However, we also cannot deny that the protests in some areas, such as Shanghai, have deviated from their purpose, showing very classic and traditional color revolution routines. In Hong Kong, in Ukraine, wherever there is turmoil and disaster, similar patterns of behavior are constantly being played out. NGOs, CIA, and the media used social incidents as an entry point, hired gunmen or instigators at the protest site to quickly intensify the situation, and even resorted to direct murder to promote confrontation. For example, during the protests on Middle Urumqi road, traditional Chinese characters, which are basically not used in mainland China, were written on the banners hanging; those who first started chanting political slogans had obvious Hong Kong or Taiwanese accents. It is almost impossible to obtain explosives or guns in mainland China, so by elevating a social issue to a political issue is a common tactic used by American conspiracy agencies to incite color revolutions. As a native of Sichuan, I have witnessed similar tactics in the suicide incident of student in Chengdu 49 Middle School. Protesters from southern China, armed with symbols (flowers, like carnations), chanted slogans in unison. Their behavior constitutes all the necessary elements in a political upheaval. The simultaneous protests in many places in China are essentially a farce of young and fearless students being manipulated and instigated by malicious foreign political forces. It took advantage of the public's dissatisfaction with the current epidemic prevention policy, induced student groups who did not have a deep understanding of national security to take to the streets to protest, and then tried to detonate social incidents into political incidents through extreme means at the scene. Another attempt at a color revolution.
However, there is nothing to worry about. During major policy adjustments, instability or errors in implementation are quite normal. If you believed US propaganda that this was the standard for China's imminent collapse, then I'm sorry - as we've apologized to you many times - that but was your pipe dream.
Well, apparently not only is China collapsing, but it has already collapsed! Who would have thunk it?
Well, that’s what you might think if the ONLY news you read is from the United States.
I ask you all, does this look familiar to you? Does this maybe jog your memories, eh?
Yeah.
It’s called “projection”. You place what you know about yourself upon your enemies. Then you hype up the “weaknesses” of your enemies relentlessly.
Hey! It’s entering “Loony Town”. Now. Here’s Hal Turner…
LOL.
If China actually fired on protestors it would be all over everywhere; CNN, BBC and all the rest.
Keep in mind that Chinese police do not carry guns. Don’t you know. Those that do, well, they are lethal marksmen. If six shots were fired, then six people would be dead. Where are they?
I am very skeptical…
Let’s take and place bets.
I’ll bet you that Xi Peng is still running China, and Putin is still running Russia this time next Christmas. Any takers?
I’m going to do something new and unique in this post. I have a full movie. But it is in eight (x8) small 15 minute portions. This is from you-tube, and it lends itself nicely to this experiment of mine for today.
I hope you enjoy it.
It’s a weird and wacky comedy from the 1980’s titled “Water”. It’s got a lot of Monty Python based jokes and sketches, major actors, and takes place on a tiny, backwater island in the Caribbean sea. It’s a fit for this strange period of time that we find ourselves in.
First up…
(1)’Water’ Michael Caine,Jimmie Walker,Dick Clement
This is a forgotten comedy classic.
Those of you from the Caribbean islands would really appreciate this wonderful movie. It shows the strange world of a small island living.
This entire movie is presented in this post in 15 minute blocks. Here’s the first one.
https://youtu.be/Gmu80-AXrRs
A Christmas movie suggestion
CANCELLED! Nuclear Arms Treaty Talks Between U.S. and Russia
Meetings of the bilateral advisory commissions on the Strategic Offensive Arms Treaty between Russia and the US, scheduled for November 29 trough December 6 in Cairo, have been cancelled.
No word yet on who cancelled the talks, or why.
Just formal acknowledgement the talks will not take place.
Another Christmas movie suggestion
Gambas Pil-Pil — Chili Shrimp (Spain)
This recipe was found in the 2002 cookbook, Mediterranean Street Food.
Ingredients
- 1⁄4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 4 large garlic cloves, sliced in thirds lengthwise
- 1⁄2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 12 large shrimp, fresh
- 1⁄2 lemon
- 1⁄4 teaspoon salt, to taste
Directions
- In a large skillet, combine oil, garlic & crushed red pepper.
- When oil is hot & starts to sizzle around the garlic, add the shrimp & fry for 1 minute on each side.
- Remove pan from the heat & squeeze lemon juice over shrimp & sprinkle with salt, to taste.
- Serve very hot!
China extends tariff exemptions on some US goods in ‘reciprocal’ move
(2)’Water’ Michael Caine,Jimmie Walker,Dick Shawn,Dick Clement
https://youtu.be/oy6OcJ9bZn0
Another Christmas movie suggestion
Who is leading the Coronavirus “Protests”…
Look at this protest leader…
It says “ Pay attention to the conductor/commander when in the protest area.”
We know that the protest leaders are not Chinese.
Another Christmas movie suggestion
(3) ‘Water’ Michael Caine,Valerie Perrine,Jimmie Walker,Dick Clement
Water is a 1985 British comedy film directed by Dick Clement and starring Michael Caine.
It was scripted by Clement and Ian La Frenais.
The plot spoofs elements of the comedies Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (1958) and Passport to Pimlico (1948) and the then-recent invasions of the Falkland Islands and Grenada.
Caine plays Baxter Thwaites, a Governor who has ‘gone native’ (similar to his role in The Honorary Consul), and Billy Connolly as local biracial activist Delgado, supported by the last performance of Leonard Rossiter, as Sir Malcolm Leveridge, and one of the last performances of Fulton Mackay.
The Singing Rebel’s Band consists of Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Ray Cooper, Jon Lord, Mike Moran, Chris Stainton and Ringo Starr, with backing singers Jenny Bogle and Anastasia Rodriguez. It spoofs The Concert for Bangladesh organised by Harrison in 1971.
