Putin’s speech is amazing.
More about that later.
Watch the world unravel.
The spy balloon saga
Thought you guys might enjoy this. Worth watching til the end. This comedian sums up what’s been going on, in short.
The crowd response is really good.
The BIG news…
Difficult to convey as crystal clear on the diplomatic level the present Sino-Russian ties when Vladimir Putin (President) was meeting with Li Shangfu (Minister of Defense) on a Sunday, and not on any Sunday but on the Easter Sunday. Minister of Defense Li Shangfu : The present Sino-Russian partnership goes beyond what existed with the Cold War alliance. Apparently simple common sense, standing unwaveringly together is the best way to deter an agressor, especially a bully suffering from a leviathanesque hubris and for a long time... But maybe it's not simply common sense in the usual meaning of the expression, like 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' and that kind of stuff having its own value of course but that is far to be enough to sustain a close and long-lasting partnership when the stakes are so high. It is most carefully cultivated friendship and true mutual appreciation & respect, knowing perfectly what each one can give to the other in the common endeavor and the respective willingness of each one to share one's own assets with the other. It's the common awareness at the highest level being at a major nexus of Universal History and the roles China and Russia have been assigned by Destiny and more importantly, the awareness of such roles by that actors themselves and their willingness to go forward endowed with such roles. In the intricate mind games of interpersonal relations and international relations, it's quite easy to fall into the inevitable divisive traps if the ties are not set at the highest epistemological levels. The most clumsy & most overbearing behavior coming from the KFC-AZAEL (Kakistocratic Feudal Conglomerate of the Anglo-Zio-American EstabLishment) triggered the Sino-Russian rapprochement but the present Sino-Russian relation is defined by what the Chinese are and by what the Russians are, centered on what they represent and are incarnating with awareness and by what they can achieve together. It's centered on China & Russia, it's not centered on the other, the KFC-AZAEL. Do Svidaniya ! Quan Link
The US Just Crossed a RED LINE in Taiwan! Watch Out!
What is the process by which the Chinese Communist Party gathers public opinion and implements policy?
First, there are 8 other political parties that serve in government. They represent many constituents.
Second, there are locally elected officials at the village level who provide feedback.
Third, the government monitors social media to get the pulse of the nation.
Fourth, regularly convened congresses such as the Two Sessions are attended by thousands of delegates from across the country.
Fifth, when there are public protests against government policies, the government pays attention and responds appropriately.
China’s democracy, which does not follow the Western model, is very effective. So much so that it garners wide support…
shows that 83 percent of Chinese believe their country is democratic making it the most democratic nation on earth!
shows that 89 percent of Chinese trust their government.
that 95.5 percent of Chinese are satisfied with their government.
shows a high level of satisfaction among the Chinese across a range of aspects up to 95 percent.
shows that 95 percent of Chinese believe their country is on the right track.
survey from Ipsos shows that China is the happiest country in the world at 91 percent.
The statistical evidence is overwhelming.
Western countries, especially the United States, can only dream of having such numbers.
BREAKING: America’s Shocking Plan For Russia Just Crumbled
Gaeng Khio Wan Kai
(Green Chicken Curry)
The Thai name of this dish literally means “sweet and sour chicken curry.” There is a very similar recipe for a red curry (Gaeng phed kai).
As always, the quantities are up to you.
Ingredients
Curry Paste
- 15 to 30 fresh phrik ki nu (birdseye chiles)
- 10 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 teaspoon chopped galangal
- 1 tablespoon thinly sliced lemon grass
- 1/2 teaspoon zest of “kaffir” lime (ordinary lime will do)
- 1 teaspoon chopped coriander (cilantro) root
- 5 white pepper corns
- 1 tablespoon roasted coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon roasted cumin seeds
- Dash of fish sauce
- 1 to 2 teaspoons fermented shrimp paste (kapi)
The Curry
- 6 ounces chicken (in smallish bite-size pieces)
- 1/2 cup coconut milk
- 4 ounces Thai eggplant (these are small round eggplants)
- 2 kaffir lime leaves (or a little lime zest)
- 1 tablespoon sweet basil
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon palm sugar
- Oil for cooking
- 1 to 3 tablespoons green curry paste
Instructions
- Curry Paste: Mix in a mortar and pestle or food processor. Will keep about a month in a fridge. You can buy commercial green curry paste (Mae Ploy brand is quite good), but as far as I am aware all commercial pastes contain MSG and preservatives.
- The Curry: Cut the chicken up, then briefly fry the curry paste until fragrant, reduce the heat, add the coconut milk slowly, and continue to stir whilst cooking until a thin film of oil appears on the surface.
- Add the chicken and other ingredients except the eggplant. Bring to a boil and cook until the chicken begins to change color. Adjust the flavors to suit yourself. When it is at a boil again add the eggplant and continue until the chicken is cooked through.
- Serve over rice, or in a serving bowl with other Thai dishes.
Where U.S Weapons For Ukraine Are REALLY Going! w/ Sy Hersh
Escobar: Mr. Lavrov’s New York Shuffle
Authored by Pepe Escobar,
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s New York moment performed the diplomatic equivalent of bringing the house down…
Now picture a true gentleman, the foremost diplomat of these troubled times, in total command of the facts and endowed with a delightful sense of humor, taking a perilous walk on the wild side, to quote iconic Lou Reed, and emerging unscathed.
In fact, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s New York moment – as in his two interventions before the UN Security Council on April 24 and 25 – performed the diplomatic equivalent of bringing the house down. At least the sections of the house inhabited by the Global South – or Global Majority.
April 24, during the 9308th meeting of the UNSC under the agenda “Maintenance of international peace and security, effective multilateralism through the protection of the principles of the UN Charter”, was particularly relevant.
Lavrov stressed the symbolism of the meeting happening on the International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace, deemed quite significant by a 2018 UN General Assembly resolution.
In his preamble, Lavrov noted how “in two weeks, we will celebrate the 78th anniversary of Victory in World War II. The defeat of Nazi Germany, to which my country made a decisive contribution with the support of the Allies, laid the foundation for the post-war international order. The UN Charter has become its legal basis, and our organization itself, embodying true multilateralism, has acquired a central, coordinating role in world politics.”
Well, not really. And that brings us to Lavrov’s true walk on the wild side, pinpointing how multilateralism has been trampled. Way beyond torrents of denigration by the usual suspects, and their attempt to submit him to an ice cold shower in New York, or even confine him to the – geopolitical – freezer, he prevailed. Let’s take a walk with him across the current wasteland. Mr. Lavrov, you’re the star of the show.
Are we on the brink of WW111?
