyota Hiluxes are what is referred to as “force enablers” for the moderate opposition forces on the ground,. Oubai Shahbander said the US-supplied pickups were officially intended to be delivering troops and supplies into battle. Though he grudgingly acknowledged that some of the vehicle fleet might become battlefield weapons. And so they were. No surprise there.
In order to secure large sections of Syrian territory, the ISS utilized “technicals”; fast-moving civilian pick-up trucks with mounted heavy weapons. They would ride the trucks and surround a targeted town. Then ground forces would go house to house…
... Xia Shuqin, now 86, telling what happened to her on December 13, 1937. She lived at No. 5, Xinlukou Street, east of Zhonghuamen, one of the main gates to the inner city.
On that day, Japanese soldiers burst into her house and killed seven members of her family: her grandparents, parents, and three of her sisters.
Soldiers raped and then killed her mother and two elder sisters. She was stabbed three times and passed out. Of the entire family, only Xia and her four-year-old sister survived.
-What happens when military troops enter your town and go house to house. China Today.
You know, that I know, that it is difficult to visualize this. Syria is harsh rocky desert. It doesn’t look anything at all like the United States. But you know what? The utility and the strategy is absolutely portable. Whether it is in Iraq, Bosnia, Sierra Leone, China, or Tennessee.
Consider the United States.
How technicals would be used to seize points of egress from a town as it is under assault from foot-soldiers moving in from the West. For illustration purposes, the small town of Milford, Massachusetts is used in this example.
In operation, units would form into convoys. These units would then surround a targeted town or city. Technicals would be set up at all the cross roads, thus preventing egress via vehicles, or pedestrians who utilize roads for travel.
Trucks would then collect soldiers who would then move into the town on foot. They would be in groups of 8 to 10 and form into small squads.
The only way that a small town, or folk in the rural sections could oppose this encirclement assault is to delay the movement of the technicals. This would be through road blocks, and sniper attacks. Thus providing a window of opportunity for others to escape.
The
people, isolated and undefended, in the rural regions were dangerously
exposed. Large packs of armed “militia”, actually ideological youth
armed with military arms and on drugs and in an frenzy against perceived
slights (“privilege” and “advantage”) as promoted by the media prior to
the SHTF event. This is a scene in front of a “road block” that was set
up by local residents to slow down the roving bands of armed urban
youth. Their hope was that it would give them enough time to stream into
the nearby cities for protection. The only thing was that the cities
were all controlled by the very same people who set all the attacks in
motion.
Each squad would proceed to a specific target area and objectives. They would move house to house and collect the civilians there.
The ISIS would then separate the women and children from the men and the boys.
Children rounded up in Syria by the occupation forces. The parents gave them up because the new government promised to protect them and keep them out of harm’s way while the war raged. As a result they were sold and abused. Many died. The “new government” lied.
Young women, young female children, and some young boys were set apart and taken to holding areas. Often these were secured warehouses, schools, jails or other buildings that were easy to secure and “lock down”.
Once trapped, they must deal with the life as it is. They survive. But only just barely, as many of the women that they share their imprisoned state end up dying.
About all she has left is her name, which she prefers to keep to herself, and the shocking memories of last July. That's when Serbian troops stormed the northwest Bosnian village of Rizvanovici, and S., a 20-year-old Muslim woman with a ponytail, was rounded up with 400 other women in the yard of a neighbor's house.
Two soldiers, wearing camouflage uniforms and Serbian crosses around their necks, picked S. and her friend I. out of the crowd. "They brought us to an empty house and there they did what they wanted to do," says S. dully. "First we had to excite them and then we had to satisfy them."
Afterward the Serbs traded partners. The girls had been virgins. "They were laughing at us," S. recalls. "They said we were pretty girls and [that] we saved ourselves for them."
Her ordeal didn't end there. After being raped and dumped at the yard, one of the soldiers came back to bring S. to his commander. "He told me to take off my clothes and to lie down on the bed," she says. "Then he did the same thing. He started to kiss and to caress me. He saw that I didn't feel anything.
I looked into his eyes and asked him if he had a wife. He said no. I asked him if he had a sister. He said he had one. Then I said, 'How would your sister feel if somebody did the same thing to her that you are doing to me?' Then he jumped up and told me to get dressed and leave."
S., who now lives in a refugee center in northern Croatia, is a survivor of what may be the most sadistic violence to haunt Europe since the Nazi campaigns: "ethnic cleansing."
Now, on top of documented cases of systematic torture and murder in Bosnia, come charges of a new Serb atrocity-mass rape. No one knows how many victims there are, though estimates range from 30,000 to 50,000 women, most of them Muslim.
In the last few months, a torrent of wrenching first-person testimonies from refugees has emerged, suggesting widespread sexual abuse by Serb forces.
They tell of repeated rapes of girls as young as 6 and 7; violations by neighbors and strangers alike; gang rapes so brutal their victims die; rape camps where Serbs routinely abused and murdered Muslim and Croat women; rapes of young girls performed in front of fathers, mothers, siblings and children; rapes committed explicitly to impregnate Muslim women and hold them captive until they give birth to wanted Serbian babies.
-Newsweek
The men and boys were then scrutinized as a threat. They are separated and often tortured, then killed outright.
“On December 14, we marched from the city to the banks of the Yangtze River … all we could see on the river’s 2,000 or more meter-wide surface was the bodies of men, women, and children, slowly floating like rafts. Looking upriver, more corpses, like mountains, moved toward us in what seemed an endless stream. There must have been at least 50,000. The Yangtze River had become a river of corpses.” This account was given by Japanese veteran Akahoshi Yoshio, from Weeping Yangtze River, a memoir collection by veterans published in Japan.
“In the square about 100 people sat, hands tied behind their backs. In front of them were two freshly dug pits, about five meters square and three meters deep… the soldiers carrying out the executions appeared agitated, their faces manically contorted.” Former military correspondent Sato Shinju so recounted in his book March as Military Correspondent.
-The Rape of Nanking, China Today
Those judged as a threat were killed outright. The rest were either recruited for the ISS, or were left alone.
“Abou Jihad” is a French Islamic State (or ISIL or ISIS) fighter in Syria who is one of the main disseminators of IS materials in French. He is stating openly what mainstream Western media outlets, the United Nations, and the Islamic State itself have now confirmed, namely, that the Islamic State is practicing the sexual enslavement of Yazidi and other non-Muslim women and girls.
Once captured, they can be raped repeatedly, and then sold off as slaves for sex and housework as needed. “Abou Jihad: “350 dollars for the Yazidi girl in Mosul if you want.” was the going rate as of 2014. Two years later, when Donald Trump become president, and the ISIS lost their funding, support and intelligence from the Obama Administration, the ISIS organization collapsed. Need less to say, the progressive liberals view ISIS activity in Syria to be a “dry run” for what is in store for the United States.
Most men are killed. This is the historical norm. As is the systematic rape of women.
Serbian military policy has mandated the systematic gang-rape of Muslim and Croatian women and girls, their imprisonment in schools, factories, motels, arenas and concentration camps for ongoing serial rape, rape followed by murder, sexual torture and sexual slavery.
In addition to the estimated 90 concentration camps set up throughout Bosnia, there are more than 20 rape/death camps. Some hold 15 to 25 women and look like brothels; others hold more than 1,000. More than 7,000 women were held as prisoners in a Serbian-run prison-brothel near Brcko in northern Bosnia, and Muslim women are reportedly held in sexual slavery in the Sarajevo suburb of Grbavica. Young girls just reaching puberty appear to be specially designated targets for gang-rape.
-LA Times
The plight of the women and children was often years of rape, sexual slavery and a life of servitude. Eventually leading to death.
In general, the technicals played a major role in rapid control of key strategic points for tactical control. Their armament would be very effective against civilian vehicles and could lay down suppressive fire to scare the Dejesus out of any civilian who dared try to get around the road-block.
Routes of escape were blocked, this included rail, roads, boats and by air. To escape a town or village under siege, you need to avoid the HMG mounted on technicals and avoid all crowds.
They played a role that effectively removed all means of escape from the civilians trapped within a town or targeted region.
...But there does seem to be a widespread pattern of on-the-ground commanders encouraging-or even ordering-their men to rape. The testimonies of so many victims and witnesses, and of some captured Serb perpetrators, have a consistency that cannot be accidental.
"It's hard to believe that all these Serbian men, no matter how animalistic you think human nature is, would suddenly get it in their heads to find a 7-year-old girl and rape her," says the lead State Department researcher.
Rape is an integral part of ethnic cleansing, of eradicating entire areas of their historic Muslim populations through brutal intimidation, expulsion and outright murder. In such Bosnian towns as Brcko, Bjeljina, Kljuc, Sanski Most, Prijedor, Kotor Varos, Zvornik, leading citizens-anyone who owned a business, participated in the Party of Democratic Action, held a university degree-were hunted down and liquidated.
The rest of the male population was packed off to prison camps.
Rape clearly was the coup de grace delivered to tens of mortally wounded towns, a way of ensuring that women would never want to return to their homes.
For 12-year-old Vasvija, the terror began after she was evicted from her village of Jelec in August. During her first night in Partizan Hall, a Serb-run detention camp in the nearby eastern Bosnian town of Foca, two soldiers picked her from among the 70 detainees, all women, children and elderly civilians.
"They brought me to a flat, an empty flat," she says, a single tear running down an otherwise passive face. "They raped me." Both soldiers? "Both."
Over nine consecutive nights, Vasvija endured the same hideous treatment at the hands of different men. Once she was taken out with her mother and another inmate.
They were all raped by the same Serbian soldier. Exchanged on Sept. 17 for Serb prisoners, Vasvija, her siblings and her mother now live in a refugee center near Sarajevo. No one has heard from her father, who was beaten and dragged off to a different prison camp when the Serbs overran Jelec.
-Newsweek
All the unarmed civilians could do was hide, surrender, or run. (As a kind reminder, please take note. The civilian population were disarmed within a year of the genocide. Once disarmed, there was nothing preventing the military and militia to do with the civilian population as they wished.)
Once the population was disarmed, only the Serbian military and the opposition forces had weapons. This made sense, as the government needed the population to be disarmed in order to round them up and kill them so that a minority could come to power.
Sierra Leone has suffered terrible social and economic costs as a result of its civil war and fight over diamond control.
Under the cover of warfare the rebels committed heinous crimes against humanity in the form of murder, rape, and mutilation.
The war between 1991 and 1999 claimed over 75,000 lives, caused 500,000 Sierra Leoneans to become refugees, and displaced half of the countries 4.5 million people[6]. Also during this period, the Sierra Leone economy was being cheated out of millions of dollars in the form of illegal diamonds.
Rape of women and girls was widespread and systematic during Sierra Leone's conflict through most of the 1990s, and is reportedly continuing on a smaller scale in areas still controlled by rebels in the north and east of the country.
Members of the RUF primarily perpetrated this brutal tactic as a tool of war to terrorize the civilian population into submission and break-apart families and communities.