The story is set in the fictional Caribbean island and British colony of Cascara. Widely ignored by the British Government, media, and general public, local Governor Baxter Thwaites is having an easy life in his small and peaceful colony. That peace is disturbed when an abandoned oil rig starts delivering water - at the standard of the finest table water brands (and laxative companies, as it contains a substance that makes you "shit like clockwork"). Different parties, including Downing Street, the Cascara Liberation Front, the White House, French bottled water producers, and Cuban guerrillas take interest in the future of the island and threaten to destroy the cosy way of life enjoyed by the island's inhabitants.
https://youtu.be/Fev6U7XOROY
Another Christmas movie suggestion
How organized is the NED in the protests inside of China?
Check out this…
Is it true that the Chinese Communist Party is losing support among the people? If so, why?
If you mean the “protests” in various cities recently hyped up by the western media, I can tell you that in Beijing, people participating in the protests can get $140, in Chengdu it is $70, in Wuhan it is $40, and in Guangzhou it is poor $27.
We have laughed at Guangzhou for this all day.
Look, the "Voice of Democracy and Freedom" of the US has a price, and that price is $27.
In Beijing, people changed the slogan of the parade to “We need to do nucleic acid testing” and “We need to scan health codes”. In Chengdu, the accent of outsiders shouted “we want freedom”, while the locals laughed “you want your motherf**ker freedom”. In Shanghai, the leaflet even wrote traditional characters, and the writer could not write one of these characters.
Do you know what the people who really marched in Xinjiang did? They said they did not oppose the government, but only to express their condolences. At the end of the parade, they sang the Chinese national anthem, and three times of it.
Can you imagine that happening in the US or UK or any other country?
So if you’re daydreaming about China collapsing, you can stop now.
EXCLUSIVE: Official Documents prove Anthony Fauci & Bill Gates are responsible for developing the COVID Virus in a Biolab
The US government funded Peter Daszak’s ECO Health Alliance to the tune of $61,491,183 to make new coronaviruses that are infectious to humans.
It also directly or indirectly funds the Wuhan Institute of Virology to the tune of $7.4 million dollars to make new coronaviruses that are infectious to humans.
Meanwhile, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases funded Ralph Baric to the tune of $46,958,414 to make new coronaviruses that are infectious to humans.
This totals more than $114 million in the period from 2000 to 2020 to make new coronaviruses which are infectious to humans.
There is no question that SARS-CoV 2 (causing Covid-19) is man-made. Here’s the evidence…
From HERE.
Another Christmas movie suggestion
Is the United States in decline?
Yes.
I could cite some dry statistics and display some graphs but plenty of other people have done that. I am going to give the perspective of a 52-year-old who has seen a great deal of change, some of it for the better, most of it for the worse. I am going to share what has led to my misanthropic nihilism and negativity concerning the current “state of affairs.”
- When I was growing up I literally never heard of mass shootings. This does not mean they did not happen. It means they were very rare. Now, they are so commonplace as to be discussed with barely a nod. “Ten people dead; sixteen injured. Pass the potatoes, please.” We must get to the root of this epedemic, and there are multiple causes. A solution is not easy. The non-glorification of violence would be a good start. Unfortunately, Americans are not only desensitized to the horror of violence and death; we are entertained by it. We have cultivated a culture of violence appreciation. I am further alarmed that so many people completely dismiss this phenomena because it hasn’t happened to them or someone they know. We have dismissed and accepted this with a shrug.
- Republicans: Beginning in the middle part of the 20th century, GOP conservatives went so far to the right that they no longer resembled their former somewhat progressive selves.They became increasingly less liberal and more racist. Dixiecrats saw this and were incensed. Going forward, more and more conservatives and racists joined the Republican Party. Ideologies flipped. Republicans became the party who swung to a racist extreme, enshrined guns to a bizarre extent, and demanded their religion be legislated into law. In addition, their every effort has been to take from the poor and give to the wealthy. This became abundantly clear during the absolutely ridiculous “trickle-down-economics” era of Ronald Reagan. The rich can never be rich enough. Medicare, Medicaid, and Social security are all in danger. The gulf between the poor and the rich widens every day. The time grows nearer when the 95% will not be able to put roofs over their heads, even as the very rich, who should be paying more, lounge on their sun-drenched pool decks contemplating their wealth. I do not advocate “taking their money away,” as so many people suggest. I advocate a fairer playing field where the poor and the wealthy pay a more equal percentage in taxes rather than allowing the wealthy unfair advantages that have them paying less. And, big news flash here; we need to tax everyone fairly across the board and bring down our overall spending to decrease the deficit, rather than cut social security, and Medicare. Why are the poor the first people we think of when we consider cutting costs? Even the legendary investing guru Warren Buffet once said that his secretary’s tax rate is higher than his own, and Buffet is a multi-billionaire. We are an oligarchy, folks. Republicans have now become the number 1 problem, as they have enabled and backed Donald Trump and begun destroying voting rights in the wake of his lost bid for reelection. Republicans have become a much bigger threat than Democrats ever since they refused to allow Dems to seat Supreme Court justices and proceeded to stack that and other federal courts with super-majorities. The Supreme Court has now become nothing more than a partisan tool. Many progressive rulings will be overturned in time. This is a terrible development.
- Democrats: ( I am just left of center myself) have swung so far out into fantasy land that we have to be careful of everything we say and do. Literally everything is offensive. We have taken equal treatment and turned it into some kind of weird Frankenstein’s monster. Everyone deserves equal rights but political correctness has run amok. I am on the liberal side, but we need to tone down the anger. SJWs care about the welfare of all but are often so angry they can’t even be engaged in a polite debate without wanting to call in a firing squad. Wokeness, cancel culture, and censoring free speech needs to stop. Fight bigotry and hate where it exists, but don’t see it in every corner, jumping to identifying it as such until you know for sure what it is. Treat everyone equally. Use common sense and learn to identify some extreme left ideas from fringe groups as the bizarre notions they are. Up to 100 different genders? Seriously? I am also very unhappy with my party’s new tendency to try to destroy individuals by digging up comments they made 35 years ago. All of us have said something risque’ or controversial at some point. Doing this is plain ridiculous. Even with all this said, at least the Democrats mostly shed their past racism (even as it was embraced by many conservatives) and have been the leaders in advancing minority rights for decades. They have made mistakes, but I fault them far less in current times than Republicans.