Our way or the highway
That “rules-based order”:
“The UN-centric system is going through a deep crisis. The root cause was the desire of some members of our organization to replace international law and the UN Charter with a kind of ‘rules-based order.’ No one saw these ‘rules’, they were not the subject of transparent international negotiations. They are invented and used to counteract the natural processes of the formation of new independent centers of development, which are an objective manifestation of multilateralism. They are trying to contain them with illegitimate unilateral measures, including cutting off access to modern technologies and financial services, ousting them from supply chains, confiscating property, destroying competitors’ critical infrastructure, and manipulating universally agreed norms and procedures. As a result, the fragmentation of world trade, the collapse of market mechanisms, the paralysis of the WTO and the final, already without disguise, transformation of the IMF into a tool for achieving the goals of the United States and its allies, including military goals.”
Destroying globalization:
“In a desperate attempt to assert its dominance by punishing the disobedient, the United States went on to destroy globalization, which for many years was extolled as the highest good of all mankind, serving the multilateral system of the world economy. Washington and the rest of the West, which has submitted to it, use their ‘rules’ whenever it is necessary to justify illegitimate steps against those who build their policies in accordance with international law and refuse to follow the selfish interests of the ‘golden billion’. Dissenters are blacklisted according to the principle: ‘Whoever is not with us is against us.’ It has long been ‘inconvenient’ for our Western colleagues to negotiate in universal formats, such as the UN. For the ideological justification of the policy of undermining multilateralism, the theme of the unity of ‘democracies’ as opposed to ‘autocracies’ has been introduced. In addition to the ‘summits for democracy’, whose composition is determined by the self-proclaimed Hegemon, other ‘clubs of the elite’ are being created, bypassing the UN.”
“Garden” vs. “Jungle:
“Let’s call a spade a spade: no one allowed the Western minority to speak on behalf of all mankind. It is necessary to behave decently and respect all members of the international community. By imposing a ‘rules-based order’, its authors arrogantly reject a key principle of the UN Charter – the sovereign equality of states. The quintessence of the ‘exclusivity complex’ was the ‘proud’ statement by the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, that ‘Europe is the Garden of Eden, and the rest of the world is a jungle.’ I will also quote the NATO-EU Joint Statement of January 10 of this year, which states: the ‘United West’ will use all the economic, financial, political and – I pay special attention – military tools available to NATO and the EU to ensure the interests of ‘our one billion’.
NATO’s “line of defense”:
“At last year’s summit in Madrid, NATO, which has always convinced everyone of its ‘peacefulness’ and the exclusively defensive nature of its military programs, declared ‘global responsibility’, the ‘indivisibility of security’ in the Euro-Atlantic region and in the so-called Indo-Pacific region. That is, now the ‘line of defense’ of NATO (as a defensive Alliance) is shifting to the western shores of the Pacific Ocean. Bloc approaches that undermine ASEAN-centric multilateralism are manifested in the creation of the AUKUS military alliance, into which Tokyo, Seoul and a number of ASEAN countries are being pushed. Under the auspices of the United States, mechanisms are being created to intervene in maritime security issues with an eye to ensuring the unilateral interests of the West in the South China Sea. Josep Borrell, whom I have already quoted today, promised yesterday to send EU naval forces to the region. It is not hidden that the goal of the ‘Indo-Pacific strategies’ is to contain the PRC and isolate Russia. This is how our Western colleagues understand ‘effective multilateralism’ in the Asia-Pacific region.”
“Promoting democracy”:
“Since World War II, there have been dozens of criminal military adventures by Washington – without any attempt to gain multilateral legitimacy. Why, if there are ‘rules’ unknown to anyone? The shameful invasion of Iraq by the U.S.-led coalition in 2003 was carried out in violation of the UN Charter, as was the aggression against Libya in 2011. A gross violation of the UN Charter was U.S. interference in the affairs of post-Soviet states. ‘Color revolutions’ were organized in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, a bloody coup d’état in Kiev in February 2014, and attempts to seize power by force in Belarus in 2020. The Anglo-Saxons, who confidently led the entire West, not only justify all these criminal adventures, but also flaunt their line of ‘promoting democracy.’ But again, according to its ‘rules’: Kosovo – to recognize independence without any referendum; Crimea – not to recognize (although there was a referendum); Do not touch the Falklands/Malvinas, because there was a referendum there (as British Foreign Secretary John Cleverly said recently). That’s funny.”
The geopolitics of the “Ukrainian issue”:
“Today, everyone understands, although not everyone talks about it out loud: this is not about Ukraine at all, but about how international relations will be built further: through the formation of a stable consensus based on a balance of interests – or through the aggressive and explosive promotion of hegemony. It is impossible to consider the ‘Ukrainian issue’ in isolation from the geopolitical context. Multilateralism presupposes respect for the UN Charter in all the interconnectedness of its principles, as mentioned above. Russia has clearly explained the tasks that it pursues as part of a special military operation: to eliminate the threats to our security created by NATO members directly on our borders and to protect people who have been deprived of their rights proclaimed by multilateral conventions, to protect them from the direct threats of extermination and expulsion from the territories where their ancestors lived for centuries publicly declared by the Kyiv regime. We honestly said what and for whom we are fighting.”
The Global South fights back:
“True multilateralism at the present stage requires the UN to adapt to the objective trends in the formation of a multipolar architecture of international relations. The reform of the Security Council must be accelerated by increasing the representation of countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The West’s current outrageous overrepresentation in this main UN organ undermines multilateralism. At the initiative of Venezuela, the Group of Friends in Defense of the UN Charter was created. We call on all States that respect the Charter to join it. It is also important to use the constructive potential of BRICS and the SCO. The EAEU, the CIS, and the CSTO are ready to contribute. We are in favor of using the initiative of the positions of regional associations of the countries of the Global South. The Group of Twenty can also play a useful role in maintaining multilateralism if Western participants stop distracting their colleagues from topical issues on its agenda in the hope of muffling the topic of their responsibility for the accumulation of crisis phenomena in the world economy.”
So who’s breaking the law?
After this concise tour de force, it would be immensely enlightening to track what Lavrov has been telling the world since February 2022, in consistent, excruciating detail: the serial international law breakers, in contemporary history, have been the Hegemon and its sorry gaggle of vassals. Not Russia.
So Moscow was completely within its rights to launch the SMO – as it had no alternative. And that operation will be brought to its logical conclusion – inbuilt in the new Russian Foreign Policy Concept published on March 31st. Whatever may be unleashed by the Collective West will be simply ignored by Russia, as it regards the entire combo to be acting outside the norms of international law laid down in the UN Charter.
Ex-US Army Psyops Expert: Fox News Fired Carlson To Maintain “Semi Lobotomized Quasi Retarded Population”
Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,
A former US Army psychological warfare officer says that Tucker Carlson was fired by Fox News because of the regime’s agenda to maintain an “uninformed semi lobotomized quasi retarded population.”
