When I was still in High School my maternal grandmother had a stroke. And while I was busy dealing with my jobs, and school, I was a tad divorced from the on-going strife and adventures with my grandmother. Which apparently was rather lively. She being a feisty old gal…

Well, my grandmother lived in a suburb of Pittsburgh, PA. And the word was out that a local spaghetti factory and warehouse was going out of business, and they were liquidating all their stock.

Seeing opportunity, my mother and my two aunties went to the warehouse and bought up an entire van of spaghetti. Perhaps a five years supply for all three families. No precise figure can be bantered about, but it was a van full of poxes of pasta. And all three paid some “hard earned cash” to stock up with.

Being so located in the city, after driving and getting the various types of pasta, they then drove to my grandmothers house.

There, they unloaded all the boxes of spaghetti, pasta, and various types of pasta into the living room, and then went off to the mall for some shopping and lunch. It was still early in the morning. Maybe 10am.

They returned back after eating dinner.

It was around 8pm.

They had been gone almost the entire day. And were not paying attention to the state of my grandmother, or what she might think of a living room filled with boxes of spaghetti and assorted pasta.

…

And when they went to my grandmothers’ house was sight to behold.

My grandmother (now, stroke impaired) had been busy all day cooking up the pasta. All 3 x 5 years worth. There was pasta everywhere in every pot and pan in the house, and then when she ran out, she used laundry baskets, and plastic garbage cans to hold the rest.

As well as old shoe boxes, and every plate and bowl in the house.

Obviously my mother and aunties were all disgusted, and didn’t say a word. In fact, they all refused to talk about the event. When we would bring it up, she would get a very ugly expression on her face and just turn away. It must have been painful for her.

However…

Us High School kids thought it was hilarious. But, perhaps we shouldn’t of. I’m sure that there are lessons abound for everyone to take heed of here.

I suppose.

…

First up today…

Can most Chinese families afford watermelons?

Oh, very funny question.

Before I answer it, may I know the reason you post this question? Is the watermelon every expensive in your country?

From my past 30 year life, watermelon is never a expensive fruit in China. I thought it is cheap in every countries.

The fact is, watermelon is a kind of fodder in China.

I am not kidding.

How bad is it to live in China?

How bad is living in China ?

It is really bad :

Because I have some grey hair I am treated in the same embarrassing way every time I get on a city bus or on the subway …… younger people get up and offer me a seat.

Recently I had problems with a tooth. One morning I went to one of the dental hospitals. They did xrays and preformed a root canal in a 2 hours. It cost me 1/6th of the price of a root canal I had done 30 years ago in North America. Just terrible prices.

I am invited out to eat or to go to some celebration a few times a month. I never have to pay for the meal, while I am offered beer and cigarettes. I do not smoke so I decline the cigarettes but accept free beer.

Oh how terrible to invited out by the locals constantly. I have been to at least 25 weddings, more then dozen birthdays and half a dozen 100-day celebrations for babies.

There are 100+ channels on the TV, with a few in English as some western movies. The nightly news reports on all the major news around the world. I have internet access 24/7 and spent way too much time browsing the internet from Europe to North America. It is a terrible way to waste time.

I often visit my daughter who works 300km away in another Province. Being so far away, I am forced to take the train which takes 1hr 30 minutes to make the trip with 2 or 3 stops along the route. I could drive my car but that would make for a much longer trip.

The really bad thing in China is access to food.

• We have 2 farmers markets within 2 city blocks. These are markets where the farmers come into the city around 6-7 am every morning to sell that days fresh crop of fruit vegetables and meat.
• This in addition to 2 grocery stores and a Walmart in the area.
• Then on my small city block, we have 14 restaurants, open 7 days a week.
• There are even the evil food chains – KFC, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Starbucks, plus all the Chinese ones etc
• We have the French Carrefour and Auchan super stores and the Germany’s Metro cash & carry stores.
• Worst of all, we have these applications on our smartphones (80% of folks own a smartphone). Where we can see menus of hundreds of restaurants in our area, order food and they deliver it to your door usually within 30 minutes.

If we need to go to the bank, we can not go 365 days of the year. There are about a dozen days a year when the banks are closed.

Schools are much more demanding on students compared to North America, with homework every night.

• However they do get a month off in summer.
• My daughters students spend some of their summer travelling. The US and Europe for some, others within China or to nearby places like South Korea or Thailand.

So far no one has noticed any difference due to the Trump Tariffs, but according to western media China is under some sort tremendous pressure. Or maybe there were talking about the tropical storm? In either case it was a lot of wind.

That is how bad it is living in China.

Please have pity on our oppression, as we say in my group of expats who live in China as well, some for over 20 years.

Of course we live a large city. The situation differs in rural areas as it does in most countries.

Russia Jamming U.S.-Supplied “HIMARS” in Ukraine

World Hal Turner 05 July 2023

Russia has found a way to interfere with GPS-guided artillery rounds, including munitions for US-made HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, Defense Minister of Ukraine Aleksey Reznikov has claimed.

When those systems first arrived on Ukrainian battlefields last year they were “highly accurate,” Reznikov recalled, in an interview with the Financial Times on Wednesday.

However, Russia, which has strong radio-electronic systems, eventually found a way to jam GPS-guided artillery and HIMARS projectiles, he acknowledged.

“It’s like a constant pendulum. This is a war of technology,” the minister said, describing the ongoing conflict between Kiev and Moscow.

“The Russians come up with a countermeasure, we inform our partners and they make a new countermeasure against this countermeasure,” he explained.

Reznikov reiterated Kiev’s earlier claim that “for the military industry of the world, you can’t invent a better testing ground” than Ukraine.

Kiev’s Western backers “can actually see if their weapons work, how efficiently they work and if they need to be upgraded”, he said.

Ukraine has been supplied with several dozen High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), which have a range of 85 kilometers (53 miles), by its foreign backer since June last year. Western outlets described the system as a game-changer in the conflict.

In May, CNN reported, citing five sources from the US, Britain and Ukraine, that the US-designed multiple rocket launchers had been rendered “increasingly less effective” from the intensive blocking by the Russian forces. The electronic jammers throw off the GPS-guided targeting system of HIMARS rockets to cause them to miss their targets, the channel said.

Throughout the conflict, the Russian Defense Ministry reported destroying dozens of HIMARS systems through the use of kamikaze drones and artillery fire. However, these claims have been disputed by Kiev and Washington. 

Now, there is no dispute. Russia can — and is — jamming HIMARS systems.  

A Metal Container

A metal container from Roman times, believed to be around 2,000 years old, was found to contain a face cream with distinct ancient finger marks. The cream was analyzed and found to be a mixture of refined animal fat, starch, and tin. To recreate the cream, researchers followed the same recipe and applied it to their skin, resulting in a white layer with a smooth powdery texture. This texture was achieved by the starch, which is still used in modern cosmetics for this purpose.

Professor Richard Evershed from Bristol University explained that in Roman times, white face paint was trendy and typically obtained its color from a lead compound. However, a tin compound could serve as an acceptable substitute, and since it was abundant in Cornwall, it would have been readily available.

Lead was widely used in ancient Rome and could be found in various items such as cups, plates, coins, pipes, cosmetics, face powder, paints, food seasoning, and even birth control. Surprisingly, research has revealed that tap water in ancient Rome had up to 100 times more lead than local spring water. Some historians speculate that lead poisoning might have contributed to the decline of the Roman Empire.

Finally, Satan Has an Instagram Account, And It’s Funny as Hell

We have compiled a list of the funniest Instagram posts from the Dark Lord himself who posts cheeky, biting one liners. Scroll down to check them out don’t forget to follow him on Instagram (not in real life).

More: Instagram

Why has no video of forced cotton pickers labour in Xinjiang been leaked?

They have been leaked, here are some of the photos from there. This is how they are forced to pick cotton in China isn’t it bloody awful?

Making those slaves drive those big horrible machines, there should be a law against it, we should report it to amnesty international.

This is disgraceful, why are they not allowed to pick the cotton by hand?

Like the USA says they should?

