It’s late Summer. It’s a time for pork chops, apple sauce, mashed potatoes, skillet fried corn on the cob, and some frosty cold beer.
It’s a time to enjoy the moments of life.
Sorry that things are sparse lately.
Yah, the USA is bat-shit crazy. What’s new? Oh yeah If declaring war on Russia and China isn’t bad enough, not President Biden wants to create a Civil War against the MAGA Republican base. Sheech!
Can things get any crazier?
Well, again, my top daily running article is this…
You can use it as a barometer of the level of insanity in the USA. And that means that things are getting “hot” in the ol’ USA.
Man, I just cannot believe that I have been able to squeeze out these videos and these articles this week. Ugh. yeah, I’m still in the middle of a move, buying a house, some massive work projects, and all the rest. Not to mention a personal life and all…
But…
It’s early September. Hot but not sweltering. Humid but not sticky. Nice warm breeze and pristine blue skies with lush green trees. just absolutely stunning. I’m loving this weather.
And you all should as well.
Here’s this article. Enjoy.
The Next Economic Crisis Has Already Begun
If you knew for certain that we were about to plunge into another massive economic downturn like we experienced during the “Great Recession”, how would you respond? The events of the second half of 2008 took almost everyone by surprise, and the vast majority of the population was completely unprepared for what happened next. Millions of Americans lost their jobs, and that meant that they were suddenly unable to pay their bills. Countless households got behind on their mortgages and rent payments, and we witnessed a dramatic spike in foreclosures and evictions. I wish that we would never have to see such suffering again, but unfortunately it is already starting to happen right in front of our eyes.
The Biden administration keeps insisting that the U.S. economy is in good condition, but if that is the case why are so many large companies now laying off workers?
On Wednesday, we learned that Snap Inc. will be laying off approximately 20 percent of their entire global workforce…
Snap Inc., the parent company of the popular app Snapchat, announced plans to lay off some 20% of its more than 6,400 global employees. The news will impact the jobs of more than 1,200 staffers at the tech giant, and comes as broader economic conditions have deteriorated in recent months amid rising inflation and the Federal Reserve’s interest rates hikes. The recent market downturn has especially pummeled the tech sector, where news of hiring freezes, layoffs, and other cost-cutting measures have dominated headlines for months.
Of course it isn’t just the tech industry that is getting monkey-hammered these days.
It was also just announced that Bed Bath & Beyond will be permanently closing 150 stories and will be getting rid of about 20 percent of their corporate employees…
Bed Bath & Beyond is in deep turmoil. The company is trying to rescue itself and stay out of bankruptcy by shrinking. The chain said Wednesday that it will lay off approximately 20% of corporate employees, close around 150 stores and slash several of its in-house home goods’ brands. Crucially, the company also said it secured more than $500 million in financing to shore up its ailing financial straits.
Normally, retailers wait until after the lucrative holiday season before announcing store closings.
So this move seems highly unusual.
Sadly, this is all part of a “layoff tsunami” that has now started. As I discussed the other day, approximately half of all U.S. companies anticipate that they will be eliminating jobs over the next 12 months.
Needless to say, a “tsunami of layoffs” is only going to accelerate the new housing crash that we are now witnessing.
Last week, total mortgage application volume was 63 percent lower than it was during the same week in 2021…
After falling back earlier this month, mortgage rates began rising sharply again to the highest level since mid-July. That caused mortgage demand to pull back even further. Total mortgage application volume fell 3.7% last week compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. Volume was 63% lower than the same week one year ago.
63 percent!
What a catastrophe.
And many other recent numbers confirm the fact that we are now past the peak of the housing bubble and are now on the way down…
Sales volume of existing homes plunged by 20% from a year ago across the US, and by 31% in California, and by 41% in San Diego. Median prices in the West have begun to drop, and in the San Francisco Bay Area fell below year-ago-levels, including by 8% in San Francisco. Sales of new houses plunged by nearly 30% year-over-year across the US, and in the West by 50%, as the supply of new houses has exploded to 11 months, the highest since the peak of Housing Bust 1. And big institutional buyers have started to pull out of this market because they don’t want to overpay. This has been going on for months.
Home prices have only just begun to drop.
They could potentially go down a lot further, because soaring mortgage rates have put home ownership out of reach for a huge chunk of the population at this point.
What we really need is for the Federal Reserve to stop hiking interest rates.
But Fed officials have already told us that they aren’t going to do that.
So the housing crash that we are currently experiencing is only going to get worse.
Meanwhile, an increasing number of renters are getting behind on their rent payments. In fact, it is being reported that 3.8 million renters believe that it is likely that they will be evicted within the next two months…
For the first time ever, the median rent in the U.S. topped $2,000 a month in June — and the increases show no sign of stopping. Those rising rents mean that households representing a total of 8.5 million people were behind on their rent at the end of August, according to Census Bureau figures. And 3.8 million of those renters say they’re somewhat or very likely to be evicted in the next two months.
If things are this bad already, what will conditions look like once millions more Americans have lost their jobs?
Just like we saw in 2008, huge numbers of evictions and foreclosures are on the horizon, and the middle class is going to be absolutely eviscerated by this crisis.
Last time around, the Fed was able to reduce the severity of the crisis by pushing interest rates to the floor and by pumping trillions of fresh dollars into the financial system.
This time around they are unlikely to implement such measures because they are deathly afraid of causing even more inflation.
So the stage is set for an economic meltdown of absolutely epic proportions, and there is no hero that is going to come riding to the rescue.
We are about to experience the consequences of literally decades of exceedingly foolish decisions.
Enjoy the rest of the summer while you still can, because the U.S. economy is only going to go downhill from here.