The remarks were made by US counter-terror expert Scott Bennett.
Carlson and Fox News “parted ways” on Monday with speculation still raging as to the specific reason why the network canned its highest rated and most popular host.
According to Bennett, Carlson posed too much of a threat to institutional power because he turned Americans into proper “researchers and thinkers”.
Carlson offered an “intellectualism, truthfulness, and an analytical depth that no other news personality has ever done in the history of the United States as far back as I can remember,” said Bennett.
Tucker needed to be “silenced” because he represented too big a threat to the “powers and principalities, institutions and agendas that seek an unenlightened uninformed semi lobotomized quasi retarded population that do not question, do not research, do not analyze but simply digest and follow instructions,” according to Bennett.
“Tucker Carlson also exposed the fraud and money laundering racketeering crimes of FTX and the Democrat Party in Ukraine involving the United States government. He exposed the US biochemical labs in Ukraine and their connection to the Democrat Party, President Barack Obama, Vice President Biden, Hillary Clinton, George Soros, Bill Gates, and other US government agencies and pharmaceutical companies,” Bennett told Sputnik.
The ex-host’s anti-regime rhetoric “could no longer be tolerated by the corrupt American media and political establishment,” said Bennett, adding that his exit signals “the death of American media”.
The former US army psyops officer suggested that Senator Chuck Schumer had threatened to utilize the CIA and the FBI to deploy secret government operations against Tucker to get him off air unless he was fired.
Schumer previously called for Carlson to be taken off air after he broadcast footage showing the January 6 ‘riot’ leaders were actually allowed into the Capitol and chaperoned around by authorities.
As we highlighted earlier, one of the reasons behind Tucker’s dismissal is a lawsuit fired by former show producer Abby Grossberg, who claims she was bullied and subjected to sexist and anti-semitic harassment.
However, Grossberg’s own lawyer revealed that she has never even met Carlson.
This article is based on the Sputnik interview with Dušan Kovačević, a renowned Serbian dramatist, film director, screenwriter, author and academic.
Sputnik: Dusan, our previous interview ended with the statement that more monkeys entered into ‘a taaaank’. It appears that your admonitions have come true. Let me ask you at the beginning of this interview how close to disaster are we indeed?
DK: The fear of the war in Ukraine turning into the Third World War, God forbid, is so present everywhere that anybody in their right mind feels that it is on the brink of a huge catastrophe. Particularly now after the official visit of Xi Jinping to Russia and after their tacit agreement to create a joint defense in case anything happens, that tension is growing particularly with the information that munitions with depleted uranium will be delivered to Ukraine. We have gone through that in Serbia and many warn of the fact that in some places where these weapons were deployed the cancer deaths have been on the rise by 1000 %, not 100 % but 1000%. So, the shipping of ever bigger and more destructive weapons into Ukraine, as Dmitri Medvedev said this morning is getting nearer a nuclear war. People keep talking about it and warning of its threats. However, Ukraine has turned into a war zone and a war polygon to try and test many different weapons. People are scared in principle and this war has caused this cataclysm: economic fear and then these demonstrations (in Europe) now. Nobody wants to admit it that it is directly related but they talk and make up all sorts of reasons but in fact, that is it: when the energy resources become more costly which have been primarily supplied from Russia, there is now a chain of new price increases and thus the protests all around Europe and the world.
Sputnik: It could be said that depleted uranium is the weapon against the Orthodox Christians.
DK: It could be called many different things but I would reduce it to one thing: sickly proposal. Whether it is exactly on that territory with the majority of Orthodox Christian believers, yes there is enough reason to believe that, due to one fact which we went through in the 90s. My sentiment is in the case of the war which occurred on the territory of the Former Yugoslavia and this war in Ukraine. These are unfinished conflicts of the Second World War. You know, there is an issue I talked about a long time ago and I can tell it again. You know when you have a wound, and the wound is the Second World War and Nazism. That is a most awful wound in the body of the world, and not only Europe. And you don`t clean the wound completely (medically) but you only apply a bandage on it, the way it was done after the First and the Second World War, that is why that wound gets infected and it has to be amputated. And that story of Nazism has never been completely defined for what it is. There has been no law on genocide and it was introduced at a later stage. But they managed to wriggle out; and then there came a ban on arms for one hundred years, and then that was canceled; And Germany which is remembered for its evil doing, among others, in the region of Mačva, Serbia, where I was born which suffered most horribly by Germany in between the two world wars Mačva was almost burned down to the ground out of hatred and revenge by the Nazis. In Šabac in 1914 and 1915 there was not one single house left unscathed. Everything was demolished and the atrocities which were committed entered the medical annals for their beastliness. So I myself am painfully aware of what Nazism means.
I first encountered the phenomenon of Nazism when I was a child when I started primary school, one beautiful day in September, my teacher Natalja Ikodinovic, whom I still clearly remember unlike many others the names of whose I forgot later, she came to school to teach in a blouse with short sleeves and I saw a number tattooed on her arm at which I felt appalled because I did not know anything about these figures on her arm. I asked my parents why my teacher had numbers on her arm, which I would normally see on problematic people (i.e. ex cons, tough guys): tattoos in general.
My parents told me that it was a number from concentration camps but they did not want to explain any further. When I grew up, I found out she was in Dachau for four years. I still remember that image of the number on her arm as shocking as something I never saw before and then another relative of mine who also was in a concentration camp said that a person who raises their arm in a Heil Hitler, Nazi salute should have his or her arm cut '. Why? Because they were forced to raise their arm in a Nazi salute in the concentration camp. He told me that he seriously thought of cutting his arm to not have to salute to the Nazi commander in this way. These horrors which I portrayed in Battle of Cer, I World War, Maratonci, Bombing of Belgrade in Ko to tamo peva (Who is singin' over there), and Underground, my movies and TV series and all the atrocities which is then again related to the movie Prica o Vasem ocu. Some scenes with the animals in the Underground were shot in the Belgrade Zoo and Vuk Bojovic, the then Director of the Belgrade Zoo helped us immensely to adapt the space for a month; we were shooting some scenes in one part underneath Kalemegdan Fortress but the animals in the movie were from the Zoo.
Vuk Bojovic told me about the horrors when a bomb struck a dark corridor where people from Dorcol came to hide and all of them died sadly (in 1941). So this same history is now re-emerging back and when I hear Germany is being asked if they should send weapons to Ukraine and they cheer for Ukraine and then some people who pretend to be 'very important and smart' seem to frivolously express their views, then I keep wondering how come they are even allowed to carry weapons? I would not allow the Germans to carry a slingshot in their hands', let alone firearms. They would have to, by all standards of humanity, be disarmed and not even be allowed for a century to use knives when they have lunch. However, in all levels of social communication, we are now talking about the war and we are now talking about the fact that they voted in Germany that young people should not choose their gender of preference until the age of 18. So, one very serious mental disorder has taken over Europe and the world.
