The terms of the USA – China war are now being put in place

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stunned the collective West today when he declared that Russia “Has information that the US built two additional bio warfare labs; one in Kiev, the other in Odessa.  We will have to capture those cities to dismantle those labs to save the world from another pandemic.”

This stunning statement makes clear Kiev and Odessa are now officially targets of the Russian special military operation (SMO).

It also makes clear that Russia flatly believes it was the US through its foreign biolabs, that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, and may also be to blame for the outbreak of Monkeypox.

Now that Russia’s intention to take Kiev and Odessa is public and clear, one wonders if there will even be any country called “Ukraine” after this conflict is done?

Half-wolf as a pet

My parents once bought a puppy. He was 3/4 timber wolf, 1/4 husky.

He was beautiful. Really smelly, though … we should’ve called him Brussel Sprout.

Instead, we named him Alfie. (After Alfie Moon from Eastenders *eye roll*)

He had a dummy (pacifier), loved having his teeth brushed, and wore wireless headphones while listening to Native American music, happily howling along.

Things were perfect, but he was growing. And by growing, I mean at 6 months old he stood 6 foot tall on his back legs.

Commonly, in family homes, one person is expected to be the dog’s master. That person for Alfie was my dad.

I was Alfie’s second favourite.

The first warning sign that happened, we misread as endearing and kind of cute.

I was running in a field and fell over. I wasn’t hurt, but he bolted over to me and stood over me. My body fitted underneath him and between all four legs. He lightly growled at my Mum as she came to see if I was OK. I reassured him I was fine and he let me out from under him.

Then, my Mum’s friend came to visit and for the first time in his life, he snarled viciously at her. And if you’ve seen a wolf snarl, you know it’s a lot more threatening than that of an average dog.

Finally, my Mum and Dad noticed he had begun acting strange. He would sit awake at the bottom of the bed, staring at my Mum all through the night.

He never threatened her, but this begun to happen more and more frequently.

A trip to the vet determined that Alfie was basically acting like a snake. (Online legend) Sizing my Mother up. The vet said he would’ve ripped my mother apart eventually.

This ‘dog’ had all the love and affection in the world. He also had routine and appropriate discipline. He was very well looked after. But the 3/4 Timber wolf instinct was always, always there, even though hidden. The bigger he got, the meaner he would’ve gotten.

It would’ve cost a fortune in training, and vet bills.

He had to be rehomed, although I’m fairly certain he was put to sleep.

Unless you’re ridiculously experienced, understand canine and wolf behaviours, don’t get a wolf.

*This was in early 2000; I do have photos somewhere and when I dig them out, I’ll add them in the answer.*

EDIT: I found some photos from an old scrapbook I made!

This one is of Alfie and my dad. Alfie was less than 6 months old here. Notice how big he is and he’s not even sat up straight.

EDIT: I understand this is a touchy subject and a lot of you have your own views about how Alfie should have been dealt with. I was very young at the time, but even now, I remember the dangers he presented.

This animal, as gorgeous as he was, was not safe for any human to be around unless they had extensive training and knowledge in wolf behaviours. He was more wolf than dog. My parents didn’t get him because they wanted to “be cool” – they got him because they didn’t know any better.

We saw behaviouralists and specialists who all determined his risk was too high. It’s quite annoying to see people on the internet, who only have a snippet of information about this animal, saying that these specialists were wrong.

No vet wants to put an animal to sleep. They will do so when it is necessary. And unfortunately, in Alfies case, it was necessary. He wouldn’t have had a decent quality of life and he certainly would not have survived in the wild. Plus, I live in the UK – we don’t have wild wolves here.

On a possible positive note: My parents believe the vet took Alfie home. They did not stay while he was “being euthanised” and the vet made it very clear he wanted to give this animal a home with someone who could afford £800 a session for the next few years. Something that would’ve been impossible for my parents.

How to Make Mulberry Pie

So each a child can make it!

Viktor Orbán laid out his dark worldview to the American right — and they loved it

The European Union’s only autocrat came to CPAC Dallas and sold American conservatives on a vision of a Western civil war.

