Some of the predictions about peak solar change are coming true. Some of the predictions of the chaos that engulfs the United States before it’s collapse, are coming true. Some of the predictions laid forth by Strauss and Howe are coming true. Just now in 2023, rather than four to five years later in 2027.
Can you honestly believe that the bad is going to continue for another five years until it peaks in 2027? I cannot.
We are here NOW.
OK. Today’s article…
THIS IS MY MOST IMPORTANT VIDEO.
Title, not MM stuff. -MM
A neural link could be hijacked by AI to make humans behave as it wishes. Scary times indeed.
What is your opinion, as a Chinese-American on the recent surge of illegal Chinese crossing the US border?
If they could afford the cost of flying from China to South America and went through all the hazard of illegal crossing into the US, it would make more sense for them to simply fly into the US as tourists and disappear in the US.
This propaganda is beyond stupid.
Who is the best escape artist in the world?
You may have never guessed it would be him.
Mark DeFriest always had a distant stare in his eyes — as though he could see something nobody else could.
During a conversation, he’ll look you in the eyes, respond — but never quite be “there’”, which is why he struggled to connect with people.
Mark was born with savant syndrome, a rare condition that
allows a person to excel with specific mental abilities while being deficient in others. The syndrome is commonly known through Kim Peek, t
he person Rain Man was based on.
Mark’s talent manifested in his fascination with gadgets. By age 6, he could disassemble and reassemble mechanical watches and other complex devices. Eventually, he could repair anything.
And he is, perhaps, the greatest prison escape artist in history.
His first arrest was in 1969
At 19, Mark and his new wife were driving along the Florida panhandle, working their way out west to start a new life together.
His father abruptly died and Mark turned back to attend the services. to him in his will. Thinking it was OK, he went and picked up the tools to use as part of his trade.
His stepmother didn’t care for Mark. The will hadn’t been probated yet so, technically, his picking up the tools was illegal. She called the police.
Because of Mark’s mental condition, he thought there was a big conspiracy to have him incarcerated, so he fled the scene. What should have been a routine arbitration of a disagreement turned into a full-blown police chase.
He was sentenced to four years in prison.
The prison escapes begin
It seems readily obvious that if your prison sentence is short, you should be well-behaved and aim to serve it without issues. Now, if you were dying of cancer or sentenced to 250 years, trying something crazy might make more sense.
This is where DeFriest’s brilliance is pocked with holes.
When you are inside a Florida prison cell, with steel bars, several enclosed layers of cement grids, high barbed-wire fences, guards standing watch, and living just one floor above the electric chair, escaping feels like an impossible task.
Yet Mark saw this as just another problem to solve. He lacked broader context to understand the consequences of breaking free.
His first escape attempt came when he slipped LSD into the hospital pharmacy’s coffee mixer. He planned to make a break for it when everyone was high.
After the staff started freaking out, he picked the lock to his cell and ran down the prison hallways.
Then, he scaled an exterior wall and hot-wired a car that he drove off of in.
Quite quickly, he was caught and brought back. He was sent to another prison, where his sentence was extended for grand theft auto.
The prison escapes continuing
It’s worth noting that Mark, from the very beginning, was subjected to abuse in the prison system.
His mental illness made him stand out amongst a killer’s row of peers.
They used him as a punching bag for their own legal frustrations. Additionally, his prison escapes infuriated the guards, who felt they’d been made to look stupid. They taunted and beat him routinely.
The abuse only accelerated Mark’s efforts to escape. In total, he escaped seven times on thirteen attempts. When he escaped, it usually involved him spotting a hole in their security systems or procedures. Other times, it was even more cunning.
For example, a prison guard was standing near his prison cell. Mark saw the key that was hanging from his waist and memorized the patterns. Then, he carved his own replica key and used it to escape.
In another attempt, he made a makeshift device to cut through bars and escaped through a vertical window by pushing together unsecured furniture.
He also used a device to launch himself over the barbwire fences. More plainly, he managed to create a make-shift catapult in prison.
In each of these escapes, he would find a nearby vehicle, pick the lock, and then start the car using his hands. And, eventually, he would be tracked down and re-arrested.
