• She was 19.
• She was hired as our copy room clerk.
• Part Time.
• It was her first job.
• She had never lived alone.
• She met a bragging wastrel who promised her the world.
• It was her first boyfriend.
• Her primary motivation to marry him (6 weeks after meeting him) was to get out from under her controlling parents, and to celebrate having a new job and new boyfriend.
• She signed an apartment lease without new husband, because he had no credit and wouldn’t pass the background check. Later proved to be helpful.
• She financed a car, without the husband as co-signer, who had no credit, and no job, and thus wouldn’t be approved — and the salesmen sold it to her anyway. An overblown, expensive, GTO.
• She got bashed about by said husband when they fought.
• She said she was kicked by her Uncle’s horse. Every week. In the face.
• This all took place in a six-month period, culminating in her tearfully asking for our law firm’s help to:
  • Divorce said husband, because she couldn’t afford the legal fees.
    • We did.
  • Help her qualify for health care to figure out what to do about pregnancy.
    • We took her to Planned Pregnancy. She wasn’t pregnant. Small mercies.
  • Prevent her car from being repossessed because she couldn’t afford the car payments.
    • We didn’t. Told she could keep this overblown muscle car which HE picked out, or have her apartment, which SHE picked out. Choose wisely.
  • Stop or halt the eviction because she couldn’t afford the rent.
    • We did. She kept the apartment, with a roommate from an advertisement.
  • Help get a restraining order because he was abusive.
    • We did.
• She worked one more year, before taking him back in her life.
  • She came us to us and asked if we could help — again.
  • Can we help evict him from her apartment, because he won’t leave, and roommate won’t stay and pay rent while he’s there.
    • We could. We didn’t.
  • Can we help her get her money back — she had bailed him out of jail but he skipped on bail, and now she was liable.
    • We could not.
  • Could we help prevent her wages from being garnished for their joint taxes, which they had not paid.
    • We could not.
  • Instead she was terminated from her employment for a long list of infractions which all centered around racing to his aid during business hours, taking his calls during business hours, bringing in and sending his mail with our postage meter, etc.
  • Sixty (60) days later: She asked if we would please not challenge the Unemployment Claim, by saying she was fired for cause and for theft (postage, supplies and more), so as not to jeopardize her claim for unemployment. Please? Please.
    • We could lie for her. We didn’t.

UPDATE: November 6, 2019. I’m surprised at the number of views and comments this answer has generated. It prompted me to do a wee bit of digging to see how she fared. I found her on Facebook in short order — using her maiden name. 25 years later — she looks wonderful physically. Album after album of photographs of happy life events with friends and family, and group photos of her participation in amateur competitive sports. Many photos of her on trips with her mother and father. Sad photos after the loss of her father. Not a single photo or mention of “him” — the husband we knew. But sadly, photos and memories of the death of her life partner, a boyfriend with whom she had been living with for many years, it seems. Many testimonials as to his good character, from her friends, family and co-workers, and positive comments from his family as well. It sounds as if they had a good life together. I’m glad she is having what appears to be a good life, sorry she had tragedies. Glad they were not of her making. Hope I’m not sharing too much of her private life here, but should she ever find this thread — I’ll try to make plans for lunch.

Oh, I am sure that it can.

But the problem is that China does NOT want to fight the Philippines. The United States wants the fight. Not China.

Well, the Philippines voted in the current jackass-in-chief and from my sources it appears (regardless of what the media “reports”) he’s very unpopular. He has breathed life into domestic corruption to astounding levels, cozies up to the United States which now regulates the average Filipino the rank of sub-human in the eyes of Americans, and is prepping the island chains for long extended Vietnam-style warfare.

Don’t you think it would just be better to tell the United States to “bugger off”, and let the Filipino people get on with their lives?

So now you have a rabid anti-China media bombarding the islands with all sorts of anti-China propaganda, and provocations against China galore.

What do you think is gonna happen?

That somehow the PLA is going to hop into ships and storm the beaches of the Philippines like the Japanese did in World War II. Is that what you believe?

Pssst… here is what is gonna REALLY happen.

China will render it inert.

• China is gonna launch missiles. Lots of them. Lots and Lots and Lots. Maybe nuclear, but probably not, against all those military bases. It is going to make a mess of them. Really tear them all up. They are gonna look like Swiss cheese.
• China is also gonna tear apart all the bigger ports and airports. No one will be able to get in or out. Clean slate erasure. Like a giant picked up a mountain and dropped it on those sites.
• But all this being said, the average Filipino will be spared, unless they (though raw bad luck) walked in upon a missile barrage. They will be left alone.
• China will not engage the locals. They do not want to.
• China will not fight to take over any land in the Philippines. They do not want it, at all.
• But the harsh reality is that China will render the military forces in the area extinct, and after the erasure of the bases let the Philippines move on with their lives.

So, the Chinese “solution” to the Philippines “problem” is to “defang it”.