From HERE

About two weeks ago, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán gave a speech in which he declared “we do not want to become peoples of mixed-race.” On Thursday afternoon, he gave the opening speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, a bookend to former President Donald Trump’s closing address this weekend at the influential right-wing gathering.

That Orbán took the marquee spot at American conservatism’s most prominent jamboree despite his recent mask-off moment — one that led a longtime Orbán adviser to resign, calling his speech “worthy of Goebbels” — is a testament to his country’s place in the US right’s imagination. Under Orbán, Hungary has become for them something like what the Nordic countries are for some progressives: an idealized model of what they hope America could become. The most important difference is that the Nordic countries are firmly democratic, while Orbán’s Hungary very much is not.

Orbán was careful to reject charges of both racism and authoritarianism in his CPAC speech, mocking such accusations as “fake news” produced by “idiots.” Yet if you listened to his speech carefully, the dark heart of his project was plainly apparent: a conspiratorial belief that “globalists” were driving the West to the brink of cultural suicide, paired with an open acknowledgment that conservatives “cannot fight successfully by liberal means.” The mask was back on, but it was gossamer thin.

The purpose of the speech was simple enough: to tighten the bonds linking Orbánism with the Trumpism that dominates the American right. The Hungarian populist sees the potential in that connection. His closing lines called on conservatives across the Atlantic to “coordinate our troops” in the fight against liberalism, exhorting them to gear up to remove Joe Biden from office (“you have two years to get ready”). The stakes, in his telling, are the very future of our civilization.

“The West is at war with itself. We have seen what kind of future the globalist ruling class has to offer. But we have a different kind of future in mind,” Orbán told the crowd. “The globalists can all go to hell. I have come to Texas.”

The Hungarian prime minister’s outreach to the American right is longstanding, intentional, and very well-informed. He has met with prominent conservatives in academia and the media, even offering state-funded fellowships in Budapest, and is quite familiar with the language and tropes of the American right. His speech contained deft references to their ideas, like attacks on defunding the police and support for a flat income tax, that he occasionally sounded less like a foreign dignitary and more like a GOP candidate for office. He repeatedly pandered to the Texan audience, calling Hungary “the lone star state of Europe” and saying “we decided we don’t need more genders, we need more Rangers; less drag queens and more Chuck Norris.”

If Orbán has been courting the American right for years, his speech in Dallas was a marriage proposal — one that seems to have been accepted. The dangers of this ideological coupling should not be underestimated.

The Parable of the Village Mill

There is a mill in a village.

Workers load gunny bags of rice into the trucks everyday. They usually take 6 hours.

One day it rains heavily and the work stops for two hours.

The workers rush, run, skip their tea and somehow finish all the work in the remaining time.

Owner and manager see it from their windows.

Manager thinks:

Great! They worked so hard despite the rough weather and finished the work. I should tell the owner to give them bonus.

Owner thinks:

So it is actually a 4 hour job. And all these days they have been doing this for 6 hours? I should tell the manager to cut their salaries.

What Viktor Orbán told CPAC

Typically, foreign leaders who travel to the United States try not to get involved in American partisan politics. Addressing CPAC, an avowedly conservative organization, certainly doesn’t fit the mold.

While Orbán did pretend to be diplomatic at the outset, saying “we respect the government of the United States,” he also noted that “we are not the favorites of American Democrats” — and that the feelings were very much mutual. In the speech, he practically positioned his government as the European branch of the GOP — saying that “we should unite our forces” to “take back the institutions in Washington and in Brussels.”

“You have midterm elections this year, then presidential and congressional elections in ’24. And we will have elections in the European parliament [the] same year,” he continued. “These two locations will define the two fronts in the battle being fought for Western civilization. Today, we hold neither of them. Yet we need both.”

These faraway elections are politically twinned, Orbán argued, because both represent a struggle between traditionalist conservatives and globalist progressives. The latter camp, in his telling, is prominently represented by George Soros — a Hungarian-American Holocaust survivor and philanthropist who has become a transatlantic conservative boogeyman.