Sputnik: Is EU driving the bus with blindfolds on? And who is Misko (the young and stubborn blindfolded bus driver in the movie) in the distribution of roles in the political arena today?
DK: It takes all sorts. They come and go. From one year to another, from one period to another. They simply pretend everything is all right but in all that narrative especially now since the war in Ukraine began that amount of aggressiveness and threats is brought to an absurd level. The top of that absurdity is the denunciation and threat that Putin will by some strange miracle (though I am not sure how) would be caught and brought before the ICC, which by the way nobody respects.
Sputnik: What is your comment on this piece of news? Should it be viewed as a tragedy, comedy or a TV drama?
DK: I view that as if it were an episode from Alo Alo TV series. This somehow looks like that: a game show. It is so frivolous, cynical and ludicrous. Finally, that threat against Vladimir Putin only raises the tension and the level among the Russians to understand that they are up against the people who are seriously problematic.
Sputnik: Which world characters nowadays would you compare your characters Marko and Crni from your movie Underground?
DK: Nowadays, when you think about it, there are many of them, today the manipulation of one group of people who keep the others under delusion in the proverbial underground (a metaphorical basement in the film itself) is to me rather close to U.S. politics. I am not talking about the U.S. population in general where each week there is either a domestic violence crime or something similarly brutal. I have listened to the news even this morning and some children were murdered and then some people were killed and then a suicide but what is so strange is that the delegates from the White House keep threatening Russia and China (regardless of their own internal national problems), which are nuclear powers with one third of the whole population in the world and which possess the weapons which nobody even knows what they have. The most highly advanced weapons are not on display on the fairground, surely. It is hidden away from the public gaze.
And they dare threaten Russia and China after having fled from Afghanistan when the Taliban stormed there in beach flip flops. The U.S. even abandoned their allies there and left them to suffer and die. This is absolutely absurd, abstract and unreal. On the other hand the tensions grow because of the nuclear arms which about ten countries have at this point. The story of North Korea is illustrative enough. If North Korea did not have nuclear weapons, Kim Jong-un would be most brutally executed in the same way Gadafi was and many other world leaders. But they are afraid of him because they possess extremely powerful and precise weapons and Kim Jong-un is not afraid of anybody either.
The world is going step by step towards the brink of abyss. I am not sure if there will be anybody in their right mind to stop it and invite everybody to gather at the round table to discuss and negotiate. Each war regardless and they normally last for four years (it has been calculated by the military tactics experts why the war normally lasts for four years: the economy can withstand the pressure, the population can, the number of casualties can) after that they have to sit at the table and negotiate with ten, twenty or like in the first and second world wars with 50 million deaths at hand. Generally we are not in a good place in the whole world.
Sputnik: Your movie Maratonci trce pocasni krug (i.e. the Marathon runners are running an honorable race) has been a cult movie for fifty years now and it seems that it has no intention of stopping being shown and gaining ever more popularity. And now to draw this interview to a close, who do you think will win in this war?
DK: The polarization of the world is ongoing and we are witnessing it but it is not abundantly clear whether we shall experience a definite division but we also can see the fact that the new blocs and the new spheres of interest are in the making. The world will never be the way it used to be. The world will split. Russia and China will go in one direction together for sure. The EU, or at least what the names are of those countries there, will take the other direction, provided that they do not disintegrate by themselves because of the protests and strikes and serious turmoil they have on their own personal national levels. The USA will get isolated at some point because nobody will listen to the U.S. any more as is already the case, and another powerful bloc will emerge: so called the Third World countries – because of the economy and their huge populations. We have to be aware of the fact that the most densely populated country is India with 1 billion 400 million people plus Pakistan with 1 billion 600 000 million. They are becoming not only a military, heavily populated power but economically powerful too. We are yet to see what will happen in the future.
FLASH: CHINA BANS IMPORTS/EXPORTS INVOLVING RAYTHEON AND LOCKHEED – CRIPPLES U.S. DEFENSE INDUSTRY!
FLASH TRAFFIC: CHINA’S COMMERCE MINISTRY HAS BANNED SENIOR EXECS OF RAYTHEON MISSILES & DEFENSE, AND LOCKHEED MARTIN, FROM ENTERING, WORKING, STAYING, AND RESIDING IN CHINA.
MORE:
CHINA WILL NOW ENFORCE ITS FEB 16 BAN ON CHINESE ENTERPRISES FROM CONDUCTING IMPORT & EXPORT ACTIVITIES WITH ABOVE U.S. COMPANIES.
This is said to include Microchips from “Taiwan, China.”
Of course, the U.S. considers Taiwan to be “independent” but yet adopted the “one China policy.”
If Raytheon and Lockheed-Martin cannot engage in Imports/Exports to or from China, and if the ban on Microchips is enforced, the two most major players in U.S. National Defense manufacturing are immediately crippled.
In addition, the U.S. weapons SALES to Taiwan, will not be able to take place because the missiles and such that Taiwan is trying to buy, cannot now be shipped to Taiwan.
Put simply, China just put a total halt to US defense sales to Taiwan, and crippled the US Defense manufacturing industry by cutting off microchips.
Raytheon and Lockheed Martin face serious risk if their rare-earth supplies are also affected by the sanctions, according to Wu Chenhui, an independent industry analyst who follows the rare-earth industry.
Wu told the Global Times that Lockheed Martin, now on the banned entity list, may have to source its rare-earth supply, especially that of heavy rare-earth elements, from elsewhere.
Given China’s dominant position in global rare-earth supply, substitutes may not be found in time. This would mean production of the company’s F35 jet and many other high-tech weapon systems may face a temporary slowdown or suspension.
If China decides to expand the range of its ban to components produced by other countries that contain Chinese-made rare-earth elements, the depth and scope of the new bans will be deeper and wider, Wu noted.
The Double Standards Of Our Society Revealed In 47 Comics
While many of our societies take pride in the accomplishments made in the field of equal treatment for everybody, there is still a lot of work to be done. And who better can reveal these absurd injustices than the illustrators, who are always on a lookout for those funny and sometimes painfully real contrasts?
Below you’ll find a list of the most striking examples of double standards in illustrations, highlighting not only the problem but also the stiffness of our minds when it comes to recognizing it in our own lives.
What situation from your own experience do these remind you of? Let talk in the comments.
h/t: boredpanda, demilked
China Brings Peace To Yemen, Syria And … Palestine?
Peace is breaking out in the Middle East and the U.S. is pushed aside by more friendly actors.
On March 10 the world was surprised with a China mediated deal that restored ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran:
There are winners and losers in this.The winners are:
- Iran, which will now be even more able to break through the sanctions wall the U.S. has put up around it.