Flight 235

An engine flame-out caused a domestic flight in Taiwan to topple in midair, then crash into the Keelung River in front of hundreds of eyewitnesses. 43 of the 58 people on board lost their lives. These are some of the frames from a dash cam video showing moments before it crashed.

Burgers with Cream Cheese and
Sun-dried Tomato Filling

Say goodbye to boring cheeseburgers. These patties contain a hidden mixture of cream cheese and sun-dried tomatoes. Flavorful, moist and exploding with a delicious surprise.

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

• 1 (8 ounce) package Challenge Cream Cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup chopped (1/4 inch) sun-dried tomatoes (not in oil)
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
• 2 pounds lean ground beef (less than 12% fat)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 6 Kaiser or hamburger rolls
• Lettuce, onion slices (optional)

Instructions

1. Thoroughly combine cream cheese, sun-dried tomato, and garlic salt in small bowl. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, mix ground beef with salt and Worcestershire sauce.
3. Divide meat into 12 equal portions (about 1/3 cup each) and flatten portions into 4 1/2 inch round patties.
4. Place 2 tablespoons of filling on 6 of the patties and spread to within 1/2 inch of the edge.
5. Cover with remaining 6 patties and pinch the edges closed.
6. Grill or broil patties.
7. Serve on rolls with optional lettuce and onions.

Tiger kills 20-year-old in Delhi zoo ..

In Sept. 2014, a mentally ill visitor at Delhi’s National Zoological Park jumped into a tiger enclosure. A white tiger attacked him for 15 minutes, leading to his unfortunate demise. Despite attempts to stop the tiger, the man’s screams echoed throughout the park.

Is nuclear war with Russia IMMINENT?

Logging

The giant sequoia tree pictured was a magnificent specimen that had an estimated age of 2600 years at the time of its unfortunate felling in the 1890s. Giant sequoias (scientifically known as Sequoiadendron giganteum) are among the largest and longest-living trees on Earth, and their existence spans several millennia. They are native to the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California, USA.

During the late 19th century, the logging industry experienced a significant boom in the United States, driven by the high demand for timber to support expanding cities and infrastructure projects. This period coincided with the industrial revolution, which led to an increased need for lumber. The immense size and durability of giant sequoias made them particularly sought after, and sadly, many of these ancient trees were felled during this time.

The cutting down of the 2600-year-old giant sequoia tree in the 1890s represents a tragic loss of natural heritage and a poignant reminder of the environmental impact caused by human activities. Today, there are efforts to protect and preserve the remaining giant sequoias, as they hold immense ecological value and are regarded as national treasures in the United States.

“It’s a Bag of Lies”- Brace Yourself for the Unthinkable | Gregory Mannarino

China takes a HARD stance

• EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell was due to visit China next week for talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang.
• But Beijing called off the visit without providing specific reason.
• U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is due to visit Beijing on Thursday.
• On Monday, China announced new export restrictions on two metals key to the manufacturing of semiconductors and electronics.

Beijing No longer want to waste time on unfriendly crusader who talks tough before visiting China.

Article HERE

What Are They Hiding Underneath? The Truth about the Denver International Airport Conspiracy

Survival

On November 17, 2012, José Salvador Alvarenga, a Salvadoran fisherman, embarked on a two-day fishing expedition into the Pacific Ocean from a small fishing village in Mexico.

Accompanying José was Ezequiel Córdoba, a 22-year-old day worker who tragically did not make it back to shore when their ship set sail.

During their journey, the two men encountered a powerful storm that left them incapacitated. Their boat’s engine failed, and lacking paddles and sufficient food supplies, they faced a dire situation.

For a staggering 14 months, their boat aimlessly drifted across the Pacific Ocean. Tragically, Ezekiel succumbed to starvation after just four months into the journey.

José, determined to survive, resorted to consuming anything he could catch using the only tool he possessed—a knife. His desperate diet included raw fish, turtles, small sharks, and sea birds.

In his struggle to stay hydrated, José resorted to extreme measures. He resorted to drinking turtle blood and even his own urine to sustain himself.

It wasn’t until January 30, 2014, that José was discovered naked on Marshall Island, clutching only a knife in his hand.

Throughout his harrowing ordeal, he had drifted for an astounding 438 days, covering a distance of over 10,000 kilometers. To put this into perspective, the Earth’s diameter measures 12,742 kilometers.

Medvedev: “Any war can be ended quickly . . . using Nuclear Weapons”

World Hal Turner 05 July 2023

Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Federation Council (Senate) said today “Any war can be ended quickly, either with a peace treaty or by doing what the United States did in Hiroshima, using nuclear weapons.”

More as it becomes available

Funny

There is a black humor piece from Chinese:

When you have 1 nuke, you are a force of terror that must be eliminated at all cost.

When you have 10 nukes, you are dangerous rogue that must be dealt with carefully.

When you have 100 nukes, you are an important and responsibly nation guaranteeing regional peace and stability.

When you have 1000 nukes, you are the cornerstone of world peace and prosperity.

France under attack

• by mattehret
• Posted on July 6, 2023

The pawns are fighting in the streets of France, but the war is between France and the Anglo-American Empire.

By Alex Krainer [originally published on Trend Compass]

The government of French President Emmanuel Macron is under attack by the Anglo-American imperial establishment. The civil unrest that erupted across the nation was triggered by the 27 June 2023 Police killing of the 17-year old Nahel Merzouk (NM) in the Paris suburb of Nanterre. NM was driving a car without a driving license, failed to comply with police orders and for that he was shot point blank by two officers in full riot gear. NM was of Algerian origin. The next day, riots broke out in many cities across France: Paris, Marseille, Lille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Grenoble and also Brussels in Belgium. Some areas were left looking like war zones.

In fact, some of the riots did resemble low-intensity warfare. According to some reports, US weapons donated to Ukraine have found their way through black markets to the streets of French cities and into the hands of the protesters who used them in coordinated attacks on police and firefighters. Just on the night of Jun 30/July 1, 41 police stations were attacked, 79 police officers injured, 2560 fires were set in the streets, 1360 cars and 234 buildings were burnt. The government deployed 45,000 police and gendarmes to bring the situation under control, but thus far, the rioting has continued with great intensity for five straight days, threatening to destabilize the nation.

President Emmanuel Macron is under increasing pressure, not only from the rioters and the opposition, but more ominously, also from his own Police forces and the military. Police Unions of France wrote to Macron threatening to revolt: “Today the police are in combat as we are at war. Tomorrow we will be in the resistance and the government should be aware of this.” Certain military circles appear ready to turn against Macron. General Pierre Villiers, who is apparently well respected among the French military commanders said that the army should be loyal to the people, not to Emmanuel Macron.

Nothing is what it seems…

So far, the events may seem straightforward to understand at the levels of pawns opposed to one another in the streets of French cities: the abusive government of President Macron and its security apparatus is under attack by the people whose legitimate grievances went past the boiling point. From there, it’s easy to assume that Macron’s government even instigated the riots deliberately in order to crack down and tyrannize the people according to their plan. Heck, Macron is the Rothschilds’ errand boy and a loyal World Economic Forum young leader.

You’re either with us, or you’re against us.

All of that sounds plausible, but there’s a far broader context to this story. The present crisis draws root from the very strained relationship between French ruling elites and the Anglo-American imperial establishment, which spans centuries. A more thorough analysis of this relationship could fill many volumes but for now we’ll focus on just the more recent developments. In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks in the US, President George W. Bush announced to the world that, “you are either with us, or you are against us.” He wasn’t just saying words: the empire was preparing to cement the unipolar global order, eliminate its rivals, establish full-spectrum dominance and launch its Project For The New American Century.

France has never accepted the role of a junior partner or unquestioning ally, let alone a vassal to the Anglo-American Empire. It has continued to be a pain in its side at critical junctures. Here are a few examples of the last two decades’ spats between the two sides:

2003: French opposition to US invasion of Iraq

In late 2002 and early 2003, the Administration of George W. Bush was working feverishly to secure its allies’ support for an invasion of Iraq. In February 2002, US State Secretary Colin Powell waved a vial of white powder at the UN Security Council, accusing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein of possessing biological weapons of mass destruction. French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin wasn’t impressed. In a searing speech he poured cold water on US case for war and called out Powell’s performance as dubious and unconvincing. A few weeks later, on 10 March 2003 President Jacques Chirac made it clear that France would vote against any UN Resolution authorizing US attack on Iraq. In this, France would vote on the side of Russia and China (talk about foreshadowing).