“He has an army at his service: money, NGOs, universities, research institutions, and half the bureaucrats in Brussels. He uses this army to force his will on his opponents — like us, Hungarians,” the prime minister said.

Soros and his “army,” according to Orbán, pose an existential threat to the survival of the West. They are attempting to stamp out “Christian” values — which he at times called “Judeo-Christian values,” leaving out the dubious prefix when discussing the Jewish Soros — and recreating the conditions under which Nazis and Communists once rose to menace Europe.

“The horrors of Nazism and Communism happened because some Western states in continental Europe abandoned their Christian values. And today’s progressives are planning to do the same,” he said. “They want to give up on Western values and create a new world, a post-Western World. Who is going to stop them if we don’t?”

Fashion

From the 1800s to the early 1900s, a typical Malaysian or Indonesian woman would dress like this. And she was understandable, as she was not only comfortable and flexible, but she was great at working in hot weather.

It didn’t matter if the woman was Muslim, Hindu, Christian. This was socially acceptable. Not only that, but this was considered even modest.

My grandmother has photos of her mother dressed the same way.

But 200 years later, this style was eradicated by the influences of Islamic Conservatives. Many Salafi-influenced Imams preached against it as revealing and demeaning against women.

While it is common to see women in more traditional and rural areas of both Indonesia and Malaysia wearing this today, a woman would be harassed, fined, ordered to change or arrested if she were wearing this in certain cities and/or provinces.

And it’s important to clarify that I was not in any way saying that Indonesia or Malaysia have a clothing policy. That’s absurd. But certain provinces have certain laws that could have a woman charged with “disturbing the peace” for wearing revealing clothing. While Indonesia and Malaysia are conservative, it is by no means a Wahhabi Saudi Arabia. At least it is not a truth yet to be told.

Why Britain Changed Its China Stance

From The Atlantic HERE

As recently as 2015, Britain boasted of being China’s “best partner in the west.” It had become a founding member of Beijing’s controversial Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, against American opposition. While still a member of the European Union, its diplomats pushed for the EU to agree to a formal trade-and-investment deal with China. And Xi Jinping had even been honored with a lavish state visit to London. For Britain, the future was unmistakably Chinese.

From 2020 onward, however, Britain transformed itself from China’s best partner in Europe to its harshest critic, sweeping away decades of foreign-policy consensus in the most drastic such shift in the Western world. Britain became the first European power to formally block Huawei from its 5G telecoms network, led the global condemnation of Beijing’s barbaric treatment of its Uyghur minority in Xinjiang, revoked the U.K. broadcasting license of China’s state-controlled CGTN, and offered a route to British citizenship for millions of people in Hong Kong who want to flee Beijing’s political repression.

The reasons for this turn were many: Brexit meant that Britain, having cut ties with its closest economic partner, the EU, could not afford to risk its relationship with its closest security ally, the United States, as well. The pandemic then entrenched public concern about Western reliance on China. And perhaps most important of all was Donald Trump. Even as he imposed steel tariffs on allies and belittled their leaders, the American president demanded that they stand with the United States against China.

Whereas Britain’s future had once seemed Chinese, it was back to being American. But in recent months, something strange started happening: London began softening its stance toward China again. Outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson this year approved a reopening of trade talks with China, and his government approved the sale of a microchip manufacturer to a Chinese company (though this is now in doubt).

Britain’s diplomatic back-and-forth in recent years has offered among the most extreme examples of how states are dealing with the wider geopolitical upheaval that has been taking place in response to China’s rise, a problem that no one yet seems to know the answer to. In Washington, a bipartisan consensus has formed around the notion that “engagement” with Beijing has failed, and that China is the only great rival to American supremacy in the 21st century. For continental Europe, Beijing is less an adversary than a risk to be accommodated, managed, and recognized, and the growth of its power an opportunity to carve out more “strategic autonomy” from the U.S. For Britain, trapped between the U.S. and Europe, it is a mixture of all of these things.