- Politicians are bought and paid for. They should be forced to wear the names of their contributors on their suits, like those ads that are printed on the sides of racing cars. I saw this suggestion on Facebook and it is so true. How can politicians properly serve the people when they are beholden to the wealthy benefactors and corporations who donate money to them? Capitalism isn’t necessarily bad but it must be overseen and regulated. Unchecked, it produces tremendous wealth inequality and political corruption, as noted above. We need strict limits on political donations and a restructuring of how they are made, perhaps with a government supplied stipend distributed equally.
- Religion still rules the masses, much more so than other highly developed countries of the world, allowing bigotry and anti-science to flourish on into the 21st century. Politicians (especially conservatives) pander to this because it is one way to ensure continued support. Give your voters a couple of the things they want most and they will overlook the crooked bigger things (like tax cuts favoring the super rich.) I am not against religion: I am against having it in politics. Separation of church and state has always been a nifty idea in America but has never been a real thing. That is sad.
- Housing costs are out of control. One must mortgage away many decades of one’s life to buy a house that is too large and too expensive. It’s ridiculous. Small, modest homes could be purchased for much less money, but that would meet with the dissatisfaction of city ordinances and neighbors. It’s a big, fancy house in many cases or nothing. The alternative is sky-high rent on an apartment. Gone are the days when renting was cheaper than owning. Now, even modest apartments are so expensive they leave little money left for food. No one seems to advocate rent control anymore because greed is master. A livable wage is not high on the agenda either. Meanwhile, more and more people are pushed out onto the streets and homelessness increases. We find it easy to put the blame on the victims. Yes, many homeless have made mistakes but not all of the onus is on them. We have a system that is, by its very nature, generating more and more of this problem.
- A college education has gone completely into the stratosphere with its exorbitant cost. It’s unbelievable. A text book can cost several hundred dollars and full-time tuition for a single semester well into the thousands. Small non-traditional for-profit “colleges” didn’t help the situation any either. Though some are at least somewhat legit, many are not, and nearly all are far too expensive, thereby producing many graduates with overpriced degrees that are not likely to be valued at what they cost. And what about the large percentage of dropouts who aren’t likely to benefit at all from what they have spent? In the 1980’s college was still affordable. I signed promisory notes and managed to pay the 4 or 5 hundred dollar costs by the time the term ended. I could not afford to go to college today. It would not be possible. People are exiting universities (not necessarily graduating) many thousands of dollars in debt. Even upon graduating, most students have depressingly low chances of landing jobs in their chosen fields. Competition is greater than ever. Young people are depressed. They are sarcastic and prematurely cynical; and they have every right to be. This generation is yet another that promises to perform more poorly, save less money, have less opportunity, and be more dysfunctional than their parents and grandparents; yet, the bulk of our politicians do not appear to care. A country that wants to offer hope to all people, grant a good standard of living, and preserve this standard for the future, understands the value of turning out well-educated citizens. Yet, we make it ridiculously expensive to become educated. Why are we doing this? We must take greed out of higher education. Should profit be the top priority? * I would also add that we need to stop housing students in luxury apartments while they attend college. Living in an efficiency or a dormitory is good for you. It builds character to live simply and humbly while going through school.*
- Infrastructure has begun to suffer. Our city roads aren’t built to withstand the burgeoning population. Roads most everywhere are in terrible shape, and bridges are a nightmare, old and deteriorated as they are, and in need of expensive care. I am amazed, after having traveled a fair amount, that many of our states have some of the worst roads in the developed world. The power grid as well is old and crumbling in many areas. This is embarrassing and we can do better. At least in 2022 we have a president willing to put a trillion or two into tackling infrastructure. Sounds expensive, but it’s grossly overdue. * as of April 2022, money has finally been allocated for this. Perhaps that will be one step in the right direction.*
- My newest edit in this piece is to mention the problem we have with illegal drugs in this country (and I do not refer to pot, which I consider less dangerous than alcohol). The illegal use of powerful, lab-created drugs has reached wide-scale pervasiveness both in cities and rural communities. It is a huge problem that ruins lives, costs a great deal of money, creates crime, violence, and too often results in death. Elderly folk lose their life savings (and sometimes their lives) to some charismatic stranger who cons them for drug money. Many addicted people will stop at nothing to get their fix. Drugs become these people’s lives. Only the lucky few benefit from some sort of intervention/rehab, while the majority do not. On top of this, it has now become harder for people who desperately need pain medications to be prescribed them because of the violence and crime that people are willing to commit in order to obtain, sell, and use them. One of our mistakes (in less violent cases) has been to over-incarcerate. With the exception of violent and murderous offenders, this hasn’t helped much, if any. Drug-users also enter the work force and cause constant problems. I have had the displeasure of working with them. In some industries this is dangerous. One thing we need to do is stop romanticizing drugs and to stop treating those of us who recognize the problem as being uncool nerds. Many of the other items on this list, such as cost of living and the political divide, cause depression and hopelessness, and these things make drugs more appealing. Reduce the pain caused by many of our other problems and you do, to some extent, reduce the desire to take drugs. We must examine the pharmaceutical industry as well and look into its marketing practices to determine the extent to which it has contributed to the problem.
- U.S. companies relocate to other corners of the world in order to pay their employees very little and government encourages this. Good employment opportunities domestically are shrinking and I am not talking about the many low pay service jobs. Many people who would have formerly held these higher paying skilled jobs are forced into the only careers available; retail, restaurants, and other service jobs where the pay does not meet one’s needs. While unions were desperately needed at one time, their demands grew out of control, demanding ever-higher pay and benefits even in sectors that were no longer profitable. They are partly to blame. We also need officer salary caps, especially on publicly traded companies. More profits need to be handed down to shareholders and lower tier employees rather than having officers make 100 million or more salaries. To the fat-cats of corporate America, this is a big grown-up game of Monopoly where they horde as much wealth as possible while everyone else suffers. I am not against capitalism, but (like any system) it has to be monitored and governed; otherwise, it becomes capitalism out of control, and that is what we have now. The operative word is GREED.