In addition, to the thousands of women who were raped, thousands more women and girls were abducted and taken into the bush to travel with the rebels and to act as domestic sex slaves to the fighters. .
In many cases the abducted were gang raped, beaten, starved, tortured, forced to walk long distances carrying heavy loads, and told they would be killed if they tried to escape.
The rebels have been reluctant to turn over children in spite of their obligation to do so under the Lome Peace Accord and have been particularly slow to hand over girls.
Girls and young women who managed to escape from the rebels or who were released, suffer a variety of consequences such as sexually transmitted infections. These include HIV/AIDS, trauma and post traumatic stress disorder, extreme anxiety and alienation by their communities and families.
Numerous women also were left with scarring and serious gynecological problems, such as damaged uteruses and bladders. A high percentage of the survivors are pregnant or are now single mothers of so-called "rebel babies."
The Rebels also terrorize citizens with the systemic mutilation of men, women, and children.
The rebels had teams dedicated to capturing citizens and mutating them. Often times they cut off both the victims’ hands and put the hands in a rice bag and took it back to their commanders.
Such behavior is not an isolated event or the product of undisciplined soldiers, it is the rebels gruesome strategy and can be traced back to the leaders of the RUF.
As a result of these acts, the thousands of surviving amputees in Sierra Leone were forced in to refugee camps. Many of these people are illiterate and support themselves by farming the land, and they are left futureless as a result of their needless amputations.
-Blood Diamonds
This technique was used in other nations such as Rwanda, Bosnia, Cambodia, Sierra Leone and South Africa with great success. They would form a convoy and race to the targeted region or town. Then they would surround the town, and use the technicals to secure the exits so that no one could leave.
Parade of ISS technicals showing an array of mounted equipment, and personnel. The mystery of how hundreds of identical, brand-new ISIS-owned Toyota trucks have made it into Syria is solved. Not only has the US and British government admitted in the past to supplying them, their military forces and intelligence agencies ply the borders of Turkey, Jordan, and even Iraq where these fleets of trucks must have surely passed on their way to Syria – even if other regional actors supplied them.
Then, they would employ foot soldiers to go house by house, room by room to collect the civilians for the ISS to do with them as they pleased. And, they DID do what they pleased. This is what happens in every war, and most especially in every genocide.
...military leaders of the Bosnian Serbs-with low ranking henchmen like Borislav Herak. A 21-year-old Serb laborer from Sarajevo, Herak admits to raping seven Muslim women and to killing two of his victims in addition to the 18 murders to which he has already confessed.
"We were ordered to rape so that our morale would be higher," he says from a military prison in the Bosnian capital. "We were told we would fight better if we raped the women."
He claims that he and fellow soldiers frequented the Sonja Cafe-one of several alleged "rape camps" outside Sarajevo-which maintained a population of 70 Muslim women and girls; those who were killed were quickly replaced.
Entire villages, such as Miljevina in eastern Bosnia, may have been converted to rape camps.
About 100 people, "all young Muslim women and girls, were raped," says a 20-year-old named Aida. Her attacker was Dragan J., a Serb policeman and neighbor, who excused his behavior, she says, on the ground that "'It is war, you can't resist, there is no law and order'."
Rasema, a 33-year-old mother, offers a similar account. She claims that her assailants raped her in front of her two girls. When she resisted, they threatened, "We will cut out your teeth! Do you want us to slaughter your children, to watch us cutting them into pieces, piece after piece?" In his own defense, one attacker told Rasema, "I have to do it, otherwise they will kill me."
-Newsweek
They would search out specific people and took special note to those which might be armed, or have a high risk of opposition. They would use lists obtained, compiled and given to them by local people friendly to their cause.
Usually educated people, business leaders, outspoken independent people, and people who were the victim of petty grudges would be on the list.
Imagine what the list would look like if a feminist millennial were to compile the list of everyone in the local town where she lived. Who would be on it? Would you?
American mainstream media telling us “normals” what they fully intend to do with us once they reacquire the reins of power.
Two young Serb deserters, Slobodan Panic and Cvijetin Maksimovic, now being held in a prison in Orasje, Bosnia, told NEWSWEEK they were ordered to rape and murder for the amusement of their commander in Brcko, in northeastern Bosnia, last May.
Panic says he balked when two battered women, each about 18, were brought to him in a room in a warehouse where 500 to 600 civilians were imprisoned. Serb soldiers "Said they'd kill me if I didn't" rape them, he recalls, insisting that he "only did a little" to his screaming victims, not consummating the act.
Three other women were dragged out for the same humiliating display. During these episodes, Panic says, soldiers stood around in a circle and laughed.
Then they hauled two badly beaten Muslim prisoners before Panic and handed him a gun. "I said, 'I can't, they've never done anything to me'," he remembers. "'You have to or else we'll kill you'," Panic says he was told. He shot each man in the chest. Two more male prisoners appeared.
A soldier handed Panic a knife. "Butcher them," he commanded. When Panic protested, the soldier replied, "I'll show you how it's done." Then, holding Panic's hand around the knife handle, he seized the man by the hair, jerked back his head and cut his throat.
Death, at least, brings an end to suffering. Rape victims who became pregnant relive their horror every day. Sofija, a 30-year-old Muslim, was released from a school turned prison camp in the village of Parzevic in mid-September, after being raped every night for six months by five or six different Serb soldiers.
Now she is hiding from her family in a cold Sarajevan hospital, tormented by the thought of the unwanted child growing inside her. "I do not want to see the baby," the mother of two says without emotion. "I will not feed it. I do not want anything to do with it."
Her roommate says that Sofija talks in her sleep every night, debating whether to kill the baby when it arrives in mid-January. Somewhere in Sarajevo are 12 other pregnant women and girls from the same village as Sofija who were similarly raped and held until long past the time for a safe abortion.
Earlier release doesn't guarantee relief: a 1978 Yugoslav law allows gynecologists to perform abortions only up to the 10th week of pregnancy; thereafter, cases are referred to a hospital ethics commission which, in Roman Catholic Croatia, home to 400,000 Bosnian refugees, may be more inclined to put the babies up for adoption.
Rape is the ultimate act in the Serbs' program of annihilation. They have robbed countless civilians of their possessions, their land, their lives and their dignity. Bosnia will be haunted by hundreds, if not thousands, of Serbian children forced on unwilling Muslim mothers.
-Newsweek
Former American truck, utilized by the ISS in Syria, showing a mounted AA gun. A Mr. Mark Oberholtzer sold the truck to AutoNation Ford back in October 2013. From there the truck was sold at auction and somehow made its way to Turkey. It then crossed the nearby boarder to Syria and was converted into a technical mounting an anti-aircraft dual barrelled weapon. Unfortunately for Mark Oberholtzer, the CIA which handled the transaction to the ISS (for the State Department under Hillary Clinton) did not remove the decals. Thus, despite being assured the decals would be removed, they remained in tact and contained his business name and phone number.
Once the ISS / ISIS took control of a town they were able to exert control over large geographical areas. This enabled them to control access to the natural resources, the people and their labors, the women and children, and obtain international status.
The control of geographical regions was important in order to seize control of the people.
ISS Convoy with American supplied Toyota technicals mounted with heavy weapons in Syria. The British government has also admittedly supplied a number of vehicles to terrorists fighting inside of Syria. The British Independent’s 2013 article titled, “Revealed: What the West has given Syria’s rebels,” reported that:
“So far the UK has sent around £8m of “non-lethal” aid, according to official papers seen by The Independent, comprising five 4×4 vehicles with ballistic protection; 20 sets of body armour; four trucks (three 25 tonne, one 20 tonne); six 4×4 SUVs; five non-armoured pick-ups; one recovery vehicle; four fork-lifts; three advanced “resilience kits” for region hubs, designed to rescue people in emergencies; 130 solar powered batteries; around 400 radios; water purification and rubbish collection kits; laptops; VSATs (small satellite systems for data communications) and printers.”
It’s fair to say that whatever pipeline the US State Department and the British government used to supply terrorists in Syria with these trucks was likely used to send additional vehicles before and after these reports were made public.
To many Americans, this is all specialized history. Who cares about history, they argue? When there are much more important things to worry about. They argue that war and house to house fighting would never happen in America.
It would NEVER happen here.
Why get all “hot and bothered”?
Ah, that “it would never happen here” excuse. After all, America is the “freest nation” in the world, and everyone is flocking to America. There is nothing to worry about.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, it turns out that there is a connection between the ISIS, and the Antifa. The ISIS have been training American Antifa members on small arms tactics as well as the use of technicals to secure rural towns and villages.
American Antifa obtaining training from the ISIS and American CIA “advisors” while President Obama was in office, and under the watchful eyes of the State Department under Hillary Clinton.
As such you can rest assured that the local Antifa would employ technicals in a manner similar to how they were employed in Iraq and Syria. They would utilize young males, often from racially cultivated urban areas to man these technicals, and they would seek out anyone who would be an enemy to their cause.
I will not spend too much on this subject. Just recognize that there is a connection between the American progressive activist movements such as Antifa, BLM and other SJW folk, and the CIA sponsored (and trained) military groups ISIS, and others.
If you want to go down this deep rabbit hole be my guest. I find it over kill. All that one needs to know is that the CIA is active in funding and training the progressive Antifa and BLM movements.
If you have any questions about this, you can address them to either Barrack Obama, or Hillary Clinton.
There is a very strong connection between the ISIS and the American Antifa and BLM movements. This should not be ignored, nor discounted.Once
the enemies are identified, “tiger teams” of lightly trained militia
go forth into the undefended rural areas and small towns attacking
everyone on the lists that they were given. It never is random. They
have lists of people to target and places to go. Do not expect it to be
unplanned or random. Picture from the Sierra Leone conflict.
Professional Use of Technicals
Russia, Britain, and the United States have all utilized technicals to achieve their various mission parameters. They are most effective against militia, lightly armed foot soldiers, civilian vehicles, homes and buildings, and civilians.
Russian Defense Ministry has deployed a group of UAZ Patriot trucks equipped with Kord 12.7 mm heavy machine guns and AGS-17 grenade launchers to Syria.
In the late 1960s during Vietnam War the US Armed Forces adopted an Mk.19 40-mm automatic grenade launcher. This powerful weapon recommended itself well during the War in Vietnam. Soon after the Soviet Union adopted a similar 30-mm automatic grenade launcher. It is known as the AGS-17 Plamya. It was developed in the late 1960s by the KBP design bureau and adopted by the Soviet Army in 1971. It has been widely exported and has fought in numerous wars, earning for itself the reputation of being a reliable, effective weapon. The AGS-17 is still in production today.
The AGS stands for Avtomatischeskyi Granatmyot Stankovyi (which is Russian for automatic grenade launcher mounted). This weapon is capable of quickly firing large numbers of grenades.
The AGS-17 is a blowback-operated belt-fed weapon with a removable rifled barrel 29 centimeters in length. This weapon is fired from an open bolt. Iron sights, adjustably sighted out to 800 meters, come as standard, although optical 2.5x magnification sights are generally used. Maximum sighting range with optical sight is 1 700 m.