2008: France opposes Ukraine and Georgia joining NATO

One of the most important projects of the Anglo-American empire over the past three decades has been to encircle Russia by absorbing all of her neighbors to the west and southwest into the NATO alliance. In several waves of eastward extensions, NATO added 14 new member states, moving more than 1,600 km toward Russia. Ukraine and Georgia were next: at the April 2008 NATO Summit in Bucharest, the alliance proclaimed the Bucharest Memorandum. Referencing Ukraine and Georgia, they explicitly declared that, “We agreed today that these countries will become members of NATO.” While not yet a full-fledged member of the alliance’s integrated command, France was openly opposed to the resolution on the grounds that it would exacerbate the risk of war with Russia.

2019: Emmanuel Macron calls NATO a ‘brain-dead’ alliance

In an interview with The Economist in October 2019 titled, “Emmanuel Macron warns Europe: NATO is becoming brain-dead,” French President warned European countries they can no longer rely on US-dominated military alliance (note, by now France was a full-fledged NATO member): “What we are currently experiencing is the brain death of NATO,” and declared that Europe needed to “wake up,” as it stood on “the edge of a precipice” and needed to start thinking of itself strategically as a geopolitical power, otherwise as Europeans, we’ll “no longer be in control of our destiny.” Worse, when asked whether he believed in the effectiveness of Article Five which provides that if one NATO member is attacked all would mobilize to defend it, Macron gave a convoluted, cryptic reply: “I don’t know, … what will Article Five mean tomorrow?”

But President Macron and his government would become still more problematic for the Anglo-American cabal with the escalation of conflict in Ukraine. Of all European leaders, Macron has spent the most time visiting with or speaking on the phone with his Russian counterpart; he sought to improve relations between Russia and France and he tried to influence other European nations to chart a more independent policy on the continent.

2022: Macron says Russia has legitimate security concerns

In an interview that aired on Saturday, 3 Dec. 2022 Macron urged the West to take seriously Russia’s security concerns regarding NATO expansion near its border. He called for greater willingness to give Moscow the “guarantees” necessary for negotiations to be successful. He called them ‘essential’ if the West wants to get serious about talks and peaceful settlement. “We need to prepare what we are ready to do, how we protect our allies and member states, and how to give guarantees to Russia the day it returns to the negotiating table.” Macron added that, “One of the essential points we must address — as President Putin has always said — is the fear that NATO comes right up to its doors, and the deployment of weapons that could threaten Russia.” These comments elicited rage and disbelief among the Anglo-American allies and western media who accused the French President of being a pro-Kremlin stooge.

April 2023: Macron visits China, flirts with BRICS nations

Emmanuel Macron provoked even more rage and disbelief after his three day high-profile, red-carpet visit to China, from 6 through 8 April 2023. Western “national security experts” were so alarmed by this visit, they called the event “one of the greatest blunders by a major European power since the end of the Cold war…” Indeed, it was a slap in the face to the Anglo-American establishment.

On 7 April 2023 President Macron visited the Sun Yat-Sen University in South China’s Guangdong Province where he received an enthusiastic welcome. He delivered a speech on China-France ties and took questions from the students. There may have been a subtle message in the very venue chosen by his hosts. Sun Yat-Sen was a vocal critic of the British Imperial system and their foreign policy. In his book, “The Vital Problem of China,” Sun Yat-Sen wrote that,

“When England befriends another country, the purpose is not to maintain a cordial friendship for the sake of friendship but to utilize that country as a tool to fight a third country. When an enemy has been shorn of his power, he is turned into a friend, and the friend who has become strong, into an enemy. England always remains in a commanding position; she makes other countries fight her wars and she herself reaps the fruits of victory. She has been doing so for hundreds of years.”

[h/t Cynthia Chung for highlighting this passage]

We shouldn’t be America’s vassals

Speaking to journalists on the return flight from Beijing, Macron said that, “Europe must resist pressure to become America’s followers…” that the “great risk” Europe faces is getting “caught up in crises that are not ours, which prevents it from building its own autonomy,” and that, “Europe had increased its dependence on US for weapons and energy and must focus on boosting its defense industries.” In referring to Ukraine, Macron said that it was, “a faraway country of which we know nothing…” But even this wasn’t as unforgivable as his swipe at the “extraterritoriality of the US dollar.”

While in China, Macron signed many deals expanding bilateral trade between France and China, many of which will be denominated in Chinese yuan. Already before Macron’s visit, in March 2023 French companies began to strike such deals, the first of which was the purchase of 65,000 metric tons of liquid natural gas settled in yuan. French leadership’s willingness to craft their own bilateral relations with Anglo-American Empire’s chief rival and bypassing the US dollar is simply unforgivable. But Macron would soon go farther: according to the newspaper L’Opinion, during last month’s telephone conversation, French President asked his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa to extend him an invitation to participate in the 15^th BRICS Summit planned to be held in South Africa in late July/early August.

It’s about the two systems of governance…

It is important to keep in mind the broadest context of the current global conflict. As George Soros laid it out in his annual address to the World Economic Forum in May 2021, it is the conflict between the two systems of governance. Soros mischaracterized them as “open societies” and “closed societies.” In reality, we’re witnessing the conflict between the western imperial colonial system and pretty much the whole rest of humanity.

The imperial system governance is controlled by the western occult oligarchy which, while it gives lip-service to the rule of law, freedom, democracy and human rights, in reality it consistently sows mayhem abroad and misery at home. Truth be told, the French ruling elites have also enjoyed the massive privileges of this system for centuries. However, they never accepted subservience to the Anglo-American establishment and always sought to plunder and exploit its colonies on their own terms.

Ukraine is some faraway place to you?

We don’t know yet whether France will indeed be invited to the upcoming BRICS Summit, but in the world where not being “with us” equals being “against us,” the Empire simply can’t tolerate the uppity independence of France. You think our military alliance is brain-dead? You don’t want to be our vassal? You dare to strike trade deals with China and trade in yuan? You want to seek peace with Russia? And Ukraine is some faraway place to you? Clearly, this is unacceptable and the Anglo-American establishment has had enough of France’s insubordination. It was time to teach France a lesson and bring her into line with the Anglo-American agenda.

AUKUS alliance: a stab in the back to France

The most recent sign of the Anglo-American cabal’s contempt for the French was the 2021 announcement of the AUKUS alliance between the US, UK and Australia. In 2016, France made a deal with Australia to supply 12 conventional submarines for her navy. The deal was worth $37 billion – a very substantial amount by any measure. French diplomacy celebrated it as the “contract of the century,” important not only for its sheer size and the strengthening of France’s relationship with Australia but also in terms of securing French strategic influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

But then, on Wednesday, 15 Sep. 2021 US President Joe Biden, UK PM Boris Johnson, and “that fellow down under,” as Biden addressed Australia’s then PM Scott Morrison, announced a “historic” security alliance between the US, Britain and Australia. Part of the deal included US and UK providing Australia with nuclear submarines and a significant transfer of US military technology.

With no prior consultations or warning, Britain, Australia and the US, otherwise well known for the high value they place on sanctity of contract, simply sidelined France, tore up her contract with Australia and threw French interests overboard provoking indignation and anger in France. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian referred to the AUKUS announcement as evidence of duplicity, treachery, and a stab in the back to France from her supposed allies and partners.

France recalled its ambassadors to the United States and Australia and Le Drian stated that there was now a crisis of trust with the US. EU Council’s President Charles Michel also strongly criticized the AUKUS announcement, accusing the Anglo-American club of leaving Europe “out of the game in the Indo-Pacific region.” This was not the first massive humiliation dished out to France from the same “friendly” Anglo-American circles.

Haiti’s reparations: how the US punished France’s opposition to Iraq invasion

American diplomacy and secret services found it easy to punish France’s opposition to the Iraq invasion and the embarrassment that France’s Foreign Minister Dominic De Villepin inflicted on the US delegation in the UN Security Council in February of 2003.