- Saudi Arabia, which now will likely be able to end its disastrous and costly war on Yemen.
- China, for outplaying the U.S. State Department by achieving this.
- Iraq, Syria, Yemen as they will become more peaceful as the two middle powers influencing policies on their grounds end their rivalry.
The losers are:
- Israel, because the chances for its attempts to get the U.S. into a war with Iran are now diminished. Its hoped for coalition with the Saudis will not come into being.
- The U.S. for having been outplayed on its traditional ‘home grounds’ in the Middle East.
- Anti-Iran hawks everywhere.
- The Emirates for losing at least some of the sanction busting trade with Iran to Saudi Arabia.
…
Reviving relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran will make a lot of new things possible.That Iran and Saudi Arabia accepted China’s mediation is a recognition of Beijing’s new standing in world policies. That alone is enough reason for the White House to hate the deal.
I predicted that the U.S. and Israel would do their best to sabotage the deal or at least make its implementation difficult.
The U.S. sent CIA director Bill Burns to warn the Saudis off. However the deal has held so far and the Saudis are repairing their relations with countries against which they previously waged wars. Yesterday a senior Saudi official visited Sanaa and shook hands with Yemeni Houthi officials:
Saudi Arabia’s military intervention against the Shiite Houthis began in 2015. Bolstered by extensive American military and intelligence support, it came to include 25,000 air raids, according to a count by the Yemen Data Project. The years of fighting created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises and resulted in the deaths of more than 377,000 Yemenis by the end of 2021 from both war and hunger, the United Nations calculates.The Houthis have made Saudi Arabia and its coalition allies pay a high price for their failed bid to return to the capital the internationally recognized government after it was ousted by the Houthis. They have launched more than 1,000 missiles and 350 drones into Saudi territory, increasingly deeply since 2019, prompting Riyadh to search for a way out of its military quagmire.
The accelerated moves follow just weeks after a high-profile rapprochement brokered last month by China between rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran – both of which turned Yemen’s civil war into a proxy battleground to expand their regional influence.
Over the last week the Saudis and Houthi sides released prisoners of war. The U.S. has done its best to sabotage the deal:
In the wake of the China-backed détente, the Saudis have largely been willing to abandon their proxies in the interest of ending what has been a draining war. The U.S. responded with alarm, rushing diplomats to the region to insist that pressure continue being applied to the Houthi government in the hope of undermining the deal in the works. [Tim Lenderking, the U.S. envoy for Yemen,] rushed to Riyadh on April 11, as news broke of a peace deal, to remind Saudi leaders of the U.S. desire that they continue to back their proxies in the war.
Instead, the ceasefire talks appear to have become possible because of an agreement in principle that Saudi Arabia would abandon its puppet government, back down from the blockade, and — as the Houthis hoped — use its vast oil wealth to pay Yemeni civil servants.
A similar rapprochement is happening between Saudi Arabia and Syria. On April 12 the Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad visited Saudi Arabia:
The visit is the first by a Syrian foreign minister to Saudi Arabia since 2011, when the war in Syria began. Saudi Arabia supported the Syrian opposition, but ties have thawed in recent months.Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has largely defeated the opposition with Russian and Iranian backing.
Over the past few months, there has been increasing engagement with al-Assad, who has been isolated since the start of the Syrian war.
Al-Assad has visited the UAE and Oman this year, and last month Saudi Arabia said it has started talks with Damascus about resuming consular services.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia will host a meeting of regional foreign ministers on Friday to discuss the return of Syria to the Arab League.
The Arab League re-entry will not happen for some time as Qatar, which supported the Muslim Brotherhood rebels against Syria, continues to be hostile to it.
The Saudis will never the less continue their plan. Today the Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan arrived in Damascus for a meeting with President Bashar al-Assad:
Saudi Arabia severed ties with Assad’s government in 2012 and Riyadh had long openly championed Assad’s ouster, backing Syrian rebels in earlier stages of the war.
Several other Arab countries also cut ties with Syria as some powers bet on Assad’s demise.
But regional capitals have gradually been warming to Assad as he has clawed back most of the territory lost to rivals, with crucial backing from Russia and Iran.
As with Yemen the U.S. does not like this move. It will continue its effort to isolate Syria and its government. It is no by chance that today, Just as the Saudi foreign minister visits Damascus, the U.S. is revealing a looming indictment of high ranking Syrian officials:
The inquiry, which has not been previously reported, aims to bring to account top Syrian officials considered key architects of a ruthless system of detention and torture that has flourished under President Bashar al-Assad: Jamil Hassan, the head of the Air Force Intelligence Directorate when Ms. Shweikani disappeared, and Ali Mamlouk, then the head of Syria’s National Security Bureau intelligence service.A federal indictment accusing the men of committing war crimes would be the first time that the United States has criminally charged top Syrian officials with the very human rights abuses that Mr. al-Assad has long denied using to silence dissent. Although the men are unlikely to be apprehended, a conviction would signal that the United States aims to hold the Syrian government responsible. Already, the United States has imposed sanctions on Mr. al-Assad and his inner circle, including Mr. Mamlouk and Mr. Hassan, over abuses like violence against civilians.
…
A potential indictment would “personalize the evil of this regime and make it clear you can’t do business with Assad,” said former Ambassador James F. Jeffrey, the Trump administration’s special representative for Syria engagement.
The move will be to no avail. The next country to patch it up with Syria will be Turkey. The Saudi clown prince Mohammad Bin Sultan has decided to develop Saudi Arabia into more than an oil producing country and pilgrimage enterprise. Peace is a prerequisite for development. Good relations with Iran and its various friends in the region will also keep Saudi Arabia out of a potential conflict between Iran and Israel.
There China may also be helpful. It has just offered to facilitate Israel-Palestinian peace talks:
In separate phone calls to the two officials on Monday, [China’s foreign minister] Qin Gang expressed China’s concern over intensifying tensions between Israel and Palestinians and its support for a resumption of peace talks, the Foreign Ministry said in statements issued late Monday.Qin stressed in his talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen that Saudi Arabia and Iran have set a good example of overcoming differences through dialogue, a statement about that phone call said.
He told Cohen that Beijing encourages Israel and the Palestinians to show political courage and take steps to resume peace talks. “China is willing to provide convenience for this,” he was quoted as saying.
This is another area where the U.S. has previously held, as in Saudi Arabia, an exclusive role.
China, with the support of Russia, is wrestling the U.S. of that role bit by bit. It can do this because it is perceived as neutral and shows no interest in any aggression.
It is the opposite of how the U.S. is perceived in the region. The Chinese way of doing these things makes it likely that these efforts will have better and longer lasting outcomes.