The AGS-17 Plamya is normally deployed on a foldable tripod with a range fire for both direct and indirect fire. The AGS-17 is fired using dual grips.
This automatic grenade launcher can fire two types of 30x120 mm grenades - the VOG-17M high-explosive fragmentation round and the improved VOG-30. The VOG-17 grenade has a claimed kill radius of 7 m. The grenades are fed in 29-round belts housed in a circular detachable magazine, commonly referred as the "snail". Each AGS-17 grenade launcher is equipped with 3 magazines.
Since it entered service the AGS-17 has proved its worth in a number of conflicts, including the War in Afghanistan, Chechen Wars, and Syrian Civil War. It still serves in over 15 countries and is licensed produced by Bulgaria, China, Cuba, and Iraq.
-Military Today
The weapons can be mounted aboard a rotary turret, allowing the user to instantaneously change his arc of fire. Additionally, if necessary, the vehicle can be equipped with Konkurs or Kornet anti-tank missiles, capable of hitting enemy targets at distances of up to 5 km.
Russian Defense Ministry has deployed a group of UAZ Patriot trucks equipped with Kord 12.7 mm heavy machine guns and AGS-17 grenade launchers to Syria. The gas-powered vehicles will possibly be used to protect humanitarian convoys. The firepower in the back of the vehicles will enable their operators to suppress enemy fire in a radius of up to 2 km.
It can also be fitted with with a 120 mm mortar with an effective range of 9 km.
The new military-use technicals, the UAZ Patriots, were first demonstrated to President Putin in the Spring of 2016. In the summer, they were shown at a closed pavilion for specialists at the Army-2016 Military-Technical Forum.
The vehicles feature upgraded all-terrain capabilities, a one ton carrying capacity, and armor protection. They also feature power plugs for night vision, special tents for protection against shrapnel, and storage for ammunition.
The latest vehicles may replace or complement the UAZ-3132 Gusar, already engaged in Syria and used for operations by Russian special forces, experts said.
In 2014, soon after Daesh (ISIS) made itself globally known by capturing large swathes of Syria and Iraq, world media reported on the terrorist group's successful use of large numbers of Toyota pickup trucks for their operations. Now, finally, the terrorists seem to have met their match.
- Russia's Answer to Daesh Jihad-Mobiles: Deadly UAZ Patriot Jeeps
We can well expect that the technicals, when employed in the United States, would be armed in much the same way that they were armed in Libya.
As well as taking on the same roles.
Young
thugs armed with weapons during the Liberian civil war. They terrorized
everyone that they could. The people ran from them into “protective”
enclaves. There, they were pawns to be used by the oligarchy for what
ever purposes they wanted.
Other conflicts use of Technicals
Here’s a selection of the more advanced weaponry that can be found on technicals. Many come from the resourceful Libyans, but photos include images from all over the world. These larger weapons would be employed to fight the more modern advanced weaponry that a modern army might have. Such as tanks, APC’s and artillery.
Libya missile launcher of some unknown type mounted upon a technical. It appears to be a 3 x 5 quad tube rocket launcher on a manual turret.
The Libyans have been very resourceful. One can only imagine what kind of home-made defense technicals traditional conservative Americans might cook up in their home workshops and garages.
The Libyans would take apart captured tanks, vehicles, helicopters, and aircraft. They would seize hard heavy earth moving equipment, and scavenge everything that they can. As a result, the people of Libya have ended up with a “Mad Max” assortment of strange and unusual technicals.
A “Transitional gun” mounted on a pickup truck in Libya.
The goal has been to convert old weapons, mainly Chinese and Russian air-to-air rockets and ground-to-air missiles, into mobile weapon platforms.
These platforms can then be used against the better trained and equipped of Libyan armed forces.
Some civilian light jeeps are fitted with small unguided UB-32 rockets pod from captured combat helicopters. In those cases they are often mounted at the rear of the vehicle. The helicopter UB32 pods can fire 32 S-5 57 mm unguided air-to-ground rockets
In the final years of the war in Sierra Leone, I returned to the country of my father, where I had spent part of my childhood. Like many returnees, I had come to help members of my family caught up in the fighting, which by then had lasted more than a decade.
The village where my family lived had been behind enemy lines.
To reach them I needed to rent a car, preferably a four-wheel drive, but available vehicles were scarce. Eventually I secured one: a black Toyota 4×4 with tinted windows. We departed Freetown at dawn, drove along and around roads cratered by shellfire.
In the late afternoon, we had reached the dirt track to the village. What struck me most was the emptiness, the absence of people.
Occasionally in the distance we saw men repairing damaged roofs, but along roads where I was used to seeing schoolchildren, women toting loads, men on bicycles–we did not pass a soul. Then, rounding a corner: a small group of women carrying firewood.
We slowed for them, but instead of waving and greeting us, they dropped their loads and ran into the bush.
We laughed. We thought we had merely surprised them. Then the same thing happened again. And then again. Women saw our approaching vehicle and fled in silence. We looked at ourselves through their eyes: deep throated engine, darkened windows, alloy wheels. The kind of vehicle a rap artist might drive. The kind of vehicle the rebel militia might drive.
The women had been running for their lives.
-Design and Violence
Some captured anti-aircraft guns (such as the ZSU-23-4 Shilka) was also converted to be used as anti-tank combat vehicle.
Russian heavy machine-gun mounted on a Technical.
In these cases, sometimes additional armor plates were fitted around the vehicle, and the radar is replaced with two batteries of 32 unguided missiles.
Some light civilian pickup trucks are fitted with between two and four launcher tubes of 122 mm Grad artillery rockets. They are also mounted at the rear of the vehicle. Normally this weapon system is fitted to the Russian made BM-21 MRLS multiple rocket launcher system truck.
A technical armed with a GRAD missile launcher.
The 122 mm rocket, Russian designation 9M22, is a High-Explosive Fragmentation (HE frag) fin-stabilized unguided rocket with a steel-tube body. It has an HE frag warhead in the pointed nose section and an electrically-ignited rocket motor in the tail.
Stabilization during flight is provided by four spring-out stabilizer vanes at the tail, mounted at an angle of 1° to the longitudinal.
Libyan rebel technical. A vehicle equipped with a 122 mm GRAD rocket in a quad array fitted on a light jeep.
Other types of warhead can be installed in place of the HE frag, including chemical (VX or GB nerve agent) HE-Incendiary and Smoke. The 9M22 rocket has a maximum range of about 20,750 m.
It was not until the early 1990s, however, that such hacked vehicles earned their current name, “technicals.” During the Somali Civil War, organizations like the United Nations were unable to bring their own protection and hired guards and drivers on the ground, dubbed “technical assistants.”
Over time, the term evolved to signify the vehicles owned by these guard companies, and later to reference vehicles with heavy weaponry mounted on the back.
Now found in war- and guerrilla-torn areas throughout the world, technicals are a significant symbol of power, popular for their speed, durability, and efficiency at moving both men and weapons in unison. In the early 2000s, technicals again gained attention when they were recognized as the vehicles of choice for leaders of both the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
From the civil war in Sierra Leone to the Iraq ISIS conflict, these vehicles remain an integral design in the arsenal of conflict.
-Design and Violence
To increase the fire power and the mobility of Libyan rebel
fighters, many types of machine guns and light heavy weapons were mounted at
the rear of light pickup. These were the ZPU-1,
ZPU-2,
ZPU-4
and ZU-23-2
light anti-aircraft guns.
All these light anti-aircraft guns use the Russian made 14.5
mm Vladimirova KPV (Krubnokalibernyj Pulemet Vladimirova) heavy machine gun
(HMG), which has a quick-change barrel.
Libyan technical with an unknown mounted weapon. The Libyan war was a war between Gaddafi army and Libya’s Transitional National Council army with air support from NATO started on the 17 March 2011
Some of Libyan rebels light jeeps are also equipped with
Chinese made Type 63 107 mm multiple rocket launcher system.
The Type 63 is a towed, 12-tube, 107-mm multiple rocket launcher system produced in China in the early 1960s, based on the Soviet BM-12 MRS and using similar rockets. Type 63 MRS was developed in the late 1950s as the replacement for the 102 mm (6-round) Type 427 and Type 488 multiple rocket systems which were withdrawn from front-line service with the People's Liberation Army many years ago.
Improvised Employment of S-5 Air-to-Surface Rockets on technicals.
The Libyan rebels also used old stocks of weapons and
ammunition which were captured in old government military bases. Many members
of the Libyan rebel army need to work on the captured weapons in order to
repair them and to place them in operational capability.
Hilux. Hi-lux. High as in “high riding.” “Lux” meaning luxury. “The vehicular equivalent of the AK47,” a former U.S. army ranger told Time magazine.
A rigid steel frame construction with a cab and body fitted on the top. Beloved of farmers, construction crews, rebel armies, warlords, Somali pirates, and Afghan insurgents.
Good for moving workers, good for moving contingents of men. Mount a machine gun on a tripod on the back and you have a gunship. The design of the Hilux on the battlefield has proved a perfect and unintended synthesis of form and function.
Fast. Maneuverable. High ground clearance. Light enough to cross minefields without detonating mines, it’s said. So popular they even named a war after it: the Libya-Chad “Toyota War” of the 1980s was fought with cavalries of Hiluxes.
-Design and Violence
Although improvised systems firing air-to-surface rockets had become commonplace in some armed conflicts of the 1990s and early 2000s, it was only during the civil war in Libya in 2011 that these weapons became one of the primary systems used in many of a conflict’s land battles. S-5 rockets, among others, were used with a variety of improvised systems, ranging from single-barrel man-portable rocket launchers to UB-32-57 rocket pods mounted on pickup trucks.
Anti-tank rockets are also transformed to increase their power and efficiency against the Kaddafi forces tanks and armored vehicles. For instance, an aluminum ring is added to standard RPG rocket-propelled grenades and refitted with high explosives.
Explosive elements of old anti-tank and anti-personnel are extracted to create homemade bombs or IED (Improvised Explosive Devices), which was used against the pro-Kaddafi forces.
A Humvee technical armed with a massive cannon.
A “Home Grown” Technical
A Syrian technical armed with a 120mm “sniper cannon”.
The Free Syrian Army announced a technical called the Sniper Cannon (in Arabic; al-madfa’a al-qannas المدفع القناص) of their own design and from their own manufacturing shops. It’s a local made 120mm cannon mounted on a vehicle and the reason behind that name is the precise shots that the cannon can perform.
A Syrian technical armed with a 120mm “sniper cannon”. The Free Syrian Army announced a technical called the Sniper Cannon (in Arabic; al-madfa’a al-qannas المدفع القناص) from their own manufacturing. It’s a local made 120mm cannon mounted on a vehicle and the reason behind that name is the precise shots that cannon can perform.
People the photo above, and the text comes straight from the firearms blog. They cover it in great detail and show how American handy-men can create their very own high-powered technicals using the means at hand. It is well… well worth the read. Please give Marawan Maklad every credit for the fine, well written piece.
