Today will be a tad heavy on the Geo-Political stuff. Executive summary is simple, regardless of whatever nonsense is being pumped out of the Western “news”, China and the rest of the “Global South” are all doing very well.
There’s some articles on this and some graphs.
Then we have some very nice points being made as to the reality of what an “American led” “rules based order” actually means. It means exactly what I have been saying for so long now.
Some art.
Some food.
Some surprises. I try to compensate with stuff on cats, and people. I hope it’s a good mix to counter the geopolitical framed articles. So that the content isn’t so absolutely dry. Ugh!
Let’s start…
THIS IS A KEEPER!
It happened at a New York Airport. This is hilarious. I wish I had the guts of this girl. An award should go to the United Airlines gate agent in New York for being smart and funny, while making her point, when confronted with a passenger who probably deserved to fly as cargo. For all of you out there who have had to
deal with an irate customer, this one is for you.
A crowded United Airlines flight was canceled. A single agent was re-booking a long line of inconvenienced travelers. Suddenly, an angry passenger pushed his way to the desk. He slapped his ticket on the counter and said, “I HAVE to be on this flight and it has to be FIRST CLASS.”
The agent replied, “I’m sorry, sir. I’ll be happy to try to help you, but I’ve got to help these folks first; and then I’m sure we’ll be able to work something out.”
The passenger was unimpressed. He asked loudly, so that the passengers behind him could hear, “DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO I AM?”
Without hesitating, the agent smiled and grabbed her public address microphone. “May I have your attention, please?”, she began, her voice heard clearly throughout the terminal. “We have a passenger here at Gate 14 WHO DOES NOT KNOW WHO HE IS. If anyone can help him with his identity, please come to Gate 14”.
With the folks behind him in line laughing hysterically, the man glared at the United Airlines agent, gritted his teeth, and said, “F*** You!”
Without flinching, she smiled and said, “I’m sorry sir, you’ll have to get in line for that, too.”
Life isn’t about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain.
China is starting to target western interests in the country after five years of snowballing trade and technology restrictions spearheaded by the US under presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
Over the past two months, Chinese officials have slapped new sanctions on US weapons companies Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, launched an investigation into US chipmaker Micron, raided US due diligence firm Mintz and apprehended local staff, detained a senior executive from Japan’s Astellas Pharma group and hit London-headquartered Deloitte with a record fine. President Xi Jinping’s administration is now considering curbing western access to materials and technologies critical to the global car industry, according to a commerce ministry review.
The response to what Beijing has described as a US-led “technology blockade” reveals Xi’s strategy of narrowly targeting industries and companies with little risk of damage to China’s interests.
“China has not abandoned its strategy of restraint to shift to a new position of wide-ranging retaliation, but they’re going to surgically select companies to demonstrate their frustration,” said Paul Haenle, a former China adviser to US presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama.
However, the decision to conduct raids and detain staff from foreign companies has raised the spectre that Beijing will escalate hostage diplomacy if relations with the west deteriorate.
The Mintz and Astellas cases have sparked an urgent review of employee safety and the immediate suspension of some travel plans to China, said two people from foreign risk consultancy groups.
“This has been a wake-up call for the industry,” one of the people said. “It is hard for the due diligence players — the levels of paranoia in China are so high — but it also affects ‘blue-chip’ service firms and outfits like Bain, McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group.”
Experts said Japan was particularly vulnerable to Beijing’s hostage diplomacy because it lacks a sophisticated intelligence agency of its own and lacks tools to negotiate the return of its citizens.
Since China passed a counter-espionage law in 2014, 17 Japanese nationals have been arrested. Five of them, including the Astellas employee, remain in detention, according to Japan’s foreign ministry.
In February, Beijing imposed new sanctions on Lockheed and Raytheon, two of the biggest US defence companies. The move reflected Chinese opposition to weapons sales to Taiwan but had little commercial impact as the groups were not allowed to sell military equipment to China.
Beijing’s investigation into Micron, launched last month on national security grounds, is viewed as the clearest signal of Xi’s retaliation gathering momentum.
Dexter Roberts, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a Washington think-tank, said he was surprised by Beijing’s restraint given the US-led campaign to cut off China from core chipmaking technologies had “struck right at the heart of China’s global advanced technological ambitions”.
Despite Beijing’s anger, Xi’s economic planners are wary of undermining efforts to use foreign investors to help restart the Chinese economy after the pandemic. This means Beijing is expected to refrain from acting against companies and industries seen as critical to economic recovery.
“It all goes back to the fact that China is facing a lot of challenges this year, particularly on the economic side,” Roberts said. “The last thing they need to do is be distracted by an even more hostile relationship with the US.”