Be careful on what you donate
In November, I offered my treasured 2000 Mercedes-Benz CLK 430 convertible to “Kars4Kids”, a charity that ostensibly raises money to help needy youngsters.
The car was fully operable with a well-maintained power train, power convertible top, new tires and mag wheels. It was, however, increasingly costly to maintain and had some electrical issues that randomly affected the A/C, seat and window controls. The paint and bodywork were in virtually mint condition and the car had never been driven in winter.
I’ve seen restored versions of the same model sell for as much as $20,0000. Someone with the time and energy to maintain the vehicle would have loved it.
A few weeks after the car was picked up, I received a message that the car had been ‘scrapped’ and I was given a tax receipt for $500.
Any organization stupid enough to “scrap” a functioning, high-end automobile, rather than sending it to auction, or selling it on the open market, doesn’t deserve anyone’s support.
We Need a COVID Origins Truth Movement
As we approach the 21st anniversary of the false flag atrocities of September 11, 2001, the 9/11 truth movement, like the JFK truth movement before it, seems to be slowly fading into history. Has it been a total failure? That is what the mainstream media propaganda machine would like us to believe. And it is what many disappointed 9/11 truth supporters, like Dr. Alan Sabrosky, think.
“Doc” Sabrosky, a former Marine who headed Strategic Studies at the US Army War College, has argued on my radio show and elsewhere that the truth movement was “Out-Thought Out-Bought Out-Fought” by the 9/11 perpetrators and their cover-up team. Sabrosky admits that this was a nearly-inevitable outcome of the balance of forces: “Countering the official narrative on the 9/11 attacks and exposing the real culprits was admittedly a daunting task from the beginning. The real perpetrators—not the handful of hapless named Arabs including pilots who could not fly the type of aircraft hijacked, but the ones who wired three buildings at the World Trade Center for controlled demolition, arranged for the attack on the Pentagon which conveniently wiped out the team auditing the missing \$2.3 trillion in Pentagon funds, and orchestrated the US Government support and protection apparatus for them—held all the aces.”
The truth movement obviously didn’t win a quick, decisive victory. We didn’t restore the Republic and the rule of law by convicting the 9/11 perps in an American courtroom. But who expected that? When a ragtag band of underarmed, underfunded guerrillas takes on the world’s mightiest empire, “not losing” is itself a victory—as when Vietnam and Afghanistan defeated the US despite losing most military engagements, or when Hezbollah defeated Israel in 2006 despite being on the wrong end of a lopsided body count. The 9/11 truth movement, by dint of its refusal to disappear, succeeded in planting a seed of doubt in the hearts and minds of most Americans, not just about 9/11, but about the truthfulness, decency, and legitimacy of American political leaders and the system they represent. That seed has germinated, doubts continue to grow, and the system and its managers look more vulnerable than ever.
Today, a year into the third decade of the pursuit of 9/11 truth, another monumental issue looms before us, practically begging for a new truth movement to rise up and finish the old one’s job. I am speaking, of course, of the crying need for a COVID origins truth movement.
In a sane country with an actual news media, the following words of Jeffrey Sachs, who led the official COVID origin inquiry for the world’s leading medical journal, would have made front page headlines: “I chaired the commission for the Lancet for 2 years on Covid. I’m pretty convinced it came out of a US lab of biotechnology […] We don’t know for sure but there is enough evidence. [However] it’s not being investigated, not in the US, not anywhere.”
If we had real media, or even the merely half-infiltrated media we had four or five decades ago, The New York Times and Washington Post and their myriad followers would have grabbed Sachs’ words and beat the government over the head with them and not let up until Congress established a COVID Origins Commission chaired by Sachs or someone like him. Instead, in the wake of 9/11—the final nail in the coffin of American republican democracy—the only talk of a COVID Commission we hear involves the risible plan to put Philip Zelikow, 9/11 Coverup Commission Czar, in charge of one!
There are many COVID scandals that cry out for investigation: inept, contradictory messaging from public health authorities; a one-sided obsession with experimental vaccines rather than treatment; big pharma profiteering; the controlled demolition of the Main Street economy and small business and the transfer of trillions of dollars to the richest individuals and corporations; seemingly coordinated assaults on civil liberties in service to a Great Reset; the unprecedented draconian censorship of dissenting voices; and so much more. But the question that cuts to the heart of all these issues, the question that is most dangerous and most censored and most threatening to the powers-that-shouldn’t-be, is the brief and simple one: Where did COVID come from?
There is overwhelming evidence that COVID-19 is a bioweapon and that the “natural origin” fable was spread by biowar criminals—as Meryl Nass has explained in detail, and Jeffrey Sachs has largely corroborated. And there is surprisingly strong evidence supporting the claim that COVID emerged from a deliberate biological attack on China and Iran, as Ron Unz has persuasively argued in his new book.
These are explosive allegations. Like the 9/11 scandal circa 2001-2008, the COVID origin scandal could rock the world. It might even finish the 9/11 truth movement’s job.
Why would the Uyghurs be seen as outsiders in China?
They are not. -MM
Depending on where I’m at, If I’m in Shanghai or Beijing, at first appearance, they do think I’m a foreigner, but the second I tell them I’m Uyghur from Xinjiang. they don’t treat me like an “outsider” anymore.
In fact, when other foreigners don’t treat me like I’m Chinese, other Chinese people (regardless of ethnicity) will immediately come to my defense and explain to them that Uyghurs are also Chinese and that people from Xinjiang will look a bit different.
Han Chinese have always been incredibly inclusive regardless of race or ethnicity, it is how it got expanded that big.
If I’m in Xinjiang, no one treats me like an outsider even at first glance. everyone there “looks different”. We’re all used to it.