Jean Bertrand Aristide had first become Haiti’s president in 1991, but was deposed in a military coup after less than eight months in office. He spent years in exile in the US before coming back to power again in 2000 elections, with the help of the US. His US liaison was the diplomat and CIA agent Luis Moreno. On 7 April 2003 Aristide suddenly started calling for colonial-era reparations from France (note, this was 18 days after the start of the US invasion of Iraq). The precise amount that Aristide was demanding was $21,685,135,571.48 – that sum represented the lower-end of the scale of estimated damage inflicted on Haiti by France.

Formerly known as Saint Domingue, Haiti was a French colony, supplying sugar, coffee and tobacco to much of Europe. It was a boon to French merchants, slave owners and financiers. But in 1791 Haiti’s slaves staged a successful rebellion and won their freedom. In 1801, when Napoleon sent a large armada to subjugate them again, they defeated his troops and in 1804 Haiti’s leaders declared independence.

But France wasn’t ready to give up Haiti. King Charles X sent another armada in 1825 offering to recognize Haiti’s independence, provided that Haiti’s government agreed to pay an extortionate tribute in the amount of 150 million gold Francs. How much money was that? In 1803, France agreed to sell the Louisiana territory to the United States for 80 million Francs – an area that was 77 times larger than Haiti. But Haiti’s choice was simple: pay up, or it’s war!

The French would have been able to impose a naval blockade on Haiti and entirely cut them off from global trade and payment systems. Haitians had no choice but to submit to French ultimatum. To pay the ransom, Haiti was forced to borrow the sums from French bankers and pay back the loans plus interest from the proceeds of their commodity exports. Incidentally, this was the beginning of the new model of colonialism based on financial debts rather than military occupation. That, essentially is the imperial model of governance plaguing humanity to this day.

Haiti’s tragic experience was the only time in history when freed slaves had to pay restitution to their former masters and borrow funds from them to meet the ransom payments. This is why Haiti’s humiliation was called the Double Debt: it took Haitians over 130 years to pay it back and doomed the nation to chronic austerity, underdevelopment and crushing poverty.

It also made Aristide’s demand for restitution legitimate and an absolute bombshell for France. His campaign grew bolder over time with banners, bumper-stickers, government adds and graffiti spread all around the country. Not only was Aristide demanding a very substantial amount of money from France in reparations, he also encouraged other former colonies to join his fight and demand their own reparations from France.

French government was stumped with this development which their Ambassador to Haiti Mr. Yves Gaudeul called explosive. He urged his government to open discussions with Haiti to diffuse the situation, but he was firmly rejected. Instead, France recalled Gaudeul and sent a less sympathetic Ambassador to Haiti, Mr. Thierry Burkard, who explained the situation in stark terms: “Algeria can perfectly make claims, as well as most of our colonies… There’s no end to it. It would have set a precedent that we would have been greatly blamed for.”

Thankfully for France, the problem disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared. Before dawn on 29 February 2004 Luis Moreno, that same US “diplomat” who helped bring Aristide to power in 2000, came to his residence flanked with security officials and demanded Aristide’s resignation. Mr. and Mrs. Aristide were simply abducted and flown out of the country on a US-chartered plane back into exile. Haiti’s new, western-backed leader, Gerard Latortue dropped the restitution demands and the whole messy affair was closed.

Even though Jean Bertrand Aristide had been in power since the beginning of 2001, his calls for reparations came more than two years later, seemingly out of nowhere, but soon after France’s snub to the US over the Iraq invasion. Aristide demanded reparations from France, but never from the United States which had occupied it, or held it in debt bondage since 1915, subjecting it to equally rapacious exploitation.

Even before military occupation, in December 1914, US Marines landed in Haiti’s capital, Port-Au-Prince, broke into Haiti’s National Bank and simply took some $500,000 worth of gold belonging to Haiti’s government. Within days, Haiti’s gold was in the vaults of New York banks. Still, Aristide apparently made no precise calculation of damages inflicted on Haiti by the United States.

Furthermore, in an email exchange between Aristide’s government legal counsel Ira Kurzban, and their international law advisor Gunther Handl, the latter advised Kurzban that “Haiti must convey to France,” that there are suitable opportunities “for washing France’s dirty laundry in public.” It’s almost as though the affair was about pressuring and embarrassing France rather than securing justice for Haiti.

That notion is confirmed by the simple fact that France’s problem disappeared only after US agents removed Aristide from power, rather than after earnest negotiations with Haiti’s representatives and France’s acceptance of some obligation to Haiti. This fact alone suggests that France yielded to the United States in some backroom deal, not to Haiti. Perhaps France dropped its challenge to the New American Century and its full-spectrum dominance, and pledged her allegiance to the hegemon.

In 1966 under President Charles de Gaulle, France removed all her troops from NATO’s integrated military command and asked all non-French NATO troops to leave France. In 2009, only a few years after the Haiti affair (plus the destabilizing 2005 riots for a good measure), France once more became a full-fledged member of the North Atlantic alliance. But everyone did not live happily ever after and the relations with France remained difficult.

The Damocles’ sword of France’s colonial past

The Damocles’ sword of France’s ugly colonial past (though no more ugly than that of Spain, Belgium, Portugal, Great Britain or Germany), was brought up again in November 2022 when Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni appeared on Italian channel 7 airing some of France’s particularly ugly-looking colonial dirty laundry. She showed the Italian public two exhibits: a CFA Franc banknote and a photo of a child working in a gold mine in Burkina Faso: “This is called the CFA franc. It is the colonial currency that France prints for 14 African nations, to which it applies seigniorage and by virtue of which it exploits the resources of these nations…“

Meloni claimed that thanks to the CFA Franc, 50% of everything that Burkina Faso exports ends up in the French treasury. In addition to being the Prime Minister of Italy, Meloni is also a member of the powerful Aspen Institute. Headquartered in Washington, D. C., the institute is funded by some of the most powerful exponents of the Anglo-American establishment including the Gates Foundation, Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Carnegie Corporation and Lumina Foundation and Meloni might be doing their bidding in antagonizing France.

In another jab at embarrassing France, in May 2022, the New York Times published a 19,000-words long special report about the French colonial abuse of Haiti. Titled, “The Ransom: How a French Bank Captured Haiti,” the report reads almost as though it was the French who invented slavery and colonialism.

Preannouncing the attack on France

The most bizarre element that suggests that the current uprising in France is a planned destabilization attack by the Anglo American imperial cabal is the fact that it may have been preannounced in what appears to be their habitual modus operandi. Last month I had the privilege of participating in the Better Way Conference in Bath, organized by the World Council for Health. One of the speakers on my panel was Mr. Mark Devlin (@DJMarkDevlin) a DJ who made it his challenge to study how the ruling establishment use popular culture and entertainment to disseminate propaganda and manipulate the masses.

One thing he picked up on is that they invariably preannounce their plans to the public through popular films and TV series. Mr. Devlin claimed there are literally hundreds of examples of this, and he shared one with us: a short clip from the American TV show, The Dead Zone which aired in 2005. The plot involved a Coronavirus contagion. The virus originated from China and caused high fever and respiratory infections, necessitated lockdowns, quarantines, wearing of masks, tracking and tracing of contacts, etc.

The clip was profoundly disturbing to see, but it suggested that Devlin was onto something important. As it happens, the case of riots in France also corroborates his hypothesis. Namely, in 2022 Netflix launched a film titled “Athena” about a future ethnic civil war in France, which would erupt after the police killing of an Algerian youth. On 27 Jun 2023, French police killed an Algerian youth.

Seeking justice for Nahel by attacking Chinese tourists?

Another detail about the riots could have symbolic relevance: namely, Reuters reported that Chinese tourists were injured when rioters attacked a bus carrying a Chinese tour group in Marseille. The attack, which took place on Thursday, 29 June 2023 again reveals the cabal’s modus operandi. Recall, when the US and NATO bombed Belgrade in 1999, five U.S. Joint Direct Attack Munition guided bombs hit the Chinese embassy, killing three Chinese state media journalists. One bomb might have gone astray and hit the embassy by accident, but five bombs were a message, as was (probably) last Thursday’s attack on Chinese tourists. It would be difficult to explain why rioters who had grievances against the French government and demanded Justice for the young Nahel Merzouk, thought they’d obtain that justice in attacking the Chinese.