Following the finance ministry’s record $31mn fine on Deloitte over audit deficiencies, experts said they expected pressure to increase on the Big Four accounting firms.
Cheng Lin, an accounting professor at China Europe International Business School in Shanghai, said while audit quality had long been problematic at foreign and local firms, the “main drivers” were Beijing’s worries about data and national security.
The carmaking sector is also braced for the outcome of a 2022 commerce ministry review of technology export restrictions, including possible controls on some rare earth materials and lidar technology used in mapping for driverless cars.
Tu Le, founder of Sino Auto Insights, a Beijing consultancy, said any decision by China to “weaponise their dominance in mining and refining” of materials used by the electric vehicle industry would create “immediate anxiety for the US, European, Japanese and Korean governments”.
The restrictions could also be used as leverage to bargain for a loosening of semiconductor controls, said Arthur Kroeber, head of research at Gavekal Dragonomics, a Beijing consultancy.
Soo Kim, a former CIA analyst and Asia expert, expects Beijing’s retaliatory moves to expand because there appears to be no near-term fix to US-China relations.
“With so many pieces in the US-China competition, Beijing has many levers it can pull,” she said, “including exerting pressure on US allies and partners whose economies are dependent on trade with China.”
Cajun Crispy Oven-Fried Chicken
Jazz up your weeknight dinner with Cajun spiced panko-coated oven-fried chicken.
Prep: 10 min | Bake: 20 min | Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unseasoned panko bread crumbs
- 1 teaspoon McCormick® Garlic Powder
- 1 teaspoon McCormick® Paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Thyme Leaves
- 1/4 teaspoon McCormick® Pure Ground Black Pepper
- 1 1/4 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts halves
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon butter, melted
Instructions
- Heat oven to 425 degrees F.
- Mix panko and seasonings in shallow dish. Moisten chicken with milk. Coat evenly with panko mixture.
- Place chicken in single layer on foil-lined 15 x 10 x 1 inch baking pan sprayed with no stick cooking spray. Drizzle with melted butter.
- Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
Washington should redeploy nukes to South Korea – Bolton
Former National Security Advisor John Bolton has called for the US to redeploy nuclear weapons to South Korea, a move which he said would help protect the security of Washington’s key Asian ally.
“Having tactical nuclear weapons back on the peninsula would be clear evidence of our resolve and determination to deter North Korea,” Bolton told Reuters on the sidelines of a forum at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul on Tuesday. Bolton has cultivated a reputation for hawkish foreign policy stances throughout a decades-long career in Washington.
Bolton’s comments came as South Korean President Yoon Suk traveled to Washington on Monday ahead of a summit with President Joe Biden, where the topic of the United States’ “extended deterrence” of North Korea’s nuclear program is expected to be tabled.
Pyongyang has conducted a series of ballistic missile tests in recent months, with launches on March 14 perceived by Washington and Seoul as a protest against the announcement of the largest joint military drills undertaken by the two allies in five years, just days prior. North Korea has insisted that its weapons-testing program is defensive in nature, and necessary in the face of US threats.
In March, some members of Yoon’s conservative People Power Party called for Seoul to develop its own nuclear weapons program, in spite of potential international repercussions for violating a nuclear non-proliferation treaty. According to Bolton, the US placing armaments in South Korea would provide everyone with some breathing room.
“Redeploying the tactical [nuclear] weapons does not preclude South Korea from getting its own capability,” Bolton explained. “But it may give us some time to think about whether we really want to do that.”
Bolton added that a “structure of collective self-defense in East Asia and the Indo-Pacific” could be a solution to regional disputes. “The more people can look at their mutual interests not simply on the nuclear side but against the threat of states like China and South Korea, the safer we all are,” he claimed.
Ahead of his successful election campaign in 2022, Yoon had signaled that he would consider asking Washington to place nuclear weapons in the country. He has since distanced himself from those remarks, while his Defense Minister, Lee Jong-sup, has said that no such plans are in place.
Pyongyang, meanwhile, has condemned the “irresponsible actions of the United States and South Korea” which its foreign ministry said last month was increasing “the risk of nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula.”
The US stationed nuclear weapons in South Korea in 1958 but withdrew them in 1991.
Wombats
Let’s take wombats into perspective,
Cute and cuddly looking animals that are only slightly larger than a rat, but that’s where you’re dead wrong
Wombats have been known to grow this big in size and no, that lady isn’t very tiny at all.