Here’s my dad and me… He looks pretty typical of an Uyghur + Han Chinese mix, I somehow came out looking a bit more on the Caucasian side.
2022: An Australian spy submarine dived into the East China Sea and wanted to spy on intelligence, but was caught by fishermen using fishing nets
Ezra Meeker
Photo from Meeker’s overland trip in a Model A Ford:
2021 : Foreign submarines entered China to search for intelligence, but they were captured by Chinese fishermen. It was a shame. – iMedia
Chinese land
China’s land is what she inherited from the Qing Dynasty according to the law of succession of states. It has fallen below but never exceeded this.
(Cooked Hot) Banana-Blueberry Muffins
This one is for the Banana-Blueberry Muffin lovers. Ready in 30 minutes–these perfect-for-anytime muffins will not disappoint. When whipping up a batch of blueberry and banana muffins, don’t overstir or overthink these simple muffins. Overstirring can cause little “mountain peaks” to form on your delightfully delicious Banana-Blueberry Muffins. Add these to your next at-home brunch menu for a surefire hit. Nothing beats muffins from scratch!
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup milk
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup mashed very ripe banana (1 medium)
- 1 egg
- 2 cups Gold Medal™ all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 cup fresh or frozen (thawed and well drained) blueberries
2006: Secret Australian spy missions forced to the surface
AUSTRALIAN submarines carried out top secret Cold War spying missions on Russia and China that came to an abrupt end when a submarine was forced to surface in view of the foreign fleet after becoming entangled in fishing nets. News of the inglorious end to 14 years of high-risk secret missions in 1992, and the fact that they even occurred, has emerged because the sailors involved want their missions officially designated "warlike operations" Warlike or not, the missions carried out between 1978 and 1992 were certainly dangerous, with the Royal Australian Navy submarines occasionally sliding under or alongside potentially hostile ships. On one occasion, less than three metres separated the top of the periscope housing from the target ship's keel. An RSL congress this year carried a motion calling on the Federal Government to recognise RAN submarine covert intelligence gathering missions conducted between March 1978 and December 1992 as prescribed warlike operations. That would increase the benefits available to the sailors and their dependants... Read more:
What privileges do members of the Chinese Communist Party get that Chinese non-members do not?
Yes. Chinese Communist Party do have privileges, they have priority. Not the priority to enjoy benefits, but the priority to endure hardships.
During the Revolutionary War, a party branch had an unwritten rule that all tasks of charging and fighting should be given priority to party members. The reason is that this is a special treatment for party members.
During the SARS period, priority was given to Party doctors whenever there was a first-aid task. In their pledge to join the Party, they have sworn that when the country and the people need it, they will be the first to step forward.
In the flood rescue, rushed at the forefront of the town cadres, veterans, public security cadres, the People’s Liberation Army, they have a common name that is “Communist Party members.” They have the privilege of standing in front of people in times of danger.
After the Wenchuan earthquake, Party members and cadres at all levels in Sichuan Province stepped forward to lead the masses to rescue themselves in the first time, becoming the backbone of the disaster fight. Many party members who came to help broke through landslides and mudslides, braving flying rocks and aftershocks to walk for hours or even tens of hours to reach the worst-hit areas.
In the case of COVID-19, Party members are often at the forefront of the fight against the epidemic. For example, most of the workers who register in communities and guard at intersections are Communist Party members. A considerable part of the medical workers on the front line of epidemic prevention are also Communist Party members. When selecting a group of people to go to Wuhan for support, it is common to hear the voice of self-recommendation, “I am a Party member, I will go first.”
For ordinary people, such dangers and difficulties are hard to accept, but for Party members, it is their honor to be able to contribute to the country and the people.
Because it is their duty and their only “privilege”.
Another example of moving production out of China.
AirPods 3 have made it out of storage and are finally reaching buyers who have been waiting for them excitedly for days. But the excitement quickly turned into shock upon unboxing thanks to outrageously bad build quality in some cases.
Small Business in Ireland gets WALLOPED with € 9836.92 one-Month Electric Bill
.
The owner of a small coffee shop in Westmeath, Ireland, posted his one-month electricity bill online for all to see: € 9,836.92
He asks, rhetorically in his public posting “in the name of God, how is this possible?”
Well, it’s possible because YOUR GOVERNMENT imposed economic sanctions upon Russia, and refuses to allow the purchase of Russian natural gas.
So that caused gas and electric companies in YOUR country, to have to find somewhere else to buy natural gas.
Trouble is, all the other places that sell the gas, also sell it to other countries in the world, and with the new demand to supply YOUR country, the laws of supply-and-demand kicked in, making it that much more expensive for YOUR country to get any gas.
The electric companies need gas to generate steam, to turn the turbines that make your electricity. So THEY have to now pay extreme prices to get that gas, and YOU now have to pay extreme prices for electric.
This trouble is caused directly – and exclusively — by YOUR government.
The people YOU elected, are to blame. Personally!
Maybe this business owner should head over to the offices of his elected officials and tell them to stop minding Ukraine’s business, and remove the sanctions against Russia?
Because if they do not remove those sanctions, YOUR electric bill is going to keep going up until YOU are out of business.
Is THAT what you elected you government to do to you?
A Republic in name only
The only thing crazier than Ukraine is the Republic In Name Only Amerika! I’ve given up trying to figure out what is going on let alone trying to imagine what might happen later. Why anyone in that country bothers to vote is beyond me. But then why anyone believed the silly stories they trotted out to explain the JFK hit is also beyond me, and of course so much more.