What now?

Should we regard Emmanuel Macron and his government as the good guys in this saga? Will they be able to pacify the situation, or will it escalate? For my part, I’ve never been even slightly fond of Emmanuel Macron, but I believe that today France’s sovereignty is at stake, and it was Macron who invited Anglo-American cabal’s wrath. If France fights back, things will get ugly. Yes, they’ll have to crack down and yes, western media will accuse them of all the standard faults of tyranny, repression, intolerance and censorship.

If France capitulates, things will get uglier still and uglier for longer. But to defend France, the government of Emmanuel Macron will have to try to bring together all of France and this could prove their toughest challenge. Macron represents the French elites which do have much to answer to – not only to their colonial subjects but also to the French people whose country has been stolen from under them (though Macron is not the only one to blame for this).

In 1996, when I moved to Monaco, I recall that for several years in a row, France was winning the top spot as the country with the highest quality of life (I believe the quality of life surveys were conducted by Conde Nast or some such publication). Over the last 25 years however, quality of life in France has deteriorated precipitously. If France is to survive and lead Europe once more, the elites backing Macron will have to reconcile and make nice with the people.

With regards to her colonial past, France will at the very least need to set up a truth and reconciliation commission and offer an earnest apology and a helping hand to its former colonies to rise and develop as equal trading partners rather than simply territories to strip mine of their resources and subjugate in a cold and inhumane fashion.

The world should consider offering a helping hand to France, because with the present struggle, a very large opportunity has presented itself to humanity: to defeat the imperialistic system of governance that’s caused the unspeakable tragedies of our colonial past and its most powerful beneficiaries, the Anglo-American imperial establishment. If they succeed at taming France and making her their vassal, they will grow stronger.

If France prevails and joins humanity, the multipolar integrations and the other model of governance, the imperial cabal will suffer a crushing blow. I know where 99.9% of us stand and for my part, I would love to see Emmanuel Macron in South Africa at the end of this month, for once listening and earnestly seeking partnership and reconciliation with the world and securing France’s place as an equal in a new community of nations.

The Mistake That Got So Many CIA Agents Killed in China🎙Darknet Diaries Ep. 75: Compromised Comms

A Letter

On the morning of May 19th, 1902, a huge explosion ripped through Fraterville Coal Mine in Tennessee, its devastating power instantly killing most of the 216 miners who were below ground.

For the 26 who survived the initial blast, a side passage of the mine proved to be a safe haven, but not for long—when rescuers eventually reached them, all had suffocated.

Found next to a number of the those 26 bodies were letters to loved ones, one of which can be seen below.

It was written by Jacob Vowell to Sarah Ellen, his beloved wife and mother to their 6 children, one of whom, 14-year-old Elbert, was by his side in the mine. (“Little Eddie” was a son they had lost previously.)

All but three of Fraterville’s adult men were killed that day; over a hundred women were instantly widowed; close to a thousand children lost their fathers. The Fraterville Mine disaster remains the worst of its kind in Tennessee’s history.

Last photo of the survivors of HMAS Armidale

Last photo of the survivors of HMAS Armidale, which was sunk on 1 December 1942 after being attacked by a Japanese aircraft. This photo was taken from a Catalina flying boat on the 8th but was unable to land due to rough seas. The men in the raft would never be seen again.

The Western Societies…

Why you have “child-proof” caps on medicine bottles

On September 12, 1982, a 12-year-old girl named Mary Kellerman fell ill and was admitted to the hospital after ingesting a Tylenol capsule, a popular brand of acetaminophen. Tragically, she passed away the following day.

Around two weeks later, six more deaths occurred, including three individuals from the same family who had taken the painkiller from the same bottle.

Wednesday, September 29, 1982 was a school day, but 12-year-old Mary Kellerman woke up with a runny nose and a headache. So her parents told her to stay home, take a couple of Tylenol and get some rest.

“I heard her go into the bathroom. I heard the door close. Then I heard something drop,” recalled Dennis Kellerman, Mary’s dad. “I went to the bathroom door. I called, ‘Mary, are you OK?’ There was no answer. I called again: ‘Mary, are you OK?’ There was still no answer. So I opened the bathroom door, and my little girl was on the floor unconscious. She was still in her pajamas.”

Mary was pronounced dead at the hospital from unknown causes.

A few hours later, in a nearby suburb of Chicago, a 27-year-old postal worker named Adam Janus had also taken a sick day. After lunch, he complained to his wife about a headache and took two Extra-Strength Tylenol. Like Mary, Adam collapsed on the floor almost instantly and couldn’t be resuscitated. The paramedics ruled it a massive heart attack.

Adam Janus’s relatives rushed to the house to console his grieving wife. Overcome by Adam’s sudden passing, his younger brother and sister-in-law asked for some Tylenol. They were the next to die.

All told, seven people in the Chicago area died suddenly and mysteriously on September 29 and 30, 1982. One was a mother of four, including a week-old infant. Another, a healthy, 31-year-old, crumpled to the floor at work. The last victim, a flight attendant, was found dead in her apartment three days later, an open bottle of Tylenol still on the bathroom counter.

Investigators and toxicologists quickly identified the culprit: tampered capsules of Extra-Strength Tylenol. Someone had opened the capsules and replaced the pain-relieving medicine with deadly doses of potassium cyanide. One of the most common over-the-counter pain relievers had been turned into a murder weapon.

The 1982 Tylenol murders rocked the nation. The seven deaths were the top story in every major newspaper on October 1, the official start of the Halloween season, and the “Tylenol Terrorist,” as the media dubbed him, was still on the loose.

For decades, Americans had been told scary tales of Halloween treats supposedly spiked with razor blades and rat poison, but the Tylenol murders ratcheted up the anxiety around treat-or-treating to new levels, prompting cities and towns across the country to cancel Halloween.

The official response to the Tylenol murders was swift.

The manufacturer of Tylenol, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson called McNeil Consumer Products, initiated the largest consumer product recall in American history, ordering pharmacies and grocery stores to pull 31 million bottles of Extra-Strength Tylenol from their shelves. Several more bottles in the Chicago area were found to contain cyanide, but thankfully no one else was hurt.

The federal government also swept into action. Congress passed the Federal Anti-Tampering Act, which promised up to 20 years in jail for anyone found tampering with medications, food or other consumer goods. And the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) passed new regulations requiring drugmakers to package medications like Tylenol in new, tamper-proof bottles. (“Child-resistant” caps had been around since 1970.)

“[The 1982 Tylenol poisonings] was one of those pivotal moments,” says Dr. Alan Woolf, a pediatrician at Boston Children’s Hospital and a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. “Forty years later, we take it for granted that bottles of over-the-counter medicine are shrink-wrapped in plastic and there’s a piece of foil that you need to peel back. Those tragic killings changed the pharmaceutical industry and changed federal labeling laws.”

The Johnson & Johnson lost so much… The company’s chair at the time, James E. Burke, abided by corporate responsibility and made the difficult and expensive decision to recall 30 million Tylenol products voluntarily. This cost the company over $100 million.

“Haunted Beauty”: Mysteriously Bizarre Photo and Art Works of Natalie Shau

Natalie Shau is mixed media artist and photographer based in Lithuania (Vilnius). She found interest in fashion and portrait photography as well as digital illustration and photo art.

Despite her personal work, Natalie also creates artwork and photography for musicians, theater, fashion magazines, writers and advertisement. She also worked as an art director for a short 3d movie of Kamel Ouali musical “Dracula”

More: Instagram, Twitter, Behance, Foundation

Formerly Jeff Bezos started an online bookstore from a garagebox, having access to the internet. What could a person start with low capital these days that could be a gap in the market?

That’s the entire problem…if an idea was easy to come up with – then it wouldn’t be a gap in the market.

TO PICK AN EXAMPLE:

This is a true story.