Posted by b on April 18, 2023 at 16:19 UTC | Permalink
Sesame Noodles with Thai Peanut Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 pound vermicelli or thin spaghetti
- 3 tablespoons dark sesame oil
- 3 cloves garlic
- 4 green onions, cut in 1/2-inch pieces
- 1 (1 inch) piece ginger root, pared and quartered
- 1/3 cup peanut butter (plain or chunky)
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup tap water or chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon rice or white vinegar
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
Instructions
- Cook spaghetti as directed; drain and rinse with cold water.
- Toss with 2 tablespoons sesame oil (this dish can be served cold or hot). If you want to serve as a hot dish, do not rinse with cold water; just drain.
- In food processor, finely chop garlic, green onions and ginger.
- Add remaining sesame oil and all ingredients. Process until thoroughly mixed.
- Top each serving of vermicelli or spaghetti with amount of desired sauce.
Western liberal democracy and its ubiquitous “austerity economics” is a euphemism for fascism. And the charade is finally coming to an end.
Western liberal democracy and its ubiquitous “austerity economics” is a euphemism for fascism. And the charade is finally coming to an end.
Austerity is not some recent policy under neoliberal capitalism. It was born out of the historic crisis in the Western system following the First World War and during the 1930s when fascism became a way to curtail any democratic challenge to the prevailing capitalist system.
That political instrument of repression is wielded today across all Western states. Quite amazingly, for a long time, few people recognized their captive, repressive state as fascism. We generally lived under the illusion that we were free citizens in “liberal democracies”.
In this interview, Clara E Mattei explains how the technocratic-sounding “austerity” is used to hide the brutal reality of dictatorship and repression against the vast majority of citizen workers in Western states.
Clara Mattei is an Assistant Professor in the Economics Department of The New School for Social Research, New York. She is the author of The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism.
Her book investigates the origins of austerity as an economic policy after the crisis of World War One. Crucially, she argues that austerity is not merely about governments balancing financial budgets. Professor Mattei contends that austerity policy implemented by all Western governments is a political instrument of mass repression to prevent any challenge to the prevailing capitalist order.
Austerity forces the vast majority to accept unacceptable conditions that are otherwise shockingly anti-democratic. The precariousness and insecurity of employment, the widespread denial of social services, deprivation and poverty, and the relentless abuse of taxes and resources that are fueling insane militarism and war.
If we really did live in free, democratic societies why are such deformities enforced without any alternative? Austerity is used to crush the political imagination for any reasonable, more humane, more peaceful alternative.
However, as Clara Mattei points out in this interview, the extreme anti-democratic conditions in Western societies are inevitably forcing greater numbers of people to question the injustices and hideous anomalies of the prevailing capitalist order.
People are realizing that Western governments are in reality regimes of repression in service for the enrichment of a minority. That fundamental deformity is why Western societies are collapsing and why the United States and its Western lackeys are driven to increasing conflict against Russia and China.
The charade of “Western democracy” is coming to an end. The rulers and their pantomime political parties are losing the moral authority to hold power over the masses.
As people necessarily seek ways to reinvent societies that are fit for meeting their democratic needs, socialist solutions are beckoning. We have to throw off the mental shackles imposed by our dictators, and realize, as Karl Marx once eloquently said, that we have got nothing to lose except our chains.
The War On Free Speech Is Really A War On The Right To Criticize The Government
Authored by John and Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,
“Since when have we Americans been expected to bow submissively to authority and speak with awe and reverence to those who represent us? The constitutional theory is that we the people are the sovereigns, the state and federal officials only our agents. We who have the final word can speak softly or angrily. We can seek to challenge and annoy, as we need not stay docile and quiet.”
– Justice William O. Douglas
Absolutely, there is a war on free speech.
To be more accurate, however, the war on free speech is really a war on the right to criticize the government.
Although the right to speak out against government wrongdoing is the quintessential freedom, every day in this country, those who dare to speak their truth to the powers-that-be find themselves censored, silenced or fired.
Indeed, those who run the government don’t take kindly to individuals who speak truth to power.
In fact, the government has become increasingly intolerant of speech that challenges its power, reveals its corruption, exposes its lies, and encourages the citizenry to push back against the government’s many injustices.
This is nothing new, nor is it unique to any particular presidential administration.
For instance, as part of its campaign to eradicate so-called “disinformation,” the Biden Administration likened those who share “false or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories, and other forms of mis- dis- and mal-information” to terrorists. This government salvo against consumers and spreaders of “mis- dis- and mal-information” widens the net to potentially include anyone who is exposed to ideas that run counter to the official government narrative.
In his first few years in office, President Trump declared the media to be “the enemy of the people,” suggested that protesting should be illegal, and that NFL players who kneel in protest during the national anthem “shouldn’t be in the country.”
Then again, Trump was not alone in his presidential disregard for the rights of the citizenry, especially as it pertains to the right of the people to criticize those in power.
President Obama signed into law anti-protest legislation that makes it easier for the government to criminalize protest activities (10 years in prison for protesting anywhere in the vicinity of a Secret Service agent). The Obama Administration also waged a war on whistleblowers, which The Washington Post described as “the most aggressive I’ve seen since the Nixon administration,” and “spied on reporters by monitoring their phone records.”
Part of the Patriot Act signed into law by President George W. Bush made it a crime for an American citizen to engage in peaceful, lawful activity on behalf of any group designated by the government as a terrorist organization. Under this provision, even filing an amicus brief on behalf of an organization the government has labeled as terrorist would constitute breaking the law.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the FBI to censor all news and control communications in and out of the country in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt also signed into law the Smith Act, which made it a crime to advocate by way of speech for the overthrow of the U.S. government by force or violence.
President Woodrow Wilson signed into law the Espionage and Sedition Acts, which made it illegal to criticize the government’s war efforts.
President Abraham Lincoln seized telegraph lines, censored mail and newspaper dispatches, and shut down members of the press who criticized his administration.
In 1798, during the presidency of John Adams, Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which made it a crime to “write, print, utter or publish … any false, scandalous, and malicious” statements against the government, Congress or president of the United States.
Clearly, the government has been undermining our free speech rights for quite a while now.
Good, bad or ugly, it’s all free speech unless as defined by the government it falls into one of the following categories: obscenity, fighting words, defamation (including libel and slander), child pornography, perjury, blackmail, incitement to imminent lawless action, true threats, and solicitations to commit crimes.
This idea of “dangerous” speech, on the other hand, is peculiarly authoritarian in nature. What it amounts to is speech that the government fears could challenge its chokehold on power.
The kinds of speech the government considers dangerous enough to red flag and subject to censorship, surveillance, investigation, prosecution and outright elimination include: hate speech, bullying speech, intolerant speech, conspiratorial speech, treasonous speech, threatening speech, incendiary speech, inflammatory speech, radical speech, anti-government speech, right-wing speech, left-wing speech, extremist speech, politically incorrect speech, etc.