- Our health care is still unaffordable. The Health Care Act is a start but is flawed, largely due to the concessions that had to be made to pass it. Greed is absolutely rampant in this industry in which a simple pill can cost hundreds of dollars. The very sick must worry about medical bankruptcy while trying to battle their illnesses. Some of the most broadly advertised physician-prescribed medications are the most expensive ones still under patent. When was the last time you saw a commercial for an older unpatented inexpensive medication? Any minor move made on a patient’s behalf in the hospital is ridiculous in its cost. Greed is master above all else. Now, it is quite likely that Republicans will remove protections for people with pre-existing conditions as well as other features of the health care act. Additionally, a little-known consequence of the health care act is that it forces people who might otherwise retire early to remain in the work force into their late 60s in order to receive health care. Medicare and Medicaid will not kick in yet (in most cases) if you retire at 58 or 60. This is one item that tells me that the government is worried about the lack of enough workers in the next few decades.
- By the 2030s or early 2040s things will be gravely worse, with an ageing population and fewer people paying into social security than drawing from it. Thanks to government’s redistribution to the wealthy, the problem is exacerbated. We will initially lose a chunk of those payments and will eventually lose this and other programs completely. This initiates our entry into third-world status.
- I think what disturbs me most is the complete unwillingness of our two major parties to work together for the good of the nation. And yes, (due to individuals like the hateful obstructionist Mitch McConnell), I fault the conservative party more for this than the other, although fault lies on both sides. A few decades ago, we had some caring politicians who went to the table with honest intentions of compromising and reaching a solution, even when they strongly disagreed. Even with this disagreement, we often respected eachother. Now, we have a complete unwillingness to cooperate, even going so far as to refuse to allow the opposing party to put judges on the supreme court. This hateful divide hurts everyone. The parties have opposing views, but they should not be enemies. Their goal should be to unite in promoting as good a life as possible for all citizens. Additionally, we have tactics and tricks like gerrymandering and voter-suppression as well as the grossly outdated electoral college that suppress the will of the actual majority of people.
Even with our greater technology, I-Phones, computers, medical advances, and other luxuries, these problems lessen us every day, and not enough people care to do a damn thing about it. Obsessive greed is one of the things we most need to tackle, from big corporations to medicine and higher education. Money is important but we have allowed that obsession to get in the way of the higher interest of caring for all our citizens. Making all their needs more affordable and obtainable is a good start. I am thankful I do not have kids. I would grieve incessantly now to think of the world I have brought them into. I only hope that younger people are observing this disaster and that they will take the reigns and make some needed changes. It may be too late.
* To the few folks (including a lady who was so rude I deleted her comment) who think we should love the country as it is or “get out,” I say this. Such reactions are naive and juvenile. I love my country and I wish to see it become better. Civilizations do not progress through complacency. They advance when folks sound alarms and encourage change. That is why women and minority groups now have rights they would never have enjoyed had they just “loved it or got out.”
- In response to people both in this thread and in their own answers who keep pointing out that the U.S. is a world leader, has a great military might, has abundant freedom and influence, etc.. this is my reply. I am largely talking about internal conflict here. I am discussing problems that are dividing us from within, and this includes the aforementioned two-party system of hatred and divide. There is more to being a success than having a great military or a high GNP or world influence. I am talking about the hate that has nearly taken us over, and of the increasing unaffordability of the cost of living. We are disintegrating. We still lead the world in many ways, perhaps, but even the rest of the world sees the problems we are experiencing that are collapsing us from within and are appalled. We lose the world’s respect more every day. Some of the horrendous politicians and presidential administrations of recent years (including Trump in particular) have greatly contributed to the problem. What one administration accomplishes, the other tears down with the next election. We can’t even be trusted to remain in a peace agreement or environmental agreement anymore. The two-party hate is palpable.
- *Years later, I now look upon the blatant attempt by one narcissist and his legion of worshipers AND legislative enablers to overthrow our government to install a backward dictatorship and I am more pessimistic than before. Our representative democracy is in dire trouble and the unpleasant marriage of government and religion threatens to roll back decades of progress. What happened to us?
Another Christmas movie suggestion
(4)’Water’ Michael Caine,Jimmie Walker,Dick Clement
https://youtu.be/_mOZUp4A6oI
Another Christmas movie suggestion
About the latest “protests”…
(5)’Water’ Michael Caine,Jimmie Walker,Dick Clement
https://youtu.be/0Mx2pM0JhTE
Another Christmas movie suggestion
Manaquis Bil-Za’tar — Thyme Bread (Lebanon — Middle East)
This recipe combo was found more or less intact in the 2002 cookbook, Mediterranean Street Food. Preparation time does not include time needed for dough to rise.
Ingredients
-
FOR THE DOUGH
- 1⁄2 teaspoon active dry yeast
- 1⁄2 cup warm water, divided
- 1 3⁄4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
-
FOR THE TOPPING
- 2 tablespoons powdered thyme
- 1 tablespoon sumac
- 3⁄4 teaspoon sesame seeds
- 1 dash salt, to taste
- 1⁄2 cup extra virgin olive oil (actually “just under 1/2 cup”)
- 1 small onion, finely chopped (optional)
Directions
- FOR THE DOUGH: In a small container stir together yeast & 1/4 cup warm water, then set asde for 5-10 minutes.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour & salt, then make a well in the center & pour in the oil.
- Work in the oil with your fingertips until completely absorbed, then add the yeast water & knead with your hands for several minutes.
- Gradually add another 1/4 cup warm water & knead until dough is smooth & elastic, then form into a ball, cover with a damp cloth & leave in a warm place for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
- FOR THE TOPPING: In a skillet over medium heat, combine thyme, sumac & sesame seeds, stirring continuously until the aroma rises & the mixture is slightly toasted. Salt to taste & set aside to cool slightly.