Please note that despite the fact that it’s locally made with poor tools and equipment, the guys behind the gun were clearly both skilled and devoted in building it, taking care of every aspect they can add with available resources available to them.
The cannon is breech-loading, using the standard or locally made 120mm mortar shells.
It has the capability to shoot indirectly like a mortar or directly like an Anti-Tank gun (one of the reasons for calling it a sniper cannon).
It is also equipped with a huge flash suppressor that has the same design style as a Barrett M107 .50BMG (but in a larger scale to fit a 120mm barrel).
That muzzle brake decreases the sound about 50% (according to FSA; which is very unlikely) and hides the muzzle flash efficiently during night shooting. This is much more important as the flash can reveal their position, and which leads to a counter strike done by Al-Assad’s forces either by air or artillery.
Mobility is another reason for mounting the gun on a vehicle; to be able to hit and evacuate which is a well-known guerilla tactic.
When I was writing about Croatia, a friend—a war correspondent who had reported the conflict in the former Yugoslavia—pointed out something which later seemed so obvious I wondered how I could have missed it.
“The reason that war kicked off so fast,” he said, “was because they were a nation of hunters. Every man had a gun and knew how to use it.”
When people go to war they fight with whatever comes to hand. In Sierra Leone every man was a farmer, every man owned a cutlass or a machete. In Sierra Leone before the war if you saw a gang of men in the back of a Toyota Hilux carrying machetes, you’d think they were farm workers on their way to clear the bush.
A few years later, you’d be running for your life.
-Design and Violence
Other Technical Designs
In a war torn nation, there are all kinds of destroyed and disabled military vehicles and equipment. Often people will salvage what they can, which for the most part, means the working small arms, machine guns, and ammo. However, a resourceful person, with the help of an oxygen acetylene torch kit, can remove armor, skirting, and large weapon clusters with ease and a little bit of elbow grease.
It was not enough for the Free Syrian Army to improvise small arms and remote control weapon stations, but they developed a number of modifications for vehicles as well. They have not only repaired damaged tanks and put them back in service, but they have also used pick-up trucks to which they mounted different types of armament, so they could compete on a more even footing against Al-Assad’s Forces. Here are some pickup trucks upgraded to mount a modified BMP-1 Turrets with 73mm guns.
Often these components would be mounted onto technicals. The armor providing protection, and the weapons providing firepower. However, the overall appearance is anything but pretty. As some of these pictures can show.
Fully armored technical with armor removed from battle damaged tanks and factory buildings.
Roundups and Genocide
The thing about technicals is that they are the perfect machines to use against unarmed, or lightly armed civilians. As such, convoys of such vehicles are sent out to surround a targeted town or community. The technicals secure the area, and the foot soldiers collect the people.
The foot soldiers are government employees who are armed and who are tasked with collecting unarmed civilians and to take them to “safe areas”.
The government only wants their soldiers to have weapons. Not the civilians. That way they can do what they like without fear of an uprising. As their abuses in office get more and more pronounced, the clamor for gun control and confiscation becomes louder and louder. Eventually it happens. Generally (though there are exceptions) genocide happens within a two year period afterwards.
Once the collect the people, they go through a sorting process. They find out the “us vs them” people. They identify them. They call them out, and they make it plain as day that “real” progressive socialists won’t have anything to do with these “enemies of the people”.
Today in America, these are the enemies…
White people.
Anyone who is friends with white people.
Climate change deniers.
Traditionally-minded people.
Gun owners.
People from a predominantly “red” state.
Religious people (with the exception of Muslims).
Heterosexual people and traditional marriages.
Anyone or anything associated with traditional America
In America, it is “White Privilege”.
Everyone knows who the targets of hate actually and really are. You have to be either fully immersed in PC culture and blind to reality, or a friggin’ moron not to realize this.
Political Correctness is a blanket term that today is used to demonize and isolate.
If you’re talking about going and taking people’s guns away from them, there’s going to be a lot of violence.
- Meghan McCain
It goes by other names in other nations. But by whatever name is of
no consequence. What is important is how it is used, and what it’s
purpose is. For it prevents a person from saying what they truly
think.
History is full of reminders in how to use terminology like this.
First
comes the us-vs-them propaganda. Then the disarming. Then the gathering
of people. Finally comes the killings. Every time you hear the term
“white privilege” on the media, this is what that announcer wants to do
to your family and YOU.
The dehumanization and objectification of political adversaries is
always used in the preparation and justification for mass murder. This
came into sharp focus as an effective weapon during the French
Revolution. As well as other “revolutions”, “civil wars”, or
“conflicts”. They are almost always genocidal events initiated by the
richest people in the nation.
In
these events, people are pitted against each other. Often by the most
trivial of reasons. Their “armies” are mob-manipulated youth driven into
crazed behaviors by decades of non-stop propaganda. We we have some
urban youth, provided with drugs and military weapons to terrorize the
countryside.
The specific insults morph to fit the circumstances and the times.
each time it is a new and different term; a new name. Yet, each insult
is designed to have the same effect — to dehumanize and to objectify a
group of people.
These are the people in opposition to the dominant group that has seized power and the legal mechanisms of the State.
Progressive liberal militia in Berkeley, California getting ready to fight against “White privilege” , deplorables, and racists. They are willing to kill anyone whom they deem a threat to their vision of a Marxist utopia. Please take a special note that the Marxist militia is totally fine with having “large capacity” magazines, while the law is in place to collect them from local conservatives and moderates. It doesn’t seem fair does it?
The insults and attacks serve a purpose to strengthen the ideology of
young easily manipulated people who can be the disposable “soldiers”
of the cause. This always happens.
It is predictable.
By
using emotion-driven political speech, you can demonize a class or a
group of people. Then you can take another group of people, manipulate
them through alcohol, drugs and sex and unleash them on the people that
you demonize. This is a historically proven method.
There was a reason that the 2nd Amendment was placed in the Constitution. The mere attempt to
regulate it, minimize it, restrict it or impede in the free exercise of
it, is a FULL-ON screeching alert that tyranny is present.
And no. I am not talking about the latest encroachments. I am talking
about the first encroachments back in the early 1900’s. I am also
talking about the FAILURE of our elected officials in allowing all this
encroachment.
If
the Constitution was being followed as intended, every person in the
USA would have access to fully automatic Stoner weapons. Were this to be
the case today, there would be ZERO threat of oligarchy initiated
genocide in the United States.
Never travel alone or in groups that were too big — always two to three men. All armed, travel swift, in the shadows, cross streets through ruins, not along open streets.There were many gangs 10 to 15 men strong, some as large as 50 men. But there were also many normal men, like you and me, fathers and grandfathers, who killed and robbed. There were no “good” and “bad” men. Most were in the middle and ready for the worst...
-Commonsense Show
My point is that we can expect it to happen here, in the United States within a decade. You all had best be ready for it. No one will be able to skate by safely.
That includes all you “Preppers” out there. No one ever wins a defensive war. The only way that wars are won is through offensive action.
You can prep and hide, but eventually you will lose as the conflict becomes increasingly drawn out. The ONLY way to secure the area where you and your society lives is through offensive operations. Operations that, instead of targeting the forces, target the leadership and their logistic means of support.
Look, I know that many of you do not want to see what happens when opposition forces, riding technicals invade your town, and start collecting people. You don’t want to see what happens once you are disarmed, and the progressive opposition have all the guns.
The decapitated head of Bosnian Serb farmer Pero Makic, who was executed by Bosnian Muslim/Croat forces in the northeastern Bosnian city of Brcko on June 22, 1992. His head was placed on a pitch-fork and a cigarette was placed in his mouth. One of the forks of the pitch-fork was stabbed in his eye. This is a photo that was censored and suppressed in the West and the US. How many farmers in your area have a hunting rifle, a shotgun, and a twenty two caliber handgun?
Well face the ugly truth! This is an article you MUST take a good long hard look at. Read it. And remember what will happen to you and your family once a great many of you are disarmed. Read it before the progressive thought police censors it from you.
What ever happens, do not allow yourself or your family to be rounded up and collected. Historically, you will not leave alive.
In Bosnia, women and children are 75% of the more than 2.5 million people driven from their homes–not by the random violence of war but by forced expulsion and mass killings–in the Serbian military effort called “ciscenje prostora,” or what Americans have learned to call “ethnic cleansing.” Ethnic cleansing, enunciated as policy by Serbian political and military leaders at the highest levels of authority, is genocide. It requires the removal or killing of all non-Serbs from the new republics of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, both formerly part of Yugoslavia.
Two Opinions (x2)
I have placed two opinions from people who do not see the value in fighting for your Rights. I want to place them here to illustrate just how out of touch they are with the knowledge of history. They seem to think that collection of guns is just that. Maybe a restriction on freedom. Nothing much more.
They are wrong.
First they come for the guns, and then they FUCKING kill you, rape your six year old daughter repeatedly, and salt the earth that you lived on. KNOW YOUR FUCKING HISTORY! Gosh darn it!
These jokers, obviously don’t.
What the heck you these idiots think is going to happen once Americans are disarmed? A life in a utopia? NOPE! It’s going to a a continuation and acceleration of a progressive push for a Marxist utopia. One that does NOT include you or your family.
You are standing the way of that.
The two opinions, from conservative blogs (for Pete’s sakes!) are worth a read and please when you read them, keep in mind the historical precedents that I have placed in the article about technicals, the collection of civilians and what happens afterwards.
Here’s another opinion. From the Daily Reckoning. It was written in February 20, 2014 . Long before the Antifa, BLM and SJW war on conservatives. It was written before “Red Flag Laws’ and the election of Donald Trump.
This is a collection of my posts related to SHTF (Shit Hit The Fan), CWII (American Civil War 2), Fourth Turning (Strauss–Howe generational theory)
and other posts related to the very sad and sorry tatters that America
is today. Actually, I am a little stunned that I have written so much
about these matters. But America today is very ill and there are things
that really should be said.
Here are the posts.
SHTF and Related Index
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
Well, it’s been (almost) three solid years into the Donald Trump Presidency and not one treasonous criminal action has been punished. Not one. ZERO. Zilch. Na-da.
Take for example when Hillary Clinton literally laughed out loud at a question about her email investigation — had to wipe her eyes, she laughed so hard. She laughed at us, at America, for being so clueless as to think she’d ever answer to our laws.
And she’s still laughing, because she’s right: she’s untouchable. The consensus is that even though we know that the first email investigation was rigged by the FBI to clear Hillary, no one will reopen the case.
-Cold Fury at hold your breath.
Nope. All we (the people) have are promises. Promises that someday, at some time, all the 5d machinations of the DOJ will “get to the bottom” of things. They’re “experts” don’t ya know. Don’t ya know.
Promises.
You know, like all those promises that the government has given us year, after year. Year after year. Promising to make changes. Promising to fix potholes. Promising to do things. But doing nothing.
Promises.
Same old. Same old.