Conduct your own experiment into the government’s tolerance of speech that challenges its authority, and see for yourself.
Stand on a street corner—or in a courtroom, at a city council meeting or on a university campus—and recite some of the rhetoric used by the likes of Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, John Adams and Thomas Paine without referencing them as the authors.
For that matter, just try reciting the Declaration of Independence, which rejects tyranny, establishes Americans as sovereign beings, recognizes God (not the government) as the Supreme power, portrays the government as evil, and provides a detailed laundry list of abuses that are as relevant today as they were 240-plus years ago.
My guess is that you won’t last long before you get thrown out, shut up, threatened with arrest or at the very least accused of being a radical, a troublemaker, a sovereign citizen, a conspiratorialist or an extremist.
Try suggesting, as Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin did, that Americans should not only take up arms but be prepared to shed blood in order to protect their liberties, and you might find yourself placed on a terrorist watch list and vulnerable to being rounded up by government agents.
“What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let them take arms,” declared Jefferson.
He also concluded that “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
Observed Franklin: “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!”
Better yet, try suggesting as Thomas Paine, Marquis De Lafayette, John Adams and Patrick Henry did that Americans should, if necessary, defend themselves against the government if it violates their rights, and you will be labeled a domestic extremist.
“It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government,” insisted Paine.
“When the government violates the people’s rights,” Lafayette warned, “insurrection is, for the people and for each portion of the people, the most sacred of the rights and the most indispensable of duties.”
Adams cautioned, “A settled plan to deprive the people of all the benefits, blessings and ends of the contract, to subvert the fundamentals of the constitution, to deprive them of all share in making and executing laws, will justify a revolution.”
And who could forget Patrick Henry with his ultimatum: “Give me liberty or give me death!”
Then again, perhaps you don’t need to test the limits of free speech for yourself.
One such test is playing out before our very eyes on the national stage led by those who seem to believe that only individuals who agree with the government are entitled to the protections of the First Amendment.
To the contrary, James Madison, the father of the Constitution, was very clear about the fact that the First Amendment was established to protect the minority against the majority.
I’ll take that one step further: the First Amendment was intended to protect the citizenry from the government’s tendency to censor, silence and control what people say and think.
Having lost our tolerance for free speech in its most provocative, irritating and offensive forms, the American people have become easy prey for a police state where only government speech is allowed.
You see, the powers-that-be understand that if the government can control speech, it controls thought and, in turn, it can control the minds of the citizenry.
This is how freedom rises or falls.
Americans of all stripes would do well to remember that those who question the motives of government provide a necessary counterpoint to those who would blindly follow where politicians choose to lead.
We don’t have to agree with every criticism of the government, but we must defend the rights of all individuals to speak freely without fear of punishment or threat of banishment.
Never forget: what the architects of the police state want are submissive, compliant, cooperative, obedient, meek citizens who don’t talk back, don’t challenge government authority, don’t speak out against government misconduct, and don’t step out of line.
What the First Amendment protects—and a healthy constitutional republic requires—are citizens who routinely exercise their right to speak truth to power.
Tolerance for dissent is vital if we are to survive as a free nation.
While there are all kinds of labels being put on so-called “unacceptable” speech today, the real message being conveyed by those in power is that Americans don’t have a right to express themselves if what they are saying is unpopular, controversial or at odds with what the government determines to be acceptable.
By suppressing free speech, the government is contributing to a growing underclass of Americans who are being told that they can’t take part in American public life unless they “fit in.”
Mind you, it won’t be long before anyone who believes in holding the government accountable to respecting our rights and abiding by the rule of law is labeled an “extremist,” is relegated to an underclass that doesn’t fit in, must be watched all the time, and is rounded up when the government deems it necessary.
It doesn’t matter how much money you make, what politics you subscribe to, or what God you worship: as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, we are all potential suspects, terrorists and lawbreakers in the eyes of the government.
Ukrainian counteroffensive has started – Wagner boss
The head of the private military company Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said on Wednesday that the Ukrainian forces had begun their counterattack in Artyomovsk (known in Ukrainian as Bakhmut) and are threatening to overwhelm his undersupplied troops.
Wagner forces advanced more than 200 meters on Wednesday, sustaining 116 fatalities and leaving less than three square kilometers of the Donbass city in Ukrainian possession, Prigozhin said in an audio clip shared online.
However the PMCs leader then announced that the Ukrainian military has “…begun its counterattack,” with “…unlimited manpower and ammunition.”
Meanwhile, he painted a dire picture of Wagner’s own situation, saying “ammunition shortages are acute” and his troops have enough rounds remaining “for just a few days.”
The Russian Defense Ministry is refusing to issue artillery ammunition to Wagner, “ignoring our every request,” Prigozhin claimed.
Wagner forces have been at the forefront of street fighting in Artyomovsk, known by Ukrainians as Bakhmut, a key rail and road junction in Donbass. Kiev has funneled tens of thousands of soldiers to the city, even as Wagner and other Russian troops established fire control over all the supply roads, leaving the Ukrainians half surrounded.
How the US Sold Australia a China War
What Is Flirting Like In Japan?
Flirting seems like a misnomer. It’s more like an absense of flirting. If you like someone in Japan, there are a couple of different ways of showing it and/or approaching them, none of which really resemble flirting in the west.
1. Nanpa (the “pickup”)
First off, only guys do nanpa; in the rare case that girls do it, it’s called gyaku-nan (“reverse nanpa”), but I never heard of gyaku-nan actually happening, it always seemed like it was more of an amusing theoretical idea, rather than something girls really did.
Nanpa only refers to the case when you don’t know the other person at all, and you want to pick them up.
Nanpa is direct. “You’re cute. What’s your name? Do you have time? Let’s go somewhere.” That is the classic script of nanpa.
It can be shortened to just: “Kawaii yo. Jikan aru?” If you hear that, you’re being nanpa-ed.
Of course, if you are a non-Asian foreigner, you will probably never hear that, because Japanese guys are too shy to try and nanpa a white or black woman.
Most Japanese guys are too shy to nanpa at all.
If you ask a Japanese if he has ever done nanpa, he’ll probably say, “ZOMG! No way! I’m too embarrassed!” since nanpa is direct, and mostly, if you are Japanese and you like someone, you embark on a series of subtle, indirect stealth manoeuvres, because liking prohibits action, especially for women, but also for men.
Why is this the case? Japanese social interaction is all about intuiting the other person’s wishes without discussing them openly, at the same time that they are intuiting your wishes without discussing them openly, so that although nothing is ever verbalised, the two of you will always exist in a compromise position of equilibrium.
If you like someone, that intuitive part goes into overdrive, because you should be able to understand everything about that person without them ever telling you, and you should be able to please them without ever asking how, even more than you would with a normal person.