American Host REACTS to FACTS about CHINA
Dollar weaponization just cause for Asian Monetary Fund
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s recent call for the revival of an Asian Monetary Fund (AMF) “to reduce reliance on the dollar or the International Monetary Fund” (IMF), raises the question of whether an AMF was necessary in the first place.
Japan proposed the idea of an AMF shortly after the outbreak of the Asian Financial Crisis in July 1997. Although it was supported by ASEAN countries, the idea was rejected at the Hong Kong IMF and World Bank meetings in September that year by Europe and the United States.
The technical objections were on the grounds of duplication or dilution of the IMF’s central role and the creation of moral hazard, as financing credit excesses would encourage more debt excesses. But the real reason was geopolitical. As long as the IMF and World Bank majority shareholders — the United States and Europe — were not involved in the AMF, and China remained skeptical, the idea would not fly.
The geopolitical landscape has changed profoundly since the Asian Financial Crisis. The Global Financial Crisis of 2007–8 — more accurately, the North Atlantic Financial Crisis — revealed that the countries of the rich West had major flaws in the management of both their economies and their financial systems.
Post-crisis, the reforms — namely using macroprudential regulation and supervision to safeguard financial stability through a system-wide perspective — appeared to solve the need for central bank bailouts in future financial crises. Increases in individual bank capital and liquidity plus caps on total leverage increased self-regulation (bail-in), which theoretically reduces the need for central bank bailouts.
On top of that, the US Federal Reserve’s liquidity swaps with allied central banks relieved foreign exchange liquidity, buying time for countries to solve their own internal bank failures. But this was not available to non-allied countries, such as India or China.
The failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse in March 2023 again rattled confidence in the Western-led financial system. If the post-2008 reforms were to fail, and the West could not prevent its own financial downfall without using central bank money to bail out fragile players, where should other countries put their deposits and savings?
Middle East investors who lost money in investing in Credit Suisse AT1 (additional tier one capital) bonds were reminded that in early 2021 the United States froze the foreign exchange reserves of the Central Bank of Afghanistan.
In 2022, Russia became the subject of massive financial sanctions. These sanctions were unilaterally imposed — and there is no multilateral avenue to appeal them. In addition to unmonitored interest rate and credit risks, all investors are now subject to unquantifiable risks of geopolitical sanction.
The Western neoliberal system once provided a complete trading, funding and payments model under a security umbrella that gave stakeholders “insurance” in the event of financial crises.
If this system is weaponized so that perceived non-compliant users can be sanctioned or have their assets seized, then others must look for self-insurance mechanisms. The AMF is an effort to create a regional self-insurance scheme that seeks to mediate the risk of unilateral sanctioning for geopolitical reasons.
In the quarter century since the AMF was first proposed, Asia has grown significantly, with the rise of China, India and ASEAN, tilting the balance of power from a unipolar to a multipolar order.
East and South Asia are the growth engines of the world. China alone accounted for one-third of world economic growth in 2022. ASEAN as a group will be the fourth largest economy in the world by 2030 in terms of both population and GDP.
As East and South Asian financial systems remain largely bank-dominated, with a significant number remaining state-owned, the region is evaluating whether it should rely on the US dollar as the key currency for its supply chains and external funding. Post-1997, the region has become a net lender to the United States, accounting for nearly three-quarters of its net international investment position.
The weaponization of the US dollar has made investors and policymakers alert to the risk of their deposits, assets or payment systems being seized, confiscated or frozen in the event of geopolitical disagreements with the West.
ASEAN and South Asia do not want to take sides but cannot afford to slow down their economies just to please either side. If the world slows down to a 1930s-style Great Depression, the Global South will need to secure its own sources of trade, growth and funding.
In the words of Eisuke Sakakibara, who as Japan’s vice minister of finance led the campaign to promote AMF in 1997, the idea was not an attempt to create an Asian IMF. The AMRO (ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office) already fulfills much of the research and surveillance functions for the region.
The Chiang Mai Initiative’s central bank swap arrangements are an improved but as yet untested safety net for the liquidity needs of member central banks. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and New Development Bank are complementary to current infrastructure funding supplied by the Asian Development Bank and other multilateral lenders.
If the United States doubles down on dollar weaponization, then AMF 2.0 or look-alikes will become countervailing steps that push for de-dollarisation. All hinges on whether the West can arrive at an understanding with the rest of the world on the legitimate boundaries of dollar or reserve currency usage.
No rules-based order can survive unilateral sanctions where there is no independent court of adjudication other than raw power.
How Does Therapy Actually Work?