Watching FBI agent Peter Strzok battle with Congress, my initial reaction was pure anger.
His repeated, arrogant insistence that he had done nothing wrong despite tons of evidence to the contrary convinced me he deserved immediate firing — if not the firing squad.
Gradually, though, anger gave way to amazement as Strzok grew increasingly combative and condescending. Given his predicament, the sneering and smirking were stupid, and yet he persisted.
Who is this jerk, I wondered, and how in the hell did he get to be a big shot at the FBI? And why are taxpayers still paying for the privilege of his malignant presence on the FBI payroll?
My answers can be summarized in four names: James Comey, Jeff Sessions, Rod Rosenstein and Christopher Wray. They are chief culprits in the death of public trust in the Department of Justice.
-Michael Goodwin
Meanwhile, those who have committed the most blatant abuses of their offices in the history of the world, are walking free in their mansions, and enjoying the “good life”. They are still on the media networks. They are still cavorting with “our betters”. They are still eating expensive steaks and drinking high-end Chardonnay. They are still cavorting with the rich and famous. They are still behaving like they always have.
They are rubbing their privilege in our faces.
Real privilege is begin able to avoid getting arrested when you break laws. Real privilege is knowing that you are immune from the Justice system, and that you can do what ever you want in life and no one will lift a finger against you.
Blatantly.
Real privilege is killing a threat in public. While in Federal custody, and having all the guards asleep, the cameras turned off, and the documents erased.
Real privilege is doing it blatantly, in an "in your face" assault, with zero consequences.
The pure audacity and brazenness of these crimes are mind blowing and staggering in their audaciousness.
They are doing so because they know there isn’t a FU@KING THING that we can do about it. We are powerless, and our illustrious president; Donald Trump is actually powerless to stop them.
Real privilege is operating in the open, in public, where everyone knows that you have this privilege.
Powerless.
Full of hot air.
Every day, it seems more and more likely that Donald Trump is just a clown to entertain us "normal's" with the hope for change, when in all actuality, nothing substantive is getting resolved.
I give you my word!
Now, do not misunderstand.
Oh, for certain, he has done some good works. Yes he has. Yes, he is miles ahead of any other Republican President, including Ronald Reagan.
But…
But…
It’s all fun and games. The expression on all those “Holier than thou” smug (in your face) progressive Marxists is precious. And, yes, I do enjoy sitting down with a big bowl of popcorn and watch their heads explode.
But Trump is NOT doing the dirty and nasty work that he needs to do…
Getting us out of the eight wars (x8) that we are currently fighting. There is no reason at all for us to be fighting and dying in Yemen. None.
Elimination of those progressively-armed Federal Agencies; IRS, ATF, FDA, EPA, and for certain FBI and the DOJ. They are now armed military forces with their own law-making branches, their own judicial branches, and their own processes. All of which lie OUTSIDE our elected Congressional representatives. They police, and enforce, the two-tiered justice system.
Arresting and trials, with death sentences for treasonous activity…
It’s a treasonous bunch for certain, but nothing is getting done.
It appears, by all substantive measure, that AG Barr is just as ineffective as AG Sessions was. "Ineffective" is a polite word for "corrupt".
Ah. The Progressive globalist oligarch cabal.
Their crimes vary from committing outright treason, stealing and embezzling millions (if not billions) of dollars, and cover-ups at an extraordinary scale. All these people should have been left hanging from a scaffolding with back hoods over their heads.
Yet nothing has happened.
As much as I admire Trump for taking on the wild beast that the United States has become, the fact remains that serious action MUST occur to slay the lawless oligarchy that rules our nation. Unless that is taken cared of, everything will subside and revert back to the gallop of rampant progressive Marxism.
Our patience has worn thin. We are no longer the hopeful, wide eyed people we once were. We can see the evil straight up. We know the score, and no media spin, or RINO-conservative article is going to change our assessment.
Comey got the last laugh. He is above the law. He earned that by keeping the Clintons above the law.
- From Don Surber
How about greed for personal gain. How about treason for personal gain. How about murder for personal gain. How about coverup for personal gain.
One quibble: I met Randy Weaver at a Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot one year, and spent about an hour hanging out and casually conversing with him. At NO point did he strike me as an “outspoken white separatist”; white separatist he may have been, which is not a crime (yet).
But he wasn’t an “outspoken” anything at all. He was instead very quiet and humble—almost diffident, really. The one thing that stood out most about him was how deeply he was still haunted by FBI scumwad Horiuchi’s wanton, vicious murder of his entire family.
Weaver’s grief over their execution by federal death-squad was still as raw and agonizing as if it had been fresh, several years after his own despotic government inflicted it on him.
I hadn’t known of Barr’s sordid history before, but it does clearly establish one thing: the very idea of him ever ensuring justice against Deep State coup d’état plotters is no better than wholly ludicrous.
That Barr would defend such an outrage against all decency and humanity as the FUSA government’s murder of unarmed and innocent civilians at Ruby Ridge—a youth shot in the back as he fled the monstrous agents of a monstrous tyranny; his dog killed for no purpose other than to terrorize him; his mother sniped from hiding as she committed the heinous crime of standing in the doorway of her own home with her infant child in her arms—puts paid to that nonsense.
-Cold Fury. Put no faith in the stalwart AG Barr. He's a deep swamp plant.
They should have been arrested, incarcerated, and hung until dead. That didn’t happen, and now it seems that Barr is just another Sessions. It’s all a dog-and-pony show,
This "investigation" into the treason of the Deep State is proving to be the equivalent of a 25-month pregnancy, and counting.
- From Col. B. Bunny at Liberty's Torch
It’s all a fraud
One of the features of the current year is the regular reminder that western style democracy is a complete fraud. According to the political class, democracy allows for public policy to reflect the will of the people. The parties put forward candidates offering various policy proposals and the public signals their preferences by voting for one or the other candidates. The winners then set about trying to implement the policies they proposed. That’s how we’re told representative democracy works.
In reality, nothing like this happens. Instead, the parties put on a show for the voters, rarely intending to actually do what they claim. Instead, they manufacture differences between one another, so they can pretend the choice before the voters is stark. Once the election is over, the politicians go back to living their lives of leisure, waiting for instructions from the people who actually run things. The politicians are like robot actors, brought out for elections, then put back in storage.
The obvious example of this is the most recent American presidential election in which Donald Trump scored a stunning upset on the promise to reduce immigration, crackdown in illegal immigration and address the gross inequality resulting from globalization. So far, none of that has been done. Instead, he spent most of his presidency fighting a seditious coup to get him out of office. In fact, Trump’s three years are pretty much what Jeb Bush promised when he was running in the 2016 primary.
-The Z man Blog
Before…
Russian oligarchy prior to the 1916 October revolution. Most, if not all, of the people in this photograph were killed, or fled the country to safe havens elsewhere.
After…
We
know what will happen. It has been well documented. People will be
collected. They will be rounded up into urban areas, or centers. The men
will be separated out from the group. They will be led to an isolated
area, a cellar, a warehouse, a cluster of tree, an area behind a
bulldozer. They will then be held down by two people and shot dead.
Well, were the criminals arrested?
But, that didn’t happen did it? Nope. Instead what did we get? We got a media onslaught of a “Russian Narrative”. We got trade wars that increased the prices of our purchases, and we got a promise with more wars “down the pipe”. The latest being with Iran.
Meanwhile in America, in the “heartland”, we are arrested and incarcerated for the slightest offense. It’s really sad and alarming to the most wide-eyed believer.
This is what is called a “two-tied” ,”unequal“, or “Medieval” Justice system. Hell would freeze over before the likes of Louis Learner would be arrested for anything resembling jaywalking.
The Joke Police are looking to strip Dave Chappelle of his speech rights, which once again proves we are coming to a decision point in this country. That’s what this whole godforsaken Woke Crusade boils down to — a choice, and the choice is this: Are we going to allow ourselves to become second class citizens in our own country? Are we going to allow far-left activists and their allies in the media, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood to bully us into creating a two-tiered class system?
- Great little slice of outrage from John Nolte.
Two-tiered Justice System.
Heck! Hillary Clinton could be filmed stabbing an illegal migrant to death in the town square with hundreds of onlookers, and the news media would report that Donald Trump did it.
What we get is “bread crumbs”. A monthly feed of hope…
Hope…
But, people… Hope is not actionable by itself.
People, a two tiered justice system is not sustainable.
Two Tiered Justice
If you have one set of laws for the members of the government and another set for everyone else, you are not being governed, you are being ruled.
- SteveF, comment at Daily Pundit, via Cold Fury
And this quote…
“How do I recognize that the SHTF is very close?”
One of as closest answers possible to give there is this: “You know it is close when people stop worrying about repercussions (punishment from the law and the system).”
-Organic Prepper
Yeah, and this…
Then as now, the pleasant skin of “Yay, democracy!” has been sloughed off to reveal the naked sinews of power and wealth and violence beneath. There’s no crisis like there was in 2008. The world isn’t ending like it was in 2008. But I’m telling you that it feels the same to me.
They’re. Not. Even. Pretending. Anymore.
-Epsilon Theory
Give him some time…
The conservative argument is always “give it some time”. “It’s a big mess and Donald Trump is only one lone man.”
Yes. I get that.
But we don’t have all day. We do not have an unlimited amount of time. We have THIS window. Maybe another four years. Maybe…
Maybe…
Yes, there are things that need to be put into place. I get that…
Prerequisites for draining the swamp.
The thing is that there just isn’t a lot of time.
There really isn’t.
You either do things NOW, or accept the fact that they will never get done.
Don’t believe me? Well then do some comparisons…
Obama implementation of ACA ObamaCARE … months.
Obama giving 7 billion dollars to South Africa … weeks.
Wilson in the formation of the Federal Reserve … months.
Arrest, trial, sentencing and execution for Lincoln’s death … months.
Meanwhile…
Arrest, trial, sentencing for contemporaneous treason … years
Don’t you all see that there is something seriously wrong here? Don’t you see that time IS AN ISSUE?
Don’t piss on my leg and tell me it is raining.
Lewis Powell Payne 2. A UNIQUE INSIGHT into the Civil War Confederates has been brought to light in the form of rare photographs that have been enriched with colour. The authentically colourised pictures depict the tragic circumstances of the war with two dead men lying on the ground in Maryland, USA; a confederate buried and a federal unburied. Other photos include a portrait of American confederate soldier and commander of the Confederates States of America, Robert Edward Lee, and Lewis Powell Payne, who conspired with John Wilkes Booth to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln, leaning against a wall. Further images expose the aftermath of the war with a confederate soldier in Petersburg, Virginia, lying lifelessly on the ground with blood on his face. The vintage photographs were carefully colourised by CEO, Mads Madsen (23), from Horsens, Denmark, who spent between 12 to 14 hours to colourise the pictures of the dead men at Dunker Church and Antietam alone. Mads Madsen / mediadrumworld.com
Meanwhile
Yeah. Meanwhile, it’s the same old. Same old.