So it’s more important than ever to be indirect. Which leads me to:
2. Negotiating through a third party
Again, it’s not really flirting, but since flirting is showing your feelings openly—that is, pushing your feelings onto another person, which is direct and rude—it’s better to show no sign to the other person and meanwhile exploit the back channels.
Sort of like in high school.
So that convoluted human chain whereby: you like Hiro and you tell Junko that you think Hiro has a nice smile knowing that Junko will intuit that you want to know if Hiro likes you back, since Junko is friends with Goro who is friends with Hiro and Junko will talk to Goro and Goro will bring it up with Hiro etc etc etc etc etc etc.
Once everything is confirmed, Hiro will ask you out. (The girl ask the guy out? Ahahahaha. Be serious.)
If you don’t have a third party to negotiate for you, you may be forced to use other methods, all of them so subtle that a westerner may not even notice them at all.
3. Subtle signals
Shyness. Pronounced shyness is form of flirting, since it’s a sign of liking, especially from girls, but also from guys.
She interacts with everyone else more than him, she doesn’t sit next to him, she doesn’t talk much to him, she doesn’t initiate anything with him.
Attentiveness. You make life easier for the other person without being asked to.
For example, when you got to a restaurant in Japan it’s normal to share food, so flirting means not ordering what you like, but ordering what s/he likes, which you already know without asking, because you’re observant. Stuff like that.
Eye contact. It’s the opposite to the west, where you gaze deeply into someone’s eyes if you like them. Direct eye contact is a bit rude in Japan at the best of times. If you’re flirting you look down and away a lot.
– Indirect compliments. I can’t think of a good example. It’s pretty rare to give direct compliments and even more rare to compliment someone’s looks. (It’s especially rare for guys to compliment girls directly.)
PACWEST BANCORP Stock Drops 56%+ in After Hours Trading RIGHT NOW!
Last night, I reported to all of you that three more U.S. Banks were in big trouble and named PACWEST BANCORP as one of those three. Today, its stock value dropped but that was nothing compared to what has taken place since markets closed at 4:30 this afternoon. PACWEST stock has plunged 56%+ since 4:30 today!
As of 5:51 PM EDT tonight (3 May 2023):
2.7892 -3.6308 (-56.5545%)
PacWest now has mandatory institutional divestment. Opinions of Traders on the street is that the Bank will probably drop to $1-$2 tomorrow, and the Bank will be Dead in a week . . . just like First Republic Bank this past Monday.
2023 is the year toxic zombie & woke banks DIE!
Silicon Valley Bank…..DEAD
Signature Bank…..DEAD
First Republic Bank…..DEAD
PacWest Bank…..DEAD???
Who’s next?
My guess:
Western Alliance
Metropolitan Commercial
Homestreet
Zions
(Not necessarily in that order)
War Machine THRILLED To See Tucker Carlson Go
City Of Asheville Trapped In Crime Crisis, Prepares To Impose 60-Day ‘Safety Initiative’
The City of Asheville, situated in North Carolina, is facing severe challenges due to soaring crime and a dwindling police force in the aftermath of the 2020 George Floyd murder, which sparked the nationwide ‘defund the police’ movement. In response to the rampant lawlessness, city officials have declared an emergency plan, beginning next week and lasting for two months, to tackle the crime wave.
“There are complex circumstances contributing to the safety issues that Asheville is currently seeing downtown, and it will take a community response to address these complexities,” the city stated in a press release.
Next Monday, city officials are rolling out a 60-day initiative to address safety downtown:
“Our efforts in downtown should in no way suggest that we aren’t focused on safety across the entire community. This intensive effort is driven by data that suggests a disturbing trend of increases in both property and violent crime in our downtown,” said Asheville Police Chief David Zack.
Here are some initiatives the city will implement to combat criminal activity on its streets:
- Increased law enforcement presence by utilizing foot, bike, and vehicle patrols as well as enhanced security in downtown parks.
- Launch of a Community Responder Pilot Program led by the Asheville Fire Department to support individuals in crisis and provide a more visible City public safety presence downtown. The pilot will be used to inform a longer-term Community Responder initiative past the 60 days.
- Focused attention on the removal of litter, needles and biological waste and general Downtown cleanliness; as well as increased maintenance activities in downtown parks.
- Partner with any private or non-profit organization to identify key locations in downtown where there are public safety concerns and/or to schedule community clean-up efforts.
- Enforcement of illegally parked cars with a specific focus on the areas in and around Pritchard Park.
- Enhanced frequency of monitoring City-owned and operated public parking garages, including stairwells in these facilities.
- Focused attention on quickly removing graffiti on public property and graffiti code enforcement on private property in the downtown area.
- Concentrated effort to identify streetlight outages in the central business district and coordination of necessary streetlight replacements with Duke Energy.
The announcement comes as local newspaper Mountain Xpress recently warned of a severe police shortage due to the polarizing defunding of the police movement during the pandemic.
On an ordinary day in Asheville, 16 to 18 police officers patrol the entire city, an area covering 46 square miles.
That’s down from 30 cops on duty three years ago, when Asheville first started losing officers faster than it could replace them.
The Asheville Police Department has been operating at a reduced capacity, now just 60%, for more than two years — and the Police Chief, David Zack, told Asheville Watchdog that it could be another decade before the force returns to pre-pandemic levels.
Crime in Asheville
Remember, Democrats ensured everyone that defunding the police movement would make communities safer, but in reality, it has unleashed nationwide crime waves. This is evident in Baltimore, Chicago, and numerous West Coast cities.
Looking forward, it’s important to hold Democrats responsible for their role in promoting failed social justice reforms that have led to more dangerous metro areas. The best way is to vote these folks out of office in the next election cycle.
Putin warns NATO “We haven’t even started yet.”
UPDATED 8:12 PM EDT — *****BULLETIN*****FLASH*****URGENT**** COVERT NUCLEAR INTEL
A long-range aviation source inside the Russian Air Force has now risked his life, namely the risk of going to prison for life, by informing that at least TWO (2) nuclear warheads have been removed from storage in Russia and have been taken to TWO airfields at
I continue to be amazed at how peoples in the 21st century continue to celebrate ‘democracy’, even after the arguments in the Republic, 24 centuries ago…
We can only suppose that the consciousness level of the speech -capable bipeds, still cannot conceive or present a cogent argument to the second-worst govern-ment model…
Materialism to the extent that is promoted to ‘justify’ the democarcy model, would make the cheeks of neanderthals blush ( they did have a 30% greater brain volume), tha the current homo deseus hetero sapiens ( self-aware of the desire of the external)
More so in the native lands of the Yellow Emperor,Lao Tze and Chuang Tzu….
hmmmm
Cheerful Love GrizzlyBear hug
unuk