I’m going to vastly oversimplify how it works, but:
Me: shows up to therapy as a simmering cauldron of low self-esteem and negative self-talk
Therapist: gets me to talk about these things
Therapist: helps me explore where these things probably came from (i.e., formative years with fucked-up parents)
Therapist: validates that things were severely fucked-up; provides thoughts on how it could have been handled better (if you really trust and respect your shrink, this voice will eventually replace the shitty-parent voice in your head)
Me: continues week-by-week to report new stimulus from my life and how I am handling these things
Therapist: understands current course of action based on deep understanding of my past, continues to validate current feelings, but also suggests different ways to handle and interpret these things going forward
Me: very slowly learns a different way of thinking about life and about myself, and of handling the things the world throws at me
I really believe in therapy as a long-term iterative process. It doesn’t happen in a weekend workshop; you have to keep experiencing the world and give your brain the chance to assimilate the possibility of doing things differently.
Advice on seeing a therapist
Don’t worry about telling them too much or being too personal, they’ve heard it all before, or read about it in books, unless you are a murderer who dresses as a clown and lures teenaged boys to his basement.
The more open you are the better chance they have of helping you.
On that note they all have different styles, in my experience the better ones will not tell you what to do or what you need, they’ll help you ask the right questions so that you can find your own answers.
They might tell you to exercise more, get better sleep, drink less, or take time for yourself, that kind of advice will help you in the process.
Don’t think of them as a Doctor who can heal you, instead think of them as a guide who can help you find the places to look for the healing, and support you as you go along what can be a very challenging journey.
You need to trust them, back to my first point, if you don’t trust them you won’t be honest.
The most important thing is that you must be ready to work, if you don’t want to change or if you think they are going to do it for you, this process will just frustrate you.
Therapy is like doing the rehab on an injury, it sucks and at times hurts, but it’s usually worth the effort.
President Putin on Taiwan: ‘China does not need to use force | CNBC International TV | YouTube
How can the West persuade China to reconsider its relationship with Russia?
What the West needs to do is something really abstract in order to persuade China to reconsider its relationship with Russia, perhaps it will be along the lines of what happened in November 1963.
Everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when they got the news that John F. Kennedy was assassinated, I was delivering pamphlets when someone was loudly calling to her neighbour that Kennedy has bern shot, straight after that a dog bit me which is why I remember the incident so vividly.
The Western relationship with the World particularly South East Asia was significantly adjusted by Kennedy’s assassination, for example the Gulf of Tonkin false flag incident was organized in August 1964 and Kennedy would never have gone along with that, Kennedy had to go, also at the time there was a possible come-back of the international British Stirling currency that needed to be dealt with by the USD along with the French colonial operations in the Pacific by the US military, the US wanted French colonial holdings in South East Asia under the name of US economic imperialism.
How the West persuaded the Communist Chinese and Russians to reconsider their operations in the Pacific which were then led by Mao Zedong and Nikita Khrushchev and to accept US military ambitions in South East Asia was by presenting a united front that Kennedy was not able to be a part of.
China and Russia are getting closer than they were in November 1963, it was tha Cuban missile crisis a year previous that caused the Sino Russian split which was just beginning when Kennedy was murdered, the US had no way of knowing China and Russia wouldn’t make-up and stifle their plans for Taiwan to be the One China and the Soviets to collapse.
So what did the US do in November 1963 in order to out flank the China Russia operation against US Capital control, they got rid of Kennedy and replaced him with Lyndon Johnson, and the way that the US did it is what should be now reconsidered by Russia and China.
What the US did to accomplish its mission to take over French Colonial territories in South East Asia was to work with the secret organizations of the Freemasons and Jews who had perfected thought and consequently mind control, it was they who selected a patsy to take the rap as the fall guy his name was Lee Harvey Oswald fast foward to April 2023 and it’s Jack Teixeira fulfilling the exact same role.
But will China or Russia reconsider as they did in 1964 ?, – fool me once is understandable fool me twice is abstractly unthinkable.
Russia’s former Roscosmos chief, Dimitri Rogozin, who now leads the “Tsar’s Wolves” (A team of military experts who provide “technical assistance” to troops in Donbas), stated in a Telegram post today that Russia would soon field drones with “serious weapons – from 82 and 120-mm mortar mines to FAB-100.”
Sirius (Inokhodets-RU) Drone
It was likely that Rogozin was referring to the possible deployment of the Russian Sirius (Inokhodets-RU) drone developed by the St. Petersburg-based Kronstadt Group.
The Sirrius is a heavy drone weighing 2.5 tons that can reportedly carry 450 kg of weapons and can stay in the air for 20 hours at an altitude of 7,000 m (23,000 ft.).
