Time marches on. Do you think you can handle all the changes? Most say that they can. But, judging from what I see of all the rats a scurrying on the Deck of the United States, I’d have to disagree.
Sure there is a band playing on the deck, and the lights are still on. There’s some wealthy gentlemen playing cards in the lounge, and a calmness with the passengers as they slowly debate whether or not to board the lifeboats, but below… in the deep bosom of the ship, there’s discomfort and turmoil.
The wealthy gentlemen are placing bets on what will happen next, and more than a few crew and passengers are playing with and fondling chunks of ice that they found on the deck. No one seems in a hurry to do anything.
Oh, there’s a Captain at the helm and he’s standing resolute. He continues to order “full steam ahead”, and the vast bulk of the vessel is a moving forward into the icy darkness with great haste. Under the decks the boilers are running red-hot as more and more coal, energy, paper, money is thrown into the furnaces.
But the vessel is listing. It’s shaking. A few stewards are quietly alerting key select passengers who are toying with the idea or wearing that “uncomfortable” life vest.
A radio operator and the chief engineer approach the Captain on the bridge. They try to reason with the Captain. In hushed tones they whisper words that they dare not voice loudly. But the Captain will hear none of that!
This ship is unsinkable! he roars.
It’s exceptional. We have democracy, freedom, and are the beacon for all to admire!
The others slink away and try to hide into the shadows.
Here Are 5 Examples That Show Why There Is A Mass Exodus Out Of Major U.S. Cities Right Now
Once upon a time, our major cities were highly civilized places that were filled with highly civilized people.
In fact, there was a time when even our largest cities were sparkling clean and people dressed up in their best clothes would leisurely stroll through downtown areas without being concerned that they might be suddenly attacked.
But now everything has changed.
Crime rates are surging all over the United States, open air drug markets have become commonplace in many communities, an epidemic of homelessness is rapidly growing from coast to coast, and there are countless predators that fearlessly roam the streets searching for their next victims.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why so many Americans have been fleeing our urban areas in recent years. Our once great cities are degenerating into crime-infested hellholes, and it is getting worse with each passing day.
Let me give you an example. In New York City, armed moped thieves are now brazenly terrorizing random citizens and robbing them in broad daylight…
New York City has been hit by spate of recent thefts by armed moped thieves who aggressively drive up onto city sidewalks and attack unsuspecting victims. Three of the most recent attacks happened over the weekend where thieves ripped a $12,000 Rolex watch from a man’s arm while he was walking in Chelsea and the very next day, two women walking near the Guggenheim Museum on the Upper East Side fought off thieves on a moped who tried to snatch their jewelry. A third attack happened in Inwood. In all three, the thieves on bikes jump the sidewalks, reach out at their unsuspecting victims and attempt to rob them.
This is the sort of thing that normally happens in third world countries.
Now it is happening here.
On the west coast, things are getting really crazy too.
The number of homicides in Hollywood has doubled this year, and Los Angeles Police Department Captain Ray Valois is also extremely concerned about the huge spike in armed robberies that his department has been seeing…
“You’ll have a victim walking back to their car, maybe from a night out, and a suspect will come up behind them with a gun and say, ‘Give me all your money.’ Those are the ones that concern me the most and those are what I believe we had a spike in,” Capt. Valois said. Capt. Valois says it’s important for Angelenos and visitors to be aware of street lighting, especially at night.
Actually, I don’t think that is very wise advice.
If you choose to go out in the Hollywood area at night in 2022, you are literally putting your life on the line.
Farther north, one of the biggest problems in San Francisco these days is the hordes of homeless people that seem to grow with each passing month.
Many of them are drug addicts, and way too often those addicts can be found passed out or defecating on the streets of one of the wealthiest cities in the entire world…
Rows of tents were pictured lined up outside businesses with people’s belongings strewn across the sidewalk. Homeless individuals, some of whom were struggling with clear physical ailments as well as drug and alcohol addiction, sat in the street right outside entrances to residential properties and small businesses struggling to bounce back after highly restrictive COVID laws forced them to close, destroying revenues. Some images depicted addicts openly smoking illegal drugs on the sidewalk and passing out on the asphalt in the middle of the day.
All the way up in Portland, being at the wrong place at the wrong time can literally get you killed.
It wasn’t always this way. Once upon a time, Portland was one of the most beautiful and most peaceful cities in the entire country.
But now there are times when the streets of Portland literally resemble a war zone. The following example happened just this past Sunday night…
At one of the street racing takeovers on Sunday night near the Expo Center attended by hundreds, an elderly man in a van appeared to be caught in the road before being violently attacked by an armed mob. Video posted on social media shows that as he desperately attempted to reverse and drive away while being attacked, he backed into a car. A man in the crowd then fires at least 18 rounds at his fleeing van. A follow-up video shows the crowd catching up with the elderly man who had stopped on a patch of grass. He appeared to be in shock and was bleeding heavily.
Lastly, let me talk about Baltimore a bit.
In the old days, I would visit Baltimore quite often.
It was scary in those times, and things have gotten significantly worse since then.