- In a small bowl, mix together all the topping ingredients.
- Divide the dough into 4 equal portions & roll each into a ball.
- Dip the first ball of dough in flour on all sides, then shake off the excess before rolling it into a thin disk about 1/8-inch thick.
- Make a few dimples across the flat dough, pressing hard with the tips of your fingers (done to stop oil in the topping from running out during cooking), then spread a quarter of the topping over the disk of dough.
- Place a nonstick skillet over medium heat & cook the dough in the skillet, topping side up, for 3-5 minutes or until bottom is crisp & lightly golden.
- Repeat the procedure to make the rest of the breads.
- Serve hot or warm, either plain or with some yogurt or . . .
Another Christmas movie suggestion
(6)’Water’ Michael Caine,Jimmie Walker,Dick Clement
https://youtu.be/5mdSsQvSRxQ
Shawarma Djaj — Chicken Shawarma (Lebanon — Middle East)
This recipe comes from the 2002 cookbook, Mediterranean Street Food. Preparation time does not include the 3 hours needed for the chicken breasts to marinate.
Ingredients
- 2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1⁄2 cup onion, thinly sliced
- 1 lemon, juice of
- 1⁄2 cup extra virgin olive oil (a ‘scant’ 1/2 cup)
- 1⁄4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1⁄4 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1⁄4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1⁄8 teaspoon salt, to taste
- 1⁄8 teaspoon dried thyme
- 4 pita bread, oval
- 4 tablespoons garlic sauce (see Thum — Garlic Sauce (Lebanon — Middle East) #373997)
- 2 small tomatoes, thinly sliced
- 1 small red onion, thinly sliced
- 4 gherkins, thinly sliced lengthwise
- 2 tablespoons mint, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
Directions
- In a mixing bowl, combine chicken breasts with 1/2 cup of onion, lemon juice, olive oil & spices, then add the thyme before adding the salt to taste.
- Stir well & then let marinate, covered, in the refrigerator for about 3 hours, stirring occasionally.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, then place chicken breasts in a roasting pan & bake for 25-30 minutes or until done.
- Remove from the oven & shred the chicken into slivers.
- Open oval pitas at the seam to create a large pocket, then spread a tablespoon of garlic sauce on the bottom half before filling each pits with equal amounts of sandwich ingredients (i.e. chicken, tomato, onion, gherkins, mint & parsley).
- Wrap the bottom of the ‘sandwiches’ with a napkin & serve immediately.
As a Chinese Citizen, I admire the West’s system of government and would like to see China transition into a kind of Nordic-style welfare state. Unfortunately, the CCP is extremely authoritarian, making this unlikely. What do Chinese think of this?
I think you are a fake!
I think you think we in QUORA are fools.
I think you are a white Caucasian Anglo Saxon who thinks your system is the best in the world.
I think you don’t know after stealing from the rest of the world for a century yet today you are highly indebted yet thinks others must be like you!
I think you just like to tell everyone that China is authoritarian to make your broken system good.
I think you don’t know how to think.
Good try but 97% Chinese thinks their system is far superior.
They think you don’t know how to think.
100 Million Dead Birds Are Just The Beginning, Because This Pestilence Is Far From Over…
Did you know that an extremely vicious virus that is currently sweeping across the globe has already killed more than 100 million birds? If you haven’t heard about this yet, don’t feel bad, because most people in the general population don’t know about this either. Like so many of the other nightmares that we are facing right now, the mainstream media continues to downplay the bird flu crisis and continues to insist that authorities have everything under control. But of course the truth is that they don’t have this outbreak under control. Flocks are being steadily wiped out all over the planet, and prices for turkey, chicken and eggs just keep going higher and higher. If the bird flu spreads even faster in 2023 than it did in 2022, it won’t be too long before we have some pretty serious shortages on our hands.
Over the long Thanksgiving weekend, it was being reported that the official death toll in the U.S. has now reached 50.54 million. That makes this “the worst animal-health disaster in U.S. history”…
More than 50.54 million U.S. birds have died in what is the worst Avian flu outbreak in U.S. history, according to data from the Department of Agriculture, Reuters reports. It also marks the worst animal-health disaster in U.S. history.
But it is perfectly “normal” for tens of millions of our turkeys and chickens to be wiped out, right?
Unfortunately, this pestilence is not just limited to the United States. In fact, the UK and the European Union “are also suffering their worst avian-flu crises”…
Losses of poultry flocks sent prices for eggs and turkey meat to record highs, worsening economic pain for consumers facing red-hot inflation and making Thursday’s Thanksgiving celebrations more expensive in the United States. Europe and Britain are also suffering their worst avian-flu crises, and some British supermarkets rationed customers’ egg purchases after the outbreak disrupted supplies.
We have never seen anything like this before.
According to CNBC, the number of dead birds in the EU alone has reached “nearly 50 million”…
Governments across Europe have culled bird populations to limit the spread of avian flu. Almost six million birds have been killed in the Netherlands since October 2021, while Spain, Bulgaria, Denmark and France have also been badly affected.
Nearly 50 million birds have been killed in Europe this year as countries try to contain the disease, according to the EU’s Food Safety Agency.
Actually, that figure is a bit old, but I was not able to find an updated one.
But if you take that number and add 50 million from the United States, that gives us a grand total of approximately 100 million dead birds, and that doesn’t even account for the remainder of the globe.
For example, nearly 3 million birds have already been wiped out in Japan, and at this point the bird flu is beginning to spread like wildfire in that country…
Cases of the highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu, are spreading at an unusual pace in Japan, with 18 outbreaks confirmed this season through Saturday at poultry farms in 12 of the country’s 47 prefectures.
But that number is expected to rise further, in line with global trends.
This has truly become a worldwide crisis.
Past outbreaks have either greatly subsided or completely gone away during the hot summer months, but that did not happen this year.
In 2022, the virus “continued to fester” during the warmer months, and now authorities are concerned that things could get much worse during the cold months that are in front of us…
“The virus has mostly impacted turkey and egg operations, sending prices to all-time highs and contributing to soaring food inflation. While the spread slowed during the warmer months, it continued to fester and now risks further spread as cooling temperatures prompt more birds to migrate,” Bloomberg said.