Salvador Dali is reported to have said on leaving Mexico after his first visit that he never planned to return because he disliked any country more surrealistic than himself! A great remark worthy of the great artist. Amerika, though, has gone beyond surrealist to the Realm of Nightmare one peopled by endless parades of smiling villains broadcasting their latest feel-good narratives whilst their hidden lower bodies wade through pus, blood, gore and excrement, the true ground of their current cultures. A real shit show …
A friend just reported from Puerto Vallarta that many apartment buildings are going up to handle the influx of Americans moving in. Similar stories in various choice neighbourhoods in Mexico City. The locals aren’t happy since rents are being driven up and small businesses pushed out to be replaced by rental units for estraneros. In PV, along with well-heeled retirees who presumably just cashed out some of their high-priced US real estate are also poorer senior citizens on their pensions, now in Mexico presumably because their income isn’t enough for living in CA and so they are wandering around PV looking to our friend like abandoned lunatics. Many Americans do not travel well.
Amerika is falling apart. Food factories being burned down, gas refineries too. 4,900,000 broke immigrants since Biden’s inauguration except most are not broke: they are given debit cards with $800 USD a month income. Who is paying this? What for? Very strange. Brown-skinned criminals, many of them illegal immigrants, released after theft or violence without bail. White political dissidents are labelled ‘domestic terrorists’ and fired or jailed. Several states allow theft if under $1000.00 so of course many small stores are closing. Tens of thousands of small businesses closed during covid never to reopen. Nobody cares about these people. Nobody tells their story. They are now unwelcome in the country their ancestors founded and passed onto them. They are regarded as the inheritors of criminal theft and violence, people who deserve only to suffer and be rejected from the human race. Yes, Amerika is falling apart. And this is being done deliberately, but nobody is allowed to talk about it, nobody is even sure if this is true or not.
The media, even conservative media, keeps pretending that everything is going to be alright as soon as the November elections roll around and then corrupt officials from Biden on down will get impeached (though not convicted). But after 2020 election, I doubt that anything will ever be settled by elections again and even if the Republicans do win and do run a few committees and impeachments it will end up being no more than empty drama which doesn’t change a thing. It’s a Republic In Name Only after all….
Posted by: Scorpion | Sep 1 2022 20:34 utc | 14
Pork Chops with Pepper Jelly Sauce
Progresso® chicken broth provides a simple addition to pork chops cooked in skillet and served with pepper jelly sauce – a hearty dinner recipe.
Ingredients
- 4 bone-in pork loin chops, 3/4 inch thick (about 2 1/4 lb)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 tablespoon Gold Medal™ all-purpose flour
- 1 large jalapeño chile, seeded, finely chopped
- 1/3 cup dry white wine
- 1 cup Progresso™ chicken broth (from 32-oz carton)
- 1/2 cup red pepper jelly
China is beating the US
President Biden has said the United States won’t stand by and let China “win the 21st century,” and his first trip to Asia was meant to match words with action.
Mr. Biden huddled last week with leaders of the four-nation “Quad” group formed to counter Beijing, vowed to defend Taiwan against China and introduced a new economic pact involving a dozen nations to shore up U.S. economic influence in the region.
Yet China is already winning throughout much of Asia on both the economic and diplomatic fronts, and nothing the United States is doing seems likely to change that.
The Lowy Institute’s Asia Power Index, which tracks economic data to assess regional power dynamics, shows that U.S. leverage has declined precipitously since as recently as 2018, while China has surged ahead.
Twenty years ago, just 5 percent of exports from Southeast Asia went to China, and 16 percent to the United States. By 2020, they were even at around 15 percent. China’s increasing clout becomes clearer when considering total trade: It does around two and a half times more volume in the region than the United States. China is now the largest trading partner of almost every Asian country. … Read more :
Cat Alarm!
One night I was in bed with the cat sleeping around my feet. Around 2:00 am, she woke me up with the strangest sound she had ever heard her make. It was a cross between a scream, howl, and shriek. I woke up and turned around and as she did, I saw a man standing next to my dresser. The moment I woke up the cat stopped her strange scream. He had his back to me poaching my jewelry and when the cat made the strange cry for him, he froze. When he turned to see if she was awake, the eye farthest from the pillow was closed and the one closest to the pillow was open to a slit, staring at him. She thought she was asleep and quietly slipped out of the apartment. He may have thought that she was still asleep, but the cat knew that she was awake. The moment I heard the front door close, I jumped out of bed and called the police. It turned out that the apartment building was being robbed by a gang of thieves. Thanks to my cat, they were all caught.
Egypt turns to the Chinese Yuan
White House Alarmed India Joins Russian War Games Simultaneous To Participating In US Exercises
Authored by by Kyle Anzalone via The Libertarian Institute,
The Joe Biden administration is concerned about Indian involvement in Russia’s massive war games, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Tuesday.
Roughly 50,000 troops from several countries will participate in the “Vostok” military games held in far eastern Russia.
Responding to a question about Indian involvement in the Russian-hosted exercises, Jean-Pierre said,
"So, the United States has concerns about any country exercising with Russia while Russia wages a unprovoked, brutal war against Ukraine."
She continued,
“But, of course, every participating country will make its own decisions. And I’ll leave it at that.”
New Delhi is participating in the Vostok 2022 war games hosted by Moscow from September 1-7.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, 50,000 troops and 5,000 weapons units, including 140 aircraft and 60 warships partake in the drills.
Soldiers from China, Laos, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Syria, and Tajikistan are also joining the exercises that will stretch into the Sea of Japan.
At the same time, India is involved in the Pitch Black 2022 war games.
Hosted by Australia, the military exercises include 17 nations, over 100 aircraft and 2,500 soldiers.
All four members of the anti-China The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or ‘The Quad’ are engaging in the drills, alongside United States military.