When I read about what just happened to an Apple TV+ show that features Natalie Portman in a leading role, I just had to smile…
The Apple TV+ show “Lady in the Lake” was filming in downtown Baltimore when two local hoodlums claimed that the Hollywood crew were on their turf and needed to pay up. The drug dealers forced the production to shut down around 4 pm but said they could resume working for a fee of $50,000. The pair brandished a firearm and reportedly pointed it at members of the crew. After they delivered their ultimatum, the two left and said they would return a few hours later for the production’s response. Baltimore police confirmed to The Baltimore Banner that the two men who made the threats were local drug dealers and were serious.
The moral of the story is that you should never, ever film a television show in Baltimore.
In fact, unless you are a drug dealer, a crime lord or an extremely corrupt politician that is in league with the first two groups you should probably avoid the city completely.
Of course the entire country is going downhill really fast. Our culture is systematically degenerating right in front of our eyes, and a society with a degenerate culture will inevitably collapse.
If we do not rescue our culture, there is no future for America.
I wish that more people would realize this, because time to turn things around is rapidly slipping away.
French Roast
Ingredients
- 1 (4 -6 lb) french beef roast
- 4 tablespoons soy sauce
- 4 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons mustard
- 1 cup Chinese duck sauce
- 1⁄2 cup orange juice
- 1⁄2 cup dark grape juice
- 1 onion, chopped
- 4 -5 garlic cloves, minced
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degree.
- Place the onions and garlic on the bottom of your pan. Add roast.
- Combine the rest of the ingredients and pour over roast in pan.
- Bake 3-4 hours, covered.
Russian, Chinese navies to hold Vostok 2022 strategic drills in Sea of Japan — top brass
- Source
- tass.com
- Editor
- Chen Zhuo
- Time
- 2022-08-31 10:10:21
MOSCOW, August 29. /TASS/. The Russian and Chinese navies will operate in the Sea of Japan in the upcoming Vostok 2022 strategic drills, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin told a briefing for foreign military attaches on Monday.
“The [Russian] Pacific Fleet jointly with the Navy of the People’s Liberation Army of China will practice interoperability in the northern and central parts of the Sea of Japan in the Far Eastern maritime zone with the aim of assisting ground forces in the Primorye direction and defending sea lanes and areas of maritime economic activity,” Fomin said.
General-purpose naval forces will practice operations in the waters and in the coastline areas of the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk, he added.
The Vostok 2022 strategic command and staff drills will run on September 1-7 under the command of Chief of Russia’s General Staff Valery Gerasimov on the territory of Russia’s Eastern Military District and will be the final stage of the training of the Russian Armed Forces this year.
The strategic exercise will bring together over 50,000 troops and more than 5,000 items of armaments and military hardware, in particular, 140 aircraft, 60 combat ships, gunboats and support vessels.
Not a small force at all. This is a LARGE exercise. -MM
A girl smoking at a cattle show in Appenzell, Switzerland.
“Appenzell is a beautiful and very odd place. It’s a tiny rural town in the east of Switzerland, built in the 16th century.
Here, all the cliches are true: the fondue and the yodelling, the pink cows and the magnificent ski slopes.
It’s also a place with very local habits.
They still celebrate the new year according to the Julian calendar. And every October, they hold the Viehschau cattle show – a beauty show, but for cows.
I first visited it in 2013. As soon as I started taking photographs, I noticed that many of the younger kids were passing around cigarettes, smoking one after another.
They weren’t misbehaving; their parents were around and they all seemed comfortable with it.
Letting your children smoke at the cattle show is a long-standing custom, I learnt. Kids as young as six do it.
Appenzeller people are quite strong-minded.
I have tried to ask why they let their children smoke, but no one has ever given me a clear explanation. I think most of the parents hope their kids will find it disgusting and won’t do it when they’re older.
Or maybe they feel they should treat their children as equals on this special occasion. As far as I know, it only happens here, and only at that particular time of year. The adults grew up with the custom and now no one questions it”. (Photo by Jiří Makovec)
Another Dead American
It’s not just Ukraine losing people, the United States is losing citizens as well.
In the area of the settlement of Yegorovka, Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) troops found a body of a mercenary from the USA, Alan Joshua Jones, who lived in Tennessee before arriving in Ukraine. The dead body was mined. According to reports, he was shot by Ukraine troops after he tried to retreat . .
The Only Thing Keeping US and China from War Is Running Dangerously Thin
American relations with China in regards to Taiwan have been dictated by years of ambiguous statements and commitments. Now this rhetoric is breaking down and armed conflict seems closer than ever – but is Washington ready to fight over Taiwan, or capable of winning?
Assurances and commitments
Officially, US policy toward Taiwan is guided by three US-China Joint Communiques issued between 1972 and 1982, the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, and the so-called “Six Assurances” issued in 1982. In the Shanghai Communique of 1972, China asserted that
“the Taiwan question is the crucial question obstructing the normalization of relations between China and the United States,” declaring that “the Government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government of China,” that Taiwan is a province of China, and that “the liberation of Taiwan is China’s internal affair in which no other country has the right to interfere.”