Service to self asshole gets played

I rented a house on a month to month basis. It was an old house, not updated and didn’t come with a refrigerator. I was young and didn’t have much money, everything I had was precious to me & had a use—only the necessities, nothing extra. Because of that, I also treat other people’s things with respect. I took really good care of this little house, sprucing it up with flowers, keeping the grass cut, curtains in the windows, no clutter, rent always on time, etc.

I was using a cooler & trying to figure out what to do about getting a fridge when I found one in the shed on the property. It was………… vintage.

But it worked! With some help, I got it inside, cleaned it out and that problem was solved. I even bought some appliance paint and painted it to look like brand new (-ish, it was at least 40 years old)

Unfortunately, after just 6 months, I received a job offer in another (big) city, the city landlord actually lived in, in a very nice area. I gave 30 days notice to the landlord. Surprisingly, he was very nasty about it, claiming this was a huge headache for him because now he would have to go through all the trouble and expense of renting the house again and that he was a very busy man who didn’t have time for this. I refrained from asking him why he was investing in rental property, especially in another city, if he was so busy.

I moved out but before leaving I made sure it was in exactly the same condition as before I moved in. I left nothing behind, everything was clean and neat so he could immediately begin showing the house. I did however leave the working refrigerator, plugged in and running, in the kitchen. Thoroughly cleaned out.

A few weeks later, I received an envelope in the mail from the landlord. I expected it was my the check to return my deposit. Oh no! It was a BILL for what he claimed was hauling trash, old clothes and junk out of the house and leaving it in such bad condition that it took him weeks to get it clean enough to rent again.

I was furious! I needed that money since I’d had to pay a deposit on my new place plus the moving costs – it wasn’t a lot, $500, but it was a lot to me! I made an appointment for a free consultation with an attorney who suggested that I file in small claims court against him. He advised me to employ a little known rule in our area that allowed me to not only recover the deposit, but a $20 ‘late fee’ for every day he held it past my move out date because technically he was supposed to meet me there on the last day & go over everything and return my deposit. Of course anyone who has ever rented knows that rarely happens but they usually get their deposit returned in a few weeks so they don’t mind. He told me most landlords don’t show up because they know they’re going to lose unless they have a really good case.

I took his advice and filed the claim. When the date came I appeared in court. To my surprise, landlord was there! He had taken time out very busy schedule to come and argue returning a rental deposit to a 23 year old young woman making barely above minimum wage! He stated his case, that I had rented the house then moved out 6 months later, leaving the property littered with garbage, piles of dirty clothes, cat pee soaked carpet (I didn’t even have a cat) and a ton of rotting food in the fridge. He claimed he had to rent a truck to haul it all away. He also complained that I was constantly late on my rent & caused him tremendous hardship. I was stunned. He was so arrogant & superior acting, very cocky and confident. The magistrate asked if he had been able to rent the property again, he said that he had. When asked how long it was vacant, he said about 10 days.

It was my turn to speak. I denied all of his claims. The magistrate asked if I had any proof to support my argument. The landlord smirked at me, thinking the young small town girl wouldn’t have thought to bring anything to prove my case.

He was wrong.

I pulled out my little file and inside was a copy of every rent check with the date it was deposited & cleared, clearly stamped on the back. I also had a pack of photos, with a copy of the local newspaper in every shot to prove the date. The photos were of every room in the house, the outside, the shed, everything. I explained to him that he had rented me a house with no refrigerator and that I had in fact provided him with a nice working fridge as was seen in the photos. I also showed him an ad for the house, that landlord had run 2 days after I moved out. And that he was charging $75 more a month because “appliances included”.

The magistrate looked at the checks, then at the photos, then studied the ad, then at me for what felt like a long time. He then smiled at my landlord and said, “Please provide Miss Smith with a check in the amount of $1800 within 5 days from today. If you are late by even one day, the amount doubles every day until we’ve reached the limit of damages allowed in this court. You should be ashamed of yourself for taking advantage of your renters, especially for the amount you’re charging! This young lady improved your property to enrich you $75 more per month and according to this ad, that you placed 2 days after she moved out, you described the property as “immaculately cared for, sparkling clean home with restored vintage appliances”. How is this possible just two days after you claimed she left it in such a terrible condition? You’re on my radar Mr. Asshole. You and landlords like you. Don’t let me see you here again.”