It’s nearing the next election cycle. They know how to predict our behavior. They know how to manipulate us. They know what buttons to push.
They are following the same old tired formula. They are expecting us to react in the same old tired manner.
Who cares what conservatives do, say, or think anymore? They didn't conserve America. They didn't conserve the ladies room. They couldn't even conserve the two human sexes!
- Vox Day at Vox Popoli
They are expecting to move us “normals” to pull the lever to whomever they want us to.
You know strike at the curtain, not at the man behind the curtain. Fight and get all worked up with the political hot-button items of the day. From “Red Flag” laws, to “global warming”, to LGBT bathrooms.
Vote to make a difference.
No one, of course, no one is talking about the REAL issues.
That is the sustainability of an oligarchy under the guise of a democracy / partial republic. No one is talking about this. For they, the Kingly rulers, believe that they have sufficiently dumbed down the populace to a point where we are unaware of their crimes and their manipulations.
They are chomping at the bit, as all this has been in the works for a century at least and it is just about ready for fruition. All they need is to disarm a large enough segment of the population. If they can’t do it overtly, they will do it covertly though “red flag” laws, and when that happens, it will just be a matter of months before they can exert full dictatorial control.
As if they don't have it already.
People, if you can get arrested in your own yard for making and selling lemonade, you ARE living in a dictatorship. If you have to pee in a cup to get a job, you are living in a dictatorship. If you need to undress to your underwear to board a plane, take a train, or travel you are living in a dictatorship.
It’s just a matter of months.
Voting?
Elections provide the illusion of control.
However, every study conducted on this issue has proven that the issues that matter to the voting public are not what the fellows in Washington DC promote. They have a totally different agenda.
Americans in America today. Many on drugs. Many unemployed or underemployed. Many getting their information from questionable sources.
It is a globalist agenda and they follow the money path and directions from the global oligarchy.
Today, we are fighting PROXY wars in the Middle East. Not because mainstream Americans demand that we fight Yemen to protect our "interests", but rather because it is what the donors to our political class desire.
Sometimes, in a once in a century event, a candidate will be elected (like Donald Trump) that will try to do the “right thing”, and who will make the hard and the difficult choices.
But, what if all the people that he has to work with are corrupt? What if they do not answer to their constituents simply because they are not beholding to them. What if they don’t need to try?
What then?
Broken electoral system.
Knowledge is power
It should be clear enough for everyone that the “Deep State” is far larger and far more powerful than any citizen voted initiative, even when it is the President of the United States. There is nothing that we can do about it. We can only react to it. There are three options.
Except accept our fate, fight back, or flee.
We crossed the Rubicon.
We must now accept our fate. As well as how it will develop in the next few years, or…
We need to jump ship. Escape while it is still possible. Just like the multimillionaire software oligarchs are doing. Or…
We need to fight and take back what is ours.
Face the facts. Face it. Our nation is a full-on oligarchy, run like the most evil and corrupt mob organization ever conceived.
Meanwhile, us citizens are treated like dirt. We are the money-cows that have zero rights and are ear-marked for the gulag as soon as a Progressive Democrat gets control of the armed forces. You know this is true, or do I need to provide links and data to convince you all?
They have already nullified key sections of the Bill of Rights. Since when can any Congress make any law infringing upon any of the Rights within the Bill of Rights? Or, do you think that everything will magically reverse and go away?
Read this letter…
They have already nullified key sections of the Bill of Rights. Since when can any Congress make any law infringing upon any of the Rights within the Bill of Rights? Or, do you think that everything will magically reverse and go away? Negating the Bill of Rights.
Be Sensible
Here is my attempt to talk you, the reader, out of dangerous violent action.
Most conservatives are sitting tight and looking around trying to see what other conservatives are doing. Then, they plan to take action themselves. No one wants to make the first move. They are waiting on the mainstream American news media to somehow report on other traditional conservatives taking action…
The thing is that the American mainstream media controls information dissemination.
American mainstream media controls information dissemination.
There is no way to know positively if other conservatives are taking hard action. Thus, as a result you risk becoming the lone “gun man” who is disturbing the tranquility of “our republic”.
Listen to me.
War is ugly.
People die. Including you, your friends, your family and your loved ones.
It should be avoided at all costs.
People get tortured, and sadness abounds.
Dying ain’t much of a living.
If you are truly unhappy with the way things are today, then leave the United States.
If you are unhappy, but do not want to hurt anyone, just lie low and hunker down. Go with the flow. Do what everyone else is doing. Accept things as they are, and hope that your children will turn things around.
Violence is a last resort item that will probably get YOU KILLED. Heed my words.
…
Let’s take a breather and look at our options. There are three, and only three options.
[1] – Protect your own.
Option one. You can, if you wish, to accept servitude and slavery. There is no shame in that. As the saying goes in North Korea…
"It's better to be miserable than dead."
That’s fine. I’m sure that is your deep desire. Let it all blow over, and some day everything will change. Most (so called) Conservatives will accept this reality. My guess is that 94% will.
Pretend that some day it will all go away.
Think about other things. Think about your family. Think about your career. Think about your favorite sport team.
It was the summer of 1996, early June, and I was teaching a course at Simmons College in Boston to make some extra dough. Jennifer was clerking for a lawfirm down in Dallas, pregnant with our first child.
My dad called. He and my mom were in London, where they had rented a small flat for a month. Did I want to come over and stay for a few days?
As it happened, I had five days free, perfect for a long weekend trip. I walked down to a cheapo travel agency on Boylston (yes, a physical travel agency), and found a ticket for $600 or thereabouts.
Seemed like a lot. I could have afforded it, by which I mean there was room on my credit card to buy it, not that I could really afford it. $600 was a lot of money to me.
That said, I hadn’t seen my parents since Christmas, and my dad sounded so … happy. This was a special trip for them, a chance to LIVE in a city that my father LOVED, and this was my chance to share it with them. But $600. I dunno.
I called my father and told him that I just couldn’t swing it. He understood. He was a very practical guy. The call lasted all of 20 seconds. You know, international long distance being so expensive and all.
I never saw my father again. He died a few weeks after he and my mother got home.
You must make the choices in life that mean a lot to you.
My cat taught me this trick; “Life is hard. Then you nap.”
Up until now, this has been the status quo for most of America and most certainly for most Conservatives, and “normals”. We have accepted our lot. We don’t like it, but we accept it.
We pay our taxes.
We don’t protest when the government is out of control.
We accept the fact that we must undress to travel.
We shrug off the latest restrictions on our freedom.
We have adapted to the chains around our wrists, and the shackles on our legs.
The spunk is beaten out of us.
This is true though many do not want to admit it. Listen up! Here is the harsh truth…
Let me tell you that it’s only going to get worse. It’s going to get a whole lot worse. But maybe you can survive. Ride the waves, so to speak.
There are a lot of sick and perverse people around us. We are simply not seeing them. They are waiting for the SHTF.
- Selco at Organic Prepper
Ride the waves.
Accept your place in the world.
American mainstream media telling us “normals” what they fully intend to do with us once they reacquire the reins of power.
This is what the United States government wants you to do.
It is what the progressive liberals want you to do.
This is what the American mainstream media wants you to do.
This is what the “deep state” wants you to do.
This is what the “swamp in Washington DC” wants you to do.
This is also probably what your friends and family want you to do as well. It’s a female trait; safety over freedom. Even if that safety is probably going to be short lived.
Washington Post opinion writer Jennifer Rubin appeared on MSNBC's "AM Joy" Sunday and said that not only does Trump have to lose in 2020, but there must be a purging of "survivors" who still support the commander-in-chief.
"It's not only that Trump has to lose, but that all his enablers have to lose," she said. "We have to collectively, in essence, burn down the Republican Party."
"We have to level them because if there are survivors — if there are people who weather this storm, they will do it again."
- Nick Givas at Fox News, about the 2020 national election
Your freedom, if you wait, will be short lived.
Progressive Marxist plans for when they obtain the reins of power. Only this time, it will be forever.
Option two. Alternatively, you can do what I did. Leave. My guess that a small minority will join me, but you all had best consider this option. Time is fleeting and the window of opportunity is closing.
It’s not a comfortable option. You must discard most of your belongings. Move away from all you know and love. Lose your support network, your friends and your family.
You will need to embrace a new place, a new culture, a new society and a new way of doing things and living life. You might need to learn a new language, take up a new occupation, and live at a standard of life that you are not accustomed to. Are you up to it?
Yup.
That’s right. You can leave.
Leave America.
Doug Casey quote.
It’s no longer my business who gets rich and who suffers in the USA. It’s one big enormous cluster f@ck and I want no part of it. Not at all. I really do not want to get embroiled in any kind of spitting match between progressive and traditional nationalists.
Not.
My.
Problem.
When you get older in life, you learn that there are some things worth fighting for, and other things that are important to you. You learn to pick and choose your battles selectively. You know what is important, and what hasn’t a hope in Hell in occurring.
So you make decisions based on YOUR own personal circumstances.
In my case, for me, it’s one of moving to a freer nation. One where I can live life on my very own terms. And let others battle the mess that the United States is today.
Maybe I cannot get a bagel or an authentic NY Style slice of pizza, but I sure can get other things just as wonderful.
For those of you who would prefer to live to a grand old age, and have no desire to observe blood spilled, I would advise you to leave America. I would advise you all taking some immediate actions to secure a safe-haven and protect you and yours from the encroaching darkness.
Life is far too short to get killed, watch your family suffer through hardship or endure a life crippled.
Do what I did, and flee.
Spicoli telling it like it is. Wars and strife are for younger idealistic mean to deal with. Old grizzly coots like myself would rather stay far from all the strife and life the rest of our life in peace. While it is impossible to find the best island to hide upon, we can make reasonable choices and hunker down for the protracted shit-storm that is about to be unleashed.
That's what many Jews did in the 1930's when Hitler rose to power. Some made it to the USA, but only a few. Some made it to Shanghai, and there they huddled in their enclaves while the war waged around them. While others went next door to Poland. But that didn't help them at all.
Call me a coward, if you will.
While the USA goes through the “big reset”, I will be out here, minding my own business. I will not need to fight, or witness atrocities. And I will be safe.
The days of the United States fighting a three or four year long war are long over. Today, the United States fights long-duration decade-long wars that never end.
Instead of the second American Civil War (CWII) being over in a short period of time (like the first American Civil War), it might be prolonged for decades.
Decades, or even longer. Maybe something resembling the Palestine vs. Israel conflict. The "forever" war.
Are you willing to permit you and your family to endure that?
Instead, I will be surrounded by people who will not be affected by anything going on in the USA. Just like youse guys aren’t affected by anything going on in Lusaka, Zambia. Just like your family is not affected by what is going on in Spain right now. Or Singapore. Or Taipei.
When you live in another nation, it’s a different world, and I’m doing just fine, thank you.
Outside of the USA, everything is just fine.
Call me what ever names you want. I just do not want to be either a slave or embroiled in the SHTF CWII, Fourth Turning that is gathering momentum in America today.