Back in 2004 (I think) a lady named Linda Katz decided to learn how to build a Web site. The Kansas farm which she lives on had recently been infested with tumbleweeds – a common problem in that part of the world. So for a joke, she created “Prairie Tumbleweed Farm”.

Supposedly, according to the (fake) web site – they organically farmed, harvested and sold the world’s choicest tumbleweeds: A small one for $15, $25 for a big one.

To her extreme surprise, actual, for real orders started rolling in ones and twos – so grinning ear-to-ear, she found some cardboard boxes, stuffed a tumbleweed into each one – and mailed it off to her customers. Selling maybe one or two per month…not exactly a “business”. But it was hilarious…so she kept the website alive.

Then one day, a Hollywood movie props company needed some tumbleweeds for a Western movie set and ordered MANY HUNDREDS of them … at $25 each! THOUSANDS of dollars in one order.

This brought money AND publicity.

Then NASA bought a bunch of them to test the Mars Rover (Why?!? I can’t imagine!).

Then NPR did a radio show piece about the “farm” – I think as an April Fools thing…and with free publicity she was actually selling these generally worthless dead weeds at an impressive rate!

The website had to be translated into Japanese because tumbleweeds had become some kind of Feng Shui miracle!

She’s sold tumbleweeds for 13 years and claimed to earn around $40,000 a year.

ANALYSIS:

What’s the lesson here?

Nobody in their right mind would sit down one day and SERIOUSLY consider selling a dried up weed for $15 to $20. But there’s a thing on the Internet called “Long Tail Marketing”.

If you imagine a graph of the popularity of items that people need, it’s going to be something like this…

On the left are things like groceries, books, TV sets, lightbulbs…mundane things that a hell of a lot of people want. Being in that market is a major pain – you’re competing against the biggest retailers in the world. Amazon, Walmart, etc – it’s extremely price-competitive – you need to advertise – keep postage costs to a minimum…URGH!

But way over to the right – on the “long tail” of the curve are things like tumbleweeds – which VERY NEARLY nobody wants – and neither Walmart nor Amazon sells. In 2004 – if you searched on “Buy Tumbleweed” – there was only ONE hit.

The point being – in the era of brick and mortar stores – you could open a Tumbleweed store in a major city – and never sell a single tumbleweed for months on end.

But on the Internet – with a few billion people searching Google several times a day – if you can be the ONLY source for tumbleweeds – and then 100% of the (admittedly very small) market is yours – people will come to you to buy – and you won’t need advertising or to compete on price.

So the trick is to be the first – and to be the ONLY source for something. Even if it’s something incredibly rare and unusual. Because out of a few billion people, SOMEONE is looking for what you’re selling.

HOWEVER:

If you Google “Buy Tumbleweeds” today – there are DOZENS of businesses trying to do the exact same thing – with various degrees of seriousness.

It’s gone from being a fun, joke thing to being…well…BORING.

The original website for Prairie Tumbleweed Farm seems to have vanished…and I’m not surprised. The market for tumbleweed probably hasn’t grown by much – and with a dozen “Me Too!” knock-off websites beating down the prices – there’s simply no money in it anymore.

CONCLUSION:

If you can come up with a “long tail market” – and can get in, make money and get out again before Amazon is selling tumbleweeds too…you can do very well indeed.

But I can’t tell you what that product or service is…or how to make it…or how to be sure that people see your store.

It’s one of those things that – if it was both easy and obvious – everyone would be doing it.

This is one of those things that was easy in the early days of the Internet – because there were lots of things that you couldn’t find on the Internet – so you could be out on the long-tail and make good money.

You can still do that – but it’s just harder and harder to come up with an idea.

Tucker Carlson: Free Gonzalo Lira

https://youtu.be/to15UBjtswk

A tale of survival

In 1993, Emile Leray, was on a journey , enjoying his cruise across the Moroccan desert when he crashed his car in the middle of the desert.

He was stranded and had to save himself or he would die in the desert. This was when his intelligence came to rescue him.

Emile Leray, a 43-year-old former electrician, had to rebuild his car, a Citroen 2CV into a motorbike using no special tools.

He built his motor bike in ten days using materials from his crashed car. He had no drills, no power tools or welding equipment, he screwed all the parts together.

Seven Generations

In 1989, in Wisconsin, USA, an extraordinary feat was achieved: seven generations of a family were alive at the same time. This remarkable occurrence remains undisputed and stands as a world record. The individuals involved were Augusta Bunge, aged 109, accompanied by her daughter Ella Sabin, aged 89. Ella’s daughter, Anna Wendlandt, aged 70, was also present, along with Anna’s daughter, Betty Wolter, aged 52. Betty’s daughter, Debra Bollig, aged 33, attended alongside her daughter, Lori Bollig, aged 15. Lastly, Lori’s son, Christopher Bollig, aged only one month, completed the seven-generation lineup.

Why do most Westerners continue to think of China only as a factory to serve their consumer needs, and do not attempt to understand the dynamics driving China’s development and foreign policy?

Simple

Chinas growth has simply been too fast

They transformed from a Manufacturing Base to an Economic Giant with a strong domestic market in a matter of 10 years

Back in 2012 – China was still a country to whom you went to build a factory and build your own stuff and export it globally.

Their Domestic Industry was very small and evolving

Today in 2022 – China is different. Its Domestic Industry is slowly getting dominated by Chinese Brands and they are spilling over Globally. They have taken the lead in High Speed Railways, 5G Communications and AI from the West and once they manage to lick their Chip problem – they could leapfrog by a further decade.

No Democracy can understand such growth that always happens under an Efficient Autocracy

As a Result the West cannot understand the Fast Growth of Chinas and constantly struggle to understand that China is on par or even ahead of them in several areas.

So they convince themselves that China is still the same old Manufacturing Factory it was 10 years or 15 years ago and they feel comfortable thinking so

Shots Fired! Iran Tries to Seize Two Vessels in Strait of Hormuz; US Navy Responds

World Hal Turner 05 July 2023

12:13 PM EDT — Within the hour, Iran tried to seize two oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz that is the entry/exit to the Persian Gulf.  Shots were fired.

The US Navy Responded and says it “prevented” Iran from seizing the vessels.   

Marianne Williamson for president

Never heard of a sane, smart, brave, non-Trumpian, non-senile, non-token black and non-LGBTQ+ female presidential candidate telling the obvious? She’s scaring the shit out of the American voters with the simple truth. Everyone in the audience listening to her looks like a deer staring at a headlight.

Survival

In 1992, Annette Herfken’s partner of 13 years persuaded her to follow him on a romantic vacation; he never knew that would be his worst decision.

Fifty minutes into the flight going to Vietnam, the plane suddenly plummeted into the mountains. When she woke up, everywhere was dark with people screaming.

A dead passenger strapped to his seat was lying on top of her. Gradually, the noisy and chaotic enclosure was replaced with utter silence; everyone had died except her.

She was left alone with decomposing bodies until the 8th day when rescuers came, before then she battled the thoughts of cannibalizing the bodies around her to survive.

Sleeping Beauty of Palermo

Known as the “Sleeping Beauty of Palermo,” the impeccably preserved body of Rosalia Lombardo is among the most remarkable mummies in the world.

When Lombardo died in 1920 just a to her second birthday, her heartbroken father took her to an embalmer and asked him to make her appear as if she would “live forever” before laying her in a glass-topped coffin and entombing her in the Capuchin catacombs beneath the Sicilian capital.

The embalmer used a secret zinc mixture to petrify her body and even posed her with her eyes slightly open so that she would appear as if she was either just falling asleep or waking up from a nap.

In fact, this illusion is so convincing that some mourners who come to visit her still swear that her eyes opened and closed throughout the day, revealing beautiful blue irises beneath her delicate eyelids.

Western ideas of beauty…

Before is so much more beautiful and aesthetically pleasing. How can anyone approve this downgraded architectural design.

China unveils first open-source desktop operating system

By Fan Feifei | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2023-07-06 13:47

China rolled out its first open-source desktop operating system, called openKylin 1.0, on Wednesday, a key move that indicates the country has the ability to build its own self-developed operating system and fill the gaps in this field.