The US responded by acknowledging that
“all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China,”
something the US government did not challenge. The US also reaffirmed its interest
“in a peaceful settlement of the Taiwan question by the Chinese themselves.”
Before that, on January 1, 1979, the US and China had issued a “Joint Communique of the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations” in which the US undertook to recognize
“the Government of the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal Government of China,”
noting that, within the context of that commitment,
“the people of the United States will maintain cultural, commercial, and other unofficial relations with the people of Taiwan.”
President Jimmy Carter, in announcing the communique, went out of his way to ensure the people of Taiwan
“that normalization of relations between our country and the People’s Republic will not jeopardize the well-being of the people of Taiwan,”
adding that
“the people of our country will maintain our current commercial, cultural, trade, and other relations with Taiwan through nongovernmental means.”
Carter’s move to establish diplomatic relations with China did not sit well with many members of Congress, who responded by passing the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, in which it was declared that it is US policy
“to preserve and promote extensive, close, and friendly commercial, cultural, and other relations between the people of the United States and the people on Taiwan, as well as the people on the China mainland,” and “to make clear that the United States decision to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China rests upon the expectation that the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means.”
In this regard, the Taiwan Relations Act underscored that the US would
“consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means, including by boycotts or embargoes, a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of grave concern to the United States,”
and
“to provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character.”
Finally, the Act declared that the US would maintain the capacity
“to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan.”
The emphasis on arms sales contained in the Taiwan Relations Act led to the third joint communiqué between the US and China, released on August 17, 1982, which sought to settle differences between the two nations regarding US arms sales to Taiwan.
The communique was basically a quid-pro-quo agreement where China underscored that it maintained
“a fundamental policy of striving for a peaceful reunification”
with Taiwan, over which it claimed sovereignty. For its part, the US declared that it
“understands and appreciates the Chinese policy of striving for a peaceful resolution of the Taiwan question,”
and, with that in mind, the US declared that it did not seek to carry out a long-term policy of arms sales to Taiwan, and that it would gradually reduce its sale of arms to Taiwan while working for a final resolution to reunification.
To mollify Taiwanese concerns about the third communique, the US agreed to what have become known as “the Six Assurances” between the US and Taiwan.
These are
- 1) the US has not set a date for ending arms sales to Taiwan,
- 2) the US has not agreed to prior consultations with China about arms sales to Taiwan,
- 3) the US has not agreed to any mediation role between China and Taiwan,
- 4) the US has not agreed to revise the Taiwan Relations Act,
- 5) the US has not taken a position regarding the sovereignty of Taiwan, and
- 6) that the US would never put pressure on Taiwan to negotiate with China.
There was an unwritten corollary to the third communique—an internal memorandum signed by President Ronald Reagan in which he declared that
“the US willingness to reduce its arms sales to Taiwan is conditioned absolutely upon the continued commitment of China to the peaceful solution of the Taiwan-PRC [People’s Republic of China] differences,”
adding that
“it is essential that the quantity and quality of the arms provided Taiwan be conditioned entirely on the threat posed by the PRC.”
A US policy at war with itself
What emerges from this amalgam of policy statements and positions is a US policy that is inherently at war with itself, unable to fully commit either to the finality of a “one China” policy or walk away from the sale of weapons to Taiwan.
The US disguises this inherent inconsistency by referring to it as “strategic ambiguity.” The problem is this policy stew is neither strategic in vision, nor ambiguous.
From the moment President Reagan issued the “Six Assurances,” US-China policy was strained over the issue of weapons sales, with China making the case that the US was not serious about either the peaceful reunification of Taiwan with China, or the elimination of arms sales to Taiwan.
Arms sales increased exponentially from the Reagan administration to that of George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, with the US providing Taipei F-16 fighters, Patriot surface-to-air missiles, and other advanced weapons.
In 1997, House Speaker Newt Gingrich visited Taiwan as part of a Pacific tour that included China.
Gingrich claims he told his Chinese hosts that, if China were to attack Taiwan, the US “will defend Taiwan. Period.”
In 2005, in response to US backsliding when it came to arms sales and Taiwan, China adopted legislation known as the “Anti-Secession Law” which stated firmly that Taiwan “is part of China.”
In the law, China declared that it
“shall never allow the ‘Taiwan independence’ secessionist forces to make Taiwan secede from China under any name or by any means.”
China reiterated its official stance that reunification through “peaceful means” best serves the fundamental interests of China.
However, the law made it clear that China would not stand idle in the face of any effort to
“cause the fact of Taiwan’s secession from China.”
If this were to occur, China would use
“non-peaceful means and other necessary measures”
to protect China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Fast forward to 2021. The Biden administration, in policy guidance issued soon after the president was sworn in, undertook to deter Chinese aggression and counter threats to the
“collective security, prosperity and democratic way of life”
of the US and its allies, while publicly committing to a Taiwan policy which would be
“in line with long-standing American commitments,”
including the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, which limited US military support for Taiwan to weapons of a defensive character.