Of course this comes at a really bad time, because if you follow my work on a regular basis you already know that global food production is being hit hard from countless directions right now.
The UN has already been warning us that 2023 will be a year of famine in many areas of the planet, and so it would be very helpful if the bird flu were to disappear.
Unfortunately, that is not likely to happen any time soon.
And actually we have been extremely fortunate so far.
If the bird flu were to mutate into a form that humans can catch and spread easily, we would rapidly be facing a global health scare of epic proportions.
Up to this point, it has been rare for humans to catch the bird flu, but when it does happen the death rate can be as high as 60 percent…
But when the bird flu does infect people, it can be quite severe, with a mortality rate estimated to be at approximately 60 percent, according to the CDC.
Can you imagine how frightened people would be if such a virus started spreading among humans in our major population centers?
The panic would be far beyond anything that we have experienced over the past few years.
So this is a story that we will want to keep a close eye on.
For years, I warned my readers that we were moving into an era of great pestilences.
Sadly, the times that I warned about have now arrived.
Of course what we have been through so far is just the beginning.
The pestilences that we are currently dealing with will continue to spread, and more are coming.
Millions upon millions of people have died up to this point, and tens of millions more will eventually die.
A lot of you have been waiting for life to “return to normal”, but that isn’t going to happen.
Global events have begun to spiral out of control, and things are only going to get more intense as we roll into 2023.
Another Christmas movie suggestion
Merry Christmas
PLA Southern Theater Command troops warn away trespassing US warship near Nansha Islands
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command on Tuesday morning discovered that the vessel USS Chancellorsville had trespassed into waters around the Nansha Islands in the South China Sea without China’s authorization, and followed and warned away the guided-missile cruiser.
The US military’s actions are a serious violation of China’s sovereignty and security, and irrefutable proof of its hegemony in navigation and militarization of the South China Sea, Tian Junli, a spokesperson from the PLA Southern Theater Command, said on Tuesday, noting that such behavior fully reveals that the US is the provocateur against peace in the region.
China holds indisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea islands and their nearby waters, and the PLA Southern Theater Command maintains a high state of readiness at all times to resolutely defend the country’s sovereignty, security and peace and stability in the South China Sea region.
In July, the destroyer USS Benfold sailed near the Nansha Islands in the South China Sea only a few days after it was driven away by the PLA from Chinese territorial waters off the Xisha Islands.
Consecutive provocations by the US expose not only its navigational hegemony, but also its anxiety in the face of the growing capabilities of the PLA, experts said.
(7)’Water’ George Harrison,Eric Clapton,Jon Lord,Michael
https://youtu.be/oVBZR__BlPE
Merry Christmas…
It Is Beginning: 41 Percent Of All Small Business Owners Could Not Pay Rent In November
Many experts are now warning that we could see the housing market and the commercial real estate market simultaneously crash in 2023. If that were to happen, it would put an extreme amount of stress on our financial system. The only way we will avoid such a fate is if the Federal Reserve starts reducing interest rates. Unfortunately, that isn’t going to happen. In fact, officials at the Federal Reserve keep telling us that interest rates are going to keep going up. This is literally a suicidal course of action, because higher rates are going to absolutely crush the economy.
If you doubt this, just consider what is already happening.
According to a new Alignable survey that was just released, 41 percent of all small business owners in the United States could not pay rent in November…
Due to high inflation, reduced consumer spending, higher rents and other economic pressures, U.S.-based small business owners’ rent problems just escalated to new heights nationally this month, based on Alignable’s November Rent Poll of 6,326 small business owners taken from 11/19/22 to 11/22/22.
Unfortunately, 41% of U.S.-based small business owners report that they could not pay their rent in full and on time in November, a new record for 2022. Making matters worse, this occurred during a quarter when more money should be coming in and rent delinquency rates should be decreasing. But so far this quarter, the opposite has been true.
In September, that same survey found that 30 percent of all small business owners could not pay rent.
Many were deeply alarmed by that figure, and then it jumped up to 37 percent in October.
Now we are at 41 percent, and if there is any time when small business owners should be able to pay rent it is during the holiday season.
When commercial real estate tenants cannot pay rent, it inevitably has a domino effect.
It appears that we will soon have millions of empty commercial spaces all over the nation, and many owners will soon be unable to make loan payments because sufficient rent money is not coming in.
If the Federal Reserve insists on raising rates even higher, I anticipate that we will eventually be facing a commercial real estate crash of unprecedented size and scope.
Meanwhile, the implosion of the housing market continues to pick up speed.
Existing home sales have now declined for nine months in a row, and the median price of a home in the U.S. has now fallen by about 7 percent.
Sadly, many experts are now warning that things will only get worse in the months ahead. Here is one example…
“In one line: Collapse in prices is coming,” wrote Kieran Clancy, senior U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
I told my readers that this would happen if the Federal Reserve aggressively hiked interest rates.
Of course home prices could soon fall a lot more. In fact, Pantheon is projecting that they could ultimately fall by a total of 20 percent from the peak…
Pantheon estimates that existing home prices will keep falling, ultimately dropping by about 20% from their June peak of around $414,000.
If you are planning to sell a home, I would try to do it as quickly as possible before prices go way down.
Meanwhile, another troubled cryptocurrency firm has just filed for bankruptcy…
Distressed crypto firm BlockFi has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey following the implosion of putative acquirer FTX.
So why is BlockFi in so much trouble?
Well, the truth is that there are a lot of reasons, but one of the biggest is the fact that they loaned 275 million dollars to FTX that will never be repaid…
In the filing, the company listed an outstanding $275 million loan to FTX US, the American arm of Sam Bankman-Fried’s now-bankrupt empire.
I warned my readers that FTX would not be the last domino to fall.
And now another one has tumbled over.