Not to capture it, acquire it, seize it, or convert it to communism. Just to render it inert, and try to spare as many Filipinos from a life of war-torn poverty as possible.

Now, that being said, depending on how entrenched the ruling oligarchy is inside the Philippines, the following options are on the table. But it is a question if they are going to be implemented.

• China could then turn it into a proxy state. Like the United States has with Marcos.
• Or, China could turn it into a protectorate. Along the lines of Mongolia or perhaps Tibet.
• Or, China could carve it up and balkanize it. Thus making it’s threat vector smaller. Make turn it into five or six individual nations.
• Or, China could seize all the ruling families, kill them, and make it a client state of China.

In this grand game of Geo-politics, China is playing a very involved long-term strategy of peace and friendship. While the Western colonial powers are doing everything in their simplistic silly minds to stop it. But, if a war does break out, the highest probability would be for the Philippines to be rendered inert. And then observed from afar.

And that is the truth, and the reality.

Dark Pumpernickel Bread

This is a dense European-style bread with unusual grainy texture. It should be very healthy because of the ingredients, as well as having a rich, delicious taste. It’s excellent warm with gobs of sweet butter.

Ingredients

Bread

• 4 packages active dry yeast
• 3/4 cup blackstrap molasses
• 1 1/2 tablespoons dry powdered coffee
• 1 1/2 tablespoons dry cocoa
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 5 tablespoons brown sugar
• 3/4 cup dry powdered milk
• 2 cups hot water
• 1/2 cup canola or peanut oil
• 1 1/2 cups dark rye flour
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups cracked wheat flour
• 1 cup wheat germ
• 1 1/4 cups buckwheat flour
• 1 1/4 cups gluten flour
• 2 1/2 tablespoons caraway seed

Glaze

• 1 egg white
• 2 teaspoons water
• 1/2 teaspoon instant coffee

Instructions

Bread

1. Mix yeast, molasses, powdered coffee, cocoa, sugars, powdered milk, hot water and oil thoroughly in a mixing bowl, then add remaining ingredients.
2. Mix thoroughly in a large mixing bowl. Place dough ball on kneading board with 1 cup white unbleached flour and knead vigorously 12 to 15 minutes, adding more white flour as necessary. If using an electric mixer with dough hook, knead while adding white flour little by little. Dough will be slightly sticky and moist, but will begin to take on an elasticity and glossy appearance.
3. Oil mixing bowl and roll dough in bowl until all of surface is coated with a thin cover of oil. Cover with a warm damp towel and place in a warm draft-free place for 1st rise, which may take from 1 1/2 to 2 hours as this dough is a slow riser.
4. When dough has doubled in size, remove to floured kneading board and punch down to remove as much gas as possible. Divide dough into 3 to 6 loaves and place on greased baking sheet sprinkled with yellow cornmeal. If using Teflon baking sheets, no greasing is necessary, but cornmeal should be used. Space loaves far enough apart to allow for expansion. Brush each loaf with glaze.

Glaze

1. Mix well. Use a soft pastry brush to apply glaze so as not to depress loaves. Sprinkle with caraway seed and coarse salt. Place again in draft-free warm place and allow for 2nd rise until loaves are about double in size, which will take about 1/2 the time of the 1st rise. Bake in a moderate oven (350 to 375 degrees F) for about 50 minutes to one hour. If loaves seem close to scorching after 50 minutes, but loaves are not done, turn off oven, leaving door closed for last 10 minutes. To test for doneness, pick up a loaf with a hot-pot mitten and thump bottom. If the sound is “hollow,” the loaves are done.
2. Cool on a wire rack or eat warm.

Notes

May be frozen and kept for several months or more.

China Philippine clash, this incident caused an uproar in the Philippines. Many people ask, where has the US Pacific Fleet gone? The USS Roosevelt had been wandering in the South China Sea for almost two months, and finally left before the 15th and exited the South China Sea. It’s probably just a coincidence, just assumed as so.

This incident has made us see a truth clearly , the so-called “US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty” is useless. If something really happens, the Americans will run away first.

The Hill and Fox News added fuel to the fire, saying that the US-Philippines treaty is there and the United States must fulfill its obligation to defend the Philippines. But Congress and the US military seemed to remained silent. The so-called creation of “support from the international community” is just an illusion for the Philippines, that is, the United States “helped” with words but without any actual action.

When the Chinese Coast Guard boarded and seized Philippine military supplies and personnel, something related to US military actions also occurred.

This incident was deliberately downplayed by the US government and media, and even in our country we can’t find much information about it.

The US military in Okinawa is quietly carrying out a phased withdrawal operation!

The 19,000 U.S. Marines currently stationed at the Okinawa base will be transferred in batches to places farther away from China. What does this indicate? This shows that the US military’s ability to intervene in East Asia is becoming increasingly inadequate!