While primarily an attack drone, the Sirius can also be used to patrol designated areas to plug gaps in defenses using its ability to immediately attack and destroy small-sized or weekly protected targets such as advancing reconnaissance by force teams.
Equipped with a Synthetic Aperture Radar, the Sirius can map the terrain for cruise missile routing and mortar engagements.
Serial Production
According to the Pentagon intelligence briefing documents leaked on social media in March – April 2023, the Sirius drone took to the skies on its maiden flight on February 27.
Serial production of the drone is planned at Dubna near Moscow. On November 16, 2021, Kronstadt DG Sergei Bogatikov told RIA Novosti, “The prototype Sirius is already being assembled at our pilot plant in Moscow.”
According to various Russian sources, the drone is likely to be operationally deployed in the near future. Rogozin himself has alluded to the likelihood in an earlier post on Telegram.
When Russia started its military campaign in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Russian forces were ‘UAV Challenged.’ In contrast, the NATO-trained Ukrainian forces were well equipped with small reconnaissance UAVs as well as attack drones such as the Turkish Bayraktar TB2.
Russia Forging Ahead Of Ukraine In Drone Warfare
The Russian Ministry of Defence (RuMoD), possibly under pressure from military bloggers and technology enthusiasts, such as the Tsar’s Wolves, was quick to make amends.
Promising UAV projects, which the RuMoD had earlier supported but not pushed, were fast-tracked. As a result, capable small and medium drones started to appear on the battlefront in increasing numbers.
Within a year of the campaign’s beginning, Russia didn’t just catch up with Ukraine in drone warfare; it tilted the balance in its favor.
Artillery support drones have allowed Russian artillery to continue dominating the battlefield.
The accuracy of the Orlan-10 drone, guided Russian artillery fire, and near infallible counterbattery ability of kamikaze drones, such as the Lancet, have enabled Russia to retain its overwhelming artillery superiority.
Medium altitude ISR drones such as the Orion, also developed by the Kronstadt Group, are providing good targeting information and facilitating attacks by RuAF fighters and bombers well behind the battlefront using glide bombs.
What Russia has not fielded so far is a heavy drone capable of destroying targets by itself. The advent of the Sirrius drone is set to change that.
Likely Tactics For Sirius Operations
Unlike the Orion drone, which is mostly used for tactical ISR along the battlefront, the Sirius drone features a built-in satellite communication terminal giving it a much longer operating range.
The drone also features a communication suite which, besides facilitating control by a ground-based pilot, also facilitates cooperation with piloted aviation. The drone can be part of a mixed formation! According to TASS, Sirius has been tested jointly with piloted aircraft as of August 2022.
The Sirius drones will likely fly under the cover of RuAF fighters – Su-35S and Su-30SM – flying air dominance patrols. The fighters fly air dominance patrols 24×7 as pairs, with each pair covering a different sector along the battlefront.
They provide defensive cover to Russian attack helicopters and fighters (Su-25, Su-34) and deter Ukrainian fighters from attacking Russian forces.
When flying air dominance patrols, RuAF fighters invariably carry a single Kh-31 Anti-Radiation Missile (ARM), besides long-range RVV-BD, medium-range RVV-SD, and short-range RVV-MD air-to-air missiles.
The Kh-31 missile deters Ukrainian medium-altitude AD systems, such as the S-300 and Buk, from targeting RuAF fighters. If a Ukrainian S-300 or Buk radar lights up to track a RuAF fighter, it is immediately attacked by a Kh-31 missile.
The Sirius heavy attack drone will always operate under the cover of RuAF air dominance patrols. Manned RuAF fighters don’t intentionally enter the engagement envelope of medium-range Ukrainian air missile defenses in order to avoid risk to human life.
However, with the unmanned Sirius, there would be no such restriction. Sending a Sirius drone into airspace that is known to be contested would be a good way of drawing out and attacking Ukrainian AD missile systems.
When flying in contested airspace, the Sirius will not be an easy target. The drone is built like a conventional aircraft featuring a thin elongated fuselage. It has straight wings and a V-tail.
The bulk of airframe parts for UAVs are made of composites. As such, the drone will likely be low observable in the RF spectrum.
Disney Girls in Real Life: An Artist Reimagined Some Of Disney’s Most Famous Princess
Jirka Väätäinen is a Finnish artist from Melbourne and he recently reimagined some of Disney’s most famous princess. He took these iconic characters and made them look like real people.
World shifts away from using the dollar
Yuan used increasingly in preference to US currency for trade settlements
Economies across the world are exploring the use of convenient currencies other than the United States dollar for trading.