And, make no mistake, it is gathering momentum.
While I had hope that the election of Donald Trump would reverse and undo the damage of progressive Marxism, he has not.
He has failed.
Hey! Instead of tweeting about buying Greenland, how about shutting down the ATF, or at least downsizing it... severely.
Outside the United States, everything is just fine.
Yes. Donald Trump.
He’s done some nice things, and he’s a hoot to listen to, but he’s not doing the real hard and uncomfortable things that need to be tasked.
It's as if the United States is a big car wreck. With broken windows, flat tires, a fire in the engine, with wounded and dying people inside. And Donald Trump, is well, washing the rear view mirror instead of tending to the damage and the destruction that urgently needs his attention.
A great example of that is former AG Jeff Sessions and his war on medical marijuana instead of prosecuting for treason. It's the same thing. Just different personalities.
Donald Trump has failed to reverse the century of Progressive ideology and oligarchy control. He has not undone the mistakes of Wilson, and FDR. Nor has he taken affirmative action to restore liberty crashed by Bush, Clinton and Obama. America is just treading water.
Realize that, and take appropriate action.
[3] – Go on the offensive.
Option three. The “into the black” option.
I’m not moping around waiting to die. I’m not lazing around eating bonbons. The present is for DOING. The present is FLEETING. I’ve got something to SAY before I go. I’ve got a future to SECURE for my children, because in them I can still see future’s promise and not just future’s threat.
-Epsilon Theory
Do not misunderstand. Just because I am quiet and kind, does not mean that I am incapable of being entirely and dangerously violent.
Disclaimer.
It is natural to fight for freedom and liberty. That being said, it is ugly, ugly business and should only be undertaken as a last resort. You should not go about it cavalierly. You need to plan and strike with maximum effectiveness at the root causes, the generals and the masterminds of those who are sealing your freedom.
You can, if you wish to stay, go on the offensive and fight back. (As the saying goes; Be a man gosh-darn it!) Though, you must realize that you are taking a big and dangerous risk. Be careful.
The Stoner 63. This was exactly the kinds of weapons that the founders intended the people to arm themselves with. Not single-shot .22 round BB pellets.
You are only a single person and the problems going on in America are far to large and deep for a single person to handle. You know this, right?
However…
However, regionally, YOU can make a difference.
Warning: If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don’t you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can’t think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all that claim it? Do you read everything you’re supposed to read? Do you think everything you’re supposed to think? Buy what you’re told to want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you’re alive. If you don’t claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned.
- Chuck Palahniuk, “Fight Club” (1996)
Regionally… locally… YOU can make a difference.
Regionally.
Locally.
Contrary to the Mainstream media narrative, conservatives, and traditional patriots do not strike out at innocents. We are not progressives who want to shoot up a elementary school, run down people on a sidewalk, or shoot up a Walmart. Nope.
No.
We only fight as a last resort.
However, when we fight, we aim at the target, and we do our best to hit that target. And we do not care how we do it.
You will know when real conservatives are taking action. It won’t be a school full of innocents shot up. No. It will be a counsel member, a congressman, or a labor leader strung up and lynched. It could be a university professor, a member of the mainstream media management, or a software mogul.
We study. We prepare. We plan. Then, we hit where it matters the most. When playing chess, we go after the King and The Queen. We don’t bother with the pawns.
We go after leadership.
Make sure that your entire family is properly trained in the use of firearms.
The progressive liberal cabal, and their RINO enablers, treat Americans as animals. Like cattle and that they can ratchet up the intensity of their progressive agenda slowly without worry of a backlash. They view this entire matter; the adjustment towards progressive Marxism as a giant rheostat.
However traditional conservatives do not look at things that way. We look at it as an on/off switch. We are petrified that it might go to on. But if it does, we will NOT have any mercy. It will be a real bloody nightmare.
The conservative populace will target the progressive leadership in precise surgical attacks. Avoid the innocent. Hit those singular individuals that run the oligarchy in your region. Do not waste your time on the little guys. Target those in charge. Then go down the list and hit their enablers.
Ai! And it’s certainly a target-rich environment.
Target Rich environment.
Operational Zone
In the map below you can easily identify where you live and what social-geographic region that you inhabit. That is your operational zone.
Select your operational zone.
Compile a target list.
Plan each one thoroughly.
America’s cultural enclaves. America is not a homogeneous society. It is a collection of social-economic regions. America’s cultural enclaves. (Image Source)
You need to [1] identify the progressives that live within that area, you need to [2] identify the enclaves of the wealthy and [3] their points of egress, such as small regional airports. You need to identify [4] bridges and [5] choke-points and [6] you need to target those enemies of Liberty…
The Marxist cabal.
Operational Plans
Go after the key and central figures that are running the Marxist plan and take them down. (One George Soros is equivalent to 10,000 social justice warriors. ) Do not waste your time on the enablers, and the vast bulk of society. Do not hurt innocents, or the misinformed. Protect where possible, but stick to your mission parameters.
A word of caution.
If this is your preferred avenue of approach, and I have been unable to talk you out of it, then take the necessary precautions.
1. Go "X-ray" leading up to any action. Zero internet. Zero cell phone. Zero electronics. Communicate face to face or not at all. There is an over-reliance on electronic communication monitoring systems. In war, you go full X-ray.
2. Tell no one what your plans are. No one. Not even your dog. Missions are secret, for a reason.
3. Leave no records, or justification of your actions. They should speak for themselves. You do not need to hope for death and leave some kind of manifesto to prove yourself. You are not some ego deprived, basket head-case. You do not need to justify your actions.
4. If you want to target a person, consider other means aside from (noisy and easy to trace) firearms. For "surgical" strikes, nothing beats poison, radiation or "accidents". Remember Antonin Scalia. It's worked great for the progressive cabal. Adopt their strategy.
5. Any target worth your effort will be protected. Either by personal surveillance, guards, or other means. If not, then they are just plain foolish in their arrogance.
6. Threaten no one. Avoid arguments. Be as low-key and innocuous as possible. Be the Scarlet Pimpernel.
With that understood by most of the readers here, I’m sure you can all see how these RFL (Red Flag Laws) may eventually become the confiscation we’ve been warned about all along. RFL allow the state to use almost any reason they desire to go to your home, enter it and take your firearms away from you. All they have to do is justify it to themselves.
Make an angry, politically-charged Facebook post? A RFL can be used to confiscate your guns. It has happened.
Make a Twitter post that “authorities” interpret as being Islamophohic? A RFL can be used to confiscate your guns. It has happened.
You get in an argument with your woman and piss her off? A RFL can be used to confiscate your guns. It has happened.
Spare me the talking points on the legal limits of RFL at the present time. All they needed to do for now is get the laws into place. Rest assured they will be administratively and bureaucratically tweaked and adjusted so that it gets EASIER for the boys wearing the Oakleys to kick your door in, and those bureaucratic and administrative tweaks will make it harder and more expensive for you to get your guns back. Assuming that you ever get them back at all.
RFL are the tool that willll be used to get guns away from anyone and everyone that those in charge don’t want to have them.
All the talk that’s been had in your group about being quiet about your guns… Put that into action now. Ditch the NRA stickers, stop the good old boys gun discussions down at the local watering hole, remove the vanity pics from Facebook (why do you still have FB?). No one needs to know about your guns if they don’t live in your house. It won’t be easy to change those habits, but it’s time now.
The legal framework for taking your guns away simply for being a wrong-thinker is in place. The local Kommissar has his eyes open and the police will follow their orders to knock on your door when they get the order.
-American Partisan
Study Materials
Anything worth doing is worth doing well. If you are going to sit and stay put and be passive, then put on the “neutral” camouflage and go with the flow. If you are going to flee, then prep and make the leap. And, of course, if you are going to strike against the progressive cabal study.
If you are desirous of taking matters into your own hands, be realistic about it. It will not be like any television show, or movie that you have watched. It will be up front and personal. It will NOT go the way you planned, and it will NOT be pleasant.
Think. Think very carefully if you really want to do this. Bugging out and high-tailing it to a foreign land is a much easier and less risky thing to do.
In the early stages of SHTF, the government will still be functional and they will have the resources to track you down and kill you dead. Realize this. They will protect their elite members and protected classes of people and will strike back harshly at you and yours… their inferiors.
Realize it, and take the appropriate measures.
Advantage lies in secrecy, surprise, planning, and backup plans. Trust no one. Plan on the worst possible outcome, and keep frosty and alert.
War is not like a video game. It is up front, in your face and personal. You had best steel yourself for this reality if you are even going to contemplate fighting and hurting others. It’s nasty, nasty business. It really is.
If you are not ready to kill someone with a knife, up close and personal, then you are not ready to do anything. Option three is not for you. You should reconsider options one or two.
Life isn’t fair. Deal with it.
When one anonymous phone call can cause police to descend on your house, seize your firearms, and shoot you if you resist, then you no longer live in a nation of laws.
- Staff at Amerika
I have a friend here in China named Ronald. He’s from South Africa.
He fled his home nation when the social Marxists came to power and started to implement their war on “white people”. (Within months of Barrack Obama giving 7 billion dollars to South Africa to “improve their energy grid”. Who’d have thought?)
He lost just about everything that he owned. But… he’s alive. He has a roof over his head and trying to make it at 65 years old in a strange land with strange customs.
But at least he doesn’t have to worry about gangs of black urban youth riding technicals, crashing through his doorway and abusing his family and friends.
His point of view is that while things are a real struggle for him at this time, it is far better for him now in China that were he to have stayed in South Africa. He’s a lucky man and has his nut.
The holy grail of nuts.
Conclusion
Don’t put too much faith in Donald Trump and the Republican crew to reverse centuries of progressive Marxism. They are floundering. They are not doing anything. It’s not that they don’t want to, it’s that they do not have that ability.
As a result all this is just leading youse guys along.
As Bill Barr slowly and efficiently covers up the seditious plot and other crimes committed by the FBI and DOJ during the Obama years, it is not unreasonable to wonder how far down the scale this moves the political center. Twenty-five years ago, most dissidents would have thought this level of corruption was improbable, if not entirely impossible. The typical normie was still sure the next election would bring reformers, who would chase off the crooks and clean up the system...
One thing we know is that dissident ranks are growing. Even the Left is admitting it. The popularity of dissident sites, podcasts and video shows are at record highs. More important, the general sense within dissident ranks is that reform is impossible...
Whatever you may think of Trump, the result of the last three years is proof that elections don’t matter. This shameless refusal by public officials to apply the law to Washington insiders makes a mockery of the rule of law. Throw in the stunning dishonesty of the mass media and the metastasizing surveillance state and it is impossible for even the most gullible to remain a civic nationalist.
-Z man blog via Remus
Do not be caught off guard. You are a man and have responsibilities.
Newsflash: Red Flag Laws are already being enforced across the country, even in some die hard Red States.
My advice to Armed Patriots is still the same:
DUMP ALL Social Media
Do NOT advertise anything about Firearms on your vehicle or person
Keep your Personal Business to yourself
NEVER willingly install Listening Devices in your House such as SIRI and ALEXA
Big Brother is listening and watching 24/7.