Needless to say, there will be many more, because FTX “has more than 1 million creditors”…
In a matter of days, FTX went from a $32 billion valuation to bankruptcy as liquidity dried up, customers demanded withdrawals and rival exchange Binance ripped up its nonbinding agreement to buy the company. Gross negligence has since been exposed. Ray added that a “substantial portion” of assets held with FTX may be “missing or stolen.”
FTX has more than 1 million creditors, according to updated bankruptcy filings, hinting at the huge impact of its collapse on crypto traders and other counterparties with ties to Bankman-Fried’s empire.
FTX was just one giant Ponzi scheme, but of course the entire system is just one giant Ponzi scheme.
The entire thing is eventually coming down, and a lot of prominent voices are trying to sound the alarm about this.
For instance, author Robert Kiyosaki tweeted the following just a few days ago…
Many of you know I do not invest in equities, bonds, ETS or MFs. Please DO NOT listen to what I’m going to say next: “I would get out of paper assets.” The world economy is not a “Market.” I believe economy is the biggest bubble in world history.
Of course he is quite correct.
We have been living in the largest bubble in all of human history.
And once it finally shatters into billions of pieces nobody is going to be able to put it back together again.
So get ready for a massive adjustment in your standard of living.
With very hard times looming, the Washington Post is encouraging their readers to reduce food costs by eating bugs…
The Washington Post advised Americans Sunday that instead of a traditional season dinner, which now is unaffordable for a quarter of families, they should instead look to eating bugs.
Yes really.
In an article headlined Salted ants. Ground crickets. Why you should try edible insects, the Post stated “Consumers can already find foods like salted ants on Amazon and cricket powder protein bars in Swiss grocery stores.”
I don’t know about you, but I don’t plan on ever eating bugs.
No matter how bad things get, I just couldn’t eat ants or crickets or beetles.
Unfortunately, most people are completely and utterly unprepared for the times that we will soon be facing.
A tremendous amount of economic chaos is on the way.
The Federal Reserve could help matters a great deal if they would just stop raising interest rates.
But that isn’t going to happen, and so it appears that 2023 will be a year of severe economic pain all over the nation.
Merry Christmas Early
I hope you all have your movies sorted out.
US Quietly Announces New Ukraine Command With 3-Star General
Source: Responsible Statecraft
Lost in the whirlwind of midterm election news last week was an announcement that not only will Washington send $400 million worth of additional weapons to Ukraine, but it is pushing forward with a new joint forces command, to be stationed in Germany, to “handle weapons shipments and personnel training.”
According to the Department of Defense, the new command, which was previously reported this summer, will be officially called the Security Assistance Group Ukraine, or SAGU, and will be based out of U.S. Army Europe and Africa headquarters in Wiesbaden, Germany. It will be a led by a 3-star general.
The command will involve 300 U.S. military personnel but will likely work closely with U.S. Army Europe and Africa’s training center in Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels as well as the service’s garrison in Baumholder. In addition, “the thousands of U.S. soldiers now positioned at training areas in Poland and Romania … could factor into the plans,” Stars & Stripes reported.
The new command is expected to have a long term presence, according to Stars & Stripes:
By establishing a dedicated headquarters focused on Ukraine support, the Pentagon is putting in place an organization to carry out what is expected to be a long-term mission. The Wiesbaden headquarters is slated to be manned with personnel from across the military branches, making it a joint service operation. Tours are initially planned to last between six months and a year, but longer accompanied tours are also possible.
The U.S. government has now provided over $18 billion in weapons to Ukraine, and officials are crediting Kyiv’s successes against the Russian invasion to a constant flow of military assistance to the country. This new command signals a digging-in by the Western powers with the U.S. at the head, my Quincy Institute colleagues tell me.
“It is definitely a sign that the U.S. is preparing for a long war in Ukraine and long-term military competition with Russia,” says George Beebe. “You don’t put a 3-star in charge just to keep track of weapons flows in Ukraine.”
Anatol Lieven suggests this cements the current trajectory of US-European security. “In my view, it indicates that Ukraine is to be a ‘major non-NATO ally’ and a U.S. dependency, and that the U.S. will try to build the whole of European security around support for Ukraine and hostility to Russia.”
Of course, Washington has stopped short of putting U.S. boots on the ground in Ukraine to help President Zelensky in his aim of driving Russia out of his country. Polls continue to show that is not what the American people want. But having a 3-star just over the border, commanding billions in weapons and training efforts is getting as close as it gets.
It will be interesting to see if the administration keeps up its recent ostensible desire for peace negotiations. Certainly this new command “shows Moscow that the alternative to compromise is a U.S. that is ready and willing to provide robust military support for Ukraine for a long time to come,” says Beebe.
(8)’Water’ Michael Caine,Jimmie Walker,Dick Clement
https://youtu.be/DoA8ViXedb4
China Keeps Aggressively Surrounding Itself With US Bases: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
Listen to a reading of this article: ❖ Facts:
❖ It still amazes me how many people who fancy themselves anti-establishment critical thinkers will spend all day mindlessly regurgitating mainstream media lines about China. I cannot emphasize enough how little respect I have for anyone who parrots US empire narratives about China and how completely dismissive I am of all their attempts to explain to me that it’s actually right and good to do this. Literally all of our major problems are because of the people who rule over us; if you’re buying into the narrative that who we should really be mad at right now is a government on the other side of the planet with no power over us, you’re a fucking loser. You’re a bootlicking empire simp. You’re worthless, bleating human livestock. ❖ Why does China keep aggressively surrounding itself with US military bases? US Military Set to Return to Subic Bay, Philippines to Counter China
The US closed its military base in Subic Bay 30 years ago
by Dave DeCamp@DecampDave here
— Antiwar.com (@Antiwarcom) November 25, 2022
❖ Everyone knows the US has invaded countries completely unprovoked very recently and will definitely do so again, but we still have to pretend that Putin is the worst thing since Hitler. ❖ It’s disturbing how many people I encounter who claim Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is worse than America’s invasion of Iraq because Ukraine is a “democracy”. How fucked up do you have to be inside to believe human lives are worth less because of their nation’s political system? Leaving aside the fact that a nation which bans political parties, shuts down opposition media, imprisons opposition leaders, and is vastly more accountable to Washington than to its own people is in no way a “democracy”, that’s just a profoundly disturbed way of looking at life. A mother holding the remains of a child whose body has been ripped apart by military explosives does not care whether her country is considered a “democracy” by the western governments who are invested in that country’s military outcomes.