The openKylin 1.0 was developed by a group of Chinese companies led by China Electronics Corp, the country’s largest State-owned comprehensive electronic information enterprise group. Other participants include the China Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team, Kylinsec Technology and more than 10 other software companies.

The launch of openKylin 1.0 will help bolster the iteration and upgrade of the domestic operating system; guarantee the security in key fields such as government affairs, finance, communications, energy and transportation; and provide reliable basic software services for the country’s IT industrial chain.

Currently, China’s software operating system industry is dominated by foreign labels, such as Microsoft Windows, Google Android and Apple Mac OS.

The openKylin system can be applied in some hardware devices, including computers and mobile phones. Last year, CEC unveiled China’s first desktop operating system developers’ platform openKylin.

Flirty Witches and Naughty Demonic Beauties In Pin-Up Illustrations By Alejandra Oviedo

Based in Bogotá, Colombia, Alejandra Oviedo draws funny and seductive pinup girls in all kinds of variations. Sometimes they are classic beauties, but most of the time Oviedo draws very unusual women – vampires, zombies and even pumpkinheads. And in each work there is a perfect balance of humor and sex – a real art.

More: Alejandra Oviedo, Instagram

Flight 123

In 1985, a Boeing747 in Japan had a sudden explosive decompression in mid-air because of a faulty repair. The plane then crashed into Mount Takamagahara. All 15 crew members and 505 of 509 passengers lost their lives. This picture was taken by a passenger during the same incident.

Kuwait Clears Country of 3,000 Trans-genders/Homosexuals

World Hal Turner 05 July 2023

Kuwait has deported 3,000 transgender “people” from the country, and strict instructions from the Minister of Interior stresses “the need to clean the country of homosexuals.”

Wow. 

Do you think China’s move to manage exports of rare elements is justified? Why or why not?

Legally?

Not sure

Gallium and Germanium come under ‘Resources’

The US could argue that China is restricting exports of ‘Resources’ while US is restricting exports of ‘Technology’

Core Tech can be protected by law

Resources can’t be withheld unless you establish existing demand domestically

I am sure the Chinese will claim they need all the germanium and Gallium they can get

---

Bottom line is — US chose to play hard and fast with WTO rules, now they can’t argue that China is doing the same thing

Cheeseburgers with Caramelized Onion Butter

Prep: 30 min | Cook 15 min | Yield: 6 cheeseburgers

Ingredients

Caramelized Onion Butter

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) + 2 tablespoons Challenge Butter, softened
• 2 large yellow onions, coarsely chopped (2 cups)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

Cheeseburgers

• 2 pounds lean ground beef (less than 12% fat)
• 6 Kaiser or hamburger rolls
• 6 slices sharp Cheddar cheese
• Lettuce, tomato slices and bacon (optional)

Instructions

Caramelized Onion Butter

1. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a cast iron or nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onions, season with salt and pepper, and stir to combine.
2. Cook onions slowly for at least 20 to 25 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. You may need to adjust your heat to low as well. Cook onions until they become translucent and golden brown and then allow to cool.
3. Cream butter in small bowl using a fork or electric mixer.
4. Gradually blend in caramelized onions. Butter mixture can be used while still soft; or it can be rolled into a cylinder in parchment paper or plastic wrap and refrigerated or frozen, then sliced into thin rounds.

Cheeseburgers

1. Divide meat into 6 equal portions (about 2/3 cup each) and flatten portions into 4 1/2 inch round patties.
2. Broil or grill patties.
3. Place 1 tablespoon of caramelized onion butter on each patty and top with a slice of Cheddar cheese.
4. Serve on rolls with optional lettuce, tomatoes and bacon.

Notes

Flavored butter can be stored a couple days in the refrigerator or it can be frozen for several weeks.

Marianne Williamson: ‘We should treat the drug issue the way countries like Portugal do’ | Conver…

Asked about the opioid crisis during the portion of her “Conversation with the Candidate” event that airs exclusively online, Democrat Marianne Williamson says the government should treat the drug crisis as a mental health crisis and make other changes to its approach.

She also answered a number of other questions including the abortion issue and how to address the national debt without harming Social Security or Medicare. Conversation with the Candidate is a town hall-style program.

It is intended to allow the candidate to convey their points of view on a wide range of topics. During the program, the moderator may challenge the candidates’ assertions, but every fact may not be checked in real time.

Britain Closed Waters off its East Coast July 4, Looking for Russian “Posiedon” Torpedo

World Hal Turner 05 July 2023

The British government issued Notice to Airmen and Mariners (NOTAM) closing almost the entire east coast waters off England yesterday for 15 hours.  Turns out, they were searching for a Russian “Poseidon” autonomous Torpedo with a 100 MT nuclear bombs aboard! The public knew nothing.

It began around 4:00 AM UK time on July 4.  Notices to Airmen and Mariners (NOTAMs) were issued by the UK closing vast swaths of ocean off the UK east coast as “Danger Areas.”  The NOTAM below shows the enormous areas that were closed.

Intelligence sources inside the UK have revealed the British were extremely worried that Russia may have already deployed at least one of its “Poseidon” torpedoes off the UK coastline, to create a nuclear Tsunami that would destroy most of the country without warning!

They were also concerned that other Russian Ballistic Missile submarines may have already taken-up station off the coast, to launch missiles in retaliation for what the UK has been doing to Russia inside Ukraine.

British news services did NOT carry any information about this search, nor did they even report the vast parts of the ocean closed-off for the intense searches.  The British public was left blissfully unaware.

POSEIDON

Russia’s new “Poseidon” autonomous torpedo is a nuclear powered device that can travel the world’s oceans unaided, and undetected.  It can be programmed to travel to – and lay off the coast of – an adversary, at a depth of at least 1 km.

At the programmed time, the torpedo would detonate a nuclear bomb it carries, that has a yield of up to 100 megatons.

The design of the weapon is such, that most of the blast energy could not make it to the surface of the sea because of the great depth at which the explosion takes place.   Instead, that energy would PUSH the water in a sudden, violent blast, causing a gigantic Tsunami tidal wave.   As the wave approaches the coast of the adversary, the waters get shallow as they rise up to the shoreline, which causes the moving water to begin piling-up on itself.

When the wave finally comes ashore, it does so as a 1500 foot tall wall of water, moving at about 600 MPH.

Everything on the shore, and perhaps as deep as twenty five miles inland, is wiped off the face of the earth.

No warning.  No evacuation time.  Just a wall of water killing everything in its path.

What makes this especially horrifying is that all the nuclear blast energy is still in the water, so it is highly radioactive.

Once the water comes ashore, it deposits that radiation onto the land, making the entire area uninhabitable for over a hundred years.

If not killed outright by the wave, nothing would be able to survive once exposed to the tremendous radiation.  

Russia is the only country on earth that has this technology.  The west is fully aware of it, yet continues to “poke the bear” in Ukraine.

The west, it seems, has become suicidal.

…

Washington’s Real Policy Toward China

04.07.2023 Author: Brian Berletic

After an intense escalation between the US and China over the former’s persistence in “containing” the rise of the latter, and particularly over US interference with the island province of Taiwan, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken traveled to Beijing supposedly to repair tattered US-Chinese relations.

As part of the process, Secretary Blinken even publicly recited the US One China Policy, acknowledging that the US does not support Taiwan independence. However, even while acknowledging China’s sovereignty over Taiwan, Secretary Blinken reiterated US “responsibilities” under the unilateral Taiwan Relations Act “making sure Taiwan has the ability to defend itself,” or in other words, selling arms to Taiwan without Beijing’s approval and thus trampling Chinese sovereignty.

Following this, US President Joe Biden would refer to Chinese President Xi Jinping as a “dictator” during a speech featured on the official White House website. Days later, Secretary Blinken would affirm President Biden’s comments, as reported by US government-funded media outlet Voice of America in their article, “US Officials Agree: China’s Xi Is a Dictator.”

Why is the United States attempting to appear to be pursuing diplomacy while deliberately sabotaging any improvement in US-Chinese relations?