While Jean-Pierre expressed concern, the White House stopped short of saying it would take action against New Delhi.
President Joe Biden pledged to isolate the Russian economy in February when Russia prevented the Ukraine invasion of the Donbas.
Washington’s economic war against Moscow has failed.
Wall Street analysts are now predicting a more robust Russian economy.
Russia is selling more products to China, India and Turkey to make up for the collapse of the United States and European market.
This year, Turkey has doubled its Russian oil imports.
Russian diamond traders have recently adopted the Indian Rupee effectively bypassing the USD completely.
SMIC Breakthrough is now public knowledge
What happened to the last Dodo Bird?
The fate of the poor Dodo Bird is slightly misrepresented by history. It seems “common knowledge” that all dodos were hunted down by European visitors, because they were slow and had no innate fear of humans. This is only partially true. It wasn’t the main reason for their extinction. The truth is more tragic. So here’s the rest of the story, of how we got to the very last Dodo Bird.
Yes, the sailors hunted down many of the trusting birds simply by walking up to them and picking them up or using a machete on them. This in itself is a very sad story, since there was nothing “stupid” about the dodo (as they are infamously but wrongly known). They were just trusting of humans because they’d never seen any other animal that was able to hurt them in any way. Fearless curiosity, rather than stupidity, is a more fitting description of their behavior. One can only imagine what they were thinking when the tall two-legged visitors began massacring them.
But back to the point… yes, many were collected by the Dutch sailors and settlers, but there was something else that had a larger impact on their eventual extinction… invasive animals that the sailors brought with them on their ships; namely, rats, cats and pigs that went feral. There were never any rats on the island until they came with the ships and came ashore. And sailors always had a way of letting pigs or goats escape on various islands they visited. And cats were brought as working “pets”. So pigs and rats flourished in the wild, as they also had no natural enemies there. And they actually sealed the fate of the dodo by eating all the dodo eggs they could find, that were all on the ground in the simple unprotected dodo nests. The mother dodo would only lay one egg per season. It didn’t take long for the production of new baby dodo chicks to take a very steep decline. None of the nests were safe from foraging wild pigs and a multitude of newly introduced rats. The dodo as a species didn’t have a chance at that point, and they were doomed. Even those that had nested in remote places, soon had their young chicks or eggs consumed by the invaders.
If it weren’t for these marauding animals, the dodo may have been able to survive the onslaught of just the sailors and settlers hunting them on the 800 sq. miles of Mauritius. Many even became more cautious of human hunters, and adapted their behavior. It’s small consolation, but it is known that many of their hunters were bloodied by the dodo’s enormous hooked beak, in perhaps what was their last act of defiance. So yes… they did fight back. But there was no way to hide the nests and chicks from the pigs and the rats. And the gentle trusting dodos paid the ultimate price. “The Last Dodo” may very well have been a single lonely chick or egg somewhere in the jungle, that a scurrying rat came upon and decided to feast… unaware that he or she, after a million years’ journey, was the last… the very last, of them all.
And this happened a mere 80 years after the first dodo to see a human come upon its peaceful shores, fearlessly and with simple, innocent curiosity waddled up to observe the new visitors… and was slaughtered where he stood.
If dodos had never gone extinct, the word “dodo” would probably not have entered our lexicon as a derogatory word. “Dodo” probably would not have taken on the meaning of “dumb”. In a world with dodo birds, I suspect the word dodo would have meant peaceful, or curious. Perhaps it would have meant friendly, as in “Thanks, mate! That’s right dodo of you!”
You will answer for Taiwan
A great video in Russian. Read the subtitles for the excellent appraisal of the Taiwan situation.
300 living harvester ants smuggled from Europe busted by Shanghai customs – Global Times
New CP Documentary: Why Assume there will be Another Election? The 1934 Bankers Coup Revisited
With the passage of the 2022 Defense Authorization Act giving the executive branch sweeping powers over the use of the military in all domestic affairs…
And with the obvious obsession by a supranational deep state technocracy intent on imposing a final endgame scenario onto the United States…
It is important to recognize the historical precedent of the attempted Bankers’ Coup of 1934.
This coup sought to impose a fascist puppet dictator into the White House.
Unfortunately for the JP Morgan network managing this coup, the puppet they selected for their “American Mussolini” was a patriotic retired General named Smedley Darlington Butler.
In this new Canadian Patriot Review film based upon the essay “Why Assume There Will be a 2024 Election?” produced/narrated by Jason Dahl.
You will be introduced to this dense period of history beginning with the orchestrated demolition of the financial system in 1929…
The Wall Street/London fueled “economic miracle solution” of fascism and eugenics between 1930-1934…
Aand the story of FDR’s war with the financier oligarchy’s London and Wall Street tentacles.
From this vantage point, we are then thrust into a deep dive into the person of Smedley Butler and his courageous defense of the republic.
To watch on Rumble click here, and Bitchute here.
Best Wedding Gift
When my husband and I got married, my cousin gave us what I perceived to be a very bizarre gift. He bought us a red toolbox filled with many tools. I have to admit that I just looked at it and thought to myself “What a weird gift for a wedding!”
Well, my husband and I have been married for over 34 years and I have to say that this turned out to be one of the best gifts that anybody ever gave us! We still use it regularly and if you think about it, it’s very expensive to buy a lot of tools. This ages well, it doesn’t go out of style, it doesn’t break and you don’t have to worry about if it matches your decor! How many wedding gifts can anyone say they still use regularly after 34 years?
Foreign businesses want out of China. But breaking up may be tougher than ever
.
In 2018, Fabien Gaussorgues realized that what had once been an asset for his manufacturing firm — producing 100% of its electronics and consumer goods in China — was fast becoming a headache.