The brink of war
This, it turned out, was a lie.
In his October 2021 confirmation hearing before the US Senate, the current US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns declared that, from the perspective of the Biden administration, the policy of “strategic ambiguity” provided the US with “enormous latitude” under the Taiwan Relations Act to deepen US security assistance to Taiwan.
“Our responsibility,”
Burns said,
“is to make Taiwan a tough nut to crack.”
This was a stark departure from past practice, and served as the justification for Biden himself, on two occasions, to articulate as policy an American commitment to come to the defense of Taiwan if China were to attack.
This radical departure from stated US policy by the Biden administration helped launch a Congressional trifecta of hubris-laced ignorance, which saw the dispatch of three consecutive delegations that threaten to propel China down the path toward a war with Taiwan it doesn’t want to wage, and which the world (including the US) is not prepared to suffer the consequences of.
The first delegation, in May, was led by Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois).
Prior to her departure from the US, Duckworth helped push through the “Strengthen Taiwan’s Security Act” which, among other things, sought to improve US-Taiwan intelligence sharing, develop plans to continue the provision of military aid in the case of a Chinese attack, and explore the possibility of deploying pre-positioned stocks of weapons for US troops in Taiwan that would be dispatched to Taiwan in the event of a war with China.
Let that last point sink in for a moment —Duckworth was proposing to implement measures that would guarantee US troops would confront Chinese troops in the case of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
Part two of the Congressional trifecta of policy ignorance was the visit by Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, of which much has already be written.
The final act in this tragicomedy is the visit of Senator Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts), which took place earlier this week.
According to a press release issued by Markey’s office prior to his visit, his delegation would
“meet with elected leaders and members of the private sector to discuss shared interests including reducing tensions in the Taiwan Strait and expanding economic cooperation, including investments in semiconductors.”
Left unspoken is the environment in which all three of these visits took place. Even before Duckworth’s initial visit, Chinese authorities had taken the unprecedented step of issuing a stark warning regarding Taiwan.
On May 18, China’s senior diplomat Yang Jiechi warned Biden’s National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan that
“if the US continues to play the Taiwan card and head further on the wrong path, this will certainly lead to dangerous situations.”
Today China, the US, Taiwan, and the rest of the world are left to face such a “dangerous situation.”
There is no doubt that any undertaking by Taiwan to formally declare its independence from China will result in a Chinese invasion of that island.
Moreover, it is unlikely that Taiwan would ever undertake such an action void of guarantees of US military support backed up by actions designed to breath reality into rhetoric.
This is where the trio of Congressional delegations comes into play.
Legislation such as that proposed by Duckworth, and seemingly supported by Pelosi and Markey, would be required if the US was to formally break with its past policy undertakings regarding China and Taiwan.
The more Congress continues to interface with Taiwan, the more China must fear legislative action by the US Congress which would officially put the US and China on a path toward war.
As things currently stand, the US is not prepared to fight and win a war with China over Taiwan.
If China were to invade Taiwan today, there is little the US military could do to put teeth to the verbal commitments made by Newt Gingrich and Joe Biden about coming to the defense of Taipei.
China has, through large-scale military maneuvers undertaken following Pelosi’s precipitous visit, demonstrated its ability to invade Taiwan at any moment.
Such an invasion, if it occurs, would be overwhelming in scope and destructive on a scale like that being experienced by Ukraine today in the face of Russia’s ongoing military operations.
And yet China continues to hold back.
Some armchair generals assess the reluctance to go to war on China’s part as a sign of weakness, proof that Beijing is all bark and no bite.
Nothing, however, could be further from the truth.
Unlike the United States, China seeks to strictly adhere to its stated policy, which is to exhaust every peaceful option possible in securing the unification of China and Taiwan.
Despite the clear evidence of a marked departure from past policy regarding Taiwan and weapons sales, China continues to believe that there is a non-violent solution to the one China problem.
If only America would give peace a chance.
Justice Served
He was 18 years old when he hit a 24-year-old mother who was just trying to cross the street with her 22-month-old baby killing two innocent people while street racing with his friends.
3 years later, He was given a 24-year sentence in jail. But people are still defending him why?
Majority because of his “good looks”. I’m pretty sure if he was average-looking it wouldn’t even have been a topic.
And for the people who are saying it wasn’t intentional, He was driving at the speed of 160km per hr, The mother whom he crashed into hit 40 ft far away, the baby daughter hit 70 ft away. He has already been warned 4 times of the speed limit.
He was also recorded to have multiple speeding incidents just days before the accident proving his complete disregard for the consequences of his actions.
He clearly deserves to be in jail and there’s absolutely no way anybody can have even an ounce of sympathy for him, right?
Unfortunately, that couldn’t be further from the truth because people all over social media have been defending him for no other reason than because he is attractive.
These people obsessing with him aren’t taking into account how the family of the mother and daughter feel or how devastating is that a young mother and her baby were killed due to his recklessness.
Sure, He lost the best years of his life but the man lost the best part of his life.
If someone that is conventionally unattractive did this exact same thing I know with every bone in my body that people would be treating him very differently.