According to the plan, starting from December this year, 5,000 people will be transferred to the mainland United States and Hawaii to defend the mainland; another 4,000 people will be transferred to Guam, and it is planned to be completed before 2028. In this case, the size of the Marine Corps stationed at the Okinawa base will be reduced to 10,000 or less.

US Defense News : 2024 will be a critical year for strengthening Guam’s defense.

Then, the US Defense News said that this was the so-called strategic adjustment. The U.S. military is implementing the strategy of “fire forward while retreating” in the East Asian waters, which shows both that the U.S. military is having no hope of defense from whatever nation it perceived as a threat.

Ryukyu is an important forward base of the US military in East Asia and the Western Pacific.

If they can hold on, then why withdraw the USS Roosevelt and the US troops stationed at the Okinawa base at this point in time?

The decline of the U.S. national strength is an indisputable reality. Faced with intensified competition among major powers, the U.S. is caught in a dilemma – it is unwilling to withdraw from certain overseas regions, but it is unable to cope with high-intensity challenges.

As long as the United States still wants to pursue hegemony in East Asia and the Western Pacific, and still wants to stubbornly interfere in the Taiwan Strait issue, the US military will have to face China’s strategic attack to break through the first island chain like slicing a sausage.

It may also be that the U.S. military can no longer fight modern wars. Long-range, fast, and precise missile strikes make fixed targets such as overseas military bases very unsafe.

Especially in the face of saturation attacks, the stationed US troops appear to be very vulnerable. Therefore, there is only one reasonable explanation:

the US military is forced to disperse its forces to the rear due to fear of being intensively attacked by various new weapons such as Dongfeng missiles, hypersonic missiles, stealth fighters, and drone swarms. (In 2014, the U.S. Navy first proposed the concept of “distributed combat” in a war game, hoping to evade the opponent’s attack by dispersing)

How did China become a world-class economic power? This was not achieved through paper statistics, but through real-world struggles. The 1998 Hong Kong financial defense battle is a typical example.

In 1998, international financial tycoon George Soros set his sights on Hong Kong, which had just returned to China. He believed that China’s weak economic foundation at the time could not protect Hong Kong. Soros led international speculators, mobilizing hundreds of billions of dollars to attack Hong Kong’s financial market.

Soros’s strategy was a “three-dimensional attack”: borrowing large amounts of Hong Kong dollars and short-selling the Hang Seng Index, attempting to trigger a public run on banks and force the Hong Kong government to issue more currency, thereby breaking the linked exchange rate system. From July 1997 to May 1998, the Hong Kong dollar was attacked three times, causing the Hang Seng Index to plummet by over 4,000 points, creating extreme market panic.

Initially, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority could only respond by raising interest rates, but this exacerbated the economic recession. Property prices plummeted, people rushed to exchange for US dollars, and society was in turmoil. Western media had already begun to celebrate victory, mocking Hong Kong as weak.

At the critical moment, the Chinese central government stepped in. In late 1997, then-Premier Zhu Rongji had warned Soros that China would maintain the yuan’s value. In March 1998, Premier Zhu publicly declared, “If the Hong Kong government requests, we will spare no effort to maintain Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability!”

However, Soros and his allies did not take these warnings seriously. They believed their hundreds of billions of dollars could crush any economy. What they didn’t know was that the central government was prepared to fully support Hong Kong.

On August 14, 1998, the Hong Kong government suddenly used its foreign exchange and land funds to enter the market, causing the Hang Seng Index to rebound by 560 points. August 28 was the settlement day for Hang Seng futures and the day of the final battle. The central government sent two deputy governors from the central bank and Bank of China to Hong Kong with 60 billion Hong Kong dollars, authorizing the use of all 140 billion US dollars in foreign exchange reserves.

On the day of the final battle, the Hong Kong government fought against international speculators over stocks like HSBC Holdings and Hong Kong Telecom. The government stood firm, absorbing all sell orders. The total turnover that day reached 79 billion Hong Kong dollars, a historical high. Finally, the Hang Seng Index closed at 7,829 points, and the Hong Kong government declared victory.

After this battle, Hong Kong introduced new regulations to limit speculation. International speculators withdrew en masse. In 1999, the Hang Seng Index returned to above 10,000 points, and the Hong Kong market recovered. The government not only didn’t lose foreign exchange reserves but earned several billion US dollars.

This victory had far-reaching significance. It not only shattered the myth of Soros’s invincible “three-dimensional attack theory” and the notion that “bringing down Hong Kong would bring down China,” but also proved that China had become an economic power that couldn’t be ignored. This victory marked the end of an era where financial tycoons could easily cause a country’s economic collapse, signifying China’s true emergence as a world-class economic power. Today, China’s economic volume has reached 77% of that of the United States.

A country’s economic status, like its military status, is never granted by others but is won through real struggles. The 1998 Hong Kong financial defense battle is an important milestone in China’s economic development history. It demonstrated the central government’s determination and ability to defend national economic interests and laid the foundation for Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability after its return. This victory is worth remembering forever.