Then-President Trump had begun levying tariffs on Chinese products, kicking off further measures between the U.S. and Chinese counterparts as businesses scrambled to offset the financial impact. Though other options seemed plentiful on paper — Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines — Gaussorgues found that relocating production would not prove easy.
Four years later, his company, Agilian Technology, which designs, produces and distributes goods for overseas clients, remains wholly reliant on its factory in southern China. Yet the impetus for departing what has long been considered the bedrock of global manufacturing has only escalated.
Multinational companies are facing a slew of fresh challenges doing business in China because of the ever-deteriorating U.S.-China relationship, enduring pandemic restrictions and the specter of war with Taiwan.
“It was not necessarily a strong strategy before but more like, let’s see how it goes,” said Gaussorgues, 51, who founded Agilian, whose parent company is based in Hong Kong, five years ago. “Now it’s something like, we have to do it. That’s a big difference.”
President Xi Jinping’s tough zero-COVID policy has had a particularly strong effect, keeping foreign workers out of China for the last two years and locking down entire cities and industrial hubs for months at a time. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, meanwhile, has underscored the financial risks to war and sanctions, should China pursue its territorial claim over Taiwan with a similar attack on the democratically ruled island.
As more foreign companies eye the exits, China stands to lose an integral part of its domestic economy and booming export market. At the same time, the lessons of the last few years have made clear that there’s no silver bullet to curtailing the world’s dependency on China.
“Companies don’t want to do this,” said Michael Walsh, a partner at the law firm Foley & Lardner and a former Commerce Department chief of staff. “It is truly challenging, and I think that the push may have fallen by the wayside if it were not for the Russian invasion.”
Given the obstacles against going cold turkey, many companies have sought to supplement Chinese production rather than leave the country altogether. Tech giants Samsung and Apple are among the firms that have shifted portions of their production out of China in recent years, seeking cost savings in places like Vietnam and India.
Though Gaussorgues doesn’t have plans to shut down his 200-employee operation in China, geopolitical jitters hastened his search for alternative manufacturing bases as customers have fretted over the potential effects of military conflict with Taiwan. “They are very, very worried,” he said.
In 2019, he began assessing the possibility of moving some manufacturing capabilities to Vietnam. The company hired freelancers, visited factories, initiated marketing and proceeded to staff a full-time team. But he abandoned the plan eight months later after price increases for about half of the company’s projects upset his customers. Product development also took longer — one prototype that would have been completed in three weeks in China required six months in Vietnam.
A review of other countries in Southeast Asia proved even less fruitful, he said. Though Thailand offered relocation incentives and a promising quality of life for foreigners, he worried about local corruption and the availability of components. The Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia were too close for comfort to the South China Sea, another geopolitical hot spot, he decided.
By late 2020, Gaussorgues turned farther afield — to India. The local electronics and automotive ecosystem offered lower manufacturing costs and easy access to parts. It shares a border with China but is not likely to be the center of any major conflict. In December, he started hiring personnel in Chennai and Hubbali. With five employees so far, he aims to start assembly work next year, and hopes to host the majority of manufacturing there after five years.
“For risk management, this is probably the safest,” he said. “It will take a lot of work to make it grow.”
Consultants and lawyers said the path out of China is rife with hurdles and can often take years, though companies are rarely willing to discuss it publicly because of political sensitivities. The task has become even trickier as alternatives such as Vietnam have struggled to keep up with demand and the war in Ukraine has ruled out possibilities in Eastern Europe.
“Every single one of our clients would like to stop manufacturing in China, and people say, ‘Why don’t they?’” said Dan Harris, a founder of the law firm Harris Bricken, which advises American companies on doing business overseas. “There’s a million reasons why it’s just not that easy.”
Though most crucial supplies are readily available in China, including semiconductors, zippers and shoelace rings, importing such materials to facilities outside China can drive up costs. Labor shortages and strained resources have also put upward pressure on prices, as the turn away from China has driven demand elsewhere. Even more worrisome than the bottom line for some companies is the possibility that supply-chain snarls in untested new facilities will keep them from delivering the final products.
Daniel Karlsson, founder of Asia Perspective, a consulting firm for European businesses in China, said a handful of clients had given up plans to diversify operations after running into complications.
“We have seen a lot of clients that have the business plan, and when they start the implementation they see the difficulties and cost increases, especially for consumer goods,” Karlsson said. “On the high level, people have made a decision. But on the low level, there’s a lot of chaos.”
For companies catering to Chinese consumers, there’s still no better option than to be based in the country. Those that rely on low-cost, high-volume manufacturing have also benefited greatly from China’s logistics and infrastructure and are loath to give that up even in the face of rising uncertainty.
Looking back, Gaussorgues reckons his arrival in China 12 years ago came during a “golden age,” the country emerging as the world’s second-largest economy with business opportunities too good to pass up. Foreigners received a warm welcome at the time, he said, and new hires were enthusiastic about China as well.
Now, the country’s economic growth has plateaued, faltering even more drastically this year under Xi’s zero-COVID policy. Many expatriates have departed, while in China fervent nationalism and suspicion over foreign influences have grown.
In a June survey, the American Chamber of Commerce in China reported that 44% of respondents said they decreased or delayed investment in China as a result of the COVID strictures. One in 10 said if the restrictions continued for another year, it would prompt them to move operations out of China. Another survey released that month by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China showed nearly 1 in 4 companies thinking of shifting current or planned investments elsewhere because of the lockdowns.
Though there’s little indication that Xi will abandon zero-COVID in the near term, officials are cognizant of the need to reinstill faith. In a conference call this month, Vice Premier Hu Chunhua emphasized the development of foreign investment and support of foreign businesses, according to a release from China’s Ministry of Commerce. Government bureaus are also courting foreign workers with added perks and tax exemptions.