Society has came to a point where we value looks above anything and that needs to change.
Nobody deserves to get away with something and not have to deal with their careless actions just because they fit the societal standards of beauty.
It’s time we treat people based on their character and not their appearance because criminals like him don’t deserve good treatment for inexcusable actions.
Being attractive is a privilege and it can be dangerous to only care about how someone looks rather than how they act.
Beauty is not really as subjective as we like to say it is.
Well, This is a prime example of pretty privilege and how damaging it can be.
A doughnut story
Ask for a donut, get a house.
Sixteen-year old Chauncy Jones was desperate. There was no food in the house. Not a single penny either. Mom’s disability check had already been spent on utilities, rent and groceries. But they were specially hungry that week and all the food in the house was in their bellies days before the next welfare check was due to arrive.
Begging was out of the question. But Chauncy did have a plan. He grabbed his monthly bus pass and headed for the upscale side of Memphis.
Standing in front of the local Kroger grocer store, Chauncy asked, “May I carry your groceries in exchange for a box of donuts?”
“Go away kid.”
Chauncy asked another patron.
Just an icy cold stare came back from the respondent. No words were necessary. Chauncy was scared, out of his neighborhood and way out of his comfort zone.
Hours passed. Vulgarities were shouted at him. But he still had no donuts to take home to his mom.
“Please sir, may I carry your groceries for a box of donuts?”
“Yeah, dude. I’ll get you some donuts.”
Success! The hours of effort had paid off. His mom would be thrilled!
Matt White went inside with Chauncy and got his glazed donuts. They were less expensive than the jelly filled, but Chauncy wasn’t greedy. His mom would not complain.
There was something tragic about Chauncy. Perhaps it was his desperation. Perhaps it was the sadness in his eyes as life kicked him in the teeth, day after day. But there was something magical, too, a perseverance that would not die. A selfless need to help his mother. Matt was touched.
“Get something healthy kid. Buy whatever you want.”
Ecstatic and grateful, Chauncy grabbed a cart and got enough food to last the rest of the week.
Matt gave Chauncy a ride home. The scene sickened him. Chauncy’s gracious, but scared, mother had body tremors. There was no furniture, just pads on the floor for sleeping. The house was a dilapidated structure, patched together by unskilled, uncaring contractors.
Matt placed a request for 250 dollars on the GoFundMe website. That was the price of a lawnmower and the industrious Chauncy could finally start his own business.
There are lots of heroes in this story – Chauncy for having the drive and ambition; mom for raising a noble child and sharing her love; Matt for caring and putting in the extra effort to help strangers; and the thousands of donors who sent more than $340,000.00 to help two people in need.
China remains attractive for US firms
Eighty-nine percent of firms say their operations in the nation are strong and profitable
China’s attraction as a huge, lucrative market for US companies has remained unchanged this year, despite the impact of COVID-19 on the global economy and disruptions to trade, analysts and government officials said on Tuesday.
They made the remark after the US-China Business Council released a survey on Monday in which US companies continued to report their strong performance in the country last year, with 89 percent saying their operations were profitable.
The report, compiled by the Washington DC-based organization in June, interviewed 117 member companies on issues related to their business outlook, investment climate and market conditions in the nation.
The study found that most respondents are NOT moving segments of their supply chains out of China. This speaks to the country’s competitiveness in speed, quantity, quality and cost of manufacturing, despite tariffs and other factors.
“China remains a critical market for the US companies, disproving the notion of economic decoupling,” said Bai Ming, deputy director of the international market research department at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation in Beijing.
Even though there have been some investment outflows to Southeast Asia due to lower labor costs, it does not conflict with the investment plans of US firms in China, which are more about collaboration in high-tech and service industries and in line with China’s high quality growth strategy, he said.
The US-China Business Council survey also found that 63 percent of respondents indicated that their profitability increased last year — a level and proportion unseen in more than a decade.
The performance figures show the potential that the China market holds for US companies. If they are not able to participate in the China market and reap these benefits, they are at a global disadvantage compared with competitors who are able to do so, the study said.
The growth of US investment in China will maintain its sound pace this year, thanks to the country’s moves to upgrade its industries and huge market demand for goods and services, said Huo Jianguo, vice-chairman of the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies.
China-US trade grew by 11.8 percent year-on-year to 2.93 trillion yuan ($423.64 billion) in the first seven months of the year, while China’s actual use of the US capital surged 36.3 percent on a yearly basis, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
Together with the implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement coming into force in January, this enhances the expectations of many US companies for freer trade, Huo added.
Guo Tingting, assistant minister of commerce, stressed in a news conference in Beijing that the government will accelerate the pace of introducing the new edition of the industry catalog of sectors encouraging foreign investment, further expanding the scope of foreign investment in advanced manufacturing, scientific and technological innovation and modern services.
US companies continue to see business opportunities in China not only in established fields such as in the domestic consumption and manufacturing sector, but also in new areas like the country’s leading-edge adoption of new digital technologies, said Sun Fuquan, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development in Beijing.