Analysts believe that China and other countries are gradually reducing their dependence on the dollar by using local currencies for cross-border trade, helping to create a multipolar international currency system.
At the end of March, the Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange, or SHPGX, reported that China had imported liquefied natural gas from the United Arab Emirates using cross-border yuan settlement.
It was the first time that China — the world’s second-biggest importer of LNG — had used its currency for such a purchase, as the global commodities trade has long been based on US dollar-denominated transactions.
Sergio Rossi, a professor of macroeconomics and monetary economics at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, said the LNG deal with the UAE showed that oil exporting countries are keen on using currencies such as the yuan, rather than the dollar, at the international level.
This transaction might encourage other countries to switch from the dollar to their own currencies to pay for oil and gas imports, Rossi said. This could lead to the creation of regional clearing houses through which foreign transactions in commercial or financial markets could be settled, he added.
David Phua, partner at the international law firm King & Wood Mallesons, said it is “certainly conceivable “that a basket of currencies combined with precious metals such as gold and silver could become “increasingly important means over time of settling international commodity transactions”. He added this can lead to a more multipolar world in terms of international reserve holdings.
With extensive experience in negotiating and drafting long-term LNG sale and purchase agreements, Phua said it is “reasonably likely” that there will be more yuan-denominated transactions in the near future.
Cajun Chicken Strips
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
- 3/4 teaspoon garlic salt
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch strips
- 2 tablespoons butter
Instructions
- In a large zip-top plastic bag, combine flour and seasonings. Add chicken, a few strips at a time, and shake to coat.
- In a large skillet, cook chicken in butter for 8 to 10 minutes or until the juices run clear.
15 Illustrated Truths About Cats
According to Linvistov, a group for learning English via Skype: “Cats are amazing creatures that can both brighten your life and turn it into a complete hell. The way they treat you like you’re nothing is so annoying but you can’t help loving them! Because they are cats and they’re fluffy and cute and – most importantly – when they purr, the world stops!”
What Happened To The Prison Guards Of Dachau Concentration Camp When It Was Liberated?
Walenty Lenarczyk, a prisoner at Dachau, stated that following the camp’s liberation “prisoners swarmed over the wire and grabbed the Americans and lifted them to their shoulders… other prisoners caught the SS men.
The first SS man elbowed one or two prisoners out of his way, but the courage of the prisoners mounted, they knocked them down and nobody could see whether they were stomped or what, but they were killed.”
Elsewhere in the camp SS men, Kapos and informers were beaten badly with fists, sticks and shovels.
There was at least one incident where US soldiers looked away as two prisoners beat a German guard to death with a shovel, and Lt. Bill Walsh witnessed one such beating.
Another soldier witnessed an inmate stomping on an SS trooper’s face until “there wasn’t much left.” When the soldier said to him, “You’ve got a lot of hate in your heart,” he simply nodded.
An American chaplain was told by three young Jewish men, who had left the camp during liberation, that they had beaten to death one of the more sadistic SS guards when they discovered him hiding in a barn, dressed as a peasant
(American soldiers watch as a Jewish concentration camp inmate beats up the Nazi guard who held him at Dachau)
Some of the Nazis were rounded up and summarily executed along with the guard dogs. Two of the most notorious prison guards had been stripped naked before the Americans arrived to prevent them from slipping away unnoticed. They, too, were cut down.”
16 SS men were shot in the coal yard (one more killed by a camp inmate), 17 at Tower B, and perhaps a few more killed by U.S. soldiers in the incident. Anywhere from a few to 25 or 50 more were killed by inmates.
China’s exports shifting from West to Global South
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NEW YORK – Central Asian countries increased imports from China in March by 55% over the year-earlier month, beating the 35% jump in Chinese shipments to Southeast Asia reported previously.
Former Soviet republics as well as Turkey and Iran all contributed to a near-record gain in Chinese exports to the region, a focus of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.
China’s exports to the region have nearly tripled since 2018. The chart below includes Turkey and Iran in the Central Asian total.
Several factors contributed to the export boom, which included every country in the region.
China is investing heavily in energy, mineral resources and rail transport across the Asian continent, including a new rail line between China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan scheduled to start construction next year.
The rail project, which will link China to European markets, has been planned since 1997 but only won approval in 2022, after Russia backed the venture. Russia’s need for Chinese support in the Ukraine war outweighed longstanding strategic rivalries between the two powers.
“The CKU railway is crucial to China for two interconnected purposes—to advance its geopolitical interests and to secure favorable relations with Central Asian elites for their support over Chinese legitimacy in Xinjiang (East Turkestan),” Niva Yau Tsz Yan wrote in a March 2023 commentary for the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
“Russia’s war in Ukraine has made new trade routes bypassing Russia more profitable, and a new Uzbek government is looking to expand regional and international engagement,” Yan wrote.