This wasn’t the extent of his shenanigans. He also figured out a way to hack the prison, and on multiple occasions, caused all the cell doors to open at the same time. They still haven’t figured out how he did it. Explaining his method isn’t in his immediate plans either.
The tragic takeaway of it all
What should have been a 4-year sentence is now extended to 105 years.
No, Mark didn’t help his case in attaining the nickname ‘The Jail Houdini’. Sure, it earned him acclaim throughout the country but earned him no love from judges and prison employees.
Many resources were expended managing him and that depletion may have put others at risk.
Today, Mark DeFriest is 62 and still sits in prison.
He’s spent more than 27 years in solitary confinement. He’s never been involved in a violent offense. He’s never hurt, anyone. Sure, rules are rules.
Yet I can’t help but feel this is another example of the penal system’s horrific ability to manage the mentally ill.
Decades earlier, when he stood trial for his 105-year sentence, five of six psychiatrists said he was incompetent to stand trial. The one dissenting psychiatrist has now reversed his position. The courts will have none of it.
Following a push by activists to get him released, he was granted parole. It was short-lived though. Only ten days later, his parole was overturned and Mark was arrested while checking himself into a mental health facility. He’s the only prisoner serving a life sentence in Florida for a nonviolent offense.
Yes, mental illness has been getting more attention from legislatures in recent years. But in the hard-lined prison system? Don’t expect any changes anytime soon.
Star Trek – A Mystery With No Answer
Canadian Mennonite Plum Custard Kuchen
A tea-biscuit base with neat rows of plums surrounded by custard – this is a delicious dessert.
Ingredients
Kuchen
- 1 1/3 cups flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup margarine or shortening
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 cup milk
- Plums, pitted and halved
Topping
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Custard
- 1 beaten egg
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup buttermilk or yogurt
- 1/3 cup sugar
Instructions
- Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Cut in margarine.
- Beat egg and milk and stir into mixture.
- Pat the dough over the bottom of a 9-inch cake pan. Arrange nicely in rows enough pitted plums to completely cover the dough. Sprinkle topping over the plums.
- Bake at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile mix custard ingredients.
- Take the kuchen out of the oven, drizzle the custard mixture over the plums, and return it to the oven.
- Reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake for another 30 minutes.
- Serve warm.
Brazil and China
49 points Joint Statement Between the People's Republic of China and the Federative Republic of Brazil on Deepening the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (Full Text)
Victoria Newland trying to stir up trouble…
Several major cities were considered for mega project, expected to be operational by 2035
China is likely to build its first Hyperloop train line between Shanghai and Hangzhou, according to the nation’s top engineering and rail design institutes.
The 150km-long (93-mile) in-vacuum tunnel will allow maglev trains to travel at speeds of up to 1,000km/h (621mph).
The Chinese Academy of Engineering and rail authorities commissioned a “comprehensive assessment on the candidate construction sites for ultra-high speed pipeline maglev system demonstration line”, and the two richest cities in the east coast emerged as winners, said scientists involved in the project in a report published in the Chinese-language journal Railway Standard Design on April 17.
U.S.Airforce Vs UFO / U.S.S. Enterprise!
Fascinating episode. As for William Shatner, what a life. He went into space on 13 October 2021, at the age of 90. For real. Shatner became the oldest person to reach the final frontier.
Work Related Web Comics To Help You Make It Through Monday
Waking up on Monday morning with nothing to look forward to but corporate speak and lower back pain is enough to make anyone want to kidnap the fax machine and smash it out of it’s misery à la ‘Office Space’. Wes of The Gentleman’s Armchair has created some sad but true comics to take the edge off. So take a coffee break and read through these work related web comics for a quick pick-me-up before getting back to the grindstone.
h/t: cheezburger
EMERGENCY ALERT SENT TO MILLIONS, NATO Makes WW3 pledge
The need for a new US Foreign Policy
US foreign policy is based on an inherent contradiction and fatal flaw. The aim of US foreign policy is a US-dominated world, in which the US writes the global trade and financial rules, controls advanced technologies, maintains militarily supremacy, and dominates all potential competitors. Unless US foreign policy is changed to recognise the need for a multipolar world, it will lead to more wars, and possibly World War III.