Before answering this question, it is important to understand just how long-running the US policy of containing China actually is and how unlikely it is we are witnessing any serious attempt to change it today.

US Policy Seeking to Contain China Stretches Back Decades 

US foreign policy toward China has been for decades and remains focused on encirclement and containment. Even as Secretary Blinken traveled to Beijing, a myriad of US government-funded programs led by the National Endowment for Democracy (is banned in Russia) and adjacent organizations worked to coerce, destabilize, and even replace governments along China’s periphery in Southeast Asia to shape the region into a united front against Beijing.

The US is also still working closely to expand the activities of its two key anti-China alliances, the Quad (the US, India, Japan, and Australia) and AUKUS (Australia, the UK, and the US).

The US continues its military build-up in the Indo-Pacific region, including through expanding the US military’s presence in the Philippines and continuously sailing US warships off China’s coasts.

Additionally, US government and corporate-funded think tanks like the Council on Foreign Relations, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the Atlantic Council are currently planning both economic sanctions to impose on China, as well as, military intervention meant to enforce and exacerbate sanctions.

Today’s posture of US belligerence toward China is a continuation of a policy articulated decades ago in US government documents. On the US State Department’s official website under the Office of the Historian, a multitude of documents and memorandums explaining Washington’s policy of containing China can be found.

One document dated 1965 with the subject “Courses of Action in Vietnam” written by then US Defense Secretary Robert McNamara to then US President Lyndon Johnson would note:

The February decision to bomb North Vietnam and the July approval of Phase I deployments make sense only if they are in support of a long-run United States policy to contain Communist China.

China looms as a major power threatening to undercut our importance and effectiveness in the world and, more remotely but more menacingly, to organize all of Asia against us.

The memo would also note “three fronts to a long-run effort to contain China” which included, “the Japan-Korea front, the India-Pakistan front, and the Southeast Asia front.”

Omitting references to Vietnam and the Soviet Union, the memo sounds like it could have been written today, a reflection of how US foreign policy pursuing China’s containment has persisted for decades regardless of which US President resides in the White House and who controls the US Congress.

Feigned Diplomacy for Consensus Building Toward Sanctions and War 

If the US has pursued China’s containment for decades and has no intention of stopping, why has the US State Department attempted to appear to pursue diplomacy with China?

The answer is simple. It fits a wider pattern of Washington attempting to portray itself as “diplomatic” and “reasonable” and its adversaries as belligerent and unreasonable. When the time comes to impose sanctions and even wage war, the perception that the US does so only reluctantly helps build consensus amongst American allies who are needed to help enforce US sanctions across the global economy and bolster US forces on the battlefield.

In 2009, then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would hand Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov a physical “reset” button as a symbol of Washington’s supposed interest in “resetting” relations with Moscow. However, even as Secretary Clinton conducted the charade, the US State Department and related agencies and organizations were engineering the upcoming 2011 “Arab Spring” and the violent overthrow of multiple Russian allies across the Arab World including Libya and Syria, the New York Times would later admit.

Another example is the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the “Iran Nuclear Deal.” While the agreement wasn’t publicly revealed until 2013 and only signed in 2015, US-based think tanks began planning for it years earlier.

In the Brookings Institution’s “Which Path to Persia? Options for a New American Strategy Toward Iran” paper, US policymakers would admit the proposal was essentially a trap aimed ultimately at regime change in Tehran.

The paper would admit:

The ideal scenario in this case would be that the United States and the international community present a package of positive inducements so enticing that the Iranian citizenry would support the deal, only to have the regime reject it.

In a similar vein, any military operation against Iran will likely be very unpopular around the world and require the proper international context— both to ensure the logistical support the operation would require and to minimize the blowback from it.

The best way to minimize international opprobrium and maximize support (however, grudging or covert) is to strike only when there is a widespread conviction that the Iranians were given but then rejected a superb offer—one so good that only a regime determined to acquire nuclear weapons and acquire them for the wrong reasons would turn it down.

Under those circumstances, the United States (or Israel) could portray its operations as taken in sorrow, not anger, and at least some in the international community would conclude that the Iranians “brought it on themselves” by refusing a very good deal.

While it was clear the US-Russia “reset” was disingenuous, the Brookings paper offers documented proof that the US uses apparent good will and diplomacy as a means of consensus-building ahead of predetermined sanctions and even military intervention.

Several years after the Iran Nuclear Deal was signed and put into effect, the US would unilaterally withdraw from the agreement, accuse Iran of having “violated” it, reimpose sanctions on Iran, and begin pursuing a combination of US-sponsored subversion within Iran (as planned elsewhere within Brookings’ paper) and proxy war across the Middle East region against Iran and its allies.

Just as was stated in 2009 by Brookings policymakers, the US attempted to appear to extend an offer of peace and reconciliation, only to then attempt to portray Iran as having violated the nuclear deal in bad faith, justifying sanctions and military actions the US had prepared against Iran and intended to inevitably use all along.

With Secretary Blinken’s recent visit to Beijing, the United States is pursuing a similar strategy against China.

US Sanctions and War with China Already Underway 

Just as with Russia or Iran, the US has already planned and is implementing both a campaign of escalating economic sanctions and military aggression against China, both directly and through proxies.

The US has for years sponsored armed groups from Pakistan’s Baluchistan region to Myanmar in Southeast Asia, to the Solomon Islands in the Pacific to attack Chinese diplomats, citizens, infrastructure projects, and businesses.

The US has already implemented sanctions on Chinese economic activity. Through US government and Western industry-funded think tanks like the Council on Foreign Relations, further sanctions are being prepared, which are intended to be even larger than those imposed on Russia after the Special Military Operation began in February 2022.

The CFR’s paper, “U.S.-Taiwan Relations in a New Era, Responding to a More Assertive China,” spells out Washington’s plans to continue undermining its own agreements with Beijing over Taiwan, recommending a host of political, economic, and military measures to maintain US influence over the island province and thus US primacy over China in Asia.

Measures such as further arming Taiwan, separating Taiwan economically from the rest of China, and building up a US military presence in the region all aim to prevent China from stopping what is essentially the political capture of Taiwan by Washington. Maintaining control over Taiwan is key to an admittedly wider policy of maintaining US “influence” and “access” in Asia.

Echoing the 1965 memorandum published by the US State Department on its own official website, the CFR paper concludes “it is not only Taiwan’s future at stake but also the future of the first island chain and the ability to preserve U.S. access and influence throughout the Western Pacific.”

The paper even includes a map showing how Taiwan “anchors a network of US allies,” a network which clearly encircles and threatens China.

It is clear that the United States seeks to encircle and contain China. Because of China’s growing power, Washington is unable to do so alone. It requires increasingly extreme economic sanctions and military aggression in its attempts to subordinate the rising superpower, requiring consensus between itself, its allies, and nations around the globe it will attempt to coerce into supporting both its sanctions and military aggression as tensions expand.

Just as US policymakers stated regarding Iran, “the best way to minimize international opprobrium and maximize support (however, grudging or covert) is to strike only when there is a widespread conviction that” in the case of China, the US “tried” diplomacy, and it was “China’s” decision to pursue belligerence leaving a “reluctant” US no other option but economic sanctions and military intervention, hopefully convincing, compelling, or at least making it easier to coerce the rest of the world into going along.

It appears that both Russia and Iran were well aware of US duplicity in its supposed diplomacy. It is unlikely that China is unaware. China likewise seeks global support amid growing US-Chinese tensions, but is doing so through patience, persistence, and through constructively engaging with the rest of the world, providing a compelling and stark contrast to the accusations leveled by Washington against Beijing.

Judging at the rate of decline of the unipolar “international order” led by Washington, and the rise of multipolarism advocated by not only China but also Russia and Iran, it appears China is pursuing the winning strategy. Only time will tell if the increasingly dangerous and desperate measures Washington is resorting to in its long-running policy of containing China eventually succeeds, or ultimately backfires and unravels the current circles of power in Washington and on Wall Street who conceived and perpetuated this policy.

What made you laugh hard recently?

This photo that went viral recently. Amidst the riots in Paris a couple is enjoying their evening.

It’s been compared to the “this is fine” meme on social media.