Nakul Duggal, senior vice-president and general manager of automotives for Qualcomm Technologies Inc, the California-based chip manufacturer, said the Chinese market will be a major revenue source for the group’s automotive business, as its massive vehicle sector has a faster adoption of autonomous driving technologies than many others.
Intuitive Surgical Inc, a US-based robotic surgical system manufacturer, announced earlier this month it will invest over 700 million yuan to build a manufacturing and innovation base in Shanghai. The base will help expand access to robot-assisted surgery to more patients in China.
Gary Guthart, the company’s CEO, said the firm’s new facilities are expected to be operational in Shanghai in 2025 and will produce surgery robots for the Chinese market.
Why do Africans dislike Chinese?
I’m an African and I do not find a single reason why I should hate the Chinese but I do have hundreds others to express gratefulness to them.
First the Chinese have built infrastructure in Africa that has spurred development in many parts of the continent. The Chinese input is the other untold line of the “Africa rising” story.
Second the Chinese do not tell us what to do, they do not benchmark our institutions against theirs or polarize our people. They come for business and do it rather well.
Unlike the Western companies, they do not wage war or threaten us to access our resources.
Unlike the west, the Chinese never stole our gold, copper, silver! They pay a fair price for it.
Our coffee is not priced in Beijing and our cocoa not priced in Shanghai, but those commodities that our hard working farmers produce are priced in the west against any commercial logic.
I produce my goods and the customer imposes on me the price he will pay for it…the same people talking about human rights and social justice!
Unlike the West, the chinese never took our brothers and sisters and enslaved them to generate selfish wealth.
Unlike the west, the Chinese never hired mercenaries to overthrow legitimate governments to install chaos or dictatorship.
And for the Chinese/african babies…this continent is your home too. Hope those “funny eyed babies” will be the bridge that will strengthen China-African relationship and promote co-development and co-prosperity.
Did I hear anyone say long live China?
Biden Warns ‘Brave Right-Wing’ Americans—’If You Want to Fight Against the Country, You Need an F-15′
.
Speaking from Pennsylvania on Tuesday, President Joe Biden issued a message for “brave right-wing Americans,” saying that they “need something a little more than a gun” to fight against the United States, giving the example of an F-15 fighter jet as something to use instead.
“And for those brave right-wing Americans who say it’s all about keeping Americans independent and safe, you want to fight against the country? You need an F-15, you need something a little more than a gun,” Biden told the crowd, referring to the second amendment.
Biden issued the comment during a speech he gave in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania regarding his “Safer America Plan” to reduce gun crimes nationwide.
Announced earlier this month, the Safer America Plan looks fund police departments, invest in services that “address the causes of crime and reduce the burdens on police so they can focus on violent crime,” and calls on Congress to pass additional gun restrictions.
The plan looks to hire 100,000 police officers, calling on Congress to appropriate $10.77 billion in funding over five years for the COPS Hiring Program.
HAL TURNER EDITORIAL OPINION
Nice that the President threatens half the country! I guess he means he would actually USE fighter jets against his own citizens! That’s interesting to know.
Well, it seems to me, and this is only my opinion, the “brave right-wingers” already have F-15’s.
Someone ought to tell the illegitimate President, our “Commander-in-Thief” whose political party stole the presidency in November, 2020 through brazen election fraud, that a whole slew of those military pilots . . . are conservatives. Those pilots . . . it seems to me . . . they’re conservatives. They ARE some of the “brave right-wingers.”
Stick that in your son’s crack pipe and smoke it, you dementia-addled lame brain.
Foreigners (inside China) are not above and beyond the law
Neil Oliver: ‘Don’t be fooled into thinking this disaster movie is coming to an end’
From Scotland. Applies to all nations of the West.
Wonderful Photos Capture Everyday Life of Florida in the 1980s
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to the south by the Straits of Florida and Cuba; it is the only state that borders both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.
More: Steven Martin h/t: vintag.es
Spanning 65,758 square miles (170,310 km2), Florida ranks 22nd in area among the 50 states, and with a population of over 21 million, is the third-most populous. The state capital is Tallahassee and the most populous city is Jacksonville. The Miami metropolitan area, with a population of almost 6.2 million, is the most populous urban area in Florida and the ninth-most populous in the United States; other urban conurbations with over one million people are Tampa Bay, Orlando, and Jacksonville.
Florida is world-renowned for its beach resorts, amusement parks, warm and sunny climate, and nautical recreation; attractions such as Walt Disney World, the Kennedy Space Center, and Miami Beach draw tens of millions of visitors annually. It has the longest coastline in the contiguous United States, spanning approximately 1,350 miles (2,170 km), not including its many barrier islands, and has 4,510 islands that are ten acres (4 ha) or larger in area, the second highest number after Alaska.
Florida has several unique ecosystems, most notably Everglades National Park, the largest tropical wilderness in the U.S. and among the largest in the Americas. Unique wildlife include the American alligator, American crocodile, American flamingo, Roseate spoonbill, Florida panther, bottlenose dolphin, and manatee. The Florida Reef is the only living coral barrier reef in the continental United States, and the third-largest coral barrier reef system in the world (after the Great Barrier Reef and Belize Barrier Reef).