❖ Rightists correctly believe that liberals subscribe to an artificially constructed worldview designed by the powerful in the service of the powerful, but incorrectly believe that they themselves do not. ❖ Common debates:
Uncommon debates:
And it is of course entirely by design that the former are common and the latter are uncommon. Keeping everyone debating how establishment power structures should exist, rather than if they should, ensures the survival of those power structures. ❖ It’s actually a really big problem that the most visible “left” in the US is completely worthless on war and militarism. When Americans who are critical of those things look right and see people like Rand Paul and Tucker Carlson doing something then look left and see AOC and Bernie doing nothing, which side do you think they’ll choose? And of course this is because the so-called progressive Democrats are not “left” in any meaningful way, but your average mainstream American doesn’t know that, and perception is reality. The US is the nation where antiwar sentiment is most important and the most urgently needed, and it’s been buried on the left. Americans are trained that Clintonites are “center-left” and AOC/Bernie are “far left”, and anyone further to the left than them on foreign policy is demonized by these progressives as a Russian agent. This creates the very understandable impression that the entire left is pro-war. When you’ve got Ilhan Omar and AOC calling people who protest US proxy warfare at their rallies Russian operatives and antiwar leftists like Jill Stein branded as Kremlin agents, the message mainstream Americans come away with is that antiwar sentiment is only welcome on the right. Again, I get this isn’t true and there’s lots of antiwar sentiment on the true left in the US, but nobody sees that left. It’s denied any media presence or political validity; mainstream Americans don’t know the difference between an anti-imperialist socialist and a Berner. This causes antiwar Americans to drift to the right; I’ve watched it happen in real time with some of my US followers. I do my best to make the case for the left, but I’m just one voice amid a surging deluge of messaging they’re getting that the real opposition is on the right. ❖ Naming your war machinery after the Indigenous tribes your government genocided is the modern-day equivalent of wearing the skulls of your enemies on your war horse. ❖ A lot of acceptance of the status quo worldview boils down to a failure of imagination. People literally can’t imagine the possibility that reality is as different as it is from what they’ve been told by their teachers, parents, pundits and politicians. It’s actually unfathomable to them, and that is because it’s so different. The world we’re trained to see by establishment perception managers is as different from the real world as any fictional world is. ❖ The incremental normalization of police murderbots is probably nothing to worry about. HERE
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) November 26, 2022
❖ The claim that capitalism is the best system for generating profits is basically correct; it’s hard to beat greed and starvation as a carrot and stick to get the gears of industry whirring. The issue here is that merely generating profits won’t solve most of the world’s problems, and in fact many of our problems come from the fact that capitalism is too effective at turning the gears of industry. Our biosphere is dying largely because capitalism values making lots of things but not un-making things; we’re choking our ecosystem to death because it’s profitable. Capitalism has no real answers for problems like ecocide, inequality, exploitation and caring for the needful. Yes “let the markets decide” will generate lots of profits for those set up to harvest them, but profit-seeking cannot address those very serious problems. The “invisible hand of the market” gets treated as an actual deity that actually exists, with all the wisdom necessary to solve the world’s problems, but in reality the pursuit of money lacks any wisdom. It can’t solve our major problems, it can only make more stuff and generate more profit. Find me a capitalist business plan for leaving a forest untouched. Find me a capitalist business plan for keeping someone free of illness, for ensuring that someone with nothing gets what they need, for giving resources to a struggling parent. You can’t. Capitalism can’t do this. These are the most important things in the world, and no possible iteration of capitalism has any solutions for any of them whatsoever, apart from “Well hopefully rich people will feel very charitable and fix those problems.” And how is that solution working out? It’s a joke. The “Maybe the very rich will feel charitable and fix our problems for us” solution assumes that the very same people who are wired to do whatever it takes to claw their way to the top of the ladder will suddenly start caring deeply about everyone they stepped on to get there. Capitalism elevates sociopaths, because profit-seeking competition-based systems reward those who are willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead. That’s why we are ruled by sociopaths, and it’s why looking to “philanthropy” as a solution to our problems is a ridiculous joke. When capitalism proponents tell socialists and communists “You don’t understand economics,” what they really mean is “You don’t understand that capitalism is the best system for generating profits.” But socialists and communists do understand this; it’s just that generating profits, in and of itself, is not sufficient. If lack of wealth is your major problem, then capitalism can be a tool to address it; that’s what China is temporarily doing to keep up economically with the western forces who wish to enslave it. But such measures won’t solve ecocide, inequality, exploitation, and caring for the needful. For that other measures are needed. If you want to make more of something (money, material goods), then capitalism can be a good way to do that. But if you need to make less of something (pollution, inequality, exploitation, sickness, homelessness, etc) it’s worthless, and other systems must be looked to. You can say “But communist regimes are authoritarian blah blah” all you want, but that doesn’t change the fact that capitalism has zero answers for the most important problems facing our species. This still needs to be addressed, and moaning about Mao and Stalin isn’t an answer. Don’t like the iterations of socialism we’ve seen so far? Okay. Then find another answer, and remember we’ve already established that capitalism is not an answer; it cannot address the problems we’ve discussed here. So we need to find an actual answer that does actually work. Dismantling capitalism, if we ever achieve it, will be the most difficult thing that humanity has ever accomplished. As hard as everyone becoming a buddha, and essentially not much different. But that doesn’t change the fact that it is existentially necessary for us to do so. We’ll either move from competition-based systems to collaboration-based ones, eliminating all the obstacles necessary for us to do so, or we will go extinct. We are at our adapt-or-die juncture as a species. |
Merry Christmas.