I received my check by courier the next day. To be truthful, I kinda was hoping he’d be late lol!

Cuban Style Picadillo | Ground Beef Recipes

China halts military and climate ties with the US over Pelosi’s Taiwan visit

From HERE

China is halting cooperation with the United States in a number of areas, including dialogue between senior-level military commanders and climate talks, in retaliation for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.

China’s Foreign Ministry also said it was suspending cooperation with Washington on the prevention of cross-border crime and drug trafficking, and on repatriating illegal migrants, among eight specific measures.

In a statement released soon after Ms Pelosi left Japan on the final leg of her Asian tour, China also cancelled a planned bilateral meeting on a maritime military security mechanism.

Beijing separately announced that it would personally sanction Ms Pelosi and her immediate family in response to her “vicious” and “provocative” actions.

“Despite China’s serious concerns and firm opposition, Pelosi insisted on visiting Taiwan, seriously interfering in China’s internal affairs, undermining China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, trampling on the one-China policy, and threatening the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait,” a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a statement.

Enraged after Ms Pelosi became the highest-level US visitor in 25 years to the self-governed island that Beijing regards as its sovereign territory, China launched military drills in the seas and skies around Taiwan on Thursday.

From HERE

Why Cleopatra met Caesar

Egypt is a whole thing- it’s complex.

Important stuff 1

Alexander arrived in Egypt in 332 BC. He did his thing and conquered Egypt. After his death, one of his Generals, Ptolomy, would take control of the Egyptian throne. From here on out, Egyptian Pharaohs (now called Kings) were Greek. The Ptolemy’s were big on inbreeding which helped keep the power in the family.

Cleopatra was not the 1st Cleopatra- she was Cleopatra VII (7th).

No Cleopatra was not having an easy few years in Egypt. Her brother and husband (maybe) Ptolemy XIII wanted control. The two began to fight a Civil War in the streets of Alexandria.

Cleopatra was a genius. She was politically sharp, charming, spoke 9 languages, and had a feel for court politics. That said Cleopatra was no warrior- not even remotely.

Pretty soon Cleopatra was defeated and had to abandon Alexandria for Thebes with a number of her troops. She and her sister Arsinoe made their way to Roman Syria where they planned to invade from. They were soon blocked by the army of Ptolemy XIII.

This is where Caesar enters the picture.

Important stuff 2

Rome and Egypt had a complex relationship. The last King of Egypt was Ptolemy XII Auletes (they all have the same name). He had been exiled for a time and hung around in Rome where he took a liking to Roman culture. When Ptolemy XII Auletes returned to power he realized that Rome could be a powerful ally and stabilizing force for Egypt. So he left 2 stipulations in his will when he died.

1. Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII were to rule jointly
2. The people of Rome were executors of the will

This basically made Egypt a Roman vassal. Rome had now been invited, by the King, to oversee and protect the reign of Ptolemy and Cleopatra. Now Rome didn’t really press this issue. Rome did however lend tons of money to the Egyptian King which helped him maintain his throne.

Important stuff 3

Caesar’s enemy, Pompey Magnus arrived in Egypt hoping for an army and some help beating Caesar. Instead, his head was cut off.

Caesar arrived shortly after and was given the head of Pompey by Ptolemy XIII. Caesar was not happy about this. His plan was to bring Pompey back as an ally and subordinate, signaling to Rome that everyone was ok and everyone was on Caesar’s side.

So Caesar and Ptolemy XIII did not get along from the start. Then things get really complex.

Caesar occupies the Royal Quarter with his troops, saying he is gonna hang around until the massive debt Egypt owes Rome is paid. Caesar needed money and he hoped to get it here. So Caesar was basically occupying the Royal Quarter with his troops awaiting payment.