Stay Alert, Armed and Dangerous!
-The Tactical Hermit
Take your responsibilities seriously and make the hard and difficult choices.
Choose one of the following three options and go full blast at it. You do not have forever. Now is the time. You are the person. Be smart. Be frosty. Be serious.
Stay and accept a life as a serf in a two-tiered society.
Flee for greener pastures.
Fight the bastards, but be smart about it.
The BIG GAME is coming.
" this past weekend i was at the local having a pint. out of no where there was a commotion by the pool tables behind me. i looked and there stood a kid 17-18ish, yelling at a guy standing with his hair in a ponytail.
he had a slight smirk on his face. he never said a word, he just stood staring back with a shit eating grin.
eventually the manager walked over, and ended up kicking the kid out.
the manager came back sat next to me and the bartender walked over. i looked at the manager and said, “that kid was gonna get pounded if it went to blows.” the bartender (an Irish guy and former hell raiser) nodded and the manager quickly agreed. “OH YEAH!!!!” manager spent a year in prison for involuntary man slaughter. guy pulled a gun on him, he took the gun and he shot the man in the face, point blank.
when he told me the story he did it in the most chilling voice i’d ever heard from his mouth.
guys that fight, NEVER talk shit. there’s a disagreement and either a fight begins or does not. when a fist lands on your face, that’s the primary sign you are in a fight. there’s a certain way i fight if i KNOW it’s gonna down. don’t ask, i ain’t telling.
“when you are short on everything but the enemy, you are in combat.” -murphey’s laws of combat.
guy ended up coming up to the bar to get a drink. i looked over at him and said, “god dammit i was hoping you were gonna unload on him.” he smiled and said, “nah, i only fight men.” i told the bartender i was covering his beer. he shook my hand, thanked me and i asked his name.
“Mike, you.”
i answered, “Danny. nice to meet you. stay the fuck up Dude.”
he turned and walked back to his game of pool.
stay up.
- ITLR: The Barking Doggy
“… if Barr & Durham fail to deliver a bale of indictments, they will be putting a bullet in the head of this republic. There will be no hope of restoring trust in the system …” There’s more.
“What is most perilous for our country now, would be to journey through
a second epic crisis of authority in recent times without anybody
facing the consequences of crimes they might have committed. The result
will be a people turned utterly cynical, with no faith in their
institutions or the rule of law, and no way to imagine a restoration of
their lost faith within the bounds of law”.
The first epic crisis was the finance debacle of 2008,
“… fraudsters and swindlers in that orgy of banking malfeasance were never marched into a courtroom, never had to answer for their depredations, and remained at their desks in the C-suites collecting extravagant bonuses”.
The FBI, the Department of Justice, the CIA, the FISA
Court, the Department of State, et al, originated and assisted this
clunky coup attempt and continue to cover up the misdeeds of their
participants. Piles of actionable evidence have been part of the public
record for some time now, yet we still await reason to believe the Barr
and Durham investigations are being conducted in good faith. Given
events thus far an objective observer would bet the other way.
As Mr. Kunstler points out, trust, perhaps
legitimacy itself, is slipping away from DC. Consider their serial
crimes, not merely unpunished but flouted as insider jokes. Consider
the malicious partisanship and sponsored assaults by DC’s core agencies,
openly applauded in DC as brave and heroic. Consider past and ongoing
“legislating from the bench” specifically intended to undo the express
will of the people. The emerging message is plain enough now to be
unmistakable. Our votes don’t count. Because we don’t count.
Bonus
Most SHTF and Prepper articles concentrate on self-preservation. Now, Self-preservation is important, but it will not take our Republic back. Always remember that. Fighting a Defensive war is a losing proposition.
NO ONE ever wins a war fought on the Defensive.
Highlights from Part one. Staple this to your Brain.
1) Government identification records are the clerical basis for mass murder and other atrocities: No, not every government ID scheme leads to genocide and expatriation. But for the collectivists of both the German Reich and the USSR, each victim’s identity card was both part of the initial targeting and the final “production record”.
2) Get to the forest early if you want to live: If you think they will be coming for you, you are probably right. Plan not to be where they know you work and live. Act early if you want to maximize your chances. You and your family will die if you are at your government-approved address.
3) The Bad People will have lots of help from your neighbors:The most disturbing moment for me in the KGB museum was not in the execution or interrogation/torture cells. It was realizing, while moving through the excellent exhibits on the mass deportations of Lithuanians after “liberation” by the Soviets in 1944, that most of the deportees (many of whom were subsequently executed or starved or died of exposure and disease) had been betrayed to the NKVD/KGB by their neighbors.
4) “Fascism” is not the only mortal enemy of freedom and life; the real enemy is collectivism in any form: At each of the memorials, one could tell the provenance of any signage by its reference to “fascism”. Mostly, such markings were from the Soviet era, during which — not coincidentally — many more millions of innocent human beings were killed by the “enlightened” Communists than had been slaughtered by the Hitlerites and their collaborators. While it is too much to expect the Soviets to acknowledge these facts, it is essential that freedom-minded folks grok that collectivism, in any form, can and usually does lead to the mass grave.
5) Never report en masse when ordered to do so: Nothing good ever happens to folks who do.
6) Food and ammunition will be the vital shortages you must address in order to live: Empty weapons and bellies a successful resistance does not make.
7) The Bad People will torture and kill those who help you: Get used to the idea. Retribution killing is a standard totalitarian play. Try to avoid jeopardizing your allies to the extent possible, but know that they too will be swept into the whirlwind.
8) The Bad People will torture and kill your family
members:Sippenhaft ain’t just a chapter in Vanderboegh’s long-awaited novel. The KGB museum was filled with execution orders with notations indicating that not only had the subject been killed per order of the Party, but that “special measures” had or would be taken against the victim’s family.
9) You must be prepared to fight until victory or death: Once you go to the woods, you are there for the duration. The Baltic “forest brothers”stayed out until they were killed or captured. More on them in the next part of this report.
10) If you think it can’t happen here, you are wrong. The Polish and Lithuanian Jews who were ground into dust by the Einsatzgruppenthought the same thing. So did the Lithuanians who couldn’t believe that the Communists under Stalin and subsequent regimes would hold their passionate patriotism against them.
Almost all of those folks who believed “it couldn’t happen” died.
A few survived by running into the woods, or by bearing up under the brutal realities of the Gulag, year after year after year.
Each of them knows the single biggest lesson from Lithuania: naked, brute force can and does triumph over kindness, love of kin and country, and simple human decency — often for decades or more.
Lose your illusions.
While there is still time.
Stay Alert, Armed and Dangerous!
SHTF Related Index
This is a collection of my posts related to SHTF (Shit Hit The Fan), CWII (American Civil War 2), Fourth Turning (Strauss–Howe generational theory)
and other posts related to the very sad and sorry tatters that America
is today. Actually, I am a little stunned that I have written so much
about these matters. But America today is very ill and there are things
that really should be said.
Here are the posts.
SHTF and Related Index
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
The undisputed leader in terms of the number of killed fighters is Poland (2,960 arrived, 1,497 eliminated).
Interior of a roadside diner.
American burgers.
BE CAREFUL, these traps are powerful.
Step 2
Rip the length of the shelf to give you pieces as follows,
2x 'A' x 'B' (Pieces 3&4)
2x 'A' x shelf width -'B' (pieces 1&2)
'B' should be equal to the width of the rat trap plus 2x the thickness of the shelf
'A' should be 25cm
Step 3
Assemble the rat traps and Pieces 1&2 ontop of Piece 3 as in the above image. Use screws to fasten in place. The traps will be placed so that they snap outwards. When the trap is armed the bar should be in the center. Leave a space between the two traps. Once you have the traps fastened down cut a piece of scrap from one of the traps to fill in 1cm at the bottom of the gap between the traps.
You can also cut any scrap pieces of wood to fill in the gaps at the ends, this is optional but will give the claymore a little more strength.
Step 4 (optional but highly recommended)
To make safety bars straighten out the trigger bars that you removed in Step 1. Now drill holes in pieces 1&2 so the safety bars can go from top to bottom and hold the bars on the traps in a compressed position.
Step 5
With the traps compressed and the safety bars in place thread the strip of cloth through the traps so that it makes a single loop around both bars. Sew this firmly. I used mono-filament fishing line to do this. The claymore should now look something like this:
Step 6
Fasten Piece 4 on the front of the claymore using the 2 hinges to connect it at the bottom to Piece 2. Put one of the 1.5" screws into Piece 4, 2cm from the top and centered. The screw should be almost all the way through but not quite.
Step 7(Optional)
Fasten the 2 brackets onto the sides of the claymore and sharpen the ends so you can jab it into the ground
Step 8
Now for the part that took me the most time to figure out. How to make a trigger that's secure, but sensitive enough to be used as with a trip wire.
Remove the trigger bar from the mouse trap. Bend a loop into it so that it looks as below.
Use a second piece of wire from the mouse trap to make a small tripwire piece as below.
Use a screw and couple washers to attach the trigger bar to the top of the trap. The screw will go through the loop in the trigger bar. One washer goes below, one above, tighten enough to hold in place but not to impede movement of the trigger bar.
Put the two staples that held the rat trap trigger plates side by side at the end of the long arm of the trigger bar as you can see in this image:
Step9
Attach a small loop of fishing line to the loop on the end of the long arm of the trigger bar. (note, I used twine but found it's wearing out very quickly)
Attach another loop of fishing line to the screw on Piece 4. This loop needs to be just long enough to reach the small arm of the trigger bar.
Attach a long piece of fishing line to the screw on Piece 4. Attach the tripwire piece about 25cm (10") along this line. Tie it on firmly so it won't move at all. I tied the rest of this to the wooden part of the mouse trap and wrapped it around so I had my tripwire and it wouldn't get tangled
Step 10 ARMING THE CLAYMORE
a) Compress the rat traps and install the safety bars.
b) Spread the cloth out and press the center into the gap between the rat traps. Fill it with BBs and fold the excess on top of them to hold them in place.
c) Place the loop of fishing line on Piece 4 over the small arm of the trigger bar.
d) Put the small loop on the long arm of the trigger bar between the two staples.
e) Put the tripwire piece under the staples and through the loop.
f) Place your claymore and run the trip wire, fasten the end of it, or leave it loose so you can pull it by hand.
g) double check the trigger and remove the safety bars
Step 11
Enjoy the surprised yelp as your unseen claymore springs open on some unsuspecting victim.
-
![“[W]e should ban possession of military-style semiautomatic assault weapons, we should buy back such weapons from all who choose to abide by the law, and we should criminally prosecute any who choose to defy it by keeping their weapons,” Rep. Eric Swalwell wrote, adding that law enforcement agencies and shooting clubs should be exempted.](https://metallicman.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/10-reasons-to-oppose-gun-confiscation-SWATing-aka-red-flag-gun-laws.jpg)