Golden Girls Elvis Wedding
This is such a great clip. Put a big old smile on your face. Please enjoy!
A Russian Blue
A couple months after our guinea pig had passed away, my mother asked my brother and I if we wanted another guinea pig. My brother refused and I suggested as I had been for months that we should get a cat.
My mother and father took this as a joke as I was allergic to cats.
I didn’t give up.
I researched for months about hypoallergenic cat breeds that would cause less of a reaction.
I used a website called Petfinder that showed thousands of cats and told you their breed, personality and which shelter they were at.
I found a Russian Blue at a nearby shelter and convinced my mother to drive me there on a Saturday so I could visit him.
When we got there I spotted him immediately and asked a volunteer if I could hold him.
The volunteer went to pick him up (He was enormous and I knew from the shelter’s website that he weighed about 12 pounds) but he jumped out of her arms and smacked her hands away.
The volunteer apologized and told me that he didn’t want to be held right now.
I told her it was alright and turned to look at the other cats.
While looking I saw a cat staring at me nearby.
I read her information sheet that was hung on her crate that she was a Siamese cat named Josie.
I knew Siamese cat were considered by some to be hypoallergenic because of their low shedding and asked the volunteer if I could hold her.
Josie came out of her crate willingly and the second she was in my arms, she began to purr.
The volunteer said that Josie was usually unfriendly to visitors.
In fact she had been a adopted before and returned after three days because she had not been friendly enough.
I cuddled her and turned to my mom with a big smile.
Even my mom had to admit it was perfect.
We applied for adoption that very night.
Two weeks later, after much shopping, we brought Josie home with us.
“Anyone who is a Republican has a spiritual problem” … The Raft of George W. Bush, NM, 2006.
“This was based on Théodore Géricault’s painting The Raft of the Medusa, which recorded a great tragedy in French history. Géricault depicted the aftermath of a terrible act of cowardice by the Medusa’s captain and his officers. They ran the ship aground off the coast of what is now Mauritania in 1816. When they couldn’t set the frigate free, they took all of the small boats and left more than 140 passengers to fend for themselves on a raft.
Only 15 survived, having resorted to cannibalism.
When I saw the painting in the Louvre, I noticed a correlation between that tragedy and the eight years of George W. Bush’s administration. I think Bush would have been a wonderful president of the Baseball Association. But he had no talent for the job of president of my country.
I spent a long time looking at the original painting, but decided to add something: a crown of lights on Bush’s head, to represent his little thoughts. And I had his hand fondling the breast of someone who I thought might be Condoleezza Rice, his secretary of state”. (Photo by Joel-Peter Witkin)
This is where “Asians” come from…
The haunted face of Sicily.
“I’d just come back from shooting in a poor district of Palermo. I was waiting for the bus and I saw this guy. His face was a battlefield. The dark energy was all there.
He’s not a mafioso.
Mafiosi have a totally different body language. They stand tall, they are aggressive. I just saw this battered, haunted face of Sicily. I work with a Hasselblad 500cm so I hold the camera at waist level and look down into the viewfinder. I composed, judged the focus, aperture and shutter speed, then I shot – two or three frames.
He looked straight at me. He was frozen somehow.
He didn’t realise I was taking his picture. Immediately after, I approached him and asked if I could take a closer one. He said: “No, no, no, no, no!” I asked why. His voice was anxious. “Because I’m nervous!” Why are you nervous? “Because I’m waiting for the bus!”. (Photo by Mimi Mollica)
What’s the most inaccurate thing your child has ever been taught in school?
I was at work. The phone at my desk rang.
It was the school office calling me.
“Mr. Phillips, this is Mrs. Smith (not her real name), I am calling you to tell you that your daughter had an accident, today.”
My heart immediately sank. The tension rose in my heart like I had just jumped into Lake Superior while there were still ice blocks washing up on shore.
“What’s happened? Is she okay?” Waiting anxiously for each word.
“Yes, I guess, Mr. Phillips. Your (11 years old, mind you) daughter urinated on herself in class and we need you to bring her a new set of clothing.”
—-Long pause—-
Internally, I was overjoyed that it wasn’t a physical injury of some kind; but then my mind started to insert a few questions into my consciousness.
Me: “Wait, what did you say?” (Mrs. Smith repeated her statement.)
Me: “Where was she?”
Smith: “She was in class.”
Me: “Where is she now?”
Smith: “Well, she’s in the lobby of the school office.”
Me: “When did this happen?” (Her reply was muddled a bit. I found out later that it was more like an hour.)
Me: “Is she still in her wet clothing?”
Smith: “Yes”
At this point, I am an hour away from the school and my wife was unavailable. I reminded them of those facts…
Apparently, my daughter was taught by the teacher that girls (a lie just because the teacher didn’t like kids getting up and disrupting her class), could hold their bladder longer than class, so no girl should have to get up and go to the bathroom, during class.