Pretty soon Alexandria revolted and a full-on siege broke out. After lots of brutal fighting Caesar released Ptolemy XIII with the promise that Ptolemy XIII would calm the crowd and help find a peaceful solution to all this mess. Once out Ptolemy XIII egged the crowd on and things got worse.

---

Cleopatra, who had ears everywhere, is well aware of these details and decides to meet Caesar. She is smuggled into his room and the two meet face to face. Most accounts say she seduced him which makes sense. Cleopatra may or may not have been beautiful but she was smart, of royal blood, and capable. Caesar loves capable people.

Cleopatra is in a tough spot here. This meeting with Caesar is not for fun. This is a political movie and she has goals.

1. Get herself on the throne
2. Get rid of Ptolemy XIII and his court
3. Make an ally out of Rome

This is tricky. Rome is far stronger than Egypt and everyone knows it. Cleopatra has to assert power without actually having any. Long story short, she nails it. She starts up a political and romantic alliance with Caesar and the two become very close.

Caesar wins the siege, kills Ptolemy XIII in battle, and puts Cleopatra on the throne. The 2 then tour Egypt in a big love boat (literally). This signals that Rome supports Cleopatra and this is enough to keep her in power.

Egypt retains a degree of autonomy (more than expected) and Cleopatra has her power base totally secured.

US threatens war on China over Taiwan – with nuclear implications

Check out this summary of the situation.

U.S. Lashes China With Stricter Export Bans on Chip-Making Tech

Not true. China is producing chips at 7nm if you read my earlier reports. -MM

The Fourth Crusade to the Byzantine Empire

The effects of the Fourth Crusade to the Byzantine Empire were both political and psychological.

The sack in itself was incredibly brutal, and the pillaging of one of Christendom’s holiest cities was perceived with outrage from both the Greeks and the Latins. The atrocities committed during the sack — the massacre of thousands of Greeks, raping of nuns, execution of monks, desecration of tombs, and rampant pillaging of the city would devastate Constantinople. Europe’s wealthiest city went into rapid decline after that, reversed only when the Turks took the city in 1453.

The sack was the culmination of centuries of tensions between Latins and Greeks, stretching from the iconoclastic edicts of Leo the Isaurian, increased by the crowning of Charlemagne, exacerbated by the Great Schism of 1054, aggravated by the Norman conquest of Byzantine Italy, and deeply intensified under the Komnenoi dynasty. For all of their skill, the concessions that the Komnenoi had given to Latin merchants caused them to become dependent on the Latins.

Although Manuel’s pro-Latin approach warmed relations between Western Europe and the Empire, it also earned the ire of much of the lower classes. This culminated in the Massacre of the Latins in 1182, where a mob spurred on by Andronikos I Komnenos slaughtered some 20,000 Latin merchants and their families.

The city’s sacking was very devastating, and the Empire lost its monopoly over silk trade. But the sack was not even the worst part: that would be the Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae

(Partition of the lands of the Empire of Romania).

The former Imperial lands were divied up by Frankish barons thus ushering in a period commonly referred to as the Frankokratia

(Frankocracy). Various Latin-controlled states were formed; a Catholic Emperor of Constantinople was crowned that year by a Latin Patriarch, while Southern Greece and Thessaly was divided up by Latin noblemen.

Multiple states and fiefdoms were formed: the Kingdom of Thessalonica with its capital in Thessalonica; the Principality of Achaea with its capital in Andravida; the Duchy of Athens with its capital in Athens; along with a variety of small Latin principalities located in Greece and the Aegean Sea. Venice came to exert control over Crete and other Aegean isles which it maintain for several centuries, with the collapse of Constantinople causing the collapse of the other provinces as well. Within a few years, most of the former Empire’s lands had been overrun by the Crusaders.

Three remnant Greek states would continue to survive: a state in Nicaea composed of most of the Romans’ Asia Minor territories and founded by the Laskarids; a branch of the Komnenos family would found a state centered in Epirus; while a Greek state in the East that had seceded from the Empire shortly before the sack would survive as a Georgian vassal and later as an independent kingdom with its capital at Trebizond.