Iran’s imports from China had fallen to just US$800 million a month during 2019-2022 from a 2014 peak of $2.8 billion a month. But seasonally-adjusted Chinese shipments to Iran more than doubled to $1.7 billion in March.
Chronically short of cash, Iran depends on trade credits from China, by far its largest trading partner. The March increase evidently reflected more Chinese financing, and came after Iran accepted Chinese mediation in restoring diplomatic relations with its regional arch-rival Saudi Arabia. A reasonable inference is that Iran was being rewarded for good behavior.
China’s exports to Russia continued to rise sharply, along with exports to Turkey, which acts as an intermediary for Chinese trade with Russia. China has avoided direct violation of American sanctions on Russia, but Turkey and former Soviet republics have resold sanctioned goods to Moscow. The sharp increase in China’s exports to Kazakhstan probably reflects this intermediation.
Reuters reported on March 27 that Kazakhstan “would require exporters to file additional documents when sending goods to Russia, following reports that Russian companies have been using local intermediaries to bust Western sanctions… After the West barred sales of thousands of goods to Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, some Kazakh businesses started purchasing such items and reselling them to Russian firms.”
China’s export prowess isn’t entirely free of tensions, though. In March, Turkey imposed a 40% tariff on imports of Chinese electric vehicles (EV’s), hoping to protect a local manufacturer. The Turkish automaker Togg plans to release its first EV later this year with a sticker price of $50,000.
A comparable Chinese model, for example, BYD’s Song sedan, sells for $27,500 in China—which means that BYD would still undercut Togg’s price despite the 40% surcharge. Meanwhile, BYD has just released its $11,300 Seagull subcompact, which has no competitor in the price range anywhere in the world.
In the kaleidoscope of Central Asian politics, a myriad of local factors explains the jump in China’s influence in the region. But all of them line up like iron filings before a magnet. China’s capacity to provide physical and digital infrastructure as well as affordable consumer goods, and its capacity to finance trade and investment out of its current account surplus, explain its economic power and political influence in the region.
There’s another geopolitical consequence of China’s export prowess in Central and Southeast Asia: China’s exports to the Global South and BRICS countries in March reached a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of $1.6 trillion a year.
That’s nearly four times China’s exports to the United States and more than the combined total of China’s exports to the US, Europe and Japan, which reached a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of $1.38 trillion in March.
That represents a geopolitical point of no return of sorts, the moment when China’s economic dependence on the United States in particular and developed markets in general slipped behind its economic standing in the developing world.
First Republic Bank Goes “Zombie” – Loses 40% of Deposits
First Republic Banc Corporation (FRC) delayed releasing it’s first quarter numbers until stock trading had closed for the day on Monday; now everyone knows why:
During Quarter One of 2023, Depositors at FRC withdrew forty percent (40%) of the total deposits in the bank! Worse, if it wasn’t for the larger banks depositing $30 Billion to shore them up, FRC’s actual withdrawal amount was fifty-seven percent (57%).
When releasing their numbers late Monday, the bank quickly noted it is cutting twenty-five percent (25%) of its workforce, and is “pursuing strategic options.”
Within minutes of the quarterly numbers being revealed, the stock price of FRC began to plummet in after hours trading, and has now lost 22.19% of its Monday closing value:
Thus, people in the financial industry are now openly describing FRC as a “Zombie” bank.
For what it’s worth, FRC is the eighteenth (18th) largest bank in the United States. The fact that banks in the top 11-20 are now going “Zombie” means the contagion will likely spread to the top 1-10 banks within 3 months. The reason: Even with the FDIC, people in the general public are no longer trusting the banks.
Proof that people have lost trust in the banks is typified by the Twitter posting, today, from Rob Kientz who reported to the world that he knew of a single Investor who asked him to source $150 MILLION in DORE gold/silver bars, immediately.
UPDATE 5:55 PM EDT- TUESDAY:
Twitter has DELETED the tweet below from a major Precious metals dealer. Clearly someone does NOT want ***YOU*** to know that big money players are pulling out of banks and markets, and diving head-long into precious metals. The fact that Rob Kientz published this was surprising; the fact that Twitter has now DELETED it —– ought to be scary as hell to you. You can, however, still read the test of his message in the remnants below:
Talked with an investor this morning that asked me to source $150 million in gold DORE bars.
Yes, the physical #gold and #silver markets are on FIRE. 🔥🔥
No wait, make that a burning inferno.