The inherent contradiction in US foreign policy is that it conflicts with the UN Charter, which commits the US (and all other UN member states) to a global system based on UN institutions in which no single country dominates. The fatal flaw is that the US has just 4 percent of the world population, and lacks the economic, financial, military, and technological capacities, much less the ethical and legal claims, to dominate the other 96 percent.
At the end of World War II, the US was far ahead of the rest of the world in economic, technological, and military power. This is no longer the case, as many countries have built their economies and technological capacities.
President Emmanuel Macron recently spoke the truth when he said that the European Union, though an ally of the US, does not want to be a vassal of the US. He was widely attacked in the US and Europe for uttering this statement because many mediocre politicians in Europe depend on US political support to stay in power.
In 2015, US Ambassador Robert Blackwill, an important US foreign policy strategist, described US grand strategy with exceptional clarity. He wrote, “Since its founding, the United States has consistently pursued a grand strategy focused on acquiring and maintaining preeminent power over various rivals, first on the North American continent, then in the Western hemisphere, and finally globally,” and argued that “preserving U.S. primacy in the global system ought to remain the central objective of U.S. grand strategy in the twenty-first century.”
To sustain US primacy vis-à-vis China, Blackwill laid out a game plan that President Joe Biden is following. Among other measures, Blackwill called on the US to create “new preferential trading arrangements among U.S. friends and allies to increase their mutual gains through instruments that consciously exclude China,” “a technology-control regime” to block China’s strategic capabilities, a build-up of “power-political capacities of U.S. friends and allies on China’s periphery,” and strengthened U.S. military forces along the Asian rimlands despite any Chinese opposition.
Most US politicians and many in Britain, the EU, Japan, Korea, Australia, and New Zealand support the United States’ aggressive approach. I do not. I view the US approach to China as contrary to the UN Charter and peace.
China has the right to prosperity and national security, free from US provocations around its borders. China’s remarkable economic accomplishments since the late 1970s are wonderful for both China and the world.
During the long century from 1839 to 1949, China was driven into extreme poverty in a period marked by European and Japanese invasions of China and Chinese civil wars. Britain invaded in 1839 to force China to buy Britain’s addictive opium. Other powers piled on during the following century. China has finally recovered from that disastrous period, and in the process, ended poverty of around 1 billion people!
China’s new prosperity can be both peaceful and productive for the world. China’s successful technologies – ranging from vital cures for malaria to low-cost solar power and efficient 5G networks – can be a boon for the world. China will only be a threat to the extent that the US makes China into an enemy. US hostility to China, which mixes the arrogant US aim of dominance with long-standing anti-Chinese racism dating back to the 19th century, is creating that enemy.
The dangers of US foreign policy extend beyond China. The US goal to expand NATO to Ukraine and Georgia, thereby surrounding Russia in the Black Sea, helped stoke the Ukraine War. Countless nations see the danger of this approach. Major nations from Brazil to India and beyond aim for a multipolar world. All UN member states should recommit to the UN Charter and oppose claims of dominance by any nation.
Star Trek – Back In Nazi Germany?
Philippines says ‘won’t allow’ US to stockpile weapons at joint military bases
The Philippines said Wednesday it “won’t allow” the US to stockpile weapons at joint military bases in the Southeast Asian nation for use in operations in Taiwan.
Enrique Manalo, Filipino foreign affairs chief, told a Senate hearing that the “Philippines will not be allowing the US to stockpile weapons for use in operations in Taiwan at sites American troops have access to under a 2014 defense agreement between Manila and Washington,” the daily Phil Star reported.
His comments came as Manila has approved four more military bases for joint use with Washington under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), signed in 2014....
Article HERE
Which ancient Chinese historical time period was roughly equivalent to the contemporaneous issues between the USA and China, and can you relate what happened?
“Every happy family is happy in the same way. Every unhappy family is unhappy in different ways.”
If you are looking for exact matches, you won’t find any. But rather, if you were to isolate the different parts of the US’ present day troubles, you can find similarities with various aspects of Chinese history. These are just my own observations.
—
1. Wang Mang
The first thing that jumps out to me is the US almost repeating the mistakes of Wang Mang. The Xin Dynasty that Wang Mang set up is widely regarded as the worst dynasty, so bad that it isn’t even viewed as a legitimate ruling polity. In a way, you can imagine the Xin Dynasty as a successful usurpation of authority by the forces that former president Donald Trump represents.