All three states initially claimed the Imperial mantle, although only Nicaea would retake Constantinople in 1261. The ruler of Epirus would take the title of Despot as the state came under Venetian control, while the Emperor of Trebizond would abandon his claim to the Imperial throne in favor of a most Eastern title. But despite this, these nations would wage perpetual war against both each other and the Latins.

Meanwhile, the Latin rule in Greece was viewed unfavorably by the population. Exploiting this, the newly-reformed Bulgaria would expand their lands into Thrace and Greece in the early 13th century and deal crushing defeats to the Latin Emperor. Nicaea would have more success; it would eventually swallow up much of the former Imperial lands in Europe and held off the Seljuks for a while.

But the 57-year-period in which the former Empire were under the control of the Crusaders was devastating for the former Greek-speaking, land-owning aristocracy that had supported the Imperial state for so long. With the Latin conquest, it was almost completely annihilated in Europe and a power vacuum was formed. The Palaiologi would liberate Constantinople in 1261 and restore some stability, but the ambitions of restoring the Latin state would force them to adopt a Europe-first policy to expel the Franks from Greece, something that would consume much of the Empire’s time.

From here, the Anatolian lands would be ill-defended and a power vacuum would form; the Turkish Ghazis would eventually swallow up the Empire’s Asian lands until the city’s fall in 1453.

On a psychological level, the sacking of the city solidified the animosity between the Greek-speaking Orthodox Christian Romaioi and the Western Catholic Latins. The Empire fell into decline despite the vigorous attempts of the Palaeologi Emperors, and became an Ottoman vassal in the late 14th century. John VIII Palaiologos would desperately attempt to reunite the Churches in 1439 and even adopted Catholicism, but was met with riots from the infuriated populace and clergy who had not forgave the Western Powers for the sack of the city.

The Fourth Crusade did not necessarily cause the decline of the Byzantine Empire: but it certainly sped it up. The Empire had been in decline for the past quarter-century with the reformation of a Bulgarian state, the splintering of the Empire in Cyprus, the rapid distintegration of its ability to defend itself (exemplified first in the Norman sack of Thessalonica and then in the Latin conquest of Romania), all coupled with a series of internal issues. But it certainly administered the coup-de-grace to the Empire, after it which it could never really recover.

Rand Paul’s hearing…

Well worth a long listen.

Some Truths

Apple Apologizes

Not a MM story. -MM

A few weeks ago, my cat Apple threw up on my bedroom floor (well, at least he was considerate enough to get off my bed before doing his business). After cleaning up, I was constantly being followed by him, meowing almost desperately after me around the house, which is something he never does. I figured out that he was trying to say sorry and be forgiven, so I pet him and told him: “it’s okay”. Satisfied with the result, he walked away and ignored me for the rest of the day.

China water torture

But the so-called Chinese water torture has been considered by many historians and researchers on the subject as one of the worst ever created by man, especially because of its psychological implications that could drive those tortured to madness.

Chinese water torture focuses on making the victim fear for his life from something relatively harmless. In this case, she was mentally conditioned to believe that the drops of water repeatedly dripping over her head were poisonous.

And even if it was just tap water, with no strange smells or tastes, just the idea that he could die would lead the tortured to intense psychological tensions.

This process could easily cause the person’s troubled mind, tormented by their captors and for days without sleep and cold from the water, to start deceiving them, causing them to have strange and unreal sensations, such as imminent death.

Conclusion

It’s a new world. But do not, under any circumstances, believe that this is just a random event sequence brought about by American leadership madness.

It isn’t.

It’s all part of a grand plan. And all the discomfort that you will experience in the future is all part of that plan.

You all have had years to ready up for this moment. If you are not ready now, and making moves to protect yourselves during the Western collapse, you had best either get completely drunk, or start hustling. The inflection point has occurred a few days ago. Now, the “machines of change” are rumbling into life.

Take care everyone.

I believe in you.