Don’t wait to get your physical folks. pic.twitter.com/WGEisonNOz
— Rob Kientz | Gold Silver Pros (@goldsilver_pros) April 24, 2023
For those unaware, a doré bar is a semi-pure alloy of gold and silver. It is usually created at the site of a mine and then transported to a refinery for further purification.
The fact that a single Investor is openly asking to source this metal shows that the big money is getting OUT of markets, OUT of banks, and looking for safe haven in precious metals.
When money like this keeps moving OUT of banks and OUT of markets, the result is . . . well . . . unavoidable.
How does China view LGBT rights?
I was writing this as a comment in disagreement with Xiao Zhang‘s answer but then realized that I should probably post it on its own.
As a Chinese gay man, I have to (not so respectfully) disagree with the assertion that China, Chinese people and Chinese government don’t discriminate against gay people.
Gay marriage not being allowed, gay relationships not being represented are the definition of discrimination. Growing up knowing that I like other boys but not knowing that there are others like me, compounded with the heavily signaled notion that I was somehow “abnormal” was a nightmare.
You say that there are many gay students famous in your university and that fellow students do not judge them. Well let me point out that this in no way validates your argument that bebig gay is accepted. Do you know any openly gay person in your university who is academically mediocre, plain-looking and come from a humble family background? My best guess you don’t, and even if you do, such people are very very few and far between and I would doubt that they are actually openly gay. Trust me when I say that with the poplar gay token students, it is not because they are accepted that they are popular, but it is because they are popular that they dare to come out as gay. And that being gay is a flaw that will bring an overflow of negative consequences that you need to shield with power, power that comes from being rich, being popular or being smart. Being being popular while gay makes you a role model for other gay people, and being mediocrely gay is simply disgusting.
I myself am an openly gay person on my campus and somewhat fits your “popular gay personality” stereotype. And I’ve firsthand seen countless other gay people, who are less popular, less academically accomplished and who are made terribly insecure of their identity by the casual homophobia that are often disguised as harmless jokes (spoiler alert straight people: they are almost never harmless) coming to me for help. Whenever this happens I don’t know what to tell them. Because honestly, if I didn’t have my power, my power of being popular, being fluent in English and a good chance at a prestigious graduate education which will probably allow me to emigrate one day, I would not know what to do.
You bring up thre example of Jin Xing, very well. Let’s not even talk about her show being canceled and content removed even from the Internet – even when it was on air, did she, at any point, openly talk about LGBT issues on her show? Don’t you find it odd that as a trans woman herself, she never even mentioned the issue of gay marriage or trans rights? Also may I ask you that besides her, do you know any other openly LGBT people that are prominent in the Chinese entertainment industry and can celebrate their identity as they please? No, no and no.
In Chinese society, even in the more open and liberal modern cities, relationships have a goal: marriage. Xiao Zhang, I imagine you’ve heard of the saying “不以结婚为目的的恋爱都是耍流氓” which roughly translates to “people who engage in relationships without the hoping to marry the other person are all rascals.” With gay marriage continuing to be illegitimate, where does that leave gay people?
What will a young gay teenager think of himself when he knows that he will probably never be able to get married and start his own family?
When the official document of the Burau of Broadcast and TV lists homosexuality as a sexual perversion and refuse to allow any gay relationships to be allowed on Chinese television and movies, how will a lesbian girl in middle school feel when basically she’s being told by her country that she doesn’t belong anywhere conspicuous and should always stay in the dark?
I know a lot of people like you, Xiao Zhang, you probably don’t have anything against gay people personally and you see the glorious part of being gay because you know of quite a few popular gay students in your university and so you think that China has completely accepted homosexuality.
But what you don’t know is the hard part of being gay, not being able to talk about relationships and feelings with your parents as you watch it drive a wedge between you and your family, not knowing where your future leads because you don’t see a family of your own in the future since the government doesn’t allow it, or like me, who’s been planing to move to another country ever since I was twelve and have never really felt home when I’m actually home. Perhaps holding a little bit of hope from time to time that the government will change one day, only to suffer one disappointment after another as you watch the government ignore you or even officially reject you over and over again.
In a lot of ways, I actually find your patently patronizing attitude even more infuriating than the openly homophobic (who, however few you think they may be, I still encounter on a daily basis). You claim to be open-minded, to be allies, but you refuse to hear the full version of our stories but somehow still feel qualified to represent us and say “China isn’t homophobic because there are powerful gay people!”
You take the blatantly second-class treatment, shove it down our throats and tell us that’s what we deserve. And I find it unfortunate that so many people, even some gay people themselves, are starting to believe it.