“China will still be very interested in remaining the world’s factory floor because it is very competitive,” said Eric Zheng, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai. “Many local governments are very proactively going after multinational companies to see what they can do to help.”
Even as Agilian has committed to investing more in India, Gaussorgues knows that it won’t be a perfect substitution. Hiring stable workers has been difficult, and delivery timelines from suppliers have been tougher to pin down. Though locally sourced products have the potential to be made cheaper than in China, the facilities will still need to import many electronic parts.
“We don’t know how to fix that yet,” Gaussorgues said. “I don’t know if that’s something where we don’t use any components from China, but some of that is impossible.”
An Absolutely Gigantic Sunspot That Is Pointed Directly At Earth Right Now Could Potentially Produce Another “Carrington Event”
.
How would you feel if someone pointed a loaded gun at you? Well, that is essentially what our entire planet is facing at this moment. An absolutely enormous sunspot is currently pointing directly at Earth, and it has just developed a delta-class magnetic field. We are being warned that this sunspot has the potential to release an X-class flare, and that would be really bad news, because such flares are often associated with coronal mass ejections. If a large enough coronal mass ejection came directly toward our planet, we could see another “Carrington Event”. In such a scenario, our power grids would be fried, trillions of dollars worth of damage would be caused, and society would instantly go completely and utterly haywire.
So let us hope that such a thing does not take place any time soon.
It is being reported that a sunspot known as AR3089 that is pointing right at us has just developed a “delta-class magnetic field”, and that means that it now has the potential to produce X-class flares…
A giant sunspot may be about to erupt, sending out the most powerful form of solar flares growing for days. Sunspot AR3089, which is facing towards the Earth, has now developed a delta-class magnetic field, meaning that it has built up enough energy that it may release X-class solar flares.
But that doesn’t mean that we will actually see any X-class flares.
At this point, the NOAA is insisting that there is still only a 5 percent chance that this will actually happen…
According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), there is around a five percent chance that the sunspot will release an X-class flare. If it does, the flare may trigger a powerful geomagnetic storm in the Earth’s atmosphere, possibly resulting in damage to infrastructure and electromagnetic communication systems.
A one out of 20 chance may not seem like a lot, but if we get unlucky the consequences could be absolutely catastrophic.
Solar flares are classified as either C-class, M-class or X-class.
C-class flares are not strong enough to cause problems for us.
M-class flares can cause minor geomagnetic storms, but most of the time they are not really noteworthy.
But X-class flares are an entirely different matter.
Of course not all X-class flares are created equal either. According to NASA, some X-class flares are many times more powerful than others…
And then come the X-class flares. Although X is the last letter, there are flares more than 10 times the power of an X1, so X-class flares can go higher than 9. The most powerful flare measured with modern methods was in 2003, during the last solar maximum, and it was so powerful that it overloaded the sensors measuring it. The sensors cut out at X28.
Very strong X-class flares are often associated with coronal mass ejections.
And it is interesting to note that the coronal mass ejection that caused “the Carrington Event” actually happened on this exact day in 1859…
Solar flares are relatively common events, but the flare that set off the ‘Carrington Event’ on Sept. 1, 1859 was anything but common. It was then that an English astronomer, Richard Carrington, noticed a bright spot on the sun. This particular flare was more impactful because it was joined by what’s called a coronal mass ejection or CME. This is when a large concentration of plasma shoots out and, in this case, it was in Earth’s direction.
Scientists have warned us over and over again that it is just a matter of time before another Carrington Event takes place.
In fact, there was a near miss that we “barely escaped” in 2012…
Scientists think we barely escaped getting hit by one such huge storm that erupted from the sun in July 2012 that was at least as strong as the Carrington Event and could have cost over $2 trillion in damage. “The only difference is, it missed,” Daniel Baker, a space weather researcher at the University of Colorado, said a couple of years later.
If another “Carrington Event” were to happen in 2022, it would truly be a worldwide apocalyptic disaster…
Insurance company Lloyds of London investigated this very question and produced a report on the matter in 2013. “In the more extreme end of the spectrum, a major space weather event on the scale of the Carrington Event could lead to power loss for a period of weeks or more,” one section reads. “This would cause major disruption to transport, food supplies, emergency and hospital services amongst other things. For example, if pumping operations needed to be suspended that would quickly affect water and fuel supplies, sewage systems and flood defences. The absence of such fundamental services could lead to major and widespread social unrest, riots and theft with ramifications for the insurance industry and society in general.”
Others have warned that a large enough event could result in power grids being down all over the globe for many months.
And without power for an extended period of time, normal activity all over the world would come to a screeching halt.
In such a scenario, we wouldn’t just be dealing with an “economic collapse” of unprecedented scope. The truth is that we would be facing a full-blown societal meltdown as law and order disappeared across the globe.
Without power, there would be a breakdown of even the most essential services. Even if some stores decided to remain open and were selling things for cash, their shelves would go empty almost immediately.
Just think about what your community would look like if there was suddenly no power, no functioning computers and no Internet for the next several months.
And as I noted earlier, scientists have assured us that such a scenario will happen someday.
Hopefully we can avoid such a nightmare here in 2022. But the fact that this colossal sunspot is currently pointing right at our planet should deeply alarm all of us.
I have repeatedly warned my readers that we need to be watching the sun, because the sun has been behaving rather oddly in recent years.
We have all become deeply dependent on the high tech control grid that has been constructed all around us, but the sun could potentially take that away from us in a single moment.
So let us keep a very close eye on this sunspot, because it certainly has the potential to turn all of our lives completely upside down.