As she explained that my daughter deliberately peed herself to get out of class, I stopped Mrs. Smith and demanded to speak to the vice principal.
Mr. Jones (not his real name) picked up the phone. “Mr. Jones. Hi, Mr. Phillips, your daughter is sitting on a towel here in the main office. How soon can you get here? It’s starting to smell.”
My eyes are starting to bleed, at this point. With all my military bearing now completely gone, my words came fast and full of “pappa bear”.
ME: “Mr. Jones, I am about an hour away from school. I can’t leave work. However, I will be picking my daughter up from school today. When I do pick her up, here’s what I expect. I expect my daughter will be clean, dressed in fresh clothing, and full of stories about how she was apologized to by you, your teacher and the principal of the school for not allowing her to go to the restroom when she politely asked. IF I find she’s anything other than what I just described, then I will drive my daughter in her urine-soaked smelly clothing to the emergency room at the local hospital, to make sure her bladder isn’t ruptured, then to my attorney’s office, so that he can participate in teaching you all accurate information about the illegality of physically keeping a child from going to the restroom! On top of that, I will be speaking at great length to the school board about how irresponsible and cruel it was for you to do this to someone’s child! Do I make myself clear?”
That situation still grieves me terribly, every time I think of it. It’s not just information that comes to our kids, all mixed up and twisted. They are being manipulated by school staff, as a commodity. When you see stuff like this, it makes you so angry!
Epilogue: I picked up my daughter, and her clothes were nicer than the ones I sent her to school with. She was clean and gave me a big hug. She was sitting some distance away from the vice principal while he was on the phone with me, but she heard me quite clearly explain their error to them.
I told her, “If you hear anything in school that you doubt for one second, come to me. Call your mom. Don’t ever be disrespectful; but if you ever have to go to the restroom, you excuse yourself politely, and you get up and go. I will back you!”
Another hug.
The Decline And Fall Of The Western Empire
Almost everyone sees it, and almost no one wants to discuss it: America and Western Europe are spiraling out of control. And the speed of the descent is crescendoing rapidly.
What is an experience you had at a crime scene you’ll never forget?
As a crime scene technician, I have plenty. The first one that comes to mind is the woman who took PCP, then shot and killed her 4 young children, a neighbor, and herself.
I’ll give y’all the general idea, but out of respect & confidentiality, I won’t be posting any photos or information that could identify any of the persons involved.
My team and I arrived on scene. The local PD cleared us to enter the premises. Upon entry, there was blood everywhere. The mother killed herself at the doorway. To the right on the couch, the 5yr old was shot. Bloody, child sized footprints led down the hallway. The closet door was open in the hall, revealing the 6 month old baby she shot. To the right, a bedroom with 2 twin mattresses. The center of the mattress was the 8 or 9yr old. More bloody footprints in the room led to the closet. The 3yr old passed away there, cowering in fear.
My team did not access the neighbor who was killed.
We found a lot of evidence that the local PD had missed. Half of it was in plain sight. We discovered the killers cell phone, spent bullets, casings, I.D.s, etc. It seemed like the responding officers didn’t really look for any of it.
I believe that they were overwhelmed by such a gruesome scene. It was a very small country area & they probably hadn’t seen anything like it before. It was pretty intense.
To me, what made it unforgettable, was the fact a drug could completely change a person and cause them to run rampant, killing your own children.
I found this letter in a laundry basket.
The neighbors all knew this lady was getting messed up on PCP.
If you know of anyone with children in their home & are using hard drugs, please report them to CPS or the police. This whole situation could’ve been avoided if her neighbors & family had taken action.
Community. We need to be part of our community. - MM
How To Make Iced Vietnamese Coffee
Brewed in a traditional Vietnamese coffee maker
This is a step-by-step recipe for preparing delcious Vietnamese Coffee using a traditional Vietnamese coffee maker known in Vietnam as a phin (or French press). The phin most likely originated in Cambodia in the 1800’s and is essentially a single-serving coffee brewer and filter that sits atop the coffee cup or glass.
Vietnamese coffee prepared in this way ensures the grounds of the coffee are steeped for longer than some other brewing techniques and results in a richer and more intense flavor that is delcious served either hot or iced.
You can watch the Trung Nguyen Iced Coffee Video below, demonstrating this Vietnamese coffee brewing technique for making delicious iced Vietnamese coffee.
You will need:
- 2 tablespoons ground Vietnamese Coffee
- 1/2 cup boiling hot water
- 1-2 tablespoons of Sweet Condensed Milk (to taste)
- 1/2 cup ice cubes or crushed ice
- Vietnamese Coffee Filter
Preparation
- In a stainless steel Vietnamese Coffee Filter, add 2 tablespoons of Vietnamese Coffee. Screw the smaller filter into the coffee filter.
- Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of Sweet Condensed Milk into a drinking glass. Place filter on top of the drinking glass. Pour hot water into the filter.
- Once hot water has filtered through, remove the filter from the glass. Stir the milk to dissolve into the coffee. Add ice with coffee and stir again.
Hot Vietnamese Coffee is made the same way but excluding the ice.
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