Wang Mang advocated for a return to the old Zhou Dynasty society, whereas the changes and progress made in the Qin and Han Dynasties were seen as making China worse. It closely resembes the whole Maga thing, where you had reactionary forces wanting the US to “return” to the old 1950s version of America. Wang Mang also rose up as a populist leader, who did bring up legitimate grievances that the masses had with the rulers, as many felt they were uncared for.
Of course, once Wang Mang actually came into power, he completely broke every promise he made, neglected agriculture, failed at flood control, and completely failed at diplomacy with the Xiongnu confederation. Wang Mang would even set up a “rival” government that would be the “real” rulers of the Xiongnu, which sounds quite similar to US machinations with their coup attempts “for muh democrazy”.
2. Qianlong
The other issue I see is that the US is exhibiting the same problems that led to the stagnation of the Qing Dynasty, which ended with the West overtaking China. The US keeps trying to hold onto coal mining, constantly has issues with automation “taking jobs”, and how globalization is “unfair”.
Emperor Qianlong famously declared that China had everything she desired, and how the Europeans had nothing to offer. While not exact, I see the same thing with the US thinking she’s got everything she needs, and the new technologies coming out of China “are not profitable” or other excuses.
3. Southern Song
The final problem with the US is that it is exhibiting the signs of late stage capitalism. While every Chinese dynasty would eventually devolve into the chaos of decentralization, liberalism, and capitalism, none exhibited these disasters as strongly as the last days of the Song Dynasty.
If you read “Up and Down 5000 years”, there was a story of two rich families competing in wealth, where they would do things like washing pans with sugar water, constructing a 20 mile walkway with satin, or lavishly buying dozens of Peng Jing. All while the people were under threat of famine, revolts were happening everywhere, and the armies of the Jin were winning battle after battle.
These kinds of families also completely took over the Song court, which quickly devolved into non-stop factional in-fighting. Qin Hui would rather kill Yue Fei for his personal political power, even though Yue Fei was the one spending his entire life protecting the Song against the Jin. There was no concept of the greater good, and that is exhibited by the US today – for some unknown reason, Americans seem to think “greater good” is a bad thing.
—
Anyways, none of these are perfect matches, because as stated previously, failure is different every time. If only one of the three time periods could be picked, I’d go with Qianlong. That was at the end of the Qing Dynasty golden age (Kangxi – Yongzheng – Qianlong), so things still appeared to be very good on the surface, but the decadence has already set in.
Ground Cherry Pie
Ground cherries, also known as husk tomatoes, produce tiny tomato-like fruits in papery husks on low, lanky bushes. This is an old Mennonite recipe with a crumb topping.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups pitted ground cherries
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 (9-inch) pie shell
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons butter
Instructions
- Heat oven to 425 degrees F.
- Wash ground cherries and place in unbaked pie shell.
- Mix brown sugar and 1 tablespoon flour and sprinkle over cherries. Sprinkle water over top.
- Mix together the 3 tablespoons flour and 3 tablespoons sugar. Cut butter in until crumbly. Top cherry mixture with crumbs.
- Bake for 15 minutes.
- Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees F and continue to bake for 25 minutes.
Star Trek – Escape From Rome
On the land of China, there is a group of flower chasers. They are bee farmers who keep bees.
Starting from spring each year, they will catch up with the flowering season across the country, and even stay at home for no more than a month each year. The highway will also save time for them every second, providing priority access. This is called the “green channel” on the highway and is prepared for agricultural logistics. During the previous years of the epidemic, the green channel was also used in some areas to transport epidemic prevention materials.
In terms of bee selection, Italian bees have a good yield, but often only collect large flower fields, while local bees have advantages in wintering and freezing prevention, and can also collect scattered flowers, but the yield is relatively low. Bee farmers hybridize two types of bees to gain the advantages of both.
The various crops in the farmland require pollination, which gives farmers and bee farmers, the two groups of “static and dynamic”, the motivation to cooperate. Bees are very sensitive to pesticides, and farmers will prepare empty window periods for bee farmers to pollinate to avoid accidental harm to these bees.