Story of a found kitty
In the fall of 2009, I noticed that a stray cat In my neighborhood appeared to be expecting. She disappeared around the 1st of November and I did not see her again until I was saddened to see her dead by the side of the road, apparently having been hit by a car. Early in the morning a couple of days later as I was heading out to teach the sunrise yoga class, I heard a noise like a car alarm. I looked around and this huge noise was emanating from a tiny kitten who was running right at me! I figured it must have been the offspring of the late mama cat and scooped it up. The kitten was small enough to fit not just in my hand, but in my palm and spent the yoga class curled up there.
When we went to the vet that morning I discovered that she was a female and about 10 days old. She grew up like a fairly normal cat (well, she’s quite prickly around humans other than me, I think she has a long lineage of feralness in her), but she didn’t learn to use a catbox until she met other cats in my family a year or so later. I got her a little catbox, but she just tried to eat the litter. She saw mommy using the toilet, and started using the toilet too! There was one glorious day when I came home to a perfect kitty poop in the toilet! Then she caught mommy peeing in the shower and decided that was a much more convenient place to go. She would pee down the drain, and she would wait until I was home to poop right next to it then call me over so I could dispose of it in the toilet and clean up the shower floor. In retrospect, I suppose if I’d peed in the catbox she might’ve gotten the idea, but it wasn’t until she saw other kitties using one that she quickly adapted.
White House Says “MAGA Republicans . . . are an extreme threat to our country . . .”
This afternoon, August 31, 2022, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said “. . .MAGA Republicans are the most energized part of the Republican party – that extreme, this is an extreme threat to our democracy, to our freedom, to our rights,”
She just reported that the President of the United States sees half the nation as a threat to the nation itself!
Is this how Civil Wars get started?
Kindness from Down Under
In Bendigo, Australia, David Love went into a McDonald’s for his regular morning coffee, and was at the counter preparing to order when he spotted an older gentleman next to him. The elderly man was fumbling through his change trying to put together enough money to pay for his breakfast.
When it looked like the older man was having trouble, David stopped him and paid for it himself. Then, David gave the man $20. David’s girlfriend, Melanie, captured the endearing moment on video and posted it online. For his kind gesture, the older man gave David his change and said, “That’s for your next morning coffee… put it in your pocket.”
David did not know Melanie was videotaping, but his girlfriend made a very valid point: “Your true character is revealed when nobody’s watching.”
A short time after the video was posted, the 88-year-old man’s grandson contacted Melanie to thank her for posting it and David for his generosity. He also said that his grandfather had dementia and had recently lost his wife and daughter and very much appreciated the stranger’s kindness.
Easy Beef Stew
This was one of the best recipes that I have ever made, and it turned out wonderful! I was short on time, so instead of cutting the onions up and adding them, I just added a package of dry onion soup mix, and it set all of the flavors off. I will definitely be making this again soon!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds beef stew meat
- 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 jar (18 ounces) brown gravy
- 1 can (14 1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
- 3 medium Yukon gold potatoes, cut into 2-inch pieces
- 1 medium onion, cut into eighths
- 1 bag (8 ounces) baby-cut carrots (about 30)
- 1 package (8 ounces) whole mushrooms
Undeniable Evidence: Covid19 from Fort Detrick CIA lab, released in Wuhan to blame it on China!
I told you so!
.
HMAS Otama was the Oberon class sub caught in a net. Subs caught in trawler nets are quite common just ask those Irish fishern who have been towed backwards at 12 knots. If lucky the sub stops (rarely) or they cut away before being dragged down stern first. Many fishermen have lost their lives over the last 50 years due to subs being netted.
From the very start of his pandemic, I was highly skeptical of it all and all of the news coverage about it. My years of experience steeped in “Conspiracy”/Alt Media has motivated me to do my own research instead of following the main narrative purporting that Covid19 was a Chinese virus designed to ruin the rest of the world.
Even without this independent research, the severe psyops, doublethink, Black/White mentality displayed by governments and businesses, and the overabundant fearmongering made it clear that this whole thing was a massive sham, and there was much more going on behind the scenes. So, I remained bottled in my apartment for the past couple of years with the expectation that I could outwait the lockdowns and Vax Mandates.
And I almost did. My family was able to provide me funds and I was always able to find some type of work to keep me afloat even when the Vax restrictions were getting tight. I was confident that this “dangerous virus” was no deadlier than the usual flu, and I remembered how shocked and terrified Americans were of h1N1 Swine flu when that was a thing; I was as well since I was young and naive, but I was not going to make that mistake again.
The only reason I ended up taking the Vaccine around December of last year was because I was forced to do so. Not by the mandates and not by my family, however.
I was threatened at “gunpoint” to take the shot by my best of several years. When I told him that I would not take any vaccine and would rather wait for the pandemic to end (which it would in just a couple of months,) he was having none of that. This man, whom I trusted deeply and confided some of my deepest matters to during the worst and most sensitive years of my life, gave me an Ultimatum. I either took the Johnson & Johnson vax, or his Upper-Management cronies would punish me for disobedience. Essentially, his connections have the ability to Cornfield me because I had been inducted into their lot years back (when I was at my worst).
So, stuck in a double bind where one option is a vaccine I knew would cause more damage than help and the other was for his Secret Connections to (magically) fuck me up more than what I’ve already been through, I eventually chose the former option (but was just a hair’s width away from sacking him and facing the consequences).
Fast forward to today, and after reading up on all of this, I can safely say that I will never forgive my treacherous asskisser of a friend for what he did, and although I would love to sack him for choosing his Hegemonic Bigwigs over me and our relationship, I bite my tongue and tolerate his presence so as to not incur the wrath of his secret “employers”.