Beekeepers usually bring dogs to warn and drive out wild animals. For example, there may be some wolves in Inner Mongolia. Heilongjiang and Jilin also have bears, and there are mice everywhere – they can steal honey.
With the price advantage of solar panels, bee farmers, as a modern kind of “nomad”, are increasingly using solar energy.
In the past, honey was difficult to sell directly because beekeepers had been in the mountains and forests for a long time and transportation was inconvenient. Now, on the Chinese version of TikTok, beekeepers’ live streaming promotion is widespread. People feel more reassured about honey products when they see live videos about how they are produced.
Beekeepers sell pollen, honey, royal jelly, even beeswax and beehives with honey. The honey produced by different flowers has different aromas, which is the taste of the flowers. Chinese linden honey, locust flower honey, osmanthus honey, longan honey, coptis chinensis honey, lychee honey, these are all popular honey types.
The picture shows Chinese linden honey, and the bee farmer said that the price of this bottle is forty yuan – 5.8$. Reasonable for me.
What is the most unpleasant thing about South America?
Here you see a Brazilian wandering spider guarding its offspring under a bed.
Its Latin name is Phoneutria fera. This spider is aggressive and highly venomous.
It appeared in the 2007 Guinness Book of World Records for being the most venomous animal.
It is among the few spiders that are truly dangerous to us.
The spider itself grows to 5 cm in size but the legs can be 15 cm long.
Wandering spiders are hairy and have eight eyes, two of which are large.
And they move very fast.
It is called a wandering spider because it moves on the tropical forest floor and not in a burrow or web.
This makes it so dangerous.
Because it seeks out dark shelters that can be houses, clothes, cars, boots, boxes and piles of logs.
You might accidentally disturb it and that is not a good idea.
He might even find himself in a bunch of bananas, because these he likes.
But he generally likes meat. Crickets, mice or even lizards are part of his prey.
If this spider bites you, you may see and feel something like two pinpricks.
Or you may feel strongly poisened.
But in either case you must seek medical help, because you are in grave danger.
The spider possesses a powerful neurotoxin, meaning it attacks your nervous system.
But its venom is also the most painful and excruciating of all spiders because of its high concentration of serotonin.
And these spiders are among the ones that bite the most human beings.
There are certain countries, where you better not move too much alone, without a guide, in nature.
Europe does quite well in this respect.
Good thing.
Now watch this next video.
The World Isn’t Ready for What’s Coming This Summer
OK. Please watch this short video…
Now read this next article…
“Severe” G4 Geomagnetic Storm now in progress (Sunday)
48 Hours ago, the sun let loose a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) aimed directly at earth. Scientists warned it may cause a Geo-Magnetic Storm. Tonight they have their answer: a “Severe” G4 Geo-magnetic storm is now in progress. Aurora’s may be visible down to TEXAS!”
Arriving earlier than expected, a CME hit Earth’s magnetic field today, April 23rd, at 1737 UTC. The impact sparked a severe G4-class geomagnetic storm with auroras in Europe as far south as Germany and southern Poland. The storm is subsiding now, currently G3, but it is still strong and could produce auroras over the USA after nightfall. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
“My pulse is still racing!” says Heiko Ulbricht, who watched the aurora show from Saxony, Germany, during the apex of the geomagnetic storm. “There were bright green spots dancing across the sky all the way up to the zenith.” The image above is what he saw.
“I still can’t breathe,” he says. “This was a show not to be forgotten.”
The auroras were so bright, they could be seen even from brightly-lit urban areas. Thomas Hunger sends this report from Berlin, Germany: “I run Northern Lights tours in Tromsø, Norway, but would have never dreamt of seeing auroras from my home town of Berlin. I stepped on the balcony and enjoyed a sight that in a city of 4 million inhabitants might just have been a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
Tomasz Adam had a similar experience in Kraków, Poland: “I saw aurora for the first time in my life,” he says. “My photo might not look like much, but I took it from Kraków – one of the most light polluted cities of Poland.”
Watching America’s Collapse On Video
Your time is almost up if you live in the West. It’s past OVER. Leave now.
We had possibly the most vibrant aurora australis I have ever seen back on April 23. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-24/aurora-australis-southern-lights-south-west-victoria/102259180